Leaders from USF Health and the Global Virus Network (GVN) recently gathered on the University of South Florida campus in north Tampa to sign the final documents making it official that USF Health serves as GVN’s Southeast United States Regional Headquarters.

USF Health and GVN announced nearly two years ago that USF Health earned the designation, but COVID-19 delayed the official signing until this year. The signing took place at the USF Lifsey House Feb 27, 2023, and marks the advancement of the collaborative relationship among the two organizations.

From left, Dr. Charles Lockwood, Pres. Rhea Law, Mathew Evins, and Dr. Christian Brechot.

“What we are signing together today marks a first, that USF is the first regional headquarters to be created with GVN,” said Christian Bréchot, MD, PhD, president of GVN; associate vice president for International Partnerships and Innovation at USF; director of the USF Microbiomes Institute, and professor in the Division of Infectious Disease, Department of Internal Medicine at the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine. “This headquarters at USF will allow GVN to expand its outreach into Florida with USF’s academic, research and medical activities and expertise, including USF’s international activities. In turn, GVN will provide to USF increased visibility and critical mass across the globe in the field of virology.”

“We are so excited to be the headquarters for the Global Virus Network,” said USF President Rhea Law. “This is an initiative in which we can have enhanced collaborations that focus on huge issues affecting our world today. We can make a difference. Thank you so much for all you’ve done. We are looking forward to our collaboration and to our next steps in opportunities to change the world.”

“We are very grateful to be the Southeast Regional Headquarters and this is a significant stepping stone to where we are headed in virology,” said Charles J. Lockwood, MD, executive vice president of USF Health and dean of the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine. “One of the key elements of putting this all together is Christian Bréchot. He has been such an incredible resource, for recruitment of virologists, addressing microbiome, and strengthening many of our programs. It has been a joy to see this collaboration develop and grow. So now, the sky is the limit with this great team in place.”

“On behalf of Bob Gallo, the Board of Directors, and the leadership of the Global Virus Network, I would like to express our most profound appreciation to the University of South Florida for its invaluable and instrumental partnership,” Mathew Evins, executive chair and treasurer of the GVN Board of Directors and chair of Evins Communications, Ltd. “I’ve been involved with GVN from the beginning and I cannot think of a situation where I have been more proud. This is a very significant step for us because the key to the successes of GVN in the future are the kind of partnerships we have with the University of South Florida. This for us is not an incremental step; it is an exponential step. I could not be more grateful for your support, your encouragement, and your partnership.”

GVN encompasses the world’s foremost virologists from 71 centers of excellence and 9 affiliates in 40 nations – all working to prevent illness and death from viral diseases posing threats to humanity. Bridging academia, government and industry, the coalition is internationally recognized as an authority and resource for identifying, investigating, interpreting, explaining, controlling, and suppressing viral diseases.

USF Health was the first regional headquarters named by GVN to provide organizational and leadership support to GVN’s Global Headquarters in Baltimore, Md. In that capacity, USF Health will help strengthen GVN’s initial research response to emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, such as COVID-19, and its collaborative efforts to plan for, and defend against, future epidemics and pandemics.

Since announcing USF Health’s designation as the GVN Southeast United States Regional Headquarters, the two organization have launched several programs, including the Global Health Conversation Series with USF Health International that hosted a recent webinar featuring Rachel Roper, MS, PhD, who spoke on Monkeypox virus, vaccines and virulence; Dr. Bréchot’s Health and Care Blog that provides updates on novel insights into the COVID-19 pandemic; One Health Codeathon, an effort between GVN and the USF Genomics Program that provides students the opportunity to learn how to harness data sciences against pandemics; and submission of several joint grant applications, including to the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.

The GVN Southeast U.S. Regional Headquarters based at USF Health will encompass the four health sciences colleges of the university: the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, the College of Nursing, the College of Public Health, and the USF Health Taneja College of Pharmacy. USF Health is an integral part of USF, a high-impact global research university dedicated to student success. Over the past 10 years, no other public university in the country has risen faster in U.S. News and World Report’s national university rankings than USF.

The appearance of COVID-19 has transformed society almost beyond recognition, with lasting implications for health care, the economy and our social and psychological well-being. Together we can, and we must, be better prepared to meet the challenges of the next emerging virus.”

In addition to their leadership roles at GVN Global Headquarters in Baltimore, Md., Dr. Bréchot and GVN Vice President Linman Li of the USF Health Division of Infectious Disease and International Medicine will lead the new GVN Southeast U.S. Regional Headquarters and focus on regional efforts to expand government and other research funding, as well as research and training initiatives. The regional headquarters designation will enable USF Health scientists to partner with GVN experts worldwide to share ideas and research, to translate research into practical applications, to improve diagnostics and therapies, and to develop vaccines.

GVN members collaborate on science-driven, independent research in many areas, including immunology and vaccines, antiviral drug therapy, virus-host interaction, diagnostic virology and epidemiology, morphogenesis and structural biology, emerging and re-emerging viruses, viruses as biotechnological tools, and trending topics in virology. They also train the next generation of virologists to combat the epidemics of the future.

Video by Allison Long, photos by Freddie Coleman, USF Health Communications

A USF-Health led study analyzing plasma cell-free DNA indicates host inflammation is as important as damage inflicted by the parasite in cerebral malaria

A mother and her comatose child with cerebral malaria on the Malaria Research Ward at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital, Blantyre, Malawi. [Photo by Jim Peck, Blantyre Malaria Project/Michigan State University]

Even with good antimalarial treatment, about one in five children diagnosed with cerebral malaria (CM) dies — and those who survive often have long-lasting neuropsychiatric complications such as learning disabilities, hyperactivity and behavioral problems.

