Plus, Rep. John Curtis describes difficult visit to the Middle East
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By Gabby Peterson Sunday Sept. 1, 2024

Good morning! Here are today’s temperatures:

 

☀️ 47 – 90° in Logan

☀️ 62 – 92° in Salt Lake

⛅️ 72 – 100° in St. George | 💧 20%

 

This week, both the college football season and Constitution Month kicked off as the month wrapped up. Here’s a look back at some of our favorite photos from the last week of August.

 

Also on our minds:

  • Looking for some Labor Day weekend fun? Check out these activities
  • Can Donald Trump salvage the pro-life vote?
  • How BYU honored members of the 1974 Fiesta Bowl team

Does a predatory marine snail hold the key to better treatments for diabetes, hormone disorders?

 
Marjorie Cortez reports: The venom of geography cone snails may hold the key to developing better drugs for people with diabetes or hormone disorders.

 

The findings of an international research team led by University of Utah scientists just published in the peer reviewed journal Nature Communications suggest a component of the venom that the snails use to help hunt their prey mimics a human hormone called somatostatin, which regulates blood sugar levels and various hormones in the body.

 

According to Helena Safavi, associate professor of biochemistry in the University of Utah’s Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine and the senior author on the study, venomous animals have, through evolution, fine-tuned venom components to hit a particular target in their prey and disrupt it.

 

“If you take one individual component out of the venom mixture and look at how it disrupts normal physiology, that pathway is often really relevant in disease,” she said in a press release. For medicinal chemists, “it’s a bit of a shortcut.”

 

Read more about the research findings.

2-Aug-31-2024-10-09-19-7549-PM

Rep. John Curtis describes difficult visit to the Middle East

Suzanne Bates writes: Utah Rep. John Curtis visited the Middle East this week as part of a congressional delegation, where he met with the leaders of Israel, Jordan and Egypt. He said his focus during the trip was on how to get the remaining hostages freed and on how to stop the fighting.

 

Curtis described his visit in his weekly email and video — a forum he uses to regularly discuss his “highs and lows” from the week. This week, he said, was particularly hard.

 

The high for the week was returning to a region he had first visited in 1979 as an 18-year-old BYU student on a study abroad program, he said.

 

“The low, it won’t surprise you, is the angst, the turmoil, the pain that’s happening here all around. We have seen some things that I can’t unsee,” he said. “I actually told a colleague I almost wish I had not come on this trip because of what I’ve seen. But it’s good too, because this perspective has been very helpful.”

 

Read more about Rep. Curtis' visit.

 

More in Politics

  • Can Trump salvage the pro-life vote? (Deseret News)

  • Jennifer Graham: What does ‘far right’ and ‘far left’ mean, anyway? (Deseret News)

  • Child tax credit: Harris and Vance have both floated proposals (Deseret News)

Round out your day (v5)

Faith

  • Amid declining church attendance, a different religious renaissance is underway (Deseret News)
  • Que English: Religiously affiliated schools can play a vital role in their communities (Deseret News)

Business

  • ‘What brings you to Beaver?’ The business case for Beaver County, Utah (Utah Business)

  • Costco membership fees increase Sunday: What to know (Axios)

Family

  • Holly Richardson: ‘You’re not my real mom!’ and other fun parenting moments (Deseret News)

  • Utah DCFS: When to call for help if abuse is suspected (KSL)

Utah

  • Labor Day offers a host of activities (Deseret News)

  • Utah renters are short on rights. Lawmakers have been stymied in trying to fix that (KUER)

The U.S.

  • Publishers and authors sue over Florida book ban law (BBC News)

  • Black market weed operations inundate California suburb, cops say (CNN)

The World

  • 9 days, 640,000 children, 1.3M doses. The plan to vaccinate Gaza’s young against polio (The Associated Press)
  • Israeli American Hersh Goldberg-Polin among six hostages found dead in Gaza (NBC News)

Sports

  • BYU defensive coach Jay Hill hospitalized, undergoes procedures to clear arteries (Deseret News)

  • Analysis: Chosen starting QB Jake Retzlaff rolls and BYU secures its objectives in romp over FCS Southern Illinois (Deseret News)

  • 3 takeaways from Utah State’s season opening win against Robert Morris (Deseret News)

  • BYU football’s 1974 team gets royalty treatment during 50th reunion celebration (Deseret News)

Check your inbox tomorrow morning for more news from the Beehive State and beyond!

 

And reply to this email or email newsletters@deseretnews.com to tell us what you think of Utah Today.

 

Thanks for reading!

 

— Gabby

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