UF Health

UF researchers, colleagues use dual strategy to fight Type 1 diabetes
GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- University of Florida researchers teamed with colleagues at City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, Calif., to devise a new combination therapy that reverses established Type 1 diabetes in mice.
UF to establish Faroe Island research center with help of baseball star
GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- With the support of a Major League Baseball star, a new University of Florida research center on an island settled by the Vikings could lead to breakthroughs about a rare genetic disorder and potentially change the course of care for high blood pressure and other common conditions.
Getting physical: UF to test if financial incentives improve health, lower costs
GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- Joining a gym to log in hours on the elliptical or hiring a nutritionist for guidance are good ideas to shed pounds but typically too pricey for people with low incomes, as are many programs geared toward boosting wellness.
Researchers use game to change how scientists study disease outbreaks
GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- It may seem like a macabre game of tag, but it’s actually an innovative tool for teaching the fundamentals of epidemiology --- the science of how infectious diseases move through a population.
$63 million NIH grant helps UF, national consortium explore cell regeneration therapies for heart disease
GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- University of Florida researchers and colleagues at six other institutions have received a $63 million, seven-year grant from the NIH National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute to develop heart disease therapies that use a patient’s own bone marrow and heart cells to generate new healthy heart cells and restore function.
UF researchers develop plant-based technology that helps biofuels, may fight cancer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- For the first time, University of Florida researchers have developed plant-based technology that could reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil and may also help treat cancer.
Traitor proteins that could attack the body widespread, UF researchers find
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — More than 32 million Americans harbor potentially toxic proteins that can attack body tissues and lead to autoimmune diseases such as lupus and scleroderma, according to a new University of Florida study. This is the first accurate estimate of the frequency of the proteins, called autoantibodies, the researchers say. The findings appear online and in an upcoming print edition of the journal Arthritis and Rheumatism.

UF/IFAS scientists’ findings shed light on body’s iron-absorption process
GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- Iron is a key mineral for human health. Too much of it in your body -- or too little -- can lead to major health problems.
Gene therapy for epilepsy could stop seizures, UF researchers say
GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- Sparking production of a hormone in the brain that people with epilepsy often lack could prevent debilitating seizures, University of Florida researchers have discovered.
Commonly used vitamin could help produce ‘good’ cholesterol, UF researchers find
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. --- Maintaining healthy cholesterol levels can keep heart disease, heart attack and stroke away. And a commonly used vitamin could help by increasing production of “good” cholesterol in the body, researchers at the University of Florida College of Medicine-Jacksonville have found. The findings were published recently in the journal Metabolism, Clinical and Experimental.

Targeting tumors may help stop spread of breast, other cancers
GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- 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 small tumors, researchers at the University of Florida and the University of Rochester report online and in an upcoming print edition of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics.
UF cardiologists, surgeons team up to offer life-extending procedure
GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- For patients who have severe narrowing of the aortic valve, a condition known as aortic stenosis, standard treatment is surgical replacement of the damaged valve. But advanced age or medical problems such as lung disease prevent many of those patients from having open chest surgery. In the past, the best such patients could hope for was to control their symptoms with medications.
UF researchers develop gene therapy that could correct a common form of blindness
GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- A new gene therapy method developed by University of Florida researchers has the potential to treat a common form of blindness that strikes both youngsters and adults. The technique works by replacing a malfunctioning gene in the eye with a normal working copy that supplies a protein necessary for light-sensitive cells in the eye to function. The findings are published today (Monday, Jan. 23) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences online.
New drug could help reduce heart attack risk for cardiac patients awaiting surgery
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. --- Heart patients who have stents that prop open blocked arteries often face a dilemma when they need open heart surgery: Continue taking life-saving blood thinners but risk severe bleeding during surgery, or stop taking the medicines and risk a heart attack.
Parkinson treatment shows positive results in clinical testing
GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- 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.
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