"Subject 1" was bedridden with a rare inherited disease before participating in a gene therapy clinical trial in Taiwan. Pictured here two years later in a photo supplied by lead researcher Dr. Paul Wuh-Liang Hwu of National Taiwan University Hospital, she smiles and displays greater mobility. The University of Florida supplied gene therapy expertise and the "vector" used to deliver corrective genes to the four clinical trial patients.

Using gene transfer techniques pioneered by University of Florida faculty, Taiwanese doctors have restored some movement in four children bedridden with a rare, life-threatening neurological disease.

The first-in-humans achievement may also be helpful for more common diseases such as Parkinson’s that involve nerve cell damage caused by lack of a crucial molecule in brain tissue. The results are reported today (May 16) in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

The children in the study, who ranged in age from 4 to 6, inherited a rare disease known as aromatic L-amino acid decarboxylase deficiency, or AADC. Patients with AADC are born without an enzyme that enables the brain to produce the neurotransmitter dopamine. They generally die in early childhood.

In a phase 1 clinical trial led by Wuh-Liang Hwu, M.D., of the National Taiwan University Hospital, surgeons used a delivery vehicle called an adeno-associated virus type 2 vector to transport the AADC gene into localized areas of the brains of three girls and a boy.

Before therapy, the children showed practically no spontaneous movement and their upper eyelids continually drooped. After receiving the corrective gene, the children gradually gained some head movement. Sixteen months afterward, the children’s weight had increased, one patient was able to stand and the other three were able to sit up without support.

The study shows gene therapy that targets AADC deficiency is well-tolerated and leads to improved motor development and function, according to co-authors Barry Byrne, M.D., Ph.D., director of UF’s Powell Gene Therapy Center, and Richard O. Snyder, Ph.D., director of UF’s Center of Excellence for Regenerative Health Biotechnology. Both are members of the UF Genetics Institute.

“The children in this study have the most severe form of inherited movement disorder known, and the only treatments so far have been supportive ones,” said Byrne, a pediatric cardiologist and associate chairman of the department of pediatrics in the College of Medicine. “It is gratifying to see it is possible to do something to help them, other than providing feeding tubes and keeping them safe. This absolutely opens the door to the possibility of even earlier treatment of neurological diseases by direct gene transfer, and has implications for Parkinson’s disease, ALS and even cognitive diseases such as dementia when caused by gene defects.”

"Subject 1" was bedridden with a rare inherited disease before participating in a gene therapy clinical trial in Taiwan. Pictured here two years later in a photo supplied by lead researcher Dr. Paul Wuh-Liang Hwu of National Taiwan University Hospital, she smiles and displays greater mobility. The University of Florida supplied gene therapy expertise and the "vector" used to deliver corrective genes to the four clinical trial patients.

The Powell Gene Therapy Center provided expertise to the Taiwanese physicians on treating the patients and engineering the corrective gene that spurs production of the absent AADC enzyme. UF’s Center of Excellence for Regenerative Health Biotechnology manufactured the vector, packaging genetic material it received from Taiwan into virus particles that were purified, characterized and tested for sterility and stability before being shipped to the clinic for use in patients.

“We are ecstatic that we manufactured a product that provided therapeutic benefit to these patients,” said Snyder, an associate professor in UF’s department of molecular genetics and microbiology. “What really makes it special is there are just a handful of examples of gene therapy in children in the world, and these patients all improved.”

Doctors injected the AADC vector into a brain area called the putamen, a site known for AADC activity and part of a “loop” of brain connections related to movement.

Postoperative CT and MRI scans of the patients showed no evidence of bleeding and all four patients were discharged within a week. Three to six months after gene transfer, all the children had gained weight, including one patient who doubled her weight within a year.

Before gene therapy, all patients showed low raw scores in cognition and motor development on a scale called the Comprehensive Developmental Inventory for Infants and Toddlers. Afterward, scores in both areas increased.

Parents reported the children also slept better and had improved eye coordination, emotional stability and body temperature stability.

Eight additional children — four in Taiwan and four in the United States — are expected to receive the experimental treatment, Byrne said.

