This story originally published on April 21, 2015 in observance of the COPH’s 30^th anniversary celebration.

Three Distinguished USF Health Professors in the Department of Global Health at the USF College of Public Health – Drs. Tom Unnasch, John Adams and Dennis Kyle – are ranked among the university’s best externally-funded investigators in terms of research dollars, and two are in the top five. A major focus of their research is malaria.

A fourth Global Health professor, Dr. Michael White, published a groundbreaking study just last month that may revolutionize the global fight against malaria.

Unnasch, the department chair, said much of Global Health’s research funding comes from external grants from the National Institutes of Health, primarily the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has come through with what he called “a substantial portfolio of funding”: a $4.5-million grant to Adams this year for developing new drugs and researching new genetic targets for malaria.

Kyle and Adams also have established collaborations with the Draper Laboratory to conduct research with artificial livers to study malaria in livers, which also is funded by the Gates Foundation, Unnasch said.

The combination of expertise and generous funding has helped put the department on the global cutting edge and in the thick of international connections that will help keep it there.

“The department is becoming quite well-known now as a research institution for malaria and other vector-borne diseases,” Unnasch said. “We have lots of good collaborations with people in Thailand at Mahidol University, and a lot of collaborations with people in Africa. There’s also quite a bit of contact between our department and people in the mosquito control field here in the state of Florida.”

Unnasch said those include regular work with the Florida Mosquito Control Association (of which Unnasch is on the board of directors), the Department of Health Laboratories, the Florida Department of Health, and various research projects with mosquito control in Hillsborough, Pasco, Manatee, Volusia and St. Johns counties, as well as with the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District in Monroe County.

For mosquito researchers, Unnasch said, the reason is obvious. For everyone else, it might be alarming.

“Florida’s the best place in the country if you want to do research on mosquito-transmitted diseases,” he said. “There are four arthropod-borne viruses, or arbovirus, infections that occur in the United States, and three out of the four are endemic to Florida. That’s why Florida spends $75-100 million a year on mosquito control. Only California spends more.”

Last month, the College of Public Health made headlines as Dr. Michael White, a professor in the College of Public Health’s Department of Global Health and the Morsani College of Medicine’s Department of Molecular Medicine, led a team of researchers that became the first to uncover part of the mysterious process by which malaria-related parasites spread at explosive and deadly rates inside humans and other animals.

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

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

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

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

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

With the collective efforts and expertise of Drs. Adams, Kyle, Unnasch and White, the USF College of Public Health will remain on the front lines of the fight against one of the world’s most daunting health threats.

Related stories:
USF-led study sheds light on how malaria parasites grow exponentially
New antimalarial drug with novel mechanism of action
Dr. Dennis Kyle receives NIH award to understand extreme drug resistance in malaria
Dr. John Adams leads workshop for Gates Foundation scientists conducting malaria research

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The USF College of Public Health’s (COPH) faculty has been recognized for their dedication in two recent USF award ceremonies.

Dr. Dinorah Martinez Tyson, associate professor, was named the recipient of the 2022 Outstanding Graduate Faculty Mentor Award and honored at the Scholars of Excellence luncheon, held Nov. 9.

The competitive selection process focused on candidates from across the university.

“You stood out among the best, and the committee was very impressed with your mentoring style and the number of graduate students whom you have mentored as well as their professional success,” Dr. Ruth Huntly Bahr, associate dean and professor for the USF Office of Graduate Studies, said in a message to Martinez Tyson.

Martinez Tyson specializes in health disparities and community-engaged research, working on projects covering cancer survivorships, chronic disease management and Latino health. She’s also an active member of the COPH’s Salud Latina USF initiative, which aims to address important public health issues among Spanish-speaking communities in the U.S. and abroad through outreach, education and research.

“It means the world to me to be recognized in this way. I am the product of great mentorship, I can never pay it back, I can only pay it forward. This award, in some way, honors the faculty, advisors, counselors, teachers and colleagues who have been instrumental in my academic journey. It is a privilege to work with outstanding students across concentrations, from diverse backgrounds and with varied interests and goals,” she said.

She said that teaching and mentoring are the best parts of her job.

“Teaching and mentoring is what I find to be the most meaningful and fulfilling aspect of what I do as a college professor. In the COPH, we have a saying: “Our practice is our passion,” and I am fortunate to be able to practice my passion, which is teaching and mentoring students. I enjoy getting to know students, listening and building relationships that may last well past graduation,” she said.

The 2022 USF Faculty Honors and Award Reception, hosted Nov. 16 by the USF Office of the Provost and Executive Vice President, proved to be a successful night for COPH faculty. 

Elizabeth Dunn, instructor I, was awarded the Outstanding Community-Engaged Teaching Award.

Dunn joined the USF COPH in 2012 working in the Global Disaster Management, Humanitarian Relief and Homeland Security (GHH) program as the assistant to the director and began teaching courses as an adjunct instructor.

She specializes in global disaster management, humanitarian relief and homeland security.

“Being recognized with the Community Engaged Teaching Award has been a rewarding experience, especially knowing colleagues from across the university reviewed my work and believed I was worthy of such an award. However, I cannot take all the credit, as I work with several remarkable community leaders and alumni who dedicate their time to mentoring and providing students with activities that engage them within the community,” she said.

“I really enjoy working with students as they learn about something new within the classroom setting and then being able to work with them on a community-engaged project. Hearing from students about how these experiences have been life-changing or knowing that the work we are doing is helping to build a more resilient Tampa Bay,” she said.

Adam Clum, academic advisor for the bachelor of science in health sciences program, was awarded the Outstanding Undergraduate Advising Award.

“In the College of Public Health, our motto is ‘Our Practice is our Passion.’ Academic advising is my passion and I love that I get to advise students every day. The best part of my job is being able to assist students during their academic journeys at USF and working with them to achieve their goals. I feel an immense honor in being a recipient of the Outstanding Academic Advisor Award because it recognizes excellence in the advising field here at the university,” Clum said.

Other COPH awardees recognized included:

• Dr. William Sappenfield
  • Distinguished University Professor

• Drs. Dinorah Martinez Tyson, Jason Salemi, Monica Uddin and Thomas Unnasch
  • Faculty Outstanding Research Achievement Award

“What I enjoy most about what I do is having the opportunity to investigate how lived experience impacts individuals on a biological level, in ways that can sometimes enhance—or reduce—risk for disease,” Uddin said.

• Dr. Karen Perrin and Dr. Max Salfinger
  • Retirement

“Anyone at some point is retiring. I consider retirement an HR term, which describes that you are legally no longer employed. However, your activities continue at your choosing. For example, retirement gave me the opportunity to explore, with Rocky, Antarctica and South Georgia Islands and being off the internet during the mid-term elections,” Salfinger said.

View the full list of awardees.

Story by Anna Mayor, USF College of Public Health

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Among these impressive discoveries and advancements, one researcher in USF Health has created a nationally acclaimed interactive dashboard to track COVID-19 and another is developing novel COVID-19 therapeutics. Another faculty member has received NASA funding to improve human spaceflight conditions, while her colleague is creating new defenses for wireless network security systems. And in USF Health Morsani College of Medicine a professor has made outstanding contributions relevant to Alzheimer’s disease.

These are just a few of the faculty research achievements newly recognized with USF’s Outstanding Research Achievement Awards. This year’s awards recognize 26 faculty members—the largest group to date—for their important achievements.

