News of the Week

College of Medicine in the News: June 20, 2019


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

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Jun 19, 2019
Tallahassee Democrat
PRESS RELEASE

The Leon County School Board approved a Memorandum of Understanding Tuesday making Sabal Palm Elementary a Community Partnership School with the Children’s Home Society of Florida, Florida A&M University and the FSU College of Medicine.

News of the Week

Rosado, Fernandez write children's book focused on stressors children from migrant families face

Clinical Associate Professor Javier Rosado and Instructional Specialist Tatiana Fernandez at the College of Medicine's Immokalee Health Education Site wrote an e-book for children that tells the story of several characters (bees and other insects) who have to say goodbye when the family of a school-age bee, Gabriel, announces that they will need to relocate yet again in search of farm work. The story highlights the unique stressors young children from migrant families face related to their transient lifestyle.

Read the book online

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Jun 14, 2019
FSU News
PRESS RELEASE

A new multi-institution study spearheaded by researchers at FSU and UCLA suggests a tiny protein could play a major role in combating heart failure related to Duchenne muscular dystrophy, the most common lethal genetic disorder among children. FSU College of Medicine Associate Professor Jose Pinto co-authored the study.

Press Release

Researchers' Discovery Could Lead to Improved Therapies for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

CONTACT: Zachary Boehm, University Communications

(850) 645-1504; zboehm@fsu.edu

 

@FSUResearch

 

June 2019

 

RESEARCHERS’ DISCOVERY COULD LEAD TO IMPROVED THERAPIES FOR DUCHENNE MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY

 

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A new multi-institution study spearheaded by researchers at Florida State University and the University of California, Los Angeles suggests a tiny protein could play a major role in combating heart failure related to Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), the most common lethal genetic disorder among children.

 

In collaboration with scientists from across the nation, FSU researchers found that increased levels of the protein sarcospan improve cardiac function by reinforcing cardiac cell membranes, which become feeble in patients with DMD.  

 

Their findings were published in the journal JCI Insight.

 

The condition, which typically afflicts young boys, is caused by a mutation that prevents the body from producing dystrophin, a protein crucial to the health of skeletal, respiratory and cardiac muscles. Advances in treatment for certain types of DMD-related muscle degradation have helped to prolong patients’ lifespans. However, as DMD patients age, their heart function declines dramatically.

 

“Patients typically live to 20 or 30 years of age,” said lead author Michelle Parvatiyar, an assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food and Exercise Sciences in FSU’s College of Human Sciences. “There have been important improvements in respiratory care, which used to be what a majority of patients would succumb to. Now, in their 20s and 30s, they’re often succumbing to cardiomyopathy. The heart is functioning with a major component of the cell membrane missing. Over time, it wears out.”

 

The study was part of continued efforts by UCLA biologist Rachelle H. Crosbie, the study’s corresponding author, who previously identified sarcospan as a protein that could improve mechanical support in skeletal cell membranes lacking dystrophin. Her finding buoyed DMD researchers and affirmed sarcospan’s potential as an effective tool in the fight against the condition.

 

“But nobody had really looked at how increasing the levels of this protein might affect the heart,” Parvatiyar said.

 

Using a unique mouse model with a dearth of dystrophin, Parvatiyar and her collaborators did just that.

 

In their study, the team found that while it’s is not a like-for-like replacement for dystrophin, an overexpression of sarcospan in cardiac cells seems to do the job of stabilizing cell membranes. Even under stress, researchers found, sarcospan overexpression was able to improve the membrane defect in dystrophin-deficient cells.

 

“Sarcospan doesn’t quite do the job of dystrophin, but it acts as a glue to stabilize the membrane and hold protein complexes together when dystrophin is lacking,” said Parvatiyar, explaining a concept developed by Crosbie.

 

Cardiac measurements confirmed that sarcospan does protect the cell membrane even when the heart is placed under stress. Study co-author and FSU College of Medicine Associate Professor Jose Pinto performed the measurements, along with FSU graduate student Karissa Dieseldorff Jones and University of Miami Miller School of Medicine research assistant Rosemeire Takeuchi Kanashiro.

 

In addition to serving as a kind of stabilizing glue, researchers said sarcospan could also act as a scaffold that supports other essential proteins at the cell membrane. That function could allow sarcospan to carry mini versions of dystrophin — which, in its normal state, has a long and unwieldy genetic code — to the edges of cardiac cells, where they could buttress the fragile membranes.

 

“The idea is that you could administer the sarcospan and the dystrophin at the same time, and the sarcospan could facilitate mini dystrophin localizing to the cell membrane and help hold those complexes in place,” Parvatiyar said.

 

Sarcospan’s two possible functions could augment existing DMD treatments, Parvatiyar said, or they could give rise to novel therapies that fortify weakened cardiac cell membranes and improve the quality of life for people with DMD.

 

In her previous position at UCLA, Parvatiyar had frequent interactions with DMD patients and their families. She said these interactions, and the unshakeable hope she’s witnessed in those suffering from DMD, continue to drive her and her colleagues in the search for new ways to combat this debilitating condition.

 

“Those were the first times in my life I’d ever had someone come up to me and thank me for my work,” she said. “Sometimes you can feel removed from it in the laboratory day after day. You see incremental progress. But to see people who are really yearning for help is motivating. Their positivity is incredibly inspiring.”

 

Researchers from UCLA, the University of Miami, SUNY Binghamton University and the University of Washington contributed to this study. Funding was provided by the National Institutes of Health, the Center for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy at UCLA-CureDuchenne Postdoctoral Fellowship and the American Heart Association.

