Murtaza Akhter, MD, an emergency room physician and clinical assistant professor at the College of Medicine – Phoenix, discusses the state of the COVID-19 pandemic and the news that the FDA backed Moderna booster shots.

A first-year medical student at the College of Medicine – Phoenix wants to inspire moms it is not too late in life to start a career path. Amy Arias, a mother of three, said after medical scares between her and her husband she decided she wanted to get into the medical field.

An FDA advisory panel unanimously voted to recommend Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine booster six months after initial vaccination for vulnerable Americans. Those included in the recommendation are people ages 65 and older, adults with underlying health conditions and those with an increased risk of contracting the virus due to their job. Shad Marvasti, MD, director of the public health, prevention and health promotion curriculum and associate professor at the College of Medicine – Phoenix, is interviewed.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been an especially stressful time for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, which attacks not only the cancer, but also the immune cells needed to defend the body from infections. “We wanted to make sure we understand the level of protection the COVID-19 vaccines are offering our cancer patients, especially as restrictions were being eased and more contagious variants were starting to spread,” says Rachna Shroff, MD, chief of gastrointestinal medical oncology at the University of Arizona Cancer Center and director of the Cancer Center Clinical Trials Office.

Researchers have identified specific micronutrients and other substances in food that show promise for the tired and weary among us. "The more interesting studies are in people who have some kind of sleep complaint, but not an actual disorder," says Michael Grandner, PhD, director of the Sleep and Health Research Program at the College of Medicine – Tucson, who studies nutrition's influence on sleep. "They show that you can somewhat normalize or at least make sleep better. It's hard to draw firm conclusions, but they are proof of concept."

The summit focuses on developing a public health approach for programs and policies that benefit the people of both countries and the border region.

One Health starts with the knowledge that human health is interconnected with environmental and animal health.

A research team at the University of Arizona Cancer Center has discovered a new way of controlling blood vessel growth in tumors, a development that could make it easier to treat cancer patients. Noel Warfel, PhD, assistant professor of cellular molecular medicine at the College of Medicine – Tucson, initiated this project after studying the role of a pro-survival protein, Proviral Insert for the Moloney murine leukemia virus, or PIM1.

Steven Wang, MD, professor and chair of the department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery at the College of Medicine – Tucson said transmission usually occurs at a very young age. "It's a long period of time specifically around 15 years or more between someone who is initially infected in their throat with the HPV virus, and if the cancer ever develops that's the reason why we think the typical patient that presents to me is someone who probably contracted oral HPV infection in their twenties or even earlier." Dr. Wang said the best prevention is getting vaccinated.