Trials Begin for a New Weapon Against Parkinson’s: Light
Light therapy can help lift moods, heal wounds, and boost the immune system. Can it improve symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, too? A first-of-its-kind trial scheduled to launch this fall in France aims to find out. In seven patients, a fiber optic cable implanted in their brain will deliver pulses of near-infrared (NIR) light directly to […]
UF Researcher Works With Bionano Data to Provide Understanding of Repeat Expansion Disorders Causing Muscular Dystrophy and ALS
Bionano Genomics, Inc. announced that teams from the Mayo Clinic and from the University of Florida have separately released results generated with Saphyr relating to Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Myotonic Dystrophy (DM), respectively, two severe genetic disorders caused by the expansion of repetitive sequences in the genome. Saphyr identified repeat expansions in patients with […]
Trio of Medications Showing Early Promise Against Coronavirus, UF Health Researchers Find
The race to find effective treatments for COVID-19 isn’t just about developing new drugs. University of Florida Health scientists are studying a trio of existing medications known to have broad antiviral activity. Two drugs have shown promising results in suppressing the Sars-CoV-2 virus in initial tests on human colon and lung cells that were infected […]
Five Questions for Michael S. Okun, M.D.
Michael S. Okun, M.D. is chair of Neurology, Adelaide Lackner professor, and executive director of the Norman Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases at the University of Florida College of Medicine. He received his M.D. with honors from the University of Florida and, subsequently, was fellowship-trained at Emory University before establishing the movement disorders program at […]
UF Neuroscientist Earns NIH Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award
A UF neuroscientist has earned a $1.86 million NIH award to further his lab’s research into the actin cytoskeleton, an integral component of cells that controls their ability to divide, move and communicate. Eric A. Vitriol, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the UF College of Medicine’s department of anatomy & cell biology, received the Maximizing […]
New Study Shows Common Diabetes Drug Improves Symptoms in Genetic Form of ALS in Mice
University of Florida neuroscientists, Laura Ranum, Ph.D., and Tao Zu, Ph.D., showed in a mouse-model study that metformin, a widely prescribed drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat Type 2 diabetes, reduces levels of specific mutant proteins central to the most common genetic form of ALS and frontotemporal dementia, or FTD, […]
Dietary Changes May Help Ward Off Lupus, UF Health Researchers Find
A change in diet may protect against gut-bacteria dysfunction that leads to lupus in mice, University of Florida Health researchers have found. In this video, Laurence M. Morel, Ph.D., a professor in the UF College of Medicine’s department of pathology, immunology and laboratory medicine; and Mansour Mohamadzadeh, Ph.D., a department of medicine professor, explain how […]
UF College of Medicine Awarded New Pediatric Rheumatology Fellowship
The University of Florida College of Medicine, part of UF Health, has been awarded a grant to fund a pediatric rheumatology fellowship as part of a national effort to alleviate the desperate shortage of specialists nationally. The grant, by the Tampa-based Purple Playas Foundation and the Arthritis Foundation, provides $150,000 in matching funding for up […]
Dr. Folakemi Odedina Elected to AACR Minorities in Cancer Research Council
Folakemi Odedina, Ph.D., a professor of pharmacotherapy and translational research in the University of Florida College of Pharmacy and a professor of radiation oncology in the UF College of Medicine, has been elected to serve a three-year term on the Minorities in Cancer Research Council of the American Association for Cancer Research, or AACR. Odedina […]
How Deforestation Helps Deadly Viruses Jump From Animals to Humans
Dr. Amy Y. Vittor, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Florida, co-authored a study on how deforestation helps deadly viruses jump from animals to humans. The coronavirus pandemic, suspected of originating in bats and pangolins, has brought the risk of viruses that jump from wildlife to humans into stark focus. These leaps often happen […]