TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A team of Florida State University researchers has received a National Institutes of Health Director’s Transformative Research Award worth $3.1 million to investigate racial inequities in the nation’s health-care system.

The award is the first of its kind to be administered by the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities, part of the NIH.

“We are very pleased to receive this transformative research grant,” said FSU President Richard McCullough. “The NIH is putting considerable resources behind this extraordinary FSU research team to address a critical societal problem. This is a great example of what can happen when interdisciplinary researchers coalesce around a common goal.”

FSU College of Medicine Distinguished Endowed Professor Sylvie Naar is principal investigator for the five-year grant, along with Assistant Vice President for Research and Academic Affairs Norman Anderson and College of Social Work Associate Professor Carrie Pettus. 

“The science put forward by this cohort is exceptionally novel and creative and is sure to push at the boundaries of what is known,” said NIH Director Francis S. Collins. “These visionary investigators come from a wide breadth of career stages and show that groundbreaking science can happen at any career level given the right opportunity.”

With this interdisciplinary award to FSU, led by the College of Medicine, the NIH signals they are moving in a new direction, providing funding specifically to investigate behavioral and social issues leading to racial inequities in the health-care system.

The NIH announced its High Risk-High Reward grants Tuesday with most of the 106 grants supporting biomedical – rather than behavioral – research.

“With everything that’s been going on in the world, it’s a recognition of the effects of racism on health and mortality, which is an affront to the social structure of our society,” Naar said. “Being awarded a grant to transform health equity research by addressing racism was just overwhelming to me from the standpoint of recognizing we are taking meaningful steps as a society to actually do something about it.”

The FSU proposal is one of the first NIH-funded research projects using an established model of translational and behavioral social science – traditionally utilized to change patient behavior – to address racism in health care.

The project maps out the impact of racism in primary care that leads to significant health disparities in prevalence, diagnosis and treatment of associated physical and mental health conditions and the resulting poor outcomes. The goal is to develop new organizational- and policy-level interventions meant to reduce and ultimately eliminate race-related health disparities and move away from focusing on intervention with individual health-care providers.

“The scientific literature has clearly established the existence of racial bias within the health-care system, so much so that it has recently been declared a public health emergency,” said Anderson, a member of the National Academy of Medicine. “Yet, there are few if any successful approaches to addressing this bias. Our project will be among the first to design, from the ground up, interventions that might reduce racial bias in health care, especially at the system level.”

The team will collaborate directly with patients, community members, health administrators, health-care providers and experts in the field to identify innovations and increase the likelihood of existing health systems and community partners adopting new evidence-based practices that could change the way care is delivered.

“The benefits and outcomes of this unique approach to developing antiracism innovations extend beyond traditional health-care settings,” Pettus said. “We can apply this model throughout our nation’s other critical systems of care, including the educational, criminal justice and mental health systems.”

Their approach allows them the time to truly understand areas of bias within the health system from a wide variety of perspectives, Anderson added.

“Using this qualitative information, coupled with sophisticated quantitative approaches, we can find leverage points within the systems where anti-racism interventions might be effective,” he said. “We also have the opportunity to determine exactly which interventions might work best.”

Patients will be recruited with collaboration from the Florida Department of Health and through some of Florida’s more than 3,000 patient-centered medical homes, many of which are affiliates of the FSU College of Medicine and its primary care network, stretching from the Panhandle to South Florida.

“We’ll be looking not just for currently active patients; for example, we are going to really want patients that maybe showed up once and then didn’t show up again, so that’s part of the challenge,” Naar said. “But that’s what we do (at the Center for Translational Behavioral Science) — we aim to improve health outcomes among people who are marginalized and don’t really show up for care.

“We’re going to build off FSU’s history of community engagement and leverage that. I think that with the medical school and the university’s mission, this grant really puts us at the forefront of health disparities research.”

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — New research from the Florida State University College of Medicine found that changes in the brain associated with Alzheimer’s disease are often visible early on in individuals with personality traits associated with the condition.

The study focused on two traits previously linked to the risk of dementia: neuroticism, which measures a predisposition for negative emotions, and conscientiousness, which measures the tendency to be careful, organized, goal-directed and responsible.

“We have done studies showing who’s at risk of developing dementia, but those other studies were looking at the clinical diagnosis,” said Antonio Terracciano, professor of geriatrics at the College of Medicine. “Here, we are looking at the neuropathology; that is, the lesions in the brain that tell us about the underlying pathological change. This study shows that even before clinical dementia, personality predicts the accumulation of pathology associated with dementia.”

