Dr. Phillip J. Marty, Professor Emeritus of the USF College of Public Health

Dozens of colleagues and leaders gathered July 20 to celebrate the outstanding 27-year career of Phillip J. Marty, PhD, a consummate professional dedicated to the advancement of USF and USF Health.

Dr. Marty, professor of public health, internal medicine and psychiatry, held several administrative positions in the College of Public Health, Morsani College of Medicine and USF Health throughout his tenure at the University of South Florida, including 14 years as associate vice president for USF Health Research. Before retiring on Aug. 6, he led the Department of Pathology and Cell Biology as interim chair for five years.

Colleagues and leaders gathered to celebrate Dr. Marty’s 27 years of service at USF.

Edmund Funai, MD, chief operating officer at USF Health and senior vice president of strategic development for USF, congratulated Dr. Marty on a well-deserved retirement.

“I want to express my sincere gratitude for all you have done over the past two plus decades to carry forward our missions of teaching, research, patient care and service,” Dr. Funai said. “You treated our university like home, and treat your colleagues and students as if they are family.”

Dr. John Curran (right), who retired earlier this summer following 45 years at USF, congratulates Dr. Marty on his exemplary career and retirement.

Dr. Marty arrived at the USF College of Public Health in 1990 from the University of Arkansas College of Education, where he worked in the health sciences program at the Little Rock campus.  During his time in Arkansas, Dr. Marty’s collaborative research work on the use of smokeless tobacco was cited by the U.S. Congress and contributed to the passage of the Congressional Smokeless Tobacco Act of 1986.

Among his many accomplishments at USF:

• Often stepped up to fill vital interim roles during searches for a new dean or chair. Dr. Marty served as interim dean of the College of Public Health before Dr. Charles Mahan arrived as dean in 1995, helping to advance the early distance learning program, the executive MPH program, and development of the public health practice program for working professionals.  He was also interim director of the Chiles Center for Healthy Mothers and Babies, and interim chair of several COPH departments: Environmental and Occupational Health, Health Policy and Management, and Epidemiology and Biostatistics. Most recently, he served as interim chair for Pathology and Cell Biology in the Morsani College of Medicine.

• Successfully championed, transitioned and expanded Research Day from the corridors of USF Health to the Marshall Student Center –– drawing record numbers of promising research presentations not only from USF Health, but also from across USF.

Dr. Marty gets a hug from one of many who stopped by to wish him well.

• Instrumental in helping rebuild USF Health’s research infrastructure.
• Helped secure state funding for cardiovascular and personalized medicine.
• His advocacy work in the Florida Legislature resulted in laws passed to protect young people and adults from starting smoking, reduce smoking rates and warn people of the dangers of smoking. In 1993, the College of Public Health recognized his advancement of better tobacco control policies with the college’s Exceptional Community Service Award.

USF Health Associate Vice President Dr. Jay Wolfson was among those who shared stories about working with Dr. Marty, who held administrative positions in the USF College of Public Health, USF Health and the Morsani College of Medicine.

In retirement Dr. Marty, a Professor Emeritus at the College of Public Health, hopes to return to some international public health work, especially in Zambia, Africa, where his daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren live.  He will also have more travel with his wife Marianne, volunteer, fish and “putter on small projects” at their Tampa home and cabin in Tennessee’s Smoky Mountains.

Asked if he had any advice to leave current students, Dr. Marty encouraged them to consider unexpected opportunities to shift directions in their careers, even if it involves some risk.

Dr. Stephen Liggett, associate vice president for research at USF Health,  presented Dr. Marty with a plaque recognizing his 15 years of dedication in leading USF Health Research Day.

“In my own case, I had no expectation of being a professor earlier in my youth.  I never expected to be a selected for the various administrative roles I have had over the years.  However, I kept an open mind and saw these opportunities as challenges and areas for professional and personal growth,” Dr. Marty said.

“As a result, I have had tremendous experiences and worked with and met wonderful people throughout my career… I couldn’t have asked for a more rewarding 38 years in higher education, and 27 of these at the College of Public Health, USF Health and USF.”

Dr. Marty enjoys a laugh with colleagues.

Dr. Marty with his family

You can’t have a retirement party without a cake!

Dr. Marty with some of the staff who assisted him at USF Health over the years — from left, Cheryl Lesko, Jo Ann Moore, Linda Lalli, Charmaine Disimile and Carolyn Mercurio Dove.

-Photos by Eric Younghans, USF Health Communication and Marketing

In what was likely the largest USF Health Research Day on record, nearly 360 presenters filled the Ballroom at the Marshall Student Center with their poster presentations, offering a wonderful overview of the range and quality of research taking place at USF Health.

A record crowd of presenters for USF Health Research Day.

This year’s event, held Feb. 24, featured the work of students, residents, fellows and post-doctoral researchers from across USF Health.

Now in its 27^th year, USF Health Research Day has grown in participation and increased the size of the venue, making this year’s event an especially bittersweet moment for Phillip Marty, PhD, associate vice president, USF Health, who has been with USF since 1990 and led the coordination of USF Health Research Day for 15 years — he will be retiring later this year.

“I’m going to miss this, it’s always been fun to be a part of this,” Dr. Marty said. “I’d like to think Research Day has contributed a little bit to the growth of the research programs here, going from a university that was down the ranks a bit to a major research organization in the country.”

Dr. Phillip Marty

USF Health Research Day is a day-long event showcasing science within and across disciplines from across all USF Health colleges, schools and programs, as well as guest researchers from USF programs studying the science of health.

Setting up poster presentations.

This year the morning started with the keynote speaker: the Roy H. Behnke Distinguished Lectureship featured Jack A. Gilbert, PhD, professor of surgery in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago and Group Leader for Microbial Ecology at the Argonne National Laboratory. His lecture was titled “Invisible Influence: The Microbiome and Human Health.”