It remains challenging for doctors to predict which particular pediatric patients are at highest risk for potentially fatal CM; the vast majority of children contract uncomplicated malaria with flu-like symptoms that typically resolve.  Current tools to help identify and triage those with the severest forms of malaria — including a specialized ophthalmic examination to pinpoint abnormalities in retinal blood vessels, brain imaging, blood work requiring a phlebotomist, and immunology laboratory testing — are cost-prohibitive in developing countries where malaria is most common.

A retrospective study led by researchers at the University of South Florida Health (USF Health) Morsani College of Medicine suggests that measuring cell-free DNA in plasma (cfDNA) offers a simple, rapid way to identify severe and potentially deadly cases of malaria.  The team’s findings were published recently in in JCI Insight, a journal of the American Society for Clinical Investigation.

Kami Kim, MD, (above) and Iset Vera, PhD (below), of the USF Health Division of Infectious Disease and International Medicine, led this study. They conduct malaria research with the Blantyre Malaria Project in Malawi, Africa, and other collaborators.

DNA is normally contained inside cells. Cell-free DNA circulates freely in plasma or other bodily fluids and often indicates the destruction of cells, including immune cells (neutrophils) that play a role in clearing malaria parasites.

A simple biological molecule (biomarker) like cfDNA that correlates with disease severity and risk of death can help guide clinical decisions, such as whether to admit a child with malaria into the intensive care unit, or start adjuvant treatments (in addition to antimalarial drugs) to decrease brain swelling or control platelet counts, said the paper’s senior author Kami Kim, MD, professor and director of the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine’s Division of Infectious Disease & International Medicine.  While uncomplicated malaria can be treated with oral antiparasitic drugs, treating severe malaria requires IV medications in a hospital setting.

“Plasma cell-free DNA offers a clinical tool to help (health providers) target specific treatments and more effectively use medical resources, especially in rural settings where specialized equipment and therapies are limited or unavailable,” Dr. Kim said. “That can end up benefiting more patients.”

The USF Health study compared the plasma of Malawian children with cerebral malaria, uncomplicated malaria (symptomatic but no severe illness) and no malaria (healthy controls).

Blood smear from a patient with cerebral malaria depicts red blood cells infected by the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. At the center of the image is a DNA neutrophil extracellular trap, or NET, near the infected cells.

The researchers measured levels of total cfDNA in the children’s plasma by streamlining a test employing an easy-to-use, portable device to detect cellular genetic material with fluorescent molecules. They used laboratory-based polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology to specifically measure each of the two types of cfDNA that make up total cfDNA — the host (patient) cfDNA and the parasite cfDNA.  The bedside test required just a finger prick of blood to provide results in about 5 minutes, versus the 5-hour turnaround time of the more technologically-advanced PCR test. Both tests performed comparably in detecting total cfDNA levels, Dr. Kim said.

Other research groups previously linked the concentration of parasite cfDNA in human plasma to malaria severity in children and adults.  But this new study was the first to show that total plasma cfDNA is predominantly made up of host cfDNA, rather than cfDNA derived from the malaria parasite.

The higher that levels of total cfDNA (and major contributor host cfDNA) rise, the sicker children with malaria get, said first author Iset M. Vera, PhD, a research instructor in the USF Health Department of Internal Medicine. Both were better indicators of disease severity than parasite cfDNA alone, Dr. Vera added.

“Host inflammation promoted by the immune response of white blood cells (neutrophils) contributed to disease progression, and therefore the total cfDNA in plasma correlated with severity of malaria infection, including deaths from cerebral malaria,” Dr. Kim said.  “The cfDNA marker gave us insight into what may be causing inflammation in the super sick kids. The study  substantiated our hypothesis that host inflammation is as much a critical part of cerebral malaria as the damage done by the parasite.”

Dr. Karl Seydel (MSU and Blantyre Malaria Project) about to examine a young patient recovering from cerebral malaria on the Malaria Research Ward at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital, Blantyre, Malawi. [Photo by Jim Peck, BMP/MSU]

That’s important because malaria exacts disproportionate human and economic costs on the world’s poorer countries, Dr. Vera said.  “Malaria burdens the mothers who travel to urban hospitals and spend days there so their sick children can get the advanced care unavailable in their communities. And, it burdens developing countries when children die from malaria or develop long-term complications so they cannot grow up to be productive adults.”

The study was supported in part by grants from the National Institutes of Health’s Center for Advancing Translational Science, the Burroughs Welcome Fund, and the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia.

The female Anopheles mosquito transmits the malaria parasite to humans through its bite. P. falciparum malaria—the most deadly type—is most common in sub-Saharan Africa, where it causes more than 400 000 deaths a year, mostly in young children.

What Dr. Liwang Cui’s team learns in the laboratory and the field can help curb the spread of this increasingly multidrug-resistant, mosquito-borne disease

USF Health molecular parasitologist Liwang Cui, PhD, co-leads one of 11 international centers of excellence for malaria research funded by the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

While some of the largest declines in malaria deaths since 2010 have been reported worldwide, the battle continues against the parasite’s resistance to artemisinin-based antimalarial drugs and an emerging threat of mosquito insecticide resistance.

USF Health molecular parasitologist Liwang Cui, PhD, leads a team that is part of an ambitious effort to eliminate malaria from the Greater Mekong subregion (GMS) in Southeast Asia — six countries bound together by the Mekong River — by 2030. Malaria spreads to people through the bites of female Anopheles mosquitoes (malaria vectors), which inject Plasmodium parasites into the bloodstream. The GMS eradication effort targets both Plasmodium falciparum, the most lethal form of human malaria, and Plasmodium vivax, a less virulent species but the most widespread globally.

Public health officials want to avert a crisis that could arise if the artemisinin-resistant malaria parasites so prevalent in the GMS reach India and then sub-Saharan Africa, where the greatest international burden of malaria lies.

