Petrie Dish

Empathy is getting a bad rap these days. Some critics call it a weakness that can be weaponized; others call it a sin. What is this ancient trait that drives humans not only to care about each other, but to act on those feelings? And why do some powerful people insist that you should ignore yours?

A team of San Antonio researchers is training artificial intelligence models to help improve the materials used to make things like cavity fillings and dental sealants, which currently tend to be either unattractive or not as durable as they could be. This could dramatically decrease the time it takes to get better products into dentists' offices and clients' mouths.

CTE can rob a person of their memories and ability to make decisions and plans. It can also cause a person to become a threat to themselves and, sometimes, others. But the disease, caused by repeated head trauma, can't be definitively diagnosed before death. A San Antonio researcher hopes to help change that.

One department at the University of Texas at San Antonio School of Public Health is focused on understanding the health challenges associated with a changing climate and developing solutions to mitigate or even prevent them.

Is there a connection? Bonnie Petrie talks with a pediatrician who specializes in neurodevelopmental disorders like autism about the president's claims on Tylenol and the MMR vaccine as potential causes of autism and a form of vitamin B9 as a potential treatment.

'Most people think carcinomatosis is a death sentence, but there are different treatment modalities that I offer to patients. And that's something that is pretty unique to UT Health San Antonio,' said Dr. Mio Kitano, a surgical oncologist.

A UT San Antonio Health Science Center researcher has found that people with resilient immune systems can live 15 years longer than those who don't, but what is immune resilience? How do you know if your immune system is lagging? Can you get some of those years back?

A San Antonio researcher is working on a drug that could treat Ewing sarcoma and rhabdomyosarcoma without lifelong side effects. It would be the first new treatment option for these childhood cancers in 30 years.

Malaria kills more than half a million people a year, and an effective vaccine has been elusive. But a San Antonio malaria researcher and her team have discovered a vulnerability in the malaria parasite's method of avoiding the human immune system that may make all the difference.

Petrie Dish host Bonnie Petrie sits down with Public Health Watch reporter Raquel Torres to talk about her story on the Alzheimer's crisis in the Rio Grande Valley, as well as a $3 billion proposal to fund Alzheimer's research in Texas that won't go forward unless Texans say yes at the polls in November.