Bonnie Petrie
Bioscience & Medicine Reporterbonnie@TPR.org
BlueSky: @bonniepetrie.bsky.social
Bonnie Petrie covers bioscience and medicine for Texas Public Radio and is the host of the Petrie Dish podcast, which explores the intersection of science, medicine, and life in the 2020s. She also brings you the latest research happening at UT Health San Antonio in a weekly report called Science & Medicine.
Bonnie grew up on the Canadian border in northern New York, but called Texas home for more than 20 years. She has twice been nominated for the Texas Radio Hall of Fame in recognition of her work in Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio, but claims she's still too young for all that. She has also received many Edward R Murrow, Associated Press, and other journalism awards. She and Petrie Dish have been honored with several Gracie Awards from The Alliance for Women in Media, including personal recognition as the best host of a local show in the nation.
Bonnie is mom to a college student, two dogs, two cats and spends her free time solving family mysteries using genetic genealogy.
-
Texas A&M AgriLife livestock entomologist Sonja Swiger discusses the risks New World screwworm poses to pets, people and livestock, addresses concerns about the food supply and explains why reporting infestations is critical. -
Around 17% of service members who deploy to combat zones come home with PTSD — and for many, the road to recovery is long, difficult, and often out of reach. A new study hopes to change that by pairing a single dose of MDMA — known colloquially as ecstasy — with intensive therapy, potentially compressing recovery into just two weeks. -
Rapamycin may be able to help older adults live longer, healthier lives. Studies of mice suggest the drug may even reverse hardening of the arteries. Researchers at UT Health San Antonio have launched a clinical trial to see if the drug can restore the biological activity of older adults to levels more typical of younger people, and, if so, how much does it take to do it?
-
A new CDC report on the 2025 West Texas measles outbreak reveals that 90% of those hospitalized in the first two months were children, and four of the five hospitalized adults were pregnant. -
Anibal Diogenes, D.D.S., Ph.D., is an endodontist, the branch of dentistry that deals with the innermost part of the tooth called pulp, a connective tissue that has immunological, reparative functions.
-
Imagine one day your child bites down on something and the enamel on one of their teeth starts to crumble. That can happen in a condition called molar incisor hypomineralization — otherwise known as chalky teeth.
-
UT San Antonio's School of Public Health has been renamed following a $30 million donation from the Kate Marmion Charitable Foundation. The gift will help fund infrastructure and research aimed at improving healthcare access in underserved communities across South Texas. -
The southwest has lived with hantavirus for decades, but always the kind you catch from a rodent, never from another person. Now, a human-transmissible strain has potentially reached U.S. soil. Bonnie Petrie and infectious diseases expert Dr. Maximo Brito break down what that means. -
Hundreds of thousands of veterans live with traumatic brain injuries that can trigger chronic headaches, often made worse by PTSD. A researcher at UT Health San Antonio is using AI to help predict and prevent the pain before it starts.
-
For 26 years, April Burrell was lost to a psychosis that defeated every treatment. Then a doctor asked a different question: what if her immune system was the problem? Dr. Anthony Zoghbi worked on the team that discovered Burrell's immune system was attacking her brain. Now he's searching for a blood test that could identify millions of others who may have been misdiagnosed and could be treated.