Dr. Cui’s team conducts malaria field studies focused primarily along the border areas of six countries comprising Southeast Asia’s Greater Mekong subregion.

Dr. Cui, the Cohen Professor of Malaria Research in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine’s Division of Infectious Disease and International Medicine, was recruited here last fall from Pennsylvania State University. He was joined by a group of postdoctoral scholars he has mentored and assistant professor Jun Miao, PhD, all from Penn State.  USF was recently awarded a new National of Institutes grant to help eliminate malaria in Southeast Asia, with Dr. Cui as the principal investigator.

Collectively these researchers — working both in Dr. Cui’s laboratory at USF and international field study sites — possess diverse expertise, including malaria parasite developmental biology, epidemiology, vector biology, genomics, epigenetics, host-parasite interactions and drug resistance. The Cui laboratory strengthens USF’s growing cadre of medical and public health investigators committed to taking the university’s global infectious diseases research to the next level.

Dr. Cui (center) with team members who joined him at USF from Pennsylvania State University. Their native countries include Cameroon, China, India, Thailand, Uganda and the United States.

And, while malaria is not endemic to the United States, the advances they make have implications closer to home.  Travelers who live in areas with no malaria transmission, and therefore acquire no malaria immunity, are among those most susceptible to the severest form of the disease.

“With all vector-borne diseases, our goal is to learn more about the mechanisms of infection, to try to prevent multidrug resistance, and to eradicate the disease before it comes to our doorstep,” Dr. Cui said.

“International travel is so easy now. Today in Florida — tomorrow in Africa, Asia or South America… A few years ago, no one considered that the Zika virus would reach this country, but now the National Institutes of Health is funding Zika research to avoid further outbreaks.”

Postdoctoral scholar Amuza Lucky, PhD, lifts a container of malaria parasites cryopreserved in liquid nitrogen.

The six GMS countries include China, the region’s more economically advanced, which has invested significantly in malaria surveillance, diagnosis, treatment and prevention, particularly in the Yunnan Province counties near its border. Meanwhile hotbeds of the mosquito-borne disease remain in bordering Myanmar, an economically depressed GMS country plagued for decades by ongoing civil conflicts.

“Mosquitoes do not need passports to cross borders, so it is critical to prevent disease introduction and reintroduction at international borders” Dr. Cui said.

Even though China and Thailand have little or almost no malaria now, mosquitoes harboring the parasite on the Myanmar side of the borders, along with highly mobile and displaced ethnic minority populations, could potentially undermine the entire region’s recent progress in combatting malaria, he explained.

After reviving the malaria parasites from cold storage,  researchers manipulate the genome of parasites, including those isolated from patients. They use the latest molecular techniques to study gene functions and learn more about drug-resistant malaria.

Dr. Cui is principal co-investigator for the Southeast Asia Malaria Research Center, a network of institutions in the U.S., Thailand, Myanmar and China where internationally recognized investigators conduct coordinated malaria research and education projects.

One of 11 international centers of excellence for malaria research funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the Southeast Asia center (with USF as the lead institution) is currently supported by a six-year, $9.2 million NIAID grant.  Its interdisciplinary researchers seek to better define how mobile human populations, parasite drug and insecticide resistance, and mosquito biology contribute to ongoing malaria transmission along international borders, so that more effective control measures can be developed and strategically deployed.

They remain focused on the overarching goal — achieving the World Health Organization’s (WHO) plan to eradicate the life-threatening malaria parasite P. falciparum in the Greater Mekong subregion by 2025, and to make the region malaria free by 2030.

Research technician Xiaolian Li

Led by China, the political will to eliminate malaria throughout the region is strong, Dr. Cui said, but the daunting challenges to be overcome require a multipronged approach. Among the challenges:

– Multidrug resistance: The malaria parasite P. falciparum has become increasingly resistant to artemisinin or its derivatives and to several partner antimalarial drugs given in combination with artemisinins. Resistance first reported in 2008 along Cambodia-Thailand border areas has spread to parts of other countries, including Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. This means the drugs take longer to work, and urgency has risen to find new cost-effective compounds to delay drug resistance and halt malaria’s spread.

– Less insecticide effectiveness: Insecticides that reduce the number of mosquitoes have been shown to make a big difference in the incidence of malaria cases. But, growing mosquito resistance to insectides used in long-lasting bed nets and sprayed indoors has become an emerging threat. In Thailand, Dr. Cui said, resistance to pyrethroids, one of only two WHO-approved insecticides to treat bed nets, is now emerging.

Magnified P. falciparum malaria parasites (dark purple) inside human red blood cells stained blue

– Barriers to care: Malaria distribution is geographically uneven. Vulnerable populations living near borders and remote rural areas lacking access to the latest diagnostics and treatment bear a disproportionate burden of the disease.

– Fake drugs: Falsified and substandard antimalarials present another growing concern, according to WHO. A 2017 survey reported that nearly 28 percent of the antimalarial medicines sold by the private sector in Myanmar were still monotherapy (a single drug) — not the artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) recommended as the first-line treatment for P. falciparum to provide an adequate cure rate. Drug resistance can develop when the concentration of antimalarials in the blood is lacking – at least two drugs (a fast-acting artemisinin and second longer-lasting ingredient) are needed to completely clear malaria parasites, Dr. Cui said.

Beakers containing the media used to feed malaria parasites

While the challenges complicate elimination efforts, Dr. Cui’s group and others are fighting back with the latest technology. They employ drones to help map topography and learn more about potential mosquito breeding habitats (ponds, puddles of water) in areas difficult reach by land. They use advanced genetic tools to help track the cross-border movement of malaria parasites and to look for new ways to attack all stages in the complex life cycle of Plasmodium, which can readily mutate to avoid immune system destruction and evolve resistance to drugs.

