By Hillary Speed

Florida State University’s International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) team won a gold medal at an annual international research symposium promoting advancements in synthetic biology. 

The team of 11 undergraduate students from six different colleges, primary principal investigator Cesar A. Rodriguez, M.D., College of Medicine research faculty and entrepreneur in residence, and secondary principal investigator David Montez, an associate director at the FSU Center for Undergraduate Research and Academic Engagement, won its second-ever gold medal at the iGEM 2024 Grand Jamboree held in Paris, France, this semester.

The team’s work addressed a rare metabolic disorder called trimethylaminuria (TMAU), which causes a strong body odor released through sweat, breath and urine. They sought to create a breathalyzer device that could guide a patient’s treatment by monitoring the level of trimethylamine (TMA), the molecule that causes the odor, in the breath. 

“Achieving this gold medal truly means everything to me and the team,” said team leader Ely Nieves. “We care deeply about the TMAU community and worked really hard to make forward progress on our project every single week. It was fantastic to see our work come together and place among the best teams in the world.” 

This year’s work built on last year’s project focusing on treatment for the same condition, which earned the team a silver medal — the fourth in a row for the university’s team — at the 2023 Jamboree. Their work yielded promising results and continues as a project within FSU’s Institute for Pediatric Rare Diseases, a new institute located within the College of Medicine that is expanding its reach alongside the larger FSU Health initiative. 

“FSU is competing at the highest levels — we’re among the best teams in the world,” Rodriguez said. “Our students are looking at the world. They’re finding these problems and then they’re using state-of-the-art technology to address the problem.” 

TMAU is characterized by the body’s inability to oxidize TMA into a compound called odorless trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) in the liver. It’s estimated that one in 200,000 to 1 million individuals has the condition.

More than 400 teams from more than 45 countries presented their work to an international panel of over 400 judges at the four-day event in separate divisions for high school, undergraduate and graduate school students. 

Other gold-medal winners included institutions such as Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay and Tsinghua University. 

The 2024 research team worked to educate the public about their research and TMAU through the development of a project website and educational videos, and by hosting the second annual Biotechnology Expo at the Challenger Learning Center in July. The expo brought together bio-focused researchers from throughout the Tallahassee community to educate K-8 students. 

“FSU’s success in the iGEM competition is a testament to the power of interdisciplinary research,” said David Montez, co-principal investigator and associate director of FSU’s Center for Undergraduate Research and Academic Engagement (CRE). “Students from a wide variety of disciplines develop new skills and apply them together toward a common goal. The students grew in their respective majors, all to serve a chronically underserved patient community.” 

The iGEM program at FSU is a shared initiative of the College of Medicine and the Center for Undergraduate Research and Academic Engagement. The program accepts students from any major and is housed in the CRE, a unit of FSU’s Division of Undergraduate Studies.  

For more information about the Center for Undergraduate Research and Academic Engagement, visit cre.fsu.edu.

 Members of the 2024 FSU iGEM team pose for a group portrait in Paris. Front row, from left, Jordan Schwartz, Hanna Yilmaz-Rodriguez, Michael (Vincent) Pilapil; second row, from left, Ava Polly, Zachary Asarnow, Dorian Chin; third row, from left, Lucas Bonassi, Aidan Marengo, Ely Nieves and Arjan Adhikari. Team member Megan Perusse traveled with the group to Paris but was submitting an assignment at the time the photo was taken. (Photo courtesy of FSU iGEM.)

Alma Littles, M.D., dean of the Florida State University College of Medicine, has been appointed to a four-year term on the Graduate Medical Education Committee for the state of Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA).

She was appointed by Dr. Deborah German, chair of the Council of Florida Medical School Deans (CFMSD). Littles serves as vice chair of the council, which includes the deans of every public and private medical school in the state.

Littles, senior associate dean for medical education and academic affairs at the College of Medicine since 2003,  is no stranger to serving on advisory committees for state agencies. At AHCA, she previously served on the Comprehensive Health Information System Advisory Council (2006-2008), as well as the Family Medicine Resident Recruitment and Retention Committee (1995-2012), chairing it from 2001 to 2012.

A member of the Florida Department of Health (DOH) Physicians Workforce Advisory Council (2015-2019), including the last two years as char, she also served on the Florida Correctional Medical Authority (2009-2012). Littles has served on the National Board of Medical Examiners’ Advisory Committee for Medical School Programs since 2013.

German, vice president for health affairs and dean of the College of Medicine at the University of Central Florida, also appointed Joan St. Onge, M.D., senior associate dean at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine, and Stephen Cico, M.D., associate dean for graduate medical education at UCF.

In addition to German’s three appointments, the Graduate Medical Program Committee includes four appointees by the governor, two each by the AHCA secretary and the state surgeon general and one each by the president of the Florida Senate and the speaker of the Florida House of Representatives.

AHCA was created by the Florida Legislature as part of the Health Care Reform Act of 1992 and is tasked with managing the state’s Medicaid program, as well as overseeing the licensure of the state’s health care facilities.

Xian Jin Xie, Ph.D., a distinguished educator and researcher whose work has advanced fields across the health care spectrum including biomedicine, nursing, dentistry, public health and data science, has joined the College of Medicine faculty as senior associate dean for research and graduate programs. His first day was Oct. 28.

He brings extensive experience as an academic administrator, as well as an accomplished researcher and an interdisciplinary collaborator. For the past 17 years, he has held multiple leadership positions at two flagship universities, the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and, most recently, the University of Iowa, where he was associate dean for research at its College of Dentistry & Dental Clinics. He also was a professor of cancer epidemiology and population science at Iowa’s Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center at the Carver College of Medicine and a professor of Biostatistics at the College of Public Health.

“We are thrilled to have attracted a research leader of Dr. Jin Xie’s caliber to lead the Florida State University College of Medicine’s research efforts,” Dean Alma Littles, M.D., said. “His experience in strategic planning, professional and graduate curriculum development, community engagement and securing external funding sources has given him the exact skill set we need.

“In addition to his strong qualities as a scientist, he is also skilled in the art of medical and research education that is so integral to our medical school model, with an emphasis on mentoring, nurturing and empowering students and colleagues alike,” she added. “He is simply a good fit for us, the right person at the right time.”

Xie succeeds Jeffrey Joyce, Ph.D., who oversaw tremendous growth in the College of Medicine’s research portfolio. Joyce returned to the private sector in summer 2023.

Under Xie’s leadership, the University of Iowa’s College of Dentistry experienced similar research growth, with annual external funding doubling since 2020. Its national ranking for National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIH/NIDCR) funding improved from 31^st in 2018 to 12^th in 2023.

Throughout his career, he has directed quantitative biomedical research on 60 peer-reviewed grants and 40 clinical trials, which were supported by agencies as varied as NIH, NASA, the American Cancer Society and the Department of Defense. He has published more than 175 peer-reviewed articles, led and contributed to securing more than $100 million in external research funding, and collaborated with and mentored more than 100 clinical, translational and basic science investigators.

Xie said he is “thrilled” to join the College of Medicine, where he was impressed by “the palpable sense of community and shared purpose among faculty, staff and students.”

“Through serving, collaborating and empowering, my vision is to create a vibrant, collaborative research ecosystem that harnesses our collective strengths across various disciplines,” he said. “I believe that by emphasizing interdisciplinary partnerships, focusing on areas of strength and strategically developing new research programs, we can drive groundbreaking discoveries that directly benefit our communities.

“Together, we’ll not only enhance our graduate programs but also position the FSU College of Medicine as a national leader in impactful research that transforms health care for all.”