UW News

Research


February 10, 2014

Newly found tactics in offense-defense struggle with hepatitis C virus

Ram Savan lab window

People who are genetically equipped to stop hepatitis C viruses from turning off a type of interferon generally have a robust antiviral response. Findings on the mechanisms governing this ability suggest new avenues for treatment research.


February 7, 2014

Use humans in your UW research? More info on the new forms you need

The Human Subjects Division has updated and streamlined its forms, which should bring some administrative relief to UW researchers involved in the university’s 6,000 active studies using human subjects.


February 6, 2014

Documents that Changed the World: The Book of Mormon

1841 editon of The Book of Mormon

Joe Janes of the UW Information School discusses the famous book and its origin as part of his ongoing podcast series, “Documents that Changed the World.”


Credit card-sized device could analyze biopsy, help diagnose pancreatic cancer in minutes

the device is shown up close.

University of Washington scientists and engineers are developing a low-cost device that could help pathologists diagnose pancreatic cancer earlier and faster. The prototype can perform the basic steps for processing a biopsy, relying on fluid transport instead of human hands to process the tissue.


February 5, 2014

Public lecture series will explore the science of decision making

The ninth annual Allen L. Edwards Psychology Lecture Series will delve into “The Science of Decision Making,” to explain how the brain and an individual’s expectations influence decisions made in uncertain conditions.


February 4, 2014

Does caregiving cause psychological stress? Study says, it depends

elderly care giving

The results break the longstanding belief that caregiving directly causes psychological distress, and make a case for genetics and upbringing influencing vulnerability.


Fruit flies – fermented-fruit connoisseurs – are relentless party crashers

Flies on banans and grapes

That fruit fly appearing moments after you poured that first glass of cabernet, has just used a poppy-seed-sized brain to conduct a finely-choreographed search and arrive in time for happy hour.


Personal experience, work seniority improve mental health professionals’ outlook

photo of a man looking down at his feet

One might think that after years on the job, mental health workers would harbor negative attitudes about mental illness, but a new UW study suggests the opposite.


February 3, 2014

Greenland’s fastest glacier sets new speed record

floating iceberg

Observations of Jakobshavn Glacier from 2012 and 2013 show the fast-moving glacier has set new records for the speed of ice flowing toward the ocean.


Solving a physics mystery: Those ‘solitons’ are really vortex rings

An example of a vortex ring, also called a toroidal bubble, which dolphins create under water. The concept of vortex rings lies at the heart of new University of Washington physics research.

The same physics that gives stability to tornadoes lies at the heart of new UW research and could lead to a better understanding of nuclear dynamics in studying fission, superconductors and the workings of neutron stars.


January 29, 2014

Deaths attributed directly to climate change cast pall over penguins

Six penguin chicks stand under shrub

Climate change is killing penguin chicks from the world’s largest colony of Magellanic penguins, not just indirectly but directly because of drenching rainstorms and heat.


Neanderthal lineages excavated from modern human genomes

Neanderthal Child

A fossil-free method of sequencing archaic DNA may provide insight into human evolution.


January 28, 2014

New book explores mixed success of China’s ‘Emperor Huizong’

"Emperor Huizong," a new biography of the Chinese emperor by the UW's Patricia Ebrey.

Patricia Ebrey, professor of history, is the author of “Emperor Huizong,” a new biography of a Chinese emperor who lived from 1082 to 1135 and ruled for 26 years during China’s Song Dynasty.


January 27, 2014

Facelift complications eased with help of new 3-D imaging technique

This image shows a mouse ear after a successful cosmetic filler injection. The filler, in green, rests in the tissue without blocking the blood vessels and veins

New imaging technology from University of Washington engineers allows scientists to analyze what happens within the smallest blood vessels during a cosmetic facelift. This finding could be used to prevent accidents during procedures and help clinicians reverse the ill effects if an injection doesn’t go as planned.


January 24, 2014

How strong of a football fan are you? There’s a test for that

UW psychologist Anthony Greenwald has developed a scientific test to measure the strength of one’s support for a football team.


January 22, 2014

Gene therapy leads to robust improvements in animal model of fatal muscle disease

Childers and Bella

The experimental treatment restored muscle function and prolonged lives in animals with a condition similar to X-linked myotubular myopathy in children


January 21, 2014

Dental school researchers patent new antibacterial agent

Titanium-based materials can inhibit bacterial growth when bound to metal ions. If proven beneficial in clinical trials, certain titanates could be applied after a dental procedure to prevent infection or decay.


January 20, 2014

Girls frequently play soccer through concussion, study finds

girl soccer player

Serious risks are associated with continuing game play immediately after incurring a concussion, yet University of Washington researchers found that many young female soccer players do just that.


January 17, 2014

UW seismologists expand stadium monitoring for NFC championship game

A Seattle Seahawks "12th man" flag, representing the fans, flies over the Space Needle.

UW scientists installed a third seismograph at CenturyLink Field this week after the trial by fire of a website and new monitoring tools during last weekend’s Seahawks game.


January 16, 2014

Soil production breaks geologic speed record

person on mountain ridge

Samples from steep mountaintops in New Zealand shows that rock can transform into soil more than twice as fast as previously believed possible.


