FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Audrey Post, audrey.post@med.fsu.edu
850-645-9428

September 2022

NIH FUNDS RESEARCH IN EARLY-STAGE BEHAVIORAL INTERVENTIONS TO PREVENT PREMATURE DEATHS

Sept. Sylvie Naar is on a mission to train the next generation of researchers in methods for developing behavioral interventions, which could mean the difference between life and death for a lot of people.

That’s not hyperbole: The National Cancer Institute, a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is supporting that goal with a four-year grant totaling almost $1 million.

Naar is director of the Florida State University Center for Translational Behavioral Science, which is focused on translating research findings into patient treatment. She is the principal investigator on the grant project, and she’s passionate about the topic.

“An estimated 40% of premature deaths are attributable to preventable behavioral factors such as smoking, alcohol use, sexual risk, poor diet, and sedentary lifestyle, which have been linked to chronic illnesses such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes,” said Naar, a distinguished and endowed professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine at FSU’s College of Medicine.

“Accelerating the development and optimization of treatments to improve health behaviors is an urgent public health priority,” she said.

Until now, much of the research has focused on traditional clinical trial design. Naar will create a course that teaches rigorous and replicable new methods for early-stage behavioral intervention for cancer prevention and treatment.

“The past decade has seen significant advances in innovative methodologies to translate into new and more potent behavioral treatments,” she said. “The use of a variety of methods to answer focused questions promotes creativity, prevents premature abandonment or premature efficacy testing of a method, and encourages optimization.”

Jeffrey Joyce, senior associate dean for research and graduate programs at the College of Medicine, said the need for training in methods for rigorous early-stage behavioral intervention research is critical to truly impact chronic diseases.

“The importance of the training cannot be overstated and Dr. Naar has been at the forefront of the science of behavioral interventions,” he said. “This will have a lasting impact on the future of behavioral research and implementation.”

Researchers will use the ORBIT model for behavioral treatment development – a flexible and progressive process that uses pre-specified, clinically significant milestones for forward movement, and a return to earlier stages for refinement and optimization if that is what’s needed.

The ORBIT model was originally used to study obesity in South Carolina teens, hence the acronym for Obesity-Related Behavioral Intervention Trials. Naar developed the model with the NIH and was part of the obesity research team, the team that researched expanding its use for treatment of chronic disease and illness, and she has been a co-author on many research projects using the method.

Each year of this study, 25 fellows from multiple disciplines will be selected for a six-month course that teaches a variety of methods and skill-enhancement techniques to encourage more effective collaboration across the research spectrum. Fellows will include emerging researchers in behavioral interventions and established researchers looking to expand their focus.

The fellows will have substantial minority representation to ensure the project team is training researchers reflective of medically underserved populations to improve health disparities. The course will be a combination of in-person workshops and bi-monthly webinars, and frequent evaluation will contribute to ongoing curriculum development and refinement.

“The hope is that this could turn into an annual conference; a self-sustaining entity,” Naar said. “I want to train the next generation of scientists in this domain. That’s my thing.”

MEDIA ADVISORY
CONTACT: Audrey Post
(850) 645-9428; audrey.post@med.fsu.edu

Oct. 11, 2022
 

                     FSU COLLEGE OF MEDICINE, AMWA SPONSORING WOMEN’S HEALTH DAY

The Florida State University College of Medicine and the FSU Chapter of the American Medical Women’s Association will sponsor FSU Women’s Health Day, a free health education and resource event for the FSU community.  Envisioned and coordinated by FSU medical students, the event will focus on five health aspects – physical, clinical, mental, sexual and financial – identified in a survey of undergraduate women as topics they’d like to know more about. Though geared toward women, everyone is encouraged to participate.

This won’t be your traditional health class. Faculty from across the university and community health professionals will lead lively presentations and games, including a Jeopardy!-style game with general health questions, a Wheel of Contraception game focusing on different methods of birth control, and games to teach students about nutrition and financial awareness including debt, credit, entrepreneurship and investing. Undergrad dance clubs, including salsa, swing and belly dancing, will show how to have fun while improving physical health.

Health services will also be available, including blood pressure and heart rate checks by College of Nursing students and HIV screenings by the Neighborhood Medical Center.  University Health Services will provide flu shots, with FSU competing with the University of Florida to see which school can provide the most.

FSU Women’s Health Day will be held:

MONDAY, OCT. 17

10 A.M. to 4 P.M.

LANDIS GREEN

TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Audrey Post, FSU College of Medicine
(850) 645-9428; audrey.post@med.fsu.edu

March 2022

      FSU COLLEGE OF MEDICINE RESEARCH ADVANCES UNDERSTANDING
                                                     OF DNA REPAIR

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A Florida State University College of Medicine researcher has made a discovery that alters our understanding of how the body’s DNA repair process works and may lead to new chemotherapy treatments for cancer and other disorders.

