The new research may help identify measures to prevent or delay mild cognitive impairment and dementia

Can what you eat influence the health of your brain now and in the future?

That is a key question that USF Health Morsani College of Medicine researchers hope to answer with the help of a noninvasive Microbiome in the Aging Gut and Brain (MiaGB) study.

The new clinical study expects to enroll 400 adults ages 60 and older in the Tampa Bay region and beyond — both those who are cognitively healthy as well as those diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment and early-stage dementia.

The researchers will analyze the composition of bacteria in stool samples and saliva samples (oral swabs) donated by study participants one time at the beginning of the study and then once a year for at least five years. They will track alterations over time in the populations of oral and gut microorganisms, collectively known as the microbiome. Using an interactive mobile app, study participants will complete a daily dietary recall questionnaire and yearly tests of their memory, speed of thinking, and other cognitive abilities.

“We want to know, based on changes in the microbiome ‘signature’ from the saliva and stool samples, if we can predict an older person’s risk of developing cognitive decline or dementia. And can we do that early enough to delay or prevent those age-related diseases – either by modifying the individual’s diet or the microbiome itself,” said Hariom Yadav, PhD, an associate professor of neurosurgery and brain repair at the Morsani College of Medicine and director of the USF Center for Microbiome Research.

Several studies have correlated healthy guts, characterized by a well-balanced diversity of microorganisms, with healthy aging. Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias are among the growing number of medical conditions linked to an imbalance of microorganisms (more bad bugs than good bugs) within the intestines. Emerging evidence also suggests that oral health and brain health are interconnected, including a large National Institute on Aging study last year linking gum disease with dementia.

Hariom Yadav, PhD, (standing) and Shalini Jain, PhD, are faculty members at the USF Center for Microbiome Research, based in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine. Their research focuses on the gut-brain connection (gut-brain axis) in relation to cognitive function.  — Photo by Allison Long, USF Health Communications and Marketing

The daily food intake logged by study participants will indicate any deficiencies in their usual diets, said Shalini Jain, PhD, the MiaGB study’s IRB principal investigator and USF Health assistant professor of neurosurgery and brain repair. “We’ll be able to evaluate the effects that certain types of foods (i.e, protein, fruits, vegetables, dairy, carbohydrates, fermented foods, and junk food) have on the growth of certain types of bacteria and see how the mix of bacteria changes if the diet is modified.”

Study participants may benefit by learning more about the calories and nutritional balance (or imbalance) in their diets, Dr. Jain added. Based on the dietary information reported, the mobile app suggests healthy habits that can be incorporated into the individual’s lifestyle.

Ronald Day and his wife Ardell, both 74, were among the first to enroll in the MiaGB study after attending a presentation about the USF Health microbiome research. Day, a retired pastor and volunteer chaplain at his Tampa continuing care retirement community, said he was intrigued by the idea that populations of microorganisms in the gut may affect cognitive skills controlled by the brain.

“On a practical level, I’m hoping to learn something about my eating habits from the food diaries we keep that might indicate what foods I should add to my diet, or which to avoid,” Day said. “And in the future, I’m hoping researchers learn enough from studies like this to suggest individualized diets (or other interventions) tailored to our own microbiomes.”

As someone in “the last third of life,” Day added, he’s keenly aware of the need to prevent or delay cognitive decline. “One of our neighbors is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, and it’s been difficult for the family… Anything that can help maintain mental acuity as we age is so important.”

Photo by Allison Long, USF Health Communications and Marketing

Aging is not a disease, Dr. Yadav emphasized, but as people age it’s particularly important to keep a healthy balance of intestinal microbes so that a potentially harmful strain of bacteria does not overgrow and monopolize the food source of beneficial bacteria. “A healthy gut allows you to adequately absorb the healthier nutrients and keep a check on the stimulation of inflammation, which is a root cause of several age-related conditions, including abnormal cognitive function,” he said.

For more information about the MiaGB study, please email jains10@usf.edu or call (813) 974-6281.

University of South Florida Health neuroscientist suggests the therapeutic immunomodulatory vaccine may be safer for those with age-associated decline in immunity

In the Alzheimer’s disease brain, the amyloid beta peptide clumps together to form hardened plaques between nerve cells.

TAMPA, Fla (Oct. 20, 2020) — Our immune system’s capacity to mount a well-regulated defense against foreign substances, including toxins, weakens with age and makes vaccines less effective in people over age 65. At the same time, research has shown that immunotherapy targeting neurotoxic forms of the peptide amyloid beta (oligomeric Aβ) may halt the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, the most common age-related neurodegenerative disease.

