Petrie Dish

Eighty-five percent of combat veterans who received robot-guided magnetic stimulation with prolonged exposure therapy saw significant symptom relief, a substantial improvement over therapy alone.

Kirsten Eom studies everything that goes into getting a cancer survivor from their front door to a doctor's office: insurance, transportation, follow-up care, and more. The UT Health San Antonio researcher has found that a surprising number of survivors stop seeing doctors once initial treatment ends. Now she's working to build a statewide registry to track the barriers keeping them away.

Cooler fall temperatures mean an increase in daytime lone star tick activity in areas where sweltering summer temperatures kept them at bay. This type of tick is more aggressive than most other ticks, and it presents a unique threat to the people they bite. The sugar in their saliva can cause humans to develop a dangerous allergy to red meat.

Only about 30% of Texans who need mental health support are getting it, and the shortage of providers is projected to worsen dramatically over the next decade. A UT Health San Antonio psychologist has developed a program that teaches counseling skills to non-specialists like community health workers, faith-based practitioners, and even doulas.

A visit to a neighborhood library reveals what a loneliness researcher calls a "third place" in action: ESL classes, new parents bringing their toddlers to storytime, remote workers on their laptops, and neighbors who show up just to be around other people. It's one solution to the crisis explored in our two-part series on loneliness that you can 'check out' with nothing more than a library card.

A San Antonio scientist thinks of the protein that drives most prostate cancers as a machine, and pioneers a method to visualize it for the first time. This could lead to much better treatments and, someday, prevention.

In the second part of Petrie Dish’s exploration of loneliness, host Bonnie Petrie looks at what it takes to fight isolation, from teen gathering spaces to libraries and “chatty cafes,” and how communities can be designed to bring people together.

In rural Texas, severely injured patients often wait more than two hours to reach specialized trauma care. A UT Health San Antonio trauma surgeon is co-leading an effort to change that with an AI tool designed to help emergency doctors make faster transfer decisions that can mean the difference between life and death.

The UT Health San Antonio professor who is leading an effort to increase the number of South Texas teens who are vaccinated against the human papillomavirus hopes to see cervical cancer eliminated in the United States in her lifetime.

The annual summer COVID wave hasn't peaked yet, and flu season is on the way, but this year brings new options to fight back. From a prophylactic pill you can take after exposure to COVID to a faster-made mRNA flu shot, Dr. Jason Bowling of UT Health San Antonio breaks down the new options.

Every organ in your body keeps its own internal clock, and UT Health San Antonio researcher Kevin Koronowski is studying how that clock controls fat metabolism. His lab is investigating a protein pair that decides when the body burns fat and when it stores it, work that could eventually improve treatments for metabolic disease.

When Bruce Willis, an action movie star known for his way with words, started to lose his language skills, it made news. He had aphasia.

When doctors can't identify a fungal infection, they often turn to UT Health San Antonio's Fungus Testing Laboratory, which has discovered more than 60 new species since 2013. The lab is now racing to fight drug-resistant fungi while helping bring new antifungal treatments to market.

A new UT Health San Antonio study finds that any amount of physical activity can slow cognitive decline in older adults, with Mexican Americans showing the greatest benefit. Researchers say the findings highlight a need for community investment in accessible spaces for movement and social connection.

Do you ever think about all that’s involved in just swallowing a bit of breakfast taco or a sip of coffee?

Kirsten Eom studies everything that goes into getting a cancer survivor from their front door to a doctor's office: insurance, transportation, follow-up care, and more. The UT Health San Antonio researcher has found that a surprising number of survivors stop seeing doctors once initial treatment ends. Now she's working to build a statewide registry to track the barriers keeping them away.

Selina Morgan holds a doctorate in physical therapy, a board certification in neurological physical therapy, and is an assistant professor in the Department of Physical Therapy at UT Health San Antonio. She believes that there are thousands of people out there in wheelchairs who don’t have to be.

Loneliness doesn't just feel bad. It appears to raise the risk of heart disease, dementia, and early death. In part one of a two-part Petrie Dish series on the loneliness crisis, Bonnie Petrie talks to a researcher separating marmoset monkeys from their mates to study the body's stress response, and a psychiatrist mapping what isolation does to the human brain.

A UT San Antonio researcher warns that dementia cases could triple by 2050 and that no health system on earth is ready for it. But Dr. Claudia Suemoto says the outlook isn't hopeless: everyday choices around exercise, diet, and community can meaningfully lower your risk, especially if you start by around age 35.

A cutting-edge technology and an exciting recent hire hint at exciting developments in the future of precision medicine in the diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer's disease.

In the nearly half of Texas counties considered maternity care deserts, few health care workers are trained to handle a pregnancy emergency like maternal cardiac arrest. A simulation-based training program from an expert at UT San Antonio's Kate Marmion School of Public Health aims to change that, and reduce preventable deaths in the process.

A month after flu shots became voluntary, influenza began to burn through boot camp at Lackland Air Force Base. Hundreds have been sickened, and infectious diseases experts are not surprised.

Around 20% of teens who have experienced emotional trauma don't respond to talk therapy. UT Health San Antonio is using neuroimaging to track brain changes in traumatized teens during a course of therapy to see if they can figure out why, which could lead to the development of more personalized treatments that will help more teens heal.

Alcohol use disorder affects millions of Americans, but treatment options remain limited, and relapse is common. A UT Health San Antonio researcher is studying two unconventional approaches that he hopes could one day be combined into a single, more effective treatment.

A new medication to treat schizophrenia has been developed by scientists who discovered that a neuron that inhibits the activity of other cells may be in short supply in those with the disorder.