Two students in the FSU College of Medicine Biomedical Sciences Ph.D. program won awards for their dissertation projects at the Bryan W. Robinson Endowment Dinner held at FSU on June 6. Caitlyn Blake-Hedges won a $1,500 grant for her project entitled, "The role of Cdr2/Cd2L in the regulation of actin during the development of the Purkinje neurons and their advantage to cancerous tumors." Blake-Hedges is conducting her research within the Tim Megraw Lab at the College of Medicine.

Meanwhile, Alyssa Rolfe won a $500 honorable mention award for her project entitled, "Macrophage derived extracellular vesicles as mediators of inflammation in the injured spinal cord." Rolfe conducts her research in the Yi Ren Lab.

The Bryan W. Robinson Endowment for the Neurosciences is the brainchild of Bryan Robinson, M.D. and Frank Davis, M.D., founders of the Tallahassee Neurological Clinic. The Foundation was formed for the purpose of supporting education and research in neurology and neurosurgery. Each year, they award four grants of $1,500 and four honorable mentions of $500 in recognition of outstanding work in neurology research.

John Wilcox, an undergraduate pre-med student and mentee of College of Medicine researcher Cesar Rodriguez, earned third place among undergraduate researchers at the Beta Beta Beta Biological Honor Society National Convention for his project entitled, "Advancing Diabetes Care: The Optimization of Insulin Pump Medication Delivery." The convention took place May 30 to June 3 in Asilomar, California. Wilcox is also a mentee of Emily Pritchard, adjunct professor of chemical and biomedical engineering at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering.

At the annual leadership conference for the Florida Academy of Physician Assistants in June, first-year PA student Madeleine Zeichner was elected Student Affairs Committee chair.

The Miami native also is president of the College of Medicine’s first-ever class of PA students. In her new role, she will represent PA students across the state for a one-year term.

As chair, Zeichner hopes to foster a community of leadership and knowledge among Florida PA programs, increase outreach efforts at FSU and statewide, and boost student membership in FAPA.

“It felt like the next step to feed my passion for the PA profession,” she said. “I really look forward to fine-tuning my communication, organizational and team-building skills by providing PA students the tools they need to lead their programs.”

Zeichner will attend board of director meetings on behalf of the student population and keep student-elected program chairs up-to-date on current events and legislation.

FSU’s School of Physician Assistant Practice opened its doors in August 2017 and is well-represented within FAPA. Assistant Professor Susan Salahshor is nearing the end of her term as the academy’s first-ever black female president.

A scientific journal started by five founding editors including College of Medicine Professor Michael Blaber and Blaber’s former postdoc, Vikash Dubey, has been acquired by the global publisher Springer Nature. The Journal of Proteins and Proteomics (ISSN No. 0975-8151) was established in 2012 by Blaber, Dubey, Suman Kundu, Arvind Kayastha and Monica Sundd.

As an international journal devoted to the broad area of protein science, JPP has exhibited remarkable growth as a scientific journal. JPP currently has over 40 editorial board members, is the first "protein centric" journal from India and was adopted as the official journal of the Proteomics Society of India.

Springer Nature is an academic publishing company that owns scientific publications including Scientific American and Nature Research.

July 16, 2018

Here are the latest recipients of the annual Faculty Council awards.

• Outstanding Junior Faculty Educator Award – Rob Tomko, Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of Biomedical Sciences.

• Outstanding Senior Faculty Educator Award – Michael Sweeney, M.D., associate professor, Department of Clinical Sciences; block co-director for gastrointestinal system integrated course..

• Outstanding Junior Faculty Investigator Award – Robert Tomko, Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of Biomedical Sciences.

• Outstanding Senior Faculty Investigator Award – Greg Hajcak, Ph.D., professor, Department of Biomedical Sciences.

• Faculty Guardian of the Mission Award – Frank Walker, M.D., Tallahassee clerkship director for pediatrics; longtime coordinator of admissions committee.

• Outstanding Staff Member Award – Doug Carlson, director of public affairs and communications.

Associate Professor Gregg Stanwood is the principal investigator on a project titled, "A novel approach to monitoring pesticide exposure in farmworkers.” He is the subrecipient of a $29,061 grant from the University of Florida. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health is the federal awarding agency for the grant.

Associate Professor Antonio Terracciano received a two-year $422,250 grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Aging to study uric acid and behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia.

In case you missed them, here are some recent news items about the College of Medicine and its faculty and students.
 

• FSU researchers brought in more than $226 million in the 2018 fiscal year from federal, state and private sources, a $16 million increase over the prior fiscal year and the second-highest amount FSU researchers have ever received in a single year.

FSU News: FSU faculty awarded $226 million in research dollars
FSU Headlines: FSU researchers bring in more than $226 million (audio)
 

• Joan Meek, professor and associate dean for graduate medical education, wrote an article for The Conversation about how breastfeeding has been the gold standard for infant nutrition. Meek discusses the history of breastfeeding and breastfeeding policies and its benefits over formula feeding. The piece has since been published in its entirety in multiple publications.

The Conversation: Breastfeeding has been the best public health policy throughout history
Tallahassee Democrat: Benefits of breastfeeding matter
Houston Chronicle: Why is the U.S. backtracking on breastfeeding?
Salon.com: Breastfeeding has been the best public health policy throughout history
Newsweek: Breast is best: Why breastfeeding is the greatest public health policy of all time
 

• Meek was also quoted in a VOA News story about breastfeeding as well as a SELF Magazine story about what women need to know before pumping breast milk on the go.