The fact that DNA can be repaired after it has been damaged is one of the great mysteries of medical science, but pathways involved in the repair process vary during different stages of the cell life cycle. In one of the repair pathways known as base excision repair (BER), the damaged material is removed, and a combination of proteins and enzymes work together to create DNA to fill in and then seal the gaps.

Led by Eminent Professor Zucai Suo, FSU researchers discovered that BER has a built-in mechanism to increase its effectiveness — it just needs to be captured at a very precise point in the cell life cycle.

The study appears in the current issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In BER, an enzyme called polymerase beta (PolyB) fulfills two functions: It creates DNA, and it initiates a reaction to clean up the leftover “chemical junk.” Through five years of study, Suo’s team learned that by capturing PolyB when it is naturally cross-linked with DNA, the enzyme will create new genetic material at a speed 17 times faster than when the two are not cross-linked. This suggests that the two functions of PolyB are interlocked, not independent, during BER.

The research improves the understanding of cellular genomic stability, drug efficacy and resistance associated with chemotherapy.

“Cancer cells replicate at high speed, and their DNA endures a lot of damage,” Suo said. “When a doctor uses certain drugs to attack cancer cells’ DNA, the cancer cells must cope with additional DNA damage. If the cancer cells cannot rapidly fix DNA damage, they will die. Otherwise, the cancer cells survive, and drug resistance appears.

 This research examined naturally cross-linked PolyB and DNA, unlike previous research that mimicked the process. Prior to this study, researchers had identified the enzymes involved in BER but didn’t fully understand how they work together.

“When we have nicks in DNA, bad things can happen, like the double strand breaking in DNA,” said Thomas Spratt, a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Penn State University College of Medicine who was not a part of the research team. “What Zucai found provides us with something we didn’t understand before, and he used many different methods to reach his findings.”

In addition to revealing PolyB’s functional dynamics, the team proposed a modified BER pathway and is testing the pathway in human cells.

“We have been able to dig deeper into a fundamental pathway for which the pioneer Tomas Lindahl shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2015,” Suo said.

Suo began the research as a professor of biochemistry at The Ohio State University, but the main body of work was performed since his arrival at FSU. Co-authors are Adarsh Kumar, a former postdoctoral researcher in the FSU College of Medicine Department of Biomedical Sciences; OSU graduate students Andrew J. Reed and Walter J. Zahurancik; and Sasha M. Daskalova and Sidney M. Hecht with the BioDesign Center for BioEnergetics and School of Molecular Sciences at Arizona State University.

The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health under award number R01GM122093.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Audrey Post, FSU College of Medicine

(850) 645-9428; audrey.post@med.fsu.edu

@FSUResearch

April 2022

FSU COLLEGE OF MEDICINE STUDYING EFFECTS OF ISOLATION, PARTNER SEPARATION

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — FSU College of Medicine Professor Mohamed Kabbaj has been awarded a $3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study the effects of acute social isolation and partner separation.

“In humans, social attachment with partners, relatives or friends acts as a protective buffer against many negative consequences of life stress,” Kabbaj said. “Lack of social attachments can lead to serious pathologies including dysphoria, anxiety, depression, sleep disturbance, cardiovascular problems and immune system deficits.”

The researchers will examine three groups of prairie voles, one of the few mammals that are monogamous and, for that reason, make excellent models for studying social attachment between partners and for examining how the body regulates complex biopsychosocial processes. Researchers will divide voles into three groups: isolated voles, whose life partners have been removed and then reintroduced, and voles that share space with a friend of the same sex.

Researchers will study specific brain circuits that are rich in oxytocin and its receptors, as well as the animals’ behavioral responses, including response to a psychostimulant drug. The information will be valuable for better understanding brain-circuits affected by partner loss, in order to develop effective behavioral or pharmaceutical interventions for humans.

They will also see whether manipulation of the brain oxytocin system can rescue and reverse impaired behavioral functions – including anxiety-like and depressive-like behaviors, and cognitive functions, including lack of individual recognition – caused by the partner separation.

Although research using rats and mice has greatly increased scientists’ understanding of the neurobiology of behaviors, including social behaviors such as maternal bonding, those animals do not display pair bonding. Thus, they aren’t appropriate models to study human bonding behavior and the impact of the loss of a life partner on one’s health.

The research is expected to shed more light on what is happening biologically in humans who suffer from partner loss. It also should reveal whether targeting their brain circuitry could remediate some of the effects. In addition, it could offer treatments for numerous neuropsychiatric disorders in which social cognitive deficits are common, including schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorders and addiction.

