A UI study shows that chronic exposure to a toxin made by staph bacteria produces in rabbits the hallmark symptoms of Type 2 diabetes, including insulin resistance and glucose intolerance. The findings suggest that eliminating staph bacteria or neutralizing the toxins might have potential for preventing or treating the disease.

UI Children's Hospital is home to Iowa's only nationally ranked neonatology program—reassuring news for a Cedar Rapids family.

An UI study finds states gain little when dropping adult dental coverage. Researchers say adults in California made 1,800 more hospital visits annually for dental care after losing the benefit. California spent $2.9 million each year, 68 percent more before eliminating the benefit. Results in the journal Health Affairs.

UI neuroscientist Andrew Pieper and colleagues at three other universities, show that bone marrow transplant does not rescue mouse models of Rett syndrome, a severe neurological disease that affects very young girls. The findings directly contradict seemingly promising results published in 2012, which initiated a clinical trial for human patients.

More Iowans will learn about the many roles the State Hygienic Laboratory performs in safeguarding their health, as the University of Iowa Mobile Museum makes its way across the state.

E. Dale Abel, director of the Fraternal Order of Eagles Diabetes Research Center at the University of Iowa, has been awarded two separate grants totaling $4 million from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute to study the connection between diabetes, obesity, and heart failure.

Counting sheep isn't putting you to sleep? Not getting enough shut-eye is recognized as a major public health issue. That's why the UI Employee Assistance Program is offering a new, free program for faculty and staff called SHUTi, or Sleep Healthy Using the Internet.

Eric Taylor, assistant professor of biochemistry at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, was recently awarded a five-year, $1.87 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study biological mechanisms used by the liver to make glucose.

Peter Gruber, chair and DEO of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery with University of Iowa Health Care, was recently elected a member of the American Surgical Association.

The UI-led study, one of the largest and most systematic examinations of care for very premature infants, found that hospitals with sophisticated neonatal units varied widely in their approach to 22-week-olds, ranging from a few that offer no active medical treatment to a handful that assertively treat most cases.

Several individuals previously featured in our "Student Experience" series are graduating this month. We reached out to them to find out what plans they have after graduation.

The spring 2015 UI College of Nursing commencement ceremony will be streamed live from "Iowa Now." Streaming will begin shortly before the ceremony begins Saturday, May 16, at 10 a.m. Archival video will replace the live stream on the "Iowa Now" page shortly after the ceremony concludes.