Yikes! Scientists Discover Factor That Directs Brain’s Fear Conditioning
A team led by neuroscientists at The Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology has discovered a key molecular player in fear conditioning. It’s a specialized RNA with a memorable acronym, SLAMR. Their study found SLAMR must be present in adequate quantities for neurons to build the complex connections required for fear conditioning. Their research appears in the journal Nature Communications.
Targeting RNA
Disney and his team at The Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology in Jupiter, Florida, have discovered more than 200 unique RNA-targeting compounds. His methods and discoveries have changed minds, igniting a global race to treat incurable diseases via their RNA.
UF Health Cancer Center Awards American Cancer Society Pilot Grants
The University of Florida Health Cancer Center has awarded the 2023 American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grant Pilot Projects, as part of its efforts to support early-stage investigators in cancer-related research studies. These projects, which are supported by Grant #21-139-01-IRG from the American Cancer Society, aim to address one of six research priorities: etiology, obesity/healthy eating and active living, screening and diagnosis, treatment, survivorship, and health equity across the cancer continuum.
New Wertheim UF Scripps Scientist Expands Chemists’ Tools
A new scientist joining The Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology invents creative and efficient ways to build complex, potentially useful molecules, studying their activity so that compounds found in nature may eventually become useful products, such as medications.
Studies: Inflammation-Targeting Antibody Boosts Preterm Birth Outcomes, Prevents Obesity-Linked Liver Disease
Targeting a master regulator of inflammation with a monoclonal antibody potentially improves two unrelated conditions with limited treatment options: preterm births and fatty liver disease, two new studies show.
Climbing a New Path Allows Chemists To Ascend Cancer’s Steepest Research Challenges
The cancer gene MYC has been called the “Mount Everest” of cancer research because of the difficulty of designing medications that can disable it, and the expectation that an effective MYC drug could help so many cancer patients. A collaboration among RNA scientists, chemists and cancer biologists in Florida and Germany has climbed that peak, while opening new routes to summit other similarly hard-to-treat diseases.
New Scientist Takes Aim at TB, the World’s Deadliest Infectious Disease
Luiz Pedro Carvalho, Ph.D., is on a quest to find new medicines for treatment-resistant diseases, including tuberculosis, which is again the world’s deadliest infectious disease, after briefly falling behind COVID-19. Carvalho is the newest faculty member to join The Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology as a professor of chemistry.
Third Annual Science2Startup Symposium Will Foster Collaboration Between Researchers, Entrepreneurs and Top Investors
Kirill Martemyanov, Ph.D., professor and chair of The Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology, is one of the 10 presenters selected for the third annual Science2Startup Symposium taking place May 3, 2023.
First ‘Institute Professor’ of The Wertheim UF Scripps Institute Inventing New Ways to Target Incurable Diseases Via RNA
Matthew D. Disney, Ph.D., a professor and chair of the Department of Chemistry at The Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology, has been named the first “Institute Professor” at the institution.
RNA Symposium Attracts Thought Leaders in Basic and Translational Research to Jupiter, FL
More than 175 people attended “RNA: From Biology to Drug Discovery” at The Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology. It was the first major scientific conference at the institute since the pandemic began, and so researchers relished the opportunity to share recent work and reconnect. The conference attracted 18 impressive outside speakers, including multiple Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigators, members of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine. Incoming Max Planck President-Elect Patrick Cramer, Ph.D., shared his structural studies of the machinery underlying DNA transcription, featuring riveting imaging of transcription complexes in motion.
