In the three-and-a-half years since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women鈥檚 Health Organization, the fragmented state of abortion access has put medical professionals in a precarious position. Many states have tightened abortion restrictions, with some enacting criminal penalties up to in for physicians who perform abortions. Medical schools have

New research led in part by the 天美影视传媒 found that the new restrictions are not only affecting the current medical workforce 鈥� they may be shaping the next generation of physicians. The study, , found that applications to medical residency programs in states that enacted new abortion restrictions dropped sharply following the Dobbs ruling.

The decrease occurred among both male and female applicants. Applications to specialties related to reproductive health 鈥� obstetrics and gynecology, family medicine, internal medicine and emergency medicine 鈥� saw the largest decreases.

The new study builds on that had shown decreased application rates to residency programs in states with abortion restrictions by applying causal methodologies to understand the impact of the Supreme Court decision and isolating results from male and female applicants.

鈥淭his research provides important empirical evidence about how state-level policy changes following Dobbs may influence decisions made by medical trainees about where to pursue their graduate medical education,鈥� said co-author , a UW professor of health economics and director of the Comparative Health Outcomes, Policy, and Economics (CHOICE) Institute.

To learn more about the research, UW News sat down the paper鈥檚 three authors: Basu; lead author , assistant professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and co-author , assistant clinical professor of internal medicine at the University of Arizona. Both Ganguly and Morenz completed their internal medicine residencies at the UW School of Medicine.

The medical residency match process is quite different from traditional higher-ed applications. Can you explain how that works, and how it relates to your study鈥檚 findings?

Dr. Anna Morenz: Applicants may apply to as many programs as they want, with some applying to dozens of programs. At the end of interviews, they鈥檒l rank those programs based on their preferred landing spots. The programs, in turn, will rank all the applicants that they received. A computer algorithm then matches everyone with the goal of filling all the residency slots, and it鈥檚 very good at that. We know that . So programs are still filling their residency slots even in states with restrictions.

What concerns us about these findings is that there’s an early signal of people avoiding applications to these states. That has potential implications for the quality of the applicants to restricted states, which could not be assessed in our data. There’s typically a high likelihood that people stay where they train for their residency, but if you landed in a restricted state that was low on your rank list, you may be more likely to complete your training and then leave to a non-restricted state. We aim to look at this very important question in projects to come.

Anisha and Anna, you鈥檙e both practicing primary care physicians. How big a part of a physician鈥檚 training is abortion and other pregnancy-related care?听

Dr. Anisha Ganguly: It鈥檚 not a big part of our training traditionally, though there has been a movement to integrate more abortion care into primary care residencies. That鈥檚 more the case in family medicine rather than internal medicine, because medication abortion has now become the most common means for abortion care. As internists, we commonly diagnose pregnancies and care for women with medical conditions as they consider family planning.

AM: I do think it’s important to note that a huge percentage of primary care physicians are trained in family medicine. And family medicine physicians are trained in delivery of babies, management of prenatal care, miscarriage management, contraception and abortion. Anisha and I trained in internal medicine, and there is increasing interest to include medication abortion training in internal medicine, as it is fully within our scope of practice.

The effects of the Dobbs decision have been well-documented, and previous work on this topic highlighted changes in OB/GYN residency applications. What鈥檚 new in your study specifically?听

Anirban Basu: We had a much longer pre-period than previous studies. We looked back to 2019 to see what had been happening to application rates in these two kinds of states 鈥� those that eventually restricted abortion access and those that didn鈥檛 鈥� and we showed that these rates had been moving similarly until the ruling. That gives a little more weight to the evidence to say the change is due to the ruling.听

The second big thing is that previous studies did not distinguish whether men and women were changing their behavior similarly. I think that鈥檚 a very important finding in our study, that male applicants are changing their behavior at an even higher rate.听

AG: I agree that the gender stratification was an important contribution. The other stratified analysis that we explored was about how specialty type may be driving some of the effects that we saw. A lot of people can reason that OB/GYN applicants would be affected by this directly, and there’s a lot of literature to support that. But what we’re showing is that it’s not just the OB/GYN workforce that’s going to be impacted. It’s the primary care workforce and the emergency medicine workforce.听

We’re hoping that message spreads a little more broadly. This is not just about women’s health. It’s about the future of primary care and the person who’s going to save you from your heart attack in the future.

Let鈥檚 talk a little more about that gender stratification. You found that male applicants changed their application preferences at a greater rate than female applicants, which looks like a surprising result. What鈥檚 going on there?听

AG: When we generated our original hypotheses, we thought we were going to see increased effects among women applying to residency, but we actually ended up seeing that there were long-term disparities that existed pre-Dobbs between restricted and non-restricted states. This was likely because of the and other state-level laws that were affecting women’s behavior. What we’re seeing is that women had been reading the tea leaves about access to reproductive health care prior to the Dobbs decision, but the decision did unmask a wider problem that drove a lot of new behavior among men.

