CONTACT: Doug Carlson
850-645-1255; doug.carlson@med.fsu.edu

June 1, 2016

BUS TRIPS GIVE FSU MEDICAL STUDENTS GLIMPSE OF RURAL MEDICINE

Friday, first-year College of Medicine students will board buses and fan out across North Florida to explore rural health care. It’s the FSU College of Medicine Rural Learning Experience (RuLE), sponsored by the Florida Blue Foundation. The idea is to increase students’ familiarity with rural health – and the possibility that they’ll practice rural medicine – by exposing them early to rural communities and health providers.

This year, four buses each will depart with 30 first-year students, 12 master’s students and faculty and staff from the College of Medicine and other FSU colleges. The destinations are:

• Cairo, Ga., where they will visit a rural hospital, the Grady County Health Department, two clinical practice sites, and tour a local auto museum.
• Quincy and Havana, where they will visit the Capital Regional emergency room, the PAEC Migrant Center and have a Q&A with Havana residents.
• Marianna, where they will visit the county health department, a rural hospital, and speak with community leaders and residents at Rivertown Community Church.
• And Wakulla County, where they will visit the Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare Walk-in Clinic, the local health department, a nursing and rehab center, and Wakulla Springs State Park.

Across all locations they will meet and hear from primary care physicians, nurse practitioners, administrators, community leaders, and from second-year medical students who participated in the 2015 RuLE. Media are invited to ride along on one of the buses or to do interviews and take photos at any of the locations.

Buses will depart:
FRIDAY, JUNE 3
8:15 A.M.
FSU COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
1115 W. CALL ST., TALLAHASSEE

Directions: From downtown, travel west on Tennessee Street and turn left on Stadium Drive. The College of Medicine is at Stadium and Call Street. Press parking will be available by RSVP.

Visit http://med.fsu.edu/index.cfm?page=ruralMedicalPrograms.home for more information about the College of Medicine’s rural health programs.

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

June 3, 2016

NIH AWARDS $1.7 MILLION GRANT TO COLLEGE OF MEDICINE RESEARCHER SEEKING ANSWERS ABOUT HOW CELLS TALK TO EACH OTHER

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Human cells, whether healthy or damaged, are able to communicate with each other by secreting small vesicles packed with a sophisticated cargo of functional proteins and RNAs.

The signals coming from a healthy cell are part of what allows life to flourish. The signals being sent by damaged cells, meanwhile, are under scrutiny as a possible source for the spread of cancer and other diseases.

One Florida State University College of Medicine scientist is zeroing in on establishing how the cargo of those tiny vesicles, known as exosomes, is reorganized when cancer is present. David Meckes, assistant professor of biomedical sciences, believes he is close to understanding how the antagonist in the reorganization does its work.

Meckes received a $1.7 million grant from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health to further examine his theory. His research could point to more effective and less harmful ways to treat diseases such as cancer.

“In this study we hope to advance understanding of how a cancer-causing virus modulates the production and functions of exosomes,” Meckes said. “These questions are not only significant to the fields of oncogenic viruses and extracellular vesicles, but also to general aspects of cancer biology, including cell growth, transformation, and metastasis.”

The study of exosomes is part of a young and rapidly expanding field of research, and Meckes already has published significant findings that led to his current study. He was the first to demonstrate that a viral protein known as LMP1 alters the cargo of exosomes released from cells infected with a human tumor virus known as Epstein-Barr. And he showed that the modified exosomes are able to transport proteins capable of transforming a healthy cell into a tumor cell through the activation of cellular growth signaling pathways.

“Despite the potential importance of these viral-modified vesicles in the formation of a cancer, very little is known about how LMP1 actually enters and manipulates the host exosome pathway,” he said.

Meckes and his team at Florida State have two specific aims in their ongoing five-year study. First, to establish how the viral protein LMP1 drives exosome content reorganization, thereby altering the function of exosomes. Second, to determine what effects the modified exosomes have on intracellular communication and cellular transformation.

“Uncovering the mechanisms involved in the manipulation of exosome content and function will aid in the design of novel therapeutics to combat cancers associated with Epstein-Barr Virus,” Meckes said. “For example, blocking exosome secretion, or LMP1 targeting to exosomes, may inhibit the growth or ability of cancer cells to spread.

