Patient-focused care would vastly improve the lives of Parkinson’s patients, says Rasheda Ali, an author, advocate in the fight against Parkinson’s disease and the daughter of Muhammad Ali, who was diagnosed with Parkinson's more than 20 years ago.
“My sister Janet Reno has Parkinson’s. My younger brother has Parkinson’s. I have essential tremor. Sometimes we would all shake in unison.” So said Maggy Hurchalla, a former Martin County, Fla., commissioner who talked about her family’s experience with Parkinson’s disease at the opening Monday of the University of Florida’s new Center for Movement Disorders and Neurorestoration.
Media advisory: Former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno will be the first to receive a “patient-centric” tour of UF’s Center for Movement Disorders and Neurorestoration. In 1995, while still serving as attorney general, Ms. Reno announced she had Parkinson’s disease.
University of Florida experts are available to answer questions from media members about the importance of talking with children during family meals. Teens who infrequently have dinner with their families are more likely to say they expect to try drugs.
The first commercially available treatment in the United States for a rare form of muscular dystrophy called late-onset Pompe disease was administered at the University of Florida Health Science Center on Wednesday.
In a collaboration of veterinary medical school programs, a Lipizzaner stallion was cloned at Texas A&M and the foal was delivered at the University of Florida.
Vitiligo — a complex disease that typically causes patches of white skin on the face, neck and extremities, which pop star Michael Jackson may have experienced — is associated with slight variations in genes that play a role in the body’s natural defenses. Multiple cellular pathways may contribute to the onset and progression of vitiligo, which makes fully understanding the disease complicated, but it also gives scientists a variety of starting points to begin developing therapies.
Scientists have learned how a gene controls cell division, a finding that could be useful for understanding why increasing numbers of children are being born with genital malformations.
UF McKnight Brain Institute scientists will study the use of a versatile type of brain cell to restore brain function in an animal model of cortical dysplasia, a condition where the brain develops abnormally before birth, causing severe epilepsy in children and adults.
In a study of college-aged adults exiting bars, patrons who consumed energy drinks mixed with alcohol had a threefold increased risk of leaving a bar highly intoxicated and were four times more likely to intend to drive.
University of Florida researchers continue to work on a therapy will help patients in the late stages of Pompe disease -- the "villain" in the film “Extraordinary Measures” starring Harrison Ford and Brendan Fraser.
Researchers have shown insect colonies follow some of the same biological “rules” as individuals, a finding that suggests insect societies operate like a single “superorganism.”
Scientists have presented a theory of acoustic communication that shows diversity in animal vocal signals can be explained based on the energetic constraints of sound production.
The University of Florida taps an anesthesiologist who helped invent sophisticated medical training simulations used around the world to lead its College of Medicine.
A multi-institutional team of researchers has begun creating genomic tools necessary to compare the extraordinary regenerative capacity of the salamander with mouse models of human disease and injury.
Dr. Todd Golde will direct the College of Medicine's new Center for Translational Research in Neurodegenerative Disease, leading efforts to develop treatments and diagnostics for Alzheimer's disease, dementias, and other diseases.
These days, the newest member of your medical team just might be the building itself – and it’s likely to play a bigger role in your healing than you think. Consider the Shands Cancer Hospital at the University of Florida, designed to better choreograph care while providing a soothing yet energy-efficient environment. The $388-million medical tower opens Nov. 1.
In a study of adults diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, those who participated in a supervised tai chi exercise program two days a week with three days of home practice for six months significantly lowered fasting blood glucose levels.
How society sees people in terms of race might play a greater role than genetics when it comes to health disparities between different groups. The study by University of Florida researchers is the first to rigorously combine both socio-cultural and genetic data to simultaneously test the relative contributions of each to racial inequalities in health.
Addressing safety concerns related to potential gene therapies for Parkinson's disease, UF McKnight Brain Institute researchers have tested a gene transfer therapy in rats that can be inhibited with a common antibiotic.
U.S. scientists are the first to link the evolution of proteins "” the organic compounds that determine the structure and function of living things "” to a species' metabolic rate. Their mathematical model predicts that a 10-degree increase across species leads to a 300 percent increase in the evolutionary rate.
Now a study of nearly 1,800 children at risk for type 1 diabetes has found that increased consumption of dietary omega-3 fatty acids appears to reduce the risk of the body attacking its own insulin-producing cells, a precursor to this form of the disease, report researchers at the University of Colorado and the University of Florida.
The son of Olympic bobsled champion Vonetta Flowers became one of the youngest patients to receive prosthetic ears anchored by implanted posts. University of Florida medical artists fashioned them out of silicone, casting them from his twin brother's ears.
The University of Florida Health Science Center and Shands at UF are among 14 centers in the United States testing oral insulin to prevent or delay type 1 diabetes in people at risk for the disease. The center will work alongside affiliate sites and participating physicians in Type 1 Diabetes TrialNet, a research group dedicated to the understanding, prevention and early treatment of type 1 diabetes.
Bone marrow stem cells attracted to the site of a cancerous growth frequently take on the outward appearance of the malignant cells around them. But whether they contribute to cancer, as some scientists suspect, is not entirely clear. The findings contest the increasingly popular theory that bone marrow stem cells seed cancer. Instead, these cells might simply look like cancer, not act like it.