One of the messages that we are getting from this paper is this is an 鈥渁ll of us鈥� problem. It’s not just about women physicians. It’s about men who are also making choices about their professional autonomy and also about access to reproductive health care for their families. Women have been and will be considering their personal access to care and autonomy before this decision, but perhaps these state restrictions after Dobbs may have newly increased awareness among men.听

Among all these shifts, you found one group whose application rates didn鈥檛 change significantly: people applying to highly competitive medical specialities. What do you think explains that stickiness?听

AG: Anna and I had brainstormed about this being a potential effect modifier, because people who are applying in highly competitive specialties like orthopedic surgery or dermatology apply very broadly and don’t get to exercise a lot of choice about where to go. Whereas for large specialities like internal medicine, family medicine or pediatrics, there are a lot of programs in a lot of places, so applicants have more options. In those cases, state-level policies like abortion restrictions can factor more into people鈥檚 decision-making.

At an institutional level, what changes could be made to address these trends?听

AG: Institutions can make choices to mitigate some of these effects by supporting candidates with access to reproductive care within the scope of the restrictions that exist. Other industries are building in travel benefits for women who may need to travel to access these services.听

It’s not this aspect of a decision alone that shapes a residency applicant鈥檚 choice to go to a specific place or program. But there are other things that institutions can do to make trainees, particularly women, feel supported and valued. If you’re existing in an environment where state policies make women feel a lack of autonomy, then there are workforce policies that can be in place to bolster that sense of autonomy. That could take the shape of parental leave policies, lactation policies, other things that institutions can do to make women feel like, even if this part of your voice has been taken away, we’ll help you with the rest.

AB: One policy that has a long history of literature supporting it is financial incentives. Physicians do respond to financial incentives, but in many cases those incentives need to be quite steep to get people to change their decisions.听

AM: The other option is training opportunities. A lot of programs in states that had laws or restrictions that preceded the Dobbs decision would set up partnerships with organizations in another state where they could send their trainees to learn about pregnancy termination and miscarriage management. That鈥檚 a burden on residency programs and residents both. You have to set up housing and travel agreements. But that鈥檚 another key thing that programs need to keep in mind in order to recruit applicants.听

For more information or to contact the researchers, contact Alden Woods at acwoods@uw.edu.

Over five decades, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) has become known as the nation鈥檚. Low-income families receiving WIC benefits 鈥� which provides nutritious food in designated categories, nutrition education and access to other social services 鈥� have .听

But many families who are income eligible to participate in WIC aren鈥檛 receiving those benefits. Research has found that households who don鈥檛 use the full amount of their nutrition benefits are more likely to drop from the program.听

New research by the 天美影视传媒 has found that households who redeem more of their benefits in the most popular food categories are more likely to remain in the program long-term. Better understanding these patterns could help WIC agencies identify families who might need a little extra encouragement to stay enrolled.

The study was .听

鈥�Finding ways to identify kids and families that are at risk of dropping out of the program is of high importance,鈥� said , a UW assistant professor of health systems and population health and first author of the study. 鈥�That鈥檚 basically what we鈥檝e identified 鈥� a way to flag families who may be at risk of dropping off.鈥�

WIC provides families with food benefits in , with fruits and vegetables and eggs as the most popular. In partnership with (PHFE WIC), a Southern California WIC agency with a large research and evaluation division, researchers analyzed redemption data from 188,000 participating infants and children 0-3 years old, between the years 2019 and 2023.听

Among those children, higher redemption of fruits and vegetables, eggs, whole milk and infant formula was associated with lower risk of their household discontinuing WIC participation.听

The risk of discontinuation decreased in a somewhat linear fashion as redemption rates increased.

Chaparro hopes that local WIC agencies will build on these findings and seek new ways to engage families at risk of dropping off. All WIC providers must offer nutrition education, which could be an opportunity to target households with lower redemption rates in popular categories.听

The findings come just over a year after the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees WIC, . Among other changes, the 2024 rule significantly increased benefits for fresh fruits and vegetables, which has proven popular.

鈥淭he expansion of fruit and vegetable benefits for WIC families has been among the most important policy changes of the last decade,鈥� said , director of research and evaluation at PHFE WIC and co-author of the study. 鈥淔amilies want more fruits and vegetables, and this research demonstrates that their inclusion in the WIC food package is essential for longer-term engagement in the program.鈥�

of the University of Tennessee and PHFE WIC is the corresponding author. This study was funded by .

When uncontrolled wildfires moved from the foothills above Los Angeles into the densely populated urban areas below in January 2025, evacuation ensued and a thick layer of toxic smoke spread across the region. Air quality plummeted. Local hospitals braced for a surge,.听听

Research led by the 天美影视传媒 and Kaiser Permanente Southern California sheds new light on how the Los Angeles fires affected people鈥檚 health, and how people navigated the health care system during an emergency. In the rapid study, published , researchers analyzed the health records of 3.7 million Kaiser Permanente members of all ages living in the region. They found that health care visits did rise above normal levels, especially virtual services.听听

In the week after the fires ignited, Kaiser Permanente members made 42% more virtual visits for respiratory symptoms than expected. Those living near a burn zone or within Los Angeles County also made 44% and 40% more virtual cardiovascular visits, respectively, than expected.听

In-person outpatient visits for respiratory symptoms also increased substantially. Members who lived near a burn zone or within Los Angeles County made 27% and 31% more virtual cardiovascular visits, respectively, than expected.听