A team led by Chuanhai Cao, PhD, of the University of South Florida Health (USF Health), has focused on overcoming, in those with impaired immunity, excess inflammation and other complications that interfere with development of a therapeutic Alzheimer’s vaccine.

Now, a preclinical study by Dr. Cao and colleagues indicates that an antigen-presenting dendritic vaccine with a specific antibody response to oligomeric Aβ may be safer and offer clinical benefit in treating Alzheimer’s disease. The vaccine, called E22W42 DC, uses immune cells known as dendritic cells (DC) loaded with a modified Aβ peptide as the antigen.

The  Alzheimer’s mouse model study of this new investigational vaccine was published early online Oct. 13 in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

One of the two hallmark pathologies of Alzheimer’s disease is hardened deposits of Aβ that clump together between nerve cells (amyloid protein plaques) in the brain; the other is neurofibrillary tangles of tau protein inside brain cells. Both lead to damaged neurological cell signaling, ultimately causing the onset of Alzheimer’s disease and symptoms.

“This therapeutic vaccine uses the body’s own immune cells to target the toxic Aβ molecules that accumulate harmfully in the brain,” said principal investigator Dr. Cao, a neuroscientist at the USF Health Taneja College of Pharmacy, USF Health Morsani College of Medicine and the university’s Byrd Alzheimer’s Center. “And, importantly, it provides strong immunomodulatory effects without inducing an unwanted, vaccine-associated autoimmune reaction in the aging mice.”

Unfortunately, clinical trials of all anti-amyloid treatments for Alzheimer’s disease so far have failed – including the initial vaccine trial targeting Aβ (AN-1792), which was suspended in 2002 after several immunized patients developed central nervous system inflammation.  “Inflammation is a primary symptom of Alzheimer’s disease, so any possible treatment which has neural inflammation as a side effect essentially pours gas on the fire,” Dr. Cao said.

A next-generation anti-amyloid vaccine for Alzheimer’s would ideally produce long-lasting, moderate antibody levels needed to prevent Aβ oligomers from further aggregating into destructive Alzheimer’s plaques, without over-stimulating the immune systems of elderly people, Dr. Cao added.

In this study, the researchers tested the vaccine they formulated using modified Aβ-sensitized dendritic cells derived from mouse bone marrow. Dendritic cells interact with other immune cells (T-cells and B-cells) to help regulate immunity, including suppressing harmful responses against healthy tissues.  “Because we use dendritic cells to generate antibodies, this vaccine can coordinate both innate and acquired immunity to potentially overcome age-related impairments of the immune system,” Dr. Cao said.

USF Health neuroscientist Chuanhai Cao, PhD, led the preclinical study testing a novel therapeutic Alzheimer’s vaccine.

The study included three groups of transgenic (APP/PS1) mice genetically engineered to develop high levels of Aβ and behavioral/cognitive abnormalities that mimic human Alzheimer’s disease.  One group was vaccinated with the investigational E22W42 DC vaccine, another received an endogenous amyloid beta peptide to stimulate dendritic cells (wild-type vaccine group), and the third was injected with dendritic cells only, containing no Aβ peptide (DC control group).  A fourth group was comprised of untreated healthy, older mice (nontransgenic control group).

Among the study findings:

– The vaccine slowed memory impairment in the Alzheimer’s transgenic mice, with mice in the E22W42 DC vaccinated group demonstrating memory performance similar to that of the nontransgenic, untreated mice. In a cognitive test called a radial arm water maze, the E22W42 DC-vaccinated mice also showed significantly less errors in working memory than the mice injected with non-sensitized dendritic cells only (DC controls). Loss of working memory makes it difficult to learn and retain new information, a characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease.

– No significant differences were found in the quantities of inflammatory cytokines measured in the plasma of the vaccinated mice, versus amounts in the control mice. The researchers concluded that the E22W42 DC vaccine has “little potential for over priming the immune system.”

– E22W42 DC-vaccinated mice showed higher levels of anti-Aβ antibodies in both in their brain and in their blood than the transgenic control mice administered dendritic cells containing no modified Aβ peptide.

– Only Aβ peptides with mutations introduced in the T-cell epitope (the distinct surface region of the antigen where complementary antibodies bind) can sensitize the dendritic cells to target toxic oligomeric forms of Aβ, the researchers reported.  A major advantage of E22W42 is that the antigen can stimulate a specific T-cell response that activates the immune system and silence some T-cell epitopes associated with an autoimmune response, they added.