Dr. Cui is the lead investigator for a $1-million R01 grant from NIAID to identify molecular markers that can help manage P. falciparum malaria’s artemisinin resistance with targeted control measures.

Dr. Cui (green shirt) oversees a team surveying mosquito larvae at a remote field site near the China-Myanmar border, where malaria is endemic.

As he works with his team at the epicenter of drug-resistant malaria in Southeast Asia — whether collecting blood samples used to isolate malaria parasites for genomic sequencing or surveying mosquito larvae sites in rural areas near the China-Myanmar border — Dr. Cui is reminded of the real-world costs of malaria, both in human lives and socioeconomic productivity.

“Malaria is a preventable and treatable,” he said, “so why are we still seeing more than 200 million cases a year worldwide, and nearly half a million, mostly kids, die from this disease?” he said. “When you see the suffering of the people in villages and (refugee) camps it really touches your heart and helps drive your work toward malaria control and elimination.”

USF Preeminence funding helped recruit internationally-recognized malaria researcher Liwang Cui and his team to Tampa.

Dr. Cui received one PhD degree in biology from Moldova Agricultural University (former USSR) and a second in molecular virology from the University of Kentucky; he conducted a postdoctoral fellowship in entomology and molecular parasitology at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington, DC. Before coming to USF, he spent 18 years as a professor in Penn State’s Department of Entomology.

Dr. Cui’s malaria research related to parasites, mosquito vectors and human hosts has been continuously funded by the NIH since 2001, and he was awarded two training grants from the NIH Fogarty International Center and one WHO grant for tropical disease research. He has authored more than 240 peer-reviewed publications, including five book chapters. He currently serves as the academic editor of several scientific journals.

Some things you may not know about Dr. Cui:

• • While he has worked in some very remote areas where malaria remains rampant, Dr. Cui takes plenty of precautions to avoid  infection. During his years of field studies in Southeast Asia, he has experienced the effects of civil war and even an earthquake – but he has not contracted malaria.
  • Some of his most productive scientific research writing is done late at night and the early hours of the morning, fueled by a pot of freshly brewed tea.
  • One of Dr. Cui’s first introductions to Florida wildlife came during an evening jog around the New Tampa subdivision where he lives with wife Rosabel and their two children: Stephen, 3, and Sophia, 9. He stopped short before nearly running over a 6-foot alligator lying in his path – then took a photo with his smartphone from a safe distance.

Close-up of the Anopheles mosquito that carries the malaria parasite

Some late-stage malaria parasites growing inside human red blood cells

Photos by Torie Doll, USF Health Communications and Marketing. Field site photos courtesy of Dr. Liwang Cui.

A team of health experts and educators from across USF Health recently traveled to Panama’s City of Knowledge as part of a collaborative partnership between the two institutions and to participate in annual meeting of the USF Health and Education International Foundation (HEIF).

Since 2004, USF Health has had a presence in Panama’s City of Knowledge. Through HEIF, a private nonprofit foundation, the USF Health Panama program provides educational and research opportunities for USF students and faculty, while helping to improve the lives of residents in the region. In mid-August, members of the HEIF Council traveled to Panama for the council’s annual meeting.

The HEIF Foundation group at the 90th anniversary celebration of the Gorgas Memorial Institute (GMI) for Health Studies.

While in Panama, the HEIF Council members met with a wide range of health care partners and helped celebrate the 90th anniversary of the Gorgas Memorial Institute (GMI) for Health Studies. GMI is a center of excellence for tropical medicine research and was founded to honor Dr. William Gorgas, a U.S. Army physician and the 22nd surgeon general of the U.S. Army. He is remembered for his work for controlling the spread of yellow fever and malaria in Florida, in Havana, Cuba, and in the Isthmus of Panama, allowing for the construction of the Panama Canal. The Gorgas Memorial Institute of Health Studies has had a long history of collaboration with our USF Health Panama office.

“The visit to Panama from our colleagues in Tampa was a fruitful and productive one,” said Arlene Calvo, PhD, research assistant professor at the College of Public Health, assigned to the Panama Program at the City of Knowledge. “Also, showing reciprocal support to the Gorgas Memorial Institute, after they have collaborated with the USF Health Panama program for so many years, was a positive moment. We are proud of the ample network of colleagues we have forged in Panama and the rest of the Latin American region.”

Thomas Unnasch, PhD, department chair and distinguished USF Health professor, Global Health, College of Public Health, was invited as the keynote speaker for the GMI celebration. A world-renowned scientist, Dr. Unnasch is considered an expert in onchocerciasis (river blindness) and has led control and elimination programs for the disease in Africa and Latin America.

The building that will be remodeled to house the CREASS facility in Panama.

During the visit, HEIF members viewed the site designated as the future Centro Regional para el Adiestramiento y Simulación en Salud (CREASS) building. This new simulation facility will be modeled after the USF Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation (CAMLS) located in downtown Tampa, Fla. This past year, under the leadership of Luis E. Llerena, MD, FACS, CHSE, and Nikki McLean, MS, RN, CHSE-A of CAMLS,  USF Health CAMLS  provided simulation instructor training to 40 Panamanian health professionals, including those chosen to lead the future CREASS site. They are now able to incorporate what they have learned at their local hospitals.

“The program at CAMLS earlier this year enabled USF Health and CAMLS the opportunity to export talent, tools, and resources directly to Panama through an intensive hands-on training experience. Now those medical professionals can deploy new skills across their country, in both urban and rural areas,” said Carole Post, JD, chief administrative officer, USF Health. “Many of the skills, such as team training techniques, can be used regardless of the equipment the hospitals or clinics have. It is critical that we get this knowledge in the hands of practitioners across the region.”