The findings, published as an article-in-press online with Biological Psychiatry, combine data from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA) and previously published work in a meta-analysis that summarized 12 studies on personality and Alzheimer’s neuropathology. The studies combined included more than 3,000 participants. Combining results across studies provides more robust estimates of the associations between personality and neuropathology than a single individual study can typically provide.

In both the BLSA and meta-analysis, the researchers found more amyloid and tau deposits (the proteins responsible for the plaques and tangles that characterize Alzheimer’s disease) in participants who scored higher in neuroticism and lower in conscientiousness.

The team also found associations to be stronger in studies of cognitively normal people compared to studies that included people with cognitive problems.

The study suggests that personality can help protect against Alzheimer’s and other neurological diseases by delaying or preventing the emergence of neuropathology for those strong in conscientiousness and low in neuroticism.

“Such protection against neuropathology may derive from a lifetime difference in people’s emotions and behaviors,” Terracciano said. “For example, past research has shown that low neuroticism helps with managing stress and reduces the risk of common mental health disorders. Similarly, high conscientiousness is consistently related to healthy lifestyles, like physical activity. Over time, more adaptive personality traits can better support metabolic and immunological functions, and ultimately prevent or delay the neurodegeneration process”.

The BLSA is a scientific study of human aging conducted by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health, that began in 1958. Personality was measured using a five-factor personality test, the most common personality assessment tool. At the time of their enrollment in the BLSA neuroimaging sub-study, all participants were free of dementia or other severe medical conditions.

Advances in brain scan technology used to assess in vivo amyloid and tau neuropathology made it possible for researchers to complete this work.

“Until recently, researchers measured amyloid and tau in the brain through autopsy — after people died,” Terracciano said. “In recent years, advances in medical imaging have made it possible to assess neuropathology when people are still alive, even before they show any symptoms.”

This research was supported by NIA Intramural Research Program and by the NIA/NIH award numbers R01AG068093 and R01AG053297. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Additional authors include FSU College of Medicine Professor Angelina Sutin, Assistant Professor Martina Luchetti and postdoctoral researcher Damaris Aschwanden. Other co-authors are from the NIA, Johns Hopkins University, Washington University School of Medicine and the University of Montpellier.

CONTACT: Kelsey Klopfenstein, University Communications 
(850) 644-1066; kklopfenstein@fsu.edu 
 
Oct. 14, 2021 
 
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A team of Florida State University researchers from the College of Nursing, College of Medicine and College of Arts & Sciences has received a $12.8 million National Institutes of Health grant to build a diverse community of early career researchers committed to improving mental health and chronic disease prevention and management.  
 
The university will use the funding to create the FLORIDA-FIRST BRIGADE, a program designed to support new tenure-track assistant professors and build a research community committed to diversity and inclusive excellence. 
 
Frankie Wong, McKenzie Endowed Professor in Health Equity Research in the College of Nursing and Founding Director of the Center for Population Sciences and Health Equity, will lead the project along with Sylvie Naar, Distinguished Endowed Professor in the College of Medicine and Founding Director of the Center for Translational Behavioral Science, and Pamela Keel, Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences. The project is supported by co-investigators in the FSU College of Nursing (Associate Professor Eugenia Millender) and the University of Hawai`i at Mānoa (Professor Jack Barile). 
 
“We’re proud of our progress toward creating a cohesive research community at Florida State University, but we can — and will — do more,” said FSU President Richard McCullough. “The FLORIDA-FIRST Brigade is an excellent step in that direction. The program’s initiatives will be transformative, and we appreciate the NIH’s support and faith in our work in this area. This grant is an example of FSU’s great research strength.”
 
The project team plans to promote inclusive excellence in research and develop an innovative model for the next generation of FSU health-science faculty by recalibrating processes for minority recruitment, advancement and retention at FSU. Key to the project’s success is to establish individual research and career development and mentorship plans for each member within a cohort-based model using a systems-level approach. 
 
“This is a really innovative and interdisciplinary program that builds on our existing strengths in mental health and health equity research,” said Interim Vice President for Research Laurel Fulkerson. “I have no doubt that this program will bring excellent faculty to FSU who will help us continue to build our research portfolio in these fields.”
 
The funding is a trans-NIH initiative to help institutions foster a more diverse and inclusive community of researchers to broaden perspectives in setting research priorities and positively impact scientific discovery. 
 
