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Researchers are finding ways to study hypochondriasis, or excessive worry over one's health, and how it affects relationships, including patient-doctor interaction.

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Saltiness often enhances our enjoyment of certain foods -- think French fries or a Margarita. But salt is an essential nutrient for humans and other animals, and far from being a trivial matter of taste, the ability to detect salt is critical for survival.

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Preschoolers who need to take medications while at day care centers in Iowa generally are getting the right drugs on schedule, but more could be done to reduce the risk of medication errors. The study is believed to be the first to look at the issue in day care settings in the United States.

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Mucus that excessively accumulates in the lungs of patients with cystic fibrosis may be linked to the deficiency of the enzyme arylsulfatase B. The deficiency may in turn be linked to a known genetic mutation in CF.

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People who are creative, imaginative, and prone to fantasy are more likely to have vivid dreams at night and to remember them when they wake up, University of Iowa research shows.

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A protein that plays a role in muscular dystrophies also may be involved in peripheral neuropathy -- disorders of the nerves that carry messages between the brain and the rest of the body.

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Genes come in pairs, one copy from your mom and one from your dad. In some genetic conditions, inheriting one bad, or mutant, gene copy from either parent is sufficient to cause disease. University of Iowa researchers have shown that it is possible to silence a mutant gene without affecting expression of the normal gene.

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In muscle building, exercise tears muscles then a healing process increases the amount of healthy muscle. A University of Iowa study on two muscular dystrophies reveals a muscle repair process and identifies a protein, dysferlin, that muscles need to heal themselves.

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A problem with developing a cystic fibrosis gene therapy is that delivering genes into airway cells is inefficient and disrupts the cell layer integrity. However, a finding by University of Iowa researchers and colleagues may help solve the problem, using a surprising tool -- a modified piece of the Ebola virus.

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The University of Iowa Research Foundation has been issued a patent for the first-known mutant chicken pox virus. The initial discovery was made in 1998 by University of Iowa researchers.

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University of Iowa researchers have discovered a surprisingly simple but effective repair system in airway barrier cells.

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Workplace factors, such as the behavior of superiors, were highly associated with military women's risk of sexual assault during their military service, according to a study by researchers at the Iowa City Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the University of Iowa.

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An oral anti-inflammatory medication, used at home when cough from a cold first appears, prevents asthma-related emergencies, especially for preschoolers, says a University of Iowa expert.

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University of Iowa researchers have discovered a mechanism that helps explain how organelles -- compartments and structures inside cells that perform varied and vital functions -- are delivered to the right place at the right time in a cell.

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A finding involving University of Iowa researchers used three-dimensional imaging to understand how a bacterial enzyme can take oxygen from air and use it to convert certain molecules into useful chemicals.

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Hypnosis may conjure up images of swinging pendulums and people obeying strange commands to act like chickens, but a University of Iowa physician is studying hypnosis for a very different purpose: as a possible alternative for drug-induced sedation.

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Findings from the longest-running study of its kind show that individuals with untreated late-onset idiopathic scoliosis have life expectancies and health outcomes that are similar to the general population.

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Building on previous research, University of Iowa scientists have discovered that a drug already being tested as an anti-cancer agent could potentially be used in conjunction with other cancer therapies to reduce the likelihood of cancer recurrence by targeting the tumor microenvironment.

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Computer programs that simulate biological events are playing an increasingly important role in many areas of pharmaceutical research. A University of Iowa assistant professor of biochemistry is studying whether purely computational approaches can be used to identify unintended drug interactions that might cause side effects.

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The risk of death from 1994 to 1999 for Medicare patients in hospitals or within 30 days following heart bypass surgery was about 22 percent higher in states that did not have certificate of need regulation than those that did have the rules in place, says a University of Iowa and Iowa City VA Medical Center study.

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A UI study shows that maintaining the regenerative capability of satellite cells can prevent development of severe muscular dystrophy. This suggests that malfunctioning satellite cells may influence the severity of muscular dystrophies and could provide a therapeutic target for muscular dystrophy and other muscle diseases.

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In 1997, researchers first identified a genetic cause of non-syndromic deafness. Since then, the number of genes known to cause non-syndromic deafness has risen to 29. The rapid pace of discovery has generated great excitement among genetics researchers, and has changed the way physicians diagnose hereditary deafness.

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UI researchers have uncovered a strategy used by one particular virus to escape from its host's cells and return to the outside world to infect new hosts. Adenovirus disrupts cell-cell adhesion to break out of epithelial cells. This type of escape mechanism may be widely used by other viruses and also by bacteria.

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Earlier this year, University of Iowa Health Care researchers determined that a gene known as BRCA1 plays a more extensive role in ovarian cancer than previously thought. Now, they have determined the same is true for the BRCA2 gene.

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University of Iowa scientists have for the first time combined gene therapy strategies and a process that interferes with gene expression to silence, or turn off, genes in living animals (mice). The study could provide a basis for new antiviral therapies and treatments for certain inherited genetic diseases.

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Is it really significantly riskier to enter the hospital on the weekend than during the weekdays? Not so, according to an outcomes study by investigators at the University of Iowa and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Iowa City.