Nanoparticles have many potential beneficial applications in medicine, science and technology because of their size and how they behave. They could, for example, be used to deliver drugs to specific parts of the body, or to stick to cancer cells so they show up better under standard imaging technology.

Or they could be used to make a cute little heart tattoo.

Millions of people around the world have tattoos. One quarter of Americans between 18 to 50 have them. But not all tattoo inks are created equal. Using lasers and other high-tech measurement methods the researchers found that different color inks had different-sized particles. Black pigments had the tiniest particles, white pigments had the largest and colored inks had sizes in between. It wasn’t just about size, but also amount. All the inks except for the white ones were bursting with nanoparticles; Black pigments were made up almost entirely of them.

But how might these particles affect health? Studies show that nanoparticles have the potential to generate unstable chemical species that can damage cells and tissues, but more studies are needed to see how those lab findings might translate to human health. Despite that, Mom might just have added one more thing to her list of reasons you shouldn’t get a tattoo.

I-C-D 10 stands for International Classification of Disease, 10th revision. It is composed of thousands of different codes, which together make up the billing system used for different types of treatment. For example, if you have an insect bite on your right eyelid, the code is S-O-O.261. If it’s on your left eyelid, it’s S-O-O.262. I-C-D 10 was created by the World Health Organization in 1993 to replace I-C-D nine, now considered very out of date.

Almost every other country has switched to I-C-D 10 — except the United States, which still uses I-C-D nine. The Department of Health and Human Services set a deadline of October 2013 for the switch to I-C-D 10, but the move worries many in the medical profession. In fact, the American Medical Association lobbied Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to change the deadline. A-M-A leaders said it was too expensive and would create extreme administrative burdens at a time when doctors are trying to implement electronic records and comply with other mandates. Also, they said it didn’t fit with President Barack Obama’s directive to remove unnecessary bureaucracy from health care. Sebelius relented and a new deadline has yet to be set.

Chances are it won’t have much of an effect on you as a patient. But there are reasons why many in the medical community are eager for the switch. First, I-C-D nine has no more room to grow. Secondly, because the codes in I-C-D 10 are more comprehensive, it may allow for better analysis of disease patterns. Lastly, it could help streamline billing, which could ultimately save us all some money.

And as ironic as it sounds, too much stress is one more thing a mommy-to-be must worry about.

Harvard Medical School researchers say stressed-out moms may be passing more than worrywart ways to their unborn offspring. A mother’s stress actually seems to increase her baby’s risk for developing allergies and asthma.

The scientists studied more than three-hundred infants, analyzing cord blood taken at birth for a specific antibody that appears when the immune system is triggered. They also measured how stressed the mothers were during pregnancy and assessed their exposure to dust mites, a common trigger of allergic attacks.

Babies whose mothers were stressed during pregnancy had more of the antibody in their cord blood than other babies. This was true even if their exposure to the allergy-causing dust mites was low. So how is it possible? Researchers say stress seems to amplify an allergen’s ability to spark a reaction.

According to the March of Dimes, too much stress can cause premature delivery, too.

Is a totally stress-free pregnancy impossible? Perhaps, but experts advise getting as much pre-baby rest and relaxation as possible.

Just don’t stress out about it.

W. Thomas Smith, Pharm.D., J.D., a clinical associate professor in pharmaceutical outcomes and policy.

Spring term at the University of Florida College of Pharmacy has brought a full round of support from students and faculty for W. Thomas Smith, Pharm.D., J.D., a clinical associate professor in pharmaceutical outcomes and policy.

Voted teacher of the year, Smith now takes the helm as director of the college’s Online Master of Science in Pharmacy program, developed for working professionals in nondispensing areas of pharmacy administration.

“We have the responsibility to assist each and every one of our students in becoming professional and responsible citizens,” Smith said. “Every day, I pause to appreciate how fortunate I am to be able to make such a profound difference upon the profession of pharmacy.”

Smith’s teaching philosophy grew out of his own student experience, he said, learning much more by “rolling up his sleeves and practicing.” He also uses real-life examples from his early work in pharmacy practice to show students what they will be doing as professionals.

Since joining the college in 2008, Smith has taught a class on pharmacy law and ethics, and another on the process and outcomes of regulations. Promoted in 2011 to clinical associate professor, he also lectures on clinical research ethics.

