A single virus, SARS-CoV-2, has plunged the entire planet into a health, socioeconomic and political crisis. The short, medium, and long-term effects are potentially devastating.

A relatively low direct mortality rate (approximately 0.3 to 0.8% depending on the population) facilitated the spread of this highly contagious respiratory virus. However, the elderly and those with chronic diseases, especially diabetes, suffer substantially higher death rates. Moreover, contagiousness seems to have risen since the beginning of the epidemic due to mutations. Beyond the numbers describing direct mortality, the overall health impact (including COVID-19’s negative knock-on effect on the treatment of other diseases) will undoubtedly be high.

Finally, we tend to overlook the severity of infection that leads to high numbers of intensive care admissions, including among young people, and leaves many with persistent symptoms. Approximately 30-40% of infected individuals continue to suffer from exhaustion, respiratory difficulties, and a loss of smell and taste three months after recovery. COVID-19’s broad impact unfortunately makes it very clear that infectious diseases, especially viral diseases, continue to be a constant threat to humans.

Key questions remain about our lack of preparedness. We must address the challenges of coordinating large-scale international institutions, especially recognizing that a reformed World Health Organization (WHO) – with the support of its member states – has a central role to play in this coordination process. The lack of a “scenario,” in the military sense, to anticipate the overall health effects of a viral pandemic, and its accompanying psychological, social, economic, and political consequences, has been painfully evident. In this context, I would like to emphasize the following three points:

1. The importance of diagnosis in controlling infectious diseases is generally underestimated.

We need to develop quicker, more effective approaches so that people can genuinely benefit from technological advances in identifying infections. Diagnostic tests play a key role in controlling any infectious disease, particularly COVID-19.

Despite tangible progress in developing treatments and vaccines, we will live with this virus for many months to come. That means we need to completely rethink the way we organize our professional, family and personal lives. Rapid, wide-spread use of diagnostic tests will be crucial for monitoring infections in schools, workplaces, restaurants and elsewhere, serving as a vital pillar for a comprehensive public health policy that carefully considers the socioeconomic impact of health measures. Yet, the gulf between the significant technical advances in diagnostics and the slow pace of their application among populations worldwide remains striking.

For example, a recent Global Virus Network (GVN) conference clearly demonstrated that rapid tests using both antigen and molecular techniques are available and would help considerably in containing infection. New approaches based on rapid sequencing or pooling (performing initial tests on pooled samples) are also being developed.

Sampling techniques need to be better suited for rapid screening. Why are we still only working with nasopharyngeal swabs? These devices are unpleasant and therefore impossible to use repeatedly on adults as well as children. Furthermore, swabs sometimes give rise to false negative results because of the wide range of sample collection techniques. Conversely, saliva tests performed under controlled conditions could form the basis of an effective, large-scale rapid testing strategy, with repeated testing compensating for any potential lack of sensitivity.

Finally, the massive growth in digital applications has paved the way for a new approach to monitor infection (beyond mere tracking), with educational and entertaining “apps” being developed for children and adults. Controlling pandemics will rely largely on our ability to monitor contamination in near real time, to inform, and to educate. Is this a utopian scenario, or a pipe dream? No, and it is up to us to create these tools. With that in mind, the GVN and USF Health have begun working with the research group of Dr. Pardis Sabeti at the Broad Institute in Boston and Sarasota Military Academy to develop such rapid testing and digital-based communications. Tests must be approved and validated with extreme care, but the validation process cannot remain confined to the national level. Cooperation between academic institutions and industrial stakeholders can help drive new approaches for rapidly developing and approving new tests.

Clearly, we cannot produce a test if we don’t know what virus we are looking for; however, we can at least predict the technical problems we will likely encounter in devising novel tests. We must build upon current successes with vaccines. The U.S. has invested heavily in the development of new SARS-CoV-2 vaccines, and its Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) played a key role not only in funding, but in promoting interactions between academics and industry. Several countries have already secured access to vaccines by making deals with pharmaceutical companies, even though the vaccines were still under development. The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), a partnership of academic institutions, industry stakeholders, governments, WHO and major foundations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust, was set up in 2015 following the Ebola virus crisis. This coalition has helped speed the production of large quantities of vaccines. We should draw inspiration from these vaccine investments and initiatives to make us more effective in the field of diagnostics.

2. Improving the training and recruitment of virologists is vital.

The importance of training and recruiting a new generation of virologists has been underestimated worldwide. Although many scientists demonstrate remarkable expertise in molecular virology, we lack virologists with both training in “conventional” virology, including virus culture, and a cross-disciplinary approach to research. Several institutions have partnered with industry to introduce outstanding training programs, with excellent teaching and supervision and tutoring for students. We need stronger investment in this field to organize cross-disciplinary virology training programs that meet real-world needs and support recruitment of the best and brightest students. This is what has been reinforced at USF Health, with the recent online course developed in partnership with GVN.

3.COVID-19 has intensified the need for international and independent scientific collaboration, incorporating new ways of organizing research.

Research organizations, agencies, universities, and hospitals play a vital role in research, especially when it comes to viral diseases. Moreover, WHO can and must play a central role in coordinating efforts to tackle viral pandemics. Restructuring WHO is crucial to this process, but realistically we must focus on two areas in particular to help strengthen the work of all these institutions.

First, and particularly relevant in a health crisis, we must promote risk-taking and responsiveness beyond what can be achieved by traditional review procedures. At USF Health, as well as within the GVN, I have witnessed how we can generate truly innovative ideas. International calls for proposals need to target projects that take risks and are reviewed based on the quality of the project proponents. The Grand Challenges initiative, coordinated by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Wellcome Trust and others, is a step in the right direction — but it does not go far enough.

Secondly, research networks can complement the effective operation of institutions in responding to pandemics. They embody flexibility, avoid placing scientists in burdensome institutional positions, do not need a return on intellectual property, and distinctly focus on dialog and collaboration – all of which allows them to support meaningful responses to health crises. Research networks also embrace changes in interpersonal communication and interaction brought about by the emergence of social media.

Several such networks already exist. The Global Outbreak Alert and Response (GOARN) network set up by WHO is a step forward but for obvious reasons linked with the size and workings of WHO, it cannot perform with optimal flexibility and efficiency. The concept of research networks, therefore, requires greater recognition, and the independence of these networks must be guaranteed by support from a variety of private and public partners. The National Science Foundation (NSF) in the U.S. recently launched a call for proposals for “networks of networks,” reflecting the importance of the research network as a means of organization to accelerate scientific discovery and highlighting the need for individual networks to coordinate their efforts.