University of Florida Genetics Institute scientists describe how they used a harmless virus to deliver corrective genes to mice with a genetic impairment that robs them of vision. The discovery shows that it is possible to target and rescue cone cells "” the most important cells for visual sharpness and color vision in people.
Fruit juices are laden with a naturally occurring sugar that could trigger obesity. Drinking excessive amounts of juice has also been connected with diabetes and high blood pressure. Parents are advised to turn to water and other healthy alternatives to keep children hydrated this summer.
University of Florida Genetics Institute scientists have discovered that a virus believed to cause Kaposi's sarcoma, a rare form of cancer associated with AIDS and with organ transplants, thrives by using microRNA to knock out protective human genes.
Students are increasingly turning to prescription stimulants to boost concentration during long study sessions and all-nighters, according to drug abuse experts at the University of Florida. Although many students consider prescription pill popping a "safe" alternative to street drugs, experts warn that's not always the case.
An effort to learn the secrets of regeneration from creatures with remarkable powers of self-renewal and to apply the knowledge toward human treatments has been launched at the University of Florida's McKnight Brain Institute.
Dr. Bruce C. Kone, 49, chairman of the department of internal medicine at the University of Texas Medical School in Houston, is slated to become the next dean of the University of Florida College of Medicine. Kone earned his medical degree at UF. He will begin work May 15. He succeeds outgoing dean Dr. C. Craig Tisher, who will return to the faculty after five years in the post.
University of Florida researchers found that shortly after the number of strep infections increased in a group of nearly 700 children in a public school system, there was a corresponding rise in involuntary movements and disruptive behaviors "”symptoms that could indicate a neurological cause. A direct link between strep infections and behavioral symptoms was not found, but the statistics did indicate an association that warrants further investigation.
At any given time within just a single brain cell of sea slug known as Aplysia, more than 10,000 genes are active, according to University of Florida and Columbia University researchers writing in Cell. Scientists also analyzed 146 human genes implicated in 168 neurological disorders, including Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, finding 104 counterpart genes in Aplysia.
Video game makers seem to be addressing concerns about how playing affects children. But too much gaming still puts children more at-risk for behavioral and health problems, health experts say.
A clinical trial to evaluate the safety of using a so-called gene vector to deliver a corrective gene to 12 patients with a common hereditary disorder that causes lung and liver disease is completed at the University of Florida. The gene therapy has caused no harmful effects in patients and hints at being effective.
Decision-making ability seems to develop less quickly in children exposed to cocaine before they were born, University of Florida researchers have found.
UF McKnight Brain Institute scientists document for the first time the ability of common human brain cells to morph into different cell types. They used mature human brain cells taken from epilepsy patients to generate new brain tissue in mice. Furthermore, they can coax these cells to produce large amounts of new brain cells in culture, potentially to fight a host of brain disorders.
A 54-year-old man with prostate cancer today (Aug. 14) became the first patient to undergo treatment at the new University of Florida Proton Therapy Institute in Jacksonville. The treatment marks the first time this advanced form of radiation therapy has been offered in the Southeast.
Using an animal model of embryonic stem cell development, researchers with the University of Florida's McKnight Brain Institute have begun to answer one of the most fundamental questions in science - how does a batch of immature cells give rise to an organ as extraordinarily complex as the human brain?
Scientists with the McKnight Brain Institute of the University of Florida have delivered a gene through an eggshell to give sight to a type of chicken normally born blind. The finding proves in principle that a similar treatment can be developed for an incurable form of blindness in children.
Scientists from the University of Florida's Institute on Aging have found that eating a little less food and exercising a little more over a lifespan can reduce or even reverse aging-related cell and organ damage in rats.
University of Florida researchers found that disruptive behaviors in children actually seem to be linked more closely to maternal depression than prenatal cocaine exposure.
A third of the heart patients in a University of Florida study developed temporary changes in heart rhythm or restricted blood flow when they were asked to role-play a difficult interpersonal situation, even though their hearts responded normally to exercise.
The unlovable lamprey, a slender fish with a mouth full of horny, tooth-like structures that flares open at the end of its body, has long been thought to have taken a different evolutionary road than almost all other backboned animals. Scientists have found these animals may not be so different after all.
In the big picture of evolution of sensory systems, such as olfaction, hearing, vision and touch, the University of Florida Genetics Institute finding shows sharks took a pre-existing genetic program and used it to build yet another type of sensory system -- this one to detect electric fields.
Ray Moseley sees the trouble with advance health-care directives every time he speaks to a group of senior citizens: Several in the crowd always know someone who had a living will but whose end-of-life decisions were not honored anyway.
Aortic disease kills nearly 15,000 people in the United States each year, but the rarity and complexity of this deadly disorder make accurately diagnosing it difficult for doctors in the health-care trenches, University of Florida researchers have found.
Regenerative medicine scientists at the University of Florida's McKnight Brain Institute have created a system in rodent models that for the first time duplicates neurogenesis -- the process of generating new brain cells -- in a dish.
Middle-aged women with no obvious signs of cardiac trouble may be prone to depression and the eventual development of heart disease if their heart rate varies less than expected in response to fluctuations in the body's hormone levels, according to findings.
University of Florida researchers are resurrecting an old technology to more quickly and accurately identify potentially deadly bacterial infections in hospital patients.
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