“This award was made possible with the unwavering support from many people, notably the support from Provost Sally McRorie and Interim Vice President for Research Laurel Fulkerson,” Wong said. “The FLORIDA-FIRST BRIGADE is ready to take on the challenge to further FSU as an inclusive community for scientific excellence.”
 
FSU was one of six universities chosen by the NIH to receive the funding and will use the dollars to recruit a cohort of six early-career, underrepresented minority biomedical researchers who have demonstrated strong commitment to promoting diversity and inclusive excellence.  
 
The grant comes on the heels of another NIH award worth $3.1 million to investigate and address racism in the health care system.
 
For more information about the NIH, visit nih.gov. 
 

CAPE CORAL, Fla. — The Florida State University College of Medicine Internal Medicine Residency Program at Cape Coral Hospital/Lee Health has received initial accreditation and approval to begin recruiting its first class of residents, who are expected to begin training on July 1, 2022.
 
“Our mission is to graduate capable and efficient internists who are life-long learners, committed to serving others with excellence and compassion along with promoting a healthier future for the community,” said founding Program Director Dr. Maja Delibasic. “I’m pretty excited because the feedback has been beyond positive.”
 
The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), the sanctioning body of graduate medical education in the U.S. and Canada, made the announcement at its September meeting. The program, which takes three years to complete, is approved to accept 12 residents a year for a total of 36 at full capacity.
 
“The internal medicine program aligns well with the mission of the Florida State University College of Medicine and will help to address physician workforce needs in southwest Florida and throughout the state,” said Dr. Joan Younger Meek, the medical school’s associate dean for graduate medical education. “Dr. Delibasic’s enthusiasm and engagement with the local medical community has been impressive.” 
 
FSU College of Medicine is also the academic sponsor of a family medicine residency program at Lee Memorial Hospital in Fort Myers. That program accepted its first residents in 2014.
 
“We are pleased with the track record of success in our current residency program, and are pleased to once again work with Florida State University College of Medicine as we bring a second Graduate Medical Education program to our community,” said Dr. Venkat Prasad, chief medical officer, population health and physician services at Lee Health. “The residents of Cape Coral and the surrounding community will be well-served by housing an internal medicine residency program at Cape Coral Hospital. As evidenced by our current family medicine program at Lee Memorial Hospital, physicians who train here, stay here. We are eager to bring additional physicians into our community, which is much needed in a time of physician shortages.”
 
Delibasic, who joined the residency program in July, is board-certified in internal medicine and obesity medicine. She previously served as associate director of the internal medicine residency program at Mercy Hospital and Medical Center in Chicago.
 
She and residency program faculty will begin conducting virtual interviews in mid-October. The program received nearly 1,000 applications in its first 24 hours. If pandemic conditions sufficiently improve, the top 25 to 30 candidates will be invited to Cape Coral in late January or early February.
 
The program, based at Cape Coral Hospital and with opportunities for residents to also train and see patients at the nearby Internal Medicine Residency Ambulatory Clinic, will learn who its first class is on Match Day — March 18, 2022. That’s the day when the National Resident Matching Program notifies graduating medical students across the U.S. and Canada which residency program they have been accepted into.

Bill Wellock, University Communications

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Add an improved memory to the list of the many benefits that accompany having a sense of purpose in life.
 
A new study led by Florida State University researchers showed a link between an individual’s sense of purpose and their ability to recall vivid details. The researchers found that while both a sense of purpose and cognitive function made memories easier to recall, only a sense of purpose bestowed the benefits of vividness and coherence. 
 
The study, which focused on memories related to the COVID-19 pandemic, was published in the journal Memory.
 
“Personal memories serve really important functions in everyday life,” said Angelina Sutin, a professor in the College of Medicine and the paper’s lead author. “They help us to set goals, control emotions and build intimacy with others. We also know people with a greater sense of purpose perform better on objective memory tests, like remembering a list of words. We were interested in whether purpose was also associated with the quality of memories of important personal experiences because such qualities may be one reason why purpose is associated with better mental and physical health.”
 
Nearly 800 study participants reported on their sense of purpose and completed tasks that measured their cognitive processing speed in January and February 2020, before the ongoing coronavirus pandemic took hold in the U.S. Researchers then measured participants’ ability to retrieve and describe personal memories about the pandemic in July 2020, several months into the public health crisis.
 
Participants with a stronger sense of purpose in life reported that their memories were more accessible, coherent and vivid than participants with less purpose. Those with a higher sense of purpose also reported many sensory details, spoke about their memories more from a first-person perspective and reported more positive feeling and less negative feeling when asked to retrieve a memory.
 
