A new CDC study of COVID-19 vaccination rates shows the nationwide gap between urban and rural areas more than doubled in the past year, with urban counties beating rural ones everywhere — except in Arizona. Daniel Derksen, MD, a public health professor and director of the Arizona Center for Rural Health at the University of Arizona, was not surprised Arizona's rural counties did well, despite the state's failure to curtail preventable deaths.

Paleontologists have discovered a fossil belonging to an ancient saber-toothed creature thought to be the first cat-like predator to exist in the U.S. Shawn Zack, PhD, assistant professor of basic medical sciences at the College of Medicine – Phoenix, is quoted.

Gabe Martinez, a program aide at the Sonoran Center for Excellence in Disabilities at the College of Medicine – Tucson, will advise President Joe Biden as a member of the Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities, the White House announced Friday.

Dongkyun Kang, PhD, assistant professor of optical sciences and biomedical engineering, received a $1 million National Eye Institute grant to support his work to develop a portable device that could be used to detect corneal ulcers. Dr. Kang, a research member at the UArizona Cancer Center, previously worked on a smartphone confocal microscope to diagnose cancer in rural settings.

A new study in the journal Nature found that even mild cases of COVID-19 can cause shrinkage in certain regions of the brain. Kathleen Rodgers, PhD, professor of pharmacology and associate director of translational neuroscience at the UArizona Health Sciences Center for Innovations in Brain Science, says this study was impressive because researchers were able to look at MRI scans from before the pandemic. The Health Sciences Office of Communications assisted with this story.

Arizona leads the nation in enrolling participants in the National Institutes of Health’s All of Us Research Program.

UArizona Health Sciences researchers contributed to a report showing the COVID-19 vaccine provides children ages 5-15 moderate protection against infection.

The Arizona Board of Regents will vote on proposed tuition increases next month at its meeting in Tucson. The College of Medicine – Tucson and College of Medicine – Phoenix resident tuition would increase 4.3% and nonresident tuition would increase 1% for first- through fourth-year students.