November 2, 2016
Restoring oysters in Puget Sound
The nature of our local ecosystem changed when a combination of overharvesting, polluted waters, and shoreline changes led to the commercial extinction of the Olympia oyster from the Puget Sound. Dr. Bonnie Becker, UW Tacoma associate professor of marine ecology, is leading undergraduate researchers in a collaborative effort to reintroduce the native oyster to its…
October 26, 2016
Innovative, low cost NIFTY™ Cup seeks to save millions of lives
Each year, there are millions of babies born prematurely or with oral clefts in developing countries who struggle to breast feed. These babies are often at high risk for malnourishment, infection, and often death, but thanks to Christy McKinney, a clinical assistant professor of oral health sciences, a new feeding aid for them is now…
October 25, 2016
UW receives transformative gift
The University of Washington’s Population Health Initiative has received a transformative gift from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, advancing our efforts to improve human health and well-being. This $210 million gift will catalyze our work to enhance human health, environmental resiliency and social and economic equity here in Washington and around the world. Learn…
October 18, 2016
Summer tutoring boosts literacy outcomes
The majority of the reading achievement gap that appears between poverty-impacted students and their peers is attributable to the lack of access to summer reading opportunities. To boost these literacy outcomes, tutors from the College of Education have partnered with Seattle’s Whitman Middle School to offer one-on-one support to students, which includes 12 90-minute sessions…
October 13, 2016
Provost report on population health released
The focus of the latest provost’s report, which was released today, is population health and the UW’s groundbreaking new Population Health Initiative. The report introduces readers to work the University of Washington currently has underway to better address population health, and features the following: Social and Economic Equity: How factors of equity impact health and…
October 10, 2016
Latest Global Burden of Disease study released
The latest Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study, which allows a thorough analysis of the state of the world’s health, was released on October 7. The study is conducted by the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. The study, which is published by The Lancet, noted continued increases in…
October 4, 2016
Creating a mobile app that tests lung capacity
People suffering from lung diseases in developing worlds often do not have a good way to track lung functioning without visiting the doctor. Through the work of UW researchers, many may soon be able to measure their lung function simply by blowing into any type of phone after SpiroCall, a new health sensing tool, was…
September 28, 2016
Skies Over Seattle: Connecting the campus and surrounding community
What does it mean to be homeless in the U-District? Drama students created Skies Over Seattle, original theater pieces inspired by the intersection of volunteerism and artistic creation in pursuit of understanding that question. Graduate students in acting, design and directing, as well as several undergraduates, volunteered for three community organizations that serve the homeless…
September 20, 2016
Developing a long-acting antiretroviral treatment for HIV
Current oral drug therapies for HIV can greatly reduce the presence of the virus in the blood stream. However, limitations prevent these therapies from reducing the presence of HIV in the tissues of a body, and to work in the blood stream, patients must strictly adhere to daily dosing regimens for the rest of their…
September 13, 2016
Finding connections to nature in cities is key to healthy urban living
Those who live in cities are increasingly “numb” to the natural world and its important connections for our health. UW researcher Peter Kahn says that city dwellers are unaware of how we’re undermining our connection to nature, putting our own health and the survival of wildlife and wild areas at higher risk of loss from…