“Additionally, it is likely that findings from these studies will have broad implications in the treatment of other cancers and diseases that are facilitated by cellular communications that take place by way of exosomes.”

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CONTACT: Ron Hartung, FSU College of Medicine
(850) 645-9205; ronald.hartung@med.fsu.edu

By Ron Hartung
June 2016

FSU COLLEGES COLLABORATE TO PAVE SMOOTHER PATHWAY INTO HEALTH PROFESSIONS

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Every year, thousands of new students arrive at Florida State hoping to enter a career in health care. For a variety of reasons, most of these would-be physicians, nurses, pharmacists and others wind up in different careers — and communities lose out on the health care they could have provided.

In an effort to turn that trend around, fully half of FSU’s colleges are working together to create a student-friendly pathway into the health professions. Called the Interdisciplinary Medical Sciences Program (IMS for short), it’s unlike anything else in the country — and with the provost’s blessing, it’s on a super-fast track.

Students are taking part in orientation sessions this summer. The curriculum is being fine-tuned for the fall semester. And hopes are running high.

“It’s an exciting moment for Florida State,” said Provost Sally McRorie. “We will vigorously pursue this innovative approach to preparing students and helping them find jobs in medical fields. I predict we will become the destination for students from Florida who want access to the full range of health professions.”

Most of the program’s courses already exist, though some are being revised with pre-health students in mind. The biggest change is in the way the students are guided along the pathway – and in the sense that the participating colleges are all working together as program partners.

Some universities have premed programs, College of Medicine Senior Associate Dean Myra Hurt said, but they’re not as flexible, all-encompassing or student-centered as this one.

“There’s no straightforward path to figure out, ‘Do I really want to go into the health professions?’” said Hurt, who conceived this idea in 2012. “Eventually we’ll see such a difference in how students feel about the path they’re on.”

Representatives from seven colleges served on a taskforce charged with getting IMS off the ground: Arts & Sciences (Departments of Biological Science, Chemistry and Psychology); Communication and Information; Human Sciences; Medicine; Nursing; Social Sciences and Public Policy; and Social Work. In addition, students from the College of Business will be conducting case studies to determine the best way to recruit the right students as well as employers.

Here’s a sampling of what IMS offers students:

• Choice of three majors. The pathway has three branches: Pre-Professionals, including physicians, nurses, physician assistants and pharmacists; Patient Care in the Community, including social workers, patient navigators and health advocates; and Health Policy and Technology, including social scientists and health informaticists.
• Core sciences for everyone. During the first two years, every IMS student will take the core sciences. “When you finish this,” said Associate Dean Helen Livingston, Hurt’s go-to curriculum planner, “you have a fundamental basis for any field in health care, wherever you go.”
• Real-world experiences. Science is important, but it’s only part of the picture. So every student will have regular contact with health professionals in the community, through shadowing and seminars. They’ll get answers to key career questions: “What professions are available?” “Could I see myself doing this job?” “Hours? Income? Training required?” “What are the social and psychological components of being in health professions?”
• Flexibility. In the past, students sometimes chose a narrowly defined major without all the information they needed — then wasted time and money changing their major. Sometimes they ended up with a degree but no profession. The interdisciplinary approach provides new opportunities to take electives and explore options. “For example, there are a number of College of Human Sciences courses, like child development, that someone interested in pediatrics could take,” Hurt said. “That really wasn’t an option before.”
• Continual advising. Students don’t come to college equally prepared. Some get poor advising along the way. Some don’t cope well with life’s surprises. “So we hope to provide lots of guidance,” Livingston said. “Not just in an academic sense, but in terms of how they’re growing personally and professionally and helping them determine a career path.”
• Team-based approach. These future health professionals will work side by side, mirroring the real world’s increasing demand for collaboration.

Hurt predicts as many as 140 students will sign up this first year. One of those pioneers is Emilie Miller. Right now she hopes to become a physician assistant focused on pediatrics, but she appreciates IMS’ array of options.

“I had planned to major in nursing as a bridge to the career path I wanted,” said Miller, who graduated in May from Tallahassee’s St. John Paul II Catholic High School, but then her mom learned about IMS. “After reading the description, it was exactly what I was looking for. I am beyond excited to be a part of something so new and creative.”