Dr. Gilbert works with experts in environmental sciences, chemical engineering, marine ecosystems, health and medicine, and other disciplines to try to understand how the complex population of bacteria and other microorganisms we share with the rest of the world, collectively known as the microbiome, shapes our environments and our health. Among the researchers his University of Chicago team collaborates with is USF Health nurse scientist Maureen Groer, PhD, who is studying pre-term babies and their microbiome, neurodevelopment and school readiness.

Keynote speaker Jack Gilbert, PhD, spoke about a hot topic — the microbiome and human health.

Science is still in the early stages of this revolutionary research, including working to unravel exactly how the immune system responds to microbial governance, and finding the proper balance between “good” and “bad” bacteria.  But, studies in mice have already shown that altering gut bacteria can change behavior, Dr. Gilbert said, and imbalances in gut bacteria have been found in many diseases, including inflammatory bowel disease, , diabetes and obesity. Nearly 400 clinical trials now involve the human microbiome in some component, including studies of how microbes respond to drugs, lifestyle and other factors, he added.

“What are the good bacteria?  How much or how little is needed to have protective effect? How do we get them in the body and activate them to have a defined impact,” Dr. Gilbert said are just some of many questions to be answered. “There is good evidence that some probiotics work, but we don’t know why.”

The topic was chosen because the microbiome has such potential in interest and activities, Dr. Marty said.

“We thought this topic would appeal to just about any researcher,” he said. “If anyone is looking for a research career or a topic for research, that’s a hot area right now, and such an important area for the future, especially in regards to precision medicine as we look at how we can treat disease. We really have to find out what’s going on at that (microbial) level.”

Katherine Stanford, a PhD student in the Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology, explains her work to Dr. Stephen Liggett, associate vice president for research at USF Health.

Attendees hustled from the lecture in the Marshall Center Oval Theatre into the Ballroom to begin reviewing the hundreds of posters tacked onto rows and rows of bulletin boards, including interdisciplinary projects marked with yellow ribbons.  Judges also made the rounds, evaluating each presentation and asking lead researchers questions about their work or to further explain their methods, results and conclusions. As always, for those who are new researchers, USF Health Research Day is a key event in acting as a practice run for future national research meetings.

Following lunch, the crowd returned to the Oval Theatre to hear from the select few who were invited to present their work orally. This year 11 students presented their work at the 8th Annual Joseph Krzanowski, PhD, USF Health Invited Oral Presentations Session. They were: Aurelie Joly-Amado, PhD; April L Darling; Samia VO Dutra; Mark Howell; Shannon Kelly; Fahad Mukhtar; Danny T Nguyen; Emily Palumbo; Prit K Patel, BS; Ellen J Schafer, PhD, MPH, MCHES; Sarah L Todd, MD; and Lan Xu.

At the conclusion of the talk, the much-anticipated awards were presented. Winners for the USF Health Research Day 2017 were:

Best MCOM Graduate Student Poster Presentations:
Doctoral Student Poster Presentation: Allergy and Immunology: Viviana Sampayo-Escobar
Doctoral Student Poster Presentation: Cancer Biology: Emily Palumbo
Doctoral Student Poster Presentation: Cardiovascular and Clinical Science Research: Jin Wei (Basic Science) and Roberto Aponte (Clinical Science)
Masters Student Poster Presentation: Allergy, Immunology and Infectious Disease: Geeta Iyer
Doctoral Student Poster Presentation: Molecular and Cellular Biology: Shpetim Karandrea

Best MCOM Medical Student Presentations:
Med I Student Poster Presentation: Elliot Neal
Med II Student Poster Presentation: Interdisciplinary Research: Nima Hosseinian
Med II Student Poster Presentation: Clinical Science Research: Danny Nguyen
Med II Student Poster Presentations: Education Research: Dana Ciullo
Med II Student Poster Presentation: Global Health Research:  Nupur Godbole
Med II Student Poster Presentation: Public Health Research: Nicole Le
Med II Student Poster Presentation: Case Studies and Chart Reviews: Annie Hendryx
Med II Student Poster Presentation: Chart Reviews: Gilbert Murimwa
Med II Student Poster Presentation: Chart Reviews: Sean Sileno
Med II Student Poster Presentation: Chart Reviews: Kyle Kilinski
Med II Poster Presentation: Chart Reviews: Yeshuwa Mayers
Med III Student Poster Presentation, Interdisciplinary Case Studies: Manjari Pedapudi
Med III Poster Presentation: Chart Reviews: LesleAnn Hayward
Med III Student Poster Presentation, Empirical Studies: Jourdan Cooney
Med IV Student Poster Presentation Case Studies: Mayssan Muftah
Med IV Poster Presentation: Chart Reviews: Samuel B. Reynolds
Med IV Poster Presentation: Chart Reviews: Jewel Brown

Best MCOM Medical Resident Poster Presentations:
MCOM Resident Poster Presentations: Case Studies: Emily McClung
MCOM Resident Poster Presentation: Case Studies: Norberto Mancera
MCOM Residents Presentation: Case Studies: Bhumika Patel
MCOM Fellow Poster Presentation: Chart Reviews: Matthew Perez

Best College of Nursing Poster Presentation:
CON Graduate Student Poster Presentation: Samia Dutra

Best College of Pharmacy Poster Presentations:
Postdoctoral Poster Presentation: Zainuddin Quadri
Postdoctoral Poster Presentation: Malathi Narayan

Best College of Public Health Poster Presentations:
Graduate Student: Yingwei Yang
Graduate Student: Caitlin Wolfe
Graduate Student: Korede Adegoke
Graduate Student: Stacey Griner
Graduate Student: Kyle Watterson
Graduate Student: Omotola O Balogun
Graduate Student: Abimbola Michael-Asalu

Best Undergraduate Student Poster Presentations:
Allergy, Immunology and Infectious Diseases: Sanjay Mahendrasah
Neurosciences: Anisha Kesarwani
Neurosciences: Amirthaa Suntharalingam
Clinical Sciences: Alejandra Mallorga
Interdisciplinary Research: Achintya A. Patel
College of Pharmacy: Interdisciplinary and Public Health Research: Phillip Pham

