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Specialized brain imaging tracks hormone-driven changes

A new study out of the University of Delaware shows that fluctuations in estrogen influence the brain, helping reshape connections between neurons. Researchers showed that a specialized imaging technique called magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) can detect estrogen-dependent mechanical changes in the hippocampus, a brain region involved in memory and learning, across the reproductive cycle. The findings, published in Brain Communications, lay the groundwork for future studies exploring how hormonal changes, including long-term transitions like menopause, affect brain health in women. “Across the reproductive cycle, the brain adapts, relying more heavily on different regions at different times. This was step one: can we track these changes with MRE in rats, and then eventually in humans?” said first author Katrina Milbocker, a postdoctoral researcher in Curtis Johnson’s laboratory and a UD alumna with a doctorate in behavioral neuroscience. “Imaging is often viewed as a tool for detecting disease, but it can also help us understand brain health dynamically,” said Johnson, an associate professor of biomedical engineering. “Our ultimate goal is to understand how brain mechanics change across life stages and what those changes can tell us about health and aging.” Toward clinical translation While the study links hormone fluctuations to changes in hippocampal mechanics, the question of whether those changes influence brain function remains. A key next step is connecting MRE measurements with cognition, including memory and learning. Johnson’s team is also extending the work into rat models of menopause, a life stage in which the body produces much lower levels of estrogen. “We suspect there may be a mechanical ‘stuck state’ when estrogen is first depleted, contributing to disrupted cognitive function like brain fog, and we are trying to test this next,” he said. At the same time, the team is working to translate the findings to humans through parallel rodent and human studies. “One unique advantage at UD is that the human and animal imaging facilities are in the same building, which makes collaboration easier,” Milbocker said. Ultimately, they hope to make MRE fast enough to be incorporated into routine MRI exams, ideally adding less than a minute to a standard scan. “Transitions such as menopause span years, and we want to understand how brain health changes across them and how to support individuals during those periods,” Johnson said. To speak with Milbocker or Johnson, email mediarelations@udel.edu.

Disaster Response Expert: How Flood Evacuations Impact Vulnerable Families, Infants and Companion Animals

When disasters strike, evacuation decisions can be complicated by factors that emergency planners may not always anticipate — including the needs of pets, infants and other vulnerable members of a household. University of Delaware disaster researcher Sarah DeYoung studies how people make decisions during disasters and how emergency planning can better account for the needs of families and their companion animals. Her expertise includes evacuation decision-making, companion animals in disasters, infant feeding in emergencies and maternal and child well-being during disasters. DeYoung's research is particularly relevant as communities around the world respond to natural disasters, including the devastating flooding currently affecting Nepal. DeYoung has conducted field research following 13 disasters, including the 2015 Gorkha earthquake in Nepal, where she studied maternal and infant health and feeding in the aftermath of the disaster. She says that pets can significantly influence evacuation decisions. People may delay or avoid evacuation if they cannot bring their animals with them, while others may return to dangerous areas to retrieve pets. Her work examines how emergency managers can better incorporate animals into evacuation and sheltering plans. She also studies the particular challenges facing mothers and infants during disasters, including access to food, infant feeding, shelter and other basic necessities. Topics she can discuss include: • How pets influence evacuation decisions • Challenges of evacuating and sheltering with companion animals • How emergency planners can better account for pets and families • Emergency warnings and evacuation decision making  • The needs of mothers and infants during disasters • Infant feeding and access to basic necessities during disaster recovery • How disasters affect vulnerable populations and family well-being To reach DeYoung directly and arrange an interview, visit her profile and click on the "contact" button. Interested reporters can also send an email to MediaRelations@udel.edu.