Victoria L. Rich, PhD, RN, FAAN, senior associate vice president, USF Health, and dean, College of Nursing, and Stephen McGhee, DNP, MSc, PGCE, RNT, RN, VR, instructor, College of Nursing, also visited the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), which is a regional subset of the World Health Organization (WHO). PAHO has partnered with USF Health Panama in various research capacities and is interested in supporting USF Health’s work in conducting research on indigenous people and expanding its collaboration with the College of Nursing. In addition, Drs. Rich and McGhee met with Connie Visovsky, PhD, RN, ACNP, FAAN, College of Nursing associate professor, who is doing cancer research in Panama as part of her Fulbright fellowship.

“Our partnerships in Panama represent a truly interprofessional effort from so many health educators and students throughout USF Health. The work we are doing benefits residents of the region, as well as prepares our students to be nimble and effective health providers for patients from many cultures,” said Dean Rich.

The USF Health team visited the USF Elementary Science Teaching program in the City of Knowledge classrooms.

Council members visited with USF College of Education faculty who were conducting the second iteration of the USF Elementary Science Teaching program in the City of Knowledge classrooms. This program, funded by the Panamanian government and coordinated by the USF Health Panama program, has trained more than a hundred English as a Second Language (ESOL) teachers in how to teach science concepts and make science accessible to elementary children from rural and disadvantaged communities. These Panamanian teachers often work in schools with extremely limited or no resources.

Professor Jorge Arosemena, executive president of the City of Knowledge, provides an overview of the campus.

Professor Jorge Arosemena, executive president of the City of Knowledge, also welcomed the group at its offices and provided an overview of the City of Knowledge campus and its vision for the future. Dr. Jorge Motta, national secretary of Science, Technology and Innovation of Panama, Dr. Enrique Mendoza, dean of the College of Medicine, University of Panama, and Dr. Ivonne Torres of the Pharmacology Department, University of Panama, also reviewed with the delegation current student mobility initiatives and plans for future collaboration.

Showing USF Bull spirit outside the USF Health Panama office.

“I warmly applaud all the USF colleges who are taking advantage of the opportunities in Panama,” said Roger Brindley, EdD, USF system vice president, USF World. “They are serving areas in need of health providers and education. The research, partnerships and student experiences all help build a worldview, encouraging communication across cultural barriers. In the years to come, we are keen to focus on partnerships that are interdisciplinary, intercollegiate, sustainable and mutually beneficial.”

Others in the interprofessional delegation visiting Panama included Roberta Burford, JD, associate vice president for Strategic Affairs, USF Health; Cristienn Joudaane, MBA, MS, director, International Programs and Panama Initiatives; Robert A. Pelaia, JD, deputy general counsel, USF; John Sinnott, MD, FACP, chair, Internal Medicine, Morsani College of Medicine; Richard Sobieray, MHA, MsED, senior associate vice president and chief financial officer, USF Health; Gregory Vannette, CPA, CFO of USF Health Professions Conferencing Corporation; and Daniel Vukmer, JD, senior associate vice president of Network Integration, USF Health.

Story by Lucia Raatma, USF Health College of Nursing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To read the full research article, click here.

Groundbreaking USF College of  Public Health research pushing the fight against malaria forward

A microscopic look at Plasmodium falciparum, the deadliest malaria parasite in existence. The parasite is the small, dark-colored structure inside the cells.

For the first time ever, an international team of researchers led by scientists at the University of South Florida have identified the core repertoire of essential genes of the world’s deadliest parasite – an innovative breakthrough with lifesaving potential.

Researchers at USF Health’s College of Public Health have identified the essential genes of the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. Each year, roughly 220 million cases of malaria occur around the world, with about 500,000 deaths attributed to the disease. P. falciparum is responsible for half of all malaria cases and causes roughly 90 percent of the fatalities, making it the most lethal malaria parasite in existence.

Distinguished USF Professor John Adams, PhD, College of Public Health

“What our team has done is develop a way to analyze every gene in this parasite’s genome,” said USF Distinguished University Professor John Adams, PhD, one the study’s senior authors and director of USF’s Center for Global Health and Infectious Disease Research. “Using our genetic analysis tools, we’re able to determine the relative importance of each gene in the genome for parasite survival. This understanding will help guide future drug development efforts targeting those essential genes.”

The research, published this week in Science, was conducted in collaboration with two USF research groups, led by Adams and Assistant Professor Rays Jiang, PhD, as well as Julian Rayner, PhD, a senior group leader at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, one of the world’s premiere genomic research facilities.

Using a specialized technique called high-throughput piggyBac-transposon insertional mutagenesis, the team was able to disrupt almost all of the roughly 6,000 genes in the parasite’s genome. Through advanced computational analyses, researchers identified about 3,300 of those genes to be essential to the parasite’s survival. About 1,000 of these essential genes have completely unknown functions.

“This is a huge breakthrough,” said USF postdoctoral researcher in the Adams lab and author on the study Jenna Oberstaller, PhD. “This parasite is traditionally very difficult to genetically manipulate in the lab for a number of technical reasons. So, we’ve effectively gone from knowing only a few handfuls of this parasite’s essential genes, to defining essentiality of the entire genome.”

This comprehensive study comes at a crucial time in the fight against malaria, where the spread of parasite resistance to current front-line antimalarial drugs is an emergent threat. This spreading drug resistance means that while the current treatment is still being used with success in most areas of the world, its effectiveness in the long-term is at risk – underscoring the need for novel drugs to be developed.

Researchers say this latest breakthrough provides valuable insight to scientists. Understanding which genes in the genome are essential gives researchers a list of promising possible drug targets to prioritize for further study.

Postdoctoral researcher Jenna Oberstaller, PhD, (left) and researcher Min Zhang, PhD, work to identify the essential genes of the malaria parasite. Zhang and postdoctoral researcher Chengqi Wang, PhD (not pictured), both of USF, served as co-lead authors on the groundbreaking publication.

