Peter Angeletti, associate professor with the Nebraska Center for Virology, and colleagues have found a significant association between the composition of a woman’s cervical microbiome and the presence of pre-cancerous lesions on her cervix.
“There are certain families of bacteria that appear to be associated with the higher grades of pre-cancerous lesions,” Angeletti said. “What we know so far is that there is a relationship between the virus commonly associated with cervical cancer and the microbiome.”
Published Feb. 19 in mBio, the study found women with high-grade lesions had a more abundant and diverse microbial mix in their cervical microbiomes than women who had no lesions or less-serious lesions. Angeletti said the data suggests that Mycoplasma bacteria, in particular, may help promote the growth of HPV-related lesions.
The research team also included Charles Wood, director of the Nebraska Center for Virology; John West, research associate professor at the center; Samodha Fernando, associate professor of animal science at Nebraska, Cameron Klein, doctoral student at Nebraska; and Crispin Kahesa and Julius Mwaiselage of the Ocean Road Cancer Institute in Tanzania.
Stories on the research appeared on KMTV.com, HealthDay, WebMD and more than a dozen other media outlets.
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Anthony Starace, physics, wrote an article for the February issue of Physics Today on the history of the journal Reviews of Modern Physics. Published since 1929, Reviews of Modern Physics seeks to keep physicists updated on what is happening in the field’s many subdisciplines.
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Max Perry Mueller, classics and religious studies, was cited throughout a Feb. 5 Daily Utah Chronicle article on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ history of revisionism regarding race relations.
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John Hibbing, political science, was quoted in a Feb. 5 article in The Hill about the possibility of Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Nebraska) facing a primary challenger in 2020. Hibbing said aside from Sasse’s criticism of President Donald Trump and detachment from the repeal-ObamaCare debate he “has not left much room to his right” for an insurgent to exploit.
Hibbing, along with Kevin Smith, political science, Read Montague of Virginia Tech and John Alford of Rice University conducted an innovative experiment in the mid-2000s showing that liberals and conservatives react to repulsive pictures in drastically different ways. Conservatives are more sensitive to such images. The research was featured in an article on the topic in the March issue of The Atlantic.
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The university was included in a Feb. 10 Chronicle of Higher Education list of the top producers of Fulbright U.S. scholars and students. Fourteen students at Nebraska were awarded Fulbright grants for the 2018-19 academic year.
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Jeannette Jones, history and ethnic studies, was quoted in a Feb. 10 USA Today article on anti-black racism in America.
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U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse; Nebraska students Grace Chambers (sociology), Kamryn Sannicks (political science, sociology), and Hunter Traynor (political science); and Patrice McMahon, political science, director of the University Honors Program; discussed how to promote civil discourse and reconnect with people during the Charter Week kickoff event Feb. 11 at the NU Coliseum. Stories on the panel discussion appeared in 15 Nebraska media outlets, including the Lincoln Journal Star, and dozens of others.
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Campus Technology published an article Feb. 13 on the new virtual reality project that allows people to tour the exterior of University Hall, the university’s first building. The project is a collaboration between NET and faculty members Heather Richards-Rissetto, anthropology, and Steve Kolbe, film and new media.
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Radio New Zealand aired a review of Chigozie Obioma’s second novel, “An Orchestra of Minorities,” on Feb. 13. Obioma is an assistant professor of English at Nebraska.
He was listed among acclaimed Nigerian authors in a Feb. 14 BBC News article about Nigeria ahead of the country’s presidential election. The story was picked up by MSN News.
He also wrote a Feb. 22 opinion piece for The Guardian about Nigeria’s presidential election. He said he believes the new president is bound to fail given the current system, but certain steps — such as making all political offices unpaid and banning police escorts and security guards for non-government officials — could mitigate the chaos.
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Two programs in the university’s Jeffrey S. Raikes School of Computer Science and Management — “Innovate: The Raikes School Way” and “Girls Who Innovate” — were featured in a Feb. 18 Forbes article on STEM-focused summer programs for high school students.
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An interdisciplinary team of faculty and students at Nebraska recently created the animated short film “Anna,” based on events in the life of Ann Williams, a 19th-century black slave who jumped from a window to try to keep her family together. She survived and eventually won freedom for herself and her family. BTN.com published a story and video on the project Feb. 26. Faculty members William G. Thomas III, humanities and history, and Kwakiutl Lynn Dreher, English, were interviewed for the story.
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Dai Shizuka, biological sciences, was cited in a Feb. 27 Science News article on the egg-sneaking habits of some greater ani, a type of cuckoo found from Panama to the Amazon Basin. He said figuring out who sneaks and who doesn’t can provide insight into the balance of forces that promotes cheating or cooperation.
