Curious by Nature

How do you know if you have a genetic condition that increases your risk of certain types of cancer? 

For people with inherited conditions like Lynch syndrome, the risk of cancer is much higher, yet most don’t even know they have it. 

Dr. Eduardo Vilar-Sanchez is a physician-scientist at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, working on new ways to stop cancer early, including a vaccine designed to train the immune system to recognize and fight it. 

Newswise’s Jessica Johnson shares highlights from a recent trip visiting communications teams and researchers across universities in the southeastern United States.

Below are some of the research stories featured in this episode.

• ARPA-H PRINT Program Supports WFIRM-Led Award to Create on-Demand, Bioprinted Kidneys, Published by Wake Forest University

• How Studying Yeast in the Gut Could Lead to Better Drugs, Published by North Carolina State University

• How health risk communication best practices can improve community flood risk communication, Published by RTI International

• Healthy habits can make your brain age more slowly, study finds, Published by University of Florida

• New FAU Research Strengthens Evidence Linking Alcohol Use to Cancer, Published by Florida Atlantic University

• Efficacy of Service Dogs with Veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): Community Reintegration, Published by Nova Southeastern University

• The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine Selected as U.S. Site for Neuralink Clinical Trial, Published by University of Miami – Miller School of Medicine

• New Study Could Show How TikTok’s Algorithm Affects Youth Mental Health, Published by Georgia Tech

February brought a wide range of compelling research stories from universities across the country. From the University of Utah’s powerful study, “Banning Lead in Gas Worked. The Proof Is in Our Hair,” to the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine’s findings in “Pink Noise Reduces REM Sleep and May Harm Sleep Quality,” scientists are uncovering insights that directly impact our daily lives.

We also saw Binghamton University, SUNY publish “Record-Breaking Antarctic Drill Reveals 23 Million Years of Climate History,” the University of Nebraska–Lincoln explore business strategy in “Research Shows Companies Can Gain Advantage by Prioritizing Customer Privacy,” and Johns Hopkins Medicine report on long-term brain health in “Cognitive Speed Training Linked to Lower Dementia Incidence Up to 20 Years Later.”

Let’s take a closer look at what made these stories stand out this month.

Jeff Grabmeier who recently retired as the Senior Director of Research Communications at Ohio State University. Jeff spent decades working to help turn complex research into stories that informed and connected with the media and public readers. 

Jeff is a goldmine of information and knowledge about research communications. But also, he has changed the lives of many researchers through his amazing communications efforts. If you are a researcher, scholar, or leader in higher education, Jeff is the type of person you want to be close by. 

Luca Ziegler, PhD Candidate at West Virginia University and Mental Performance Consultant, studies how psychological flexibility helps athletes and performers succeed under pressure.

Everyone tells athletes and performers to “stay calm under pressure.” But what if the secret to peak performance isn’t staying calm at all? High-stakes moments, from championship games to career-defining opportunities, don’t just test skill. They test how well we handle pressure.

In this episode, Ziegler explains how psychological flexibility, staying open, aware, and in control during stressful moments, can help athletes reach flow and clutch states when it matters most, offering insights that apply not only to sports but to high-pressure situations in everyday life.

Dr. Bruce Stamos, Orthopedic Surgeon and Sports Medicine Specialist at Hackensack Meridian Ocean University Medical Center, treats athletic injuries and studies how players recover and stay on the field during high-stakes competition.

The Super Bowl isn’t just a battle of talent, it’s also a test of endurance and physical resilience. By the end of the season, many players are dealing with fatigue, lingering injuries, and the constant risk that one sudden movement, like an ACL tear, could change the course of the game.

In this episode, Dr. Stamos pulls back the curtain on what professional athletes are dealing with behind the scenes, explaining how medical teams manage injuries, monitor recovery, and make strategic decisions to keep players performing at the highest level.

Dr. Danielle Dick, Director of the Rutgers Addiction Research Center and Professor at Rutgers University, studies how genetics and environment interact to influence substance use and addiction across the lifespan.

Most people will encounter alcohol or other substances at some point in their lives. For many, that use remains occasional and manageable. For others, it becomes something far more disruptive. Understanding why substance use leads to severe challenges for some but not for most has become a central question in addiction research.

In this episode, Dr. Dick explains how the answer may lie in the complex interaction between our genes and our environments, unfolding from childhood into adulthood. By identifying genetic risk factors and tracing how they influence mental health and addiction outcomes, researchers hope to develop better strategies for prevention, early intervention, and treatment.

Every January, we promise ourselves this will be the year we finally change. Better habits, bigger goals, stronger willpower. And yet, by February, most of those resolutions are already gone. So what’s really going on? 

We are joined this week by Dr. E.J. Masicampo of Wake Forest University to talk about the psychology behind why New Year’s resolutions fail, and the surprisingly simple strategies that actually make change stick. If you’ve ever wondered why motivation fades or how to work with your brain instead of against it, this conversation is for you.

Dr. Robert Haley of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, has spent years researching the unexplained illnesses affecting veterans of the first Gulf War.

For more than 30 years, many veterans have reported persistent symptoms including fatigue, cognitive problems, vertigo, and chronic pain, often without a clear medical explanation. Early theories struggled to solve the mystery, but advances in brain imaging are now providing new clues.

In this episode, I’m joined by Roger Johnson, the founder of Newswise. Roger launched Newswise in the early days of personal computing with a simple but powerful idea: make credible science and research news easier for journalists to find and use.

We explore the origins of Newswise, the role of curiosity in journalism and science, and how early technology reshaped the way information is shared. We also talk about creativity, asking better questions, and what the future may hold for science communication in an evolving media landscape.