UCF in the News

Democrats fear that 2022 could be the year Florida cements itself as a red state. With little more than a week to go before Election Day, Republicans appear poised to once again dominate the state. Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is running well ahead of his Democratic rival, former Rep. Charlie Crist (D-Fla.), while Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.) is struggling to break through in her bid to unseat Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). Of course, one election isn’t indicative of a trend, in and of itself. “Certainly, over time, population growth has been a primary driver of political change in Florida going back decades,” said Aubrey Jewett, a political science professor at the University of Central Florida. “And it certainly has fueled the rise of Republicans in the state. “Over time, as more and more people move to Florida — we’ve had 2 [million] to 3 million people a decade move to this state for about five to six decades in a row — that’s absolutely going to change things.”

An Australian dermal clinician has debunked the common misconception that getting a 'base tan' protects skin from sun damage. Dermal science student Madeleine has taken to her popular account with information she has learned in the lab and the classroom about the dangers of 'tanning as protection'. 'Skin producing melanin in response to sun damage is it going into survival mode, it does not actually provide significant protection,' she said in a video. But it affords almost no protection against future ultraviolet exposure and is not recommended by professionals and scientists. The University of Central Florida revealed that a base tan protects you as much as sunscreen with an SPF 3 or less. 'Melanin has an absolute maximum SPF of 14, but it does not protect as well as applied SPF and protective clothing,' said Madeleine.

The Food and Drug Administration is reporting shortages of the type 2 diabetes drug Ozempic. The news comes after the medication has gone viral for leading to weight loss. Experts say some people are taking the drug off-label to lose weight. The prescription drug Ozempic, used to treat patients with type 2 diabetes, has gone viral on the social media platform TikTok because of its weight-loss side effect. “Ozempic belongs to the GLP-1 RA medication family, which helps patients in three ways,” said Martha Garcia-Stout, PharmD, JD, a lecturer within the College of Health Professions and Sciences at the University of Central Florida. “It helps by slowing stomach emptying, which delays the absorption of nutrients, preventing a glucose spike after meals; increasing the level of circulating insulin by stimulating the production of more insulin; and reducing the release of additional sugar from the liver into the bloodstream.”

UCF lecturer of Political Science, John Hanley talks with FOX 35 on why midterm elections are so important in Florida.

NASA hopes to take us back to the moon for an extended stay via its Artemis lunar program, but lots of logistics still need to be worked out before we can safely set up on the moon for the long haul. One such hurdle is the actual material astronauts will use to construct a permanent lunar base, which will require a host of engineering considerations we normally never need to think about down here on Earth. According to an announcement earlier this week via the University of Central Florida, a team from the school’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering developed a new construction material composed partly of lunar regolith—the loose rocks, dust, and other debris covering the Moon’s surface. Using both 3D printing and a method called binder jet technology (BJT) in which a liquid binding agent (in this case saltwater) is infused into a bed of moon powder supplied by UCF’s Exolith Lab, Associate Professor Ranajay Ghosh’s group was able to produce bricks capable of withstanding pressure of up to 250 million times greater than our own atmosphere. Although the initial cylindrical bricks produced are comparably weak, blasting them with 1200 degrees Celsius heat strengthened them enough to be a viable tool in the eventual structures NASA hopes to establish on the Moon, such as a modular cabin and mobile home. “This research contributes to the ongoing debate in space exploration community on finding the balance between in-situ extraterrestrial resource utilization versus material transported from Earth,” Ghosh said in UCF’s announcement.

Next semester, select master’s students at the University of Central Florida will call Universal Orlando their classroom. Through a partnership with Universal Creative, UCF’s Themed Experience program is offering a Creative Lab course where students will learn about entertainment design and development in the classroom and at Universal’s creative headquarters in Orlando while developing their own projects. “Not every program has the advantage that we have of being located right here in the heart of the industry,” said Peter Weishar, founding director of the Themed Experience program. “So you could be a magnificent designer who’s looking to work at Universal eventually, but located out of state — you could come here for the summer and take this class.” Students will have to sign non-disclosure agreements with Universal. Even though they will not be working on upcoming projects with Universal firsthand, students will still be learning about things in development and showing Universal’s teams their own projects, Weishar said. “On one hand, we don’t want them talking about trade secrets outside of class, and on the other hand they have to agree that they know they’re showing their work to Universal,” he said.

Terlisa Shepard was 31 years old and eight months pregnant when she got her first breast cancer diagnosis. That was the first of four cancer battles the now 55-year-old would have. Shepard is now participating in cancer research at the University of Central Florida that shows what cancer cells are doing and about to do. Dr. Annete Khaled, the head of cancer research at UCF, is working to make every moment count. She said current tests detect cancer when its localized. Her new test finds advanced cancer early, before it begins to spread anywhere in the body. You can learn more about the process in the video above. Kahled said she expects to start testing on patients within the year.

In a new study, researchers examined the medical records of over 38,000 patients hospitalized for COVID-19. Statin users were 37% less likely to die from COVID-19 compared to people who didn’t use statins. The study was conducted before COVID-19 vaccines were authorized by the FDA. Common medications used to lower cholesterol may reduce the severity of COVID-19 and the risk of dying from this disease, a preliminary study suggests. “Our results suggest statins could be an additional cost-effective solution against COVID-19 disease severity and should be studied further,” study author Dr. Ettore Crimi, professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, said in a news release.

Parts of Florida hit hardest by Hurricane Ian are seeing nearly double the normal number of infections from flesh-eating bacteria that thrive in coastal floodwaters. According to the Florida Department of Health, so far in 2022, Florida has seen 65 cases and one death from the bacterium compared with 34 cases and 10 deaths in 2021. The only Central Florida counties with reported cases this year are Brevard with two cases and no deaths, and Seminole with one case and one death. University of Central Florida professor Salvador Almagro Moreno, Ph.D., is an expert in flesh-eating bacteria. He said considering the expansive flooding from Ian, he's not surprised at the spike. "People that might not be in contact with bacteria at normal times, because of the water, and the coastal water getting inside the land. It just increases the contact and also people are gonna have like wounds because they are gonna be carrying things. It's going to create the perfect environment for transmission of the disease,” Moreno said.