Top Awards
USF Health Vice President’s Award for Outstanding Graduate Student Oral Presentation: Mark Howell
MCOM Outstanding Postdoctoral Scholar Poster Presentation: Lisa Kirouac
MCOM Outstanding Fellow Trainee Poster Presentation: Chinedu Nwabuobi
MCOM Outstanding Resident Trainee Poster Presentation: Harrison Cobb
Outstanding Global Pediatric Behavioral Health Poster Presentation: Yingwei Yang
Outstanding Innovations in Medicine Poster Presentation: Muhammad Jaffer
Watson Clinic Award to a Fourth-Year Medical Student: Ali Antar
Dr. Christopher P. Phelps Memorial Fund Annual MCOM Neuroscience Graduate Student Travel Award: Jeremy Baker

Winner Mark Howell with Dr. Phillip Marty.

Keynote speaker Dr. Jack Gilbert.

Story by Sarah A. Worth, USF Health Communications
Photos by Eric Younghans, USF Health Communications
Video by Vjollca Hysenlika, USF Health Communications
Social media by Emily Wingate, USF Health Communications

A wide range of science filled the Ballroom at the Marshall Student Center, showcasing the groundbreaking work of rising research stars taking part in the annual USF Health Research Day.

Check out more photos on Flickr! 

This year’s event, held Feb. 19, featured nearly 330 students, residents, fellows and post-doctoral researchers from across USF Health.

“This event gets better every year,” said Phillip Marty, PhD, vice president for USF Health Research.

Presenters arrived early to set up their posters in the Marshall Student Center Ballroom.

“I’m always impressed with the level of research that is presented at our Research Day,” Dr. Marty said. “Our faculty are engaged in important research, which translates directly to our students, graduate students, residents and trainees who are presenting here today. This is a great training ground for the rest of their careers.”

This year’s slate of presenters showed more students and trainees and slightly fewer faculty, Dr. Marty said, perhaps a reflection of the event’s return to its roots of showcasing science learners.

The day-long event brings together researchers from across all USF Health colleges, programs and disciplines, as well as guest researchers from USF programs studying the science of health. Beginning the day are the oral presenters, the few whose work earned them an invitation to present their work orally. This year’s 11 selected students presented their work at the 7th Annual Joseph Krzanowski, PhD, USF Health Invited Oral Presentations Session, They were: Ngozichukwuka Agu; Faris Galambo, BS; Krishna Reddy; Alison E Roth, MPH; Stephanie Ciarlone; Jaymin Kathiriya; Jared Tur; April Lussier; Abby Pribish, BS; Jessica M Gordon; and Rachel G. Sinkey, MD.

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Alison Roth won best overall for her oral presentation.

The full poster presentation session followed, filling the Ballroom with hustle and bustle as researchers stood next to their posters tacked up onto bulletin boards and judges walked from poster to poster evaluating each presentation and asking lead researchers questions about their work or to further explain their methods, results and conclusions. As always, for those who are new researchers, USF Health Research Day is a key event for acting as a practice run for future national research meetings.

Dr. Charles Lockwood judges the work of Kristen Marcet, second-year medical student.

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The day included visiting 12th grader Patricia Askins (Sarasota High School) presenting her work on anticancer drugs from her time in the lab of Subhra Mohapatra, PhD, associate professor in the USF Department of Molecular Medicine.

Students from Berkeley Preparatory School, showcased their own award-winning posters.

After a lunch break, the Roy H. Behnke Distinguished Lectureship began. This year’s guest lecturer was Robert H. Brown, Jr., MD, DPhil, professor and chair of neurology at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center and Medical School. His research is devoted to identifying gene defects that lead to neuromuscular diseases.  Dr. Brown’s lecture was titled “Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis:  Therapeutic Insights from Genetics.”

Dr. Robert Brown

From left. Dr. Bryan Bognar, Dr. Phil Marty, Dr. Paul Sanberg, Dr. Charles Lockwood, Dr. Clifton Gooch, Dr. Robert Brown, and Dr. John Sinnott.

At the conclusion of the talk, the much-anticipated awards were presented. Winners for the USF Health Research Day 2016 are:

Best MCOM Graduate Student Poster Presentations:

Doctoral Student Poster Presentation: Allergy and Immunology: Jillian Whelan

Doctoral Student Poster Presentation: Cancer Biology: Stephanie Buttermore

Doctoral Student Poster Presentation: Cardiovascular and Clinical Science Research: Natascha Alves

Masters Student Interdisciplinary Research: Kathryn Fomuke and Andrew McGill

Doctoral Student Poster Presentation: Molecular and Cellular Biology: Jaymin Kathiriya

Best MCOM Medical Student Presentations:

Med I Student Poster Presentation: Interdisciplinary Research: Nima Hosseinian

Med II Student Poster Presentation: Interdisciplinary Research: Curtis Gravenmier

Med II Student Poster Presentation: Interdisciplinary Research: Kristen Marcet

Med II Student Poster Presentations, Case Studies and Chart Reviews: Andrew Lai, MPH, Anthony Clark, and Luis Perez-Mena

Med III Student Poster Presentation, Case Study and Chart Review: Kyle Achors

Med III Student Poster Presentation, Empirical Study: Laura Kidd

Med IV Student Poster Presentation Case Study and Chart Review: Cheryl Godcharles

Best MCOM Medical Resident Poster Presentations:

MCOM Resident Poster Presentations: Interdisciplinary Case Studies: Jennifer Divine, MD, and Joanna Robles, MD

MCOM Resident Poster Presenation: Case Study and Chart Review: Karina Vivar, MD

MCOM Fellow Poster Presentation: Case Study and Chart Review: Sangeetha Prabhakaran, MD

Best College of Nursing Poster Presentation:

CON Graduate Student Poster Presentation: Nisha Vijayakumar, BDS, MPH

Best College of Pharmacy Poster Presentations:

