URBANA, Ill. – For individuals in a committed relationship, there is a well-established two-way association between relationship quality and each partner’s mental health. But what exactly about relationships shapes mental health? And which direction is stronger – from mental health to relationship quality or relationship quality to mental health?

URBANA, Ill. – In neighborhoods lacking tree cover, residents suffer poorer health and incur hundreds of dollars more in medical costs than neighbors on leafier blocks. That’s according to a new University of Illinois study of 5 million Americans over a 13-year period.

URBANA, Ill. – Scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Mie University in Japan have developed monoclonal antibodies that prevent lung cell death in mouse models for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and acute respiratory disease syndrome (ARDS). The advance, along with new, non-invasive diagnostic tools presented in the same study, could be a critical step in treating the deadly diseases, for which few effective therapies currently exist.

URBANA, Ill. -- To accurately diagnose and treat diseases, doctors and researchers need to see inside bodies. Medical imaging tools have come a long way since the humble x-ray, but most existing tools remain too coarse to quantify numbers or specific types of cells inside deep tissues of the body. 

Quantum dots can do that, according to new research in mice from the University of Illinois.

URBANA, Ill. – What are the most important factors to consider for developing effective drug use prevention programs? Many current programs for adolescents focus on elements including peer and family relationships, school connection, and youth’s self-confidence and self-assertion. However, a new study from the University of Illinois suggests another factor may be equally–or even more–influential: whether the youth believes drug use is wrong.

URBANA, Ill. – Interpersonal trust is a crucial component of healthy relationships. When we interact with strangers, we quickly gauge whether we can trust them. And those important social skills may be shaped by our earliest relationship with caregivers.

Adolescents who had an insecure attachment to their mothers as toddlers are more likely to overestimate the trustworthiness of strangers, according to a new study from the University of Illinois.

Urbana, Ill. – A new study by Cancer Center at Illinois Education Program Leader, Zeynep Madak-Erdogan and her team, have found a new mechanism of endocrine resistance in breast cancers metastasized to the liver. Madak-Erdogan is an associate professor in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Although studies suggest that many cancer patients experience food insecurity, few oncology dietitians routinely ask them if they are having problems affording or obtaining food, new research has found.

Despite awareness that many cancer patients are food insecure, most of the 41 registered dietitian nutritionists interviewed by researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign said they did not use a validated tool to screen patients for it.

Medical practices focusing on the relationship between the nervous system (mind) and the immune system (body) are explored in the relatively new biomedical research field of psychoneuroimmunology. Significant discoveries in areas like stress, mindfulness, ancient exercise (tai chi), and dietary interventions are just some of the work pioneered in this field.  

URBANA, Ill. – As we move into the third year of the COVID-pandemic, we still face a multitude of information and it can be hard to know what guidelines to follow. Understanding what motivates individual behaviors can provide greater insight into mitigating the pandemic’s consequences and crafting effective public health messages.