Health

Masked UNI students walk on campus.

Contact tracers help UNI answer the call

Answering the phone has never been more important. Since the beginning of the semester, UNI contact tracers have been hard at work helping prevent the spread of COVID-19 by notifying students of their required quarantine for those in close contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19.
3-D illustrations of cancer cells.

Physics, big data and the quest for a cure

What if you could locate a cancer cell, and use the cell’s natural repair process to destroy it? You’d be one step closer to a cure for cancer. And that’s exactly what students in the UNI Department of Physics are working on. This summer, a group of three undergraduate students in the department have partnered with the University of Iowa Department of Biochemistry in a unique, collaborative research effort to study cells, and their natural self-repairing mechanisms.
UNI senior Nolan Ford

UNI student researches cure for the cancer that claimed sister's life

By the time Nolan Ford was in second grade, he had learned lessons in courage and dedication that would last a lifetime and define a career path. That’s when his sister MacKenzie lost her fight with a rare, deadly form of cancer she had struggled with for most of her life. She was only 9.
UNI student Tyler Hospodarsky

‘Don’t be like me:’ UNI student shares lessons from COVID-19 fight

Tyler Hospodarsky knows he’s one of the lucky ones.  The UNI senior, a sports PR and communication double major, woke up June 24 with a pounding headache that grew worse as the day went on. He soon tested positive for COVID-19, quarantined himself and has made a full recovery after temporarily losing his sense of taste and smell.
UNI President Mark A. Nook wears a mask on campus.

Panthers wear masks - President Nook included

As students and faculty return to campus this fall, one of the most important things we can do to keep everyone safe is to wear a cloth mask or other face covering. One study estimated that the COVID-19 pandemic would grind to halt if 80 percent of people simply wore one. 
UNI public health professor Michelle Devlin

UNI public health professors help fight COVID-19

The impact UNI professors make isn’t just in the classroom, but also in the field. For several UNI public health professors, that has meant traveling to COVID-19 hotspots across the country, working to help keep some of the most vulnerable communities safe.
Headshot of Francis Degnin

How one UNI professor is helping guide pandemic ethics

Normally, Francis Degnin’s bioethics class would be spending the spring semester discussing hypothetical questions of ethics in the medical field. Instead, they’ve now found themselves discussing real life issues facing doctors and nurses around the globe, as the COVID-19 pandemic sweeps through nations and overwhelms health care systems. Degnin, an associate professor in the UNI Department of Philosophy and World Religions, is uniquely positioned to help in this scenario.
UNI professor Francis Degnin.

As pandemic intensifies, UNI professor helps guide healthcare ethics

The rapid global spread of COVID-19 has forced some health care providers to make gut-wrenching choices. In Italy, doctors had to decide which terminally-ill patients received ventilators. And in New York, there have been reports of patients unable to get lifesaving treatments.