“The University of South Florida’s reputation as a top research university is powered by the discoveries and innovations of our faculty members,” said USF President Rhea Law. “I congratulate each of the outstanding awardees on all they have accomplished in their work of advancing knowledge, finding solutions and transforming lives.”

The largest internal recognition of its kind at USF, the annual nominations are submitted by deans, department chairs, center and institute directors, and associate deans of research. The nominations are reviewed by members of the USF Research Council. Each faculty member receives $2,000 with the award and recognition at an event later in the fall.

Here are this year’s COPH awardees:

Dinorah Martinez Tyson, PhD, MPH, MA
Associate Professor, Interdisciplinary Science and Practice
College of Public Health

Recognized for exceptional contributions to the field of public health through efforts to address and reduce health disparities among ethnic minorities and underserved populations in the U.S. and Latin America.

Dr. Martinez Tyson is noted for her outstanding contributions in cross-cultural perspectives to the study of cancer health disparities. Her research focuses on identifying the best models and methods for adapting instrumentation and proven interventions to address health disparities across the cancer continuum. She led an exploratory sequential mixed method study, which employed a series of iterative and group consensus-building approaches, to translate and culturally adapt the previously validated CaSUN measure into Spanish, for Latino cancer survivors. In 2021, she was awarded a highly competitive PCORI grant to develop a culturally adapted online couples’ communication program for Latina breast cancer patients, and brought together a diverse and highly skilled academic and community-based research team to undertake this challenging project.

Jason Salemi, PhD, MPH, FACE
Associate Professor, Concentration Lead for the PhD Program in Epidemiology
College of Public Health

Recognized for seminal work in translational science related to COVID-19 transmission and mitigation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. Salemi is a nationally recognized epidemiologist with expertise in birth defects, surveillance methodology, evaluation, and research. He built a comprehensive, interactive dashboard to track COVID-19, which received national attention and has been an invaluable resource for researchers, advocacy groups, county commissioners, and citizens. In 2021, Dr. Salemi conducted approximately 350 interviews to local, regional, national and international media outlets regarding COVID-19 transmission and mitigation. His presence was also evident in eleven presentations he made regarding COVID-19 at regional and state-level venues including the Hillsborough County Board of Commissioners and the Emergency Medical Planning Council. He also engaged with Publix Super Markets, Inc. to lead various townhall discussions with employees regarding COVID vaccination. Dr. Salemi had 14 publications in 2021, received the 2021 Griot Drum Community Hero award from the Tampa Bay Association of Black Journalists, the Above and Beyond Coronavirus Distinction (ABCD) award from the Society for Epidemiologic Research, and was selected as a Fellow of the American College of Epidemiology.

Monica Uddin, PhD
Professor, Global and Planetary Health
College of Public Health

Recognized for distinguished contributions to the field of public health for genomics research to identify predictors for stress-related mental disorders related to depression and PTSD.

Dr. Uddin’s innovative research seeks to identify genetic and epigenetic predictors of stress-related mental disorders, with a particular focus on depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. A central theme of this work is the recognition that lived experience has a substantial impact on risk for mental disorders, and that this risk is likely mediated in part by changes to genomic biology. In 2021, Dr. Uddin was awarded duration of grant funding for two important projects for which she serves as MPI and that all address genomic factors in traumatic stress and mental health: Epigenomic Predictors of PTSD and Traumatic Stress in an African American Cohort; The impact of traumatic stress on the methylome: implications for PTSD; and Transgenerational Epigenomics of Trauma and PTSD in Rwanda. In addition, she and her colleagues published four articles in 2021 with two additional manuscripts in press.

Thomas Unnasch, PhD
Distinguished University Professor, Global and Planetary Health
College of Public Health

Recognized for distinguished contributions in translational science related to COVID‐19, modeling, projections and mitigation during the pandemic.

Dr. Unnasch’s long‐term research has focused on vector‐borne diseases; his laboratory is involved with developing new tools to enhance the efficiency of the surveillance activities and development of molecular based methods for the detection of the black fly vector in Africa and Latin America. In 2021, Dr. Unnasch’s work with USF colleagues on the development of mathematical algorithms to use data collected from screening pools of vectors—such as COVID‐19 pools—to quantify the intensity of exposure in affected human populations resulted in his being one of the experts at USF and in Florida identified early in the pandemic to assist in explaining the status of transmission and mitigation.

Excerpt reposted from USF Newsroom

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In April 2020, as the first weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic began sweeping across Florida and the United States, USF Research & Innovation working with faculty members and college and department leadership to launch a first-of-its kind funding effort to jump start research into the disease and its impact.

The USF COVID-19 Rapid Response Research Grants program initially selected 14 projects and supported them with a total of $340,000. Two other funding rounds followed in the months after, bringing the university’s investment in COVID-19 research projects to more than $1 million, with support also coming from the Florida High Tech Corridor Council. The effort produced swift impact: 48 patent disclosures on COVID-19 fighting technologies emerged from the projects, while others went on to secure additional grant support and new corporate partners.

Recently, 10 teams from the first round of projects presented snapshots of their research eight months later, including what they learned in their initial findings and the next step for developing their projects.

“What we have seen here is a remarkable diversity of research and scholarship that we have been able to apply to the pandemic response. What we have accomplished in that year is really extraordinary,” said PRRN co-chair Professor Randy Larsen of USF’s Department of Chemistry.

“We were looking for very high-impact research on short timetables. The pandemic is in full force. We needed the research to be able to address the consequences of the pandemic.”

Here are a updates of the grants featuring faculty and students from the USF College of Public Health:

Social Closeness Despite Social Distance: A Study of Strategies to Fight Loneliness During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Even before the pandemic forced shut downs, quarantines and social distancing, loneliness was an epidemic. A team led by USF Psychology Assistant Professor Fallon Goodman has been exploring how the pandemic has further fractured social support systems and how loneliness has been magnified among those with preexisting psychological vulnerabilities, such as depression and social anxiety.

The team conducted daily surveys with 310 adults with elevated depression and/or social anxiety symptoms over a period of two weeks. They found, surprisingly, that despite the lock down participants socialized at least once on most days, either in person, or interacting with people during video chats or on social media.

The team also found that different social experiences impacted loneliness: On days when participants socialized, they reported the highest loneliness when they felt closed off from others and the lowest loneliness when they felt they could “effortlessly be themselves” – or, in other words, had authentic interactions with another person.

“While socializing via virtual platforms appeared to have some benefit for loneliness, participants felt most socially connected on days when they interacted with others in person,” Goodman said.

“We cannot replace the social connection that takes place face-to-face.”

After completing daily surveys, participants received a personalized profile summarizing their reports, which helped them make modifications if they were feeling socially disconnected, the team said. The team’s soon-to-be published research has already been widely-shared among academic and mental health advocacy organizations. The team intends to further their work with federal funding support.

In this video interview with the HEART Initiative, Dr. Goodman shares insights on anxiety, emotion regulation, and well-being in the midst of COVID-19.

Serological Correlates to Immunity in SARS-CoV-2 Infection

This project is exploring the presence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and potential immunity using a combination of tests to determine which best detects whether a person has developed immunity to the virus or not. The research is important to determine whom among the medical staff can return to work safely because they have developed defenses against the virus, and will allow researchers to recalculate a more accurate fatality rate among the general population.

