With proposals ranging from low-cost ground-penetrating radar to a lung sealant derived from seaweed, six research teams from the University of Vermont pitched their ideas to a panel of experts at the first university-wide SPARK-VT session in June 2015, all hoping to receive a seed grant to help move their innovative work one step closer to the marketplace.

In late 2014, Margaret Tandoh, M.D., and Majid Sadigh, M.D., traveled to Liberia to treat Ebola patients at the height of the epidemic in West Africa. They spent countless hours in the Ebola treatment units hastily set up to handle the influx of people seeking care, tending to the sickest patients despite a lack of basic resources. For their efforts, they were part of the group named by Time Magazine as 2014 People of the Year.

Joseph McSherry, M.D., Ph.D., UVM associate professor of neurological sciences, authored an editorial on the effects of cannabis-derived tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

(FEBRUARY 23, 2016) University of Vermont pediatric cardiologist Niels Giddins, M.D., is featured in a news story about the American Heart Association's February 2016 "Little Hats, Big Hearts" campaign to increase awareness about congenital heart defects in newborns. Giddins, an associate professor of pediatrics, commented that structural problems in the heart can often appear following a seemingly healthy and normal birth. The story's video footage, taken at the UVM Medical Center's Mother-Baby Unit, also featured Molly Rideout, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics. Watch the story online here.

A study showing that drug users are strongly motivated by seeking out rewards but also exhibit the inability to adjust their behavior, co-authored by Hugh Garavan, Ph.D., UVM associate professor of psychiatry, is mentioned. Read more from Health Medicine, University of Rochester Medical Center Newsroom, Health Canal.