As scientists rush to figure out how the virus responsible for the current influenza outbreak originated, a group of the world’s experts on evolutionary biology — including a University of Florida team — has set aside some academic traditions to work together toward a solution. Rather than rush to publication with their individual findings on [...]

Bryon Petersen, Ph.D., an associate professor of pathology at the University of Florida College of Medicine, will receive the second annual Chairmen’s Distinguished Life Sciences Award today from the Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Petersen is being recognized for his work using bone marrow-derived stem cells to develop therapies to [...]

Researchers have cleared a safety hurdle in efforts to develop a gene therapy for a form of muscular dystrophy that disables patients by gradually weakening muscles near the hips and shoulders. Described as the first gene therapy trial in muscular dystrophy to demonstrate promising findings, researchers from the University of Florida, Nationwide Children’s Hospital in [...]

To truly kill colon cancer and eliminate the risk of recurrence, it is important to kill the “root” of the disease, according to a University of Florida College of Medicine surgeon. “It’s like a dandelion, if you don’t kill the root it just keeps coming back,” said Emina Huang, M.D., a UF colorectal surgeon, who [...]

A University of Florida scientist whose interest in embryonic development and evolution led him to discover the molecular building blocks that shape appendages ranging from feet to flippers was named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Early Career Scientist today (Thursday, March 26), a distinction given to only 50 researchers in the United States. Martin Cohn, [...]

A growth factor used in clinical experiments to rescue dying brain cells in Parkinson patients may cause unwanted weight loss if delivered to specific areas of the brain, according to University of Florida researchers in the March online edition of Molecular Therapy. The discovery is a cautionary warning for experimental treatments to treat Parkinson’s disease [...]

Doctors may be able to tailor a specialized form of brain surgery to more closely match the needs of Parkinson patients, according to results from the first large-scale effort to compare the two current target areas of deep brain stimulation surgery, or DBS. Called the COMPARE Trial, the National Institutes of Health-funded study conducted at [...]

Glioblastoma. The word didn’t really exist for Tracie Stokes before Jan. 23. Just another five-syllable word in the medical dictionary. But since that Friday, when doctors detected a tumor just wider than a quarter in her husband’s brain, words like glioblastoma, radiation and chemotherapy have become integral parts of her everyday vocabulary. “At first, it [...]

Older, active people who have a drink or two might be more impaired afterward than they think, according to a report today from a University of Florida research group in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. Although people 50 or older in the study metabolized alcohol similar to how younger people did, they [...]

Doctors who become addicted to alcohol and other drugs can be treated successfully and returned to medical practice with the help of special programs that couple referral to treatment and monitoring with rapid responses to noncompliance, University of Florida researchers report. The study is the first national-level analysis of such Physician Health Programs, and confirms [...]