By now it is clear that we are not just dealing with a serious health crisis; we are witnessing the dawn of a new era. The recently announced effectiveness of the first vaccines against COVID-19 is a breakthrough, lifting global hope. But, we still need to learn lessons from this pandemic including fostering international cooperation and adapting our research efforts so that we are better aligned to tackle future pandemics.

Christian Brèchot, MD, PhD
Senior Associate Dean for Research in Global Affairs,
USF Health Morsani College of Medicine
Associate Vice President for International Partnerships and Innovation,
USF Professor, Department of Internal Medicine
President, Global Virus Network

USF Health’s Dr. Christian Brechot leads the Global Virus Network

The University of South Florida was at the forefront when the world’s top virologists met recently to identify advances and pitfalls in the fight against COVID-19 and drive a “Viral Pandemic Readiness Alliance.”

USF Health’s Christian Bréchot, MD, PhD, president of the Global Virus Network, presided over the GVN’s 2020 Special Annual Meeting, held virtually Sept. 23-24. GVN is a network representing 57 research centers (including USF) and 10 affiliates in 33 countries – all working to prevent illness and death from viral disease through independent, science-driven expertise.

Christian Brechot, MD, PhD

With Dr. Brechot leading GVN and Linman Li, MBA, MPH, of the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine’s Division of Infectious Disease and International Medicine, serving as GVN vice-president, USF is now recognized as a major partner of the international coalition at a critical time for overall population health.

GVN convened the two-day workshop to address epidemics and pandemics in the modern era. Discussion and presentations focused largely on the COVID-19 pandemic, which has upended the world with its health, economic, social and psychological ramifications.

“We do not know what the future holds for COVID-19 – there may be seasonal variations, or chronic infections, or maybe a slowdown,” said Dr. Bréchot, senior associate dean for research in global affairs at the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine and professor in the Department of Internal Medicine.  “However, we know that we have to prepare now — not after the end of this pandemic. In the spirit of preparation, we used this special annual meeting to band together international experts to identify and analyze what went wrong, what has been properly handled, and what recommendations we can confidently make.”

The key take-away points from the workshop are included in this press release. An executive summary citing the major research issues discussed — including the need for rapid and reliable diagnostic testing based on salivary samples, repurposed drugs and new therapies combining direct antiviral approaches with immune modulation, and vaccines targeting innate immunity — can be viewed here.  GVN scientist also weighed in on the role of “super-spreaders” and “super-spreading events” in the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 infection; read more about that research in Dr. Bréchot’s Oct. 7 blog.

As a result of the workshop, GVN is contacting the other stakeholder institutions to drive a multidisciplinary response strategy, called the Viral Pandemic Readiness Alliance. This alliance would help unify the efforts of academia, industry, government and communities in confronting the challenges of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and preparing for future viral threats.

“It may sound obvious, but as long as each country tries to address the COVID-19 pandemic on its own, we won’t come through,” Dr. Bréchot said. “This is a fight that is going to last, and we need to find solutions together. It requires global cooperation and coordination to efficiently translate our scientific and technological advances into successful infectious disease and public health outcomes.”

The new collaborating center focuses on diagnostics needed to verify progress toward global elimination of the disabling parasitic infection onchocerciasis

TAMPA, Fla. (June 28, 2018) – The Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) has designated the University of South Florida College of Public Health’s Department of Global Health as the world’s only Collaborating Centre for Onchocerciasis Diagnostics.

Thomas Unnasch, PhD, chair of global health and distinguished USF Health professor, will serve as the director of the new center, which will focus on the disabling parasitic infection onchocerciasis, commonly known as river blindness – the second leading cause of infectious blindness worldwide.  WHO designations are given to laboratories or institutions with a history of collaboration with WHO and active research programs supported by external funding from other sources.

USF Health’s Thomas Unnasch, PhD (first row, second from right), one of the world’s leading experts on onchocerciasis, with a local team in Uganda employed to help with collection and control of the black flies that spread the sight-robbing parasitic infection. The photo was taken May 2016 along the Aswa River outside a village where the field work was done. |Photo courtesy of Dr. Unnasch

“This center is unique in the world,” Unnasch said. “There are currently 88 active WHO collaborating centers in the United States. The largest number of these — about 20 percent — are at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. These cover all aspects of health, from emerging infectious diseases to social determinants of health.”

Unnasch is one of the world’s leading experts on onchocerciasis, which is spread by the bite of a black fly that breeds in fast-flowing rivers. His more than 20 years of research on the parasitic affliction has taken him to Central America, South America and Africa and been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Task Force for Global Health, as well as WHO.

“This designation is a great honor,” he said. “It will allow us to expand the logistical and technical support activities that we conduct for the laboratories established by The Carter Center in Africa and Latin America to include additional countries and laboratories. All activities are aimed at providing diagnostic support to verify onchocerciasis elimination.”

According to the CDC, river blindness is categorized as a neglected tropical disease — one that causes substantial illness for more than one billion people globally, especially among those living in poverty.

The disease spread by black flies in the genus Similium, and those infected may experience skin rashes, severe itching, large nodules under the skin caused by adult worms living below the skin and, eventually, blindness.

Thomas Unnasch, PhD, directs the new WHO-designated Collaborating Centre for Onchocerciasis Diagnostics.

Infected adults may take the antiparasitic medication ivermectrin to destroy the larvae living in the body; however, there is no approved treatment for children under age 5.

“It is always an honor to be recognized by the World Health Organization as a center of excellence,” said Donna Petersen, dean of the USF College of Public Health. “We are already home to the WHO Collaborating Center for Social Marketing.  Adding this one dedicated to the eradication of a global scourge is a clear testament to the excellent work conducted by our faculty and to the particularly stellar reputation earned over many years of devoted effort by Dr. Unnasch.”

-Story by Anna Mayor, USF College of Public Health

New laboratory method opens the door to novel human liver-stage research

A breakthrough by the scientists at the University of South Florida is giving researchers around the world the chance to study the planet’s deadliest parasite in ways that were previously impossible.

PhD researcher Alison Roth works to image the malaria parasite (green structure) and liver sample cells. | Photo by Aaron Hilf, cell image courtesy of Alison Roth, Adams lab.