MCG researchers awarded $275K grant to study HIV and retinopathy correlation

It’s often said that “teamwork makes the dream work,” and scientists from different disciplines at Augusta University are a perfect example of that. Manuela Bartoli, PhD, research director and professor of ophthalmology at AU’s Medical College of Georgia, has joined forces with Eric Belin de Chantemèle, PhD, a physiologist in MCG’s Vascular Biology Center, to explore the link between HIV and retinopathy. The pair was recently awarded a two-year $275,000 grant from the National Eye Institute that will allow them to test different variables on a transgenic mouse model and assess how they impact the development of retinopathy. The project began with Bartoli and Belin de Chantemèle examining transgenic mice that expressed viral proteins linked to HIV. They found that the blood vessels supplying oxygen and nutrients to the mice’s retinas were not functioning properly. “So, we developed the idea that people living with HIV may be more prone to or progress more rapidly when they get one of the ischemic retinopathies that are very common, particularly diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration,” Bartoli said. “I think this is important because we’ll basically define a chronic HIV infection as a risk factor for the development of the most severe ocular disease.” Bartoli’s work focuses on ischemic retinopathies, which are conditions that reduce blood flow, oxygen and nutrients to the retina – the part of the eye responsible for vision. These disorders are the leading cause of blindness around the world. Different types include retinopathy of prematurity, diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration. Several factors contribute to ischemic retinopathies, such as oxidative stress and inflammatory processes. Bartoli infers HIV might be another risk factor, but it’s tough to confirm as antiretroviral therapies make the virus nearly undetectable. “The number of people living with HIV is growing in terms of age, so most likely they will develop, at some point, a disease like age-related macular degeneration, which is really common in the elderly population,” Bartoli said. “We knew the individual has the acute infection, and because of the immunosuppression, they develop a number of infections that lead to retinal dysfunction. There was also reported what is called retinitis due to HIV. But with medication, these acute events disappear, and we don’t know, when you get older and develop one of these diseases, how is it going to progress?” While cART therapies can manage HIV, Bartoli noted they don’t fix the defective blood vessels in the retina. And it’s not just the retina. The big picture is that HIV alters blood vessels throughout the human body, therefore elevating blood pressure and causing cardiovascular disease. “We have blood vessels in every single organ, whether this is the heart, the lungs, the kidneys, the brain, the eyes, they are everywhere,” Belin de Chantemèle said. “As HIV is damaging the vessel, that would lead to dysfunctions in all those different organs.” “On top of that, people who have HIV usually have additional comorbidities. Very often people become obese, have diabetes,” he continued. The researchers plan to eventually move beyond mouse models and include human subjects in their study. “I’m already working with people around to try to get information,” Bartoli said. “For example, in the VA system.” The ultimate goal is to establish how HIV contributes to the progression of eye diseases, which will hopefully lead to a better understanding of why it happens and how to treat it. “If this individual who progresses more rapidly goes to the doctor when they are blind already or semi-blind, it’s too late for anything,” Bartoli said. “Blindness is the primary fear in people, so we’re going to combat the cause to prevent this side effect.” Discoveries at Augusta University are changing and improving the lives of people in Georgia and beyond. Your partnership and support are invaluable as we work to expand our impact. See more experts at Augusta University → Click here

How Trade Wars Are Reshaping Fashion and Apparel

Trade disputes and tariffs have become an increasingly common part of the global economic landscape, with the fashion and apparel industry often caught in the crossfire. University of Delaware professor Sheng Lu can explain how these disruptions reshape sourcing decisions, supply chains, prices and the products ultimately available to consumers. Lu can discuss: • How new tariffs, including those on Canadian jackets and wool products, could affect consumers, fashion companies and apparel supply chains. • How tariffs can affect apparel prices and product availability for U.S. consumers. • Why fashion and apparel supply chains are particularly vulnerable to trade policy changes. • The impact of trade disputes on fashion companies and retailers in the U.S. and abroad. • What previous trade disputes can tell us about the potential consequences of tariffs. To arrange an interview, visit Lu's profile and click on the “contact” button. Interested reporters can also email MediaRelations@udel.edu.

Epidemiologist Available to Discuss Measles, Vaccination and Infectious Disease Outbreaks

As measles cases continue to rise in the United States, University of Delaware epidemiologist Jennifer Horney is available to discuss measles outbreaks, vaccination, vaccine hesitancy and the challenges of preventing the spread of highly contagious infectious diseases. The deaths of two unvaccinated Pennsylvania residents from measles — the first measles deaths in the state in 35 years — underscore the continuing public health risks posed by the disease. Horney, a former member of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Board of Scientific Counselors, is an experienced epidemiologist who studies infectious disease outbreaks and public health preparedness. Horney can discuss: • Measles outbreaks and transmission: Why measles is among the most contagious infectious diseases and how outbreaks spread. • Vaccination: The effectiveness of the MMR vaccine and the importance of maintaining high vaccination rates. • Vaccine hesitancy and misinformation: What influences vaccination decisions and how public health messaging affects perceptions of vaccine and infectious disease risks. • Measles prevention and treatment: Why outbreaks can reemerge when vaccination coverage falls, and the role and limitations of vitamin A and other treatments. • Outbreak response and preparedness: How public health officials investigate and respond to measles and other infectious disease outbreaks, and what can be learned from previous outbreaks. To reach Horney directly and arrange an interview, visit her profile and click on the “contact” button. Interested reporters can also email MediaRelations@udel.edu.