The Florida High Tech Corridor Council also is supporting the project.

Planning for Hurricane Shelter Operations During a Pandemic

The pandemic wasn’t the only crisis to strike in 2020 – it coincided with what would become the most active hurricane season on record. Months before the storms started to hit, the USF research team set out to re-examine hurricane shelter operations anticipating that the close confines and communal spaces would present unprecedented challenges in the midst of a pandemic.

Dr. Kelsey Merlo, an assistant professor in the Industrial-Organizational Psychology program, said the team conducted a gap analysis and worked with shelter managers to revamp procedures to minimize transmission points. The team also worked on public messaging on the precautions being taken to ease concerns.

“There was a lot of concern that people would be too scared to come to a shelter because fear of the pandemic was competing with fear of the hurricane,” she said.

The research team developed several tools used by shelter staff, like an assessment tool and a guide that relayed the current scientific literature on infection mitigation and control, as well as guidance from federal agencies and experts.

The team also found its help was needed when it came to the volunteers who are crucial for properly staffing shelters. Researchers found volunteers with personal health concerns were less likely to work during the pandemic, so the team developed a planning guide to help shelters put “the right people in the right spots,” she said.

Researchers also were able to put a spotlight on the greater needs of those who are the frontlines of both health and weather emergencies. They found shelter staff both fearful and exhausted from the pandemic and the storm season, so they created a workshop for the Tampa Bay Health and Medical Preparedness Coalition focusing on the psychological health needs of the disaster workforce.

“What we are finding is that changing work roles and level of Covid-19 community spread is leading to more burnout among our disaster workforce,” Merlo said.

The USF Rapid-Risk Assessment and Intervention for COVID-19

Before they came to USF in 2018 from the University of Arizona, College of Nursing Dean Usha Menon and Professor Laura Szalacha led the research team that developed TIMS© (Tailored Messaging Intervention System) to increase screening and risk assessment among patients for a variety of illnesses and health challenges. TIMS© provides respondents with personally adapted feedback about their health behaviors; and researchers have found that tailored messages are more likely to be remembered and viewed as relevant by recipients.

In their USF COVID-19 seed grant project, the research team adapted the system to the pandemic to gain insights into overall human health behavior and chart how people inundated with information about their health – some accurate and some not – might navigate these unprecedented times and keep themselves healthy.

The research team recruited 1,218 people – mostly Floridians and in keeping with the of the state’s population demographics – to participate in a real-time risk assessment and messaging system. A wide variety of disciplines including Nursing, Pharmacy, Public Health, Aging, Computer Science, Education, Medicine, and the Moffitt Cancer Center contributed to developing a comprehensive library of tailored messages. Through a set of various prompts, participants shared with research scientists information about their daily habits amid the pandemic.

Participants received positive messages praising healthy habits; when answering questions that raised a concern about negative behaviors and unnecessary risk, they were directed to help. The goal, Dr. Szalacha said, is to create long-term improvements in public health through timely interventions.

The project will continue with nearly 357 participants agreeing to join their registry to be available for other health studies that will examine on-going health issues related to the pandemic.

Reposted from USF Spark Page

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University of South Florida College of Public Health Professor Edwin Michael’s arrival on campus coincided with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, giving an innovative system he’d built to track and predict disease outbreaks its debut amid a global crisis with severe statewide implications.

Now, the pandemic forecasting system has earned support from Florida Blue, forging a relationship between this innovative new effort and Florida’s leading health insurer as it works to provide better care for its members and the communities it serves.

Florida Blue has given $100,000 to the USF Foundation to support the SEIRcast COVID-19 Forecasting & Planning Portal, which provides daily unique, locally applicable epidemic forecasts.

“Floridians’ lives have been upended for months as we grapple with the COVID-19 health crisis while seeking options to safely reopen and return to operations of our communities. Florida Blue is collaborating with organizations across the state to not only support the essential and immediate needs of our neighbors, but also to find innovative solutions to assist communities in combating this virus,” said Florida Blue Market President David Pizzo. “The USF College of Public Health has been at the forefront of forecasting and tracking the pandemic in a manner that can provide local officials with insights that can potentially save lives.”

SEIRcast is unique in its ability to forecast the pandemic at a county level by taking into consideration the impacts of local transmission conditions, social behavior and decisions, a feature Michael said is needed for supporting local decision-making. Working in collaboration with the Center for Research Computing at Notre Dame University, the system can generate forecasts of COVID-19 outbreaks by adjusting each day to the current transmission and social conditions applicable to a county. The modeling tool also provides predictions for investigating a wide array of “what-if” policy scenarios such as stay-at-home orders, mask mandates or re-openings that might cause cases to fall or surge.

The forecasting and planning tools for SEIRcast allow decision-makers to track COVID-19 transmission and predict otherwise unexpected outbreaks – including estimating unreported and undetected cases, which has been a particularly vexing problem with asymptomatic carriers of COVID-19. A hospital resource planning interface allows health care providers to monitor whether the pandemic will overwhelm resources before the crisis hits.

Michael likens the system to the hurricane forecasts, well known to Floridians, that continuously adjust their predictions by fitting to changes in variables such as steering currents, wind shear and water temperature that affect a storm’s track and intensity. The SEIRcast COVID-19 pandemic forecasts play out in much the same way, he said.

Earlier this year, Michael joined USF from the University of Notre Dame, where the lab studied the spread and control of global infectious diseases. It delved deep into the factors driving tropical vector-borne and zoonotic diseases such as lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, malaria, dengue fever and leishmaniasis. USF faculty members Dr. Thomas Unnasch, Dr. Robert Unnasch and Dr. Marissa Levine also collaborate with Notre Dame researchers and the Central Analysis Unit in London on the SEIRcast project.

Michael said the SEIRcast effort has been able to give local decisionmakers a tool for forecasting the impact of their decisions on the fast-moving pandemic that has played out slightly differently in every community where circumstances either allowed the novel SARS-Cov-2 virus to spread unchecked or stopped it in its tracks.

“Engaging with Florida Blue, I’ve learned a lot about the county-level needs,” Michael said. “They are concerned with the vulnerable populations in each county and how the epidemic will play out. Listening to these concerns helps me think about how to enhance SEIRcast to address these policy and pandemic management needs on the ground.”

Learn more about SEIRcast at https://seircast.org/.

Reposted from USFRI Newsroom

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On October 5, Dr. Donna Petersen, dean of the USF College of Public Health (COPH), gave her 15^th State of the College Address virtually to faculty, staff and administration through Microsoft Teams due to the COVID-19 pandemic that rocked the world at the start of the 2020 spring semester. 

“I am delighted to welcome you virtually to our State of the College Address! It’s been quite a year with the dueling pandemics of systemic racism and COVID, which I will talk about shortly,” Petersen said. “As always we use this opportunity to highlight our college and people and to recognize those who have had particular achievements, welcome new faces and wrap up with a look-ahead given the uncertain times.”

Year in Review

While the year was disrupted and had to change course many times due to COVID-19, the COPH was able to prevail and still celebrate many successes. Petersen closed out the college’s 35^th anniversary year announcing that the college and its supporters raised $233,000 throughout the year.

