Listed by department/campus. See other faculty achievements in Top Stories.

GAP AWARDS
Research Assistant Professor Ewa Bienkiewicz (pictured here), Professor Pradeep Bhide, Professor Mike Overton, Associate Professor Branko Stefanovic and Assistant in Medicine Jake VanLandingham, all Ph.D.’s, received GAP Awards from Florida State to help move their discoveries from the lab to the marketplace. Bienkiewicz, Bhide and VanLandingham are working on a new treatment that would increase stroke victims’ chances of a full recovery; Overton and other FSU colleagues are working to develop new drugs to fight obesity; and Stefanovic is creating new tools to use against fibrosis-related diseases.

Bienkiewicz also was featured in an FSU Headlines radio report on the GAP (Grant Assistance Program) Awards.

SEED GRANTS
Eleven projects have received College of Medicine internal grants of up to $25,000. Some were seed grants, to develop data for new external grant proposals. Others were bridges from a past grant to new funding from an external source. The grants went to Associate Professor John Blackmon, M.D., Associate Professor Branko Stefanovic, Ph.D., and Vesna Skodric-Trifunovic (pulmonary fibrosis); Associate Professor Heather Flynn, Ph.D. (perinatal depression); Associate Professor Jamila Horabin, Ph.D. (SiRNAs in gene transcription); Assistant Professor Hussam Jourdi, Ph.D. (cognitive-enhancing drugs); Associate Professor Yoichi Kato, Ph.D. (cell division in neuronal stem cells); Associate Professor Choogon Lee, Ph.D. (transcriptional regulation of circadian physiology); Assistant Scholar Deirdre McCarthy, pictured here (adverse effects of prenatal cocaine); postdoctoral researcher Thomas Morgan, Ph.D. (treating traumatic brain injury); Assistant Professor Johanna Paik, Ph.D. (molecular mechanisms that coordinate histone and DNA synthesis); Associate Professor Yanchang Wang, Ph.D. (intragenic transcription and regulation of protein function); and Associate Professor Yi Zhou, Ph.D., and Wang (characterization of candidate genes).

FACULTY COUNCIL AWARDS

The following faculty and staff members received Faculty Council Awards in July: Associate Professors Heather Flynn, Ph.D. (Department of Medical Humanities and Social Sciences) and Tim Megraw, Ph.D. (Biomedical Sciences), Outstanding Senior Faculty Investigators; Assistant Professor Kim Driscoll, Ph.D. (Medical Humanities), Outstanding Junior Investigator; Professor Lynn Romrell, Ph.D. (Biomedical Sciences), Senior Faculty Educator; Assistant Professor Sanjay Kumar, Ph.D. (Biomedical Sciences), Junior Faculty Educator; Program Coordinator Hanna Ghirmay (Student Affairs), Staff-Individual; Admissions staff, Staff-Group; Chair Dan Van Durme, M.D. (Family Medicine and Rural Health), Outstanding Faculty Service; and Chair Ken Brummel-Smith, M.D. (Geriatrics), Guardian of the Mission.

DEPARTMENT OF BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES
Professor Michael Blaber, Ph.D., and Lab Manager Sachiko Blaber have been awarded a new patent. Co-credited to Isobel Scarisbrick and Moses Rodriguez, the patent was awarded to “Method of Treating Multiple Sclerosis with Anti-K6 Antibody.” Michael Blaber also was awarded three patents to “Mutants of Human Fibroblast Growth Factor Having Increased Stability and/or Mitogenic Potency,” co-credited to Vikash Kumar Dubey.