His research focus is on disability education in pharmacy curricula and legal and ethical issues related to disability and health care. Smith has been a speaker in 2011 at the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Institute, and in 2010 at the American Pharmacists Association and at the American Bar Association national meetings. He has published articles in the Mississippi College Law Review, the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education and Academic Medicine.

Smith has served on Education and Scholarship Committee for the American Society for Pharmacy Law. He was named chair-elect to an AACP Special Interest Group on cultural competency and health disparities and holds ABA leadership positions in the Health Law Section and on the Special Committee on Bioethics and the Law.

Smith also recently completed a three-year presidential appointment on the ABA’s Commission on Mental and Physical Disability Law.

Smith earned a Doctor of Pharmacy degree in 1994 from the St. Louis College of Pharmacy and a Juris Doctorate degree in 2005 from the Center for Health Law Studies at the Saint Louis University School of Law.

Prior to joining the UF, Smith served as the director of operations for Corum Health Services Inc., a long-term care pharmacy in St. Louis, and as a faculty member at the St. Louis College of Pharmacy.

Roger Fillingim, Ph.D.

Roger Fillingim, Ph.D., a professor in Community Dentistry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Florida College of Dentistry, will take the reigns of the American Pain Society during its annual scientific meeting in Honolulu in May.

Fillingim has been a member of the APS since 1987 and has served in several leadership roles including as chair of both the Scientific Program and Education Advisory committees. In 2009, he received the Wilbert E. Fordyce Clinical Investigator Award from the APS for his clinical pain scholarship and research achievements. He has served as president-elect for the last two years and will also serve as president for two years, with duties including overseeing the APS board of directors, and setting priorities and direction for the organization.

In 1984 Fillingim graduated from Mercer University in Savannah, Ga., with a bachelor’s degree. in psychology. He earned his master’s degree. and Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham where he also received a Dean’s Award as the outstanding graduate student in the social sciences. Fillingim joined the College of Dentistry in 2000 and also serves as a staff psychologist for the North Florida South Georgia VA Health System.

Though you might associate graying with the death of your lovely tresses, gray hair is actually associated with rapid hair growth. Gray or white hair is generally longer and thicker than black hair: Just think about that one long white eyebrow hair of yours that sticks out annoyingly past all the others and keeps growing back, hydra-like, when you pluck it out. Yes, gray hair also grows faster and for a longer time than black hair.

A study of scalp and eyebrow hair revealed that the genes responsible for producing two of the main structural proteins in hair are twice as active in white hair as in black hair. The researchers, who published their findings in the British Journal of Dermatology, also looked at substances called growth factors that control how and where hair grows over time. They discovered that one of the substances that boosts hair growth is more active in white hairs than in black. On the other hand, another substance that slows hair growth is more active in black hair.

But how does hair growth translate to loss of hair color? Hair, like skin, gets its color from a compound called melanin. There are special cells that produce melanin. During hair growth, chemicals are produced that can kill or prematurely age those color-giving cells. One such chemical is hydrogen peroxide, which is well-known as a bleaching agent. In the end, though death of certain kinds of cells contributes to grayness, you can also blame the gray on too much growth.

What to do? Well, if you ever get tired of coloring and plucking your gray hair, take your cue from silver foxes like George Clooney, Anderson Cooper and Jamie Lee Curtis and embrace the gray.

Modest leg room is one of the hallmarks of flying coach. Some have said sitting in such cramped conditions can cause “economy class syndrome” and put frugal fliers at a higher risk for developing deep vein thrombosis on flights longer than six hours.

The condition occurs when legs have been sitting for too long and a clot forms. The clot can be fatal if it travels to the lungs and results in a pulmonary embolism. Six-hundred-thousand people are hospitalized with deep vein thrombosis each year and more than 100,0000 die of resulting pulmonary embolism in the United States alone.

Scientists say there’s no truth to the myth that prolonged sitting spells trouble for those in good health. But if you take oral contraceptives, are recovering from a recent surgery, are obese, pregnant or otherwise at risk of developing a blood clot, you have a higher likelihood of developing deep vein thrombosis — and should certainly sit in an aisle seat if you can for flights lasting more than six hours. Make sure to get up every so often and move around. Stretching calf muscles is also important. You might even consider wearing below-the-knee compression stockings.

