The People Living with And Inspired by Diabetes (PLAID) Journal started by Maguire Medical Library Director and Editor in Chief Martin Wood is discussed in a Q & A session on Healthline.com. Wood answered questions such as how PLAID came to be and how the format is different from other diabetes journals.

March 2016

  Gail Bellamy has been involved with the American Public Health Association since her first conference with the association over 30 years ago. Now, the director of the Center for Rural Health Research and Policy can add vice chair of the Executive Board to her list of positions held.
  “I’ve been on the Executive Board since the end of our 2013 conference,” she said. “I’m starting my third year, and I was elected vice chair at the end of our 2015 conference.”
  APHA is a 501(c)(3) organization of over 25,000 members from various vocations within public health, ranging from dental hygienists to epidemiologists to physicians. Bellamy’s newest role is her highest office yet.
  “We have a governing council that looks at policy, and they are also elected from our membership,” she said. “We are elected by that governing council to provide that other level of leadership. If something comes up that needs immediate attention from the executive director, the treasurer, speaker for the Governing Council, chair and vice chair, and the APHA key staff will be involved.”
  Despite her longevity with the organization, Bellamy is humble about her current position: “What the vice chair does is step in whenever the chair is unable to fulfill their obligations or their role. That’s not a big deal.”
  Other responsibilities are a big deal.
  “As vice chair, I chair the Governance Committee,” she said. “It ensures the Executive Board runs effectively. We get involved with situations like conflicts of interest, not just on the Executive Board but in the leadership throughout APHA, which includes people who serve on various boards and subjects throughout the agency.”
  When asked how she saw her future with APHA, Bellamy was contemplative.
  “I’ve had friends who, since I was president of the National Rural Health Association a long time ago, have asked me if I’m interested in running for president of APHA,” she said. “I don’t know at this particular time that I want to take that much more time away from the college. I look, and I say, ‘OK, No. 1, do I have that kind of energy? And No. 2, what could I bring to that?’ I’ve got lots of time to think about it.”

For the third time this year, the lab of Associate Professor Daniel Kaplan is having a paper published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. The paper, titled "The Replication Initiation Protein Sld3/Treslin Orchestrates the Assembly of the Replication Fork Helicase during S Phase," is in the Nov. 6 edition. Research Faculty Irina Bruck and Kaplan are the co-authors.

A paper entitled "Evolution of a Protein Folding Nucleus" from Dr. Michael Blaber's lab was accepted for publication in Protein Science. It was selected for a special issue on protein evolution and design. The work was coauthored by Drs. Xue Xia and Liam Longo who are former graduate students from the Blaber Lab.

"The folding nucleus is a cryptic element within protein primary structure that enables an efficient folding pathway and is the postulated heritable element in the evolution of protein architecture," said Blaber.

Professor Marshall Kapp co-presented “My Life, My Decisions…I think: Autonomy, Capacity & Impaired Mental Status” at the Annual Convention of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). The convention was held in Denver on Nov. 12. Kapp is director of the Center for Innovative Collaboration in Medicine and Law at the College of Medicine.

Geriatrics Professor Ken Brummel-Smith recently authored, "Person-Centered Care: A Definition and Essential Elements," in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. The article is based on a charge from the SCAN Foundation to provide evidence-based support for a definition of person-centered care and its essential elements.

Biomedical Sciences Professor Pradeep Bhide was awarded $40,000 from the FSU Research Foundation's Grant Assistance Program (GAP) for his proposal, A Pharmacologic Treatment for Cognitive Inflexibility. GAP awards help FSU researchers bring their work from the lab to the market. 

Biomedical Sciences Researcher David Meckes was awarded $81,499 from the Florida Department of Health for "Blood Exosomes and Neurodegenerative Disease." The funds are from the Ed and Ethel Moore Alzheimer's Disease Research Program.