Moving the needle in higher education

Researchers seek a role for Ghana’s traditional healers in breast cancer care(opens in a new tab)

In Ghana and many African countries, traditional medicine practitioners and faith healers play a prominent role in patient care. But traditional medicine’s popularity runs up against a grim reality: More than 80% of Ghanaian women with breast cancer are not diagnosed until the disease has advanced. Researchers are conducting ongoing studies to understand traditional and faith healers’ influence on breast cancer care in Ghana, with the goal of developing collaborative referral and care pathways between traditional and orthodox healthcare providers.

UF study identifies immune cells that may help sustain Type 1 diabetes attack(opens in a new tab)

Type 1 diabetes isn’t an overnight attack against the body’s ability to make insulin. It can be a sustained campaign over years that relentlessly targets insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. Todd Brusko, Ph.D., director of the University of Florida Diabetes Institute and a team of UF Health collaborators describe in a new study how a group of immune stem-like cells appears to perpetuate Type 1 diabetes by potentially renewing themselves and replenishing the supply of immune T cells that carry out the autoimmune attack.

UF-led Alzheimer’s research center awarded $22 million grant(opens in a new tab)

A University of Florida-led research network has been awarded a new $22.3 million, five-year grant to propel these discoveries into clinical practice. The National Institute on Aging has renewed a grant for the 1Florida Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center which uses the newest techniques to evaluate people with and without memory disorders and other thinking problems in research studies as part of the nationwide network of Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers.

Study reveals human impact on global patterns of emerging infectious diseases(opens in a new tab)

Human activities are helping shape where new infectious diseases emerge, according to a new study co-led by University of Florida medical geographer Sadie Ryan, Ph.D. The researchers found that outbreaks were most common in areas where people and livestock live alongside forests and other changing landscapes. These conditions, along with long-term declines in rainfall, were especially important for diseases spread by mosquitoes and ticks, including dengue and Lyme disease.

UF establishes the Ballard House, a new Gator home steps from the U.S. Capitol(opens in a new tab)

The University of Florida will establish a permanent home in Washington, D.C., steps from the U.S. Capitol. The Ballard House is a gift from Brian and Kathryn Ballard valued at $4.25 million. It will serve as UF’s front door in the nation’s capital: a place where students can learn and grow through academic programs and professional development, where faculty can share their research with Congress and federal agencies, and where the university can convene leaders from government, public service and the private sector.

UF researchers combine AI and brain mapping to advance personalized epilepsy surgery

For people with drug-resistant epilepsy, surgery can offer a life-changing opportunity to control seizures. But it can also come with questions about how a procedure could affect language, memory and communication. A new $2.32 million NIH-funded project led by the University of Florida aims to give patients, families and clinicians more personalized information to help answer those questions before surgery takes place.

From education to innovation: How UF is preparing students to thrive with AI

Since launching its AI Across the Curriculum initiative in 2020, UF made AI literacy part of the university experience for students across all disciplines, not only those pursuing degrees in computer science or similar technical fields. Today, UF offers more than 200 AI-related courses across all 16 of its colleges and a university-wide AI Fundamentals and Applications certificate open to undergraduate students of every major.

UF study finds plants respond almost immediately to spaceflight

For more than two decades, UF space biologists Rob Ferl, Ph.D., and Anna-Lisa Paul, Ph.D., have worked together to understand how living organisms respond to spaceflight. They designed an experiment to capture biological changes during different phases of a mission. Scientists have long studied how plants and other organisms respond after spending days, weeks or months in space. Much less has been known about the biological changes that occur during the first minutes of spaceflight and how those responses change as a mission unfolds, until now.