The number of weekly COVID-19 deaths in Arizona recently hit a high-water mark. It’s one of the latest and most concrete signs that the pandemic is getting better statewide, although the virus still presents a significant risk. “For the first time I’m confident that we’ve had a peak in deaths,” said Joe Gerald, an associate professor with the University of Arizona’s Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health. “Things are getting markedly better. That's awesome.”

The University of Arizona’s Dr. Maria Altbach is working with industry to improve MRI detection of liver tumor spread to expand therapeutic options and improve survival of colorectal cancer patients.

Frederic Zenhausern, PhD, MBA, leads a team developing portable technology to detect a range of health problems in a matter of minutes.

Dr. Murtaza Akhter, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix and an emergency room physician, answers questions from viewers about coronavirus.

Data Science Fellow Alise Ponsero, PhD, is using data from the ocean to train microbe-hunting machines to seek pathogens underlying diabetic amputations.

Dr. Carol Gregorio wants to expand health care education for students and countries alike.

A University of Arizona Cancer Center grant aims to improve colorectal cancer screening in Arizona’s American Indian communities, where screening rates lag behind those for others across the nation.

The pandemic has also made it more difficult and scarier for some individuals to receive treatment for their substance use disorder from both treatment clinics or emergency departments, says Todd Vanderah, head of the Department of Pharmacology in the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson.

Rather than see productivity plummet with undergraduates out of the lab, Michael Johnson, a microbiologist at the University of Arizona College of Medicine - Tucson, and other researchers have pivoted to focus on renewing their existing grants, analyzing neglected data, and writing up results for publication. "There's still a lot of work that can be done remotely that is valuable and contributory to the field," Johnson said.