“Though the E22W42-sensitized DC vaccine is being developed for patients with Alzheimer’s disease, it can potentially help strengthen the immune system of elderly patients (with other age-related disorders) as well,” the study authors concluded.

Dr. Cao conducted the study with collaborators from Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Michigan State University. The team’s research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, Florida High Tech Corridor matching funds, and MegaNano Biotech Inc. The University of South Florida holds a patent related to E22W42 DC vaccine technology.

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Distinguished USF Health Professor Cesario Borlongan, PhD, is internationally recognized for translational research on the neuroprotective and neurorestorative effects of stem cell therapies in stroke.

Over the last 22 years, his innovative work in the field of neuroscience has encompassed other neurodegenerative diseases and traumatic brain injury as well as stroke.  Dr. Borlongan, director of the Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair at USF, does not hesitate to take calculated risks when it comes to following a different path of inquiry that may lead to a new discovery.

Take, for example, his recent study — with lead author Sandra Acosta, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Borlongan’s laboratory – published in the September issue of the American Heart Association journal Stroke.  The study showed that human bone marrow stem cells intravenously administered to post-stroke rats migrated to the spleen, an abdominal organ that plays a critical role in immune function, and significantly reduced chronic inflammation in the stroke brain.

“Next we want to explore whether transplanting these cells directly into the spleen, rather than peripherally, can lead to better functional recovery, including central nervous system improvement,” Dr. Borlongan said. “Even though stroke is a brain disorder, it has a major peripheral component – and in this case it may be the spleen that should be monitored more closely in our stroke patients.”

USF neuroscientist Cesario Borlongan, PhD, does not hesitate to take calculated risks when it comes to following a different path of inquiry that may lead to a new discovery.

In another study published in the journal PLOS ONE in 2013, Dr. Borlongan and colleagues suggested a new view of how stem cells may help repair the brain following trauma.   In a series of preclinical experiments they reported that transplanted cells appear to build a “biobridge” that links an uninjured brain site where new neural cells are born with the damaged region of the brain.  Based in part on the data reported by Dr. Borlongan’s group, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a limited clinical trial to transplant SanBio 623 cells (an adult stem cell therapy) in patients with traumatic brain injury.  The trial has begun enrolling patients at Stanford University Medical Center.

Additionally, Dr. Borlongan’s bench to bedside research has led to to five FDA-approved clinical trials of cell transplantation in stroke, including the first cell therapy in adult stroke patients.

“One thing that distinguishes our center at USF from many others is its emphasis on translational research” he said. “We like basic science, but we want to see the discoveries in the petri dish translated to animal models of brain disorders and eventually go into the clinics…  At the end of the day, we ask the question:  Can this science be translated into saving lives and make a difference in the lives of patients with stroke and traumatic brain injury?”

National Institutes of Health (NIH) Scientist Emeritus Barry Hoffer, MD, PhD, says despite Dr. Borlongan’s relative youth as a scientist, his insight and creativity has yielded many discoveries advancing the understanding of ischemic brain injury, blood-brain barrier pathophysiology, traumatic brain injury, and stem cell transplantation.

“If I were to make a list of young neuroscientists who are already superstars, Dr. Borlongan would be at the top of my list,” said Dr. Hoffer, an adjunct professor of neurosurgery and proteomics and genomics at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

Dr. Borlogan with Sandra Acosta, PhD, one of the postdoctoral fellows in his laboratory at the USF Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair. “They are the ones who come up with the paradigm-shifting approaches to the experiments and drive the science,” he says of the trainees and students.

Dr. Borlongan has received continuous federal funding totaling more than $15 million from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Defense and the NIH since 2002 and also serves as the principal investigator on several industry grants.  Recently, he was awarded a two-year R21 grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke to study the effects of endothelial stem cells on inflammation in the stroke vasculome — specific genes expressed on the interior surface of blood vessels in the brain following stroke.  The research may have implications for regulating inflammatory genes to treat chronic stroke.

The 30-member laboratory led by Dr. Borlongan includes graduate and doctoral students, a neurosurgery resident, and postdoctoral fellows – emerging scientists who contribute greatly to the research team’s vibrancy, innovation and passion for scientific discoveries.

“We need these young minds to challenge the existing paradigm. They are the ones who come up with the paradigm-shifting approaches to experiments and drive the science,” Dr. Borlongan said.  “I encourage, help facilitate and direct them to the literature, but it’s their show… I try to stay in the background rather than get in their way. That’s the most valuable thing I learned from my mentors.”

