Florida Department of Health, Office of Public Health Research Announces a Public Meeting

The Office of Public Health Research announces a public meeting of the Florida Biomedical Research Advisory Council. The meeting will take place May 18, 2008 in Miami, FL.

GRANTEE SPOTLIGHT: Brain Function Explains Various Mechanism Of Tobacco Dependency and Addiction: Shows Why Quitting is Difficult

Society for Neuroscience (Nov. 5, 2007) — New findings clarify the brain mechanisms that explain many aspects of dependency on nicotine, the addictive substance in tobacco.

GRANTEE SPOTLIGHT: New Technique Identifies Molecular 'Biomarkers' For Disease

ScienceDaily (Apr. 2, 2008) — University of Florida chemists are the first to use a new tool to identify the molecular signatures of serious diseases -- without any previous knowledge of what these microscopic signatures or "biomarkers" should look like.

News Release, March 20, 2008: The Florida Department of Health Announces Accreditation of Human Research Protection Program

TALLAHASSEE - The Florida Department of Health (DOH) today announced that the agency has become the first public health department to receive full accreditation of its human research protection program, which encompasses the Institutional Review Board and all members of the DOH research community.

Scientists Discover How Cigarette Smoke Causes Cancer: Study Points to New Treatments, Safer Tobacco

Bethesda, MD - Everyone has known for decades that smoking can kill, but until now no one really understood how cigarette smoke causes healthy lung cells to become cancerous.

GRANTEE SPOTLIGHT: Nicotine Reduces Stress, Repiratory Awareness

South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Feb 26, 2008) - If that smoker next to you seems more relaxed than you, you might be right. University of Florida veterinary researchers say smokers reduce stress because nicotine appears to mask the brain's awareness of outside stimuli, thereby reducing anxiety, " Smoking may kill, but the stress-reducing effects of nicotine on the brain are probably one reason why the habit is so prominent among college students," said Paul Davenport, Ph.D., a professor in the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine's department of physiological sciences.

WHO Releases Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic

In a new report which presents the first comprehensive analysis of global tobacco use and control efforts, the World Health Organization (WHO) finds that only 5% of the world's population live in countries that fully protect their population with any one of the key measures that reduce smoking rates.

King and Bankhead-Coley Research Programs to Adopt Innovative NIH Policy on Journal Access

Consistent with a new federal policy, the James & Esther King Biomedical Research Program and the Bankhead-Coley Cancer Research Program will require open access to published research findings of their funded researchers, beginning with new grants that will be awarded in July 2008.

Bankhead-Coley and King Program 2007 Annual Reports Available

The Bankhead-Coley Cancer Research Program and James & Esther King Biomedical Research Program 2007 Annual Reports are now available.

NCI Designation

The Florida Biomedical Research Programs (Bankhead-Coley Cancer Research Program and James & Esther King Biomedical Research Program) have received the National Cancer Institute (NCI) designation as a funding organization with an approved peer review and funding system.