By Lara Wade
The Florida Technology, Research and Scholarship Board awarded the University of South Florida $8 million, ranking first among six grant recipients, to create the Florida Center of Excellence for Biomolecular Identification and Targeted Therapeutics. This Center, which has the potential to change how illness and disease is detected and treated, is a true community/business partnership involving collaboration between several departments within the University as well as organizations throughout the region including Hillsborough County, the City of Tampa, the Florida High Tech Corridor Council, St. Petersburg College and Hillsborough Community College. Also involved is Biovest International, a Massachusetts based company recognized as a world-leader in the biotechnology industry. The USF project’s four co-principal investigators are Daniel Lim, PhD; Biology; Ed Turos, PhD, Chemistry; Peter Stroot, PhD, Engineering, and Richard Heller, PhD, Molecular Medicine.

The Florida Center of Excellence for Biomolecular Identification and Targeted Therapeutics was proposed under the direction and leadership of USF President Judy Genshaft. A total of 32 proposals from colleges and medical centers throughout Florida vied for $30 million in state money, with six proposals being selected for funding. USF’s Center for Biomolecular Identification and Targeted Therapeutics proposal ranked highest and received the greatest amount of funding at $8 million with the second receiving $5 million.

“This proposal demonstrates my continued commitment to supporting multidisciplinary projects with partners from both the private and public sector,” said Genshaft. “Our Center of Excellence will support and strengthen ongoing research efforts at USF and create exciting new partnerships. I am proud of our team and look forward to seeing the fruits of our labor pay off for the region, the nation and the world.”

The goal of the Center is to stimulate growth in the biotechnology industry throughout Florida, which currently ranks 10th in the nation. The Center will integrate biomolecular identification technologies to respond to and treat biological threats and then translate these technologies into commercial products which will benefit the environment and public health. The Center will use an innovative approach following a discovery, development and commercialization model. It will not only discover how to detect and diagnose human illness and disease but then focus on developing new methods of treatment and prevention and then commercialize these products.

USF has been strategically investing in the biotechnology industry over the past five years dedicating $80 million to the physical infrastructure at USF, which includes the creation of the USF Research Park, $5 million for 15 new biotechnology faculty and committing $3 million over the next two years to the education of future biotechnology professionals.

“The benefit to our community and the region can not be understated,” said Genshaft. “Not only has $39 million in matching support been committed to the Center, but the return on this investment includes the creation of 400 new biotechnology jobs, $84 million in direct wages and an estimated economic impact of over $188 million.”

The other proposals selected for funding include Florida Atlantic University/Ocean Energy - $5 million, University of Florida/Energy Technology Incubator - $4.5 million, University of Central Florida/Laser Technology - $4.5 million, University of Florida/Nano-Bio Sensors - $4 million and Florida State University/Advanced Materials - $4 million.

- USF -

The University of South Florida is one of the nation’s top 63 public research universities as designated by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. USF received more than $310 million in research contracts and grants last year, and it is ranked by the National Science Foundation as one of the nation’s two fastest growing universities in terms of federal research and development expenditures. The university has a $1.6 billion annual budget and serves 44,038 students on campuses in Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota/Manatee and Lakeland. USF is a member of the Big East Athletic Conference.

We’re not close kin to the sea urchin, but genetically speaking we may have more in common than we think.

The decoding of the sea urchin genome featured in the Nov. 10 issue of the journal Science is accompanied by a companion article written by scientists from the University of Toronto, George Washington University, and the University of South Florida College of Medicine, including affiliates All Children’s Hospital and H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center.

In “Genomic Insights into the Immune System of the Sea Urchin,” the authors, including USF geneticist Gary Litman, PhD, contend that the comprehensive analysis of the sea urchin genome has broad implications for understanding primitive host defense and the genetic underpinnings of immunity in vertebrates. An international team of researchers sequenced the entire genome of the purple sea urchin (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus), which like humans belongs to the evolutionary lineage known as deuterostomes.

