UI Health Care is home to one of the country's largest most comprehensive interventional psychiatry programs-providing care for patients from across the state and region with major depressive disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, catatonia, and other conditions.

Two University of Iowa faculty members have been awarded Williams-Cannon Faculty Fellowships through the Iowa Neuroscience Institute. Bengi Baran, assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences, and Snehajyoti Chatterjee, PhD, assistant professor of neuroscience and pharmacology, will each receive $47,500 in research funding.

For people with epilepsy and their loved ones, sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) is “a ticking time bomb that creates anxiety and fear,” says University of Iowa neurosurgeon Brian Dlouhy, MD.

The specialized neurosurgical expertise of University of Iowa physician-scientists and the generous contributions of UI Health Care neurosurgery patients who volunteer to participate in research were instrumental to new findings that reveal the sequence of brain activity involved when people evaluate risk and reward during decision-making.

Stephanie Gantz, Carver College of Medicine assistant professor in molecular physiology and biophysics, was named one of the 2024 Sloan Research Fellows by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

New findings may take scientists a step closer to understanding what causes SUDEP—Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy—a rare but fatal complication of epilepsy. There are about 3,000 deaths from SUDEP each year in the U.S. The biggest risk factor is epilepsy that is not well controlled with medication or surgery, but the exact cause of SUDEP is not known. However, increasing evidence suggests that loss of breathing, or apnea, that persists after a seizure is a major cause of SUDEP. In the new study, University of Iowa neuroscientists found that stimulating a specific area of the amygdala brain region provokes prolonged loss of breathing that continues even after a seizure has ended.

The U.S. maternal mortality rate continues to climb to unprecedented numbers, highlighting a critical gap in the global understanding of maternal health and the pressing need for new, early interventions. With prevention as a top priority, University of Iowa Health Care researchers have gained momentum on identifying early markers and risk factors that can help identify high-risk pregnancies and guide timely interventions. Donna Santillan, PhD, and Mark Santillan, MD (09F,16PhD), are leading this effort through the UI Women’s Health Tissue Repository.