When Nobel laureate Maria Ressa was arrested for cyberlibel in the Philippines she turned to Notre Dame Law professor Diane Desierto.As the director of the Law School’s new Global Human Rights Clinic, Desierto has fought for human rights primarily in the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries. She's working to foster community amongst Notre Dame Law students and human rights defenders across the world."Notre Dame is one place that has genuine freedom to do all of it and be all of it. Where we strive to realize the human rights outcome.”Learn more: https://go.nd.edu/f5eceb

Opioids, specifically fentanyl, are currently the leading cause of death for adults ages 18 to 45. They are highly accessible, available even on mainstream social media, and often lethal. Fentanyl is also often used as a filler in other drugs, so many people don’t even know they’re taking it.Illicit drug markets are constantly evolving with technology, making them difficult to track and stop. Fanny Ye, associate professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Notre Dame, is developing a robust, AI-powered framework to dismantle the systems that allow for opioids to be sold on both social media and the dark web.Learn more: https://go.nd.edu/b35248

When COVID-19 hit in 2020 it sent Notre Dame students to their homes across the country and locked down Ian, a 10-year-old diagnosed with leukemia who was paired with Notre Dame Men's Lacrosse through the Fighting Irish Fight for Life program, in his house.To connect, Max Manyak '23 began sending Ian videos every day, eventually getting his teammates involved. The videos had a profound effect on Ian and his nurse at Beacon Children's Hospital asked if they could create more videos for other patients.That's when Pediatric Pep Talk was born.Learn more: https://go.nd.edu/52d74d

The breast cancer diagnosis was scary for Jennifer Ehren ‘99, but what was worse was the chemotherapy that rendered her sicker than doctors had ever seen.Because most chemotherapy patients don’t know until after their treatment if it was successful, her husband, Tom O’Sullivan, an associate professor of electrical engineering, wondered if there was a safe, easy, and inexpensive way to monitor the tumor during treatment. When one didn’t exist, he created it.The result is NearWave, a handheld device that uses light to monitor changes in a tumor. NearWave allows doctors to track whether a woman will respond to a chemotherapy regimen.Learn more: https://go.nd.edu/95757f

The beloved What Would You Fight For series celebrates 100 episodes, and Notre Dame continues its fight to improve the lives of others

When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the world watched in disbelief and horror as one sovereign nation invaded another.The University of Notre Dame has had a long relationship with the Ukrainian Catholic University, the first Catholic university in the post-Soviet world. When our colleagues, our partners and our friends were in danger, we asked how we could help.Professors Bill Donaruma and Ian Kuijt traveled to Ukraine to teach students on the ground the tenets of archeology and film so they could begin to document their important cultural sites, which are under constant threat.Learn more: https://go.nd.edu/0a0a45