The following Biomedical Sciences researchers have had articles or papers published recently:
- Michael Blaber, “Structure and Function of Delta1-Tetrahydrocannabinolic Acid (THCA) Synthase, the Enzyme Controlling the Psychoactivity of Cannabis sativa,” Journal of Molecular Biology.
- Blaber, former graduate student Jihun Lee and graduate student Liam Longo, “Emergence of symmetric protein architecture from a simple peptide motif: evolutionary models,” Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences.
- Blaber and Longo, “Protein design at the interface of the pre-biotic and biotic worlds,” Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics.
- Assistant Professor Jinmin Zhu, Ph.D., and Professor Pradeep Bhide, Ph.D., “Prenatal Nicotine Exposure Mouse Model Showing Hyperactivity, Reduced Cingulate Cortex Volume, Reduced Dopamine Turnover, and Responsiveness to Oral Methylphenidate Treatment,” Journal of Neuroscience.
- Graduate student Nicole Carrier and Associate Professor Mohamed Kabbaj, Ph.D., “Sex Differences in Social Interaction Behaviors in Rats are Mediated by Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinase 2 Expression in the Medial Prefrontal Cortex,” Neuroscience.
- Kabbaj, “Effective Depression Meds Find a Target: Testosterone therapy may counter depression in certain region of the brain,” dailyRx.
- Postdoctoral research fellow Jyotsna Pilli (pictured here), graduate student Saad Abbasi, honors undergraduate Max Richardson and Assistant Professor Sanjay Kumar, Ph.D., “Diversity and Excitability of Deep Layer Entorhinal Cortical Neurons in a Model of Temporal Lobe Epilepsy,” Journal of Neurophysiology.
- Pilli and Kumar, “Triheteromeric NMDARs Differentiate Synaptic Inputs into Pyramidal Neurons in Somatosensory Cortex: Involvement of the GluN3A Subunit,” Neuroscience.
- Postdoc Rakesh Kumar Singh and co-authors Lab Technician Marie-Helene Kabbaj and Assistant Professor Akash Gunjan, Ph.D., “Novel E3 Ubiquitin Ligases That Regulate Histone Protein Levels in the Budding Yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae,” PLoS ONE.


DEPARTMENT OF CLINICAL SCIENCES
Assistant Professor Lea Parsley, M.D., was the subject of the cover story in the June/July issue of Tallahassee Woman magazine. The article described her road to a medical career, her role at the TMH Clinical Genetics Center and her nine-member family’s experience with international adoption.


CENTER FOR INNOVATIVE COLLABORATION

IN MEDICINE AND LAW
Director Marshall Kapp, J.D., MPH, had an article published in The Atlantic. The headline was “How to Fix Nursing Homes.”

Kapp, who is also on the faculty of the College of Law, was ranked sixth among the law school’s “Most Cited Scholars” in Brian Leiter’s Law School Rankings: Top 70 Law Faculties in Scholarly Impact, 2007-2011.

Kapp also was interviewed by the Tallahassee Democrat, FSView, Florida Public Radio, WCTV and WTXL in connection with the Supreme Court’s recent decision on the Affordable Care Act. He organized a brown-bag discussion at the College of Medicine one week after the decision was handed down.


DEPARTMENT OF GERIATRICS
Read about the Clinician of the Year award that Dr. Niharika Suchak received at the American Geriatrics Society’s annual meeting.

Read about the award that student Rachel Tripoli and her co-authors received at the Florida Geriatrics Society meeting.

Professor Alice Pomidor, M.D., MPH, has been named vice chair of the American Geriatrics Society’s Public Education Committee and is a medical advisor for the newly revised AGS/Health in Aging website. At the AGS annual meeting in May she presented a poster on a pilot study characterizing the use and ratings of fourth-year medical students playing “ElderQuest,” a first-person role-play video game. It also compared players and nonplayers on their geriatrics clerkship grades and final exam scores.

Professor Lisa Granville, M.D., who is chair of the AGS Education Committee, presented two sessions at the annual meeting: one on writing winning project proposals (with Associate Professor Niharika Suchak, MBBS) and one on competency certification in cognitive and behavioral disorders.

Geriatrics Chair Ken Brummel-Smith attended the annual meeting of the Florida Geriatrics Society in June. His observations: “I thought the most interesting presentations were about cancer and aging. First, an oncologist, Martine Extermann, M.D., gave a brilliant presentation about walking both sides of the road in cancer care — recognizing when aggressive care is perfectly reasonable despite even very advanced age (like 90!) and when less aggressive care is clearly indicated. The differentiating factor? Functional status! Of course, patient preference plays a major role, but I found it very refreshing to hear an oncologist talk so much about functional status and patient preference. The other one was by a radiation oncologist (Sarah Hoffe, M.D.) who described these amazing machines they have now to limit the damaging radiation to pinpoint areas. Both emphasized patient-centered (rather than disease-focused) orientations and having a specialty in geriatric oncology. Very refreshing and enlightening.”

