From WisPolitics.com/WisBusiness.com …
— An assistant professor at Marquette University is getting a five-year, $2.7 million grant for a study aimed at improving recovery from spinal cord injuries.
The university yesterday announced Prof. Kristi Streeter, a physical therapy specialist in the College of Health Sciences, is receiving the funding from the National Institutes of Health’s National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. Her work will focus on a new treatment method for restoring diaphragm function after a cervical spinal cord injury.
Streeter says few treatment options exist for improving breathing in patients with these injuries aside from mechanical ventilation. But preliminary findings suggest diaphragm sensory neurons could present a new therapeutic target for restoring respiratory function in these patients, she notes.
“Electrical stimulation of the diaphragm, such as diaphragm pacing, is an emerging intervention used to manage breathing impairments in some individuals who fail to wean from the mechanical ventilator,” Streeter said in the release. “Clinical reports suggest it can promote ventilator weaning but it also shows promise in restoring independent breathing.”
The effort will explore if sensory neuron activity is altered by cervical spinal cord injuries, as well as the effects of activating sensory receptors in the diaphragm and more.
William Cullinan, dean of Marquette University’s College of Health Sciences, says the research has the potential to “lead to a paradigm shift in the management of breathing insufficiency.”
See the release below.
— Wisconsin has been ranked No. 7 among states most affected by drunken driving in a report from Zutobi, a company that provides educational resources.
The company’s 2025 US DUI Report referenced data on alcohol-related crashes, deaths and arrests across all 50 states from 2023.
It found Wisconsin had 4.13 drunk driving deaths per 100,000 drivers, and 459.81 DUI arrests per 100,000 drivers. Alcohol-impaired crashes made up 31.2% of all road fatalities in the state that year, the report shows. And drunk driving deaths in the state were 6.4% higher than in 2022.
Meanwhile, the country overall saw an 8.1% decrease in drunk driving deaths in 2023.
Among the top 10 states for drunken driving, only Wisconsin and North Dakota saw an increase in such driving over the year, the report shows.
The No. 1 state for drunk driving was Montana, with 8.08 drunk driving deaths per 100,000 drivers.
See the full report.
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