Rethinking how data meets the atom

Quantum computing is often framed as a hardware race with attention fixed on machines that promise amazing speed. But a foundational mathematical problem remains unresolved. No complete framework yet exists for converting massive amounts of data generated by fields such as healthcare, disease surveillance, financial transactions and climate monitoring into units a quantum machine can process. “What exactly we are proposing is this: data is continuous,” said Arni S.R. Srinivasa Rao, PhD, professor and director of the Laboratory for Theory and Mathematical Modeling, Division of Infectious Diseases, Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University. “That means the generation of the data is continuously happening. And how to slice it down into pieces, that is what it is about. The slicing down of the data into smaller pieces, not too small pieces, but smaller enough for the computers to handle them in a meaningful way.” Rao and Steven G. Krantz, a professor of mathematics at Washington University in St. Louis, published their findings on “The Role of Quantization in Quantum Computing” in the July/August 2026 issue of SIAM News, published by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. “Quantization is a mathematical method, nothing to do with quantum computing,” Rao said. “But these two we are trying to mix together.” The problem with just chopping it up Classical computers store information as bits, switches that are either off or on, zero or one. Quantum computers use qubits, which can hold combinations of both states simultaneously, which is why they can theoretically process vastly more information at once. But qubits operate at the atomic level. Getting that data into a quantum machine requires breaking it down into atomic-scale pieces first. The math for doing that well, Rao and Krantz argue, does not yet exist in any complete form. The hard part is “slicing” it right. “Not slicing in a random, arbitrary way,” Rao said. “If you slice it in a way which is arbitrary, then you might miss, you might necessarily slice it where no information is required. Information is broken into pieces rather than combining the information. That’s what the mathematics is playing a role here.” Their research proposes using an ensemble of quantization techniques rather than a single method, with different mathematical tools matched to the different layers inside a dataset. A disease surveillance file might bundle together demographic data, income levels, infection status and housing type, for example. Each layer has its own structure. The partitioning, they argue, should flex to fit the problem rather than forcing every dataset through the same process. Mixing two worlds that don’t quite line up The second major contribution is a formally defined measure the authors call “atomic uncertainty.” It quantifies the mismatch between quantized data and the atomic structure that data is supposed to travel through inside a quantum processor. The mismatch exists because atomic models, the diagrams of electrons and nuclei that physics students study, are approximations. The actual behavior of electrons inside an atom follows probability distributions. There is inherent randomness in there that scientists have not resolved. Planets are called spheres, and textbooks draw them as smooth perfect balls, Rao explained, but their surfaces are cratered and irregular. The sphere is a useful model, not an accurate description. Atomic structure works the same way. When quantized data does not fit cleanly into that imperfectly understood atomic structure, the gap becomes computational error. At small scale, manageable. At the scale of real-world data inputs, those errors can compound into results that are simply wrong. “We are not trying to fix the error. We are trying to see how big the error is,” Rao said. This study illustrates the concept with a disease-modeling example, building a dataset that layers population age, income bracket, infection status and housing type. When the data is quantized and compared against a model atomic structure, the spaces do not fully align. That leftover mismatch is the atomic uncertainty. In a real quantum system processing actual disease data, it does not disappear but shows up as wrong answers about how a disease spreads. The next step, Rao said, requires industry partners to take the framework and build hardware around it. “Designing a computer is different from the actual making a computer,” Rao said. “We designed the method of slicing the larger, huge continuous data into smaller digestible computer bits, that’s called qubits. The industrialists have to build it. Like designing a mobile phone is different from actually making a mobile phone.”