• During the 35^th Anniversary giving challenge, the college and its supporters raised $233,000 throughout the year.
• During the 2019-2020 year, the COPH taught 68,614 student credit hours, up 10.8% over the prior year.
• Florida Perinatal Quality Collaborative celebrated its 10^th Anniversary. 
• The Nutrition and Dietetic Internship Program was accredited for eight years.

Living with COVID

“I could not be prouder of the college, from everyone in it and everyone who has stepped up to support all the of the efforts that are going on to respond to COVID-19 at the university and across our communities,” Petersen said.

• Initial calls to action resulted in more than 335 students, faculty, staff and alumni responding to help with the COVID-19 crises.
• The Florida Department of Health hired more than 90 COPH students across the state to serve as contact tracers. Drs. Jennifer Bleck, Marie Bourgeois, Ismael Hoare, Makut Makut, Stephanie Marhefka, Allison Oberne and Patrick Rodriguez served as contact tracers and in other FL DOH assignments as well.
• Through the Pandemic Response Research Network, the college submitted 28 proposals in three rounds of funding with two being awarded.
  • Dr. Thomas Unnasch, PI, COVID-19 Integrated Contagion Modeling for Community Policy and Governance​
  • Dr. Jennifer Marshall, PI, Planning for Hurricane Shelter Operations During a Pandemic​

Systemic Racism

• The COPH’s History and Systems summer reading assignment was changed to address systemic racism. Over 280 student essays indicated that something new was learned and that they were “stunned, shocked, embarrassed, dismayed, disgusted” and “motivated, inspired, humbled.”
• Faculty led by Dr. Abraham Salinas-Miranda are putting together a statement on “Racism as a Public Health Issue,” along with several helpful tools. 
• Launched COPH Comprehensive Strategy to Address Systemic by integrating it into the Academic Master Plan process.

Our People

Emphasizing that people are at the center of public health, Petersen led her presentation with the introduction of new faculty and staff. She also recognized those who have received awards or been acknowledged for achievements. 

• Welcomed ten new faculty members and promoted four faculty and tenured two faculty members and saw 14 new staff members join team #USFCOPHRocks!
• Had two COPH staffers recognized with the USF COPH Outstanding staff award and seven with the USF Outstanding Staff Award.
• Applauded 10 faculty members who received awards and recognitions, both within the college and outside of it.
• Drs. Donna Haiduven, associate professor, and Dinorah Martinez Tyson, associate professor, were awarded the Cliff Blair Award for Excellence in Teaching.
• Elizabeth Dunn, Instructor I, received the 2020 Excellence in Teaching Award.

Students and Alumni

Students are the heart and soul of the college as well as the future of public health, and Petersen proudly shared their accomplishments.

• Five student received student research awards and eight students received student honors. 
• Alumni Dr. Marlene Joannie Bewa received the USF Alumni Association’s Young Alumni Award.
• Numerous alumni received a variety awards, from the USF Outstanding Alumni Award to the COPH’s  Florida Outstanding Woman in Public Health Award.

Going Forward

Going forward Petersen stated that COVID-19 and systemic racism have collided in ways that put persistent health disparities into stark relief – people of color get infected at higher rates, are hospitalized at higher rates and die at higher rates than white people.

“It is also becoming evident to everyone that the racist policies that exist in this country – policies that deny people access to health insurance or to a regular health care provider, or to affordable housing, to public transportation or to a living wage, have contributed to the problems we see in people having difficulty getting tested for COVID-19 and then getting care. We are only now starting to appreciate how many people have died of COVID or of other diseases at home because they were unable or afraid to seek care,” Petersen continued. “We are working on all of these issues, helping our students gain critical knowledge and develop valuable skills that will enable them to emerge as a new generation of public health professionals, prepared to address the root causes of both global infectious diseases, and of racism.”

Click here to view the full USF College of Public Health State of the College Address.

Story by Caitlin Keough, USF College of Public Health

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If COVID-19 is going to take a hold anywhere on campus, the USF residence halls—where students sleep, eat, play and study—seem as likely a place as any. Ditto high-traffic areas, home to frequently touched surfaces such as doorknobs, elevator buttons and vending machines.

To help identify an area of virus activity and contain it before it becomes widespread, Dr. Thomas Unnasch, a Distinguished University professor at the USF College of Public Health (COPH) and student volunteers from the Judy Genshaft Honors College and the COPH’s Foundations in Global Health course, set out at the beginning of the semester to swab frequently touched surfaces in residence halls and other campus locations. Residence hall staff swab dorms while students take samples from around campus. The results are then analyzed in Unnasch’s lab. 

“Our aim has been to provide a warning of virus hotspots on campus,” said Unnasch. “It’s a tool to supplement the COVID-19 symptom checker and the on-campus and random testing being done.”

The swabbing is performed weekly, with roughly 500 samples taken to date. So far, two residence halls were found to have active infections. When there’s a positive hit, residents and staff in the halls are tested individually and positive cases are isolated, said Unnasch. If an environmental sampling from elsewhere on campus is positive for COVID, extra disinfecting measures may be taken and the students and staff who frequent the area may be encouraged to get tested.

Overall, environmental samples testing positive for COVID-19 have been few, reported Unnasch. “That’s been surprising to me,” he said. “But it correlates with the low level of positive tests from the university’s random testing program.”

Story by Donna Campisano, USF College of Public Health

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The University of South Florida will provide seed funding to 14 new research projects designed to address the medical, technological and societal issues of COVID-19. This brings the total of institutional resources invested into pandemic research to more than $1 million.

This third round of funding is unique because researchers were challenged to forge partnerships with community organizations and corporations, so that their projects could more rapidly be put to real-world use. USF Research & Innovation is investing nearly $320,000 in the projects, with the Florida High Tech Corridor Council contributing $100,000 in support of five projects.

“Each of these projects tackles a specific shortcoming in the world’s ability to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and works to find a creative, innovative or inventive solution that can move from lab to market quickly,” said Dr. Paul Sanberg, USF’s senior vice president for research, innovation & knowledge enterprise.

“We are proud of how the USF research community has responded to these challenges, and the many ways our faculty and students have worked to help the most vulnerable in our society by working collaboratively across disciplines and beyond the walls of our university with community and corporate partners.”

Since April, USF researchers have embarked on 42 separate COVID-19 projects supported through the university’s Rapid Response Research Grant Program. More than 450 USF scientists, engineers, inventors and innovators from multiple disciplines and across all three campuses are working through the USF Pandemic Response Research Network to create a cohesive, transdisciplinary approach to addressing the pandemic from medical, social, environmental and economic angles.

