Andrew Pieper, MD, PhD, professor of psychiatry and member of the Pappajohn Biomedical Institute, has been selected for membership in the American Society for Clinical Investigation, one of the nation’s oldest and most respected medical honor societies.

We all love our sugar, especially during the holidays. Cookies, cake, and candy are simply irresistible. While sugar cravings are common, the physiological mechanisms that trigger our “sweet tooth” are not well defined.

The link between the gut microbiome and obesity seems clear, but just how changes to gut bacteria can cause weight gain is not. A University of Iowa study in mice shows that drug-induced changes to the gut microbiome can cause obesity by reducing the resting metabolic rate—the rate at which calories are burned while sleeping or resting.

A new mouse-model study shows that exercise causes muscle to release a peptide that increases the muscle’s energy production and physical endurance, supporting longer and more intense exercise.

Jacob Michaelson, PhD, an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, has been awarded a $3 million NIH grant to study the biological basis of language impairment over the next five years. The project will be the first ever to perform whole-genome sequencing to examine this condition.