Hillsborough Circuit Judge Gregory Holder, left, and Chief Circuit Judge Manuel Menendez, right, donned white coats to help Dr. Steve Klasko, CEO of USF Health and dean of the USF College of Medicine, into a black judicial robe.

     Lawyers and doctors came together in Tampa Oct. 6 for USF’s Black Robe Program, an event intended to bridge gaps between medicine and the law. The program allowed our USF Health faculty members to learn more about the legal system from those who know it best – Hillsborough County judges and lawyers.

Rhea Law, chair of the USF Board of Trustees, participated in the Black Robe program.

      The program was designed by Rhea Law, chair of the USF Board of Trustees; Hillsborough Circuit Judge Gregory Holder; and Dr. Steve Klasko, CEO of USF Health and dean of the USF College of Medicine, to emulate the concept of the White Coat program at Tampa General Hospital.

Dr. H. James Brownlee, Jr., chair of family medicine at USF, makes a point during the Black Robe Program.

     Faculty physicians, along with a few medical students, met with judges Wednesday and then spent the day shadowing a judge, learning up close how the legal system works. The day also featured a discussion of health issues in the judicial and legal process.

Black Robe Program participants inluded, L to R: Judge Menendez; medical student Anna Wouters; medical student David Sindler; Dr. Klasko; medical student Lisa Daniels; Rhea Law; Dr. Alicia Monroe, vice dean for educational affairs; Judge Holder; and Jay Wolfson, associate vice president for health law, policy and safety.

     -- Photos by Eric Younghans, USF Health Communications

USF laboratory study shows drug targets chaperone Hsp70 to reduce Alzheimer’s protein

Chad Dickey's team at the USF Health Byrd Alzheimer's Institute focuses on manipulating with drugs or gene therapy the chaperone proteins that control the fate of the the Alzheimer's protein tau.

Tampa, FL (September 30, 2009) -- Inhibiting the protein Hsp70 rapidly reduces brain levels of tau, a protein associated with Alzheimer’s disease when it builds up abnormally inside nerve cells affecting memory, neuroscientists at the University of South Florida found. The study is reported online today in the Journal of Neuroscience.

“Now that we’ve discovered that targeting the chaperone protein Hsp70 can clear tau, it could be helpful in finding more effective drugs for Alzheimer’s disease,” said the study’s senior author Chad Dickey, PhD, assistant professor of molecular medicine who works out of the Byrd Alzheimer’s Institute at USF Health “The therapeutic strategy may also be applicable to other neurodegenerative diseases involving Hsp70, such as Huntington disease, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and some cancers.”

Hsp70 is a one of several “chaperone” proteins that supervises the activity of tau inside nerve cells. The normal function of tau is to support the structure of nerve cells, much like the skeleton provides a scaffold to support the body. Tau is inside nerve cells, while another hallmark protein associated with Alzheimer’s, beta amyloid, is outside the neurons.

Working with researchers at the University of Michigan, the USF team tested the effects of several compounds on Hsp70 in cell models and brain tissue from mice genetically modified to develop the memory-choking tau tangles. Some compounds activated Hsp70, and others were Hsp70-inhibitors.

One of the more effective Hsp70-inhibitor drugs the researchers discovered was a derivative of methylthioninium chloride, or Rember™, the first experimental medication reported to directly attack the tau tangles in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Rember™ was heralded as a major development in the fight against Alzheimer’s when results in early clinical trials were announced last year at the International Conference on Alzheimer’s disease.

“But Rember™ and its derivatives do have some inherent problems; they’re not very potent so effective therapy would require fairly high doses, Dickey said.

“The drug does help prevent the protein (tau) from clumping together, but that in itself doesn’t mean it’s actively getting rid of the toxic tau,” he said. “Now that we know Hsp70 is a target of Rember™, we can develop similarly-acting drugs that will more specifically target this chaperone protein in affected areas of the brain, resulting in fewer side effects.”

