Newly installed equipment in the USF Health Heart Institute Preclinical Imaging Suite.

The USF Health Heart Institute has installed new variable 7T-3T MR/PET and PET-CT integrated imaging systems – establishing the first comprehensive preclinical imaging suite at the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine.

The 520-square-foot suite includes three pieces of leading-edge MR Solutions equipment operated from one console – a magnetic resonance imager (MRI), a computed tomography scanner (CT), and a positron emission tomography (PET) machine.  It also houses an existing state-of-the-art cardiac ultrasound machine used for preclinical studies.

The compact multimodal systems can be used to visualize small animal models (rodents) from the molecular/cellular level to entire organs, including the blood flow of a beating heart. It combines PET’s sensitivity in tracking the metabolism of living cells and uniquely labeled cell types with MRI’s and CT’s strength in high-resolution anatomical imaging of soft tissue (i.e., heart, brain, blood vessels, nerves) and bony structures like the skull and spine. The PET technology can be used independently, or sequentially with either the MRI or the CT machine.

“This new preclinical imaging technology enables us to capture more detailed data critical for cardiovascular studies where we need to see exactly how the heart and vascular system respond to diseases and various targeted therapies,” said USF Health Heart Institute Director Samuel Wickline, MD. “It will enhance our competitiveness for National Institutes of Health grants and can also help advance research on cancer, neurodegenerative diseases and many other conditions.”

.

The 7T MR/PET imaging system uses pioneering dry magnet (liquid helium-free) technology, making the equipment much smaller, lighter and less costly than conventional wet magnet systems. The 7T MR scanner is self-shielded to prevent noise interference.

“Quantitative research methods developed for use in the powerful preclinical imaging systems are directly applicable to larger imaging platforms used in clinical medicine”, said Dr. Wickline, a professor of cardiovascular sciences who focuses on building nanoparticles to deliver drugs, genes, or other therapeutic molecules to specific cell types, or targets.

“It’s basically the same physics and engineering on a smaller scale, which transfers nicely to the imaging devices we use for patients.”

The Heart Institute ultimately plans to operate the suite as a core research facility, allowing biomedical researchers across USF as well as collaborators outside the university to access its imaging services for reasonable fees, Dr. Wickline said.

Diabetic mouse heart with 60 frames per cardiac cycle. | Image courtesy of Mariah Daal, MSc-PhD candidate, AMC, Amsterdam, The Netherlands: MRS* DRYMAG 7T

Cardiac muscle fibers (left ventricle, mouse heart) acquired with an MRI technique known as diffusion tensor imaging tractography.  The reconstructed image can  improve understanding of cardiac remodeling due to heart muscle disease. | Courtesy of Pr Gustav Strijkers, AMC, Amsterdam, The Netherlands: MRS* DRYMAG 7T.

The USF Health Heart Institute at the University of South Florida is committed to translating their findings from the laboratory to the clinic to directly benefit patients. Scientists and physicians work together with the common goal of creating new therapies for cardiovascular disease, generating biomedical inventions leading to patents and licenses, and attracting biotech and pharmaceutical companies with their innovations.

The USF Health Heart Institute is housed in the newly constructed USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, which opened earlier this year in the Water Street Tampa wellness district.

-Photos of preclinical imaging systems equipment courtesy of Gilberto Prudencio, MRS Solutions

The program, one of five awarded nationally this year, pairs faculty mentors from USF Health’s Heart Institute with promising students interested in cardiovascular or related biomedical research

The American Heart Association has awarded the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine a three-year, $60,000 grant to establish a summer training program intended to encourage promising undergraduate college students from all disciplines to consider careers in cardiovascular research.

The AHA-sponsored Undergraduate Student Fellowship grant was one of five newly awarded in 2018 to institutions across the United States. And, the 13 total undergraduate student fellowship programs currently funded by AHA include such prestigious institutions as Stanford University, the University of California San Diego, Pennsylvania State University and Carnegie Mellon University, to name a few.