Extrapolating to all insured residents of the county, the researchers estimated an excess of 15,792 cardiovascular virtual visits, 18,489 respiratory virtual visits and 27,903 respiratory outpatient visits in the first week of the fires.听

The results suggest that people may rely more heavily on virtual health care during climate-related emergencies, and that providers should better prioritize virtual and telehealth services as they prepare for future crises.听

鈥淲e saw over 6,241 excess cardiorespiratory virtual visits in the week following the fire ignition. This represents a substantial increase in care,鈥� said, a UW associate professor of environmental and occupational health sciences and of epidemiology who led the research. 鈥淲hile the fires clearly impacted health, virtual care likely enhanced the ability of providers to meet the health care needs of people experiencing an ongoing climate disaster.鈥澨�

In collaboration with Kaiser Permanente Southern California, an integrated health care system with millions of members across the region, researchers analyzed health records of people who were highly or moderately exposed to wildfires. They defined high exposure as living within about 12 miles (20 kilometers) of a burn zone, and moderate exposure as living within Los Angeles County but farther than 12 miles during the time of the fires.听听

Researchers looked back three years to estimate how many health care visits to expect in the weeks following Jan. 7 鈥� the first day of the fires 鈥� under typical conditions. They then estimated how many people sought care in the first week of the fires, when smoke levels were highest, evacuations took place, and Los Angeles County public schools were closed.

In addition to the spike in cardiovascular and respiratory visits, researchers found a sharp increase in the number of visits for injuries and neuropsychiatric symptoms. On Jan. 7, outpatient injury visits were 18% higher than expected among highly exposed members, and virtual injury visits were 26% and 18% higher than expected among highly and moderately exposed groups, respectively. Among those same groups, outpatient neuropsychiatric visits rose 31% and 28% above expectations, respectively.

While both groups made significantly more visits than expected, proximity to the fires mattered. When researchers zoomed in on respiratory-related virtual visits, they found that minimally exposed members made 31% more visits, moderately exposed members made 36% more, and those living in highly exposed areas made 42% more.听听

鈥淲hile healthcare systems often plan to increase the number of hospital beds available or clinic staffing during an emergency, this work highlights the importance of considering virtual care capacity,鈥� said, a UW doctoral student of epidemiology and co-author on the study. 鈥淭his may be particularly true for climate disasters like wildfires, during which people are advised to stay indoors or when people must evacuate 鈥� motivating them to seek care online if at all possible. As climate disasters increase in frequency and intensity, it is essential that health care systems know how to prepare for a sudden and dramatic surge in health care utilization.鈥澨�

Other authors on this study are , and of Kaiser Permanente Southern California; of the University of California, Berkeley; of Kaiser Permanente Hawaii; and of Columbia University; and of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego; and of the Scripps Institution and the University of Rennes in France.

This research was funded by the National Institute on Aging and the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences.听

For more information or to reach the research team, contact Alden Woods at acwoods@uw.edu.

About . Birth before 37 weeks can lead to a cascade of health risks, both immediate and long-term, making prevention a vital tool for improving public health over generations.听

In recent years, researchers have identified a potential link between wildfire smoke 鈥� one of the fastest-growing sources of air pollution in the United States 鈥� and preterm birth, but no study has been big or broad enough to draw definitive conclusions. A new study led by the 天美影视传媒 makes an important contribution, analyzing data from more than 20,000 births to find that pregnant people who are exposed to wildfire smoke are more likely to give birth prematurely.

鈥淧reventing preterm birth really pays off with lasting benefits for future health,鈥� said lead author , a UW postdoctoral researcher in environmental and occupational health sciences. 鈥淚t鈥檚 also something of a mystery. We don鈥檛 always understand why babies are born preterm, but we know that air pollution contributes to preterm births, and it makes sense that wildfire smoke would as well. This study underscores that wildfire smoke is inseparable from maternal and infant health.鈥�

In the study, ,听researchers used data from the , a federal research project focused on how a wide range of environmental factors affect children鈥檚 health. The sample included 20,034 births from 2006-2020 across the contiguous United States.

Researchers estimated participants鈥� average daily exposure to fine particulate matter, or PM2.5, generated by wildfire smoke, and the total number of days they were exposed to any amount of smoke. They estimated the intensity of smoke exposure by how frequently participants were exposed to wildfire PM2.5 levels above certain thresholds.

They found that pregnant people exposed to more intense wildfire smoke were more likely to give birth prematurely. In mid-pregnancy, exposure to any smoke was associated with an elevated risk of preterm birth, with that risk peaking around the 21st week of gestation. In late pregnancy, elevated risk was most closely associated with exposure to high concentrations of wildfire PM2.5, above 10 micrograms per cubic meter.

鈥淭he second trimester is a period of pregnancy with the richest and most intense growth of the placenta, which itself is such an important part of fetal health, growth and development,鈥� said co-author , a UW professor of environmental and occupational health sciences and of pediatrics in the UW School of Medicine. 鈥淪o it may be that the wildfire smoke particles are really interfering with placental health. Some of them are so tiny that after inhalation they can actually get into the bloodstream and get delivered directly into the placenta or fetus.鈥澨�

The link was strongest and most precise in the Western U.S., where people were exposed to the highest concentrations of wildfire PM2.5 and the greatest number of high-intensity smoke days. Here, the odds of preterm birth increased with each additional microgram per cubic meter of average wildfire PM2.5.