The USF researchers originally thought activating Hsp70 would direct the chaperone protein to decrease the tau gone bad -- preventing tau from stacking up into tangles inside cells involved in memory and destroying them. But instead of restoring tau to its normal supportive function, activating Hsp70 actually led to tau’s preservation and even more accumulation, Dickey said. “Basically we think the chaperone binds to the tau, and somehow in the process of trying to fix things decides to keep holding onto tau when it shouldn’t. So, activating Hsp70 is not necessarily what we want to do; we ultimately want to inhibit Hsp70 to promote the release or clearance of tau …to kill the bad tau.”

Dr. Dickey emphasizes that problems with Hsp70 alone do not cause Alzheimer’s. It likely develops from a convergence of various factors in the brain, he said, including deposits of the other featured Alzheimer’s protein beta amyloid, or a genetic defect; disruption of cell signaling; a breakdown in the neuron’s support structure, and then accumulation of tau into the memory-choking tangles.

Dr. Dickey’s team at USF focuses on how to manipulate with drugs or gene therapy the chaperone proteins that regulate tau’s fate – determining whether it’s preserved or cleared from the brain. The University of Michigan team works on identifying and developing compounds that may be effective against Alzheimer’s disease and other tauopathies.

The study was supported by the national Alzheimer’s Association, the National Institute on Aging, the Abe and Irene Pollin Fund for CBD Research from CurePSP: The Society for Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

The study’s other authors were Umesh Jinwal (lead author), Yoshinari Miyata, John Koren III, Jeffrey Jones, Justin Trotter, Lyra Chang, John O’Leary, David Morgan, Daniel Lee, Cody Shults, Aikaterini Rousaki, Edwin Weeber, Erik Zuiderweg, and Jason Gestwicki.

- USF Health -

USF Health is dedicated to creating a model of health care based on understanding the full spectrum of health. It includes the University of South Florida’s colleges of medicine, nursing, and public health; the schools of biomedical sciences as well as physical therapy & rehabilitation sciences; and the USF Physicians Group. With more than $380.4 million in research grants and contracts last year, USF is one of the nation’s top 63 public research universities and one of 39 community-engaged, four-year public universities designated by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. For more information, visit www.health.usf.edu

Sexual health researcher working with young adults is selected for prestigious
program to advance careers of nation’s most promising junior nurse faculty

Versie Johnson-Mallard, PhD, ARNP, assistant professor in the USF College of Nursing, has won a competitive grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to study strategies to prevent the spread of viral sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among college students and young adults.

Dr. Johnson-Mallard is one of just 15 nurse educators from around the country to receive the three-year $350,000 Nurse Faculty Scholar award this year, which is given to junior faculty who show outstanding promise as future leaders in academic nursing. The grant period begins this month.

“The generous support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation will enable me to test an innovative web-based sexual health education intervention and hopefully slow the spread of viral sexually transmitted infections on college campuses,” Dr. Johnson-Mallard said.

In her research, Dr. Johnson-Mallard will develop a PowerPoint educational intervention STI prevention messaging presentation on the Human Papillomavirus, Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV), Hepatitis B (HepB), and Human Immune Deficiency Virus (HIV). This intervention will be delivered in an innovative web messaging format. Follow-up surveys will determine whether students exposed to the innovative format, are more knowledgeable about the diseases, had a better understanding of the risks associated, and were more likely to take prevention measures such as vaccinations, abstinence and condom use.

Ultimately, she hopes to use her findings to develop a standard electronic prevention-education protocol for use on college campuses.

Cecile Lengacher, PhD, professor at the USF College of Nursing, and Anna Giuliano, PhD, a researcher at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, will serve as her mentors.

“Instead of having to stand in front of a poster on campus or read a brochure in a doctor’s office, this project will enable college students to learn about viral sexually transmitted infections in private settings, through an electronic format,” Dr. Lengacher said. “This will hopefully give them more time to study the materials and more knowledge about the diseases, which will hopefully lead to lower rates of infection.”

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Nurse Faculty Scholar award aims to strengthen the academic productivity and overall excellence of nursing schools by developing the next generation of national leaders in academic nursing.