The sea urchin has emerged as one of the leading models for analyzing genetic regulatory networks that control development. Sea urchins belong to one side of the deuterostome evolutionary split and a few invertebrates (termed protochordates) as well as vertebrates, including humans, belong to the other side of the split.

The investigators detected in the sea urchin an extraordinarily large number of genes that encode molecules involved in natural or innate immunity, the first line of defense against microorganisms. Innate immunity is preformed and directly inherited.

Surprisingly, the international team also found elements of the more customized adaptive immune system, which in vertebrates produces a complex arsenal of antibodies and T-cell receptors to fend off diverse pathogens and prevent repeated attacks. Adaptive immunity, which is not necessarily inherited and arises uniquely in each individual, was not seen until the emergence of vertebrates.

When the sea urchin genome was analyzed, it appeared to contain nearly all the various components that drive the genetic diversification of antibodies and T-cell antigen receptors – just not the actual receptors themselves, said Dr. Litman, the Hines Professor of Pediatrics at USF Health. So, while pieces of adaptive immunity were clearly present in the sea urchin, they were not yet interacting.

“Putting all the pieces of adaptive immunity together was clearly a late event in evolution,” Dr. Litman said. “Such findings are particularly rare and ultimately will help us to better understand how complex genetic regulatory circuits are assembled from components that originally may have been dedicated to very different tasks.

“Innate immunity recognizes disease first and we’re just beginning to understand how the adaptive immune system steps in to fight disease once the red flag is raised,” he added. “This latest genome project may reveal important aspects of how our innate and adaptive immune systems interact. It may give us the best clue yet about how genes work together to keep us healthy.”

In addition to Dr. Litman, the companion paper’s other authors were Jonathan Rast, PhD, (a former doctoral student of Dr. Litman’s), Mariano Loza-Coll, PhD, and Taku Hibino, PhD, all of the University of Toronto; and L. Courtney Smith, PhD, of George Washington University.

- USF Health -

USF Health is a partnership of the University of South Florida’s colleges of medicine, nursing, and public health; the schools of basic biomedical sciences and physical therapy & rehabilitation sciences; and the USF Physicians Group. It is a partnership dedicated to the promise of creating a new model of health and health care. One of the nation's top 63 public research universities as designated by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, USF received more than $310 million in research contracts and grants last year. It is ranked by the National Science Foundation as one of the nation's fastest growing universities for federal research and development expenditures.

The partnership between USF Health and Pepin Heart Hospital & Dr. Kiran C. Patel Research Institute moved forward this fall with the addition of Dr. Charles Lambert, Jr. as Pepin Heart Hospital’s Medical Director and Professor of Medicine at the USF College of Medicine. The university and hospital have forged an affiliation agreement to work together in strengthening cardiovascular research, clinical care and educational opportunities in the Tampa Bay region.

Dr. Lambert will help develop the USF/Pepin Heart fellowship programs in interventional cardiology and electrophysiology, direct the Dr. Kiran C. Patel Research Institute and outcomes measurement and analysis at Pepin Heart Hospital, and also provide patient care.

Dr. Lambert is an interventional cardiologist who obtained his medical degree and a PhD in physiology from the University of Florida, and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Massachusetts. He spent the last three years at the University of Florida as professor and senior attending physician for interventional cardiology and seven years at UF as director of the Health First Heart Institute, an affiliation between the university and a three-hospital system in Brevard County.

“The partnership between the USF College of Medicine and the Pepin Heart Hospital offers a truly innovative, cooperative platform for clinical, educational and research program development,” Dr. Lambert said. “The commitment to establish a true center of excellence in cardiovascular medicine and surgery here is held not only by organizational leaders but also by an excellent and supportive physician contingent. The environment is unique within the State of Florida.”

“With the combined efforts of Pepin Heart Hospital and USF in bringing Dr. Lambert to Tampa, we are one step closer in our quest to create one of America’s leading cardiovascular treatment and research facilities,” added Brigitte Shaw, chief executive officer for Pepin Heart Hospital.