The newly funded projects from the third round include:

• Mental Distress Among COVID-19 Responders: Half of U.S. adults already report pandemic-related mental health problems, especially anxiety and depression. Frontline pandemic responders — doctors, nurses, paramedics, police, social workers —are especially vulnerable and often forgo mental health care because of stigma and fear of job loss. Several evidence-based mental health interventions exist but linking those in need to the right intervention at the right time is often complicated, delaying needed care. Researchers and their partners will develop and pilot-test a chatbot, “TABATHA” (Tampa Bay Area Treatment & Health Advisor) capable of screening pandemic responders for levels of distress and service preferences using text messages and helping them navigate existing mental health services. Principal Investigators – Dr.  Kristin Kosyluk and Dr. Jerome Galea, College of Behavioral and Community Sciences. Co-Principal Investigators – Dr. Patricia Emmanuel, Morsani College of Medicine; Dr. Jerome Galea, College of Behavioral and Community Sciences; Dr. Lucy Guerra, Morsani College of Medicine; Dr. Kathleen Heide, College of Behavioral and Community Sciences; Dr. Giti Javidi, Muma College of Business, Sarasota-Manatee; Dr. Ming Ji, College of Nursing; Dr. Daniel Majchrzak, Information Technology Tampa; Dr. Stephanie Marhefka-Day, College of Public Health; Dr. Kathleen Moore, College of Behavioral and Community Sciences; Dr. Tempestt Neal, College of Engineering; Dr.Asa Oxner, Morsani College of Medicine; Dr. Alison Salloum, College of Behavioral and Community Sciences; Dr. Ehsan Sheybani, Sarasota-Manatee; Dr. Charurut Somboonwit, Morsani College of Medicine. Partners – Crisis Center of Tampa Bay, Central Florida Behavioral Health Network and others.
• Impact of COVID-19 on the Management of Type 2 Diabetes: The proposed project seeks to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on the health and well-being of older adults with type 2 diabetes. This group is one of the most vulnerable to the effects of the pandemic, as it experiences more severe symptoms, faster deterioration, and higher mortality than other populations. COVID-19 restrictions have increased rates of food insecurity, social isolation and sedentary behaviors, making it difficult for some to manage their type 2 diabetes and further increasing the risk for health complications. The year-long project seeks to determine the feasibility and effectiveness of delivering self-management education along with healthy foods to a sample group of 80 adults over the age of 50 with type 2 diabetes. Principal Investigator – Dr. Nancy Romero-Daza, Department of Anthropology, College of Arts and Sciences. Co-Principal Investigators – Dr. Heewon Gray, College of Public Health, Dr. David Himmelgreen, College of Arts and Sciences, Dr. Usha Menon, College of Nursing, and Dr. Jane Norman, Morsani College of Medicine. Partners – Feeding Tampa Bay and Community Health Centers of Pinellas.
• COVID-19 Integrated Contagion Modeling for Community Policy and Governance – The project proposed seeks the development of agent-based models that capture the complex interactions between spatial risk factors, social contact networks and host mobility on CIOVID-19 infection propagation in various settings. This project will contribute to addressing COVID 19 prediction and prevention. Principal Investigator – Dr. Thomas Unnasch, College of Public Health. Co-Principal Investigators – Dr. Lori Collins, Tampa Campus Library; Dr. Wolfgang Jank, Muma College of Business; Dr. Edwin Michael, College of Public Health; Dr. Matthew Mullarkey, Muma College of Business. Partner – Tampa Bay Partnership.
• Spatial-Temporal Prediction Models for COVID-19 – This proposal seeks to develop spatial-temporal prediction models using big data including COVID 19 data, temperature, airline flights, social distancing, Twitter, and mobility to improve prediction outcomes. Principal Investigator – Dr. Ming Ji, College of Nursing. Co-Principal Investigators – Dr. Ryan Carney, College of Arts and Sciences; Dr. Russell Kirby, College of Public Health; Dr. Rao Tao, College of Arts and Sciences; Dr. Chii-Dean Lin, San Diego State University. Partners– Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Florida Department of Health
• A Decentralized Digital ID for Pandemics – This proposal seeks to apply secure decentralized Digital Identity systems to three essential services during pandemics (patient health care, necessary goods, and proof of immunity) to improve long-term public health consequences of the pandemic. Principal Investigator – Dr. Shivendu Shivendu, Muma College of Business. Co-Principal Investigators – Dr. Jean-Francois Biasse, College of Arts and Sciences; Dr. Kyaien Conner, College of Behavioral and Community Sciences; Dr. Donna Davis, Muma College of Business; Dr. Loni Hagen, College of Arts and Sciences; Dr. Robert Hooker, Muma College of Business; Dr. Marissa Levine, College of Public Health; Dean Moez Limayem, Muma College Business; Dr. Attila Yavuz, College of Engineering.
• Optimizing the Allocation of COVID-19 Testing & Vaccine Resources in Florida – The aim of the proposed project is to optimize site testing strategies based upon mathematical modeling and using various inputs relating to population densities, testing capabilities, etc and including an inequality factor. The model will optimize based to give increase in accessibility per person based upon available funding. The model has been previously employed by the PI with encouraging results. Principal Investigator – Dr. Ran Tao, School of Geosciences. Co-Principal Investigators – Dr. Theresa Beckie, College of Nursing; Dr. Elizabeth Dunn, College of Public Health; Dr. Joni Firat, College of Arts and Sciences; Dr. He Zhang, Muma College of Business. Partner – Florida Department of Health.

A full list of the 14 third round interdisciplinary projects can be found here.

In all, the effort has represented an extraordinary joining of institutional, community and private sector resources to combat the COVID-19 outbreak and future pandemics.  In addition to the more than $1 million invested, university researchers and 26 separate external partners have contributed another $436,000 in both in-kind support and research dollars.

Reposted from USF Newsroom

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More than 300 University of South Florida student-athletes and USF Athletics staff members are participating in a feasibility study of the effectiveness of pooled testing for COVID-19, led by researchers from USF Health. The study is one of several university initiatives being implemented to mitigate the spread of coronavirus. Each week throughout the fall semester, the individuals will be tested for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Using this approach follows the American Athletic Conference’s requirement for student-athletes to be tested within 72 hours of competition.

“Finding a timely and affordable solution that matched our conference protocols was critical for us to move forward with our athletic department plans for this academic year,” said Michael Kelly, vice president of USF Athletics. “We are grateful to our partners at USF Health for identifying and implementing this progressive solution. Simply put, they have been amazing.”

Following discussions with the FDA, testing is being completed in USF research laboratories. Saliva samples are being collected and pooled into groups of four. If a pooled test comes back positive, the individuals will be asked to get tested by one of the certified testing sites in the USF area. Principal Investigator Kevin Sneed, dean and professor of the Taneja College of Pharmacy and member of the USF Sports Medicine division, says the USF laboratories now have the capability to provide results within one day, allowing for an infected individual to be rapidly removed from a group and isolated, preventing further community spread.

“This SARS-CoV-2 feasibility pool-testing research project is a very innovative endeavor that supports our student-athletes’ desires to continue competing in as safe a manner as possible,” Sneed said. “It also displays the interdisciplinary translational research prowess of USF and positions us to expand this testing process to the broader USF campus community.”

Distinguished USF Health Professor Thomas Unnasch is testing the pooled samples in his laboratory. His expertise is on the disease onchocerciasis, also known as “river blindness,” and he uses pooled testing on black flies to conduct surveillance in Latin America and Africa, assisting in eradication programs. Unnasch says the method is most beneficial when there is a low prevalence of infection due to its efficiency and cost-effectiveness. His lab will also run tests on environmental samples taken across USF’s campuses. This includes surface samples from high touch points, such as door handles, elevator buttons, faucets and snack machines. People who may have come in contact with a particular location with positive results may then be encouraged to get tested for COVID-19.

“We are hoping that detecting virus on these frequently touched surfaces will allow us to provide a warning of places on campus where the virus is circulating without having to frequently test large numbers of individuals,” Unnasch said.