Supporting junior nurse faculty will help curb a severe shortage of nurse educators that threatens to undermine the health and health care of all Americans. Many nursing schools lack the resources needed to hire and support enough faculty to train the next generation of nurses. As a result, nursing schools are turning away thousands of qualified applicants—rejecting the very people who can help reverse a serious looming nurse shortage. As the supply of nurses shrinks and the demand for their services grows, patient care will suffer.

The Foundation’s Nurse Faculty Scholars program aims to curb the effects of the nursing shortage by helping more junior faculty succeed in, and commit to, academic careers. The program provides talented junior faculty with salary and research support as well as the chance to participate in institutional and national mentoring activities, leadership training, and networking events with colleagues in nursing and other fields, while continuing to teach and provide institutional, professional and community service in their universities.

The program will also enhance the stature of the scholars’ academic institutions, which will benefit fellow nurse educators seeking professional development opportunities.

To receive the award, scholars must be registered nurses who have completed a research doctorate in nursing or a related discipline and who have held a tenure-eligible faculty position at an accredited nursing school for at least two and no more than five years.
The program is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and administered through the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing. To learn more about the program, visit www.rwjfnursefacultyscholars.org.

Listen to psychiatrist-musician Dr. Richard Kogan play Gershwin

Faculty, staff and students nearly filled the USF Health Auditorium Sept. 22 to hear award-winning concert pianist Richard Kogan, MD, play for the Department of Psychiatry Grand Rounds. As a psychiatrist and a musician, Dr. Kogan provided key insights into how vital music is to medicine.

“Music is a highly underutilized modality,” Dr. Kogan said. “When science documents exactly what music does for healing, there will be an explosion in its use for treating people.”

From left, Dr. Lois Nixon, Dr. Francisco Fernandez, Dr. Richard Kogan, and first-year medical student Trey Penton.

In the Grand Rounds, Dr. Kogan focused on George Gershwin, noting that the world-renowned composer’s story is probably the most profound example of the healing power of music. Dr. Kogan said the young Gershwin would probably be diagnosed today with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) and that his lack of focus and bad behavior as a child came to an abrupt halt when he first heard a violinist at a school assembly.

“Gershwin was transfixed by the music,” Dr. Kogan said, adding that Gershwin had come from a poor home and that hearing the violinist was probably his first real exposure to music. After that moment, Gershwin’s bad behavior stopped and he pored over learning music, even dropping out of school at the age of 15 to devote himself to it. Gershwin noted himself that “studying piano turned a bad boy into a good boy.”

Dr. Kogan displayed his own musical talent by playing Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue (which Gershwin wrote in three weeks) and then Summertime (from the score Gershwin wrote for the play Porgy and Bess).

Although Gershwin’s ADHD may have been eased after finding music, Dr. Kogan said that Gershwin continued with mental illness, entering a boastful period in his 20’s that might have been signs of narcissism, and then serious depression at age 35, with sleeping troubles and crying spells. Interestingly, Dr. Kogan said, it was during these down times that Gershwin wrote mostly peppy love songs, and that writing the bluesy, melancholy tone for Porgy and Bess may have helped him deal with some of his depression.

Signs of the brain tumor that eventually killed Gershwin came next, with dizzy spells, pounding headaches, and the sense that he smelled burning garbage or rubber before blacking out. George Gershwin died July 9, 1937, following surgery trying to remove the tumor.

Dr. Kogan studied piano at the Juilliard School and medicine at Harvard Medical School. He is known for his lecture/recitals that explore music’s role in healing and the influence mental illness has had on the creative output of classical composers. The evening following USF’s Grand Rounds, Dr. Kogan performed for the Second Annual Hillsborough County Medical Association/USF Health Dean’s Lecture, an annual collaborative lecture also supported by Tampa General Hospital.

Story by Sarah A. Worth, USF Health Communications
Photos by Eric Younghans, USF Health Communications

Dr. Jorge Lockhart

The USF College of Medicine welcomed a new department earlier this month: Urology

Urology was a division in the Department of Surgery and in Clinical Affairs prior to this, but with its continuing growth, the time had come for Urology to become its own entity.

