USF study shows substance found in grapes, red wine, peanuts, may prevent alcoholic fatty liver disease L to R: Study authors Christopher Rogers, Min You (senior author) and Xiaomei Liang are researchers in the USF Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology. BETHESDA, Md. (Oct. 14, 2008) − The accumulation of fat in the liver as a result [...] ... [Read]

- Nationally-renowned biochemist and microbial geneticist recruited to help boost basic science and translational research - Robert Deschenes, PhD, will chair Molecular Medicine and hold the Fred Wright Endowed Chair in Cancer Biology at USF Health. Tampa, FL (Nov. 17, 2008) -- Following a national search for a top-level researcher to lead its Department of [...] ... [Read]

- He will also direct Musculoskeletal Research bridging basic and clinical sciences - David Birk, PhD David E. Birk, PhD, has been appointed vice chair of the University of South Florida Department of Pathology and Cell Biology. Dr. Birk, a professor in the department, is the scientific director for USF Health’s Muma Advanced Microscopy & Cell [...] ... [Read]

- Researchers advocate including imaging technology as diagnostic test - Tampa, FL (Dec. 19, 2008) -- MRI scans that detect shrinkage in specific regions of the mid-brain attacked by Alzheimer’s disease accurately diagnose the neurodegenerative disease, even before symptoms interfere with daily function, a study by the Florida Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) in Miami and [...] ... [Read]

New IRB System Is First Phase of Planned Rollout between Now and 2011 Beaverton, OR (Jan. 16, 2009) -- Click Commerce, an ITW company (NYSE: ITW), announced today that the University of South Florida (USF) will use Click Commerce’s eResearch Portal to fully automate Institutional Review Board (IRB) processes for human participant research. As a [...] ... [Read]

Younger brains better than old in clearing Alzheimer’s-related protein, USF/Byrd Institute study finds USF/Byrd neuroscientist Chad Dickey Younger brains are more effective than older brains at getting rid of abnormal amounts of tau protein associated with Alzheimer’s disease – a mechanism that may be partly explained by a better stress response in the young, a mouse-model study [...] ... [Read]

- Long-term study suggests drug may slow progression of the movement disorder - Tampa, FL (Jan. 26, 2009) – There is hope that the drug rasagiline can do what no other medication for Parkinson’s disease now does -- slow the progression of a devastating degenerative brain disease that eventually robs people of their [...] ... [Read]

USF Health's Amina Alio, PhD, was lead author of the new study in Lancet, finding a strong link between spousal violence and fetal loss. Women victimized by spousal abuse are at significantly increased risk of losing at least one pregnancy. A study of more than 2,500 women in Africa by the University of South Florida College of [...] ... [Read]

Click here for a list of Research Day 2009 Award Winners. See below for more photos and audioclips of Research Day participants. USF Health Associate VP Phillip Marty, PhD, says the quality of faculty and student presentations at this year's Research Day were impressive, even as the event has expanded. The Research Day 2009 posters wound throughout the [...] ... [Read]

The patient who wants a flu shot doesn't say he's allergic to eggs, and the first nurse forgets to ask - but a second nurse does. Just before she injects the man, her question heads off a potentially fatal allergic reaction.  Just before the surgeon lifts the scalpel, he calls a time out to check the [...] ... [Read]

Astronaut-physician Dr. Jay Buckey Jr, right, toured the Hyperbaric laboratory of USF Health's Dr. Jay Dean during a visit here May 6. Dr. Buckey was a payload specialist for the Neurolab Space Mission, which provided an indepth look at how a basic natural force, gravity, can profoundly affect the nervous system. Physician-astronaut Jay C. [...] ... [Read]

Chlamydia infection may play a role in a type of arthritis called undifferentiated spondyloarthropathy (uSpA), researchers at the University of South Florida found. This form of chronic arthritis belongs to a group of arthritis diseases (spondylarthritides or SpA) that share clinical features such as inflammatory back pain and inflammation at sites where tendons attach [...] ... [Read]

Older people who are thinner or are losing weight quickly are at a higher risk of developing dementia, especially if they started out overweight or obese, a new study by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh, the University of South Florida and the University of Washington found. The research is published in the May 19, 2009, [...] ... [Read]

May 27, 2009 -- A drug approved for smoking cessation may hold promise for people suffering from Friedreich’s Ataxia (FA), an inherited disease that causes progressive damage to the neuromuscular system. A new clinical study, sponsored by the Friedreich’s Ataxia Research Alliance (FARA), will investigate whether varenicline (Chantix®) improves neurological symptoms that can lead [...] ... [Read]

USF Health prepares next generation of clinical and translational investigators Dr. Jamie Winderbaum Fernandez, a psychiatrist, will investigate cellular mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease with the aim of developing treatments to help rid the brain of memory-robbing toxins. Dr. Celso Silva, an obstetrician-gynecologist, wants to know whether a non-invasive test to measure the length of chromosomes tips [...] ... [Read]

- USF Health neuroscientist led the rat-model study - Tampa, FL (June 17, 2009) -- Using an opioid drug to induce hibernation in rats reduces the damage caused by an artificial stroke, reports a study published today in the open access journal BMC Biology. Researchers found that those animals put into a chemical slumber -- [...] ... [Read]