Lynn Panton, Ph.D., from the FSU College of Human Sciences, who gave a presentation on “Exercise in the Elderly,” used her “Exercise for Older Adults” manual — the same book that was written and published under grants from the College of Medicine and the Geriatric Education Center.

DEPARTMENT OF MEDICAL HUMANITIES

AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

Assistant Professor Kim Driscoll, Ph.D., was the subject of a feature article in Diabetes Forecast, a magazine of the American Diabetes Association. The title was “Helping Youngsters Use Diabetes Technology.”

DIVISION OF HEALTH AFFAIRS
Associate Dean Les Beitsch, M.D., J.D., was interviewed by Becker’s Hospital Review and the Tallahassee Democrat in connection with the Affordable Care Act decision by the U.S. Supreme Court.


OFFICE OF FACULTY DEVELOPMENT
A paper co-written by Associate Dean Dennis Baker, Ph.D., was named article of the month for December 2011 by the University of Saskatchewan. The article, “Teacher–student relationships in medical education: Boundary considerations,” was published in Medical Teacher.


OFFICE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
John Van Wingen, Ph.D., assistant dean for information management, has been chosen chair of the New Medical School Special Interest Group. The major goals of the group, formed in June 2011 at the AAMC Group on Information Resources’ annual meeting, are to create virtual and face-to-face forums to meet the needs of the community members, identify common areas of interest and collaboratively develop approaches to address challenges and opportunities.


CHARLOTTE EDWARDS MAGUIRE MEDICAL LIBRARY
Martin Wood, MSLIS (Medicine), assistant director of the library, hosted the 2012 Annual Conference of the Florida Health Sciences Library Association in June when he took office as the association’s 2012-2013 president. The theme was “Emerging Technologies in Medical Libraries.” Roxann Williams, MSLIS, serves as the association’s newsletter editor.


OUTREACH AND ADVISING
The College of Medicine’s Summer Institute has formed a partnership with Take Stock in Children, a nonprofit that provides mentors, scholarships and hope for Florida’s low-income and deserving young people. This summer Take Stock made it possible for students from low-income families in Immokalee to attend the weeklong session. The Summer Institute, a major component of the medical school’s diversification and recruiting efforts, lets students learn more about premedical advising and outreach, gain insight directly from faculty, interact with current medical students, participate in problem-based learning activities, attend college-preparatory workshops, shadow physicians and much more.


FORT PIERCE REGIONAL CAMPUS
Clerkship faculty members George Mitchell (pictured left) and Chris Hollinger (right) were honored with teaching awards from the graduating Class of 2012. Mitchell, D.O., medical director of Critical Care Medicine at Indian River Medical Center in Vero Beach, received the Excellence in Teaching Award. Hollinger, M.D., anesthesiologist at IRMC in Vero Beach, got the Extra Mile Award.

Clerkship faculty member Dennis Saver, M.D., was one of 82 physicians invited to the White House in June to be recognized as leaders in health information technology and to attend information technology events hosted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. IT leaders discussed their successes and trials with adopting and implementing electronic health records.

Earlier this year, Saver received a plaque from the Indian River County Medical Society and the We Care Committee recognizing that, as a founder and committee chair of We Care, “he has worked tirelessly to create and grow a program to serve patients in Indian River County who could otherwise not afford medical care.” The Indian River County Medical Society newsletter wrote about the Saver ceremony – and reported that Fort Pierce clerkship faculty members Tudor Scridon, Charles Eberhart, Greg MacKay and Joseph Zerega received We Care Awards for their service to the community.

Clerkship faculty member Howard Voss, M.D., was inducted into the Gold Humanism Honor Society in May for the compassionate way in which he treats underserved patients and mentors medical students. TCPalm newspaper announced the honor in a feature story. Voss was nominated by one of the students he mentored, College of Medicine alumnus Brandon Mauldin (M.D., ’12). For 11 years Voss has been medical director of the Volunteers in Medicine Clinic in Stuart, which serves Martin County residents who don’t have access to traditional medical care.


ORLANDO REGIONAL CAMPUS
Pediatric Clerkship Director Joan Meek, M.D., was elected to the American Academy of Pediatrics Executive Committee for the Section on Breastfeeding.