Dr. Jorge L. Lockhart was named the founding chair of the Department of Urology Sept. 1. After training at Duke University and the University of Uruguay, Dr. Lockhart came to USF in 1987 from the University of Miami. Dr. Lockhart is an internationally recognized leader in the field of urinary diversion and pelvic reconstruction. He has directed and developed the USF Urology residency program since that time, and under his guidance, it has steadily grown.

Dr. Lockhart will be joined by three other full-time faculty members: Raul Ordorica, MD, associate professor and chief of urodynamics and reconstruction; Rafael Carrion, MD, assistant professor and chief of andrology and sexual dysfunction; and new faculty member, David Hernandez, MD, assistant professor, who joins USF after training at the Brady Urological Institute of Johns Hopkins.

Dr. Lockhart said part of urology’s success is due to its relationships with its affiliate hospitals, which include Tampa General Hospital, the James A. Haley VA Hospital and Moffitt Cancer Center. The urology residents also receive training in pediatric urology at Nemours Children’s Clinic in Orlando. The affiliates help make the program attractive to residents, who want to come here because of the varied surgical experience, Dr. Lockhart said.

Dr. Lockhart is working to recruit two new faculty members and expects to increase the number of urology fellows and the amount of research funding.

- Story by Lisa Greene, USF Health Communications

A team of USF residents recently won a state “medical jeopardy” competition sponsored by the Florida chapter of the American College of Physicians (ACP) and set an all-time points record for the 25-year-old ACP competition. This is the third year in a row USF internal medicine residents have won the annual competition.

Stuart Himmelstein, MD, Florida ACP Governor; Robert Ledford, MD; Kellee Oller, MD; Francisco Torano, MD; Joe Lezama, MD. The ACP State Championship trophy is featured above Dr. Oller.

The USF team includes Robert Ledford, MD, Kellee Oller, MD, and Francisco Torano, MD – all residents in the USF Department of Internal Medicine and, coincidentally, all graduates from the USF College of Medicine.

The “coach” for the winning team is Joe Lezama, MD, associate professor in the USF Department of Internal Medicine and chief of medicine at the James A. Haley VA Hospital. Dr. Lezama, who has coached USF teams for 10 years (with five state titles now under his belt), also coached a team of fourth year medical students who won a national “medical jeopardy” competition at the ACP annual meeting in April. That team also included Dr.Oller and Dr. Torano, who have since graduated and moved up to the internal medicine resident team.

“It was a blowout,” Dr. Lezama said. “USF earned a record 1,000 points in this competition, handily beating out the University of Florida, which scored a negative 150 points. That’s a 1,200-point victory!”

Next on their list is pursuing the national / international title in April 2010, when they will travel to Toronto to compete against other U.S. teams, as well as those from Canada, Europe, Mexico, and Central and South America, in the 2010 ACP annual meeting.

Contestants had to recognize radiographic findings of Paget's disease, skin findings of neurofibromas, and EKG findings of left bundle branch block. They also had to answer a broad range of questions on internal medicine topics. Here’s a sample:

1. What is the number needed to treat if the absolute risk reduction is 0.1?
2. What is the infection one is most concerned with in patients infected with Taenia solium?
3. What is the first test to get for a pregnant woman with abnormal uterine bleeding?
4. What is the skin lesion associated with Darier's sign?

Did you do as well as our residents? (See answers below)

Story by Sarah A. Worth, USF Health Communications

Answers:

1. Ten; 2. Neurocysticercosis; 3. Pregnancy test; 4. Urticaria pigmentosa

Timothy Bender and Desiree Del Orbe are among the USF undergraduate students learning about the ecology of Eastern equine encephalitis with the help of Hassan K. Hassan, MSc (center), a research associate in Dr. Thomas Unnasch's laboratory.

While we spent the summer and entered the fall abuzz over the potential for H1N1 virus, or the ‘Swine Flu,’ to sweep the nation, some University of South Florida students and one high school student found employment that put them in search of mosquitoes carrying a rarer but deadlier virus, Eastern equine encephalitis, or EEE.