“Malaria is a devastating disease and it’s something that has killed as many people as almost anything else,” said Adams. “Our program, Global Health and Infectious Disease Research, is here to study these intractable diseases that have plagued humankind for eons and to help eliminate them.”

To read the full academic journal article, click here.

Photographs by Torie Doll, University Communications & Marketing

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On Thursday Oct. 13, USF Health celebrated 10 years of presence at the City of Knowledge, Panama. The event aimed to emphasize the common vision shared by USF Health leadership and many of the academic and research partners in Panama; it also featured a keynote address by guest professor Anne Firth Murray of Stanford University, human rights advocate and Nobel Peace Prize nominee. Dr. Murray spoke eloquently about the economic impact of investing in women´s health and education across the life span.

Donna Petersen, ScD, senior associate vice president of USF Health, dean of the College of Public Health (COPH) and one of the founders of the Panama program, talked about how, through the recommendation of COPH alumna Dr. Arlene Calvo, she came to Panama and “was immediately inspired by the impact that public health had on the construction of the Panama Canal, Panama´s biodiversity, and more importantly the enthusiasm of those Panamanian visionaries, Dr. Rodrigo Tarté and Prof. Jorge Arosemena, who were starting to develop the City of Knowledge concept. That inspiration, turned into motivation to establish a USF presence with a global health focus at the City of Knowledge, the old U.S. Clayton Military Base, now transformed into a research and innovation park, a campus for foreign universities and the home of many international NGOs.

In his remarks, Charles Lockwood, MD, senior vice president of USF Health and dean of the Morsani College of Medicine, mentioned the “increased collaboration in education, research and clinical care between USF faculty and students and their counterparts in Panama as well as health professional and organizations across the Americas.” He then thanked the Panamanian partners for their continued support to help provide “research opportunities for more than 1,100 undergraduate and graduate students and medical residents as well as for over 175 faculty members from the USF and other U.S. institutions.”

USF Health Panama´s research and academic initiatives have trained more than 2,000 health professionals and field workers throughout Panama and the Latin American region.

Through the USF Health Panama Program, students across a variety of disciplines gain hands-on experience in rural or indigenous communities throughout Panama and conduct innovative research to complete their master’s and doctoral theses. They work alongside Panamanian physicians and health care workers in public and private hospitals, complete field studies in cooperation with humanitarian agencies, intern with business and industry leaders, and participate in service missions across the Panama region. USF faculty, affiliate faculty and alumni in Panama engage in cutting-edge research and health education grant projects on HIV/AIDS, Zika virus, malaria, influenza, dengue, domestic violence, cervical cancer, nutrition, diabetes, data systems, and policy analysis. Dr. Lockwood thanked Dr. Nestor Sosa, director of the Gorgas Memorial Research Institute for Health Studies (ICGES), for rich discussions on topics of joint interest and mentioned his interest in working more on vaccine development and other research areas of joint interest.

During the evening reception, Dr. Anne Debaldo was recognized for her instrumental role in the development of the Health and Education International Foundation in Panama. In addition, partner institutions such as the Gorgas Memorial Institute for Health Studies (ICGES), the National Secretariat of Science Technology and Innovation (SENACYT), INDICASAT, the City of Knowledge and the University of Panamá were specially honored for their years of joint collaboration and support.

The Ministry of Health, the National Obudsman’s (Defensoría del Pueblo) office, Vital Voices, the Water Center for the Humid Tropics of Latin America and the Caribbean (CATHALAC), Centauri Technologies, Forest Finance, the National Association against Cancer (ANCEC), PROBISIDA Foundation, UNICEF, The Panamerican Health Organization (PAHO), as well as faculty from the Oncological Institute (Instituto Oncológico), the Children´s Hospital (Hospital del Niño), the Social Security Hospitals , the Santo Tomás Hospital and Regional Health Centers were also recognized.

The Health and Education International Foundation Board members were present at the event, including President- Roberta Burford, JD, Vice-President Joann Strobbe, MsEd, Greg Vannette, CPA, Cristienn Joudaane, MBA, MS, Jay Evans, MBA, MPH, Lynette Menezes, PhD and Constance Visovsky, PhD, and the USF Health Panama team members Arlene Calvo, PhD, MPH; Aracely Quintero, BS; Jeanette Galvez, BS; Gladys Bernett, MBA, MHA, and alumni Morgan Hess Holtz, MS and Arturo Rebollón, MD, were also thanked for their dedication in advancing the USF’s mission in Panama.

Strong academic collaboration was the main highlight of the evening. There was potential and enthusiasm to keep working together on initiatives aimed at improving the health, education and quality of life of our communities, our hemisphere and the world.

Story by Gladys Bernett, video by Sandra C. Roa/ University Communications and Marketing, photos by Tarina Rodriguez

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Visit USF’s Zika at Our Doorstep website

Florida has become ground zero for the Zika virus – home of the first non-travel related cases of the mosquito-borne virus in the continental United States.

To put the current epidemic in context and discuss options for addressing this rapidly evolving public health and medical threat, experts from across USF Health gathered Aug. 19 for a half-day conference titled Zika at Our Doorstep: An International Public Health Conversation.

USF experts lead panel for Zika Conference.

Top researchers, elected and appointed government officials, and community leaders in the region’s tourism, transportation and health care industries filled the auditorium at the Patel Center for Global Sustainability to share the latest information about the virus. They also highlighted the need for more federal funding to support public health surveillance studies and biomedical research for early detection and new treatments such as vaccines and anti-viral agents, as well as studies to understand the development of Zika-associated fetal, childhood and adult brain effects.

The Patel Center auditorium was filled.

Also attending were federal legislators U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor and U.S. Rep. David Jolly, along with State Rep. Neil Combee.

The access to Zika experts also attracted extensive coverage by Tampa Bay area print, online and broadcast media, and the conference was picked up by additional news outlets, as well as other viewers, via online livestream.

