University of Florida researchers have come up with a new gene therapy method to disrupt cancer growth by using a synthetic protein to induce blood clotting that cuts off a tumor’s blood and nutrient supply. In mice implanted with human colorectal cancer cells, tumor volume decreased 53 percent and cancer cell growth slowed by 49 [...]

Physicians treating breast cancer first look to lymph nodes in a patient’s armpit to see whether cancer is spreading elsewhere in the body — but they may not be evaluating the nodes in the most effective way. Initial research suggested that enlargement and abnormalities of axillary sentinel lymph nodes – located in the armpit area [...]

University of Florida scientists have discovered why a paralyzing brain disorder speeds along more rapidly in some patients than others — a finding that may finally give researchers an entry point toward an effective treatment for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, often referred to as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Of more than 100 possible mutations of [...]

A dog born with a deadly disease that prevents the body from using stored sugar has survived 20 months and is still healthy after receiving gene therapy at the University of Florida — putting scientists a step closer to finding a cure for the disorder in children. Called glycogen storage disease type 1A, the genetic [...]

For June, a cancer survivor, the breast cancer screening process was an “ordeal.” June was born with cerebral palsy, which makes remaining still for mammograms difficult. In the beginning it was hard to communicate her needs to health-care providers. “So I finally found a provider who would listen to me,” June said. “Once I found [...]

Research programs at the University of Florida Shands Cancer Center are likely to benefit from revenues generated by the new tobacco tax. Florida House and Senate conferees recently agreed to add $50 million in tobacco tax revenue to the James and Esther King and Bankhead-Coley Biomedical Trust Funds for cancer research — $25 million in [...]

Brain may win out over brawn as the primary cause of breathing problems in children with a severe form of muscular dystrophy known as Pompe disease. Researchers at the Powell Gene Therapy Center at the University of Florida have discovered that signals from the brain to the diaphragm — the muscle that controls breathing — [...]

In a University of Florida College of Medicine-supported initiative, department of psychiatry faculty members will begin seeing patients and conducting research this week in a new, 10,000-square-foot facility on Northwest 39th Avenue. “This location will complement our activities at the McKnight Brain Institute and Health Science Center and enable us to grow our primary and [...]

University of Florida researchers have learned more about how smallpox conducts its deadly business — discoveries that may reveal as much about the human immune system as they do about one of the world’s most feared pathogens. In findings to be published this week in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National [...]

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 5-7-09 confirmed that a University of Florida student had H1N1 novel flu, commonly known as swine flu. That student has fully recovered after showing only mild symptoms and has not been on campus in more than a week. In light of that and in concurrence with guidance provided [...]