In some cases, IMS has been an opportunity for departments to carry out changes they’d already been considering.

“Chemistry is called the ‘Central Science’ because it is so strongly tied to all of the physical and biological sciences, and students in each of these majors require a solid grounding in the basic principles of chemical structure and reactivity,” said Tim Logan, chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

“These topics are currently taught in a framework that has worked well for generations,” Logan said. “However, there is increasing awareness that the full traditional chemistry curriculum is not necessarily needed by non-chemistry students and, in particular, by premedical students. We are trying to accommodate changes in the education needs of premedical/pre-professional students by designing these new courses.”

Judith McFetridge-Durdle, dean of the College of Nursing, particularly likes the options IMS offers her students.

“As a limited-access major, the College of Nursing must turn away hundreds of qualified applicants each year,” she said. “The IMS program will allow students who are not accepted into the Bachelor of Science in Nursing Program at the end of their sophomore year to continue on and graduate with a degree from Florida State that will prepare them for a career in another health-related field.”

Late last month, Florida Gov. Rick Scott hosted a two-day Degrees to Jobs Summit. College of Medicine Dean John P. Fogarty thinks the IMS program fits right in.

“We want our graduates to be fully prepared to get jobs in this economy,” Fogarty said. “Even during the lowest part of the recent recession, health care was still a dependable career for employment. With this program, we can make sure that our students get a great education while meeting the health-care needs of our state and nation.”

IMS is based in the College of Medicine, and Hurt and Livingston will direct it. Hurt predicts that in five years, if things go well, there may be 800 IMS students. “Eventually,” she said, “it could be a lot. It could be a whole lot.”

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CONTACT: Kathleen Haughney, University Communications
(850) 644-1489; khaughney@fsu.edu

@FSUResearch

June 2016

FSU RESEARCHERS WIN GAP AWARDS TO LAUNCH IDEAS TO MARKETPLACE

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Five Florida State University researchers are receiving financial support from the university to transform promising lines of research into viable technologies for the global marketplace.

Researchers Hoyong Chung, Daniel Kaplan, Biwu Ma, Yaacov Petscher and Cheryl Xu will receive a combined total of more than $100,000 from the university to work on new projects such as environmentally friendly plastics, cancer therapies and a new material for a light-emitting diode, among others.

They received the money through the university’s biannual GAP competition, a “Shark Tank”- like event that allows researchers to pitch their ideas to a panel of local business men and women, Vice President for Research Gary K. Ostrander and Office of Commercialization Director Brent Edington.

“As a research university, FSU has a mission to produce new technologies and make discoveries that can make our world a better place,” Ostrander said. “The GAP competition is an excellent opportunity for researchers to pitch their ideas and seek funding to help move their work to the next stage of development.”

The GAP program provides university researchers with funding to help prepare their work for commercialization and potentially find outside investors. Over the past 10 years, it has doled out more than $2 million to help researchers develop products such as new cancer treatments, food contamination test kits and next-generation wound dressings.

“The support our office provides through these grants helps researchers refine their technologies and prepare them for the marketplace,” Edington said.

At the spring competition, the panel agreed to fund five promising projects.

The winning projects are:

• An environmentally friendly plastic: Chung, assistant professor of chemical and biomedical engineering, is examining ways to make new, functional plastics out of natural products. According to Chung, 99 percent of current plastic is petroleum based. He has been experimenting with lignin, a plant-based material that would be partially biodegradable.

• A marker for colorectal cancer: Kaplan, an associate professor in the College of Medicine, has identified a protein that could be an early indication for colorectal cancer, which affects almost 1.2 million people. If this cancer is caught early, the survival rate is high. Unfortunately, it is often not caught at the early stages.

• Organic light-emitting diodes (LEDs): Ma, associate professor of chemical engineering, is working with a class of materials called perovskites to build organic LEDs. Perovskites are any materials that have the same type of crystal structure as calcium titanium oxide. Perovskites have shown tremendous potential in creating LEDs that are both more cost efficient and brighter than traditional LEDs.

• Better student evaluations: Petscher, director of research for the Florida Center for Reading Research at Florida State, has developed new testing materials with more in-depth analytics to help teachers predict who is struggling and how to help these students catch up to their classmates. Current tests only show current ability, while Petscher’s new diagnostic tool also predicts possible hurdles for students down the line.