The Zika Conference drew extensive media coverage.

Before the conference, Rep. Castor and Rep. Jolly toured the USF insectary where they saw firsthand the mosquitoes raised there. Research staff explained how they use the laboratory to better understand the insect and work on more effective treatments for devastating mosquito-borne diseases or develop vaccines to prevent infections. Currently the lab does not contain Zika-carrying mosquitoes, but it is designed to begin studying the virus.

U.S. Reps. David Jolly and Kathy Castor tour USF insectary with Dr. Thomas Unnasch. Photo by Ryan Noone.

The Zika virus has prompted worldwide concern largely because of its alarming connection to serious neurological birth defects, and its recent arrival in non-travel related cases is setting off alarms across the state. The conference featured topics that ranged from pregnancy and fetal effects to the importance of Zika risk communication. The following are highlights of what was said by the experts, elected officials and guests:

U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor.

U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor:

It’s important because, while the Congress is not acting, at least the folks here on the ground in the Tampa Bay area and at the University of South Florida are doing everything they can to educate the public and do some of the necessary research… This is a premiere university in the state and one of the top in the country for health innovation… We now know there have been 15 babies born with microcephaly and birth defects in the country. And there are hundreds of pregnant women known to be infected with the Zika virus being tracked right now. The Department of Health and Human Services says that, unless they receive supplemental funding, it will impact their ability to track these women, develop diagnostic tools and develop the vaccine… It’s much more cost-effective and efficient if you put the money into prevention — to prevent additional cases of birth defects and microcephaly.”

U.S. Rep. David Jolly.

U.S. Rep. David Jolly:

“This is a regional issue. The Florida delegation understands this impacts us more than other states. So as a delegation, they need to impress upon leadership and the broader Congress to actually pass the (funding) package… We still don’t know everything we need to know about Zika, the resources we need to control it and how to prevent it… We just took a tour of the insectary. This is one more remarkable thing that’s occurring at USF. A handful of research institutions are contributing to a national effort to learn more about mosquitoes and Zika so that, ultimately, we can contain it and hopefully, one day very soon, have a vaccine developed to eradicate the spread of Zika.”

Dr. Edmund Funai moderated the Zika Conference.

Edmund Funai, MD, USF System vice president and chief operating officer for USF Health:

“Rarely have I had the privilege of attending a conference that is so timely. And literally, just walking out of my house this morning, I saw two reports making their way through the media. One regarding another outbreak in Miami Beach, and another, far more concerning, about potential neurologic brain effects in adults. In this conference you’ll hear potential effects of this virus on unborn children. But now it’s becoming more clear that we may all be potentially at risk.”

USF System President Judy Genshaft.

Judy Genshaft, PhD, president of the USF System:

“We must be responsive and vigilant and willing to invest the necessary resources to stop Zika in its tracks and protect the most vulnerable among us from its devastating effects…By working collaboratively USF has a huge interdisciplinary team throughout the campus working on this particular response and on understanding Zika, whether it be maternal-fetal medicine, infectious disease, epidemiology, obstetrics, mosquito biology, public health, psychology, and chemistry… We want to be able to apply new knowledge to this virus and other tropical viruses that carry an increasing global threat. The investment in this is a wise one. The interconnected nature of our world means we all have a stake in fighting these kinds of outbreaks.”

Dr. Charles Lockwood.

Charles J. Lockwood, MD, senior vice president for USF Health and dean of the Morsani College of Medicine, a leading authority on Zika with expertise in maternal-fetal medicine, and a trustee on the March of Dimes National Board:

“This virus presents an extraordinary challenge to obstetricians and patients and it is the greatest threat to the well-being of American babies since polio…We just don’t have enormous amounts of data and that hinders our ability to predict an outcome… For a while we thought the third-trimester risk was not as bad, but now we know that, in fact, babies can appear to be perfectly normal in utero and up to term, and that microcephaly and other catastrophic consequences may not actually be discernable until early infancy, or even several months after birth. That is terribly frightening to obstetricians because it makes it very difficult to counsel women about the likelihood for fetal damage if they’re infected…There are enormous amounts of unknowns … As an obstetrician, maybe I’m a little biased, but it is absolutely critical that we have funding to improve our mosquito abatement strategy, to do a better job with surveillance and to develop a vaccine as soon as possible. The parallel with polio is apt and one of the reasons why the National Foundation for the March of Dimes has jumped on Zika like no other organization.”

Dr. Douglas Holt.

Douglas Holt, MD, director of Infectious Disease and International Medicine Division, USF Health Morsani College of Medicine:

“We hope (Zika) will be more like what we experienced with the Dengue virus in this state…The challenge is to not underestimate Zika. We just don’t know enough to have the confidence that that’s what will happen… We’re in for a tough fight. Zika represents a perfect storm. It’s a virus that is sneaky; a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It comes in and most people don’t even know they’re sick. In addition to this… it is unprecedented that we have a mosquito virus that also causes birth defects and is sexually transmitted.”

Dr. Thomas Unnasch.

Thomas Unnasch, PhD, chair and Distinguished University Health Professor, Department of Global Health, USF College of Public Health:

“Even though Phase I clinical trials for the vaccine are underway, it’s likely to take three to five years before the FDA approves a vaccine. So for the next three to five years we’ll still face a problem with the Zika virus and its transmission here… Most of the assays (tests) we have right now are not specific for the Zika virus. They cross react with Dengue. And given the fact that there are hundreds of thousands of cases of Dengue in the Caribbean every year, this creates a really large background for false positives of Zika virus. We need more specific tests to identify exposure to Zika virus, particularly among the at-risk populations.”

Dr. Deborah Cragun.