He also lets students know that it’s OK when experiments yield unexpected or negative results, because they can learn and move forward even if the initial hypothesis does not hold up. “Be logical, but follow the data; don’t change its direction,” he said. “It may lead you to something novel.”

Dr. Borlonghan with some of the emerging young scientists in his laboratory. They were recently filmed by LabTV.

Dr. Borlongan received his PhD in physiological psychology in 1994 at Keio University in Tokyo, Japan. He pursued fellowships in neuroscience at USF and the NIH, National Institute on Drug Abuse.  He was an associate professor at Medical College of Georgia, where he directed the Department of Neurology Cell Transplantation, before returning to USF as a faculty member in 2008.

He regularly serves on peer review panels for the NIH, VA and the American Heart Association and is an editorial board member for numerous scientific journals, including Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism, Stem Cells, PLOS ONE and Brain Research.  He holds several patents for inventions related to investigational cell therapies for brain disorders.

A fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and member of the USF chapter of the National Academy of Inventors, Dr. Borlongan is 2015-16 president of the American Society for Neural Therapy and Repair.

Photos and video by Sandra Roa,  USF Health Communications and Marketing

USF Health PhD graduate Justin Trotter leaves this weekend for Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, CA, where he will work for a recent Nobel Prize winner in medicine.  Trotter’s postdoctoral fellowship will play out in the large laboratory of Stanford neuroscience researcher Thomas Sudhof, MD, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator who just last week jointly won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for insights into the traffic control system for living cells.

Justin Trotter, PhD, (left) USF Health neuroscience graduate, with major professor Edwin Weeber, PhD, chief scientific officer of the USF Health Byrd Alzheimer’s Institute.

“That just doesn’t happen very often,” said Edwin Weeber, PhD, professor of molecular pharmacology and physiology and chief scientific officer of the USF Health Byrd Alzheimer’s Institute.   Dr. Weeber was Trotter’s major professor while the young neuroscientist completed his doctoral studies in neuroscience at the Byrd Institute.

“Justin is the most driven graduate student I’ve had the pleasure to mentor,” Dr. Weeber said. “His ability to gain a fellowship with a Nobel Prize winner in one of the country’s top laboratories shows that USF and the Byrd Institute are training the next generation of scientists whose research will make a real difference.”

Trotter successfully defended his doctoral dissertation “Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms of Reelin Signaling in the Adult Hippocampus” on Sept. 27.  His doctoral research focused on signaling pathways important in brain development and their role in molecular mechanisms that give rise to learning and memory and that may be disrupted by Alzheimer’s disease.

“When I spoke to Tom (Sudhof) to endorse Justin’s application to his laboratory, I told him that Justin was the most brilliant young scientist I had ever met,” said Joachim Herz, MD, of the Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, who served as the external chair for Trotter’s dissertation committee.

“My only concern and advice to Tom was that he should cut his travels short in the future, otherwise he might find Justin running the laboratory upon his return.”

2013 Nobel Prize-winning neuroscience researcher Thomas Sudof, MD

Probing the neurobiology of learning and memory

For a person to think, move, feel or remember, the neurons in that person’s brain must communicate across junctions known as synapses. Increasing evidence has linked impairments in synaptic transmission to diseases such as Alzheimer’s and autism.

Working with Dr. Sudhof’s team, Trotter will still study how nerve cells communicate with one another to precisely exchange information across synapses within millisecond timescales. But at Stanford he will focus on the role of signaling pathways in autism instead of Alzheimer’s.

Trotter was offered postdoctoral fellowships at three of the country’s leading research institutions — the National Institutes of Health Eunice Kennedy Schriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the Gladstone Institute affiliated with the University of California San Francisco, and, his first choice, Stanford University

He interviewed with Dr. Sudhof and 15 of his postdoctoral fellows July 19 and was offered the position by Dr. Sudhof  himself a week later, well before the Nobel Prize announcement.

“When I saw that he was on a team that made the finalists, I thought wouldn’t it be fun if he actually won,” Trotter said. “Then, the awards committee made the announcement the next day, and people were congratulating me – but I didn’t really do anything.”

Early fascination with science cultivated on a fish farm

Trotter grew up in Palm Bay, FL, but spent most weekends working on a tropical fish farm in nearby Fellsmere, where his father and grandfather operated the acquaculture business. He attributes his early fascination with science to what he learned on the fish farm, including how to breed and care for African cichlids.