 

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Television

Jun 11, 2019
FSU PrimaryHealth Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony (FSU Headlines)

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Jun 07, 2019
Bustle
PRESS RELEASE

A Bustle article discussing seven ways people can decrease their risk of dementia sites College of Medicine professor Angelina Sutin's research on how loneliness is associated with a substantial increased risk for dementia. By keeping up a social life, people can prevent the isolation that impacts cognitive function.

News of the Week

Former psychiatry education director Kathy Lee dies at age 65

Kathy Lee, who taught psychopathology as part of the required Medicine and Behavior II course for second-year medical students, died June 1 at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital.  Read her obituary

Prior to joining the College of Medicine faculty in 2006, she worked as a forensic psychiatrist and served as clinical director for the New York State Prison System, with responsibility for mental health services provided to more than 9,000 inmates by a team of more than 150 psychiatrists. Among the prisoners she personally treated were Mark David Chapman, who shot and killed John Lennon, and serial killer David Berkowitz. Read about her path to the College of Medicine in the fall 2007 issue of FSU MED (see page 32 at the back of the magazine)

Lee is survived by her physician husband, William Lee, and three daughters. Two of her daughters, Hanna (M.D., '16) and Ilisa (M.D., '17), are FSU College of Medicine alumni. A third daughter, Inga, is a member of Honors Medical Scholars.

Kathy Lee, M.D.

Former psychiatry education director Kathy Lee dies at age 65

Jun 01, 2019
Kathy Lee, M.D.

Kathy Lee, who taught psychopathology as part of the required Medicine and Behavior II course for second-year medical students, died June 1 at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital.  Read her obituary

Prior to joining the College of Medicine faculty in 2006, she worked as a forensic psychiatrist and served as clinical director for the New York State Prison System, with responsibility for mental health services provided to more than 9,000 inmates by a team of more than 150 psychiatrists. Among the prisoners she personally treated were Mark David Chapman, who shot and killed John Lennon, and serial killer David Berkowitz. Read about her path to the College of Medicine in the fall 2007 issue of FSU MED (see page 32 at the back of the magazine)

Lee is survived by her physician husband, William Lee, and three daughters. Two of her daughters, Hanna (M.D., '16) and Ilisa (M.D., '17), are FSU College of Medicine alumni. A third daughter, Inga, is a member of Honors Medical Scholars.

 

 

 

News of the Week

Helen Livingston is retiring ... again

By Dean John P. Fogarty

(This message was initially distributed as an email within the College of Medicine.)

It is with pleasure, and a bit of sadness, that I announce Dr. Helen Livingston’s intention to retire from her role as founding Associate Dean of the Interdisciplinary Medical Sciences Division at the College of Medicine effective 28 June, 2019.  As you likely know, this will be her second retirement from the College of Medicine. She apparently means it this time!!

Helen has spent more than 50 years in education.  Her early career work included such titles as K-12 teacher, school counselor, and high school principal.  She moved to higher education in 1991 as director of undergraduate admissions at Troy University after earning her Ed.D.  Helen joined FSU in 1996 and served as director of admissions for PIMS until the founding of the College of Medicine in 2000. During 2000-2001 academic year, she ensured the successful transition of the last PIMS class to the University of Florida and oversaw the admission of the first College of Medicine class and the establishment and admission of the first Bridge class. She served as Assistant Dean for Admissions and Outreach in the Student Affairs Division and was instrumental in the work that led to initial accreditation by the LCME.  She retired the first time after the first class graduated in 2005.

In 2009, FSU granted permission for the Bridge Program to become a master’s program and Dr. Hurt asked Helen to return to oversee the transition from a post baccalaureate program to a one-year master’s program. Through her oversight, the program developed and provided a pathway to medical school for more students. Most recently, Helen created the educational framework for Dr. Hurt’s latest innovation in education, the Interdisciplinary Medical Sciences (IMS) bachelor’s degree program.  The program has been very popular with FSU undergraduates and boasts over 600 students in the major, with 37 graduates of the program in the 3 years since its inception.  The IMS program seems poised to become another very positive contribution to her legacy at the college.  Please join us in celebrating Helen as she transitions to what she assured me will be her last retirement.

As Dr. Livingston transitions, it will necessitate changes to the administrative structure of the IMS Division which includes the IMS Bachelor’s Degree, Outreach and Advising, and the Bridge Program.  Dr. Anthony Speights has agreed to become the new head of the IMS Division and will serve as Associate Dean beginning 1 July, 2019.  Dr. Speights began his tenure at the COM in 2014 as Director of Rural Medical Education. Most recently, he has served as Assistant Dean of IMS, Director of the Bridge Program, and co-Director of the Honors Medical Scholars Program.  He will retain his roles with Bridge and HMS.  He will also continue to provide clinical services at the Care Point Health and Wellness in southeast Tallahassee. 

As Dr. Speights changes positions, I have also asked Dr. Liz Foster to assume the position of Assistant Dean of IMS.  Dr. Foster has been a fixture in the COM since 2003, working with SSTRIDE, Student Affairs and Advising and Outreach.  She is best known perhaps for all the work she has done with student research opportunities, the Honors Medical Scholars, Bridge, and most recently IMS undergrad and pre-health advising.  Since the inception of IMS, Liz has worked tirelessly to support, strengthen, and elevate the program to the next level.  I have every confidence that the new leadership team along with the wonderful IMS staff will continue the tradition that Drs. Myra Hurt and Helen Livingston have set.

Please join me in congratulating Helen, Anthony, and Liz on their transitions and their many contributions to the COM.  

Sincerely,   J.


John P. Fogarty, MD
Dean
 

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