A new and innovative laboratory technique, published this week in Nature Communications, will radically improve the way scientists can study liver-stage malaria outside the human body (in vitro). A team of USF researchers, in collaboration with groups from the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research International Laboratory in Thailand, the University of Georgia and others, developed a process to culture human liver cells, called hepatocytes, and more efficiently infect them with the malaria parasite. The technique allows researchers to overcome major resource limitations to study this parasite stage and more rapidly discover new therapies in the fight against malaria.

“This is one of the last frontiers of malaria research and it’s become critically important because this is the place where the infection starts in the human body,” said John Adams, PhD, a USF distinguished professor in the USF College of Public Health and the lead researcher on the project.

Nearly half of the world’s population is at risk of contracting malaria. In 2016, the parasite infected an estimated 216 million people, causing nearly half a million deaths.

Malaria, most severe in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, is one of the worst global health burdens. Humans are infected through contact with parasite-laden mosquitos and once bitten, the parasite enters the circulatory system and goes directly to liver to infect hepatocytes. When inside these cells, the parasite can lay dormant for a period of time or immediately move into the blood-stage. While it’s the blood-stage that causes the clinical disease, the earlier liver stage is a critical bottleneck in the early infection process and provides an opportunity for significant advancement in both drug and vaccine development to prevent malaria.

Distinguished Professor John Adams, PhD, USF College of Public Health | Photo by Torie Doll

“Almost all of the current strategies are focused the blood-stage of malaria – after the person has already become infected. But, in order to eradicate this disease, you need to block the cycle of reinfection and the most efficient way to do that is by blocking the parasite from coming into the person,” Adams said. “This has not been possible previously because the methods of studying the liver stage have just not been there. Our technique makes that work possible.”

The current liver-stage treatment was developed in the 1950s and is very toxic for some patients, according to Adams. Researchers say this new technique represents a fundamental breakthrough in the fight against malaria by allowing new liver stage therapies to be explored.

Alison Roth, a PhD researcher at USF and lead co-author of the article, says the new method, which can be used to study the two most prominent types of the malaria parasite, P. falciparum and P. vivax, uses standard format 384-well plates, allowing scientists to scale up their discovery process with existing high throughput screening technologies and screen preclinical drugs and vaccines more quickly. Using the 384-well format, researchers surpassed the current liver stage in vitro methods by improving long-term cultivation of primary human hepatocytes and enhancing parasite development rates. The technique, while very innovative and more efficient, is actually much simpler than current methods, allowing researchers around the world the chance to employ it in their work.

“Some of the other methods for researching liver stage malaria are very expensive with large biomaterial requirements. Our method reduces the cost and biomaterials, which makes it much more accessible,” Roth said. “It’s exciting to know that the model we’ve developed can be easily adapted to other labs and even used in endemic countries.”

The Plasmodium vivax parasite (green structures) surrounded by human liver cells | Image courtesy of Alison Roth, Adams lab, University of South Florida

USF researchers have already begun using their new method in their USF lab and with their Walter Reed collaborators to evaluate new drugs and validate new vaccines. Roth says they’re working to develop vaccines to prevent the parasite from infecting hepatocytes and also hope to develop drugs to kill the parasite after it’s entered the human body. It’s a breakthrough developed at USF that will have an impact around the world, and one day, save lives.

To read the full research article, click here.

USF researchers explore explosion of Zika after the 2016 Ecuadorean earthquake and what it tells us about emergency preparedness

Homes in Ecuador destroyed by the 2016 earthquake. The damage left tens-of-thousands displaced across the country.

On April 16, 2016, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake rocked the South American country of Ecuador. It was the most severe seismic event in nearly 40 years – killing roughly 700 people and displacing more than 70,000.

In the weeks and months that followed, tens-of-thousands of survivors sought access to shelter, food and clean water, with thousands of emergency personnel assisting in rescue and relief efforts across the country. But along with the visible devastation facing those throughout the affected region, another big, but not so obvious problem was quickly spreading.

A new study from researchers at the University of South Florida (USF) College of Public Health shows an alarming connection between this natural disaster and the number of Zika cases in Ecuador. The article, “Post-earthquake Zika virus surge: Disaster and public health threat amid climatic conduciveness,” published last month in Scientific Reports, outlines the explosion of Zika and provides insight into how these disasters can have hidden costs.

“There was clearly a significant increase in the number of Zika cases after the earthquake,” said Miguel Reina Ortiz, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Global Health. “We also saw that the areas that were most severely affected by the earthquake had the biggest increase in the number of cases of Zika.”

From left, College of Public Health Assistant Professor Miguel Reina Ortiz, PhD, and Assistant Professor Ismael Hoare, PhD, analyze data collected from Ecuador’s Ministry of Public Health.

Reina, along with co-principal investigators Associate Professor Ricardo Izurieta, PhD, and Assistant Professor Ismael Hoare, PhD, collected and analyzed data from Ecuador’s Ministry of Public Health 18 weeks before and after the earthquake. The researchers also incorporated data from numerous sources encompassing earthquake impact, climatic variability and socio-economic factors. They found that the number of Zika cases were 34 times higher after the quake in the most severely impacted regions. In comparison, those areas that were mildly impacted saw their rates of disease nearly double.

“When we see any natural disasters hit, we become intensely focused on helping those affected by the physical impact, such as rescuing people in damaged buildings. That is the priority,” said Hoare. “But, other ancillary programs, like vector control, may not receive similar attention. This data shows the need for those programs is also very important.”

Researchers say while they did not specifically look at the physical conditions that led to the rise in Zika, they are able to make informed hypotheses as to why the explosion occurred. The team points identified structural damage and disruption in water services leading to an accumulation of standing water that favors the breeding of mosquitoes that spread the disease. They also say damage to homes, which might force people to spend more time outdoors, leaves people at a higher risk of exposure to the vectors.

Mosquitoes being studied in a laboratory.

“When there is a disruption in the ecology and infrastructure, these diseases that may not be seen as endemic can suddenly arise,” Izurieta said. “It’s important that we use this data to inform our decision making before and after disasters occur.”

While the study did directly examine the events in Ecuador, researchers believe it can also shed light on the potential risk other regions around the world face, including Florida. Hurricanes, for example, can create similar environmental conditions to what was seen after the earthquake. And, because of Florida’s tropical climate and weather conditions, experts say the emergence of viruses here is possible.

In fact, this year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported nearly 100 new cases of Zika in Florida. USF researchers say the state’s vector control system, which is one of the best the country, has been successful in keeping the spread of the disease to a minimum. They warn, however, that in the event of a severe natural disaster, an increase in cases is possible, especially if locally transmitted cases are reported right before the disaster.

