The University of Minnesota celebrated the opening of the “gateway to the Biomedical Discovery District,” the new Cancer and Cardiovascular Research Building (CCRB), earlier today.

The CCRB is the fifth addition to the University’s Biomedical Discovery District, a complex of the most advanced research buildings found anywhere in the state. The facility joins the Lions Research Building, the McGuire Translational Research Facility, the Winston and Maxine Wallin Medical Biosciences Building and the Center for Magnetic Resonance Research.

An emerging porcine virus capable of rapid transmission and high mortality rates has U.S. swine experts scrambling to determine both the origin of the virus and the most effective way to stop it in its tracks.

The virus, known as the Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus (PEDV), has never been seen in the United States before, but has been seen in parts of Europe and Asia. Reuters reported earlier this week that recent PEDV outbreaks in China claimed more than 1 million piglets. Pigs infected with PEDV will suffer from extreme diarrhea, vomiting and dehydration.

Fortunately, PEDV poses no risk to humans or other animals, and pork or meat products from infected pigs is still safe for people to eat. But the sudden emergence of the virus in five states including Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Minnesota, has raised new questions about our ability to monitor emerging animal diseases and potential threats to the U.S. food supply. There is still no definitive answer on how the virus entered the United States.

To combat the emerging virus, University of Minnesota experts from the CVM’s Veterinary Diagnostic Lab are taking a leadership role in helping provide the testing and diagnostic analysis that will allow pork producers, swine farmers and veterinarians to test their herds. Experts from universities in Iowa, South Dakota, and Kansas are also dedicating resources to stopping the PEDV outbreak.

A new case study appearing in General Dentistry, the journal of the Academy of General Dentistry, has made national headlines after drawing parallels between the oral hygiene issues seen in methamphetamine and cocaine users and a patient who consumed an excessive amount of diet soda for years.

Of the patients in question – a 29-year-old crystal methamphetamine user, a 51-year-old crack cocaine user for 18 years and a patient who admitted to consuming two liters of diet soda a day for three to five years – none had visited the dentist in years and all had extremely poor dental hygiene, resulting in what the authors described as erosion, cavities and discoloration.

But University of Minnesota School of Dentistry experts warn that extrapolating the true clinical impact of any single patient case is challenging. In addition, without context around the level of soda intake in question, alarming news headlines like those seen this week may be giving consumers the wrong message.

Teenagers and adults aged 15 to 65 should receive universal HIV screening to prevent the spread of infection and to get those who are infected into treatment faster, according to new recommendations from the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF).

The task force also found all pregnant women should be screened for HIV, including women who are in labor but whose HIV status is unknown.

According to University of Minnesota infectious disease expert Timothy Schacker, M.D., the recommendations could be a positive step in the fight against HIV and AIDS.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), despite the best efforts of hospitals and health care workers, 1 in 20 hospitalized patients will contract a health care acquired infection. The infections can cost the United States health care system billions of dollars each year and worse, can result in thousands of deaths.

But it turns out, new technology may help hospitals and health care organizations in the fight against antibiotic resistant superbugs like Clostridium difficile or Staphylococcus aureus. Today, USA Today profiles new robots that use ultraviolet (UV) radiation in pulse form to disinfect hospital rooms or other health care environments. Other machines on the market use hydrogen peroxide vapor to accomplish the same thing.

The report notes that health care workers and the CDC can’t yet say definitively what percentage of bacteria the machines eliminate, but that when used in tandem with effective cleaning and sterilization measures they may be able to better protect both patients and health care workers.

Check out USAToday.com for more.

Imagine a handheld device that would allow health experts to quickly and easily diagnose medication as counterfeit with a simple scan using waves of light.

It might sound like something out of a sci-fi novel, but the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has actually developed such a device and are starting to test its effectiveness in the field.

In a feature for the LA Times health blog Booster Shots, writer Melissa Healy profiles the device and explores how it would work.