The researchers also found that depressive symptoms had little effect on the ability to recall vivid details in memories, suggesting that the connection between life purpose and memory recall is not due to the fewer depressive symptoms among individuals higher in purpose.
 
Purpose in life has been consistently associated with better episodic memory, such as the number of words retrieved correctly on a memory task. This latest research expands on those connections to memory by showing a correlation between purpose and the richness of personal memory.
 
“We chose to measure the ability to recall memories associated with the COVID-19 pandemic because the pandemic is an event that touched everyone, but there has been a wide range of experiences and reactions to it that should be apparent in memories,” said co-author Martina Luchetti, an assistant professor in the College of Medicine.
 
Along with the association with better memory, previous research has found other numerous benefits connected with having a sense of purpose, from a lower risk of death to better physical and mental health.
 
“Memories help people to sustain their well-being, social connections and cognitive health,” said co-author Antonio Terracciano, a professor in the College of Medicine. “This research gives us more insight into the connections between a sense of purpose and the richness of personal memories. The vividness of those memories and how they fit into a coherent narrative may be one pathway through which purpose leads to these better outcomes.”
 
Damaris Aschwanden, a postdoctoral researcher at the FSU College of Medicine, and Yannick Stephan, a researcher at the University of Montpellier in Montpellier, France, contributed to this study.
 
This research was supported by the National Institute on Aging, a division of the National Institutes of Health, under award number R01AG074573.

 
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Florida State University College of Medicine has received a $6.5 million National Institutes of Health grant to look at slowing the spread of HIV in young adults, the only demographic where infection rates are rising.
 
Though new HIV cases increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, the overall number has been slashed by half over the past 20 years with the exception of one age group — young adults ages 24-29. That group has not seen a decrease in cases in a decade. 
 
Led by FSU Endowed Distinguished Professor of Behavioral Sciences Sylvie Naar, researchers will examine a broader age group of “emerging adults” ages 18-29 to see whether effective intervention can change the numbers. Members of this demographic experience significant changes in social roles, expectations and responsibilities that can leave them vulnerable to increased alcohol use and poor self-management of HIV infections.
 
“We have to focus not only on the health of these young people — there are about 10,000 young people living with HIV in the state — but also prevention,” said Naar, the founding director of FSU’s Center for Translational Behavioral Science (CTBS). “If young people take their medications and reduce their alcohol use, their viral burden is down, and they are less likely to transmit the virus.”
 
The five-year grant, awarded by NIH’s National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, will fund research tailored to the age group, which relies on technology for communication and engages in different risk behaviors than the overall population. Research participants will be recruited predominantly through social media. Data collection — via a wrist sensor — will be securely transmitted and captured through links participants receive, and interventions will take place through videoconferencing. 
 
“The entire center is virtual,” said Naar, who wrote the grant proposal during the onset of the pandemic. “We specifically planned this to be kind of pandemic-resilient.”
 
An added benefit to being virtual is the ability to include participants from rural areas; most research has been done in cities, Naar said. Going statewide aligns with the College of Medicine’s mission, especially regarding the underserved in rural areas. In addition, Florida Department of Health statistics show 75 percent of youth living with HIV are ethnic minorities, some of whom are transgender. 
 
“We really got this because there are not a lot of people around the country focused on young people,” Naar said. “We were the only applicant that focused on young people. That’s something NIH really wants to support.”
 
The collaborative effort will include researchers from the University of Florida, the University of Central Florida and Nova Southeastern University. The research will be broken into three projects: defining new intervention strategies, engaging youth, and sustaining behavioral change through interventions.
 
UF’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute, FSU’s partner in one of two Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) in the state, will lead the wireless wrist sensor project, which will monitor the use and levels of alcohol intake of the participants. In addition, it will develop online surveys, and both manage and analyze data. The CTSA is supported in part by the NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences under award number UL1TR001427.
 
The CTBS Community Youth Advisory Board, which Naar developed upon her arrival at FSU in 2018, will help recruit participants through social media and dating apps. Since its creation, the board has organized itself as a nonprofit, which provides advisory services to FSU and outreach to youth across the state independently.
 
“Recruiting youth living with HIV [to participate] is not easy,” Naar said. “(Board members) can say, ‘OK, Florida State’s Dr. Naar is someone you can trust, you should consider enrolling in these studies.’ That makes a big difference. That’s a very different model of community engagement that we’re rolling out with this grant.”