Using gene transfer techniques pioneered by University of Florida faculty, Taiwanese doctors have restored some movement in four children bedridden with a rare, life-threatening neurological disease. The first-in-humans achievement may also be helpful for more common diseases such as Parkinson’s that involve nerve cell damage caused by lack of a crucial molecule in brain tissue. [...]

Neuroscientist William G. “Bill” Luttge, 67, the founding executive director of the Evelyn F. and William L. McKnight Brain Institute of the University of Florida, died on Saturday, March 24, 2012, at Shands at UF medical center. His wife, sons and other family members were at his side. He was diagnosed in January with multiple [...]

Tyler’s Hope for a Dystonia Cure has presented $100,000 to the UF Center for Movement Disorders and Neurorestoration to establish The Tyler’s Hope Season of Hope Fellowship for clinical training and research in dystonia, Parkinson’s disease and movement disorders. “The money will establish a yearly fellowship, so we will be able to meet that critical [...]

Flowers are a symbol of happiness and good cheer. But new research reveals that the sweet scent of flowers may serve a sneakier purpose: co-opting humans into propagating and protecting them. This thought is leading researchers to the idea of emotion as an evolutionary force. For Brain Awareness Week at the University of Florida’s McKnight [...]

For some, successful aging means looking and acting like the young. But not when it comes to the brain. Imaging and molecular studies show that even when older adults perform at a high level, their brains often don’t do things in the same way as young people’s brains. In fact, it’s low-performing older adults whose [...]

Irene Litvan, M.D., a world authority on the diagnosis of a rare, Parkinson-like disease, will visit the McKnight Brain Institute on Friday to talk about the “many faces of Progressive Supranuclear Palsy.” The presentation is part of a symposium focused on advances in Parkinsonism and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, known as PSP. A professor of Parkinson’s [...]

Cancer that has spread from the site of an original tumor to other places in the body is often viewed as a death sentence. But if there are just a few of those secondary tumors, called metastases, some patients have a good chance of survival if treated with a type of radiation that precisely targets [...]

A $10 million gift from the Lillian S. Wells Foundation Inc. to the University of Florida department of neurosurgery will help medical scientists better understand the causes of brain tumors and lead to effective treatments and improved quality of life for patients, UF officials announced today. The Fort Lauderdale-based foundation’s gift will establish the Lillian [...]

Albert L. Rhoton Jr., M.D., almost became a social worker. But with just one semester to go as an undergraduate, he found love in his physiological psychology class, where he was first exposed to the mysteries and wonders of the human brain. “The function of the brain turned me on so much, I decided that [...]

Researchers from the University of Florida and 14 additional medical centers reported results today in the online version of The Lancet Neurology journal indicating that deep brain stimulation — also known as DBS — is effective at improving motor symptoms and quality of life in patients with advanced Parkinson’s disease. The study, sponsored by St. [...]