Graduate Student Poster Presentation: Jeffrey Burgess

Postdoctoral Poster Presentation: Leslie Sandusky, PhD

Best College of Public Health Poster Presentations:

Graduate Student: Umonighu Michael Bubu (epidemiology and biostatistics)

Graduate Student: Athena Failla (global health)

Graduate Student: Kate LeGrand (global health)

Graduate Student: DeAnne Turner (community and family health)

Graduate Student: Tora Suggs (community and family health)

Graduate Student: Kristina Harand (environmental and occupational health)

Post-doctoral Student: Christopher Rice, PhD

Best Undergraduate Student Poster Presentations:

Allergy, Immunology and Infectious Diseases: Priyanshi Patel

Neurosciences: Sophia Abraham

Cancer and Clinical Sciences: Mevin Mathew

Interdisciplinary Sciences: Asgard Kaleb Marroquin 

College of Pharmacy: Neurosciences: Anjanet Loon, and Abdulah Barakat

Top Awards

USF Health Vice President’s Award for Outstanding Graduate Student Oral Presentation: Alison Roth, MPH

MCOM Outstanding Postdoctoral Poster Presentation: Aurelie Joly-Amado, PhD

MCOM Outstanding Fellow Poster Presentation: Liliana Bustamante

MCOM Outstanding Resident Poster Presentation: Anne Mattingly, MD (oncological sciences)

Outstanding Global Pediatric Behavioral Health Poster Presentation: Sophia Zavrou

Outstanding Innovations in Medicine Poster Presentation: Rose Tillis

Watson Clinic Award to a Fourth-Year Medical Student: Sriram Velamuri

Dr. Christopher P. Phelps Memorial Fund Annual Morsani COM Graduate Student Travel Award: Krishna Reddy

A field of research fills the Marshall Student Center Ballroom.

USF Health Research Day 2016.

Story by Sarah A. Worth, USF Health Communications

Photos by Eric Younghans, USF Health Communications

Video by Sandra C. Roa, USF Health Communications

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwe7-t-yleM

Jaymin Kathiriya, MS, an aspiring young researcher who investigates how hypoxia exacerbates pulmonary fibrosis, was among the select group of 11 students invited to give oral presentations at the 2016 USF Health Research Day.

Kathiriya, a fourth-year PhD candidate in the Department of Pathology and Cell Biology, was enthusiastic about the chance to present his research before student peers and faculty judges Feb. 19 in the Oval Theatre at the USF Marshall Student Center. Even more than that, he appreciated the opportunity to mingle with fellow aspiring young researchers from across all USF Health colleges and disciplines, as well as guest researchers from USF programs studying the science of health.

“I’m excited about being able to get critical input and different ideas from so many different people,” he said.

The energy of aspiring young researchers from across all USF Health colleges and disciplines generated a buzz in the Marshall Student Center Ballroom during the 2016 USF Health Research Day.

A training ground for aspiring researchers, physicians

Charles J. Lockwood, MD, senior vice president for USF Health and dean of the Morsani College of Medicine, served as a judge for this year’s Research Day. He said he was impressed by the depth and breadth of the research activities encompassed in the nearly 330 poster presentations.

“I have dedicated a significant portion of my career to my own research and to training physician-scientists – so I may be biased,” Dr. Lockwood said. “But, I strongly believe that, beyond its intrinsic importance in promoting health, research makes one a better provider by disciplining the mind to collect all the requisite data and then carefully and correctly interpret it to make the correct diagnosis and choose the optimal therapy.”

Dr. Charles Lockwood judges the work of Kristen Marcet, second-year medical student.

Phillip Marty, PhD, associate vice president for USF Health Research, agreed.

“Our faculty are engaged in important research, which translates directly to our students, graduate students, residents and trainees who are presenting here today,” Dr. Marty said. “It is a great training ground for the rest of their careers.”

This year’s slate of presenters included more students and trainees and slightly fewer faculty, Dr. Marty said, perhaps a reflection of the event’s return to its roots of showcasing science learners.

Paul R. Sanberg, PhD, DSc, Senior Vice President for Research, Innovation & Economic Development, said USF is committed to providing its students with research and commercialization opportunities to support their growth and development as scientists, leaders and, ultimately, mentors to others.

“The accomplishments of your faculty, students, trainees and staff at celebrated at Research Day are more examples of USF Health’s continued impact in research and innovation,” Dr. Sanberg said.

Nearly 330 students and faculty presented their research projects in a judged competition.

Student contributions to scientific body of knowledge

In Dr. Dave Vrushank’s laboratory, Kathiriya works with cell and animal models to help investigate the contribution of low oxygen levels, or hypoxia, to pulmonary fibrosis of unknown cause, known as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). IPF is an incurable disease in which tissue deep in the lung becomes scarred over time. The prevalence of this incurable disease, which kills up to 40,000 Americans a year, has increased as the aged population has grown.

“We are trying to determine the exact (molecular) nuances of hypoxia in the lung that cause pulmonary fibrosis,” Kathiriya said. “We’ve found that hypoxia is a systemic injurious factor involving a number of signaling pathways that cause fibrosis in nature, but these different pathways have common protein mediators – FAK1 and Galectin-1 – that may be leveraged as therapeutic targets for pulmonary fibrosis.”

Jaymin Kathiriya, MS, MCOM doctoral student in the Department of Pathology and Cell Biology, was among the select group of 11 students invited to give oral presentations at the 2016 USF Health Research Day.

The lab continues to work on developing a mouse model that correlates well with the slow, progressive features seen in IPF patients in the clinic, and on identifying drug candidates to test using in vivo models.

The study that second-year medical student Abby Pribish presented at Research Day was supported by a full-time summer scholarship from the Morsani College of Medicine’s Scholarly Concentrations Program. In the laboratory of Danielle Gulick at the USF Health Byrd Alzheimer’s Institute, Pribish tested the hypothesis that frequent light cycle alternations disruptive to circadian rhythm, the internal biological clock, would increase alcohol drinking in adolescent mice.