Expert Opinion: DIY Peptide Injections Carry Risks Most People Never See Coming

Peptides are having a moment. People injecting them at home are chasing everything from weight loss and muscle recovery to sharper thinking and better sex drive. But according to UConn pharmacist and clinical pharmacologist C. Michael White, the bigger danger isn't just what's in the vial. It's what happens when untrained people try to draw up and inject these products themselves. White has been researching the gray markets for peptides, where companies sidestep FDA oversight by selling products labeled "for research purposes only." Because that labeling is a legal workaround, the companies can't legally tell buyers how to actually use what they're selling. "This means consumers must purchase any supplies they need and figure out the proper technique on their own," White writes. So he decided to test just how well people manage on their own. In a new study published in Public Health Reports, White and his colleagues recruited 20 people, 10 college students and 10 adults in their 60s, and asked each to reconstitute a semaglutide peptide product, draw it into a syringe, and inject a mannequin. They were allowed to research the process online or with AI beforehand. The results were rough. On average, both age groups got fewer than half the steps right. Some picked expired or cloudy dissolving liquid. Many miscalculated doses, couldn't clear air bubbles from the syringe, or injected into muscle instead of fat. Roughly half didn't know how to safely engage the needle's safety mechanism or dispose of it afterward. "These errors were serious and could increase the risk of infection, bleeding, over- or under-dosing, and needle sticks," White notes. What stood out most: Confidence didn't track with competence. After doing their homework, most participants in both groups felt "somewhat confident" they could do the injection correctly. Younger participants stayed confident even after fumbling through the process. Older adults, by contrast, adjusted their confidence downward once they saw how it actually went, which tracks with prior research showing older adults tend to be more accurate judges of their own ability on complex tasks. White's piece also digs into a potential fix on the table: In late July 2026, an FDA advisory panel recommended adding six widely used peptides, including BPC-157, TB-500, and Semax, to the list of substances compounding pharmacies can legally prepare. The panel's argument is that compounded versions would be safer than gray-market ones, since compounding pharmacies follow rules on sourcing and sterile production that the gray market doesn't. White isn't fully sold. Even if the FDA adopts the recommendation, he points out it would only apply to a handful of products, and it wouldn't change the fact that none of them have actually been tested for safety or effectiveness as finished drugs. The bulk of the gray-market risk stays exactly where it is. For more on the peptide boom and what the FDA is weighing, NBC News broke down the basics here: What are peptides and why is the FDA considering easing limits? Read the full article: Dr. White is Head and Distinguished Professor of the Department of Pharmacy Practice at the University of Connecticut, and co-director of the university's Health Outcomes, Policy, and Evidence Synthesis (HOPES) research group. His research focuses on drug, dietary supplement, and illicit drug safety, quality, and cost, with a specific throughline into adverse events tied to drugs, devices, herbal products, and substances of abuse. View complete profile He's a recurring voice on drug and supplement safety specifically, most recently quoted in Health magazine's "4 Major Risks of Unregulated Peptides" (Aug. 18, 2026) and on KCBS Los Angeles radio discussing GLP-1 drugs and youth mental health (Aug. 10, 2026). Dr. White is available for interviews on peptide safety, the gray-market supplement industry, GLP-1 and weight-loss drug trends, and drug/dietary supplement safety more broadly. Media can reach out by clicking this profile icon below.

AU Hosts Congressional Hearing on 'Building an AI-Ready America'

The U.S. House Committee on Education and Workforce held its first artificial intelligence field hearing of the year, titled "Building an AI-Ready America: How AI Is Creating Opportunities Across America's Workforce," at the Georgia Cyber Center at Augusta University on July 24. U.S. Rep. Rick W. Allen, who represents Georgia's 12th District and chairs the committee's Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions, chaired the hearing. He was joined by U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina and U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath of Georgia. Jeffery Talbert, PhD, chair of Augusta University's Department of Artificial Intelligence and Health at the Medical College of Georgia and a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar, served as one of four witnesses at the hearing. "Today, we examine how artificial intelligence, AI, is creating economic opportunities for American workers, job creators and our communities," Allen told the committee. "There's no better place to hold this hearing than right here in Augusta." Allen said the combination of the Georgia Cyber Center and Fort Gordon provides the expertise needed to discuss AI. "Fort Gordon is just a short 30-minute drive from where we currently sit," he said. "It hosts the Army Cyber Center of Excellence and is home to Army Cyber School, which trains, educates and develops the Army's Cyberspace and Electronic Warfare workforce. Every year, thousands of people leave Fort Gordon looking for work." He added that the Georgia Cyber Center "was created to meet this growing demand and drive collaboration between academia, government and industry stakeholders to equip a superior cybersecurity workforce with the skills they need." Augusta University President Russell T. Keen told the committee it was an honor for AU's Georgia Cyber Center to host the hearing. "Congressman Allen has long recognized the important role that education, innovation and workforce development play in strengthening our state and our nation," Keen said. He added that AI "will continue to change how we live, how we learn, how we work and how we solve problems," and that Augusta University "intends to lead in that transformation in ways that strengthen our workforce, advance discovery, improve lives, change lives and save lives." Talbert, who has more than 30 years of experience in biomedical informatics, has published approximately 260 times and has led more than 100 funded research projects totaling more than $130 million. He told the committee that in health care, AI is demonstrating its greatest value through augmentation, helping professionals "work more effectively, reducing administrative burdens, improving patient outcomes and expanding workforce capacity." He pointed to ambient documentation technology, which converts clinical conversations into draft notes clinicians review and approve, as one of the industry's most successful AI applications. "Multiple studies show these tools reduce documentation burden, after-hours work and burnout," Talbert said. "One multisystem implementation found clinician burnout fell from approximately 52 percent to 39 percent." He also cited studies showing AI-assisted breast cancer screening detecting approximately 29 percent higher cancer rates, "helping more patients benefit from earlier diagnosis and treatment." America's opportunity, Talbert said, "is not simply to adopt AI, but to lead its responsible development, education and implementation." He pointed to Augusta University's Department of AI and Health, the first of its kind in Georgia, as an example of that approach. Allen closed the hearing by cautioning against a one-size-fits-all approach to AI policy. "The needs of a family farm are not the same as those of a hospital, a manufacturing plant or a small business," he said. "Congress must pursue flexible policies that allow businesses to adopt AI in ways that best suit their industry and workforce." JagWire has the full recap of the hearing and the Augusta Chronicle, Innovation & Entrepreneurs News and Traders Union also covered the field hearing. Augusta University experts in artificial intelligence, healthcare innovation and workforce development are available for interviews. If you're covering similar stories, reach out to schedule time.