Participants in the feasibility study have been assigned a bar code, which is part of a new system developed by Alan Ferrandiz, a graduate student in industrial engineering, and coordinated by Jose Zayas-Castro, professor and executive associate dean of the College of Engineering. Results are downloaded into a secured database that allows researchers to monitor the repeated testing and recognize potential changes. Bar codes are also being used for the environmental testing, helping ensure samples are consistently collected from a specific location.

Study participants from USF Athletics are also in the process of being tested for COVID-19 antibodies to see if they’ve had the virus. They’ll be retested at the end of their seasons. Additionally, they’re being asked to complete a behavioral survey produced by Amy Alman and Chighaf Bakour in the College of Public Health. It asks a variety of questions about one’s recent health conditions, their following of social distancing guidelines and their emotional impact. This will help identify any common behaviors in those who may or may not become infected.

The study is scheduled to wrap up at the end of the fall semester, at which point researchers will assess the accuracy and cost effectiveness of pooled testing. Depending on available resources, Sneed hopes to continue the study, focusing on athletes who compete in the spring.

Reposted from USF Newsroom

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From designing 3D printed test swabs, to researching antibody responses and engaging in leading clinical trials, USF Health scientists rapidly team up to help fight COVID-19

While the world waits for therapies to reduce death rates and a widely available vaccine to prevent COVID 19, team science at USF Health and other academic medical centers continues to take on an unprecedented sense of urgency.

Globally, scientists across disciplines are publicly sharing their ideas, expertise and data like never before – all singularly focused on finding solutions to a highly contagious and potentially life-threatening new virus known as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, or SARS-CoV-2.

Since the pandemic began, the number of studies posted by researchers worldwide to open-access repositories like bioRxiv and medRxiv has skyrocketed. These preprints – papers written after a study concludes but made available before peer review – let scientists disseminate their findings more quickly and obtain instant feedback on their work. Researchers also continue to identify and share viral genome sequences, protein structures, and COVID-19 related epidemiological and clinical data through online databases.

Meanwhile, thousands of clinical trials have been launched as academic medical centers, hospitals and laboratories join forces with government and industry in the search for optimal diagnostics and therapies. At USF Health, more than 65 COVID-19 related laboratory, clinical and epidemiological projects are underway or in final stages of the approval process. These represent unique research efforts by the faculty of all four USF Health colleges, as well as joint efforts with pharmaceutical firms and biotechnical and software companies. Many of the patient-related studies are conducted by USF Health faculty physicians at Tampa General Hospital.  USF Health is also working with Tampa General to create a biorepository that collects, processes and stores health data and residual specimens from patients who test positive or negative for COVID-19 to use in future biomedical research.

“The need for rapid and accurate basic and clinical results has never been greater. The scientific community has risen to the challenge of a lifetime and continues to push forward,” said Stephen Liggett, MD, associate vice president for USF Health Research and vice dean for research in the Morsani College of Medicine. “Without a doubt we are still in the early stages of understanding this new coronavirus – in knowing who should be tested and how often, and which tests work best; in knowing how to treat patients and how effective vaccines will be in conferring immunity.”

USF faculty and student researchers have been quick to mobilize their talent and resources, Dr. Liggett said. “They want to do whatever they can to find answers — both to help fight this pandemic and to prepare for future outbreaks.”

How are some key scientific areas contributing to the pandemic response?  Below are just a few examples provided by USF Health scientists:

Epidemiology:  Containing The Spread Of The Virus

From the start, epidemiologists have been at the forefront of efforts to understand how fast and why SARS-CoV-2 is spreading. Also known as disease detectives or virus hunters, epidemiologists and the models using data they gather are instrumental in tracking and predicting the patterns of disease transmission in populations, said Thomas Unnasch, PhD, distinguished professor in the USF College of Public Health and codirector of the Center for Global Health Infectious Disease Research. Their work had been critical for both guiding policymakers’ plans to curb the pandemic and helping evaluate whether countermeasures to contain the virus are working.

“We’ve been hunkered down in the midst of a pandemic wildfire and testing only the symptomatic people most likely to be infected” — largely to prevent surges of sick patients from overwhelming the health care system, Dr. Unnasch said. “We’re still missing about 90 percent of the population with COVID-19 infections exhibiting mild or no symptoms.”

Dr. Unnasch oversees a symptom-based surveillance network launched in mid-April to help identify and map COVID-19 hotspots across the Tampa Bay region. USF College of Public Health researchers worked with the Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco and Polk County Health Departments to create the Tampa Bay symptom surveillance survey, adapting existing COVID-19 surveillance technology developed by the Puerto Rico Sciences Trust and deployed in Puerto Rico and, more recently, the Boston area through Harvard University.

The anonymous survey asks Tampa Bay residents questions about potential exposure and symptoms consistent with COVID-19. The information collected, which drills down to the zip code level, is provided to the local health departments and hospital groups.

Surveillance – a tool commonly used by public health agencies to identify and prevent the spread of HIV, tuberculosis, anthrax and other infectious diseases – can help fill in the gaps created by limitations inherent in a complex society, such as a lack of uniform testing, Dr. Unnasch said.

“So far the only way to prevent the disease is to prevent transmission of the virus. That has meant everyone doing the right thing — staying at home, social distancing face masks, and hygiene,” Dr. Unnasch said.  “As we reopen our communities, surveillance can help us do that safely by detecting clusters of new cases early at a very targeted level, so we can stomp out the embers before they reignite COVID-19 outbreaks.”

Real-time mapping of suspected COVID-19 hotspots can be used to strategically direct Tampa Bay’s public health resources to specific areas where testing, contact tracing and isolation are most likely needed, he said.

“The more data we get and the more accurate the information, the more powerful the tool will be.”

Biostatisticians: Keeping The Bias At Bay

The data collected by epidemiologists or other health researchers can be fed into mathematical models that predict how fast COVID-19 infections may spread or the number of deaths expected in an overall population. At the community/clinical level, predictive models can help hospitals and medical staff triage patients and allocate limited health care resources (like ICU beds or ventilators) by estimating the risk of people being infected or having a poor disease outcome.

While they can be useful to prepare for worst-case scenarios, predictive models have differed widely in their forecasts – and sometimes they can cause more harm than benefit in guiding policy or clinical decisions, said Ambuj Kumar, MD, MPH, director of the Research Methodology and Biostatistics Core, USF Health Office of Research.

Dr. Kumar, a biostatistician and associate professor of internal medicine, points to a recently published systematic review analyzing studies of prediction models for the diagnosis and prognosis of patients with COVID-19. This review concluded that all 31 clinical models were poor quality, at high risk of bias, and their reported performance was likely overly optimistic.

Methodologist/biostatisticians like Dr. Kumar are trained to recognize the issues and complications arising from the analysis of human health data. They play a key role in any team designing and executing a model, providing the statistical methodology needed to draw meaningful conclusions or make predictions. These data scientists help reduce bias in selecting sample populations, observing or reporting findings, and measurement. They are attuned to factors that can interfere with an accurate estimate of cause-and-effect.

Requiring frequent updates, projections are only as good as the model’s underlying assumptions and the reliability and standardization of the data applied to the model, Dr. Kumar said.

For instance, the commonly cited Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation model assumes social distancing and other strong voluntary measures to control viral spread will stay in place, but predicting how people will behave as the U.S. reopens in phases is tricky. And, the death data relied upon by many models may be confounded a lack of consistency in the way COVID-19 deaths are reported and counted by hospitals and health departments. (Public health experts have suggested that deaths are undercounted.)