“Dr. Lambert is a physician-scientist who brings to our Tampa Bay area a longstanding track record of cutting-edge research in interventional cardiology as well as an impressive business background,” said Anne Curtis, MD, professor and chief of cardiology at USF Health. “He will be instrumental in building the stature of the research program and USF’s educational presence at Pepin Heart Hospital.”

USF, which currently oversees interventional cardiology and electrophysiology fellowship programs at Tampa General Hospital and James A. Veterans Hospital, plans to expand the fellowhips to Pepin Heart Hospital. These programs provide physicians with advanced subspecialty training in cardiovascular procedures other than open heart surgery, like using angioplasty and stents (interventional cardiology), and expertise in the diagnosis and treatment of heart rhythm disorders (electrophysiology).

The USF College of Medicine expects to add two to three faculty members who primarily would be based at Pepin by this summer, Dr. Curtis said.

Dr. Lambert is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology, the Society for Cardiac Angiography and Interventions, the American College of Physicians and the American Heart Association’s Council for Clinical Cardiology. He has published more than 140 journal articles, book chapters and reviews.

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PEPIN HEART HOSPITAL & DR. KIRAN C. PATEL RESEARCH INSTITUTE
Opened in the Spring of 2006, Pepin Heart Hospital & Dr. Kiran C. Patel Research Institute is the fifth hospital in the University Community Health network of hospitals, which was created to reflect the combined strength and partnership achieved through the union of University Community Hospital (UCH) and UCH-Carrollwood in Tampa, Helen Ellis Memorial Hospital in Tarpon Springs, and Sun Coast Hospital in Largo. The hospital is positioned to transform the delivery of healthcare with its all-digital technology. Pepin Heart Hospital & Dr. Kiran C. Patel Research Institute is located on the same campus as University Community Hospital at 3100 East Fletcher Avenue, Tampa, Fla., (813) 971-6000.

USF HEALTH
USF Health is a partnership of the University of South Florida’s colleges of medicine, nursing, and public health; the schools of basic biomedical sciences and physical therapy & rehabilitation sciences; and the USF Physicians Group. It is a partnership dedicated to the promise of creating a new model of health and health care. One of the nation's top 63 public research universities as designated by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, USF received more than $310 million in research contracts and grants last year. It is ranked by the National Science Foundation as one of the nation's fastest growing universities for federal research and development expenditures.

See highlights from Leadership Institute graduation....

In their Feb. 2 graduation ceremony from the USF Leadership Institute, 20 faculty members were charged with transforming USF Health.

“I don’t want to do a leadership institute that just gets us some management courses,” said Stephen K. Klasko, MD, MBA, vice president for USF Health. “I want to change the DNA of our faculty, 20 people at a time.”

The charter class of the USF Leadership Institute also heard from USF President Judy Genshaft and USF Board of Trustees Member John Ramil, president of TECO Energy.

Ramil reminded the graduates to look to each other.

“You now have 20 consultants that you know really well,” he said. “Call your classmates. Talk to them.”

The USF Leadership Institute identifies and develops high-potential physicians and healthcare professionals, helping them improve their abilities to lead.

On Feb. 6, the second class began with 28 faculty and staff from across USF Health. Future programs will target health care healthcare professionals from throughout the region.

Tampa, FL (Sept. 19, 2006) -- The University of South Florida College of Medicine has risen in the ranks of awards bestowed by the National Institutes of Health, the most prestigious funding source for medical research.

With $40.6 million in total NIH funding for fiscal year 2005, the college moved to 74th place among the 123 U.S. medical schools ranked. That’s up from 79th place, $34 million, in fiscal year 2004 and a jump from 100th place a decade ago.

In addition, Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute – an affiliate of USF’s medical school – ranked 28th out of 273 centers and institutes in a listing of NIH support to research institutions across the county. USF College of Medicine faculty at Moffitt secured $23.2 million in NIH funding in 2005 – up from $19 million in 2004.