It鈥檚 possible those results were more precise simply because the West experiences more wildfire smoke on average, making the exposure model perform better, Sherris said. But there may be other factors behind the regional differences.听

The composition of wildfire smoke is different across the country. In the West, smoke tends to come from fires nearby, while in places like the Midwest, smoke has typically drifted in from faraway fires. and reacts with sunlight and airborne chemicals, which could have affected the results. Researchers also noted that external factors like co-occurring heat or housing quality may have effects that aren鈥檛 fully understood.听

Researchers hope that future studies will examine the exact mechanisms by which wildfire smoke might trigger preterm birth. But in the meantime, Sherris said, evidence for a link is now strong enough to take action.听

鈥淭here are a couple avenues for change,鈥� Sherris said. 鈥淔irst, people already get a lot of public health messaging and information throughout pregnancy, so there鈥檚 an opportunity to work with clinicians to provide tools for pregnant people to protect themselves during smoke events. Public health agencies鈥� messaging about wildfire smoke could also be tailored to pregnant people and highlight them as a vulnerable group.鈥�

Co-authors include , doctoral student of environmental and occupational health sciences at the UW; , clinical associate professor of environmental and occupational health sciences at the UW; , professor of biostatistics at the UW; , associate professor of environmental and occupational health sciences and of epidemiology at the UW; , postdoctoral fellow of epidemiology at the UW; and , assistant professor of environmental and occupational health sciences at the UW. A full list of co-authors is included with the paper.

This research was funded by the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program at the National Institutes of Health under multiple awards. A full list of ECHO funding awards is included with the paper.听

For more information or to contact the researchers, email Alden Woods at acwoods@uw.edu.

Targeted drug delivery is a powerful and promising area of medicine. Therapies that pinpoint the exact areas of the body where they鈥檙e needed 鈥� and nowhere they鈥檙e not 鈥� can reduce the medicine dosage and avoid potentially harmful 鈥渙ff target鈥� effects elsewhere in the body. A targeted immunotherapy, for example, might seek out cancerous tissues and activate immune cells to fight the disease only in those tissues.

The tricky part is making a therapy truly 鈥渟mart,” where the medicine can move freely through the body and decide which areas to target.

Researchers at the 天美影视传媒 took a significant step toward that goal by designing proteins with autonomous decision-making capabilities. In a proof-of-principles study in Nature Chemical Biology, researchers demonstrated that by adding smart tail structures to therapeutic proteins, they could control the proteins鈥� localization based on the presence of specific environmental cues. These protein tails fold themselves into preprogrammed shapes that define how they react to different combinations of cues. In addition, the experiment showed that the smart protein tails could be attached to a carrier material for delivery to living cells.

Advances in synthetic biology also allowed the researchers to manufacture these proteins cheaply and in a matter of days instead of months.

鈥淲e鈥檝e been thinking about these concepts for some time but have struggled with ways to increase and automate production,鈥� said senior author , a UW professor of chemical engineering and bioengineering. 鈥淲e鈥檝e now finally figured out how to produce these systems faster, at scale and with dramatically enhanced logical complexity. We are excited about how these will lead to more sophisticated and scalable disease-honing therapies.鈥�

The concept of programmable biomaterials isn鈥檛 new. Scientists have developed numerous strategies to make systems responsive to individual cues 鈥� such as pH levels or the presence of specific enzymes 鈥� that are associated with a particular disease or area of the body. But it鈥檚 rare to find one cue, or 鈥渂iomarker,鈥� that鈥檚 unique to one spot, so a material that hones in on just one biomarker might act on a few unintended places in addition to the target.

One solution to this problem is to seek out a combination of biomarkers. There might be many areas of the body with particular enzyme or pH levels, but there are likely fewer areas with both of those factors. In theory, the more biomarkers a material can identify, the more finely targeted drug delivery can be.

In 2018, DeForest鈥檚 lab created a new class of materials that responded to multiple biomarkers using Boolean logic, a concept traditionally used in computer programming.

鈥淲e realized that we could program how therapeutics were released based simply on how they were connected to a carrier material,鈥� DeForest said. 鈥淔or example, if we linked a therapeutic cargo to a material via two degradable groups connected in series 鈥� that is, each after the other 鈥� it would be released if either group was degraded, acting as an OR gate. When the degradable groups were instead connected in parallel 鈥� that is, each on a different half of a cycle 鈥� both groups had to be degraded for cargo release, functioning as an AND gate. Excitingly, by combining these basic gates we could readily create advanced logical circuits.鈥�

It was a big step forward, but it wasn’t scalable 鈥� the team built these large and complex logic-responsive materials manually through traditional organic chemistry.

But over the next several years, the related field of synthetic biology advanced by leaps and bounds.

鈥淭he field has developed exciting new protein-based tools that can allow researchers to form permanent bonds between proteins,鈥� said co-first author , a UW doctoral student of bioengineering. 鈥淚t opened doors for new protein structures that were previously unachievable, which made more complex logical operations possible.鈥�

Additionally, it became practical to use living cells as factories to produce these complex proteins, allowing scientists to design custom DNA blueprints for new proteins, insert the DNA into bacteria or other host cells, and then collect the proteins with the desired structure directly from the cells.