Many people understandably want to know now what to expect during this pandemic: How many more cases? How long will it last? When can I safely return to work, or school? Will there be a second wave?

But, many uncertainties about testing, immunity, susceptibility and treatments still influence the variables that make up the algorithms forecasting COVID-19 outcomes, Dr. Kumar said. As the reliability and accuracy of rapidly accumulating data improves, so should the models, he added.

“Predicting the future is particularly challenging when we’re dealing with a virus new to the entire world,” Dr. Kumar said.  “Whether you’re battling COVID-19 or another crisis, you can’t compromise on the systematic, standardized approach needed to create a useful model, or study. If you want accurate results, there’s no substitute for good, rigorous science.”

Virology:  Studying How SARS-CoV-2 Works

To develop effective therapies and vaccines to combat COVID-19, scientists need to understand how the virus functions, including its interaction with human immune response. That’s the role of virologists like Michael Teng, PhD, associate professor of internal medicine in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine.

Dr. Teng has spent many years working with the National Institutes of Health and other groups on research and development of a vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. While RSV was discovered over 60 years ago, researchers continue to work on a vaccine for this common respiratory virus that infects virtually every child by age 2.

Scientists and companies now testing a myriad of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines in the pipeline have benefited from the extensive RSV research, Dr. Teng said. “They’ve learned a lot from RSV about what works and what pitfalls to avoid in vaccine development.”

Like many other scientists, Dr. Teng quickly pivoted from his usual research activities to respond to the new global health threat. In mid-March his laboratory studied the durability and effectiveness of the 3D-printed nasal swabs successfully created for COVID-19 testing by a team at USF Health Radiology and its innovative 3D Clinical Applications Division, directed by  associate professor Summer Decker, PhD.  Faculty with expertise  in anatomy and infectious diseases as well as radiology contributed to the effort. The ambitious 3D design, modeling and printing project teamed USF Health with Formlabs, a 3D printer manufacturer, and Northwell Health, the largest hospital system in New York, the pandemic’s U.S. epicenter.

An integral part of coronavirus test kits that detect the RNA virus’s genetic code, swabs were in extremely short supply as the pandemic escalated. The slender, flexible device collects a sample from the nasal passages or throat, and that sample goes into a test tube containing transport media for preservation until the specimen is processed by a hospital or commercial laboratory. Using RSV as a proxy for a SARS-CoV-2, synthetic respiratory tract mucous (made by USF Health’s Sophie Darch, PhD), and a World Health Organization recipe for transport media, Dr. Teng demonstrated that the 3D-printed alternative swabs worked as well as conventional commercial swabs to safely collect enough of the sample, without leeching into transport media or interfering with the nucleic acid test’s ability to detect virus particles.

The 3D printed swabs, fabricated with FDA-approved, nontoxic materials, also passed performance benchmarks when clinically validated in hospitalized patients undergoing COVID-19 screening at Tampa General Hospital and Northwell Health sites. (A larger-scale multisite clinical trial, led by USF Health Infectious Disease Division Director Kami Kim, MD, is further evaluating the performance of the investigational 3D swabs for diagnostic testing.) Meanwhile, several hundred hospitals and academic medical centers across the country, many state governments, and international agencies and health care facilities are already using the USF-patented swabs to alleviate bottlenecks in COVID-19 testing.

The team worked late nights, taking only about a week from swab prototype design and bench testing to the start of clinical validation. “That’s an incredibly fast turnaround time,” Dr. Teng said.

Dr. Teng is also a coinvestigator for a Morsani College of Medicine-College of Public Health project led by Dr. Kim, which is working to find and map epitopes, the parts of SARS-CoV-2 proteins recognized by the immune system. Antibodies are made by the immune system in response to a threat from a specific virus, bacteria and other harmful pathogen. Some epitopes are associated with protective antibody responses that neutralize (inactivate) a virus when that pathogen is recognized by the immune system again. Others may actually lead to a harmful immune response when a person is exposed to the same virus a second time. The USF Health team wants to identify specific epitopes triggering strong protective antibodies to help researchers design vaccines that mimic a beneficial immune response against COVID-19.

“The data we gather may also be useful in screening (convalescent) plasma for specific antibodies that may best be used to treat critically ill COVID-19 patients,” Dr. Teng said.

A coronavirus “pseudotype” created by Dr. Teng’s laboratory is being used by the team working on finding neutralizing antibodies and a second USF Health team investigating what factors may affect who suffers worse COVID outcomes.

The second team, led by Thomas McDonald, MD, professor of cardiovascular sciences at the USF Health Heart Institute, wants to know if socioeconomic differences alone account for racial and ethnic disparities in who gets sicker and dies from COVID-19, or if genetic, physiological, or even medication-interaction factors contribute to disproportionate infection rates and cardiovascular complications.

Human pluripotent stem cells grown in Dr. McDonald’s laboratory are prodded to become lung, immune, and heart cells in a petri dish. The stem cells come from blood samples donated by many patient volunteers of different ages, genders and races, as well as various pre-existing cardiovascular conditions. These tissue samples will be infected with the COVID-19 proxy virus engineered by Dr. Teng.

The substitute virus combines the well-studied vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) with an outer shell containing the spike protein on the surface of SARS-CoV-2 that allows the coronavirus to enter human cells. This non-replicating virus is “a sheep in wolf’s clothing,” invading cells like the COVID-19 virus without harming scientists working with the pathogen, Dr. McDonald said. VSV also expresses the same enzyme, luciferase, that gives fireflies their glow. When hit with a chemical, this “firefly luciferase” lights up the virus so researchers can trace how much invades cells and which cell types are vulnerable.

“With a machine we can image the range of light, which is the level of infection coming out of the cells,” Dr. Teng said.

For the Dr. Kim-led study evaluating the ability of different serum antibodies to block the virus from entering human cells, less light would indicate that the antibodies protected against infection, he added.

Structural Biology: A Key To Drug Discovery

Unraveling the structure of viral proteins and identifying the receptors they use to enter cells can help guide discovery and design of potential antiviral treatments.

Yu Chen, PhD, is a USF Health associate professor of molecular medicine with a background in structural biology and biochemistry. Dr. Chen applies his expertise in structure-based drug design using advanced techniques — including X-ray crystallography and molecular docking — to help develop inhibitors (drug compounds) that target bacterial enzymes causing resistance to certain commonly prescribed antibiotics such as penicillin.

Now he’s turned his attention toward looking for new or existing drugs to stop SARS-CoV-2.

One way to do this would be to block the virus’s main protease, known as M^pro, an enzyme that cuts out proteins from a long strand that the virus produces when it invades a cell. Without it, the virus cannot replicate. Dr. Chen works with colleagues at the University of Arizona College of Pharmacy (Jun Wang, PhD) and the USF Department of Chemistry (James Leahy, PhD) on this project.

“M^pro represents a promising target for drug development against COVID-19 because of the enzyme’s essential role in viral replication and the absence of a similar protease in humans,” Dr. Chen said. Since people do not have the enzyme, drugs targeting this protein are less likely to cause side effects, he explained.

This winter, an international team of scientists shared their description of the complex crystal structure of M^pro and in April published their discovery of its inhibitors, a half-dozen leading drug candidates identified by targeting the viral enzyme. Taking advantage of the breakthrough, Dr. Chen and other scientists worldwide hope to add more candidates to the drug discovery pipeline soon.