In elementary school, while many classmates relied on their parents for help with science fair projects, Trotter looked forward to the challenge of creating and carrying out his own experiments.

“Science projects became my means of self-expression,” said Trotter, who won many regional and state science fair awards throughout middle and high school.  “I enjoyed designing experiments to test assumptions and garner facts about the natural world.”

By 10^th grade he worked his way into an independent research project at Florida Institute of Technology, where he studied the molecular biology of starfish fertilization.  During one late-night experiment, Trotter said, he accidently hit his hand on a glass pipette filled with mercury. A hospital X-ray showed the shattered glass (from the broken pipette) scattered around a joint where the mercury injected.

“After about a week my hand was swollen and I had to get it operated on,” he said. “To this day I still have a small black, metallic circle near the injection site… Fortunately the type and quantity of mercury I was exposed to poses no danger.”

By 11^th grade Trotter was testing algae extracts from the Indian River Lagoon and the Antarctica for anti-cancer properties.  He even set up a temporary lab culture room at his house when the laboratory space where he worked was taken over by scientists preparing experiments to accompany a Columbia space shuttle flight.

“I needed to determine whether the extracts that I had prepared possessed the ability to slow down the division rate of leukemia cells,” he said. “Needless to say, my mom learned to avoid wondering what I was doing in the den.”

Passion for neuroscience nurtured at USF

Trotter has spent the last five years at USF, where he says his passion for neuroscience was nurtured. He earned a bachelor of science degree in biomedical sciences here, followed by a master’s of science and PhD degrees in medical sciences, both with a concentration in neuroscience.

Along the way he has co-authored 15 journal articles with Dr. Weeber and/or other USF faculty members, including Lynn Martin, PhD, of the Department of Integrative Biology.  He was a member of an interdisciplinary team awarded a highly competitive 2012-13 USF Graduate Student Research Challenge Grant.  Dr. Weeber and Trotter also have a patent pending for a new therapeutic approach for treating brain injuries.

At the USF Health Byrd Alzheimer’s Institute, Trotter found in Dr. Weeber a mentor who shared his passion for delving into how synapses work with the hope that the research will lead to future treatments for Alzheimer’s disease or other cognitive disorders.

“I’ve really enjoyed the collaborative spirit at the Byrd Institute,” Trotter said.  “They’ve provided me with the resources and support needed to move forward in the development of my scientific career.”

And this USF graduate continues to move ahead — taking his place next month in the laboratory of a new Nobel Prize winner.  “It’s an amazing opportunity,” Trotter said.

– Photos by Eric Younghans, USF Health Communications

The alliance brings the latest medical advancements to local communities

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TAMPA, Fla. (March 12, 2012) — Florida Hospital and USF Health have formed a strategic alliance, combining Adventist Health System’s innovative approach to patient-centered care with the University of South Florida’s leading research, to deliver cutting-edge medical therapies in hospital and outpatient settings. Through this unique public/private partnership, Florida Hospital is making an investment of approximately $14 million in four key specialty areas to bring enhanced patient care, state-of-the-art technology and expanded services to Tampa Bay.

“Our partnership with USF Health will bring their leading-edge research right to the doorsteps of residents in communities where we have hospitals in Tampa Bay,” said Mike Schultz, President and CEO of the Florida Region for Adventist Health System, the parent company of Florida Hospital. “Patients in Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco counties will no longer have to travel for personalized and state-of-the-art medicine in the specialties where we have affiliations with USF Health.”

In September 2011, the Florida Hospital announced that it was developing strategic health care partnerships, including one with USF Health. Today, both organizations announced how the partnership is translating medical research advancements into cutting-edge patient treatment in the following specialty areas: cardiology at Florida Hospital Pepin Heart Institute, breast health at Florida Hospital Tampa, neuroscience at Florida Hospital Zephyrhills, and surgical oncology, melanoma and breast cancer at Helen Ellis Memorial Hospital in Tarpon Springs.

Dr. Stephen Klasko, CEO of USF Health and dean of the Morsani College of Medicine

“Through these critical specialties, we’re going to transform how patients experience health care at Florida
Hospital in our area,” said Dr. Stephen K. Klasko, CEO of USF Health and dean of USF Health Morsani College of Medicine. “Patients will have greater access to our world-class physicians and the new scientific discoveries at USF Health. As important, USF Health will also work with Florida Hospital and its patients to create personalized, coordinated care in cardiology, breast health and other targeted specialties.”