“For that reason, the message is that a disaster like an earthquake or hurricane can disrupt, not only the environmental and infrastructure conditions, but also place populations at higher risk to acquire all sorts of diseases,” said Izurieta.

Through this research, the USF team has developed a statistical model they hope to apply to other areas experiencing a variety of disasters. The hope is to build a diverse understanding of the issue to be able to better inform policy makers of the importance of maintaining vector control initiatives when disasters strike.

This study was conducted in collaboration with researchers at the USF College of Public Health, the USF Morsani College of Medicine, the Ministry of Public Health of Ecuador, the Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador, the James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital and the Baylor College of Medicine.

Photos by Ryan Noone, University Communications and Marketing.

The neglected parasitic infection that USF Health microbiologist Michael White, PhD, has spent the last 20 years studying causes few, if any, symptoms in healthy people.  But the disease caused by the malaria-related parasite T. gondii, known as toxoplasmosis, can cause life-threatening illness  in people with weakened immune systems, such as those with HIV/AIDS, the elderly and babies born to women infected during pregnancy.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-w7xFDdO7c

“Toxoplasma can be a dangerous infection that’s easy to overlook, because it’s not filling our emergency rooms,” said Dr. White a professor of molecular medicine and global health and one of the world’s leading experts on the malaria-related parasite. “But it’s a potential time bomb.”

Michael White, PhD, is one of the world’s leading experts on the malaria-related parasites T. gondii.

 Listen to Dr. White talk about how the process of science is like a puzzle.

People can acquire toxoplasmosis several ways — usually by direct exposure to the feces of cats or by eating undercooked meat of an infected animal, or drinking water contaminated with the organism.  Up to 15 percent of the world’s population is estimated to be infected with T. gondii, and in some parts of the world where sanitation is poor and eating raw or undercooked meat is customary, nearly all people carry the parasite, Dr. White said. In Brazil, particularly virulent strains of the parasite cause a high-incidence of vision-threatening eye disease.

Because the organism is common, relatively easy to disseminate and not easily killed with standard disinfection measures, the National Institutes of Health cites the toxoplasma parasite as a potential threat to national security and public health.

Dr. White is deputy director of the Florida Center of Excellence in Drug Discovery and Innovation at USF.  His research team combines genetic, biochemical and cell biology approaches to understand how the parasite replicates, establishes chronic infection and interacts with host cells. Their goal is to find new ways to combat the pervasive parasite, which has both rapidly dividing acute stage destructive to healthy tissue and a chronic stage where egg-like cysts remain invisible to the immune system, basically hiding out in brain or muscle tissues to avoid attack.

No drugs or vaccines currently exist to treat or prevent the chronic, or dormant, stage of the disease.

Dr. White with his research team at the USF-based Florida Center of Excellence in Drug Discovery and Innovation. From left: Jeanine Yacoub, graduate student in the Department of Chemistry; Dong-Pyo Hong, PhD, assistant professor; Elena Suvorova, PhD; assistant professor; Carmelo Alvarez, MS, research technician; and Anatoli Naumov, PhD, assistant professor.

“A major clinical challenge with toxoplasmosis is that the T. gondii cysts can quietly slip into into your brain or muscle cells, where they can settle without growing” until weakened immunity reactivates the disease, Dr. White said.  “The drugs used to treat toxoplasma infections only attack growth, so they do not cure the lifelong infection. They help reduce the danger of acute infection for AIDS patients or others with compromised immune systems.”

In the past several years Dr. White’s laboratory, working with partners at the University of Georgia, made several intriguing discoveries about the growth and development of the malaria-related parasite. Their work with T. gondii may also lead to new therapies to combat drug-resistant strains of malaria, a mosquito-borne tropical disease threatening to resurge as a public health crisis in certain parts of the world.

To understand the Toxoplasma research, it helps to know that ages ago the ancestors of malaria parasites genetically merged with an ancestor of plants, and the primitive plant donated proteins known as AP2 factors to the future malaria family. Also, unlike plant and animal species – where chromosomes get one shot at replication or else the cell dies or turns into cancer – these malaria-related parasites manage to multiply exponentially while avoiding cell death.

Dr. White, with colleague Dr. Elena Suvorova, conducts NIH-funded research investigating molecular mechanisms underlying the growth and development of T. gondii with the aim of eradicating the pervasive malaria-related parasite.

 Dr. White comments on the role of failure in science.

In a 2013 study appearing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. White’s team demonstrated that AP2 factors are instrumental in flipping a developmental “switch” that transitions T. gondii from its acute to dormant stage.  The USF study showed that, like the AP2 factors that help a plant survive in stressful environments including poor water or soil conditions, the AP2 factors of T gondii help regulate when the time is right to grow or when to form tissue cysts that may lie dormant in people for many years before the host immune system detects their presence.

Dr. White and colleagues were also the first to uncover part of the mysterious process by which T. gondii spreads at explosive and potentially deadly rates inside humans and other animals. In a study published this spring in the high-impact journal PLOS Biology, the researchers discovered how these ancient parasites pull off replicating their chromosomes hundreds or even thousands of times before spinning off into daughter cells with perfect similitude.

The explanation: Toxoplasma parasites have a modified “control room,” called the centrosome, which imposes order on the replication chaos, Dr. White said. “Unlike the comparatively simple centrosome present in human cells, the parasite ‘control room’ has two distinct operating machines: one machine controls chromosome copying, while the other machine regulates when to form daughter cell bodies. Working together, but with independent responsibilities, parasite centrosome machines can dictate the scale and timing of pathogen replication.”

Exposure by cleaning the litter box of an infected cat is one way in which the Toxoplasma parasite can be transmitted to humans. The tiny organism is transmitted to cats by rodents, and the parasite thrives in the cat’s gut, producing countless egg-like cells that are passed along in the feces.

Dr. White’s team found that the operation of the centrosome requires kinases, the same enzymes most effectively attacked by certain cancer drugs.  So far, they’ve identified within both centrosome machines six kinases that could be potential drug targets.

This new knowledge and the groundbreaking understanding of the centrosome’s function suggests that the system’s highly-efficient cell proliferation can be disrupted to kill the malaria-related parasites.

“These stealthy parasites evolved a more complex mechanism to control cell division, because they wanted to avoid the immune system — but they created a vulnerability in doing that,” Dr. White said.  “They are like Humpty Dumpty. When we hit one of the kinases, the parasite breaks apart and can’t be put back together… And if we can develop drugs to inhibit two or more of these critical kinases, then we could potentially overcome the problem of drug-resistant strains.”