She and her lab colleagues found that breaking the circadian clock of the young mice did not cause them to drink more alcohol; however, the way the mice drank alcohol changed significantly. They consumed the same volume of alcohol in more rapid short bouts during the day.

“Messing up the light cycles caused them to binge drink,” Pribish said. “What we think is happening is that the adolescent mice seem to be intentionally spiking their blood alcohol concentration as a mechanism for coping with circadian desynchrony.”

Second-year medical student Abby Pribish was also invited to speak about her research in the oral presentation session. Her study focused on how circadian desynchrony would affect alcohol consumption in adolescent mice. -Photo by Sandra C. Roa

Pribish plans to continue to pursue her interest in addiction medicine, particularly as it pertains to adolescents — a population she says has not been studied as much as adults when it comes to alcohol use and treatment.

“Eleven percent of the alcohol consumption in the U.S. is by adolescents, and 90 percent of this (under-age) drinking is binge drinking,” she said. “It’s a huge problem… and I definitely want to be part of the solution in my career in research and as a doctor.”

Therapeutic insights from the genetics of ALS

Physician-scientist Robert H. Brown, Jr., MD, DPhil, who is nationally renowned for research on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, delivered the Annual Roy H. Behnke Distinguished Lectureship. He is professor and chair of neurology at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center and Medical School.

Research Day keynote speaker Dr. Robert H. Brown has a record of significant discoveries in identifying gene defects that elucidate how ALS causes neurons to die.

Dr. Brown spoke about investigations by his laboratory and others to harness genetics as a pathway to understanding how ALS causes neurons to die and to gain insights into potential therapies for this progressive paralyzing neuromuscular disorder with no effective treatment. In 1993, he led a team that identified the first gene linked to hereditary ALS (copper-zinc superoxide dismutase 1, or SOD1) and mapped the mechanisms for SOD1 neurotoxicity in humans and in cellular and animal models.

Today, more than 50 ALS-related genes showing familial transmission have been discovered, and Dr. Brown’s work provides evidence that genes implicated in inherited ALS also play a role in the more common sporadic form of the disease.

The end goal is to create better models of the disease to probe therapies – everything from small molecules, biologics and antibiodies to tropic factors secreted by stem cells and gene silencing, said Dr. Brown, whose team has engineered an artificial miRNA against SOD1, which is packaged into an adenoassociated virus vector. As in cancer, multiple interventions may be required to overcome the complex patterns of gene expression in ALS, he added.

From left: Dr. Bryan Bognar, vice dean of MCOM Educational Affairs; Dr. Phillip Marty, associate vice president for USF Health Research; Dr. Paul Sanberg, senior vice president for USF Research, Innovation & Economic Development; Dr. Charles Lockwood, senior vice president for USF Health and MCOM dean; Dr. Clifton Gooch, chair of neurology; Dr. Robert H. Brown, USF Health Research Day speaker; and Dr. John Sinnott, chair of internal medicine.

“The genes involved in this disease are not what we expected, and the approaches we will need to treat the disease are yet unknown,” said Dr. Brown. “But there has been substantial progress, so I’m very optimistic that we and others will be able to work toward a treatment in the near term.”

In fact, Dr. Brown said he is he is hopeful therapies that ultimately prove useful in delaying progression and reversing symptoms in ALS may also make a difference in other degenerative brain diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

In addition to Kathiriya and Pribish, the other students selected to present their research at the 7th Annual Joseph Krzanowski, PhD, USF Health Invited Oral Presentations Session were: Ngozichukwuka Agu; Faris Galambo, BS; Krishna Reddy; Alison E Roth, MPH; Stephanie Ciarlone; Jared Tur; April Lussier; Jessica M Gordon; and Rachel G. Sinkey, MD.

This year’s slate of presenters at the 26th Annual USF Health Research Day included more students and trainees and slightly fewer faculty.

Top Awards

MCOM Outstanding Postdoctoral Poster Presentation: Aurelie Joly-Amado, PhD

MCOM Outstanding Fellow Poster Presentation: Liliana Bustamante, MD

MCOM Outstanding Resident Poster Presentation: Anne Mattingly, MD (oncological sciences)

Outstanding Global Pediatric Behavioral Health Poster Presentation: Sophia Zavrou, PsyD

Outstanding Innovations in Medicine Poster Presentation: Rose Tillis

Watson Clinic Award to a Fourth-Year Medical Student: Sriram Velamuri

Dr. Christopher P. Phelps Memorial Fund Annual Morsani COM Graduate Student Travel Award: Krishna Reddy

Second-year medical student Rose Tillis explains her research findings to Joseph Krzanowski, PhD, former MCOM associate dean and professor emeritus in the Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Physiology. Tillis won an Outstanding Innovations in Medicine award for the poster titled “Hydrocolloid Bra for Nipple Sparing Mastectomy.”

Best Graduate Student Poster Presentations:

Doctoral Student Poster Presentation: Allergy and Immunology: Jillian Whelan

Doctoral Student Poster Presentation: Cancer Biology: Stephanie Buttermore

Doctoral Student Poster Presentation: Cardiovascular and Clinical Science Research: Natascha Alves

Masters Student Interdisciplinary Research: Kathryn Fomuke and Andrew McGill

Doctoral Student Poster Presentation: Molecular and Cellular Biology: Jaymin Kathiriya

Kathiriya’s presentation “Hypoxia Exacerbates Pulmonary Fibrosis via FAK1 and Galectin-1 In Vitro and In Vivo” won one of the MCOM Best Doctoral Student Poster Presentation awards. Here he is congratulated by Internal Medicine Chair Dr. John Sinnott.

