New research has revealed a promising experimental vaccine made with the patient’s own cancer cells, write Drs. Norbert Herzog and David Niesel in their latest Medical Discovery News column.

Drs. Alexander Bukreyev and Jere McBride, UTMB professors in the Department of Pathology, were recently elected to the 2025 class of fellows with the American Academy of Microbiology.

“People who may have been vaccinated as a child but may have a waning immune system — whether they have chronic disease, whether they are immune suppressed for other reasons because of medications or because of some sort of illness — they are more likely to get measles,” UTMB’s Dr. Philip Keiser tells the GCDN. “Despite that, the real issue here is actually the unvaccinated kids.” Local health authorities are watching the West Texas outbreak closely especially as spring break, which brings thousands of people to the region, is just weeks away.

Dr. Alexander Bukreyev and Dr. Jere McBride have been elected to the 2025 class of fellows of the American Academy of Microbiology.

UTMB’s Dr. Elizabeth Vaughan spoke to National Geographic about ways to prevent and reverse diabetes.

“UTMB is pleased to welcome back patients who were unable to receive care from our physicians and facilities due to out-of-network status. We value Aetna as a health insurance partner dedicated to serving our communities,” UTMB’s Kent Pickering says in this story about UTMB once again accepting Aetna insurance.

"It sure seems to me that we're going to have to start using vaccines if we want to start putting this fire out," UTMB’s Dr. Gregory Gray tells Reuters for a story on how the spread of the avian flu is affecting egg prices. Egg farmers are urging the USDA to approve the use of a vaccine to protect laying hens from the virus. This news was shared by outlets across the nation and internationally.

Bird flu continues to spread and farmers in Texas are worried, the Chronicle reports. So far, human cases have only involved workers in the poultry industry but that could change. "The concern is the virus might become highly transmissible among humans, with high morbidity and mortality rates," Dr. Gregory Gray tells the Chronicle. Similar stories ran in outlets across the country and internationally.

“As history has shown, when vaccination rates drop, diseases return,” write Drs. Megan Berman and Richard Rupp. Texas is seeing the consequences of declining vaccination rates as measles is spreading to children and adults in Gaines County.

Dr. Hasan Yasin looks into the health benefits of a whole food, plant-based diet. “While transitioning to a WFPB diet may require some adjustment, the evidence is clear, embracing a diet rich in whole plant foods can lead to significant health benefits,” Yasin writes.

Being aware of risk factors and keeping regular appointments are two main ways women can stay abreast of their heart health risks. Cardiologist Dr. Danielle El Haddad shares other tips, too.

UTMB Health Clear Lake has once again demonstrated its commitment to top-tier cardiovascular care, earning reaccreditation as a Chest Pain Center by the American College of Cardiology. This reaccreditation, first achieved in 2021 and renewed in 2024, highlights the hospital’s dedication to meeting and exceeding stringent quality standards for treating patients experiencing chest pain and cardiac emergencies.

New research has revealed a blood substitute that would alleviate blood shortages, write Drs. Norbert Herzog and David Niesel in their latest Medical Discovery News column.

A new study shows that bird flu has silently spread from animals to some veterinarians, the AP reports. “This means that people are being infected, likely due to their occupational exposures, and not developing signs of illness and therefore not seeking medical care,” UTMB’s Dr. Gregory Gray said. This news was picked up by news outlets across the nation and internationally.

"If the circulating H5 viruses become more transmissible between humans, we are not going to be able to control transmission as the viruses will spread rapidly and often subclinically," says Dr. Gregory Gray. The first study on the H5N1 bird flu outbreak from the CDC to make it to publication under the Trump administration came out on Thursday, NPR reports.

There are health benefits in “stopping to smell the roses,” writes Dr. Samuel Mathis. A recent study found that individuals who sat in a garden landscape and smelled the plants had lower heart rates and improved autonomic nervous system responses to stressful stimuli, he writes.

New Study Using AI-Powered Analysis Identifies Combinations of Social Barriers Impacting Health Outcomes. Most doctors’ visits focus on reviewing medical information such as cholesterol levels and symptoms like a persistent cough to diagnose and treat health conditions. However, discussions rarely touch on nonmedical factors, such as whether a patient has reliable transportation to attend follow-up appointments. Missing critical appointments like radiation therapy to treat a lung tumor due to lack of transport could worsen health outcomes and complicate recovery.

“While previous studies have analyzed how one or a few non-medical factors impact our health, Americans often face multiple barriers leading to different levels of health risks that are not yet well-understood,” says UTMB’s Dr. Suresh Bhavnani. A new study from Bhavnani and colleagues uses artificial intelligence to uncover how such nonmedical factors occur together across patients and their risks for outcomes.

H5N1, the avian influenzas virus known to decimate wildfowl in Asia and Europe, is jumping into mammals in North America, write Drs. Norbert Herzog and David Niesel in their latest Medical Discovery News column. The overall concern is the spread to humans and the start of a pandemic, the write.

At the second edition of the Model of Care Forum in Riyadh, Saudia Arabia, UTMB’s Wayne Keathley stressed the urgent need to “strengthen prevention efforts by fostering healthier lifestyles such as proper nutrition, regular physical activity, mental health awareness, smoking cessation, and encouraging routine medical checkups.”