The researchers have already begun screening small molecules to identify the best potential inhibitors of the centrosome kinases they’ve identified.

Dr. White in the High Throughput Screening Core at CDDI, where USF researchers screen small molecules to help identify the best inhibitors of the T. gondii centrosome kinases (potential drug targets) they’ve identified.

Dr. White’s laboratory has also discovered proteins that control expression of the chronic, or dormant, phase of toxoplasmosis. In animal model experiments, the researchers were able to alter parasite genes active in the acute phase of the disease to eliminate the “silent” stage of the disease, perhaps by “teaching” the immune system to combat the dormant stage, Dr. White said.

The work may lead to a vaccination to prevent the chronic stage of the disease in animals, which is one of the sources of infection for humans, he added.  “If we could eradicate the toxoplasma from poultry, pigs and other livestock, we could help break the cycle of transmission from the food supply (to humans).”

Dr. White joined USF in 2009 from Montana State University where he was a professor of veterinary molecular biology. He received his PhD in microbiology from Oregon University in 1983, and completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of Washington focusing on how to attack the growth of cancer cells. In the early 1990s, under the mentorship of electron microscopist C.A. Speer at Montana State, his research emphasis shifted to eukaryotic pathogens, parasites that can lead to a variety of diseases in humans, animals and plants.

Since 1996, he has investigated molecular mechanisms underlying the growth and development of T gondii with the aim of eradicating the malaria-related parasite using a two-pronged approach: reducing its proliferative capacity and breaking the cycle of transmission between animal and human. Across his career, Dr. White’s research has been continuously funded by grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and, since 1988, by grants from the National Institutes of Health. He is the principal investigator for two active NIH R01 grants totaling more than $4.8 million, with a third $2.6-million grant pending.

Image of Toxoplasma gondii parasites dividing provided by Ke Hu and John Murray (DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.0020020.g001). Dr. White and colleagues were the first to uncover part of the mysterious process by which T. gondii spreads at explosive and potentially deadly rates inside humans and other animals.

Dr. White chairs the NIH Pathogenic Eukaryotes Study Section and is a member of the Genome Consortium for Toxoplasma gondii. He serves as an ad-hoc reviewer for several journals, including PLoS Pathogens, Molecular Microbiology, and Eukaryotic Cell.

His laboratory, based in the USF Research Park, collaborates with USF medicinal chemist Jim Leahy, PhD, and he supports postdoctoral fellows at the University of Georgia and Indiana University School of Medicine.

Something you might not know about Dr. White:  As a teen growing up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, he raised Blue Dutch rabbits.  He also collected rattlesnakes, tarantulas and blue racers from the mesa bordering his home. “It was the only field biology I ever did,” he said.

Photos by Eric Younghans, USF Health Communications & Marketing

Rays Jiang’s computational biology expertise powers antimalarial drug discovery efforts

Red blood cells are a prime target for infection by the malaria parasite, but the absence of a nucleus containing DNA in red blood cells hinders genetic research to understand how these cells act as host cells.

Seeking to help overcome that obstacle, researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, The Broad Institute of Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of South Florida developed an innovative genetic screening technology to identify critical host factors required for the invasion and growth of the most deadly malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, in red blood cells. The technology uses red blood cells derived from gene-silenced hematopoietic stem cells.

In a study published last month in Science, the research team discovered that a rare blood group known as CD55 is essential for the invasion of human red blood cells by P. falciparum.

Rays Jiang, PhD, is a member of the USF College of Public Health’s Global Infectious Diseases Research team. A paper she co-authored recently appeared in the journal Science.

“Now we have a technology to make mutated red blood cells,” said the paper’s second author Rays Jiang, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Global Health, USF College of Public Health, and the Florida Center of Excellence for Drug Discovery and Innovation at USF.

“This will help us to understand how stem cells develop into mature blood cells, how malaria invades blood cells and, ultimately, to stop malaria infection.”

The recent finding of CD55’s critical role in infection – and the lack of toxicity associated with its absence in some individuals — suggests that this protein could be an attractive target for developing host-based malaria therapies less susceptible to drug resistance.

“Instead of killing the bug, maybe we target the host to make the parasite harmless,” said Dr. Jiang. “We may be able to treat the disease by using a CD55 decoy protein to block the malaria parasite’s critical entry point into the red blood cell.”

Once P. falciparum has attacked red blood cells, it rapidly creates more parasites that spread in waves throughout the human host’s bloodstream leading to the symptoms of severe malaria – fever, chills, loss of blood, brain damage and coma.

A mosquito-borne infectious disease, malaria affecting 10 percent of the world’s population, killing nearly one million people a year in developing countries and crippling their economies. The form of the malaria caused by P. falciparum is a leading cause of death among children worldwide.

Dr. Jiang worked as computational biologist at the Broad Institute of Harvard, MIT and Harvard University before joining the College of Public Health’s Global Infectious Diseases Research Program in 2014.  Her interdisciplinary research team at USF includes expertise in infectious diseases, engineering and drug discovery as well as computational biology.

Dr. Jiang with her interdisciplinary team, back row l to r, Justin Gibbons, PhD student, College of Public Health and Morsani College of Medicine; and postdoctoral researcher Charley Wang and research associate Swamy Adapa, both from the College of Public Health. Team member Mandzisi Mkhontfo, MSPH student, is not pictured.

Dr. Jiang’s scholarly work has contributed to understanding the global diversity of malaria parasites and the interplay of genetics and environmental factors in controlling the spread and severity of malaria. She develops and applies methods to analyze and interpret the enormous amounts of data generated by high-throughput biology, which automates the precise repetition of experiments on a large scale so researchers can rapidly study how cells function and interact with each other and how disease-causing microbes exploit them.

Working with principal investigator John Adams, PhD, a distinguished USF professor of global health, Dr. Jiang is a co-investigator for a five-year RO1 grant from the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.  The study uses chemogenomic profiling to identify P. falciparum’s responses to screened drug candidates and to help rationally design more effective antimalarial treatments less likely to lead to drug resistance.