With these new tools, DeForest and his team streamlined and improved many steps of the process at once. They designed and produced proteins with tails that spontaneously fold into more bespoke shapes, creating complex 鈥渃ircuits鈥� that can respond to up to five different biomarkers. These new proteins can attach to various carriers 鈥� hydrogels, tiny beads or living cells 鈥� for delivery to a cell, or theoretically a disease site. The team even loaded up one carrier with three different proteins, each programmed to deliver their unique cargo based on different sets of environmental cues.

鈥淲e were so excited about the results,鈥� DeForest said. 鈥淯sing the old process, it would take months to synthesize just a few milligrams of each of these materials. Now it takes us a couple of weeks to go from construct design to product. It’s been a complete game changer for us.鈥�

鈥淭he sky鈥檚 the limit. You can create delayed and independent delivery of many different components in one treatment,鈥� Ross said. 鈥淎nd I think we could create much, much larger logical circuits that a protein can be responsive to. We鈥檙e at the point now that the technology is outpacing what we鈥檝e seriously considered in terms of applications, which is a great place to be.鈥�

The researchers will now continue searching for more biomarkers that proteins could target. They also hope to start collaborating with other labs at the UW and beyond to build and deploy real-world therapies.

The team outlined other uses for the technology as well. The same tools could manufacture therapies within a single cell and direct them to specific regions, a sort of microcosm of how the process works in the body. DeForest also envisions diagnostic tools like blood tests that could, say, turn a certain color when a complex set of cues within the blood sample are present.

DeForest thinks the first practical applications are likely to be cancer treatments, but with more research, the possibilities feel endless.

鈥淭he dream is to be able to pick any arbitrary location inside of the body 鈥� down to individual cells 鈥� and program a material to go and act there,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a tall order, but with these technologies we鈥檙e getting closer. With the right combination of biomarkers, these materials will just get more and more precise.鈥�

Co-authors include , a former UW undergraduate student of chemical engineering; , a UW undergraduate student of bioengineering; and , a UW doctoral student of chemical engineering.

This research was funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.

For more information, contact DeForest at profcole@uw.edu.听

In the 10 years since the federal government , studies have suggested the policy has wide-ranging benefits. Students in participating schools , are and .

Now, as cuts to food assistance programs threaten to slash access to universal school meals, a new study led by the 天美影视传媒 finds another potential benefit to the programs: Students in participating schools were less likely to have high blood pressure, suggesting that universal free meals might be a powerful tool for improving public health.听

鈥淗igh blood pressure is an important public health problem that isn鈥檛 studied as much on a population level as obesity,鈥� said , a UW postdoctoral researcher of health systems and population health and lead author of the study. 鈥淲e have evidence that CEP increases participation in school meals, and we also have evidence that school meals are more nutritious than meals that kids obtain elsewhere. This is a public health policy that is delivering nutritious meals to children who may not have previously had access.鈥�

For the study, , researchers linked two datasets that rarely interact. They obtained medical records of patients ages 4-18 from community health organizations, and used patients鈥� addresses to identify the school they attended. The data encompassed 155,778 young people attending 1,052 schools, mostly in California and Oregon.

Researchers estimated the percentage of students with high blood pressure before and after schools opted into universal free meals, and compared those results against eligible schools that had not yet participated in the program. They also tracked students鈥� average systolic and diastolic blood pressure readings. All data were aggregated at the school level.听

They found that school participation in the CEP was associated with a 2.71% decrease in the proportion of students with high blood pressure, corresponding to a 10.8% net drop over five years. School participation in CEP was also associated with a decrease in students鈥� average diastolic blood pressure.听

鈥淚n previous work on the health impacts of universal free school meals, our team found that adoption of free meals is associated with decreases in and , which are closely linked to risk of high blood pressure,鈥� said , a professor of health, society and behavior at the University of California Irvine鈥檚 Joe C. Wen School of Population & Public Health and senior author of the study. Jones-Smith conducted much of this research while on faculty at the UW School of Public Health. 鈥淪o in addition to directly affecting blood pressure through provision of healthier meals, a second pathway by which providing universal free meals might impact blood pressure is through their impact on lowering risk for high BMI.鈥澨�

Improved nutrition of school meals may have helped drive the decrease, researchers said. The 2010 law that established the CEP also created stronger nutritional requirements for school meals. As a result, those meals now more closely resemble the , which to be an effective tool for managing hypertension.听

Despite the evidence supporting the DASH diet鈥檚 effectiveness, public health officials previously lacked an effective mechanism to encourage people with high blood pressure to follow its recommendations. 鈥淲e know there are a lot of barriers to people eating this diet,鈥� Localio said, but the combination of universal free meals and increased nutritional standards likely helped students overcome those barriers.

The study also contradicts the common misperception that universal free meals mostly benefit wealthier students, because students from low-income families would already receive free meals. The study sample consists primarily of low-income patients, with 85% of included students enrolled in public health insurance such as Medicaid.