Together with the scientists from University of Arizona, Dr. Chen has found that several known protease inhibitors, including an FDA-approved hepatitis C (HCV) drug boceprevir and an investigational veterinary antiviral drug GC376, showed potent inhibition of the viral protein, and were more active than the previously identified inhibitors. Dr. Chen and his doctoral student, Michael Sacco, have recently determined the first structure of GC376 bound by M^pro, and characterized the molecular interactions between the compound and the viral enzyme.  Their paper describing these results will soon be published in the prestigious scientific journal Cell Research.

Dr. Chen and colleagues are also looking for small molecules that can effectively stop the M^pro enzyme from working or last long enough in the body to kill the COVID-19 virus.

The researchers use the latest computer software to visualize and predict how different drug candidates (M^pro inhibitors) bind with the viral proteins. This 3D structural analysis of “binding hotspots” can help in designing and chemically modifying other types of protease inhibiting-drugs with improved activity against SARS-CoV-2, Dr. Chen said.

The most potent antiviral compounds would be tested in human respiratory cell cultures growing the virus. Only then can a drug candidate move to animal models, and, eventually, human trials.

Genomics: Linking Genetic Variations To Outcomes

Why do some individuals get so ill from the COVID-19 virus, while others barely notice symptoms? Why do certain countries and populations have higher death rates than others? Age, underlying medical conditions, socioeconomic and environmental factors play a role – but genetic variation, both in the virus itself and the humans it invades, are likely part of the equation.

“This virus has swept across the world, and some differences in immune response, virulence and disease outcomes of people infected with SARS-CoV-2 could be due to various strains of the virus yet to be defined,” USF Health’s Dr. Liggett said.

Sequencing all genes that make up the COVID-19 virus — not just certain sections of the virus’s genome — will be key to uncovering genetic changes that could make a difference in patient susceptibility and outcomes, Dr. Liggett said. More than a decade ago, a team led by Dr. Liggett sequenced for the first time all known genomes of the human rhinovirus, providing a framework for antiviral treatments or vaccine development for this common respiratory virus implicated in asthma flare-ups.

“All parts of a virus’s genome work together for its existence, reproduction and infectivity,” he said. “So, to sequence only one part would be like looking at just the spark plugs, instead of the whole engine, when your car is not running well.”

The data gathered so far indicates that SARS-CoV-2 mutates slowly in the population. Most people have only 10 or so genetic variations in the 30,0000 nucleotide viral genome compared to the reference standard, Dr. Liggett said. “This may be a good sign that antibodies developed from an infection, a vaccine, or derived from an infusion, will provide long-lived immunity. This lower level of mutations also allows us to track a viral strain, potentially knowing how a community became infected.”

Noting where genetic variation does not occur is also important, since this may represent a “soft-spot” in the virus’s genome that cannot tolerate change because it is so vital, he added. “That might offer a clue about where to target a vaccine or therapy.”

As for human genetic variations that might influence whether certain individuals or subgroups of patients with COVID-19 fare better or worse, Dr. Liggett says the scientific community understands many human genes responsible for mounting an immune defense against this SARS-CoV-2 virus, and other respiratory viruses.

“With enough samples and epidemiology, we may be able to identify patients at genetic risk for serious, life-threatening outcomes,” he said. “However, it will be extremely challenging to find those needles in this big haystack.”

Clinical Trials: Testing Treatments That Attack On Several Fronts

As clinicians cared for more patients, one thing became increasingly clear – COVID-19 is more than a respiratory disease that injures the lungs.

It can strike many cell types and organs throughout the body including the brain, heart, blood vessels and kidneys; destroy taste and smell; cause life-threatening blood clots; and trigger a dangerous inflammatory cytokine storm. People with weakened immune systems are more vulnerable to severe illness – including the elderly and those with heart or lung diseases, diabetes, obesity or other underlying medical conditions. Black and Latino populations are disproportionately more likely to die from the virus. And while children are largely spared, a rare inflammatory pediatric syndrome with cardiac complications has been associated with COVID-19.

Physicians and scientists are exploring many possible treatments to increase survival and improve prognoses for critically ill patients. Some target the virus itself or human cellular pathways that the virus exploits to replicate. Others aim to prevent collateral inflammatory damage in the human host. A disease affecting so many parts of the body will need drugs, or combinations of drugs, to attack on several fronts, said USF Health infectious disease physician-scientist Dr. Kim.

In the Tampa Bay region, USF Health, working with Tampa General Hospital, is at the forefront of a wide range of COVID-19 clinical trials. Creating drugs from scratch can take years, so several trials are investigating medications already prescribed for other infectious or inflammatory diseases to determine their effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2. For instance, Dr. Kim is local lead investigator for a multisite randomized controlled trial testing the safety and effectiveness of sarilumab in blocking acute lung damage in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Sarilumab, approved for treating rheumatoid arthritis, is a monoclonal antibody targeting the proinflammatory cytokine receptor interleukin 6. Another trial will evaluate the ability of nitazoxanide, originally developed as an antiparasitic drug for gastrointestinal infections, to prevent respiratory virus replication in health care workers.

Dr. Kim is also working with Tampa General’s laboratory to analyze and validate the reliability of commercial tests that test patient blood samples for antibodies, proteins that provide evidence of past COVID-19 infection and recovery.

The accuracy of the antibody testing – different from the nasopharynx swab or saliva tests used to diagnose a current active infections – is important because it can give health officials a clearer picture of how widely COVID-19 has spread in the community and the extent of asymptomatic cases. Based on past experience with other coronaviruses like SARS and MERS, a positive SARS-CoV-2 antibody test would typically indicate some level of immunity. Researchers like Dr. Kim want to confirm that and hope to define the concentration of antibodies needed to confer immunity as well as how long that immunity lasts.

(In late May, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new guidelines cautioning that some antibody tests have high false positive rates, and more definitive data is needed before they can be used to make decisions about returning to work, school or other public places.)

“We need to know if people who have the antibodies are actually protected against another infection,” Dr. Kim said. “It’s not yet clear… but, preliminary data indicates that a fairly large proportion of those people who recover from COVID-19 infection will have what are the protective (neutralizing) antibodies.”

SARS-CoV-2 shares genetic and some clinical similarities with the first SARS virus (SARS-CoV) — which caused a smaller scale global outbreak and has not re-emerged since the last reported case in 2004. But the new coronavirus is both more highly contagious and more apt to spread asymptomatically.

“It’s the thing that has kept all of us in public health and infectious diseases up at night – a completely new pathogen that explodes before we had a real chance to get a handle on what was happening,” Dr. Kim said. “We’re learning more as we go, but teamwork is essential. No one will be able to solve all the pieces of this pandemic puzzle by themselves,” she added.

It will take time for scientists to fully understand the COVID-19 virus and how genetics, the environment, medications, lifestyle and public health measures impact the course of the disease.

“COVID-19 has essentially shut down the entire world,” added Dr. Kim, who as a clinical infectious diseases fellow at the University of California San Francisco in the 1980s witnessed firsthand the devastating consequences of the domestic HIV/AIDS epidemic. “A lesson we need to learn is the importance of maintaining preventive public health infrastructures — not only in our local communities, but globally, so that we can efficiently combat any future pandemics.”

Reposted from USF Health News

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