“This is another example of the forward momentum of USF Health when it comes to achieving national prominence,” said Stephen Klasko, MD, MBA, dean of the College of Medicine and vice president for USF Health. “Our faculty continue to work across departments and colleges to improve our NIH research ranking.”

“We expect that our national research standing will continue to grow as we strengthen our collaborations with other colleges/schools at USF and with affiliate partners and community healthcare providers and broaden the diversity and size of our translational and clinical research enterprise,” said Abdul S. Rao, MD, DPhil, senior associate vice president for research at USF Health. “By focusing on the entire continuum of health, our opportunities for interdisciplinary research collaboration and breakthroughs are limitless.”

Collectively at USF Health, its colleges of medicine, nursing, and public heath received $167 million in extramural funding in fiscal year 2005 – up from $134 million in fiscal year 2004. USF Health College of Nursing received $3.9 million in extramural funding in fiscal year 2005 – up from $1.7 million in fiscal year 2004.

USF received $310 million in extramural funding in fiscal year 2005 – up from $287 million in fiscal year 2004. USF is one of only 63 public universities in the U.S., and one of only three public universities in the State of Florida that have been designated as Carnegie Comprehensive Doctoral Research University/Very High Research Activity.

- USF Health -

USF Health is a partnership of the University of South Florida’s colleges of medicine, nursing, and public health; the schools of basic biomedical sciences and physical therapy & rehabilitation sciences; and the USF Physicians Group. It is a partnership dedicated to the promise of creating a new model of health and health care. One of the nation's top 63 public research universities as designated by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, USF received more than $310 million in research contracts and grants last year. It is ranked by the National Science Foundation as one of the nation's fastest growing universities for federal research and development expenditures.

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Tampa, FL (Sept. 5, 2006) -- A research scientist and his team at the University of South Florida have been awarded the ninth single largest research grant given in 2005 by the National Institutes of Health*, the most prestigious funding source for medical research.

Jeffrey Krischer, PhD, of USF Health’s College of Medicine’s Department of Pediatrics received $20.1 million to establish and direct a data coordinating center to identify environmental triggers of Type 1 diabetes. The center receives results from clinical study sites across the United States, and Dr. Krischer is responsible for all data coordination and analysis for the critical research into the causes of diabetes in children. This grant is larger than any individual faculty grants received at much older institutions, including Harvard and Duke.

For the NIH, Dr. Krischer’s work is often cited as an example of the “NIH roadmap,” the initiative to bring the discoveries of basic science to preventing or treating disease. “By coordinating these trials, we’re re-engineering clinical research,” Dr. Krischer said. “Almost every major effort worldwide to prevent juvenile diabetes comes through this team. Some day we might just prevent this disease, and it’ll come through here.”

Dr. Krischer, professor and chief of the Division of Bioinformatics and Biostatistics, Department of Pediatrics, has attracted more than $27 million in federal research grants. He directs the USF Pediatrics Epidemiology Center, which is the data coordinating and technology center for NIH’s TEDDY study—The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young.

In addition, Dr. Krischer is principal investigator for the development a second major NIH data coordinating center, which supports the Rare Diseases Clinical Research Network, a research cooperative addressing the challenges inherent in diagnosing and treating rare diseases such as aplastic anemia, myelodysplastic syndromes and hereditary idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Earlier this year, the NIH announced a five-year, $71-million initiative by its rare diseases network to launch 20 studies at more than 50 sites.

*As of May 2006, compiled by The Scientist

- USF Health -

USF Health is a partnership of the colleges of public health, nursing and medicine; the schools of basic biomedical sciences and physical therapy; and the USF Physicians Group. It is a partnership dedicated to the promise of creating a new model of health and health care.

Tampa, FL (Oct. 18, 2006) -- Responding locally to the nationwide demand for more anesthesia providers, the University of South Florida College of Nursing recently began the Tampa Bay area’s first accredited Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA) program. Thirteen students entered the new master of science program with a concentration in nurse anesthesia this fall.

