Stephen B. Liggett, M.D.

The reopening of the world economy is largely reliant on easy and accessible COVID-19 screening. Kaligia Biosciences, a medical device company, is working with major Florida medical institutions to develop a portable, saliva-based device that can produce results in less than three minutes.

Kaligia Biosciences is starting clinical trials of the Rapid Biofluid Analyzer 2 (RBA-2) device this week, using saliva samples of COVID-19 from Bay-area hospitals and beyond.

The method uses a proven Kaligia Biosciences device that analyses multiple blood components. Kaligia Biosciences is collaborating with AdventHealth, the University of South Florida College of Pharmacy (USF) the USF College of Medicine and Tampa General Hospital (TGH) to adapt the device for COVID-19 screening… Continue reading.

When the protein tau builds up in the brain, it can form toxic tangles that are the hallmark of several neurological diseases, including Alzheimer’s and frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD), a particularly devastating early-onset form of dementia. Now, researchers at the University of South Florida (USF) Health Morsani College of Medicine believe they’ve found another protein that prevents the brain from disposing of toxic tau—and a potential technique for restoring that vital tau-clearance system.

The USF team found that a specific form of the protein beta-arrestin-2 disrupts tau clearance in the brain. That subtype of beta-arrestin-2 is called “oligomerized” because it consists of several peptide chains. When the researchers inactivated the beta-arrestin-2 gene in mouse models of human dementia, levels of pathogenic tau dropped significantly, they reported in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences… Continue reading.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) has announced the induction of Stephen B. Liggett, M.D., Vice Dean and Professor, Morsani College of Medicine, University of South Florida, to its College of Fellows. Dr. Liggett was nominated, reviewed, and elected by peers and members of the College of Fellows for distinguished contributions to advancing understanding of genetic variations in humans, pioneering discoveries in pharmacogenomics, and developing novel therapeutics.