“Eastern equine encephalitis is rare, but when humans get the disease the fatality rate is 50 to 70 percent,” says Thomas Unnasch, PhD, a professor in the USF Department of Global Health, College of Public Health. “It is nearly 100 percent fatal for horses. The ecology of EEE in the Southeastern United States is not well understood.”

Beneficiaries of NIH stimulus funding

Dr. Unnasch, who has had ongoing funding from the National Institutes of Health to study the ecology and transmission of EEE and several other diseases, received additional funding under the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009” which allocated $21 million nationally over two years for educational supplements to existing research programs. The stimulus funding has provided extended summer employment for more than 3,000 undergraduates and high school students nation-wide.

With his supplemental grant, Dr. Unnasch was able to hire six USF undergraduates and one high school student to take an active role in tracking down which of the 60-plus varieties of mosquitoes in the Tampa Bay area carry EEE. In addition, his collaborators at Auburn University were also able to hire student summer researchers.

The goal of the research is to identify the vectors (the mosquitoes) carrying the EEE virus and identify their feeding sources. Some EEE carrying mosquitoes feed exclusively on birds, says Dr. Unnasch, while others may feed on mammals of several varieties. Because of suburban development, mosquitoes carrying EEE may be coming into closer contact with people, especially in rapidly developing areas such as Hillsborough and Pasco Counties, where USF undergraduate student Timothy Bender and Raphael Shattenkirk, a student at Tampa Preparatory School, trap mosquitoes several days a week.

“Raphael sets the traps in the evening and I pick them up in the morning,” explains Bender, a biology major.

Mosquitoes caught in netted traps left overnight in developing areas of Hillsborough and Pasco counties are frozen and brought to the laboratory for analysis under the microscope. The researchers want to identify the mosquitoes carrying EEE and their feeding sources.

The traps attract mosquitoes using a small light bulb, the release of carbon dioxide from dry ice left overnight, and a small fan that sucks them into the netted traps. In the morning, Bender pops the trap bag in the freezer, which kills them, and then he delivers them to the USF lab where USF undergraduate student Desiree Del Orbe puts the dead mosquitoes, up to 60-100 per day, under the microscope and sorts them by sex, species, and which of the females (the only mosquitoes that bite) have had a recent “blood meal,” evidenced by their swollen bellies. These are the mosquitoes of interest, the ones that may be carrying EEE.

“Ultimately, we want to determine which mosquitoes carry the virus, the source of their blood meals, and the ecological area where the mosquitoes were active,” says Del Orbe. “This information will help the counties with mosquito spraying when they can target specific areas.”

According to Dr. Unnasch, Florida spends $75 million annually on mosquito control, but the efforts are not as efficiently targeted as they could be if we understood more about the ecology of the virus.

Hands-on Research Experience

Students in the lab, under the supervision of Hassan K. Hassan, MSc, research associate, run a battery of tests, including real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) to look for virus RNA, and DNAPCR tests on the blood meal to determine meal source. Their results are shared with both the state Department of Health and the county mosquito control offices. In this win-win summer research project not only do the counties get good data, but students learn the research process from field to bench.

“They get to learn about lab safety,” says Hassan. “They learn why we use this chemical or that one, they learn to use the lab equipment and how to avoid sample contamination. Many students would not learn these things until graduate school.”

Christy Ottendorfer, PhD, a post-doctoral fellow in the lab, says that 2009 has been a “big year” for EEE because of the rainfall amounts and the increased mosquito populations. “Fortunately there have been no human cases, but Florida is leading the nation in equine deaths from EEE,” says Dr. Ottendorfer.

There is a “known unknown” in EEE research. The big issue for the research team is to find what they call the “bridge species” of mosquito. “If mosquitoes carrying the virus feed on birds and non-human mammals, how do people get it?” asks Ottendorfer.

According to Dr. Unnasch, the student researchers are indispensable.

“The real hard part of this research is getting people out there to do the field work, the sample collections,” he says. “It helps to have a bunch of enthusiastic people willing to get out there to set the traps and collect samples. Their help has allowed us to increase the number of collection sites.”

The other benefit to having student help is that with an increase in good data, the NIH is more likely to continue funding the project. The stimulus funding runs through Oct. 31, and then many of the students will continue to work on the project as volunteers, says Hassan.

