University of Florida News

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Nearly 6 percent of morbidly obese children and adults have a genetic defect that keeps them feeling like their stomach is running on empty, no matter how much they have eaten.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A new way of delivering corrective genes with a single injection into a vein holds promise for long-lasting treatments of hereditary diseases of the heart, University of Florida researchers report.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Scientists have pioneered a new approach to detecting cancer cells, one that could eventually allow doctors to discover many malignancies earlier than currently possible.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday approved a new test studied at the University of Florida that could lead to better screening for the most common cause of infection in newborn babies.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Performance on the dance floor may not always show it, but people are rarely born with two left feet. We have genes that instruct our arms and legs to grow in the right places and point in the right directions. They also provide for the spaces between our fingers and toes and every other formative detail of our limbs.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Older adults who consume a few alcoholic drinks a week are more likely to ward off heart disease and live longer, a new multicenter study led by University of Florida researchers shows, but not for the reasons many might think. In a surprising twist, alcohol’s anti-inflammatory properties alone do not explain the reduced risk of heart attack or death associated with light to moderate drinking, the researchers report.

GAINESVILLE, Fla.—University of Florida scientists have used gene therapy to eliminate disabling muscle contractions in a mouse model of the most common form of adult-onset muscular dystrophy.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A growing number of cystic fibrosis patients are battling a second, often deadly complication: a unique form of diabetes that shares characteristics of the type 1 and type 2 versions that strike many Americans.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Embryonic stem cells, prized for their astonishing ability to apparently transform into any kind of cell in the body, acquire their identities in part by interacting with their surroundings — even when they are outside of the body in a laboratory dish, University of Florida scientists report.