Deborah Cragun, PhD, assistant professor of global health, USF College of Public Health:

“In my experience as a genetic counselor, I often saw firsthand how risk perceptions can play a big role in decision-making and in emotional well-being… We see this with Zika, because we see concern amplified for several reasons. We know it can cause very serious birth defects.  Effective communication really needs to promote risk-appropriate actions to protect health, while at the same time not causing excessive worry or unnecessary action.”

Dr. Juan Pascale.

Juan Miguel Pascale, MD, PhD, deputy director of Gorgas Memorial Institute for Health Studies, Panama City, Panama, and professor of immunology, University of Panama School of Medicine:

“We have around 450,000 cases of Zika in Latin America, and we have 50,000 in Central America. We have around 1,800 babies with microcephaly in Latin America, so far. And 5,000 pregnant women have been exposed to Zika, and we are expecting microcephaly after they give birth. We have big problems… We are not efficient in controlling Aedes aegypti vector mosquitoes. We in Panama are beginning to use genetically modified mosquitoes and 93 percent of the mosquito population has been eradicated… Zika is not a Latin American problem or a U.S. problem – it is a global problem.”

Audience members posed questions for the panel.

Photos by Eric Younghans, USF Health Office of Communications
Video by Vjollca “V” Hysenlika and Ryan Noone, USF College of Nursing Communications

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The USF College of Public Health hosted National Public Health week with a series of events spanning from film screenings to blood drives. It’s an opportunity to raise awareness for the far-reaching impact that public health has. The USF College of Public Health named Celeste Philip, MD, MPH the 2016 Florida Outstanding Woman in Public Health and recognized her April 6 a special awards ceremony.

Dr. Philip serves as the interim state surgeon general, Florida Department of Health (DOH), only the second woman to lead the department. She is president-elect of the American Heart Association’s Greater Southeast Affiliate and serves on the Health Initiatives Committee Advisory Group to Florida Board of Governors.

“I would encourage more young people to think about public health as a career,” Dr. Philip said. “I was fortunate to be exposed to it while in high school and so I had the opportunity to thinking about what that meant to take advantage of my college years to explore options and be exposed to different people and different career opportunities and there is a role for everyone health.”

Dr. Celeste Philip accepts the Public Health Woman of the Year Award from Dr. Donna Petersen.

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The College bestows the award each year to a woman whose career accomplishments and leadership contribute significantly to the field of public health in Florida. This year’s April 6 awards ceremony also included awards for student research, Excellence in Teaching, which went to Jamie Corvin, PhD, MSPH, and Outstanding Alumni, which went to Michael Pentella, PhD, D(ABMM), as well as recognition of Delta Omega inductees and academic scholarship recipients. In addition, special recognition was given to Angelia Sanders, MPH, who is the recipient of the 2015 Outstanding Alumni award but was unable to attend that year.

Alumni award winners Angelia Sanders and Dr. Michael Pentella.

The morning ceremony was just one event of many as part of National Public Health Week, organized and hosted by the USF College of Public Health and supporting organizations. Events filled the days and included:

USF’s National Public Health Week events started Friday, April 1, with Walk Like MADD, a service event for Mothers Against Drunk Driving with student led interactive activities.

From Friday, April 1 through Sunday, April 3, Rotary Camp Florida hosted Campamento Alegría for Latina Cancer Survivors, a service event for students.

On Saturday, April 2, volunteers from the USF Health Service Corps hosted a Spring Fling Health Fair at Mort Elementary School. The service event for USF Health students involved educational activities for children and opportunities for health screenings.

On Monday, April 4, there was an evening screening of “Someone You Love – The HPV Epidemic” that included a panel discussion and information about COPH-led HPV research and initiatives.

Dr. Ellen Daley welcomes guests to the screening of Someone You Love: The HPV Epidemic.

Tuesday, April 5, was Give Life Day and in the heart of COPH faculty, staff and students donated blood and registered for the National Marrow Donor Program, as well as learned how to save a life by performing Citizen CPR (below).

COPH students and recruiters were at the Bull Market USF MSC Plaza on Wednesday, April 6, offering interactive activities and career exhibits, sharing information about academic programs, and helping participants discover that public health is everywhere.

Sharing info about public health at the USF BULL Market outside the Marshall Student Center.

World Health Day was Thursday, April 7, and the COPH Samuel P. Bell III Auditorium was filled as a panel of USF Health and local experts lead a discussion on the epidemiology, transmission and prevention of diseases associated with the Aedes aegypti mosquito, especially diseases like Dengue, Chikungunya and Zika, which are emerging vector-borne diseases.

Dr. Boo Kwa introduces Dr. Douglas Holt, Dr. Sarah Obican, and Dr. Robert Novak for panel discussion on emerging vector-borne diseases.

A community health fair was hosted at Metropolitan Ministries on Friday, April 8, providing a service event for USF Health students to lead educational activities for children and participate in health screenings.

COPH faculty and students heard about the newest work from researchers and ways students can become more involved in research at the This is Public Health! Research Seminar Series, held Friday, April 8.

A Family Affair Community Health Fair, held Saturday, April 9, offered a service event for USF Health students to lead educational activities for children.

The culmination of the week was the Annual Potluck BBQ at USF Riverfront Park on Saturday, April 9. Faculty, staff, students and their families all gathered for a fun afternoon of food, fitness and friendship,

A Food Drive ran from April 1 to 11 to collect donations of boxed and canned food items that were given to the Feed-A-Bull Food Pantry.

Beyond the actual week, there will be a Public Health! Graduate Fair held at Saturday, April 23, from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at The WELL. The Fair is an open house for public health, pharmacy, medicine, nursing, physical therapy, biomedical sciences and athletic training and offers prospective students with information from current students and opportunities to speak with academic recruiters and learn how USF Health is making life better in Tampa Bay and around the world! Contact preadmissions@health.usf.edu.

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