About half of people don’t have symptoms, but if you experience redness, swelling, tenderness or pain in your leg, it could be deep vein thrombosis and you should get to a doctor.

At the very least, it gives you an excuse to sit in the aisle seat. Or you could always spring for first-class.

Brian S. Wilson, M.D., Ph.D., (left) an associate professor in the College of Medicine department of pathology, immunology and laboratory medicine and the UF Diabetes Center of Excellence, confers with postdoctoral fellow Hyeong-Woo Lee, Ph.D. Wilson is part of a research team that devised a two-step Type 1 diabetes therapy demonstrated to be effective in mice.

University of Florida researchers teamed with colleagues at City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, Calif., to devise a new combination therapy that reverses established Type 1 diabetes in mice.

The findings, which appear today (May 9) in the journal Science Translational Medicine, set the stage for the development of a new human therapy for Type 1 diabetes that is effective over the long term.

The two-step regimen involves bone marrow transplantation and substances that promote the growth of cells that produce insulin, the sugar-regulating hormone that is missing in people who have Type 1 diabetes.

“If our therapy is successfully translated to humans, patients will be able to have a life without Type 1 diabetes — that’s the exciting part,” said senior author and UF collaborator Defu Zeng, M.D., an associate professor of hematology and hematopoietic cell transplantation at City of Hope.

UF Type 1 diabetes experts Brian Wilson, M.D., Ph.D., and Mark Atkinson, Ph.D.,  in the College of Medicine department of pathology, immunology and laboratory medicine and the UF Diabetes Center of Excellence, are key members of the research team, which also demonstrated that insulin-producing cells can come from other types of cells altogether.

Type 1 diabetes arises when the body’s immune system attacks cells in the pancreas that produce insulin, whose job is to move sugar out of the blood so it can be converted to energy. As a result, glucose builds up in the blood, causing organ damage. More than 1 million people in the United States live with Type 1 diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And more than 30,000 new cases are diagnosed each year. People who have the disease must take insulin injections to survive, but insulin supplementation does not cure Type 1 diabetes nor prevent complications such as blindness, kidney disease and heart disease.

The only existing therapy that can reverse established Type 1 diabetes is transplantation of a type of

pancreatic tissue called islets, which contain the insulin-producing beta cells. But chronic rejection is a big problem with that approach, and the diabetes-reversing effect lasts only about three years. In addition, to get enough cells for each patient, two or three donors have to be found.

Researchers have continued to explore various ways to counteract the body’s attack on insulin-producing cells. They have developed methods to blunt the action of immune system cells against beta cells. And previous experiments have shown that in the early stages of Type 1 diabetes, some insulin-producing cells still exist and can be cajoled into action. But at advanced stages of disease, those cells are mostly destroyed.

The researchers concluded that a dual approach that prevents the immune system from killing beta cells, and, at the same time, replenishes the supply of beta cells was needed.

They used a growth hormone and another chemical to stimulate the production of new beta cells. In so doing, they verified that the treatment could induce new insulin-producing cells in mice whose immune system is programmed to kill those cells. And it turned out that the new cells came not just from the replication of existing cells, but also from the transformation of other kinds of cells.

“It’s conceptually a new way to go after Type 1 diabetes treatment, and lends strong support to the idea that beta cells can — and do — come from a source that is not beta cells undergoing replication,” Wilson said.

The findings suggest that, given the right stimulation, patients with diabetes could produce the needed cells on their own instead of having to wait for transplants from donors.

But by itself, generation of new beta cells was ineffective at reversing late-stage Type 1 diabetes in the mouse models, because the immune system kills those cells as soon as they appear. First, the researchers had to create a safe environment that would allow the new cells to survive. For that, they explored an option more commonly thought of as a treatment for leukemia. Bone marrow transplantation has been shown to help the immune system learn how to recognize and tolerate newly formed insulin-producing cells. Together, the therapies did the trick, reversing late-stage diabetes in 60 percent of the mice in the study.

