The Big Picture: EPI’s Director Speaks About the Covid-19 Pandemic
The Emerging Pathogens Institute was formed in 2006 to bring researchers across disciplines together with the goal of better understanding and anticipating new disease-causing microorganisms that affect people, plants, and animals. Much of its research is focused globally, with an eye toward what might affect the State of Florida. But for the first time, the […]
Will Coronavirus Disappear When Temperatures Heat Up? UF Virologist Responds
Temperatures fluctuate between hot and cold in Florida, just about as frequently as the idea that warmth might bring an end to the coronavirus disease, COVID-19. The disease, COVID-19, is produced by a virus known as SARS-CoV-2. While flu season does taper off toward the end of April, it’s unclear to health experts that the […]
Expert: Outbreak Transmission Dynamics
As the world grapples for answers and action on the new coronavirus outbreak, researchers who study the dynamics of infectious disease outbreaks are quickly digging into the data. It’s familiar territory for Derek Cummings, Ph.D., a professor of biology at the University of Florida’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Emerging Pathogens Institute. Cummings […]
Coronavirus Consultant
John Lednicky, Ph.D., is a research professor, microbiologist and molecular biologist at UF’s College of Public Health and Health Professions and the Emerging Pathogens Institute where he studies an array of disease-causing microorganisms. He has spent decades investigating coronaviruses that affect people, bats, birds, cats, cows, dogs, ferrets, mice, and even pigs. But some of this work […]
Chlamydia’s Covert Reproduction
UF researchers have resolved a two-decade-old mystery centered upon how the bacteria chlamydia divide and reproduce. Newly published results from the lab of Anthony Maurelli, a microbiologist in UF’s College of Public Health and Health Professions and the Emerging Pathogens Institute (EPI), reveal that, how these parasitic pathogens replicate, diverges from a nearly universal norm. […]
Zika Epidemic Likely Suppressed Dengue in Latin America
When the Zika epidemic burned through the Americas in 2015, it was transmitted in the same areas where the dengue virus was already endemic. This was not unexpected, as both viruses are genetically and antigenically similar, and they also share the same mosquito vectors, Aedes aegypti, and Aedes albopictus. But what was surprising was how […]
Curing Mosquitoes, Eliminating Malaria
A new study authored by UF Emerging Pathogens Institute (EPI) researcher Rhoel Dinglasan, Ph.D., and colleagues, twists the narrative in the fight against malaria by treating mosquitoes. His team showed that feeding a known antimalarial drug — intended for humans — to infected Anopheles mosquitoes rendered them unable to transmit malaria parasites to new hosts. […]
Unlocking Chlamydia’s Persistent State
New research from the Emerging Pathogens Institute (EPI) and UF’s College of Public Health & Health Professions found that exposing the sexually-transmitted bacterial pathogen Chlamydia to fosmidomycin — an antibiotic which is usually lethal to bacteria — causes Chlamydia to enter a protective bunker-like “persistent” state. The findings could bolster future efforts to intentionally disrupt […]
UF Researcher Receives $1.29 Million Grant to Support Malaria Research
A $1.29 million grant from the Global Health Innovative Technology Fund will support EPI malaria investigator Rhoel Dinglasan’s work to develop a novel saliva-based malaria diagnostic test that catches infections even when victims don’t show symptoms. Dinglasan, an associate professor of infectious diseases with UF’s Emerging Pathogens Institute, began his career by researching a new […]