Best Medical Student Poster Presentations:

Med I Student Poster Presentation: Interdisciplinary Research: Nima Hosseinian

Med II Student Poster Presentation: Interdisciplinary Research: Curtis Gravenmier

Med II Student Poster Presentation: Interdisciplinary Research: Kristen Marcet

Med II Student Poster Presentation, Case Studies and Chart Reviews: Andrew Lai, MPH, Anthony Clark, and Luis Perez-Mena

Med III Student Poster Presentation, Case Study and Chart Review: Kyle Achors

Med III Student Poster Presentation, Empirical Study: Laura Kidd

Med IV Student Poster Presentation Case Study and Chart Review: Cheryl Godcharles

Andie Dodge, a Department of Molecular Physiology and Pharmacology research technician in Dr. Edwin Weeber’s laboratory, was first author on a poster presentation titled “Knock down of Disabled-1 inhibitory neurons reveal novel role in synaptic plasticity.”  Dodge is applying for graduate school.

Best Medical Resident Poster Presentations:

MCOM Resident Poster Presentation: Interdisciplinary Case Studies: Jennifer Divine, MD, and Joanna Robles, MD

MCOM Resident Poster Presenation: Case Study and Chart Review: Karina Vivar, MD

MCOM Fellow Poster Presentation: Case Study and Chart Review: Sangeetha Prabhakaran, MD

Ruisheng Liu, MD, PhD (center), professor of molecular pharmacology and physiology, and Ingrid Bahner, PhD (right), associate professor of molecular medicine, pause from their busy judging schedule to pose for a photo. Some 83 faculty from all USF Health colleges and some affiliates served as judges for Research Day.

Subhra Mohapatra, PhD, (right) associate professor of molecular medicine, with Patricia Askins, a student from Sarasota High School who has been mentored by Dr. Mohapatra for the last year.

Keynote speaker Dr. Brown stopped by to look at the science projects exhibited by middle school students from Berkeley Preparatory School in Tampa. Kennedy Wakefield (left) and Bella Gonzalez-Portillo discussed their poster presentation “The Effects of Over-the-Counter Drugs” with him.

Students retrieve their Research Day award certificates.

Video by Sandra C. Roa and photos by Eric Younghans, USF Health Communications & Marketing

The hubbub started early Feb. 20 as young scientists filled the Marshall Center Ballroom to post their research posters. It was Tampa’s coldest morning so far, and veteran Research Day organizers agreed that moving the event to the Marshall Center was wise, recalling the chilly, windy, concrete-laden breezeways that held Research Day for more than two decades before.

Inside the warm Ballroom, rows and rows of bulletin boards held the work of students, residents, fellows and post-doctoral researchers from across USF Health. Along an entire wall were the posters of middle school students from the Villages and Berkley Prep. In total, more than 360 rising research stars presented their work at this year’s USF Health Research Day.

Marking the 25th time USF Health’s emerging scientists have come together to present their projects, and judges scrutinizing the data and deciding the winners, the day offered an exceptional celebratory feel, said Phillip Marty, PhD, vice president for USF Health Research.

“This event has always been successful for spotlighting our accomplished and aspiring researchers, and today’s Research Day feels especially exciting,” Dr. Marty said. “We’ve welcomed hundreds of researchers over the years and seen many of their foundational projects grow into more formidable work. I’m quite proud of the level of research that keeps coming to this event and growing from it.”

Banners, signage, materials and goodie bags were emblazoned with the specially designed art element for the 25^th anniversary. Inside the Ballroom and projected on a large screen mounted above the crowd were images from Research Days of the past, offering everyone a chance to reminisce.

And there were no paper programs listing researchers and posters this year. Instead, organizers used the 25^th anniversary event to offer an interactive app called Eventmobi that not only listed the 360 posters and researchers but also allowed attendees to map out their own customized itinerary for the day, allowed presenters to update their own bios with additional information, photos and descriptions of their work, helped push out notifications such as “be at your poster; time for judging” for presenters, and offered a social media component for sharing news and excitement of the day.

The day-long event brings together researchers from across all USF Health colleges, programs and disciplines, as well as guest researchers from USF programs studying the science of health. Beginning the day are the oral presenters, the few whose work earned them an invitation to present their work orally. This year’s 11 selected students presented their work at the 6th Annual Joseph Krzanowski, PhD, USF Health Invited Oral Presentations Session, They were: Jillian Whelan; Glenna S. Brewster, RN, MS; April Lussier; Joseph Smith; Prerna Malaney, M.S; Byron Moran, MD; Lauren A. Terpak, MS; Nicole Falk-Smith; Nolan Kline; Steven B. Housley, MS; and Zhiwei Zhou.

Following the oral presentations, the full poster presentation session began in the Ballroom. Abstracts tacked onto bulletin boards filled the Marshall Center Ballroom, evidence of the breadth of groundbreaking and collaborative work taking place. For two hours, classmates, colleagues, mentors, faculty and the curious make their way from abstract to abstract. Judges are also there, evaluating each presentation and conferring with lead researchers to further explain their methods, results and conclusions. Many of the budding researchers use the event as an opportunity for collaboration and as a “practice run” for future national research meetings.

College of Nursing doctoral candidate Glenna Brewster, RN, MS, presented her work on depression in older adults.

Dr. Summer Decker and Ashok Shiani, a fourth-year medical student.

The day included students from the Villages and Berkeley Preparatory School, who showcased their own award-winning posters.

Berkeley Prep students with science teacher Dr. Nicole Ackerson (standing far left), who graduated from the USF MCOM Biomedical Sciences program. Her mentor while at USF, Dr. Patricia Kruk, (standing far right) MCOM Vice Chair, Pathology & Cell Biology, reconnected with Dr. Ackerson and her class of young scientists.

After a lunch break, everyone headed to the Oval Theatre for the USF Health Research Day features the Roy H. Behnke Distinguished Lectureship. In introductory remarks, Charles J. Lockwood, MD, senior vice president for USF Health and dean of the Morsani College of Medicine, set the stage for today’s research initiatives, urging today’s researchers to look at the true value of their work.