VOA News: Doctors say breast milk, not formula, is best
SELF Magazine: What to know if you, like Chrissy Teigen, want to pump on the go
 

• Joseph Gabriel, associate professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine, wrote about the history of opiate addiction, pain and race in the U.S. The article was originally published in The Conversation and ran in the Washington Post and Chicago Tribune.

The Conversation: Opiate addiction and the history of pain and race in the U.S.
Washington Post: The shameful way race affects treatment of pain and drug addiction
Chicago Tribune: Opiate addiction and the history of pain and race in the U.S.
 

• PA student Holly Daniel wrote an article for the American Academy of Physician Assistants about the College of Medicine’s efforts to prioritize student mental health.

AAPA.org: PA Program Prioritizes Student Mental Health
 

• FSU Autism Institute Director Amy Wetherby and Emory University researcher Lindee Morgan (formerly with the Autism Institute) were co-principal investigators on a three-year, 60-school study measuring the effectiveness of a curriculum designed for teachers of students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). According to the research, the SCERTS curriculum benefited students with ASD.

Tallahassee Democrat: Strategic classroom intervention can make difference for autism students
 

• College of Medicine graduate Crystal Beal (M.D., ’12) recently launched an entirely online gender and queer-focused medical practice called QueerDoc.

KCTS: Is ‘telemedicine’ the future for rural LGBTQ Patients?
 

• The College of Medicine’s Rural Learning Experience (RuLE), which took place in early June, received continuing news coverage with an article in FSView discussing student reactions and takeaways.

FSView: FSU med students explore rural health care
 

• An op-ed piece praising the RuLE trip appeared in the Tallahassee Democrat. The piece, written by a nationally board-certified counselor and licensed mental health counselor, discussed the need for telehealth to treat mental health conditions in rural areas.

Tallahassee Democrat: Opinion: Bring mental health treatment to rural communities with a click
 

• The university recently announced that its Raise the Torch fundraising campaign surpassed its $1 billion fundraising goal by the June 30 deadline. The top four areas designated for giving were athletics, the College of Business, the Jim Moran School of Entrepreneurship and the Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota. The College of Medicine also ranked high in money raised.

Tallahassee Democrat: FSU’s $1 billion campaign exceeds goal
 

• In other university news, a team of researchers led by Hengli Tang, a professor of biological science, found that the Zika virus is able to spread through the body and bypass the body’s protection system. Researchers from the College of Medicine and FSU’s Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine contributed to the study.

Tallahassee Democrat: Unlike other viruses, Zika can spread through the body
 

• Three FSU College of Medicine residency programs named new directors.

• Nathan Falk was selected to be the founding director of the FSU College of Medicine Family Medicine Residency Program at Winter Haven Hospital. The residency program was announced earlier this year.

CNBC: FSU Family Medicine Residency Program names founding director
The Ledger: Residency program director named
 

• Claudia Kroker-Bode was named the program director for the FSU College of Medicine Internal Medicine Residency Program at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare.

Tallahassee Democrat: Internal medicine residency program at TMH welcomes new director
 

• Alfred Gitu is the next program director of the FSU College of Medicine Family Medicine Residency Program at Lee Health. Gitu has been a faculty member since the program launched in 2012 and has served as associate program director for the past year.

Business Observer: Family medicine residency program at Lee Health names new director
 

• The Ocala StarBanner highlighted Emily Kintzele, a senior at Vanguard High School, who was one of 60 students selected to attend the FSU College of Medicine’s Summer Institute.

Ocala StarBanner: Vanguard senior attends mini med school
 

• The Tallahassee Democrat business briefs mentioned Wendi Cannon, director of information technology at the College of Medicine, and her recent election to the AAMC Group on Information Resources (GIR) steering committee.

Tallahassee Democrat: Briefcase: July 1

FSU Autism Institute Director Amy Wetherby received a five-year, $3.3 million grant from the US Department of Education. Wetherby is the principal investigator on the project titled, “Efficacy of the Early Social Interaction (ESI) Model for Toddlers with Early Signs of Autism Spectrum Disorder in Community Early Intervention Programs.”

ESI is a community-based program that provides early intervention for toddlers with autism spectrum disorders and their families. ESI teaches parents how to support their child’s social communication, emotional regulation, and play in everyday activities and settings.

Second-year medical student Bettina Teng has been published in the September issue of The Physics Teacher. The research paper is “A Simple Way to Teach Single Slit Diffraction Based on Edge Diffraction.” 

This is the introduction:

"Young’s experiment is hailed as a milestone in ushering a new understanding of the wave nature of light and is even taught at the high school level. Unfortunately, even the most cursory presentation of the subject of diffraction becomes confusing. The theory and equations based on Fresnel’s work appear arcane and incomprehensible to a high school student. In addition, students are not taught the significance of a phenomenon that has been observed since the time of Thomas Young: the bright band of light at the center of every single slit diffraction pattern. This paper presents a simple way to introduce the subject of diffraction based on Thomas Young’s original work and explains how the interplay of different components of diffracted waves from a single slit creates the broad central maximum."

Her co-authors were Peter Teng, M.D., Ph.D., her father and initial mentor for this project; and Charles Hennekens, M.D., Dr.PH, who became her mentor once she began undergraduate studies at the Wilkes Honors College of Florida Atlantic University.

(Earlier, News of the Week reported that Teng's paper would be published in May, but publication was delayed.)