UGA to launch School of Medicine

With an announcement that reverberated not only across the university but the state of Georgia, UGA announced in February 2024 that it had received authorization from the University System of Georgia Board of Regents to establish an independent School of Medicine near the main campus in Athens.

The announcement came at a time when Georgia faces a significant shortage of medical professionals. “The School of Medicine will significantly expand the pool of medical professionals in Georgia, attract more top-tier scientists and researchers to the state, and produce more physicians to serve underserved and rural Georgia communities,” said President Jere W. Morehead.

The UGA School of Medicine will build on the success of the Augusta University/University of Georgia Medical Partnership, which has been educating physicians in Athens since 2010. Dr. Shelley Nuss, who’s served as campus dean of the Medical Partnership since 2016, has been named founding dean of the new school. Read More >>

Democratizing carbohydrate science

Complex carbohydrates (also known as “glycans”) are one of the four basic biomolecular building blocks of life, and glycoscience has tremendous potential for applications in health science, biofuels, and biomaterials.

Funded with $18 million from the National Science Foundation, the BioFoundry: Glycoscience Resources, Education, And Training (BioFoundry: GREAT) initiative is an ambitious effort led by Lance Wells and the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center to increase awareness, interest, knowledge, and participation in carbohydrate science all the way from K-12 curricula to the most advanced research and development institutions on Earth. Read More >>

Sniff the COVID away

Needle-phobic and eager to avoid another round with COVID-19? Help is on the way. UGA-based startup CyanVac LLC received federal funding to launch a clinical trial of CVXGA, the company’s intranasal COVID vaccine candidate.

CyanVac was founded by Biao He, Fred C. Davison Distinguished University Chair in Veterinary Medicine and a College of Veterinary Medicine faculty member. Read More >>

Fading the heat in high school sports

From 1980-2009, Georgia led the country in heat-related deaths of high school athletes. That’s when the Georgia High School Association (GHSA) adopted new policies informed by research led by Bud Cooper in UGA’s Mary Frances Early College of Education.

Fast forward to 2024, and Georgia ranks among the nation’s best in protecting its high school athletes from heat. “We took Georgia from worst to first,” Cooper says. Read More >>