Fantasy Football Draft: Watch for 'Brain Bias'

National Football League fantasy drafts are underway in preparation for the season — and that means millions of fantasy football coaches are already overthinking their lineups. Before they blame a bad draft slot or a fluke injury for bombing from one week to the next, they might want to look in the mirror and give their head a shake. That’s because there’s good science behind those bad fantasy football decision. Renee Miller, a professor of brain and cognitive sciences at the University of Rochester, studies cognitive biases and literally wrote the book on bias in fantasy sports. She plays fantasy football, too. She warns that our brains are wired to interpret fantasy football results in ways that are suboptimal and illogical. “Biased thinking occurs in everyday life and work, and in fantasy sports,” Miller says. “Through the course of a season, you can see a full range of the ways cognitive bias affects a person’s weekly fantasy matchups.” Here’s the good news: Miller says we can untangle those wires if we know what to look for. Among the biggest culprits are what Miller calls “the endowment effect” (overvaluing and clinging to players you drafted high), “recency bias” (falling in love with last week’s star), and “confirmation bias” (cherry-picking stats that support what you already believe). But especially beware of Week One. Thanks to the “primacy effect,” those games early in the season loom larger in memory than later ones. One hot debut or a disappointing flop can warp a coach’s thinking for weeks. The result? Lineups driven more by emotion than logic — and possibly a lot of pick sixes. Biases aren’t all bad, though. Sometimes instincts pay off. First impressions and recent performances sometimes hold fast. But the best fantasy players, Miller says, know when to slow down and think systematically. They stay skeptical, challenge their gut reactions, and accept that they’ll be wrong sometimes. So before you rage-drop that underperforming wide receiver or crown your Week One sleeper a superstar, remember, the smartest move might be to take a look in the mirror and give your head a shake. Miller is available for interviews for journalists covering fantasy sports. Connect with her by clicking on her profile.

Who Decides Which Stories Children Get to Read?

As book bans surge nationwide, Jan Lacina — professor at Texas Christian University and Interim Director for Starpoint and KinderFrogs Schools — explores the benefits of diverse children's literature in her new textbook for educators, "Children's Literature to Read Our World: Text Selection and Strategies for Critical Reflection (Routledge, 2026). The research-grounded guide aims to help teachers intentionally select books for their students, centering age-appropriate books that present Black, Latinx and Asian culture as wellsprings of understanding. It also highlights titles that explore complex issues such as homelessness and poverty, and those that can help educators teach about historical topics like the Holocaust or the Civil Rights Movement. One chapter explores how scented books can be used as a vehicle for multisensory literacy development. Lacina's book arrives at a critical moment, in a critical state. Texas ranked second in the nation for school book bans during the 2024-25 school year, with 1,781 instances of censorship, according to PEN America's latest report. Jan was recently featured in The 74 article "Who Decides Which Stories Children Get to Read?" by Mark Swartz, which explores why access to diverse literature matters and how her new textbook helps educators respond to rising censorship. Read the full article here. We can look back through history and see that there's always been censorship, and I think books have historically been targeted over a long period of time for anti-intellectual censorship efforts. Books are primarily a source for people to learn new ideas and to critically think about a variety of topics within our society. "Books are powerful, and that's what scares people," Lacina said. Reading helps children identify with the protagonist — with their feelings, with their actions — and it's important to read about experiences that are similar to our own, whether they're positive experiences or challenges we might face in life, Lacina said. Lacina is available to speak with media on literacy leadership, children's literature, early childhood and elementary education, and teacher preparation — timely topics as school districts nationwide navigate rising challenges to classroom books. To arrange an interview or request a comment, click through to Jan Lacina's profile below.