Article citation:
Elizabeth S. Egan, Rays H. Y. Jiang, Mischka A. Moechtar, Natasha S. Barteneva, Michael P. Weekes, Luis V. Nobre,  Steven P. Gygi,  Joao A. Paulo, Charles Frantzreb, Yoshihiko Tani, Junko Takahashi,  Seishi Watanabe, Jonathan Goldberg, Aditya S. Paul, Carlo Brugnara, David E. Root,  Roger C. Wiegand, John G. Doench, and Manoj T. Duraisingh. “A forward genetic screen identifies erythrocyte CD55 as essential for Plasmodium falciparum invasion.”  Science, 8 May 2015: Vol. 348, No.6235 pp. 711-714,
DOI: 10.1126/science.aaa3526.

– Photos by Eric Younghans, USF Health Communications & Marketing

Findings may lead to new treatment to curb threat of drug-resistant malaria

Tampa, Fla. (March 3, 2015) – A University of South Florida professor and his team of researchers have become the first to uncover part of the mysterious process by which malaria-related parasites spread at explosive and deadly rates inside humans and other animals.

As drug-resistant malaria threatens to become a major public health crisis, the findings could potentially lead to a powerful new treatment for malaria-caused illnesses that kill more than 600,000 people a year.

In a study published online March 3 in the high-impact journal PLOS Biology, the USF researchers and their colleagues at the University of Georgia discovered how these ancient parasites manage to replicate their chromosomes up to thousands of times before spinning off into daughter cells with perfect similitude – all the while avoiding cell death.

Michael White, PhD, professor of global health at USF Health, was principal investigator for the study.

“How these parasites preserve fidelity in this seemingly chaotic process is one of the great mysteries of this pathogen family,” said USF Health’s Michael White, PhD, a professor in the College of Public Health’s Department of Global Health and Morsani College of Medicine’s Department of Molecular Medicine.  Dr. White partnered on the study with fellow USF researcher Elena Suvorova, PhD, in the Departments of  Molecular Medicine & Global Health and the Florida Center for Drug Discovery and Innovation, as well as with two researchers from the University of Georgia.

In studying the malaria-relative Toxoplasma gondii, the team found an explanation for that puzzle.

To understand it, consider that malaria-related parasites are professional multipliers, unlike plant and animal species and single-cell organisms like yeast – where chromosomes get one shot at replication or else the cell dies or turns into cancer, Dr. White explained.

With malaria-related parasites, once transmitted into an animal or human, they can hide out in a single cell in many different tissues replicating silently tens, hundreds or even thousands of times before the host’s immune system can detect that they are there.

Then with the stealth of a Trojan horse, they burst forth as “daughter cells,” which are unleashed in massive quantities in waves, like a small army into the host’s system – quickly overwhelming a patient’s immune response, Dr. White explained.

What the study found was that the Toxoplasma parasites pull this off thanks to a “modified ‘control room’ called the centrosome that imposes order on the replication chaos,” Dr. White said. “Unlike the comparatively simple centrosome present in human cells, the parasite ‘control room’ has two distinct operating machines; one machine controls chromosome copying, while the other machine regulates when to form daughter cell bodies.  Working together, but with independent responsibilities, parasite centrosome machines can dictate the scale and timing of pathogen replication.”

This groundbreaking understanding and novel discovery of the centrosome’s function leads to a critical conclusion: disruption of the centrosome machines – like cutting the cables between two computer systems – kills the parasite, Dr. White said.

Breaking any part of the highly efficient but highly fragile replication functions shuts everything down.

“They are literally Humpty Dumpty,” he added. “If they break, they can’t be put back together.”

The dividing Toxoplasma tachyzoite (left cartoon) recently copied its chromosomes and a stage of mitosis called metaphase was captured (at right). For each daughter parasite to receive one chromosome set (14 total, blue color) and one each of the centrosome machines (outer core, red and inner core, green), it first aligns these structures in a linear array (metaphase) all connected by microtubules (not seen here). Then the parasite cell breaks the connection at the chromosomes and a complete set of chromosomes and centrosome machines separate followed by the nucleus dividing. The two resolved outer cores (red) then complete coordinating the assembly of the daughter cells (not shown) that become infectious parasites.

With these findings and the new knowledge of the parasites’ vulnerabilities, Dr. White and his fellow researchers will delve into drug development.

That process could take anywhere from four to 10 years of further research and clinical trials before a new drug is on the market, he said. The length of time depends on whether the researchers hit upon effective application of prior-FDA approved cancer-related drugs or develop a new treatment from scratch.

Whatever treatment they develop, Dr. White stressed that it will be used in conjunction with other types of drug therapies.

Currently drugs used to treat malaria go after the pathogens’ metabolism, while the new research will seek to undermine the parasite’s foundation in enough of the spreading cells in order to allow the human immune system to fight back and not become overwhelmed, Dr. White said.

A major challenge today in parts of the world is the lack of access to drug treatments at all or until it is too late and the patient succumbs to malaria-related illnesses and brain hemorrhaging.

Because of the parasite’s high-adaptability, current drug treatments are constantly susceptible to the development of drug resistance, Dr. White said.

A potential global health crisis is unfolding as drug-resistant malaria continues to move across Burma, reaching the Indian border, according to British newspaper The Independent, commenting on a recent study in the journal Lancet.  Doctors fear it will continue to spread and enter Africa, home to 90 percent of the world’s malaria cases.

Malaria caused about 207 million cases and 627,000 deaths in 2012, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 3.2 billion people, or half the world’s population, are at risk of malaria, according to the World Health Organization.

Elena Suvorova, PhD, from the USF Departments of Molecular Medicine & Global Health and the Florida Center for Drug Discovery and Innovation, was the study’s lead author.

Dr. White said that this study, which he called the first for a USF Health laboratory in publishing original research in PLOS Biology, will help get more potential treatments in the pipeline.

“The more we understand their vulnerability,” he said of the parasites, “the better chance we can keep that pipeline full.”

The study was supported by the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Disease (NIAID), National Institutes of Health.

Article citation:
“A Novel Bipartite Centrosome Coordinates the Apicoplexan Cell Cycle,” Elena S. Suvorova, Maria Francia, Boris Striepen and Michael W. White, PLOS Biology, March 3, 2015; DOI:10.1371/journal.pbio.1002093.

                                                                                                      -USF Health-
USF Health’s mission is to envision and implement the future of health. It is the partnership of the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, the College of Nursing, the College of Public Health, the College of Pharmacy, the School of Biomedical Sciences and the School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences; and the USF Physician’s Group. The University of South Florida is a Top 50 research university in total research expenditures among both public and private institutions nationwide, according to the National Science Foundation. For more information, visit www.health.usf.edu

News release by Saundra Amrhein
High-resolution image taken by Dr. Maria Francia

John Adams, PhD, USF Health professor of global health, and his research team recently led a weeklong workshop for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Malaria Culture Systems Consortium working group for Plasmodium vivax blood-stage culture.

