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.​

UF featured in The Chronicle of Higher Education: One College’s

The University of Florida is not only attempting to vaccinate its own students, staff, and faculty. It’s a major player in the effort to vaccinate the population of the surrounding region.

Can taking a statin a day keep heart disease and dementia away in seniors ages 75 and older?

Researchers at the University of Florida Health and the OneFlorida Clinical Research Consortium have joined a nationwide clinical trial to find out whether taking atorvastatin (Lipitor®), a drug commonly used to lower cholesterol, can help prevent dementia, disability and heart disease in older adults who haven’t already been diagnosed with those ailments.

Neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and ALS affect millions of adults, but scientists still do not know what causes these diseases, which poses a significant roadblock to developing treatments or preventative measures.

Recent research suggests that people with these conditions exhibit changes in the bacterial composition of their digestive tract.

UF Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering new AI for K-12 Initiative: Bringing AI Education to Students and Teachers to Power our Economy and Workforce.

The AI for K-12 Initiative is developing national guidelines that articulate what students should know about AI and be able to do with AI. Dr. Christina Gardner-McCune and the AI for K-12 Initiative envision a world where all students will know and understand how AI works, the power of AI to solve problems, and how to use and evaluate AI responsibly. As part of UF’s AI Initiative, Gardner-McCune is actively involved in engaging stakeholders in the State of Florida to bring AI Education to Florida K-12 students and teachers to power our economy and workforce.

UF researchers from the College of Public Health and Health Professions, College of Veterinary Medicine, and the UF Emerging Pathogens Institute found the first known instance of Yunnan orbivirus in North America from postmortem tests on tissues from a Florida farmed white-tailed deer.

The discovery is important because veterinarians could have misdiagnosed past animal illnesses, for lack of knowledge that the virus is circulating in the US.

UF researchers are assisting with the development of a new kind of fishhook designed to improve fish survival and support sustainable recreational fishing.

Catch and release practices can help conserve fish populations but they do not guarantee the fish will survive, as handling and air exposure can have negative health impacts and cause mortality. The new hook design allows anglers to catch and release fish in the water without handling them or exposing them to air.

See features on St. Augustine, fossil horses, weather forecasting and more. View some of the 40 million objects held by the museum – the collection size being among the top five nationwide.

UF’s WUFT answers your questions in Untold Florida

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