鈥淭here is a perception that providing universally free school meals will only improve outcomes for students of relatively higher-income families, but our findings suggest that there are benefits for lower-income children as well,鈥� Jones-Smith said. 鈥淧otential mechanisms for this include decreasing the income-related stigma around eating school lunch by providing it free to all students and eliminating the time and paperwork burden of individually applying, thus decreasing barriers to participation in school meals.鈥�

These findings come at an uncertain time for universal free meals. A school is eligible to participate in the CEP if . In this way, recent cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the nation鈥檚 largest food assistance program, may affect schools鈥� access to the program.

鈥淲e鈥檙e in a contentious time for public health, but it seems like there鈥檚 bipartisan support for healthy school meals,鈥� Localio said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 legislation being considered in a number of states to expand universal free meals, and these findings could inform that decision-making. Cutting funding to school meals would not promote children鈥檚 health.鈥澨�

Co-authors on the study include , research professor emeritus of health systems and population health at the UW; , teaching professor of economics at the UW; Wyatt Benksen and Aileen Ochoa of OCHIN; and , associate professor of nursing at the UW. This study was funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development.听

For more information or to contact the researchers, email Alden Woods at acwoods@uw.edu.

The UW鈥檚 community collaborations span the state. In recent months, the School of Dentistry has offered care in, and, alongside monthly service days at Union Gospel Mission in Seattle and quarterly mobile clinics. Patients receive oral health exams, fillings, tooth extractions and cleanings.听

鈥淭he work we do in communities across the state is a great example of why the UW is often called the University for Washington,鈥� said Andr茅 Ritter, dean of the UW School of Dentistry. 鈥淭hese programs and partnerships advance the mission of the UW and the School in significant ways through education and clinical care.鈥澨�

The clinics are organized through the School鈥檚 Office of Educational Partnerships, which is solely focused on improving the oral health of people in the Pacific Northwest. OEP coordinates outreach programs that address the distinct needs of each community. Dental students have the opportunity to serve in outreach clinics or act as mentors for middle- and high-school students, encouraging them to pursue dental education and eventually serve their own communities.听听

Dental students typically begin seeing patients near the start of their third year. At the UW, however, students have the opportunity to work in clinical settings in underserved communities the summer after their first year through the听听

The School also offers a specific educational track that trains dentists to work in rural and underserved communities. Operated in conjunction with Eastern Washington University and the UW School of Medicine, the program 鈥� 鈥� has seen over 80% of its graduates return to rural and underserved communities across the Pacific Northwest.听

鈥淥ral health is an essential part of overall well-being, and everyone deserves access to high-quality dental care,鈥� said , a UW clinical associate professor of pediatric dentistry and director of the Office of Educational Partnerships. 鈥淲e recognize that it is our duty and privilege to serve those who need it most.鈥澨�

听The UW School of Dentistry will continue its service and outreach programs throughout the fall and winter quarters. For more information or to learn about upcoming service days, contact Alden Woods at acwoods@uw.edu.

Warmer weather across the globe is reshaping the landscape of human health. Case in point:听Dengue fever incidence could rise as much as 76% by 2050 due to climate warming across a large swath of Asia and the Americas, according to a new study led by , a researcher at the 天美影视传媒.听

Dengue fever, a mosquito-borne disease once confined largely to the tropics, often brings flu-like symptoms. Without proper medical care, it can escalate to severe bleeding, organ failure, and even death.鈥�

The study,, is the most comprehensive estimate yet of how temperature shifts affect dengue鈥檚 spread. It provides the first direct evidence that a warming climate has already increased the disease鈥檚 toll.听听

鈥淭he effects of temperature were much larger than I expected,鈥� said Childs, a UW assistant professor of environmental and occupational health sciences who conducted much of the research as a doctoral student at Stanford University. 鈥淓ven small shifts in temperature can have a big impact for dengue transmission, and we鈥檙e already seeing the fingerprint of climate warming.鈥澨�

The study analyzed over 1.4 million observations of local dengue incidence across 21 countries in Central and South America and Southeast and South Asia, capturing both epidemic spikes and background levels of infection.听听

Dengue thrives in a 鈥淕oldilocks zone鈥� of temperatures 鈥� incidence peaks at about 27.8 degrees Celsius, or 82 degrees Fahrenheit, rising sharply as cooler regions warm but dropping slightly when already-hot areas exceed the optimal range. As a result, some of the largest increases are projected for cooler, high-population regions in countries such as Mexico, Peru and Brazil. Many other endemic regions will continue to experience larger, warming-fueled dengue burdens. By contrast, a few of the hottest lowland areas may see slight declines.听听

Still, the net global effect is a steep rise in disease.听

The findings suggest that higher temperatures from climate change were responsible for an average 18% increase of dengue incidence across 21 countries in Asia and the Americas from 1995 to 2014 鈥� translating to more than 4.6 million extra infections annually, based on current incidence estimates. Cases could climb another 49% to 76% by 2050 depending on greenhouse gas emissions levels, according to the study. At the higher end of the projections, incidence of dengue would more than double in many cooler locations, including areas in the study countries that are already home to over 260 million people.听听