Counterclockwise, from left: Dr. Juliana Sá, National Institutes of Health; Dr. John Adams, USF College of Public Health; Dr. Erica Pasini, BPRC, The Netherlands; Dr. Manoj Duraisingh, Harvard School of Public Health; and Dr. Nicanor Obaldia III, Gorgas Memorial Institute, Panama, and USF.

The hands-on workshop was part of the $8.5-million, five-year USF project directed by Adams to develop long-term continuous cultures for this form of malaria most common outside of Africa. The lack of basic culture methods, critical for modern biomedical research, is a major problem hindering development vaccines and drugs to prevent this neglected tropical disease.

Scientists from the USF College of Public Health program in Global Health and Infectious Diseases Research and from other laboratories in the United States, Germany, Panama, Thailand, and The Netherlands gathered in the Interdisciplinary Research Building.

The goal of the workshop was to coordinate experimental studies of the project, review the current status of the research, and identify the key challenges remaining to improve laboratory research methods.  The program seeks to harness cutting-edge methods in hematopoietic stem cell culture, bioengineering, high-content image analysis, and other recent advances in biomedical research to develop a sustainable in vitro culture method for the vivax malaria parasite.

The hands-on workshop gave researchers the opportunity to practice the latest techniques for culturing sustainable vivax malaria parasites in the laboratory.

Principal investigators of partner projects in the culture systems program for vivax malaria research — Dr. Manoj Duraisingh, Harvard School of Public Health (Cambridge, Massachusetts) and Dr. Erica Pasini, Biomedical Primate Research Centre (Rijswijk, The Netherlands), and their project team members — traveled to USF for the workshop.

The 18 workshop participants included key collaborators supported directly by the USF project: Dr. Nicanor Obaldia III of the Gorgas Memorial Institute (Panama), Dr. Wajeeh Saadi of USF-Draper Laboratory (Tampa, FL), Dr. Juliana Sá of the Laboratory of Malaria and Vector Research, National Institutes of Health (Rockville, MD), and Dr. Wanlapa Roobsoong of the Malaria Vaccine Research Unit, Mahidol University (Bangkok, Thailand).

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Photos by Eric Younghans, USF Health Communications

By David Brothers

Six USF College of Public Health students have volunteered for Peace Corps duty this summer, a record number for the college.  Each will undertake a 27-month assignment of personal sacrifice, with personal hardship a distinct possibility.

Founded and established by executive order of President John F. Kennedy in 1961, the Corps assigns duties unknown to volunteers until after they have committed themselves to serve.

Congress confirmed Kennedy’s order with the Peace Corps Act of 1961.  The act was issued with a compelling mission statement:

“To promote world peace and friendship through a Peace Corps, which shall make available to interested countries and areas men and women of the United States qualified for service abroad and willing to serve, under conditions of hardship if necessary, to help the peoples of such countries and areas in meeting their needs for trained manpower.”

The record half-dozen carrying the USF Health banner abroad this summer are part of the Peace Corps Master’s International option, which allows students to combine Peace Corps service with their master’s studies.

These Bulls are bound for the Peace Corps and proudly display their new host country. From left, Kristen Surles, Sierra Petrosky, Anabel Fernandez and Michelle Balut. Not pictured, Annastesia Mims and Anh Thy Nguyen.

“They will not have earned their degrees until they’ve completed 27 months serving in the Peace Corps,” explained Barbara Kennedy, MS, MPH, PCMI co-director.  “Anthony Nguyen is our only MSPH PCMI student.  He will be working on the thesisrequirement while in the field.

“The others are MPH students.  These students will satisfy the fieldexperience and special projectrequirements while volunteering.  In the case of all the PCMI students, the Peace Corps assigns their projects.  The projects take priority over academic work.”

Jesse Casanova, MS, COPH coordinator of international programs, has also been PCMI coordinator for about six months.

Before joining COPH nearly a year ago, he was head of Peace Corps Response in Cameroon, with frequent trips to Senegal part of the equation.

The Corps veteran spoke recently about his service, only some of which will parallel what his charges will experience.

Jesse Casanova, MS

“There are two different things,” he explained.  “One is Peace Corps, another is Peace Corps Response.  With the Peace Corps, you really don’t get to choose your assignment.  The assignment is given to you based on your qualifications and the needs of different areas.”

Health and security assessments factor in, as well, he said, and even the time of year of the application plays a role in selecting the best volunteer to suit the need.

“So, that first time out, you really don’t have much of an option.  If you don’t like where you’ve been placed or invited to go, you can always decline it, and then just say, ‘I’ll wait ‘til the next opportunity.’  But then, you’ll be waiting for an open slot.  So it could be a month; it could be a year.

“Response,” he said, “is a little different, because you apply to specific programs in specific countries.  So you can choose where you go.”

Casanova served in both.  His first 27-month adventure was in Togo as a natural resource management adviser.

“I was in a small community in the middle of absolutely nowhere,” he said.  “It had about 200 people, mud huts, the whole works.”

Also an HIV/AIDS prevention worker, he coordinated a project in which a dozen volunteers rode bicycles over dirt trails to deliver talks to other rural communities in the region.

“Peace Corps Response, for me, was a lot different,” he said.  “As a regular Peace Corps volunteer, I was in the bush doing community-based work.  With Peace Corps Response, my responsibilities were a lot more broad.  They were more focused on the national level, so I worked with the directors of the WHO; I worked with the Ministry of Health; I was part of the U.S. Embassy Health Team in Cameroon, where I was a point person for malaria; I was coordinator between some of the organizations and the global funding in Geneva.  So, it was a lot higher level of work that I did.  I lived in the capital city in a boarding house.  So,” he concluded with a laugh, “it was a completely different experience.”

Peace Corps – the take-what-you’re-offered variety – is the program PCMI students join.  Because they’re in degree programs, time constraints almost mandate acceptance of the first offer.

“It really is up to the student” whether to pass on the first offer, Casanova said.  “We recommend that they don’t, solely because, assuming the Peace Corps aspect of the PCMI program, they’ve finished with all of their coursework.”

Only field experience and special project remain for the MPH student at that point, he said, or the thesis for an MSPH student.

