News & Events

Cooler weather may be upon us, but as we open windows and head outside, it is important to remember that we are still in mosquito season. Recent rains have filled all of the containers, cracks and crevices that can hold water around our homes and neighborhoods. While working around my yard, I have found mosquito larvae in the bird bath, a garbage can lid and in the rim of a recycling container.

They have been described as palm-sized, parachuting creatures with the potential to spread up the East Coast. Now dozens of webs are appearing in trees, on fences and in gardens around the Southeast, and social media and message boards are buzzing with Joro spider sightings. Discussions of eradication methods ranging from chemical sprays to “Joro sticks” are rampant. Joro season is here.

Two faculty members in UGA’s Regenerative Bioscience Center, Steven Stice and Franklin West, have been awarded multiple grants from the National Institutes of Health totaling $1.1 million to study potential treatments for traumatic brain injury. Stice and West will collaborate with MRI expert Qun Zhao to evaluate the brain’s functional organization and neural repair of networks following traumatic brain injury.