Cardiology

Cardiovascular patients at Florida Hospital Pepin Heart Institute will benefit from research collaboration and USF Health’s exploration in genomic screening for personalized health care. Genomic screening uses an individual’s genetic profile to customize the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease to each patient.

“No other providers in Tampa Bay will be able to replicate the level of how we begin to tailor procedures to individual patients to maintain their heart health,” Dr. Klasko said.

“Florida Hospital Pepin Heart Institute will now combine its personalized health care delivery and clinical research with USF Health’s leading academic medicine and research,” said John Harding, President and CEO of Florida Hospital Tampa Bay Division. “This innovative partnership will give health care consumers a broader range of treatment options for cardiovascular disease.”

John Harding, President & CEO, Florida Hospital Tampa Bay, is interviewed by local media at partnership announcement.

Breast Health

Women across Tampa Bay have been experiencing the benefit of a comprehensive diagnostics center exclusively dedicated to breast care at Florida Hospital Tampa. Recently, USF Health partnered with an existing breast program composed of Florida Hospital Tampa, Community Medical Imaging and Tampa Bay Breast Care Specialists to build an even more comprehensive breast health and cancer program. This collaboration brings together private practices, academic medicine and a hospital to form a renowned team of expert radiologists, radiation oncologists and breast surgeons. Based at Florida Hospital Tampa, this multidisciplinary approach to breast care provides a comprehensive range of diagnostic services, cancer treatments and research protocols to patients, while offering a higher level of coordinated care. One of the major patient benefits is reducing the time from screening to diagnosis to treatment. Providing rapid diagnosis — often within the same day — increases early detection, which is a critical factor in successful outcomes for breast cancer patients.

Mike Schultz, CEO of the Florida Region, Adventist Health System

Neuroscience

The new Neuroscience Institute at Florida Hospital Zephyrhills will have a team of USF Health neurosurgeons on-site who are trained in the treatment of brain, spine and acute stroke procedures. Time is an important factor with most medical issues, but especially with stroke and neurological conditions. The new 24/7 dedicated stroke team includes academic neurosurgeons from USF, neuro-interventional radiologists, board certified neurologists, emergency physicians and certified registered nurses to coordinate care from triage to diagnosis, treatment and recovery. Patients will have access to the latest evidencebased treatments from USF, including brain surgery, spine surgery and minimally invasive treatment of aneurysms. Having all of these services offered in one location means patients will no longer need to travel outside Pasco County, saving precious time, which is a critical factor for neurological procedures.

Dr. Brad Bjornstad, chief medical officer of Florida Hospital Tampa, sports his USF Bulls tie.

Surgical Oncology, Melanoma and Breast Cancer

To round off the partnership, patients in Pinellas and west Pasco counties will benefit from enhanced medical expertise at Helen Ellis Memorial Hospital. USF Health physicians will now be available for patients – a plastics and reconstructive surgeon trained in the most advanced technologies and treatments for breast cancer and other oncological disorders, and an internationally known surgical oncologist specializing in the treatment of malignant melanoma, complicated skin cancers and breast cancer. The partnership creates a comprehensive and coordinated approach to cancer care that gives patients the option to receive state-of-the-art treatment without leaving their community.

“These four affiliations are the foundation for Florida Hospital and USF Health’s plans to establish a higher standard of coordinated care throughout the market,” said John Harding. “This announcement is just the beginning of our vision to elevate health care in Tampa Bay.”

For more information, please visit www.HigherDegree.org.

About Florida Hospital Tampa Bay Division

The Florida Hospital Tampa Bay Division is a not-for-profit 1,003-bed hospital system composed of Florida Hospital Tampa, Florida Hospital Pepin Heart Institute, Florida Hospital Carrollwood, Florida Hospital at Connerton Long Term Acute Care, Florida Hospital Zephyrhills, Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel (opens 2012) and Helen Ellis Memorial Hospital. Part of the Adventist Health System, Florida Hospital is a leading health network consisting of 22 hospitals throughout the state. For more information, visit www.ElevatingHealthCare.org.

About 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 global research university ranked 34th in federal research expenditures for public universities. For more information, visit www.health.usf.edu.

Photos by Eric Younghans, and video by Amy Mariani, USF Health Communications

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Media contacts:
Will Darnell, Media Relations, Florida Hospital Tampa, (813) 400-8743 or wdarnall.ahss.org
Susanna Martinez Tarokh, USF Health Communications, (813) 974-2776 or smartin1@health.usf.edu