U-M has expanded its open-access U-M Battery Lab with a second off-campus facility in Ann Arbor. Open to both academic and industry researchers, Battery Lab 2.0 adds 4,000 square feet of lab and production space with a machinery lineup that includes an industry-standard automatic laser welder for assembling battery modules and packs.

Michigan Medicine’s Department of Emergency Medicine is tackling one of the deadliest and most overlooked hospital-acquired infections. Ventilator-associated pneumonia affects one in 10 ventilated patients and can increase the cost of a patient’s care by as much as $40,000 per case. Now a team has created a soft, antimicrobial mouthguard that absorbs secretions before harmful bacteria can reach the lungs.

The research skyway will link U-M’s autonomy research and testing facilities in Ann Arbor to Michigan Central’s urban testbed and innovation district in Detroit. The 40-mile flight corridor will be the centerpiece of M-Air, a public-private partnership that will enable researchers to test autonomous technologies in realistic environments.

An international research team, including members with ties to U-M, has witnessed the earliest moments to date of planets beginning to form around a star beyond the sun. This finding marks the first time a planetary system has been identified at such an early stage of formation and opens a window to the past of our own solar system.

Deepfakes are rising — and so is the risk to truth. At UM-Flint, researchers at the SMILES Lab built DeepTect, an AI tool that detects and explains deepfakes before the damage is done. From courtroom evidence to cloned voices, DeepTect helps expose what’s fake — clearly, quickly, and credibly. Watch this video from Michigan Research as AI expert Khalid Malik explains.

In 1965, Edward H. White II, a 1959 graduate in aeronautical engineering and the pilot of NASA’s Gemini IV, became the first American to walk in space. White was traveling with one other astronaut, James A. McDivitt, a fellow Wolverine from the Class of 1959. They had attached American flags to their space suits, kicking off a longstanding tradition of astronauts donning the Stars and Stripes.

Because of partnerships with federal agencies like the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense, Karl Jepsen has worked for decades to build up the field of bone research. “We are just now seeing the outcomes of funded projects from 20, 30, 40 years ago,” he says.

In early November 2024, Kelly Smith and her husband received the phone call they had been waiting for since summer — a liver donor matched with their two-year-old daughter, Quinnlyn. What they didn’t know was their donor was close to home: Phil Consiglio is a nurse at U-M’s C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital.

The ZEUS laser facility has roughly doubled the peak power of any other laser in the U.S. with its first official experiment at 2 petawatts (2 quadrillion watts). “This milestone marks the beginning of experiments that move into unexplored territory for American high field science,” says Karl Krushelnick, director of U-M’s Gérard Mourou Center for Ultrafast Optical Science.