鈥淢any studies have linked temperature and dengue transmission,鈥� said senior author, a professor of biology in the. 鈥淲hat鈥檚 unique about this work is that we are able to separate warming from all the other factors that influence dengue 鈥� mobility, land use change, population dynamics 鈥� to estimate its effect on the real-world dengue burden. This is not just hypothetical future change but a large amount of human suffering that has already happened because of warming-driven dengue transmission.鈥澨�

The researchers cautioned that their estimates are likely conservative. They do not account for regions where dengue transmission is sporadic or poorly reported, nor do they include large endemic areas such as India or Africa where detailed data is lacking or not publicly available. The researchers also highlighted recent locally acquired cases in California, Texas, Hawaii, Florida, and in Europe 鈥� a signal of the expanding range of dengue. Urbanization, human migration and the evolution of the virus could amplify risks, while medical advances may help blunt them, making projections uncertain.听

Aggressive climate mitigation would significantly reduce the dengue disease burden, according to the study. At the same time, adaptation will be essential. This includes better mosquito control, stronger health systems and potential widespread use of new dengue vaccines.听

In the meantime, the findings could help guide public health planning and strengthen efforts to hold governments and fossil fuel companies accountable for climate change damages. Attribution studies are increasingly entering courtrooms and policy debates, used to assign responsibility for climate damages and to support funds compensating countries most affected.听听

鈥淐limate change is not just affecting the weather 鈥� it has cascading consequences for human health, including fueling disease transmission by mosquitoes,鈥� Mordecai said. 鈥淓ven as the U.S. federal government moves away from investing in climate mitigation and climate and health research, this work is more crucial than ever for anticipating and mitigating the human suffering caused by fossil fuel emissions.鈥澨�

Co-authors of the study include of Arizona State University, of the University of Maryland, and of Stanford. Lyberger and Harris completed much of their work while at Stanford.听听听

The research was funded by the Illich-Sadowsky Fellowship through the Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellowship program at Stanford University; an Environmental Fellowship at the Harvard University Center for the Environment; the National Institutes of Health; the National Science Foundation (with the Fogarty International Center); 迟丑别鈥� 迟丑别鈥� and the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.听

Adapted from a. For more information or to contact the researchers, email Alden Woods at acwoods@uw.edu.

• , professor of neurobiology and biophysics, and adjunct professor of applied mathematics
• , Arthur B. McDonald Professor of Physics and director at the Center for Experimental Nuclear Physics and Astrophysics

Fairhall and Hertzog are among 120 new members and 30 international members elected 鈥渋n recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research,鈥� . Chartered in 1863, the National Academy of Sciences provides policy advice and input to governmental, nonprofit and private organizations.

develops theoretical approaches to understand how nervous systems process information. She collaborates with experimental labs across the UW, examining information processing in systems that range from single neurons 鈥� nerve cells that receive and conduct signals 鈥� to neural networks. She鈥檚 studied how mosquitoes use heat and chemical cues to forage, and how neural inputs drive muscle activation and biomechanics in hydra 鈥� tiny, tentacled invertebrates that live in water.

Fairhall grew up in Australia. She completed her master鈥檚 and Ph.D. in physics at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. She was a postdoctoral scholar at Princeton University before joining the UW School of Medicine faculty in 2004. Among Fairhall鈥檚 honors and awards are a Sloan Fellowship, a Burroughs Wellcome 鈥淐areers at the Scientific Interface鈥� Fellowship and a McKnight Scholar Award. She was named an Allen Institute Distinguished Investigator. In 2022, she was Fulbright-Tocqueville Distinguished Chair at the 脡cole Normale Sup茅rieure in Paris.

Hertzog leads the UW , a research group that has designed and constructed detectors for high-precision experiments with muons 鈥� similar to electrons, but about 200 times more massive 鈥� conducted at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Chicago. The UW team also has led efforts to analyze the massive amounts of data produced in that experiment, known as the听.

The overarching goal is to test the 鈥� a theory to describe how the universe works at its most fundamental level.听Studying the behavior of muons may help determine whether muons are interacting solely with known particles and forces, or if unknown particles or forces exist.

Hertzog completed his Ph.D. in physics at The College of William & Mary. Following time at Carnegie-Mellon University and the University of Illinois, he joined the UW as a professor in 2010. He鈥檚 served on numerous scientific advisory committees and panels and is coauthor of more than 200 papers and technical reports. He has mentored or co-mentored more than 20 Ph.D. students and 15 postdoctoral researchers.

With this year鈥檚 additions, the National Academy of Sciences now has 2,662 active members and 556 international members.

Many traditional cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy and radiation, effectively destroy cancer cells but often lead to severe side effects that leave patients feeling even more sick.

Two 天美影视传媒 researchers are developing treatments that aim to simultaneously treat cancer and improve patients’ quality of life. , UW professor of materials science and engineering and of neurological surgery in the UW School of Medicine, develops tiny systems that deliver cancer treatment specifically to cancer cells. , UW assistant professor of materials science and engineering and of radiology in the UW School of Medicine, uses interventional radiology to precisely deliver cancer treatment to the body.

Both Zhang and Som are studying a cancer treatment method called , where a patient’s own immune cells are trained to target and destroy cancer cells. The two researchers are now collaborating with the goal of getting their therapeutics into the clinic.

