Not only is Vermont small and rural, but it’s also old. Currently, the state is ranked fourth in the nation for the relative number of residents over 65 years old – a whopping nearly 20 percent of Vermont’s population and rising. And with that status comes a disproportionately large share of heart disease, as well as blood vessel diseases and brain circulation problems that can lead to dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

UVM and University of Maryland researchers have shown how the brain communicates to blood vessels when in need of energy, and how these blood vessels respond to direct blood flow to specific brain regions -- information that can help determine what goes wrong in conditions like Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, where faulty blood flow is a predictor for cognitive impairment.

New trial results from the University of Vermont and an international team of researchers show that administering a full dose of a standard blood thinner early to moderately ill hospitalized patients with COVID-19 could reduce the risk of severe disease and death.

Investigators from across the globe came together virtually July 12-15, 2021 for the University of Vermont-hosted ninth biennial "Stem Cells, Cell Therapies, and Bioengineering in Lung Biology" conference to share the latest research in the field and set priorities for their work in the future.

Understanding what happens during important conversations between seriously ill people, their families and palliative care specialists – and how they vary by cultural, clinical, and situational contexts – is essential to guide healthcare communication improvement efforts. A new computer model developed by a team of UVM researchers offers an automated and valid tool for conducting large-scale scientific analyses of these conversations.

Thanks to health outreach groundwork laid prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, farm worker communities across Vermont had access to on-site vaccine clinics through a partnership between UVM Extension, the Vermont Department of Health, UVM College of Nursing and Health Sciences, UVM Larner College of Medicine and UVM Medical Center.

Department of Pediatrics Administrator Sue Victory will be retiring on July 9, 2021 after nearly 44 years working at the University of Vermont Medical Center and University of Vermont's Larner College of Medicine.

UVM scientists and colleagues published youth brain activation data from the largest longitudinal neuroimaging study to date in Nature Neuroscience. The findings provide valuable new information on the cognitive processes and brain systems that underlie adolescent development and might contribute to mental and physical health challenges in adulthood.

Despite a record number of over 400 million cases in 2019, vaccine development for the mosquito-borne dengue virus has been challenging due to the need to protect equally against all four dengue strains. The discovery of new possible biomarkers to predict clinical and immune responses to dengue virus infection could be critical to informing future vaccines.