Honoring an icon

Joyful songs and inspiring speeches filled the UF Health Shands Hospital Atrium as staff and visitors gathered for the annual ceremony to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. — Greg Hamilton

UF spearheads initiative to improve veterinary medical teaching

Ali Morton, D.V.M., left, stands with three veterinary students in the UF
Equine Sports Medicine Performance Arena while they study the gait
of a horse.

The UF College of Veterinary Medicine is leading a drive to advance teaching excellence in academic veterinary medicine. The college has formed the Southeast Veterinary Educational Consortium to encourage collaboration among faculty with teaching duties at veterinary medical colleges in the eastern United States, said Juan Samper, D.V.M., the college’s associate dean for academic and student affairs. Joining UF will be the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine and the veterinary medicine colleges at North Carolina State University, Lincoln Memorial University, the University of Georgia and the University of Tennessee. — Sarah Carey

Grant fuels UF nursing, dental colleges’ project to help underserved patients

Using a grant from the Florida Blue Foundation, two University of Florida colleges will collaborate to improve health care for vulnerable populations while providing valuable learning opportunities for students. The three-year, $286,000 Advance Innovation and Promote Solutions in the Health Care System grant will allow the UF College of Nursing’s community primary care practice, Archer Family Health Care, to work with the UF College of Dentistry’s on-campus clinic. The collaboration, the first of its kind in Florida, will provide point-of-care service, a two-directional referral source and communication between both nursing and dentistry sites. — Anna Suggs Hoffman

UF Health researchers share in $3.7 million study of molecular origins of Type 1 diabetes

A University of Florida and King’s College London collaboration has been awarded $3.7 million in support to discover the molecular signposts that lead to Type 1 diabetes. The team is also collaborating with researchers at the University of Oslo in Norway. The collaboration will focus on groups of proteins known as T-cell receptors, which play a role in the autoimmune process that destroys insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. Adaptive Biotechnologies, a Seattle-based company specializing in DNA sequencing of the adaptive immune system, is providing $1.8 million of in-kind support. The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust is contributing a $1.9 million grant, with $1.3 million going to research at UF Health and $600,000 to King’s College London. — Doug Bennett