Kelly Malcom

Lead Research Communicator

Malcom is a lead research communicator for Michigan Medicine and research communications strategist for the U-M Medical School, with more than 20 years of experience in strategic communications, marketing, and health and science writing. She covers the basic science departments, pulmonary and critical care medicine, infectious disease, pathology and anesthesiology. Contact: [email protected]

Kelly Malcom photo
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Health Lab

Spread of drug resistant bacteria linked to patient hand contamination and antibiotic use within nursing homes

A Michigan Medicine research team seeks to identify characteristics of patients within nursing homes, as well as the nursing home environment itself, that are associated with contamination by vancomycin-resistant enterococci.
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Health Lab

Is it a cold, the flu or COVID-19?

An expert offers advice for those worried sick about their symptoms.
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Health Lab

Obesity leads to a complex inflammatory response inside fat tissue

A Michigan Medicine study uses single cell analysis of gene expression combined with spatial transcriptomics to reveal previous unrecognized immune cell types and interactions within adipose tissue. Spatial transcriptomics is a newer technology that captures all gene expression in small spots across an entire thin section of tissue.
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Health Lab

Yes, you should get a COVID shot this year

The newest COVID vaccine was approved by the Food and Drug Administration and recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in September and is rolling out in pharmacies and clinics across the country.
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Health Lab

Solving a sticky, life threatening problem

Michigan Medicine researchers have zeroed in on C. auris’ uncanny ability to stick to everything from skin to catheters and made a startling discovery.
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What to do when pain lingers

Experts at Michigan Medicine are focusing on helping people with chronic pain, which is defined as pain that lasts more than three months.
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Health Lab

Gene links exercise endurance, cold tolerance and cellular maintenance in flies

A study in PNAS identifies a protein that, when missing, makes exercising in the cold that much harder—that is, at least in fruit flies.
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Health Lab

The surprising origin of a deadly hospital infection

Surprising findings from a Michigan Medicine study in Nature Medicine suggest that the burden of C. diff infection may be less a matter of hospital transmission and more a result of characteristics associated with the patients themselves.
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Genetic mutation linked to adrenal tumor and hypertension

Research from the Department of Molecular & Integrative Physiology at Michigan Medicine identifies a previously unknown genetic mutation that causes the disease called primary aldosteronism in certain populations.
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Health Lab

Dog diversity unveiled by international DNA database

A new paper, published in the journal Genome Biology, outlines what the Dog10K project discovered after sequencing the genomes of close to 2,000 samples from 321 different breed dogs, wild dogs, coyotes, and wolves, and comparing them to one reference sample—that of a German Shepherd named Mischka.
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Health Lab

Prostate cancer drug shows promise against COVID

Michigan Medicine researchers looked into a drug in development to treat prostate cancer called proxalutamide, which works by blocking an enzyme called TMPRSS2 (transmembrane protease, serine 2) that is regulated by androgen receptors, as a potential therapeutic for COVID.
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Health Lab

An adjuvanted intranasal vaccine for COVID-19 protects both young and old mice

A collaborative research effort led by the University of Michigan and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has resulted in a nasal vaccine adjuvant that stops infection in both young and old mice.
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Health Lab

Modifications to amino acids in sperm could be behind infertility

Researchers at the University of Michigan are now delving into the molecular-level details of sperm formation, with a particular focus on how abnormalities in this process might lead to male-factor infertility.
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Health Lab

Research hints at how fungus farming ants keep their gardens healthy

Investigators find that these specific ants sniff out diseased fungus by detecting chemicals called peptaibols.
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Health Lab

During the pandemic, hospital transfers were complex and distressing

A study from the University of Michigan Center for Bioethics & Social Sciences in Medicine examined the factors that went into this decision-making—and the moral distress that often resulted from it.
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