“This gives a mechanism where you could use this bone marrow engraftment combined with growth factors to reverse established diabetes — that, I think, is the really big thing there,” said David Serreze, Ph.D., a professor at The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, and an adjunct associate professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, who was not involved in the current study. “The individual components had been known before, but it was a very ingenious way of pulling them all together.”

The UF collaborators and Zeng are working to form a national collaboration to further investigate and develop the new combination therapy.

“This is not going to be in the clinic tomorrow,” Serreze said. “But is this something you could envision being used sometime in the future? Oh, absolutely.”

Caption: Dr. Charles Courtney, associate dean for research and graduate studies; Sally O’Connell, administrative assistant and dog trainer; and Dr. Patrick Larkin, who will instruct a new course titled “The Dog” at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine this fall. (Photo courtesy of Dr. Larkin)

With subjects including the dog’s role in society, proper pet grooming and the latest about careers in veterinary technology and medicine, a new online course offered this fall through the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine targets undergraduate students in a comprehensive educational outreach effort that may be the first of its kind in the United States.

The course, titled simply, “The Dog,” is aimed at undergraduate students planning careers in veterinary fields. It also touches on such topics as evolution, domestication, anatomy and physiology, behavior and dog health.

Organizers expect participants from all over the country and beyond. Several students from Canada have even already signed up.

“Besides introducing them to different aspects of dogs in society, we will include topics that will enable these students to be well-rounded when they finish their veterinary studies,” said Dr. Patrick Larkin, the course’s instructor.

“Many students who are entering veterinary school have never seen a dog show, but some of their future clients will professionally show dogs,” Larkin said. “For example, professional groomers don’t like it when veterinarians shave their dogs because that means their clients can’t show them for a long time. That particular segment of the course will familiarize students with the nuances of the dog show world.”

For added value, Larkin plans to include interviews with faculty members who will share information about why they chose their particular career path and offering advice to students. “The concept is similar to a class textbook with information appended to each chapter, allowing for a deeper exploration of information in the field,” he said.

Also an adjunct professor of biology at Santa Fe college in Gainesville, Larkin received his doctorate at UF, and joined the college’s faculty in June. He has since spent most of his time organizing the new course, lining up lectures, designing the infrastructure, uploading content and obtaining all of the necessary permissions within the college and UF to move forward.

“It’s been a lot of fun for me, just interacting with different faculty members and getting them excited,” Larkin said. “Dr. (Charlie) Courtney has been supportive all along to keep things moving and it’s been fun working with a lot of different faculty.”

Courtney, the college’s associate dean of research and graduate studies, first conceived of the course and has been instrumental in its creation. Courtney’s administrative assistant, Sally O’Connell, is active in the dog show circuit and helped arrange to film a dog show in Ocala for the class.

Dr. Natalie Isaza, director of the shelter medicine clerkship at UF, provided an interview about what’s involved in shelter medicine and why she chose to focus her career in that area; Dr. Jeremy Delcambre gave an overview of animal science and even the chairman of the college’s department of physiological sciences, Dr. Paul Cooke, will provide lectures relating to anatomy, the circulatory system and endocrinology.

“He’s a really busy guy, but he saw the importance of the class and recruited a few of his faculty to also help,” Larkin said. “From deans to department chairs to even some students who recently graduated, there’s a lot of expertise at the UF veterinary school and the pool of knowledge we have to tap into here is really impressive.”

The first course will consist of both UF students and non-UF students. Larkin quickly filled the UF slots, even without widely advertising. The advertising he has done has been through contacts with pre-veterinary clubs at different schools. Larkin and a few other UF representatives also attended a national pre-veterinary club meeting in North Carolina to help get the word out.

The registration deadline is Aug. 20. For more information about the course, visit http://sacs.vetmed.ufl.edu/programs/undergraduate/ or email Larkin at pmlarkin@ufl.edu.

But could your test scores blow your cover?

According to a study published in the journal Appetite, it’s possible.

University students who chewed gum before taking tests performed significantly better in the first half hour of testing than those who didn’t chew gum.

The study found that chewing gum led to an overall increase in cognitive functioning, particularly working memory, episodic memory and speed of processing, but only when gum was chewed prior to taking a test, not during. The effect was strongest just when a person finished chewing gum and only lasted for about 20 minutes afterward.

