UF in the Community

Office of Community Relations

UF Government and Community Relations

Monday, January 25, 2021

Across the University of Florida, our 16 colleges, numerous institutes, and health care facilities embrace our shared mission of outreach and service to improve and enrich our community, nation, and the world. UF in the Community spotlights the impact of UF in our region.

Although UF has students and employees throughout the state, North Central Florida is home to much of our faculty and staff and to our 50,000+ students. Like all area residents, we want a vibrant, safe, healthy, and equitable place in which to live and thrive. Here are some of the ways in which we are enhancing our shared community.

University of Florida Health researchers win $75 million grant to help develop new antibiotic

University of Florida Health researchers and their collaborators have a $75 million grant to identify a new, unique antibiotic that will protect public health.

Funding from the federal Defense Threat Reduction Agency will be used to study 28 compounds, eventually narrowing them down to one drug and a backup candidate that can destroy bacterial pathogens that would otherwise evade current antibiotics. The benefits should be twofold: Creating a compound that could be used to address a bioterrorism event while also treating stubborn infections among the public or hospitalized patients.

UF Health’s COVID-19 Response: Inside Unit 82

Hear from UF Health faculty and staff about the challenges they face treating patients with COVID-19, and what they’ve learned from those challenges.

UF data study finds Vitamin D deficiency tied to increased COVID-19 risk

Patients with a vitamin D deficiency were four times more likely to be COVID-19 positive than those with a sufficient amount of the crucial vitamin, a University of Florida research team has found. And African American patients with insufficient vitamin D levels were three times more likely to be infected by the coronavirus.

Insufficient vitamin D has been linked with respiratory infections, and research suggests vitamin D treatment may help lessen symptoms of COVID-19. African Americans are disproportionally affected by COVID-19 and vitamin D deficiency compared to other races for a variety of reasons including skin pigmentation, which reduces vitamin D production.

Help UF students have real-world learning experiences: Request from Dr. Scott Angle – UF VP for Agriculture and Natural Resources

In addition to being a great neighbor to the university, Gainesville represents a great opportunity for learning. It’s a community where our students learn through real-world experiences and, in turn, serve while they learn.

We’ve long understood this at the University of Florida’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS), and we’re striving to make learning through service more commonplace.

If you’re a business owner, please consider hosting an intern. If time is what you have, please consider volunteering as a mentor. If you work at a nonprofit or public agency, perhaps you have projects that can benefit from ambitious, talented young people lending a hand. (Contact Cathy Carr at chcarr@ufl.edu)

UF awards faculty nearly $1 million to study racial disparities

The University of Florida is committing nearly $1 million to faculty research projects focused on racial disparities in health care, diversity in professional programs, challenges in developing and teaching an inclusive curriculum, and strategies for creating a more inclusive campus environment.

Learn More

UF research scientist leads a group using VR to cut down on shoplifting

“Theft is occurring broadly across the nation,” said Dr. Read Hayes, a criminologist at the University of Florida and director of the Loss Prevention Research Council, a self-described group of crimefighters with a mission of developing crime control solutions.

Hayes says the increase in shoplifting is in part due to the pandemic. An increase of unemployment has contributed to the problem and so has a shift in attention from workers in stores.