• Sensors in extreme environments: Xu, associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, is using a 3D printer to create a novel ceramic material that can withstand harsh environments, such as the inside of a high-speed jet turbine. The sensors can provide critical data about heat and pressure abnormalities occurring in the intricate spaces of these turbines that can help predict issues before they occur.

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CONTACT: Ron Hartung
(850) 645-9205; ronald.hartung@med.fsu.edu

By Doug Carlson
June 29, 2016

FSU COLLEGE OF MEDICINE AMONG BEST IN NATION AT PREPARING DIVERSE PHYSICIAN WORKFORCE

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Fifteen years after enrolling its first class, the Florida State University College of Medicine has emerged as one of the most diverse medical schools in the country, according to current Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) enrollment data.

The FSU College of Medicine is the only AAMC-member institution ranked in the top six for enrollment of both black and Hispanic students among 136 U.S. medical schools. Its enrollment percentage for black or African-American students is double the national average.

Through its first 12 graduating classes, FSU’s medical school has produced 106 black and 135 Hispanic physicians.

“Our numbers are a reflection not of chance, but of design,” said John P. Fogarty, dean of the FSU College of Medicine. “We have a very specific mission to produce more physicians for Florida’s underserved communities, urban and rural, and we know that the only way to do that is to bring in students who are more likely to practice in those areas one day.”

From 1980 to 2012, only 17 AAMC medical schools (none of them in Florida) graduated 350 or more black or African-American physicians, and only 17 (including four in Puerto Rico) graduated more than 400 Latino or Hispanic physicians.

“We are on pace to exceed those numbers in a shorter time frame,” Fogarty said, noting that the college only reached its full enrollment five years ago.

The AAMC’s Missions Management Tool (MMT), which provides data allowing medical schools to assess their performance in a variety of areas related to mission, also rates Florida State one of the top programs in the nation in the category of preparing a diverse physician workforce.

The MMT places Florida State among the top 10 percent of medical schools in the country for percentage of graduates who are African-American. At the same time, Florida State rates as one of the top 15 percent of schools for percentage of graduates who are Hispanic.

The diversity programs meant to bolster enrollment of minority and rural students in medical school at Florida State also appear to be influencing undergraduate enrollment at the university. In 2016, FSU ranked No. 8 nationally for the number of its black or African-American graduates accepted into medical schools.

Many of those undergraduates were involved in a variety of College of Medicine outreach efforts, including the Undergraduate-SSTRIDE (Science Students Together Reaching Instructional Diversity and Excellence) program and the Minority Association of Pre-Medical Students.

“FSU’s commitment to the success of our students — all of our students — is demonstrably reflected in these important programs,” said Sally McRorie, provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs.

Diversification of the U.S. physician workforce has lagged significantly behind diversification of the population as a whole and threatens to present challenges in meeting public health needs.

In a review of 55 published studies on the topic, the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration reported on the rationale for diversity in health professions by concluding:

• Underrepresented minority health professionals, particularly physicians, disproportionately serve minority and other medically underserved populations.
• Minority patients tend to receive better interpersonal care from practitioners of their own race or ethnicity, particularly in primary-care and mental-health settings.
• Non-English-speaking patients, particularly in mental-health care, experience better interpersonal care, greater medical comprehension, and a greater likelihood of keeping follow-up appointments when they see a practitioner who understands their language.

In Florida, 40 percent of the population — but only 21 percent of the physician workforce — is black or Hispanic, according to the U.S. Census Bureau and the Florida Department of Health.

“I think that diversity has moved from what I’d say was an important issue to an urgent issue,” said Marc Nivet, the AAMC’s chief diversity officer. “Clearly there’s something good that’s happening at Florida State. It’s a fantastic message that should be shared with all medical schools because we all could learn from that.”

Before enrolling its first class 15 years ago, the College of Medicine already had an established pipeline program meant to expand the pool of qualified applicants from underserved backgrounds. SSTRIDE was developed in 1993 to help FSU’s Program in Medical Sciences (PIMS) achieve greater diversity.

