May 7, 2015

The lab of Yoichi Kato contributed significantly to a paper that’s being published this month in Cell Reports.

The paper is “TGF-ß Signaling Regulates the Differentiation of Motile Cilia.” Kato, associate professor of biomedical sciences, is one of the two senior authors. Ryan Earwood, a technician in Kato’s lab, is one of the two first authors.

Other co-authors from the Department of Biomedical Sciences are lab technician Akiko Kato; former DIS student Jacob Brown; postdoctoral fellow Koichi Tanaka; Ruth Didier, director of the flow cytometry and confocal microscopy facilities; and Associate Professor Tim Megraw.

The other senior author and first author are both from the Institute of Zoology at the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart, Germany.

For the third time, Biomedical Sciences researcher Branko Stefanovic has won a GAP (Grant Assistance Program) award for completion of his project testing for a novel anti-fibrotic drug.

“Fibrosis is one of the most common conditions,” said Stefanovic. “It’s basically excessive scarring of internal organs. It can affect any internal organ, but by far the most common is liver fibrosis.”

The award comes in the amount of $50,000 from the FSU Research Foundation. GAP was established in 2006 to help FSU researchers transfer their work from the lab into the commercial market. Additional funding for this research will come from commercial partners.

 

May 19, 2015

Another class of Bridge students has completed its master’s projects and graduated, preparing to join the M.D. Class of 2019.

On May 12, at the annual Master of Science in Biomedical Sciences-Bridge to Clinical Medicine luncheon, the 13 students in the Bridge Class of 2014-15 summarized their research before a roomful of faculty members and soaked up praise for their three semesters of intensive work.

This program provides a bridge into medical school for promising, hand-picked students. They’re good candidates for practicing primary care with underserved or minority patients in rural or inner-city communities — because many come from such communities themselves.

Often, they hadn’t considered medical school until someone from the College of Medicine invited them to dream big and work hard. Now, having received their master’s diplomas May 16, they’re ready for med school.

Below are their names, the titles of their research projects and, in parentheses, the names of their faculty mentors.

• Nadiya Akhiyat. Parents’ Dietary Intake and Physical Activity: Initial Outcomes of a Community-based Youth Health Leadership Program. (Penny Ralston, Ph.D., & Iris Young-Clark, Ph.D., Research Faculty)
• Jared Barber. Use of Multiple Descriptors to Assess the Rurality of Medical Students. (Dan Van Durme, M.D., & Anthony Speights, M.D., Research Faculty)
• Karisa Brown. Using Smart Phone Accelerometers to Analyze Gait Patterns of Patients with Parkinson’s Disease. (Gerry Maitland, M.D., Research Faculty)
• Shelbi Brown. Aging, Physical Activity, and Autobiographical Memory. (Angelina Sutin, Ph.D., Research Faculty)
• Olenka Caffo. The Relationship Between Leptin and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Midlife and Older African-Americans. (Penny Ralston, Ph.D., & Iris Young-Clark, Ph.D., Research Faculty)
• Zedeena Fisher. The Challenge to Diversify Academic Medicine: Is Tenure Relevant? (Kendall Campbell, M.D., & José E. Rodríguez, M.D., Research Faculty)
• Bryno Gay. Aging Stereotypes and Fitness in Older Adults: The Association with Cognition. (Antonio Terracciano, Ph.D.)
• Elizabeth Ichite. Faith-based Cognitive-Behavioral Intervention for Distressed African-American Dementia Caregivers: Analysis of Pilot Study In-Session Experiences. (Robert Glueckauf, Ph.D., & Michelle Kazmer, Ph.D., Research Faculty)
• Breanna Jameson. E-Cigarettes: Physician Knowledge and Patient Assessment Activity. (Gail Bellamy, Ph.D., Karen Geletko, MPH, & Karen Myers, RNP, Research Faculty)
• Oluremi Omotayo. Perinatal Depression: Risk Factors Associated with Adverse Birth Outcomes. (Heather Flynn, Ph.D., Research Faculty)
• Stephanie Rolon Rodriguez. Community Navigator Program Training: Addressing the Black Infant Mortality Disparity. (Joedrecka Brown Speights, M.D., Research Faculty)
• Martine Sainvilus. Changing African-American Adolescent Mental Health Knowledge and Attitudes with Educational Interventions. (Lisa Johnson, M.D., Research Faculty)
• Eric Walker. Faith-based Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Depression in African-American Dementia Caregivers: Analysis of the Role of Spirituality. (Robert Glueckauf, Ph.D., & Michelle Kazmer, Ph.D., Research Faculty)

Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine Professor Henry Carretta received a $99,039 award from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration to study ‘Medical Care Utilization and Costs Among Transition-age Young Adult Medicare Beneficiaries with Autism Spectrum Disorder’ for one year.

