UC Research Opens 2009 by Earning Headlines and Coverage Worldwide

The University of Cincinnati is a research leader.

The institution ranks 28th in the nation among public research-intensive universities based on National Science Foundation data on federal research expenditures. In addition, UC is designated a “very high research activity” university by the Carnegie Commission.

In January 2009, that activity earned the university a great deal of news coverage around the world because of the proven or potential impact of UC’s many research achievements. Among global media, UC earned coverage from

• Forbes
• FOXNews
• Live Science
• Medical News Today
• Modern Medicine
• MSNBC
• New York Times
• Reuters
• Science Daily
• Scientific American
• Scientific Frontline
• Scientist Live, United Kingdom
• United Press International
• U.S. News & World Report
• Voice of America
• Washington Post
• Yahoo! News (Yahoo.com)

These outlets reported on UC research that is delivering on better futures and healthier lives around the world, and details are below. And while the university’s research endeavors routinely have a broad impact, these achievements also make a difference close to home and in specific regions of the United States.

The impact of UC research
For instance, right in Cincinnati’s backyard, a 2008 survey by the university’s Institute for Policy Research found that more Hamilton County residents used the county’s parks than in any other year in the past two decades. Or, in Arizona, UC research is showing the results of law enforcement practices involving Hispanics, Native Americans and blacks. Meanwhile in Oklahoma, UC research regarding the cancer risk of firefighters is being considered as part of a court case involving benefits to firefighters there.

These are just a few examples of how UC research impacts lives in different locales throughout the nation. And below are examples of how UC research is having an even broader impact, affecting lives around the world. These include 

• The New York Times, Scientific American, the medical journal Current Biology and numerous other outlets featured an experiment by UC researchers that demonstrated yet another way that animals find their way home. While some animals use “dead reckoning” to return home and others are believed to use “linear acceleration,” a UC study proved that fiddler crabs use their stride to gauge distance. The researchers put a slippery sheet of acetate in the path of crabs heading to their burrow. The crabs took the same number of steps as they would have on a normal surface but made no progress. The crabs, who reckon distance based on the number and length of strides, ended up short of their burrows.

• The Washington Post and news media from India, Iran, Ireland, Pakistan, South Africa, Switzerland and Thailand reported on a new UC study that discovered a biomarker that can predict a person’s risk for colon cancer, as well as how severe that cancer might be.

• Worldwide media – including Reuters news service here in the United States and in the United Kingdom, United Press International, Voice of America, Boston Channel.com, eMaxHealth.com, Health.com and Science Daily, as well as the National Post and Science News in Canada along with the Tehran Times in Iran and other media as far away as Israel and Nepal – provided coverage of a UC study showing that if your family has a history of strokes and you smoke, your risk of having a stroke are six times higher than those of a non-smoker. This UC study was published in the prestigious professional journal, Neurology.

• Spirituality, not religion, makes children and adolescents happy and helps them to cope with chronic illness, according to a recently released UC study that was covered by international media that includes FOXNews, LiveScience.com and MSNBC here in the United States as well as media throughout Asia. Specifically, the study found that children are happier when they feel their lives have meaning and value and when they’ve developed deep relationships with others.

• Research by UC doctors is informing current treatments using the blood thinner warfarin. Warfarin is used to treat an irregular heartbeat that can commonly lead to an ischemic stroke. But a UC study found that as use of warfarin has risen, so has another type of stroke, a hemorrhagic stroke. These research results mean that it’s important for doctors and their patients to talk about the benefits vs. the risks of warfarin use. These important research results were carried in news media like Forbes, U.S. News & World Report, the Washington Post and by CBC in Canada. 

• In related research, a UC study out in the Jan. 20 issue of the journal Annals of Internal Medicine shows that genetic testing used to guide initial dosing of warfarin may not be cost-effective for typical patients with an irregular heartbeat (atrial fibrillation) but may be for patients at higher risk for major bleeding. That research was also covered by Modern Medicine, U.S. News & World Report and the Washington Post.

• Forbes, United Press International, U.S. News & World Report, the Washington Post, Health Day News, MedPageToday, Yahoo.com, CBC in Canada, News-Medical.net in Australia and many others carried news of UC’s discovery that the cancer drug bortezomib may be effective at treating and reversing the rejection of transplanted kidneys. The drug seems to target antibody-producing plasma cells that can cause organ rejection, according to the UC study published in the Dec. 27 issue of the journal Transplantation.

• United Press International and Medical News Today, as well as Scientist Live in the U.K. and outlets in Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, India, Switzerland and Thailand reported on how cancer and cell biology experts at UC identified a new tumor suppressor for lung cancer that may help scientists to develop better treatments. The research was also carried in the January 2009 issue of Molecular and Cellular Biology.

• The Columbus Dispatch is providing ongoing coverage of research by UC College of Law students who, as part of a nonprofit legal clinic called the Ohio Innocence Project, have helped the justice system revisit cold cases where science has advanced enough to provided new clues, specifically DNA evidence. Last year, the students played an important role in freeing one man who had spent 18 years in prison for a child rape that DNA testing showed he didn’t commit. The students are now assisting with a new case.

• News media in the southwestern U.S. carried news of UC Policing Institute research showing Arizona’s Department of Public Safety is far more likely to ask Hispanic drivers for permission to search their vehicles than to ask other groups. In addition, Hispanics drivers are the least likely to object to vehicle searches by police and are also the least likely to be found in possession of illegal items when searched.

• UC environmental health research is part of evidence being presented in an Oklahoma course case involving benefits to firefighters with cancer. The UC study showed that firefighters are significantly more likely to develop four types of cancer, likely as a result of exposure to cancer-causing agents when fighting fires. Regional press in Oklahoma are carrying news regarding the case and the research involved.

• Scientific Frontline reported how UC cancer specialists are using a new technology that aims precise, high-dose beams of radiation at tumors that move with the breathing cycle. Tumors, like those in the lungs, move internally as patients breathe. That movement previously forced specialists to treat larger areas around the tumor in order to compensate for the movements, harming healthy tissue in the process. The new targeted approach is more precise and so, less damaging to healthy cells.

• View headlines earned by UC research in December 2008.
• View UC’s research funding report released in November 2008, when the university announced an all-time high in terms of research funding at $353 million.
• Visit UC’s research page and news page.