PIMS ended in 2001 when the FSU College of Medicine’s first class arrived. SSTRIDE remained, giving precollege students from rural and urban underserved areas exposure to opportunities that would help prepare them for a career in health care.

“SSTRIDE identifies talented students when there is still time to put them on the right path for being successful in the medical school application process,” said Helen Livingston, associate dean for undergraduate and graduate programs at the College of Medicine.

The College of Medicine has since added additional pipeline programs, including the Summer Institute, the Bridge to Clinical Medicine and the Honors Medical Scholars Society (HMSS).
A snapshot of outreach program success at the College of Medicine:

• SSTRIDE — 98 percent of high-school seniors in the program are admitted to college. 
• U-SSTRIDE — More than half of the undergraduates in the program go on to medical school, with the vast         majority of those choosing to attend the FSU College of Medicine.
• HMSS — 90 percent of participants to date have entered medical school (87 percent at FSU). Seventy-two percent of those who have already graduated from medical school at FSU have entered primary-care residencies.
• Summer Institute — 99 percent of participants (2008-2015) have gone to college, and 85 percent of those have majored in or are majoring in math, science or health-related fields. To date, 11 percent of participants have gone on to medical school.

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CONTACT: Ron Hartung
(850) 645-9205; (850) 694-1850; ronald.hartung@med.fsu.edu

Aug. 10, 2016

FSU COLLEGE OF MEDICINE TO HOLD WHITE COAT CEREMONY

Members of the Florida State University College of Medicine Class of 2020 will receive white coats this week, in a traditional ceremony symbolizing the importance of compassionate care for patients and the scientific proficiency expected of physicians.

The featured speaker is Rachel Bixler, M.D., a 2011 graduate of the FSU College of Medicine. She completed the Family Medicine Residency Program at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in 2014 and now practices medicine in her hometown, Port St. Joe, at Sacred Heart Hospital on the Gulf.

The ceremony will be held:

FRIDAY, AUG. 12

6 P.M.

RUBY DIAMOND CONCERT HALL

TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA

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CONTACT: Catherine Zenko, director, CARD, FSU Autism Institute
850-644-4367; catherine.zenko@med.fsu.edu

Aug. 11, 2016

WORKSHOP WILL FOCUS ON ‘AUTISM ENTREPRENEURS’

“If you’ve ever thought about starting a business to employ people with autism,” a flier circulating in Tallahassee states, “this workshop is for you.”

The workshop, “Awakening the Autism Entrepreneur,” is for families and individuals with autism, as well as other individuals interested in starting — or adapting — a business to provide job opportunities for people on the autism spectrum.

The workshop will take place:

SATURDAY, AUG. 20

9 A.M. - 4 P.M.

AQUILINA C. HOWELL BUILDING

3955 W. PENSACOLA ST.

TALLAHASSEE, FLA.

“We talk about autism not as a disability but as a potential competitive advantage for businesses,” said Michael Alessandri, one of the workshop’s presenters, in an interview earlier this year. “People with autism are highly reliable and with the right support can be very productive.”

Alessandri is executive director of CARD (Center for Autism and Related Disabilities) at the University of Miami. Florida State’s own CARD center, part of the College of Medicine’s Autism Institute, is hosting the workshop.

“We hope this event can help generate more meaningful and productive opportunities for individuals on the autism spectrum and businesses in our community,” said Catherine Zenko, FSU CARD’s new director.

CARD describes autism spectrum disorder as a neurodevelopmental disorder defined by persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction, accompanied by restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests or activities. Many people see that as a disadvantage. But in a job that’s repetitive and highly regimented, Alessandri points out, a person with autism can be perfect.

Take a job in a car wash, for example. Two other South Florida presenters at the workshop, Tom D’Eri and Tom Sena, are “autism entrepreneurs” at Rising Tide Car Wash — where more than three-fourths of the employees have some form of autism. D’Eri’s brother, Andrew, is one of them.

“Our mission is to change the paradigm of how the world thinks of people with disabilities,” Alessandri said. “We think of them as people with unique abilities, and we need to create employment opportunities that embrace their uniqueness and strengths.”

The workshop is free and open to the public, but limited to the first 80 registrants. Breakfast and lunch will be provided. Sign up at http://bit.ly/291RRFG.

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