Clinical trials

Obesity remains a critical public health challenge and is associated with increased rates of morbidity, mortality, and chronic disease worldwide. In recent years, glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists, such as semaglutide, have emerged as highly effective pharmacological treatments for obesity, producing substantial weight loss and favorable metabolic improvements. These medications are now widely prescribed, with estimates suggesting that nearly 12% of Americans are currently using or have previously used GLP-1 therapies. Despite their demonstrated benefits, growing evidence indicates that GLP-1-associated weight loss may be accompanied by unintended reductions in skeletal muscle and bone mass. This potential side effect is of increasing concern, as muscle and bone are essential for metabolic health, physical function, injury prevention, and recovery from illness or surgical intervention. Loss of skeletal muscle during weight reduction may negatively impact strength, mobility, insulin sensitivity, and long-term health outcomes. These risks may be further compounded in individuals experiencing reduced physical activity, mechanical unloading, or prolonged caloric deficits. In clinical and surgical populations, such as individuals undergoing orthopedic procedures, mechanical unloading and disuse already predispose patients to muscle and bone atrophy. When combined with pharmacologically induced weight loss, these factors may further hinder recovery, impair functional capacity, and compromise musculoskeletal integrity. As GLP-1 therapies are increasingly adopted across diverse populations, understanding how to preserve lean mass and bone health during treatment has become an important clinical and public health priority. Exercise training, particularly resistance training, combined with appropriate nutritional support, has consistently been shown to preserve and enhance skeletal muscle and bone mass during weight loss. Structured exercise interventions can mitigate sarcopenia and osteopenia while improving muscular strength, cardiorespiratory fitness, metabolic health, and overall physical function. Similarly, individualized dietary counseling, particularly when focused on adequate protein intake and nutrient timing, plays a critical role in supporting muscle protein synthesis and skeletal health during caloric restriction. Together, these lifestyle strategies may not only counteract the potential adverse musculoskeletal effects associated with GLP-1 therapy but also enhance treatment efficacy by improving cardiovascular risk profiles, insulin sensitivity, systemic inflammation, and physical resilience. Despite the growing use of GLP-1 medications, there remains a limited body of prospective research examining structured lifestyle interventions specifically designed to preserve muscle and bone mass during GLP-1-induced weight loss. Addressing this gap is essential to ensure that pharmacological obesity treatments support long-term health, functional independence, and quality of life. Integrating exercise and nutrition interventions into GLP-1 treatment protocols may represent a scalable and clinically meaningful strategy to optimize outcomes and reduce unintended consequences of rapid weight loss. The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether a structured lifestyle intervention combining exercise and individualized nutritional counseling can mitigate skeletal muscle mass loss in obese adults undergoing treatment with GLP-1 receptor agonists. The primary objective of this study is to determine whether participation in a structured 12-week exercise program, in conjunction with individualized dietary counseling, preserves skeletal muscle mass and bone mineral density during GLP-1 therapy. Secondary objectives include assessing changes in muscular strength, cardiorespiratory fitness, and overall functional capacity. Findings from this study aim to inform best practices for integrating lifestyle interventions with pharmacological obesity treatments and to support safer, more effective, and functionally protective approaches to weight management in adults receiving GLP-1 therapy.

The objective of the project is to implement the LENA Start Program at the Alief The objective of the project is to implement the LENA Start Program at the Alief Independent School District in Houston, Texas. The purpose of the study is to learn how maternal expectations about language development influence the child's language development. Also, the study will evaluate how much the mothers believe can affect their child's language development. More specifically, the program implementation will serve as a model that other school districts can readily replicate.

A team of researchers at Rice University in partnership with clinicians at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital created BiliSpec, a low-cost battery-powered reader designed to immediately quantify serum bilirubin levels from a small drop of whole blood applied to a lateral flow strip. The simple and affordable BiliSpec system offers a faster and more cost-effective means to detect neonatal jaundice in under-resourced clinics and determine when phototherapy is needed. The goal of this study is to validate the accuracy of the BiliSpec device in measuring bilirubin levels in neonates relative to the laboratory spectrophotometric bilirubinometer and transcutaneous bilirubinometer measurements.

The prevalence of hypothermia across low-resource settings is high, especially in countries with high neonatal mortality rates. If left untreated, hypothermia can additionally result in a significant comorbidity, and has been linked to a reduction in the effectiveness of treatment for other newborn conditions. Effective thermal care for hypothermic newborns is not widely available in low-resource settings due to cost of consumables and spare parts. In this study, the research team wish to evaluate the efficacy of a novel neonatal warming mattress in treating hypothermic newborns. Warming mattress, 'Celsi Warmer', has been developed by Rice 360 Institute for Global Health Technologies, in conjunction with African clinicians, to be a robust, low-cost, and easy-to-use warming mattress which can address the challenges of hypothermia. This is a single-arm, non-randomized, prospective intervention study. Up to 90 eligible infants at the neonatal wards of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital will be recruited to evaluate the efficacy of Celsi Warmer in rewarming hypothermic newborns. Infants temperature will be monitored during thermal intervention and the performance of the device will be evaluated. The temperatures of each infant will be compared before, during, and after the intervention.