University of Iowa Health Care’s Val C. Sheffield, MD, PhD, and Edwin M. Stone, MD, PhD, are the recipients of the 2025 Helen Keller Prize for Vision Research, awarded by global brain and vision research nonprofit BrightFocus Foundation and the Helen Keller Foundation for Research and Education.

Stanley Perlman, MD, PhD, professor of microbiology and immunology, and pediatrics in the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine, has been elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) for his distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. He is part of the 2025 class of 120 members and 30 international members.

As a cancer-fighting organic compound, University of Iowa researchers knew vitamin C worked in cells. They knew it worked in mice. They even knew it worked in a small group of cancer patients. What the Iowa team didn't know was how well it could work—so well, in fact, that they ended a phase 2 clinical trial early.

While still a relatively new discipline compared to other academic medical specialties, emergency medicine historically has focused on acute clinical care—and clinical education and training—to the near exclusion of research. A heightened emphasis on collaborative research is helping reshape emergency care at Iowa.

Medicine alumna Amy Shriver uses her role as a pediatrician to help families learn how focusing on social connection, family reading time, and more can contribute to kids’ mental and physical health.

While still a relatively new discipline compared to other academic medical specialties, emergency medicine historically has focused on acute clinical care—and clinical education and training—to the near exclusion of research. But the scope—and impact—of emergency medicine is changing.

Mice and rats treated with uric acid, a small naturally occurring molecule, were more likely to survive and have better functional outcomes following a stroke than animals treated with placebo (saline infusion). The findings from a University of Iowa-led research team add to mounting evidence that uric acid protects the brain during stroke and may help to improve outcomes for the almost 795,000…

Curiosity. It’s what Michael Welsh, MD, cites as a motivating factor at the heart of his extraordinary career dedicated to understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms behind cystic fibrosis (CF).

Michael Welsh, MD, has received the 2025 Canada Gairdner International Award for his research on cystic fibrosis (CF), which paved the way to new therapies that have transformed the health and life expectancy of people with CF.

A public health team from the University of Iowa is collaborating with partners across the state to share county-specific cancer data with residents in each of Iowa’s 99 counties. A U.S. News & World Report article in 2023 sounded the alarm for residents of a rural county in northwest Iowa. Palo Alto County, the report stated, had the second-highest rate of newly diagnosed cancers in the country …