“The program at USF will help meet the needs of the Tampa Bay population by providing excellent anesthetists who will practice in our community,” said Mary Webb, PhD, associate dean of Academic Affairs for the College of Nursing.

CRNAs are anesthesia professionals who administer approximately 65 percent of the 26 million anesthetics given to patients each year, according to the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA). CRNAs are the sole anesthesia providers in nearly half of all hospitals and more than two-thirds of the rural hospitals in the United States.

The need for CRNAs in the Tampa Bay area remains unfulfilled because students have left the area seeking schools that offer a master’s degree leading to CRNA certification, Dr. Webb said. As a result, she said, students often end up practicing outside the Tampa Bay area – in locations where they complete their CRNA education.
Sierra Gower, MS, CRNA, director of CRNA Program at USF, said the new program is designed to provide a high-quality, competitive program that combines extensive education with practical clinical experiences.

“The classroom and clinical settings are designed to achieve integration of the knowledge, skills, and aptitudes needed to prepare competent and proficient nurse anesthetists,” Gower said.

A 1990 study by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services drew attention to a national shortage of nearly 5,400 nurse anesthetists. Recognizing the increasing numbers of healthcare procedures requiring anesthesia, many retiring CRNAs, and decreasing graduation rates of nurse anesthetists, the study concluded that nurse anesthesia educational programs must produce between 1,500 and 1,800 graduates annually to meet expected demands for nurse anesthetists by the year 2010. Currently, approximately 1,000 nurse anesthetists graduate annually.

The next step for nurse anesthetists is to earn a Doctorate in Nursing Practice – which can be done at USF. Dr. Webb directs the DNP program at USF’s College of Nursing. The AANA recommends nurse anesthetists obtain the DNP degree after CRNA certification. Gower said the curriculum for the CRNA program at USF prepares interested students to continue on in the school’s DNP program.

The Master of Science in Nurse Anesthesia program is one of six master’s degrees and two doctoral degrees offered at the USF College of Nursing. The two-year CRNA master’s program requires 70 semester hours, integrating classroom learning with clinical experience. Clinical residencies will be conducted at hospitals in the Tampa Bay area, including Tampa General Hospital, Bayfront Medical Center, and James A. Haley Veterans’ Administration Hospital.

USF is only the third public university to offer the CRNA certification out of seven accredited programs in the state of Florida.

- USF Health -

USF Health is a partnership of the University of South Florida’s colleges of medicine, nursing, and public health; the schools of basic biomedical sciences and physical therapy & rehabilitation sciences; and the USF Physicians Group. It is a partnership dedicated to the promise of creating a new model of health and health care. One of the nation's top 63 public research universities as designated by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, USF received more than $310 million in research contracts and grants last year. It is ranked by the National Science Foundation as one of the nation's fastest growing universities for federal research and development expenditures.

A record number of free flu shots – 1,500 -- were administered by the USF College of Public Health Oct. 27 in the college’s auditorium. The also college offered pneumonia vaccines to those over age 65, and 50 seniors took advantage of the first-time offer.

The 10th annual flu shot drive was sponsored by COPH in collaboration with the Hillsborough County Health Department, which supplied the vaccines. This year, the college partnered for the first time with USF Student Health Services staff, who delivered 500 doses of vaccine from the college to students in the dormitories.

Among the flu shot recipients were USF President Judy Genshaft, Provost Renu Khator and USF Health Associate Vice President Dr. John Curran.

Karen Liller, PhD, coordinated the program with the Public Health Student Association, faculty and staff. Ellen Kent, MPH, of the Area Health Education Center, coordinates the work with PHSA and other students across USF Health. Kay Perrin, PhD, MPH, RN, and Barbara Kennedy, MPH, ARNP, provided faculty clinical supervision of the student volunteers, and June Lake, MA, helped with the day-of-event coordination.

The flu shot drive is just one of the college’s many community outreach initiatives.