For World Cancer Day, UW News asked Zhang and Som to discuss their novel materials and how these materials can treat both the cancer and the patient.

Tell us about your research in this area.听

Miqin Zhang: One of our key research areas is developing biocompatible nanoplatforms for cancer diagnosis, treatment and therapy-response monitoring. For example, one of our recent advances is using tiny particles called nanoparticles to deliver immunotherapies or vaccines in preclinical animal models. The payloads from these nanoparticles activate immune cells to eradicate drug-resistant solid tumors and metastases.

In general, our nanoplatforms provide tumor specificity in two unique ways:

• The nanoparticles can carry diverse payloads 鈥� including chemotherapeutics and genetic materials 鈥� to address tumor heterogeneity
• We can use different methods to trigger our nanoparticles to release their payloads, such as changing the temperature or pH. Other methods include using enzymes or magnetic fields.

Our systems are designed for versatility and can work in tandem with various tumor-targeting and therapeutic agents.

Avik Som: I am a physician-scientist with clinical training in interventional radiology, with a specific focus in interventional oncology. In this field we often deliver therapy directly to single lesions using small needles and wires. This eliminates the need for invasive surgery in patients who are often too sick for surgery.

My research expertise has focused on developing novel drug delivery materials and techniques for interventional radiologists to use, including in the field of immunotherapy. Interventional radiologists have long succeeded at delivering therapy highly precisely within the body. Using the best of material science, my lab looks at changing what we鈥檙e delivering to heal our patients of both their cancer and the underlying ravages that the cancer has caused.

How can your materials both extend patients’ lives and improve their quality of life?

MZ: Our new nanoparticle materials promise more effective and less harmful treatments in a variety of ways. First, the nanoparticles target cancer cells specifically, which minimizes side effects and enables controlled drug release to maintain therapeutic levels without toxicity spikes.

Next, we design these nanoparticles using biocompatible materials, such as iron oxide and chitosan coatings, which reduce immune-response reactions and make the nanoparticles more compatible with long-term use.

Cancer’s complex and variable nature means that treatments that are effective for one patient might not work for another, which makes it difficult to create one-size-fits-all solutions. But our nanoparticles support personalized medicine because we can target specific mutated genes in individual patients. Furthermore, we can develop nanoparticles that are multifunctional. For example, a single nanoparticle can have capabilities that enable both monitoring as well as treatment.

AS: The concepts of extending patients’ lives and improving their quality of life have effectively been done in parallel for years. For example, the UW has extensive history and expertise in tissue engineering. But it usually isn’t combined with cancer care because the two goals often feel contradictory: Tissue engineering results from inducing cell growth, while historically cancer therapy has directly focused on killing cells. So the fields have diverged.

But we can design novel materials to do both: One material can use different release rates to stagger the anti-cancer versus tissue-engineering effects. For example, we can use interventional radiology to implant a material directly into a tumor. The material can have an initial burst of drug release that has an anti-cancer effect. And then, after killing the tumor, the residual material can release factors that recruit normal cells to fill in the gap where the cancer was.

Alternatively, as radiologists, we can see where cancer is and isn鈥檛. It is therefore possible to selectively deliver anti-cancer agents to the cancer, while simultaneously delivering pro-tissue engineering agents to normal tissue.

Are any of these treatments currently available in the clinic?

MZ: The process of getting a treatment like this approved is complex and resource-intensive, because it requires extensive research, clinical trials and regulatory approvals. To reduce clinical trial costs, our nanoparticle platform is adaptable for multiple genetic therapies, which offers regulatory advantages and paves the way for FDA approval.

Right now, our nanoparticles are still at the basic research stage and have not yet entered clinical trials. They have, however, demonstrated their efficacy in various pre-clinical animal models. We are now prepared to engage with venture capitalists and major pharmaceutical companies to advance our nanoparticles into clinical trials.

AS: Our research is also still in the basic stage for the moment. We need to determine the best type of material and safest way to deliver it into patients through rigorous pre-clinical testing.

That being said, at the Fred Hutch Cancer Center and UW Medicine, we are leading an intratumoral therapy group that is ramping up clinical trials for patients using therapies that are in development around the country. In addition, we are working on bringing on more minimally invasive tissue engineering trials to the clinic soon.

What part of this collaboration is the most exciting to you?

AS: I was fortunate to meet Miqin during my interview at UW, and we struck up a vibrant conversation. Miqin has been a leader in the fields of biomaterials and drug delivery, and she is an ideal mentor to help me with my goal of bringing these advances to the clinic.

MZ: I have more than 15 years of experience in cancer research, and I strongly believe that interventional radiology is transforming cancer care by offering minimally invasive, precise treatment options that reduce side effects and improve patient outcomes. I am thrilled to collaborate with Avik so that we can apply our advanced materials and his innovative approaches to enhance interventional radiology for cancer treatment and tissue growth in a way that minimizes side effects and improves patients鈥� quality of life.

Zhang’s research is funded by the Kuni Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. Zhang is also a faculty researcher with the UW Institute for Nano-Engineered Systems and the Molecular Engineering and Sciences Institute. Som’s research has been funded by the Radiologic Society of North America and the National Institutes of Health.

For more information, contact Zhang at mzhang@uw.edu and Som at aviksom@uw.edu.