Gainesville, Fla.-based UF Health has named Joe Garcia, MD, associate vice president for research at UF Health and the inaugural Herbert A. Wertheim Professor of Inflammation Science.
In these new roles, Dr. Garcia will serve as the director of the new center for the study of inflammation biology and promote ways to enhance research. Recently, Dr. Garcia has served as founder and CEO of Aqualung Therapeutics and taught at Tucson-based University of Arizona.
Dr. Garcia is a pulmonologist specializing in the genetic basis of inflammatory lung disease, according to a Nov. 8 UF Health news release.
"Dr. Garcia joins us at a pivotal moment in our history as the Southeast's premier academic health center, and his work will help accelerate our ability to move discoveries into clinical advances that translate into improved outcomes for patients, both in Florida and around the world," David Nelson, MD, senior vice president for health affairs at UF and president of UF Health, said.