“Our research is great, but more is not better,” Dr. Lockwood said. “Our research has to be different materially than in the past. We have to do value-based research. We don’t only produce a new device or drug or diagnostic test that marginally improves outcomes and actually raises costs. But, rather, improves outcomes and lowers costs. And value needs to be used in everything we do in the future.”

This year’s guest lecturer was David Swerdlow, MD, associate director and medical epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. His talk was titled: “What are the critical epidemiologic questions that need to be answered at the start of an epidemic:  What we learned from Influenza A (H1N1) and MERS and how that applies to the Ebola outbreak.”

At the conclusion of the talk, the much-anticipated awards are presented. This year’s winners are:

Best MCOM Graduate Student Poster Presentations:

Allergy and Immunology: Nhan N. Tu

Cancer Biology: Mai Mohamed

Cardiovascular and Clinical Science Research: Wei Deng

Masters Student Interdisciplinary Research: Alexandra Jenkins

Molecular and Cell Biology: Jaymin J. Kathiriya

Public Health Research: Jennifer Greene

Best MCOM Medical Student Presentations:

Med I Student Poster Presentation: Interdisciplinary Research: Joseph Leung

Med II Student Poster Presentation, Case Studies and Chart Reviews: Cady Welch

Med II Student Poster Presentation, Clinical Science Research: Yumeng Zhang

Med II Student Poster Presentation, Education and Public Health Research: Robert Ackerman

Med III Student Poster Presentation: Interdisciplinary Research: Thomas Sutton

Best Undergraduate Student Poster Presentations:

Interdisciplinary Research: Alexander Czachor

Molecular and Cellular Biology: Esha Patel

Neuroscience I: Nina Margarita Slouha

Neuroscience II: Nicholas Johnson

Neuroscience II: Nima Hosseinian

Best College of Pharmacy Poster Presentation:

Graduate Student: Cameron Durlacher

Postdoctoral: Kalyan Chapalamadugu, PhD

Best College of Public Health Poster Presentations:

Graduate Student: Omonigho Michael Bubu

Graduate Student: Shana Green

Graduate Student: Amruta Mhashilkar, MD

Graduate Student: Rema Ramakrishnan

Graduate Student: Jessica Ryan

Graduate Student: Phaedra Thomas

Graduate Student: Coralia Vazquez-Otero, JD

Post-doctoral Student: Christopher Rice, PhD

Top Awards

USF Health Vice President’s Award for Outstanding Graduate Student Oral Presentation: Prerna Malaney

Prerna Malaney.

MCOM Outstanding Postdoctoral Poster Presentation: Sandra Acosta, PhD

MCOM Outstanding Fellow Poster Presentation: Shannon Ho, MD

MCOM Best Resident Poster Presentation: Rachel Sinkey, MD

Watson Clinic Award to a Fourth-Year Medical Student: Travis Dailey

Dr. Christopher P. Phelps Memorial Fund Annual Morsani COM Graduate Student Travel Award: Lisa Kirouac

Story by Sarah A. Worth, USF Health Communications

Photos by Eric Younghans, USF Health Communications

Video by Katy Hennig, USF Communications

U-Stream by Klaus Herdocia, Mihaela Madsen and Elizabeth Peacock, USF Health Communications

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=oimGvgOEXLQ

Few other events bring together USF’s emerging scientists better than the annual USF Health Research Day. The day-long event showcases the best and the brightest researchers across all USF Health colleges, as well as guest researchers whose work focus on the science of health. It also allows many of them to spotlight existing collaborations, as well as form new ones, said Phillip Marty, PhD, vice president for USF Health Research.

“These kinds of opportunities for multidisciplinary collaborations are the essence of what academic medicine is all about,” Dr. Marty said. “The best science comes from academic medical and academic health centers.”

This year’s event, the 23rd Annual USF Health Research Day, kept the promise for top research projects and a steady crowd of interested faculty, staff and students reinforced the fact that research is at the heart of USF Health.

A record 340 presenters participated in this year’s USF Health Research Day, an event that showcases the work of graduate and postgraduate students and residents, and even faculty and staff, from throughout USF Health, as well as across campus.

In addition to those from USF, 14 of the poster presenters were students from charter high and middle schools in The Villages, showcasing their own award-winning posters. This is the second year the young students’ posters were judged by USF post doc students. The mentoring effort formed out of a partnership between USF Health and the Villages. The young scientists seem to hold their own when various visitors inquired about their work and the charter students seemed to enjoy interacting with USF faculty, even having a group shot with USF Health CEO Stephen Klasko, MD, MBA, dean for the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine.

The event began bright and early, starting off with the 4th Annual Annual Joseph Krzanowski, PhD, USF Health Invited Oral Presentations Session, when only a select few researchers present their work. The 10 invited to present their work orally this year were: Juanjuan Yin, Ingrid Ramirez, Ravi Kasiappan, Lee Stratton, Tigran Kesayan, JungA Alexa Woo, Nadine Nelson, Shabnam Mehra, Evelyn Anegbe, Andrea Bingham and Jessica Gordon.

Immediately following the oral presentations, the full poster presentation session began. Judges made their rounds to each presentation, asking the lead researchers to further explain their methods, results and conclusions before deciding on the award-worthy entrants. Many of the budding researchers use the day-long event as a prime opportunity for collaboration and as a “practice run” for future national research meetings.