The first-year students have chosen officers for their Class of 2019.

• President: Bryno Gay.
• Vice president: Eric Walker.
• Secretary: Stephanie Rolon-Rodriguez.
• Treasurer: Nima Khosravani.
• Year 1 & 2 Curriculum Committee representative: Megan Novotny.
• Curriculum Committee representative: Ally Davis.
• Council on Diversity and Inclusion representative: Alan Chan.
• Social chairs: Seth Fielding and Mark Matechik.
• Historian chair: Olivia Tighe.
• Hospitality chairs: Shelbi Brown and Kevin Hill.
• Gala chairs: Andi Pierce and Brittany Tanner.
• Community outreach chairs: Sara Ardila and Charlie Ingram.
• Intramural chairs: Andrea Comiskey and Elizabeth Ichite.
• IT/Library Committee representative: Thomas Paterniti.

An image from Professor Yi Zhou's lab has made the cover of Biological Psychiatry. The image (seen above) appears in Volume 78, Issue 6 dated September 15, 2015.

Professor Alice Pomidor is co-editor of a newly published book about exercise and aging. A chapter of ‘Exercise for Aging Adults: A Guide for Practitioners’ is authored by Professor Kenneth Brummel-Smith. The chapter, 'Motivational Interviewing for Older Adults,' has a companion video available online. Pomidor worked with University of Connecticut Professor Gail Sullivan to produce the work.

Associate Professor Sanjay Kumar recently authored a chapter in the neuroscience textbook 'Neuromethods: Ionotropic Glutamate Receptor Technologies.' Kumar's chapter is titled: Functional Detection of Novel Triheteromeric NMDA Receptors. The book is the 106th volume of Neuromethods.

Oct. 5, 2015

To honor the late Florida Sen. Durell “Doc” Peaden, the College of Medicine hosted a ceremony in which the auditorium and rural medical program were both named for him. About 200 former colleagues, friends and family members came to remember the Crestview physician and legislator.

FSU President John Thrasher, Sen. Al Lawson, Senior Associate Dean Myra Hurt and Dean John P. Fogarty recounted Peaden stories — from his working with fellow legislators to create the college to his weekly calls to check on his “kids” after it was established.

In a video clip, Peaden described what it was like to create the country’s first medical school in more than 20 years. From the perspective of a family physician, he compared it to a breech birth – difficult but possible.

In the days leading up to the event, brass letters went up spelling out “DURELL PEADEN AUDITORIUM,” and a plaque was mounted on the atrium wall outside the auditorium so future students would know why it was named for him. Both the letters and the plaque were concealed. So during the ceremony, when Thrasher and Fogarty unveiled them, a round of applause went up from the crowd. A small replica of the plaque was presented to Peaden’s widow, Nancy Peaden, along with a bouquet of flowers. The unexpected gift caused her to weep. It read:
 

DURELL “DOC” PEADEN, M.D., J.D.: 1945-2015

Here at the College of Medicine, people mostly remember Durell Peaden as the influential legislator who in 2000 shepherded the bill establishing this school. But his support went well beyond legislative skill. He donated thousands of dollars in scholarship money, showed unwavering interest in students’ well-being and always looked out for the college’s best interests.

Another side to Peaden is more widely known in his rural hometown of Crestview. His neighbors knew him as “Doc,” the country doctor who offered patient-centered care before anyone even used that phrase. In a letter to the Crestview Bulletin after Peaden died, Mayor Davide Cadle wrote: “We remember Dr. Peaden as the physician who cared for our families and would sit by the bedside of a sick child, all night if necessary.”

No wonder Peaden was so passionate about this medical school designed to nurture compassionate physicians for underserved areas. No wonder he and College of Medicine godmother Myra Hurt clicked when they met in 1998 to brainstorm an unconventional new medical school. Separately, both had been envisioning the same apprentice-style program focused on primary care for all Floridians – the kind of care he’d been delivering for years.

Welcome to Doc Peaden’s auditorium.