By

Sara Dagen

UF Health Names Lakesha Butler as Chief Diversity Officer

Lakesha Butler, Pharm.D., a professor of pharmacy practice and director of diversity, equity and inclusion at Southern Illinois University deeply trained in facilitating diversity-related discussion and policy change, has been named UF Health’s associate vice president for inclusion, diversity and health equity and chief diversity officer. She starts Aug. 22.

Leaders in Agriculture and Aerospace Partner To Create Rapid Crop Evaluation for Farmers

SATLANTIS LLC (SATLANTIS) and Agriculture Intelligence, Inc (AgIntel) announced a collaborative initiative with leading industry experts to combine agriculture intelligence and high resolution satellite monitoring with hopes to enhance current crop evaluation techniques for growers significantly. In late May, SATLANTIS successfully launched a satellite from the Cape Canaveral Force Station on board a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

UF College of Pharmacy Moves Into Top 3 of National Research Rankings

The University of Florida College of Pharmacy moved up two places to No. 3 in the nation for total research funding in the latest American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, or AACP, report released June 23. The No. 3 ranking is the highest ever achieved by the college when compared to peer institutions

Oragenics Appoints Seasoned Vaccine Executive Kimberly Murphy as President and Chief Executive Officer

UF startup and UF Innovate | Sid Martin Biotech graduate Oragenics, a biotech company dedicated to fighting infectious diseases including coronaviruses, announces the appointment of Ms. Kimberly M. Murphy, member of the Board of Directors, as President and Chief Executive Officer effective June 23, 2022. Ms. Murphy brings more than 25 years of vaccine industry experience at leading pharmaceutical companies including serving as a key leader in the successful US and Global launch of Merck’s HPV/Gardasil Franchise. Ms. Murphy joined Oragenics’ Board of Directors in 2020.

UF Nursing Researcher Gets to the ‘Heart’ of Cardiac Health Disparities

According to University of Florida College of Nursing associate professor Jennifer Dungan, Ph.D., M.S.N., B.S.N, many of the current symptom profiles and lab tests for heart disease do not accurately reflect known differences in women’s heart disease. This oversight has led to increased gaps in health care equity. That said, she has identified a specific gene she believes may be responsible, named RAP1GAP2.

UF/IFAS Researchers Will Use AI To Assess Livestock Mobility

Samantha Brooks, a UF/IFAS geneticist and associate professor of equine physiology – along with other UF researchers -- have been awarded a $49,713 grant from the Agricultural Genome to Phenome Initiative (AG2PI) for this research. The team will combine machine learning with gait analyses to speed their assessment of livestock mobility.

Florida’s Next Commodity: Tea?

It’s decidedly iced tea season in Florida, but whether you take your tea hot or iced, sweet or unsweet, black or green, the infused leaf in your cup could soon come from a Florida farm.

Oragenics Announces Publication of Positive Data for Its Nt-CoV2-1 Intranasal COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate in Scientific Reports

UF startup and UF Innovate | Sid Martin Biotech graduate Oragenics, a biotech company dedicated to fighting infectious diseases including coronavirus, announces the publication of an article co-authored by Oragenics and collaborators at Inspirevax and the National Research Council of Canada (“NRC”) Human Health Therapeutics Research Centre in Scientific Reports, a Nature journal.