University of Iowa Health Care is among the first sites in the country to participate in a phase 3 clinical trial to test a new, personalized vaccine for patients with high-risk melanoma. The study will combine individualized mRNA vaccines with the immunotherapy pembrolizumab to determine if the combination is safe and does a better job than pembrolizumab alone at preventing melanoma from…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a medical technology created by a University of Iowa faculty member to treat atrial fibrillation (Afib) in January 2024. Now, physicians in the cardiac electrophysiology division of UI Health Care are the first in the state to begin using the technology in clinical care. “Pulse field ablation, particularly Farapulse, offers a safe, more…

Extremely premature infants who were fed donated breast milk had less than half the rate of a life-threatening disease than those fed formula, according to a new study led by the University of Iowa. Researchers also found extremely preterm infants—classified as babies born before 29 weeks—who were fed donor milk experienced the same neurological development as those who were fed formula…

Did smokers do better than non-smokers in a clinical trial for an experimental cancer treatment? That was the intriguing question that led University of Iowa researchers and their colleagues to develop a drinkable, carbon monoxide-infused foam that boosted the effectiveness of the therapy, known as autophagy inhibition, in mice and human cells. The findings were recently published in the journal…

Twist. Pop. Pain. It’s a combination that any athlete—young or old, professional or weekend warrior—knows and dreads as a likely indication of a torn ACL. Rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), which stabilizes the knee joint, is an extremely common injury, affecting between 100,000 to 200,000 people in the U.S. every year. It is also a significant injury, often requiring surgery and…

New findings may take scientists a step closer to understanding what causes SUDEP—Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy—a rare but fatal complication of epilepsy. There are about 3,000 deaths from SUDEP each year in the U.S. The biggest risk factor is epilepsy that is not well controlled with medication or surgery, but the exact cause of SUDEP is not known. However, increasing evidence suggests…