January 15, 2014

Data suggest new class of drug may be potent against genital herpes

herpes simplex virus

A new drug, called pritelivir, may offer a new treatment option for patients with genital herpes, a new industry-sponsored – study led by University of Washington researchers has found.


DNA detectives able to ‘count’ thousands of fish using as little as a glass of water

Visitors stand looking through glass as sea animals swim by

A mere glass full of water from a 1.2 million-gallon aquarium tank is all scientists really needed to identify most of the 13,000 fish swimming there.


Glaciers, streamflow changes are focus of new Columbia River study

aerial view of bonneville dam, 40 miles east of portland.

University of Washington environmental engineers are launching a new study to try to understand how climate change will affect streamflow patterns in the Columbia River Basin. The team will look at the impact of glaciers on the river system, the range of possible streamflow changes and how much water will flow in the river at hundreds of locations in future years.


January 13, 2014

DeLap studies urban birds, sketches for book ‘Subirdia’ due out in 2014

Drawing of hand and bird

Slideshow includes with images sketched by Jack DeLap, UW doctoral candidate in environmental and forestry sciences.


Cognitive training shows some lasting effects in healthy older adults

elderly man teaches chess

The national, decade-long ACTIVE study showed that cognitive training can help the elderly maintain certain thinking and reasoning skills useful in everyday life.


January 10, 2014

Trial to test using ultrasound to move kidney stones

ultrasound image

A clinical trial in Seattle is testing a technique developed at the UW that uses low-power ultrasound to reposition kidney stones.


January 9, 2014

Scientists to observe seismic energy from Seahawks’ ’12th man’ quakes

University of Washington seismologists this week installed two strong-motion seismometers at CenturyLink Field in Seattle to augment an existing station in recording shaking from “earthquakes” expected on Saturday during the NFC divisional game between the Seattle Seahawks and New Orleans Saints. The Pacific Northwest Seismic Network is preparing a special website at www.pnsn.org/seahawks for the…


Big is not bad: Scientists call for preservation of large carnivores

Gray wolf in forest

Despite their scary reputation, carnivores deserve credit for all kinds of ecological services when they eat grazing animals that gobble down young trees and other vegetation that could be holding carbon and protecting streams.


January 8, 2014

Despite declines in smoking rates, number of smokers and cigarettes rises

smoking in flight

Population growth since 1980 drives increases in the number of smokers in countries including China and Russia, while Canada, Mexico, and the United States see strong declines


January 7, 2014

On-demand vaccines possible with engineered nanoparticles

Nanoparticles and engineered proteins.

University of Washington engineers hope a new type of vaccine they have shown to work in mice will one day make it cheaper and easy to manufacture on-demand vaccines for humans. Immunizations could be administered within minutes where and when a disease is breaking out.


January 6, 2014

Babbling babies – responding to one-on-one ‘baby talk’ – master more words

Common advice to new parents is that the more words babies hear the faster their vocabulary grows. Now new findings show that what spurs early language development isn’t so much the quantity of words as the style of speech and social context in which speech occurs.


Book explains astrobiology for a general audience

The cover of "Astrobiology: A very short introduction."

David Catling’s new book, part of an Oxford University Press series, aims to explain astrobiology to a general audience.


January 2, 2014

El Niño tied to melting of Antarctica’s Pine Island Glacier

ice and sky

A new study in Science, co-authored by the British Antarctic Survey and UW authors, shows that melting of the floating Pine Island ice shelf is tied to global atmospheric patterns associated with El Niño.


December 31, 2013

Genetically identical bacteria can behave in radically different ways

bacterial cells split

When a bacterial cell divides into two daughter cells there can be an uneven distribution of cellular organelles. The resulting cells can behave differently from each other, giving them an evolutionary advantage.


December 30, 2013

Recap of 2013: Top 10 most-viewed stories on UW Today

  For us writers in the UW News office, the year’s end gives us some time to think about the big research news stories of the year. Those that drove up page views, flooded our servers (thank you UW web team for keeping us afloat!), and generated interesting reader responses in the comments section. We…


December 26, 2013

Psychiatry’s Jeremy J. Clark receives Presidential Early Career Award

Jeremy Clark

Clark was recognized for his work in the neurobiology of motivated behavior. His award will support investigations of how alcohol exposure during the teen years might lead to chronic alcoholism in adults.


December 23, 2013

UW Medicine Memory and Brain Wellness Center opens at Harborview

The new center at Harborview will link clinical evaluation and care of patients with research programs in Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, latent degenerative disease detection and treatment, and care delivery.


December 19, 2013

Sinuous skeletons, glowing blue and crimson, leap from lab to art world

Skeleton

Fish “stripped” to their skeletons and stained for UW research are now part of an art exhibit at the Seattle Aquarium.


TB bacteria mask their identity to intrude into deeper regions of lungs

TB in lower lungs

Cell surface lipids hide molecular patterns that infection-killing cells might recognize as dangerous.


December 18, 2013

Home dialysis gains momentum through UW research

home dialysis

Of the 400,000 kidney disease patients on dialysis in the United States only 6 percent to 7 percent are treated with home dialysis, largely because the choice is not often given to them as an option.



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