“So it’s really time-sensitive that they go when they’re invited to go.  They could choose not to, but then, of course, they run into the risk of it taking longer than it should, which means they would have to do a regular field experience and a regular special project rather than doing them as Peace Corps volunteers.”

They also would miss out on the college paying for those nine credit hours of their education.

Still, a couple have declined the first offer or passed altogether, Kennedy said, and two had medical separtations before finishing their assignments.

“It’s called early separation,” she said, “and it’s a definite no-no.”

But as with anything, benefits have to be balanced with risks.

“Any form of international travel has its risks associated with it,” Casanova said, “both in health and safety, even if it’s to Western Europe, simply because the cultures are vastly different – more so when you’re going to developing countries, and especially if you’re going to certain places in Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia, where you have much higher rates of diseases like malaria, dengue.  So these are very relevant, very real factors,” he said, “but the Peace Corps puts a lot of emphasis on safety and security, both physical and mental, for the volunteers.”

Specifically, the Corps is careful, he said, to make certain that every volunteer has access to U.S.-based medical care, as well as safety and security officers.  Once the volunteers have arrived at their assignments, they are out of USF’s and COPH’s hands and entirely the responsibility of the Corps and the U.S. Embassy, which gets involved especially if an evacuation need arises.

Because volunteers are asked to be self-reliant even under the watchful eyes of the Corps and the embassy, three months of intensive training precedes the two years of service.

“The Peace Corps provides them with really extensive language and technical training, depending on what sector they’ve been assigned to,” Casanova said.

After training, volunteers are sworn in by the host nation’s U.S. ambassador with the same oath administered to new military personnel and the President.  Then the real fun begins.

“I think it’s a fantastic program,” Casanova concluded, “especially for individuals who want to work overseas.  More often than not, when you look at requirements for employment, you’re asked for a history of foreign service, and Peace Corps provides that to you.  But beyond that, it provides students the ability to cross-culturally adapt, to learn flexibility, to learn another language.”

* * *

A little about each of the six COPH students leaving this summer for Peace Corps service follows.  Their aims for serving are as noble as the Corps’ mission statement.

Michelle Balut and her dog Dobie

St. Petersburg native Michelle Balut departs Sept. 3 for Fiji, where she will be a health empowerment facilitator.  Last summer, she was a student volunteer with Feeding America’s summer food service program, which provides free meals and snacks to children in low-income families during the summer months.

“I hope to create a health behaviors intervention that is culturally appropriate and will better the lives of the community I will be living and working in,” she said.  “Even if I improve the life of just one person, it will all be worth it.”

As an undergraduate, she majored in anthropology/archeology and minored in maritime studies.

All of the volunteers will be making personal sacrifices to serve the Corps, but perhaps none more than Balut.

“I’m most worried about leaving my family behind,” she said, “especially my dog, who will be turning 17 in October.”

Anabel Fernandez

Anabel Fernandez was born in Havana, Cuba, and came to the United States with her parents in 1997 at the age of seven.

“What I ultimately hope to accomplish in the Peace Corps is to help empower members of my community to improve their own lives through the knowledge of public health,” she said.  “I want to actively engage my community in participating in prevention practices, and thus provide a greater sense of ownership over their own health outcomes.”

Fernandez will leave in September to serve as a public health educator in Peru, where she will work in rural communities with low-income families, specifically those with children under age 5.  She already has been a health volunteer in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and has been a volunteer certified HIV counselor and tester for the past three years at the BRIDGE Healthcare Clinic, a free, student-run clinic on campus.  For the past year, she served as co-director of HIV testing services at the clinic.

“I have absolutely no reservations in joining the Peace Corps,” she said.  “I am very excited for this new adventure ahead and am approaching it with flexibility, an open mind, and an unwavering positive attitude.”

Annastesia Mims said her passion for public health is “gender equality for global access to health, primarily focused on access to health for women and other gender minorities.  Gender minorities include individuals who are intersex, transgender, gender non-conforming and others.  The college has allowed me to explore these concepts by giving me the freedom to develop my own projects and papers around them, including the rights of LGBT incarcerated youth, gender dysphoria, personalized cognitive counseling and teen sexual health education.”

The native of Beech Island, S.C., will serve the Corps in Swaziland, Africa, where she will work in a community HIV/AIDS program.  She has been a member of the Preconception Peer Educators and has worked as an HIV outreach specialist at DACCO, Inc.

Anh Thy “Anthony” Nguyen

Anh Thy Nguyen (he goes by “Anthony”) is another student who is no stranger to volunteerism after serving with the USF Health Services Corps and working as an intern at Moffitt Cancer Center.  A biological sciences major as an undergrad, he plans to earn a doctorate in infectious diseases and continue his work with cancer as a professor.  His Peace Corps assignment will be in malaria prevention and community health in the African nation of Togo, a long way from his hometown of Lincoln, Neb.

“Public Health interests me because the field focuses on solving health issues from a broad population perspective that is unique from clinical health professions,” he said.  “The college provides many opportunities for international study and work to understand issues that affect many people in different parts of the world.”

Sierra Petrosky

“Everything about public health speaks to me,” said Sierra Petrosky.  “It’s all about creating healthier, happier communities.  What’s not to love?”

Shipping out to Benin, West Africa, may be her biggest and bravest move to date, but it’s by no means her first major relocation effort.

“None of it was easy, honestly,” she says of her move to Tampa from Cottonwood, Az.  “Moving to a new state where I didn’t know anyone, paying out-of-state tuition, working full time, studying full time.  Should I continue? But looking back, I know I made the right choice to come here, and I am definitely a better person for it.”

What does she hope to accomplish in the Corps?

“Whatever I’m able to!  My assignment is in maternal and infant health, specifically focused on nutrition.  I know there are already a few projects going on there, so I also hope to expand and improve those.”

Like many preparing for life-changing adventures, she is not without her reservations.

“I’m nervous to be away from loved ones for so long,” she said.  “It’s definitely going to be a huge transition.  But I know the other volunteers will be going through the same thing, so I will at least have people to talk with about any stress or homesickness.”

Kristen “Tenni” Surles

“I want to further develop my understanding of how global health works in a real-world setting,” said Kristen “Tenni” Surles, a native of McMinville, Tenn.  “I am nervous about spending two years in another country, but I am also incredibly excited to start this new part of my life.”

Surles majored in anthropology and minored in history as an undergraduate.  She leaves on August 19 for her assignment in the Dominican Republic.

Story by David Brothers, photos courtesy of Natalie D. Preston and Michelle Balut, USF College of Public Health