Kabbaj, from the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the College of Medicine, is principal investigator. He is joined by psychology professor Zuoxin Wang. Both are associated with FSU’s interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience. Co-investigators Yan Liu and Florian Duclot, along with graduate student Michelle Crawford, also will participate.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Audrey Post, FSU College of Medicine
(850) 645-9428; audrey.post@med.fsu.edu

September 2022

         FSU RESEARCHERS FIND PANDEMIC ALTERED PERSONALITY TRAITS
                                               OF YOUNGER ADULTS

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A research team led by faculty at the Florida State University College of Medicine found the COVID-19 pandemic appeared to cause personality changes, especially in younger adults.

The research, published in PLOS ONE, found that the population-wide stressor of the pandemic made younger adults moodier, more prone to stress, less cooperative and trusting and less restrained and responsible.

“We do not know yet whether these changes are temporary or will be lasting, but if they do persist, they could have long-term implications,” said Angelina Sutin, a professor in the college’s Department of Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine and the study’s lead author. “Neuroticism and conscientiousness predict mental and physical health, as well as relationships and educational and occupational outcomes, and the changes observed in these traits could increase risk of worse outcomes.”

The changes in younger adults (study participants younger than 30) showed disrupted maturity, as exhibited by increased neuroticism and decreased agreeableness and conscientiousness, in the later stages of the pandemic. Middle-aged adults (between 30 and 64) also showed changes, and the oldest group of adults showed no statistically significant changes.

Previous research supported the long-standing hypothesis that environmental pressures have relatively little effect on personality, but this study indicates that a global stress event can affect personality in ways that more localized crisis events, such as hurricanes and earthquakes, generally do not.

Researchers used longitudinal assessments of personality from 7,109 people enrolled in the online Understanding America Study, comparing five-factor model personality traits: neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness. The time periods measured were pre-pandemic (May 2014-February 2020), early pandemic (March-December 2020) and later pandemic (2021-2022).

The analysis showed relatively few changes between pre-pandemic and early pandemic assessments, with only a small decline in neuroticism. But when the pre-pandemic personality was compared to the 2021-2022 data, there were declines in extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness. The changes were about one-tenth of a standard deviation, which is equivalent to about one decade of normative personality change.

The research was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health.

Study co-authors at FSU were Assistant Professor Martina Luchetti; post-doctoral researchers Damaris Aschwanden and Amanda A. Sesker; and Department of Geriatrics Professor Antonio Terracciano, all of the College of Medicine. Researchers from the University of Montpelier and the University of Michigan were also co-authors.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Robert Thomas, College of Medicine

(850) 645-9205; robert.thomas@med.fsu.edu

 December 2022

FSU RESEARCH LINKS COMMON SWEETENER WITH ANXIETY

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida State University College of Medicine researchers have linked aspartame, an artificial sweetener found in nearly 5,000 diet foods and drinks, to anxiety-like behavior in mice.

 Along with producing anxiety in the mice who consumed aspartame, the effects extended up to two generations from the males exposed to the sweetener. The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

 “What this study is showing is we need to look back at the environmental factors, because what we see today is not only what’s happening today, but what happened two generations ago and maybe even longer,” said co-author Pradeep Bhide, the Jim and Betty Ann Rodgers Eminent Scholar Chair of Developmental Neuroscience in the Department of Biomedical Sciences.

The study came about, in part, because of previous research from the Bhide Lab on the transgenerational effects of nicotine on mice. The research showed temporary, or epigenetic, changes in mice sperm cells. Unlike genetic changes (mutations), epigenetic changes are reversible and don’t change the DNA sequence; however, they can change how the body reads a DNA sequence.

 “We were working on the effects of nicotine on the same type of model,” Bhide said. “The father smokes. What happened to the children?”

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved aspartame as a sweetener in 1981. Today, nearly 5,000 metric tons are produced each year. When consumed, aspartame becomes aspartic acid, phenylalanine and methanol, all of which can have potent effects on the central nervous system.

 Led by doctoral candidate Sara Jones, the study involved providing mice with drinking water containing aspartame at approximately 15% of the FDA-approved maximum daily human intake. The dosage, equivalent to six to eight 8-ounce cans of diet soda a day for humans, continued for 12 weeks in a study spanning four years.

Pronounced anxiety-like behavior was observed in the mice through a variety of maze tests across multiple generations descending from the aspartame-exposed males.

“It was such a robust anxiety-like trait that I don’t think any of us were anticipating we would see,” Jones said. “It was completely unexpected. Usually you see subtle changes.”

