Three of the winners on the 40 under 40 list have ties to the UArizona Health Sciences: Precious Craig is a first-year pharmacy student in the R. Ken Coit College of Pharmacy; Leslie V. Farland, ScD, MSc, is an assistant professor at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health; and Laura Stephens, MD, is director of the Blood Bank at Banner-University Medical Center Tucson and assistant professor at the College of Medicine – Tucson.

The Nov. 30 clinic at the Mariposa Port of Entry was part of a months-long effort to vaccinate Mexican citizens along Arizona’s southern border.

New research uncovered a way by which infections boost the production and function of naïve T cells, the body’s first line of defense against disease.

A recent study published in the journal Nature Communications found that an infection can strengthen the immune system against that agent as well as new invaders. Senior author on the study was Janko Nikolich-Žugich, MD, PhD, professor and head of the UArizona College of Medicine – Tucson’s Department of Immunobiology.

According to health officials, the number of hospitalizations compared to last year at this time have slightly decreased as some hospitals are reaching capacity once again.

Along with new life comes challenges for mothers in Mohave County, including the rural location, level of income and number of OB/GYNs.

In a lab at New York University, a virologist is growing an engineered version of the new omicron variant of the coronavirus. The “pseudovirus” — which can’t infect humans — will be used to understand how well antibodies produced by the COVID-19 vaccines can fight off the variant. Deepta Bhattacharya, PhD, a professor of immunobiology at the College of Medicine – Tucson, is interviewed.

The human body’s immune system weakens over time, making older adults more susceptible to infections and leaving scientists with the puzzling dilemma of how to maintain health across the lifespan.

Now that the COVID variant Omicron is confirmed in the U.S., questions are arising around the role of the travel ban. This as new details are emerging about a new travel requirement government leaders are now considering. Joe Gerald, MD, PhD, associate professor and director of the public health policy and management program at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, says to make the travel restrictions more effective he thinks we should also be doing testing, quarantining and isolation.