UCF in the News

A research team from the University of Central Florida and Hesperos, a pioneer in human-on-a-chip technology, has developed the first human model to study the effects of an opioid overdose and reversal with naloxone. The study, "Human IPSC-Derived PreBötC-like Neurons and Development of an Opiate Overdose and Recovery Model" ( doi.org/10.1002/adbi.202300276 ) was published in Advanced Biology on September 7, 2023. The paper describes the development of human preBötC neurons from induced pluripotent cells (iPSCs) and the establishment of a human model that mimics opioid overdose with four opioids and the recovery of neuronal activity with naloxone treatment. “I am incredibly proud of our team's groundbreaking work that will provide invaluable insights into understanding opioid addiction and recovery, paving the way for more effective treatments and ultimately saving lives. We hope this exciting first step will play a significant role in understanding and developing treatment solutions for this devastating crisis.”

The US Naval Research Laboratory has funded a groundbreaking project to develop a new hypersonic engine capable of morphing its shape during flight to optimize power, thrust and efficiency. It's now entering experimental testing in Florida. Now, a team from the University of Central Florida is applying a similar concept to the inside of the scramjet engine. The team is led by Professor Kareem Ahmed, whose work we've covered before – back in 2020, Professor Ahmed and his team produced the world's first stable operation of a rotating detonation engine.

A recent coup in the Central African nation of Gabon is the latest nondemocratic transition of power on the continent, following a July coup in Niger and 2022 coups in Burkina Faso and Mali. “If you’ve had a coup attempt in the last three years, controlling for a bunch of different factors, there are various studies that point to your probability of having a coup in the current year to be something between 25 and 40 percent, which is really, really high when you think about how rare these events are otherwise,” Jonathan Powell, a political science professor at the University of Central Florida, told Vox in an interview. That can also inspire coup plotters in other nations that might have similar challenges or contexts, like in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, which all to one extent or another struggle with Islamist insurgencies. A coup attempt can seem appealing in “circumstances where the government might be seen as providing ineffectual leadership or is not giving the military the tools and the resources that it needs to be able to successfully fight a counterinsurgency,” Powell said.

At the intersection of military medical technology development, academia, and industry sits the U.S. Army Medical Materiel Development Activity. No other venue gives so bright a spotlight on that convergence than the recent Military Health System Research Symposium, hosted by the Defense Health Agency each year in Kissimmee, Florida. MHSRS is a forum to bring together professionals from three distinct yet connected worlds to share ideas, drive synchronization of efforts, and build cross-organizational relationships. As attendees gathered to tour, network and learn, they may have noticed a novel and perhaps curious sight for such an august exhibition featuring medical technologies under development for America’s Warfighters: 18-year-old UCF student, Kavan Paul.

Health experts are urging caution as people dip into Florida waters this weekend after reports of 31 cases of humans contracting flesh-eating bacteria in coastal waters this year, according to the Florida Department of Health. Six patients died. The bacteria known as Vibrio vulnificus is endemic to Florida’s brackish waters and has lived there for many years. The bacteria can cause skin tissue to deteriorate, but infection is rare in humans. Still, experts like Salvador Almagro Moreno, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Central Florida, are concerned about more infections this year due to the bacteria's liking for warm water. This summer, Florida’s waters have been historically warm. “The waters are close to being the temperature that we use in the lab to incubate the material to make it happy. So we put out 37 degrees (Celcius) so they can grow fast and we can study it in the lab. Now we're seeing some temperatures like 32 degrees in the water," he said. “So if you give them food and water in warm temperatures they grow. That's it. It's simple, right? That's their mathematics. That's how they exist."

UCF Football made a powerful statement in its Big 12 debut. The team hammered visiting Kent State 56-6. "Playing your first game, you learn a lot about your team," Head Coach Guz Malzhan said.

Even from afar, Tropical Storm Idalia puts Brevard County's beaches and sea turtles at risk, as it rides our way right when something that happens once in a blue moon and not again this century: a blue "supermoon."Idalia will hit Florida as the moon is at its closest to Florida, making high tide higher and therefore storm surge in the storm's path that much more severe. The storm could cause chaos for hatching sea turtles, though. If the conditions are right this week, with onshore winds, then heavy surf will push hatchling sea turtles back onto the beach, risking their already endangered lives, "especially now, during the hatching season and after this kind of storm when the winds shift back onshore," Kate Mansfield, a biology professor at University of Central Florida, said via email. "It looks like the predicted winds will be onshore by weekend." Loggerhead sea turtle nesting is slowing down, Mansfield said, and should wrap up soon. Leatherback turtle nesting ended in June, she added, and green sea turtle nesting is still ongoing through September. "I think (hope) we are past the green turtle peak," she said. "It's been a doozy this year. We are breaking the green turtle nest record daily at this point (and have been for over a month)."

Today, India’s Chandrayaan-3 became the first spacecraft to successfully land near the lunar south pole, and India became the fourth country to make a soft landing anywhere on lunar soil, following the former Soviet Union, the United States, and China. The robotic vehicle touched down at 8:33 Eastern time, nearly six weeks after its launch. Getting a craft safely to the moon, and especially to the rough terrain of the south pole, poses many challenges. “You know the saying, ‘Space is hard.’ It’s because the environment we’re trying to operate in is not the environment where most of our technology has matured,” says Phil Metzger, a planetary scientist at the University of Central Florida who studies space economics. To name just a few of the technical factors that have to go absolutely right, the vehicle has to survive the jolt of launch, the vacuum of space, and the challenges of heat transfer and space radiation—plus communicate with Earth, despite a significant time delay. “All these things add up,” he says.