- Story and photos by Randolph Fillmore, Florida Science Communications

It’s been a good year for USF Pathologist Don E. Wheeler, MD.

A presentation on successfully integrating basic science material across medical school departments earned him the 2009 Promising Medical Education Scholar Awards at a regional meeting for the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).

And a vote by USF medical students from all four years nominated him for the Arnold P. Gold Foundation Humanism in Medicine Award, an act that “blows my mind,” he said, because, although he didn’t go on to win the award, he “certainly won by getting to work with and teach the best medical students around. A humanistic pathologist. Go figure.”

Dr. Wheeler and a friend at Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo.

For the AAMC, Dr. Wheeler, associate professor in the Department of Pathology and Cell Biology and in the Department of Internal Medicine, teamed up with Susan Pross, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Molecular Medicine, and Stanley Nazian, PhD, professor in the Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology, to present “Techniques in Integration in Course-Based Curricula,” at the AAMC’s Southern Group on Educational Affairs (SGEA)  regional meeting last spring in New Orleans.

All three are course directors for their areas and developed methods for integrating content across courses, including joint calendaring, question vetting sessions, and joint conferences for students.

The presentation won and, as the lead presenter for the session, Dr. Wheeler earned the 2009 Promising Medical Education Scholar Award. The annual award recognizes the most outstanding medical education presentation by an SGEA member.

AAMC judges noted that Dr. Wheeler’s work “was highly rated both for your presentation skills as well as for the content and design of your presentation.”

“At the USF College of Medicine, we’ve developed several mechanisms for enhancing true integration between departmentally based courses,” Dr. Wheeler said. “I’m very honored to receive this award and am very mindful and appreciative of my colleagues Drs. Pross and Nazian for helping me achieve this recognition for our workshop.”

Dr. Wheeler’s win will be formally announced at the SGEA business meeting in the fall at the AAMC’s annual conference.

Story by Sarah A. Worth, USF Health Communications

Physicians in the Dominican Republic gained expert knowledge on starting and running epilepsy programs when USF’s Selim Benbadis, MD, and Fernando Vale, MD, visited them last month.

The trip was part of the travel award the USF/Tampa General Hospital Comprehensive Epilepsy Program earned last year from the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) to partner with and develop comprehensive epilepsy programs in Latin American.  The USF/TGH program was one of four centers selected nationally for the ILAE award.

Drs. Fernando Vale and Selim Benbadis (center) with a DR health team.

Dr. Benbadis, professor of neurology, directs the USF/TGH program and Dr. Vale, associate professor of neurosurgery, is the surgical director for the program.

While in the Dominican Republic, the two USF physicians visited Hospital Padre Billini, the Hospital Robert Reid Cabral for Children, and the General Hospital Plaza de la Salud, and met with administrators to plan future collaboration opportunities. Drs. Benbadis and Vale also gave medical lectures to hospital physicians, residents and students at the Hospital Padre Billini and attended the annual meeting of the Sociedad Dominicana de Neurologia y Neurocirugia (SDNN). Both lectured at the SDNN meeting, with Dr. Benbadis presenting “What Every Neurologist Should Know About Epilepsy” and Dr. Vale presenting “Temporal Lobe Surgery.”

Drs. Benbadis (center) and Vale (right) presented medical lectures while in DR.

“We met many neurologists, child neurologists, and neurosurgeons who were very enthusiastic about our mission to help develop epilepsy centers in their country,” Dr. Benbadis said.

“We believe we have formed new relationships and solidified existing ones, and we have no doubts that our collaboration will flourish and develop. From Dr. Vale’s and my point of view, we feel that this endeavor adds a new challenge and a new dimension to our successful epilepsy program. We believe that our Dominican colleagues truly have the capability and motivation to successfully develop centers. This could be a bridge to, and a model for, other Latin American countries.”

The ILAE is a worldwide association of physicians and health professionals dedicated to improving the lives of people with epilepsy through education, research and improved access to treatments.  The USF/TGH Epilepsy Program meets and exceeds the guidelines for a fourth (highest) level medical and surgical epilepsy center, based on guidelines established by the National Association of Epilepsy Centers. It is one of only four centers in Florida, and the only one in West Central Florida, with this level of expertise.

