With rising concerns about environmental issues and climate change, the national non-profit Defend Our Future is aiming to build a community of students passionate about environmentalism at the University of Arizona. Read more
As of Jan. 19, there have been over 400,000 confirmed deaths from the coronavirus. Fortunately, states all across the U.S. have been rolling out vaccines to combat the deadly virus and pandemic. Here are five different pieces of fact and fiction about the COVID-19 vaccines. Read more
The Pima County Health Department has designated the University of Arizona to be one of the points of distribution for vaccination as a part of Phase 1B in the vaccine rollout plan. The UA will administer the Pfizer vaccine at no out-of-pocket expense. They will primarily be serving teachers, educators and childcare workers. This includes teachers, faculty and staff at the K-12 schools in Pima County, Pima Community College and over 15,000 faculty and staff at the UA. Read more
Just over one year ago, scientists around the world began to sequence the SARS-CoV-2 virus with the aim of finding out more about the novel and enigmatic coronavirus. A few months ago, experts began to notice mutations in the virus' genome that have led to a new round of lockdowns and increased concern around the globe. Read more
The University of Arizona will lead the NASA Aspera mission, which seeks to solve the mystery about the way galaxies form. Read more
As University of Arizona junior and climate activist, Kyle Kline, chanted among several hundred concerned Tucsonans at a September 2019 climate strike, his hope was that city officials would solidify their commitments to climate action. “The main asks for the strike were the climate emergency declaration and the climate action plans,” Kline said. During the following year, Kline dedicated his time away from classes to gathering signatures, planning another climate strike and advocating alongside environmental organizations with the hopes of proving to city administration that this is what members of the community want. Read more
Across the pond, in the United Kingdom, a new variant of the original SARS-CoV-2 virus was first identified. As an RNA virus, the novel coronavirus is more susceptible to mutations, given its weaker proofreading capabilities. The variant, called B.1.1.7., has a handful of mutations — 23, in total — in its genetic code. Read more
On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization officially declared the coronavirus outbreak a "pandemic." Since then, the world has documented 75 million infections and 1.7 million deaths, and the U.S. is currently seeing its worst days in terms of cases, hospitalizations and deaths. Read more
On Tuesday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization for the country’s first prescription-free at-home coronavirus test. According to the press release, the test is instructed to be used by any individual two years of age or older, both with and without symptoms and costs about $30. Read more
On Friday, Dec. 11, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization for Pfizer/BioNTech's coronavirus vaccine as the country is currently seeing record numbers of cases, hospitalizations and deaths. This action will pave the way for millions across the U.S. to start receiving the vaccine this week. Read more
University of Arizona researcher Allie Burnett knows more about the elusive Harris’ antelope ground squirrel than practically anyone in the world. “They’re not chipmunks,” she often corrects people. At her study site in the UA Santa Rita Experimental Range, a blur of stripes ripped through the desert dust and she thought, “Was that a zebra-tailed lizard, or was that an antelope squirrel?” Read more
It is no secret that COVID-19 has had a devastating impact worldwide, on both academic and non-academic interests. Within the United States, we are leading the world in case count and total deaths, with over 14 million cases and 266,000 deaths reported since January 2020. Read more
Exciting results from a new clinical study showed that a personalized vaccine combined with an immunotherapy drug had a promising response rate in patients with advanced incurable head and neck cancer. Dr. Julie Bauman, chief of Hematology and Oncology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine — Tucson, led a phase one clinical trial with the pharmaceutical company, Moderna, to test the combined use of personalized vaccines created from tumor DNA with the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab. Read more
