LATEST NEWS & PUBLICATIONS

A new study published in the journal Cell demonstrates that the American diet has nearly immediate effects on the human microbiome.

Earlier this month, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released an alarming report forecasting the effects of global warming above 1.5°C when compared to pre-industrial levels. The IPCC whitepaper predicted massive forest fires, widespread drought and increasingly violent storms in the coming decades, and called for the complete elimination of the use of fossil fuels by 2050. Given the dire outlook, it's tempting to succumb to despair and inertia.

Minnesota inventor Earl E. Bakken, best known as the founder of global medical device company Medtronic, has died at his home in Hawaii. Bakken was born in Columbia Heights and graduated from the University of Minnesota with a BA in electrical engineering in 1948. An inveterate tinkerer from an early age, Bakken invented the first wearable, battery-powered, transistorized cardiac pacemaker in 1957 at the request of University of Minnesota heart surgeon C. Walton Lillehei.

In an article appearing in the Oct. 12 issue of Science, Consortium Chair Susan M. Wolf and Barbara J. Evans of the University of Houston Law Center sound the alarm about a recent report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

A new public service announcement (PSA) from Masonic Cancer Center, a Consortium member, offers a fun and accessible take on a health behavior that can help fight cancer: eating your vegetables. The 2-minute video clarifies the research basis for the claim and explains the basics of choosing which veggies to eat; check it out here. This PSA is one of four created to share MCC's cancer knowledge and research with the community.

A recent Star Tribune profile of Frances Shen, JD, describes his work in neurolaw, a field he has pioneered. Prof. Shen, an affiliate member of the Consortium, focuses on the intersection of brain science, law and policy.

Sepsis is a very serious illness — of the million Americans who get the disease each year, up to 30 percent will die. A large, National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded government trial of sepsis treatments, called Clovers, is currently under attack.

The Institute on the Environment (IoneE) has announced the creation of a hub that will provide the Institute's programming to students, staff, and faculty on the campus of the University of Minnesota Duluth.

At a conference held last week at the Mayo Clinic, health care professionals discussed the promise and limits of genomic (also known as precision) medicine. According to the Star Tribune, while optimism is justified, Dr.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) has awarded a NAFKI Challenge grant to a team including Jessica Hellmann (above) of the Insitute on the Environment and Bonnie Keeler of the Humphrey School of Public Affairs.