Story by Sarah A. Worth, USF Health Communications.

Sometimes, you have to be in an optimal performance state even though you don’t feel like it.

Athletes know this. So do healthcare providers. But your immune system and emotions may be working against you. Any inflammation, whether part of an allergy, an infection, or associated with injury can derail your mood, your reaction time and your motivation to push on.

The USF College of Nursing will host “Frontiers in Psychoneuroimmunology: Emotions, the Immune System and Performance,” the second annual national conference for the Center for Psychoneuroimmunology, September 17-20, 2009 at Saddlebrook Resort in Tampa, Florida. This symposium will bring together some of the nation’s leading experts to discuss the influence emotions and the immune system have upon performance — whether it’s in a sports arena, hospital, or war zone.

PNI is a scientific field dealing with the relationships among the mind (psyche), the brain (neuro) and the immune system (immunology) and what all that has to do with your health and susceptibility to disease.

“In the early days when the term ‘psychoneuroimmunology’ was coined, the bias was that the brain controls everything – that information flows in the direction of gravity, from the nervous system down to the rest of the body,” said Nick Hall, PhD, Professor and Director of the Center for Psychoneuroimmunology at the USF College of Nursing. “For more than 25 years researchers in the field of PNI have been accumulating evidence showing that what you think and feel may alter your immune system – that there are things you can do to help achieve optimal health. Now, we know the reverse is true. Your mood and level of motivation can be profoundly affected by your immune system.”

Stressful memories of traumatic events, shift-work and crossing time zones can affect the immune system and performance. Self-destructive emotions can be triggered by injury and the immune system. To gain a better understanding of the factors leading to suboptimal performance, as well as potential solutions, the “Frontiers in Psychoneuroimmunology: Emotions, the Immune System and Performance” program incorporates both theory and practical exercises. This will include experiencing the premier Saddlebrook Executive Challenge course used to train elite athletes and corporations to better cope with change and adversity. Upon completion of the conference, participants will gain a better understanding of the causes of sub-optimal performance, as well as learn practical solutions.

“More than anything else, Psychoneuroimmunology is about preventing illness and optimizing performance,” said Dr. Hall.

The conference’s keynote speakers are some of the nation’s leading PNI experts and include
Charles Figley, PhD, Professor and Distinguished Chair in Disaster Mental Health at Tulane University; Keith Kelley, PhD, Professor of Immunophysiology at the University of Illinois; and Teodor Postolache, MD, Director of the Mood and Anxiety Program at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Dr. Figley will present, “Stress Injury and Performance: Lessons from the Battlefield’, Dr. Kelley will discuss inflammation, mental fatigue and motivation and Dr. Postolache will discuss the impact shift work and crossing time zones has upon health and performance. 

Other top scholars include USF College of Nursing’s Maureen Groer, RN, PhD, FAAN, Director of the Center for Women’s Health Research; Theresa Beckie, PhD, FAHA, Professor; and Nick Hall, PhD, Professor and Director of the Center for Psychoneuroimmunology. Dr. Groer will discuss performance of police officers in stressful virtual reality scenarios, Dr. Beckie will present information regarding the ability of exercise to reduce inflammatory biomarkers in women with coronary disease and Dr. Hall will present the interrelationships between emotions and performance. Dr. Hall’s research on emotions and health has been featured on “Nova” and the Emmy-Award winning television series “Healing and the Mind” produced by Bill Moyers for PBS. 

“Everyone can learn how to take a more active role in preventing illness, improving quality of life and take advantage of therapies that may allow traditional medical treatments to work better,” Dr. Hall said. “There are scientifically based things you can do, such as mindfulness meditation, stress management or reframing exercises, that can make a significant difference in promoting your overall health – in ways you may have never imagined.”

For more information visit: www.health.usf.edu/nocms/nursing/pni or https://www.cme.hsc.usf.edu/pni/.

-- Story by Ashlea Hudak, College of Nursing Communications