Culminating the day was the Roy H. Behnke Distinguished Lectureship, featuring Howard McLeod, PharmD, professor of pharmacogenomics and director of the Institute for Pharmacogenomics and Individualized Therapy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His talk was titled “Using the Genome to Guide Therapy.” (See related story)

As the day wound down, winners were announced at the Awards Ceremony: Best MCOM Graduate Student Poster Presentations: – Allergy and Immunology: Chris Laird – Allergy and Immunology: Amorce Lima – Cancer Biology: Nadine Nelson – Cardiovascular: Justin Hooper – Clinical Science and Outcomes Research: Ty Bowman – Molecular and Cell Biology: Shannon Kesl

Best MCOM Medical Student Presentations:

– Med II Student Poster Presentation, Allergy and Immunology: Daniel Olson

– Med II Student Poster Presentation: Cancer Biology: Shonali Midha

– Med II Student Poster Presentation, Chart Reviews and Case Studies: John Pham

– Med II Student Poster Presentation, Clinical Sciences: Yin Zheng

– Med II Student Poster Presentation, Education: Candace Haddock

– Med II Student Poster Presentation: Stephen Aradi – Med III Student Poster Presentation, Chart Reviews and Case Studies: Gregory Horn

Best Undergraduate Student Poster Presentations:

Clinical: Annie Castillo

Molecular and Cell Biology: Peter Moran

Neuroscience I: Beatrice Attilus

Neuroscience II: Awa Sanneh

Best College of Nursing Poster Presentation

–  Graduate Student Julie Daugherty

Best College of Pharmacy Poster Presentations:

– Graduate Student: Athar Naif

– Postdoctoral: Chapalamadugu Kalyan

Best College of Public Health Poster Presentations:

– Graduate Student: Margeaux Chavez

– Graduate Student: Korede Adegoke

– Graduate Student: Pamela Guevara

– Graduate Student: Jennifer Sedillo

– Graduate Student: Blake Barrett

– Graduate Student: Christopher Campbell

– Graduate Student: MahmoodaKhaliq Pasha

Best TVCS High School Student Poster Presentation: Kathryn Fairchild

Best TVCS Middle School Student Poster Presentation: Kunal Upadya

***

USF Health Vice President’s Award for Outstanding Graduate Student Oral Presentation: Andrea Bingham

MCOM Outstanding Postdoctoral Poster Presentation: Ravi Pathak

MCOM Outstanding Postdoctoral Poster Presentation: Jessica Chang

MCOM Best Resident Poster Presentation: Jiangchuan Tao

MCOM Best Resident Poster Presentation: Midhir Patel

Watson Clinic Award to a Fourth-Year Medical Student: Chad Engel

Dr. Christopher P. Phelps Memorial Fund Annual Morsani COM Graduate Student Travel Award: Laura Blair

Pediatric Administrators Awards for Best Presentation on Children’s Health: Sarah Maness

***

Video by Allyn DiVito, USF Health Information Services

Social Media by Elizabeth Peacock, USF Health Communications

Story by Sarah A. Worth, USF Health Communications

Photos by Eric Younghans, USF Health Communications

RELATED STORIES:
Research Day 2013: Bringing USF Health together
Research Day speaker:  Move genetic discovery to medical practice

Studies investigate new treatment options for wide range of medical disorders

Tampa, FL (Oct. 4, 2012) — USF Health and EmergingMed have launched a University of South Florida Clinical Trials Matching Service that offers patients, caregivers and healthcare professionals a personalized, confidential matching and referral service for clinical studies at USF and other research affiliates across the Tampa Bay region.

The free navigation service can be accessed in English or Spanish, either by the Internet or by phone.  Its development was funded in part by a three-year federal Health Services and Resources Administration (HRSA) Telehealth Program grant, which supports the use of technology to deliver health care, information and education to the state’s rural and underserved populations.

The new USF database lists ongoing clinical trials for 40 medical conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease, asthma, depression, diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and Tourette syndrome, to name a few.  Individuals can quickly search and determine initial eligibility for the clinical studies. With permission, the centralized call center’s Clinical Trial Navigators place follow-up calls to patients to address basic clinical trials questions and help assure connection with a clinical trial site.

While the trials currently listed are operated out of the Tampa Bay area – through USF Health, including hospital partners Tampa General Hospital and Moffitt Cancer Center — the service hopes to expand to encompass ongoing clinical research studies at other universities, hospitals and clinics across the state, said the project’s principal investigator Phillip Marty, PhD, associate vice president for research at USF Health.

“USF Health is committed to providing patients who are exploring treatment options access to the latest research opportunities targeting their specific diagnosis and treatment history,” Dr. Marty said.  “We want to create a common database platform that will increase the likelihood of Floridians finding clinical trials closer to home.”

USF Health’s Dr. Phillip Marty was principal investigator for the federal Health Services and Resources Administration (HRSA) Telehealth Program grant that helped support development of the clinical trials matching service.

Clinical trials are patient-oriented studies critical for advancing the prevention, detection or treatment of disease.  Their goal is to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of new tests, medications, surgical procedures and devices, or other treatments compared to existing standards of care.

Participants have the opportunity to help clinicians and researchers improve health and quality of life, while simultaneously receiving care that is as good as, or exceeds, standard care. Yet, only about 2 percent of Americans get involved with clinical trials research each year, according to the Center for Information and Study on Clinical Research Participation.

Karen Moffitt, PhD, a former USF educator, said USF’s Florida Clinical Trials Matching Service is modeled after FloridaCancerTrials.com. Moffitt was a founder of that now well-established statewide clinical trial service for patients diagnosed with cancer, along with former Florida Lt. Governor Frank Brogan and physician representatives from major cancer centers across Florida, including Moffitt Cancer Center. She was instrumental in conceiving the idea for the USF Clinical Trials Matching Service, and securing the funding needed to pilot the project.

The ultimate goal is to work toward a single, shared statewide clinical trials database for all diseases, not only cancer, which each institution could use to identify appropriate trials for patients in their communities, said Moffitt, lead author of a 2010 study that evaluated the Florida Cancer Trials network.

“More than 25 percent of all clinical trials open for enrollment in Florida are not listed in the federal database clinicaltrials.gov,” she said.  “We need to do a better job of providing up-to-date, accurate information and streamlining the enrollment process so that clinical trials are more accessible for patients and physicians.”

To access the online service, powered by EmergingMed, click here. To search by phone, call toll free (855) 731-6034.

-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 50^th in the nation by the National Science Foundation for both federal and total research expenditures among all U.S. universities.

Media contact:
Anne DeLotto Baier, USF Health Communications
(813) 974-3303 or abaier@health.usf.edu