All of Us Journey visits UF Health to encourage participation

All of Us Journey visits UF Health to encourage participation

The National Institutes of Health’s All of Us Journey educational trailer rolled into Gainesville recently as part of an effort to get 1 million or more people across the country to become part of a data bank of information in hopes of accelerating research discoveries and improve health care for everyone. UF Health is among 25 institutions participating in the program. Representing UF Health at the event were, from left, William Hogan, M.D., director, biomedical informatics program, UF Clinical and Translational Science Institute; Elizabeth Shenkman, Ph.D., professor and chair, health outcomes & biomedical informatics; and David R. Nelson, M.D., interim senior vice president for health affairs at UF and president of UF Health. — Greg Hamilton

The color of hope

All of Us Journey visits UF Health to encourage participation

UF Health pediatric oncologist Paul Castillo, M.D., right, a clinical assistant professor in the UF College of Medicine, celebrates winning a $200,000 Hyundai Young Investigator Grant as part of the Hyundai Hope on Wheels event. Castillo’s white coat was adorned with colorful handprints from pediatric cancer patients who placed painted handprints on a new Hyundai to mark their fight for a cure to the disease.

UF College of Veterinary Medicine opens equine acupuncture center in Marion

The UF College of Veterinary Medicine has opened an acupuncture center for horses in the Marion County area, often referred to as the “horse capital of the world.” The UF Equine Acupuncture Center will function as a clinic through which Huisheng Xie, B.Sc.V.M., Ph.D., a clinical professor in the integrative medicine service at the UF Veterinary Hospitals, will provide acupuncture therapy. The center is adjacent to The Chi Institute of Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine, which Xie founded in 1998, about 2 miles west of Interstate 75 in Reddick. — Sarah Carey

Perfect 10: All medicinal chemistry tenure-track Ph.D. program faculty members are federally funded

Assistant professors Rob Huigens, Ph.D., and Yousong Ding, Ph.D., have each secured $1.7 million grants from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. For them, earning a National Institutes of Health grant is a first. For the department of medicinal chemistry in the UF College of Pharmacy, the grants mean 10 out of 10 tenure-track Ph.D. program faculty members are federally funded. The 10 faculty members serve as principal investigators on 18 federally funded grants worth more than $18.4 million. Their research spans broad interest areas from identifying novel cancer drugs in the ocean to developing new compounds to combat drug abuse. — Matt Splett