USF Health’s Heart Institute Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships program begins May 28, providing a 10-week research experience for five highly qualified junior and senior-level undergraduate students. This summer, all five student fellows entering the rigorous program are from USF, but qualifying U.S. and international students from other institutions can apply.  The AHA grant funds $4,000 stipends to support each trainee.

Jerome Breslin, PhD, professor in the USF Health Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology, directs the newly awarded Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships program sponsored by the American Heart Association. Dr. Breslin is pictured here in 2016 with two USF undergraduate students who conducted NIH and American Physiological Society fellowship-supported research in his laboratory — Sara Sampinato (left), chemical engineering major, and Andrea Burgess, biomedical sciences major. |Photo by Eric Younghans

“Our main goal is to recruit, train and mentor outstanding undergraduate students so they can become the next generation of graduate students and medical students who will be future leaders and advocates for cardiovascular research,” said Jerome Breslin, PhD, professor in the Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology who directs this new AHA fellowship program at USF.

Five faculty members — all members of the USF Health Heart Institute with a solid track record of producing successful scientists — will mentor the undergraduate fellows through their individualized summer research experiences. Four faculty mentors are from Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology: Dr Breslin; Ruisheng Liu, MD, PhD, professor; Sami Noujaim, PhD, assistant professor; and Sarah Yuan, MD, PhD, departmental chair and professor. The fifth, Mack Wu, MD, holds appointments as a professor in the Department of Surgery and the Department of Molecular Medicine.

Graduate and doctoral students will also help mentor, giving the undergraduates an opportunity to interact with researchers at all levels, Dr. Breslin said.

The students will train in laboratories using cutting-edge technology to better understand the underlying mechanisms of diseases and discover new therapies.  Their cardiovascular research projects will focus on basic science areas in which the Heart Institute investigators are experts, including:  endothelial function, microcirculation, hypertension and cardiac arrhythmias.

In addition to laboratory research, students will participate in weekly seminars and workshops designed to instill scientific rigor, develop professional skills, and help them begin building a network needed to pursue a career in science.

“At the USF Health Heart Institute, we want to create the most vibrant research environment possible for all levels of trainees. That means reaching out to students who are still undergraduates to nurture their interest in cardiovascular or related biomedical sciences with a meaningful summer research experience. Ultimately we want to get more young scientists into the pipeline – and it’s never too early to start that process.”

This summer, the five student fellows participating in the AHA program were selected from among 18 applicants, including several from the University of Florida and Florida State University.  For the first summer, all these undergraduate participants are from USF:

USF Juniors (all majoring in biomedical sciences)
Nouhaila Beytour, Dr. Noujaim (faculty mentor); Veneta Dinova, Dr. Liu; Rebeca Gonzalez Jauregui, Dr. Breslin; and Ethan Zheng, Dr. Yuan.

USF Senior (majoring in public health)
Forouzandeh Farsaei, Dr. Breslin

For more information, please visit: www.health.usf.edu/medicine/mpp/surp.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVCDQrfRgwY

Hana Totary-Jain, PhD, an assistant professor of molecular pharmacology and physiology at USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, is among leading scientists from across the country who appear in the Research!America “Reasons for Research” video series to discuss why federal support for medical and health research is crucial to saving lives and reducing health care costs.

The National Institutes of Health-funded research team led by Dr. Totary-Jain — including students at all levels — is part of the USF Health Heart Institute.  They are working on solutions for heart disease and other cardiovascular disorders.  The team’s research focuses on developing new nanotherapies to reverse arterial damage caused by atherosclerosis. These investigational therapies, designed to target diseased cells without harming healthy cells, could be applied to other diseases, including cancer.

“Today we have the tools to treat many diseases, but it takes many years of training and hard work to make the right discoveries that lead to treatment,” Dr. Totary-Jain said.  “That is why it is crucial that the U.S. government continues to invest in biomedical research.”

Hana Totary-Jain, PhD, far right, with her research team

Research!America is the nation’s largest not-for-profit public education and advocacy alliance committed to making research to improve health a higher national priority.

-Video and photo by Sandra C. Roa, University Communications and Marketing