USF Health Neuroscience Institute leaders accompany U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis on a tour of research laboratories in the Byrd Alzheimer’s Center, a centerpiece of the Institute.

Neurological diseases are growing at an unprecedented rate as Americans live longer and survive other chronic conditions like cardiovascular disease and cancer.

During U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis’ visit to the USF Health Neuroscience Institute on Aug. 24, the congressman was given an overview of the multidisciplinary research and clinical care that the University of South Florida conducts to help combat the human and economic burden of neurological diseases, including dementia, stroke, Parkinson’s disease and brain trauma.

The USF Health Neuroscience Institute, home of the Johnnie B. Byrd, Sr., Alzheimer’s Center, integrates three clinical departments — Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry – along with related basic and translational science departments. The Institute’s focus on consolidating disease-specific care for a wide spectrum of neurological diseases is intended to strengthen collaborative neuroscience research across USF and help accelerate promising discoveries from bench to bedside.

Laura Blair, PhD, assistant professor of molecular medicine, explains her team’s research on chaperone proteins that drive different states of the tau protein associated with Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases. The USF Health researchers are identifying promising targets to help slow or prevent disease progression.

Bilirakis toured laboratories and the Johnnie B. Byrd, Sr., Alzheimer’s Center, the centerpiece of the Neuroscience Institute, with Stephen Liggett, MD, associate vice president for research at USF Health; Clifton Gooch, MD, chair of neurology at the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine (MCOM); and Glenn Currier, MD, chair of psychiatry and behavioral neurosciences at MCOM.  He also met with Robert Hauser, MD, director of the USF Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders Center, which is designated a National Parkinson’s Foundation Center of Excellence.

These USF Health leaders spoke about the need for more federal resources directed toward helping advance early diagnosis and new treatments to delay, minimize and prevent nervous system disorders.

Robert Hauser, MD, (left) director of the nationally recognized USF Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Center, welcomes Bilirakis.

Among a few informational items they shared with the congressman:

• National Institute of Health grant funding does not cover the expense of high-tech equipment increasingly needed to do things like study single cells in the brain to understand the root cause of neurological diseases.
• 100 million Americans are afflicted with at least one neurological disease. A USF study led by Dr. Gooch and published last year in the Annals of Neurology found that the cost of diagnosed neurological disorders approaches a staggering $800 billion a year.
• More than half of MCOM’s $14.7 million in clinical trial revenue for FY 2018 was neuroscience related (neurology, psychiatry and neurosurgery).
• In addition to the Byrd Alzheimer’s Center and Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders Center, other centers of excellence under the auspices of the USF Health Neuroscience Institute include stroke, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis (MS), Huntington’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), ataxias with an emphasis on Friedreich’s ataxia, and aging and brain repair.
• USF Health Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences continues to strengthen neurobiology research to discover new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease and abnormal brain development, as well as related mental disorders including autism. Current NIH-funded projects include studying ways to effectively deliver central nervous system drugs across the blood-brain barrier and testing the effectiveness of computer brain training games in protecting against cognitive decline.

USF Health’s Stephen Liggett, MD, (right) chats with Bilirakis in one of the laboratories at the Neuroscience Institute.

From left: Stephen Liggett, MD, USF Health associate vice president for research and Morsani College of Medicine vice dean for research; Congressman Gus Bilirakis, who represents Florida’s 12th District; Clifton Gooch, MD, chair of neurology; and Glenn Currier, MD, chair of psychiatry and behavioral neurosciences.

-Photos by Eric Younghans, USF Health Communications and Marketing

U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis toured the USF School of Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation Sciences Aug. 20 as part of a visit to learn more about the University of South Florida’s comprehensive research and educational initiatives to benefit veterans and active military.

The Congressman met with physical therapy faculty members engaged in leading-edge Department of Defense-funded studies – including testing advanced prosthetics for military amputees, evaluating an exercise training regimen intended to protect soldiers against low back injury, and recruiting USF student veterans exposed to blasts while in the military but not diagnosed with traumatic brain injury, to determine whether balance, gait and hearing problems may be early signs of TBI.  He was accompanied by Lt. General Martin Steele (USMC retired), executive director of USF Military Partnerships, and William S. Quillen, DPT, associate dean of the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine and director of the School of Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation Sciences.

USF’s physical therapy school is home to a Center for Neuromusculoskeletal Research, with research sponsored by the DOD, Federal Emergency Management Agency and corporate partners, as well as support from recurring state funding.

Bilirakis, vice chair of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, also met with USF President Judy Genshaft, Larry Braue, EdD, director of veterans services at USF, and several of the university’s Tillman Military Scholars, including some from the Morsani College of Medicine. USF’s college of medicine has one of the largest concentrations of Tillman scholars of any medical school in the country.

Jason Highsmith, DPT, PhD, assistant professor in the USF School of Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation Sciences, shows Congressman Gus Bilirakis a couple of the multifunctional prosthetic feet his team is evaluating as part of a DOD-funded research project.

John Mayer, DC, PhD, Lincoln College Endowed Chair in Biomechanical and Chiropractic Research, explains the project he leads investigating whether a specific exercise training regimen may protect against low back injury in combat soldiers. They study enrolled healthy medics at Fort Sam Houston, TX.

Jeannie Stephenson (left), PT, MS, instructor, and Dolly Swisher, PT, PhD, professor, demonstrate the neurocom sensory organization test that will be used to help isolate balance difficulties that may be a preclinical indicator of mild traumatic brain injury.

Seok Hun Kim, PhD, PT, assistant professor of physical therapy, is among the USF researchers involved in federally-funded research to benefit soldiers and veterans, with applications for civilian amputees as well.

L to R: Vietnam War veterans Rudy Salas and Jim Daniels, advocates of the advanced prosthetic research conducted at USF, chat with Bilirakis.

 Photos by Amy Blodgett, USF Communications & Marketing