When given diazepam, a drug used to treat anxiety disorder in humans, mice in all generations ceased to show anxiety-like behavior.

Researchers are planning an additional publication from this study focused on how aspartame affected memory. Future research will identify the molecular mechanisms that influence the transmission of aspartame’s effect across generations.

Other co-authors were Department of Biomedical Sciences faculty members Deirdre McCarthy, Cynthia Vied and Gregg Stanwood, and FSU Department of Psychology Professor Chris Schatschneider.

This research was supported by the Jim and Betty Ann Rodgers Chair Fund at Florida State University and by the Bryan Robinson Foundation.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 CONTACT: Doug Carlson, College of Medicine
(850) 645-1255; doug.carlson@med.fsu.edu

 Jan. 13, 2023

ALMA LITTLES APPOINTED INTERIM DEAN OF FSU COLLEGE OF MEDICINE

 TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida State University Provost Jim Clark has named Dr. Alma Littles interim dean of the College of Medicine. The appointment will begin Feb. 1.

 Littles, who has served as senior associate dean for medical education and academic affairs at the medical school for nearly 20 years, succeeds Dr. John P. Fogarty. Fogarty is retiring after 14 years as the College of Medicine’s dean.

 “Dr. Littles is assuming this role at an exciting time for the College of Medicine,” Clark said. “Her long tenure at FSU combined with her relationships with the local health care community make her an ideal fit to lead the college, and we are grateful that she is willing to take on this challenge.”

 Littles grew up in Quincy as the youngest of 12 children and returned there following medical school to provide primary care in an area where such medical providers were scarce. The FSU College of Medicine was created to produce more primary care physicians, especially those who would care for older patients and patients in rural and minority communities. 

“The medical school’s mission sounded like my life story,” Littles said. “I was from a rural area, and I was interested in the health care of people from rural areas and in recruiting more students from those places into medicine. The words in the mission statement about serving underserved communities were like they were written for me.”

 After graduating from the UF College of Medicine, Littles completed her family medicine residency at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, later returning to serve as the program’s director. She became the acting and then founding chair of the Department of Family Medicine and Rural Health not long after the FSU College of Medicine was created during the 2000 legislative session.

 “Growing up, and having practiced medicine in a small, rural Florida town, I was acutely aware of the needs regarding physicians providing primary care and serving citizens in rural and other underserved areas of the state,” Littles said. “It was my recognition of and commitment to this purpose that motivated me to leave the patient-care setting I loved to move to the FSU College of Medicine.”

 She also became acting dean of the Tallahassee Regional Campus when the first cohort of third-year medical students at FSU went out into community settings to complete their required and elective rotations. The college also went on to open regional campuses in Daytona Beach, Fort Pierce, Orlando, Pensacola and Sarasota.

 In her role as a senior associate dean, Littles has led the college’s accreditation efforts, the development and evolution of its curriculum and the expansion of its community-based education model that differs from the vast majority of medical schools.

 FSU’s model sends students across Florida for one-on-one, apprenticeship style clerkships with established community physicians. Most medical students in the U.S. complete their clerkships in a large teaching hospital or academic medical center. The goal at FSU is to also expose students to the role of community physicians and the value those individuals have in a patient’s life.

 From its initial class of 27 graduates in 2005, the college has produced 1,721 M.D. alumni, and recently graduated its fourth class of physician assistants. More than 1,000 FSU alumni physicians are now in practice (with more than 500 of those in Florida) while others are completing residencies and fellowships. Nearly 200 PA graduates have also entered the workforce.

 Littles assumes leadership of the college at a critical juncture. FSU is partnering with Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare and the St. Joe Company to develop an academic health-care campus located on an 87-acre parcel near Latitude Margaritaville Watersound, a 55-plus community planned for 3,500 homes in Panama City Beach.

 The campus initially will include an ambulatory and urgent care center, for which a groundbreaking ceremony will take place Jan. 17. Future development plans include the construction of an urgent care center and a 100-bed inpatient facility in a region where the nearest hospitals are 30 to 45 minutes away.

 The university also is preparing for the development of a new academic research building in Tallahassee with a $125 million appropriation from the Florida Legislature.

 “The FSU College of Medicine can become a medical school that demonstrates the effective coexistence of a strong medical education program, robust research program, and formidable clinical faculty practice without shortchanging success in all areas,” Littles said. “In addition to its strong educational programs, our clinical practices will need to grow in a manner that meets the medical school’s mission and goals for patient care, provides clinical education sites for students and residents, and contributes to the growing clinical research initiatives.

 “The clinical practices of faculty at the regional campuses provide a rich resource for clinical and translational research and education and require continued nurturing to allow the medical school to advance knowledge in the 21st century.”