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A genetic finding may help determine the causes of the most common, or non-syndromic, form of cleft lip and palate. Using data from twins, University of Iowa researchers identified the gene whose mutated form causes Van der Woude syndrome, the facial defects of which are very similar to those of the common form.

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Some physicians still are reluctant to treat pregnant patients for nausea and vomiting because of fear of causing birth defects in the first trimester; yet you can safely treat this problem with certain vitamins or medications, says a University of Iowa professor and head of obstetrics and gynecology.

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Piecing together a biochemical and genetic puzzle, University of Iowa researchers and their colleagues have revealed a new molecular mechanism that appears to be the root cause of a subset of muscular dystrophies.

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An improved way of providing expert medical opinion in medical malpractice cases may be to randomly survey a group of peer physicians and use their responses to identify customary care, according to a University of Iowa study.

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University of Iowa researchers used a hypothetical drug trial to study informed consent among potential participants with schizophrenia and others with HIV. Most people with either condition were able to provide consent, although one in five people with schizophrenia had significantly decreased capacity to do so.

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University of Iowa research about how personality affects survival rates in chronically ill patients found that patients who were prone to depressed mood, pessimism and excessive worrying were more likely than the average patient to die in an average four-year period, and those who tended to be highly conscientious, goal directed and dependable were less likely to die.

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A University of Iowa Health Care study is the first to show evidence of a cellular receptor through which dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) stimulates production of nitric oxide, a chemical that helps regulate blood pressure, inhibits blood clotting and prevents narrowing of the arteries.

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The results of a new University of Iowa study challenge an old assumption about how the immune system responds to an infection and could have important implications for improving vaccine efficiency.

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A new study of biofilm formation by the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa, demonstrates that lactoferrin, a component of the body's innate immune system, prevents biofilm development. (Bacterial biofilms are dense, organized cellular communities encased in a self-produced slime; in addition to being highly resistant to antibiotics, biofilms are also impervious to the body's natural immune defense system.)

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The health risk posed by residential radon exposure may have been substantially underestimated in previous studies, according to investigators in the University of Iowa College of Public Health.

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A University of Iowa Health Care investigation has found that, contrary to some reports, women with inherited ovarian cancer may not have a better survival prognosis than women with ovarian cancer due to other mechanisms.

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Military veterans who were deployed to the Persian Gulf in 1990-1991 reported poorer health status than comparable veterans in the armed forces at that time but who were not deployed to the Gulf, according to a study by University of Iowa and Department of Veterans Affairs researchers and colleagues.

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University of Iowa research is shedding new light on the molecular basis of learning and memory. In addition to improving understanding of these vital brain functions, the findings also may point the way to medications for treating memory disorders or even suggest pharmacological targets to reduce brain damage caused by stroke and seizures.

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Using a mouse model of a human disease that causes mental retardation in young children, University of Iowa researchers and colleagues at the University of Rochester have shown that brain-directed gene therapy not only prevents progression of the neurological disease, but also restores mental abilities in the animals.

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In recognition of $90M in support for the University of Iowa College of Medicine from the late Roy J. Carver, his widow Lucille A. Carver of Muscatine, Iowa, and the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust of Muscatine, the UI seeks to rename the medical school the Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine.

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A study involving University of Iowa researchers has found that an antioxidant enzyme, which repairs cellular damage caused by oxidation, slows the aging process in fruit flies. The enzyme, called peptide methionine sulfoxide reductase A, also is found in other species, including humans.

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Using new technology to monitor blood pressure, University of Iowa scientists and their colleagues have discovered that a lab-bred mouse with borderline hypertension (high blood pressure) may be a very good model for studying preeclampsia in women.

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Using a completely computer-based search strategy, investigators in the University of Iowa Colleges of Medicine and Engineering have found 28 additional human beta-defensin genes, bringing the total to 33. The findings could have implications for understanding the underlying molecular defects of cystic fibrosis.

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University of Iowa researchers have shown that shortened versions of the normal CFTR protein can function like the normal full-length protein in experimental models of CF disease. These findings may point the way towards strategies that could turn the potential of gene therapy for CF into a reality.

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A University of Iowa based study has demonstrated that aggressive human melanoma cells form new blood vessels when placed in living tissue that is in need of a blood supply. The researchers also found that these aggressive melanoma cells make the same molecules that direct the formation of new blood vessels in embryos.

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BRCA1 gene dysfunction in women with ovarian cancer is more common than previously thought and occurs with greater frequency through ways other than inheriting a defective copy of the gene, according to a University of Iowa study that used a new screening strategy.

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Working with model cell systems that mimic cystic fibrosis (CF) affected human airways, University of Iowa researchers and their colleagues have used a new gene therapy technique to correct the most common CF genetic defect in human cells.

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Journalists who want to learn about the latest on research and treatment from leading experts in speech, hearing, voice and language are invited to apply by Dec. 3 for participation in a two-day fellowship that will be held March 24-26, 2002 at the University of Iowa.

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Restoring estrogen levels to premenopausal levels in cells taken from postmenopausal rats inhibits processes that cause cardiovascular diseases, according to a University of Iowa study. The researchers hope that their findings will point the way to more specific treatments for these diseases in postmenopausal women.