Pioneering the Future The Scope, University of Utah Health

Inspiration can come from many places—and that’s certainly true for U of U Health scientists following nature’s lead as they create new ways to treat and prevent disease. Seeking better medicines, they look to exotic marine animals, infectious pathogens, and our own immune systems. With chemical precision, they can improve the compounds they find in nature or design better ones, optimizing their function as potential drugs. Their creativity and persistence are not only uncovering prospective therapies for cancer and infectious disease—they are also expanding the ways scientists think about discovering and developing new drugs.
In this episode, host Kyle Wheeler interviews Margo Haygood, PhD and Eric Schmidt, PhD.

Researchers at University of Utah Health keep their eyes on the big picture by tackling population-sized problems and ensuring their efforts add up to substantial impacts on public health. They pore over surveys from thousands of patients to understand their experiences with health care or meticulously test how many seconds a new technology can shave off a clinician’s administrative burden. Backed by their expertise, careful testing, and extensive data, their discoveries are changing health care practice and helping large segments of the population—from thousands to millions—address pervasive health issues to live better, healthier lives.
In this episode, host Kyle Wheeler interviews Rachel Hess, MD and Adam Bress, PhD.

The scientific laboratory is the birthplace of new ideas, rooted in a fundamental understanding of how nature works. While impactful on its own, sometimes discovery is just the beginning. Translatingideas to interventions for improving human health takes added insight and dogged perseverance.
In this episode, host Kyle Wheeler interviews Wesley Sundquist, PhD. Dr. Sundquist is the Samuels Professor and Co-Chair of the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Utah. He is also a member of the Cell Response and Regulation Program at Huntsman Cancer Institute.

High-impact discoveries at University of Utah Health are transforming how we think about the causes of diabetes and solutions to combat the disease. These advances could hardly come at a better time. The disease is a big problem in the U.S., leading to an estimated $327 billion in health care costs. What’s more, while 1 in 10 American adults have diabetes, 1 in 3 have prediabetes, a sign that they are well on their way to developing the disease.
In this episode, host Kyle Wheeler interviews Scott Summers, PhD. Dr. Summers is the Co-director of the Diabetes and Metabolism Research Center at the University of Utah. He is also a professor and the department chair of Nutrition & Integrative Physiology.