LATEST NEWS & PUBLICATIONS
Michael Van Ryn has been named a Managing Editor for Volume 107 of the Minnesota Law Review. Van Ryn is a JD candidate at the University of Minnesota Law School, with an interest in health and patent law. He is also a Research Assistant for the Consortium, and is working with the ATP-Bio Engineering Research Center on the ethics and policy implications of new technologies for biopreservation that may transform fields from organ transplantation to aquaculture. He completed his Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering at Florida International University.
In a study published by the Journal of Adolescent Health, Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) scholar Laura Hooper and co-authors determine that adolescents who experience food insecurity are at higher risk for binge eating and obesity as they become young adults. Previous research typically considered obesity, food insecurity, and disordered eating separately from one another.
Prof. Mary Jo Kreitzer and co-authors recently published an article that investigates the effectiveness of Loving Kindness Meditation in an online health community. This type of meditation is a “systemized mind–body approach developed to increase loving acceptance.” The article’s findings show that Loving Kindness Meditation increases resilience when faced with adversity. The authors also identify a relationship between stress, self-compassion, social connectedness, and the meditation practice.
The Institute on the Environment (IonE) will host a conversation focused on ensuring equitable access to careers in clean energy on Tuesday, June 21 at Noon Central time by Zoom. As efforts to educate the public and create job training opportunities around green energy continue to proliferate, communities must adopt strategies that connect people of all backgrounds to green energy work. Speakers will share how to connect with underrepresented communities and how that will support a resilient energy system in the future.
Researchers with ATP-Bio, an NSF-funded Engineering Research Center headquartered at the University of Minnesota, have developed a new way of preserving pancreatic islet cells that may lead to improved treatment options for diabetes. Transplantation of pancreatic islet cells can cure for diabetes, but is limited by insufficient supply and inability to store islet cells before use. These barriers must be overcome to allow on-demand treatment.
Congratulations to University of Minnesota law student Claire Colby ‘23, who has been selected to serve as Editor-in-Chief of volume 24 of the Minnesota Journal of Law, Science & Technology (MJLST)! MJLST publishes innovative articles on issues at the intersection of law, technology, and the sciences.
The Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs’ Swain Climate Policy Initiative and the Big Ten Collaboration on Democracy in the 21st Century will host Dr. Katharine Hayhoe, the author of Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World, for a virtual event Tuesday, April 12 at 4:00pm Central time. Dr. Hayhoe will explain the complex science connecting our current choices to future impacts and highlight actions that are currently being taken to mitigate climate change. Registration is free, but required; find more information and register here.
We note with sadness the passing of Amos S. Deinard, MD, MPH, on March 9. Dr. Deinard was a faculty member in the University of Minnesota’s Department of Pediatrics, past-Director of the Community-University Health Care Center in Minneapolis, and founder of the Minnesota Oral Health Project. Dr. Deinard collaborated with his family and the law firm of Leonard, Street and Deinard (now Stinson LLP) to fund the Deinard Memorial Lecture Series in Law & Medicine for 14 years.
Michael Osterholm, Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) worked with 22 other health, science, and policy experts to author a major report detailing how the U.S. can control COVID transmission and severity, prepare for new variants, and create a new normal.
Healthy Foods, Healthy Lives will present its fifth annual Native American Nutrition Conference on May 23 - 25 at Mystic Lake Center in Prior Lake, Minnesota. “Decolonizing and Indigenizing our Diets for Health'' will feature sessions on healing from trauma, practical knowledge for traditional diets, and Indigenizing nutrition and food policy.