UF Study: Telehealth Individual Counseling for Weight Loss Maintenance Works
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about an explosion in telehealth, but is it as effective as in-person treatment? A new University of Florida study published in JAMA Network Open found that rural residents who received individual telephone counseling for a year after participating in a weight loss program were able to maintain 100% of their […]
UF Health Researchers Working to Develop COVID-19 Vaccine Using Gene Therapy Technique
A team of University of Florida Health researchers is using an established gene therapy technique to quickly develop a COVID-19 vaccine that could be tested in humans later this year. The technique uses a harmless virus to help fight a harmful virus. In this case, the harmless virus is used to package and deliver a gene from […]
Autopsies of COVID-19 Victims Reveal Blood Vessel Damage
A University of Florida virologist assisted a team of medical researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City with interpreting microscopic images of tissue samples from COVID-19 victims. The researchers found extensive damage to small blood vessels, and they propose a mechanism linking vessel injury with biological pathways that […]
How Those Cancelled DBS Treatments Are Resuming
In a new Neurology Today article, Dr. Michael S. Okun, chair of University of Florida neurology and executive director of the Norman Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases at UF Health, discusses these challenges and the recommendations he co-authored the Journal of Parkinson’s Disease to help guide the field forward. “We wanted to get information out not only to […]
Dr. Chengguo Xing’s Kava Clinical Study Makes the Cover of Cancer Prevention Research
Kava’s reputation in preventing cancer just received a boost from the American Association for Cancer Research. The May 2020 cover of the organization’s flagship journal, Cancer Prevention Research, featured a clinical study on kava led by Chengguo “Chris” Xing, Ph.D., a professor of medicinal chemistry and the Frank A. Duckworth Eminent Scholar Chair in the UF […]
UF Study Offers More Evidence That Deet Is a Safe Way to Ward Off Mosquitoes
Summer is back, with warmer temperatures, longer days, and… mosquitoes. When mosquitoes feast on humans, they can leave more than irritating bites behind. They can also carry Zika, West Nile virus and malaria. The insect repellent N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide, or DEET, is considered one of the most effective defenses against mosquitoes and ticks. It has been used […]
Could Rapid Home-Based Coronavirus Tests Become Reality?
Piyush Jain, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and a member of UF Health Cancer Center, developed an inexpensive home-based rapid testing kit that can detect the coronavirus without needing to go to the hospital. “My research group recently engineered a sensitive CRISPR-based technology, that we named CRISPR-ENHANCE, and used it to create a rapid […]
Global Survey Supports Link Between COVID-19 and Loss of Smell and Taste
A new massive crowdsourced survey of COVID-19 patients from around the world provides the greatest evidence to date of a link between COVID-19 and the loss of smell, taste and chemesthesis — or sensitivity to chemicals such as those in chili peppers. The findings may have implications for prioritizing the limited supply of COVID-19 tests. […]
UF Health Cardiologist: COVID-19 Might Be a Disease of the Lungs and the Heart
As researchers continue to unravel the mysteries of COVID-19, they are increasingly realizing the disease caused by the novel coronavirus often involves more than the lungs that it ravages. It can have a devastating impact on the domain of the cardiologist: the heart. University of Florida Health cardiologist Carl J. Pepine, M.D., a professor in and former […]
Quicker Reviews, Designated Funding Is Speeding COVID-19 Research Efforts at UF Health
University of Florida Health researcher Mark Brantly, M.D., and his team are working to evaluate a drug treatment for the novel coronavirus that might block the deadly inflammatory response caused by the disease that curtails the lungs’ ability to function. In the absence of any known therapies for COVID-19, Brantly wanted to open a clinical trial […]