But just because you pop a piece of bubble gum before your next big test, doesn’t necessarily mean you will ace it.

The study also found the cognitive benefits of chewing gum last for a limited amount of time. The gum chewers performed significantly better in the first 30 minutes of the test as opposed to those who didn’t chew gum. In fact, those who chomped on gum remembered 25 to 50 percent more than people who did not chew gum. However, during the second half of the test, the gum chewers did not have a cognitive advantage over the non-gum chewers.

More research is needed to determine the exact reasons for this boost in brain power, but scientists have a few ideas. One theory suggests chewing leads to an increase in arousal and alertness, and this arousal lasts for a short period of time after you finish chewing.

So next time you think you need a quick brain boost, chomping on a piece of gum may do the trick. Just make sure to chew it before your big test.

The education series includes four free classes: “Coping with Hearing Loss,” “A Thousand Ways to Say ‘Huh,’” “Handling Difficult Listening Situations” and “What Other Help is There?” Classes are held at the United Way of North Central Florida office, 6031 NW 1st Place, Gainesville. Session 1 of the four-part class series will be held from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. on May 16, May 23, May 30 and June 6. Session 2 will be held from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on July 9, July 16, July 23 and July 30.

Participants are encouraged to bring family and friends to the classes, but space is limited. Please call 352-294-5151 or email mmccaghren@phhp.ufl.edu register for either the Session 1 dates or Session 2 dates of the “Living with Hearing Loss” classes.

Dr. David Weinstein (left, with a patient) recently received a donation from the Johnny Damon Foundation to support efforts to establish a research center on the Faroe Islands, where one in 3,000 people have glycogen storage disease type III, as opposed to one in 100,000 in the general population. The effort could also lead to discoveries about high blood pressure.

With the support of a Major League Baseball star, a new University of Florida research center on an island settled by the Vikings could lead to breakthroughs about a rare genetic disorder and potentially change the course of care for high blood pressure and other common conditions.

UF College of Medicine researchers studying a genetic condition called glycogen storage disease type III, which prevents children and adults from properly processing sugar stored in the body, have received support from the Johnny Damon Foundation to establish a new research center on the Faroe Islands, located in the North Atlantic Ocean between Norway and Iceland. Because of the isolation of the island chain, genetic diseases are common there, making it a fertile ground for researchers.

“Johnny Damon has no connection to this disease, so his willingness to help means a lot to me,” said David Weinstein, M.D., a professor of pediatrics in the UF College of Medicine and director of the UF Glycogen Storage Disease Program. “We hear often about problems in sports, but we don’t frequently hear about athletes who go out of their way to help people. We could not do this without his support.”

Type III glycogen storage disease is one of the rarest forms of the disease and is linked to all the places where the Vikings settled more than 1,000 years ago. The disease occurs because of a genetic glitch that prevents children’s bodies from properly processing glycogen, stored sugar the body uses as fuel throughout the day. In children with this disease, stored sugar accumulates in the liver and muscles, including the heart, often causing it to grow so large it cannot function.

One in 3,000 people on the Faroe Islands has glycogen storage disease, or GSD, compared with about one in 100,000 in the United States. In addition, one in 22 people on the islands is a carrier for the disease, a statistic Weinstein suspects may be linked to other conditions prevalent there, such as high blood pressure and high levels of fats called triglycerides. Because Faroese people consume mostly fish, meat and root vegetables — there is only one fast food restaurant in the country — the high prevalence of high cholesterol and high triglycerides among the population is a mystery, Weinstein said.

Working in collaboration with the Faroese government and scientists there, UF researchers will study not only glycogen storage disease but also how it may link to some of these other common problems.

“The textbooks all say when you are a carrier for genetic diseases, that you are normal and have no effects,” Weinstein said. “We think the textbooks are wrong. We have evidence already from dogs that are carriers for GSD here that carriers of disease have mild manifestations. The way it may present is as high cholesterol and high triglycerides or it may be a cause of kidney stones. Common problems we deal with all the time may be due to being a carrier for this disease. This study will help not only islanders but could show that we should be treating common disorders in a different way.”

For example, if a link is found between glycogen storage disease and high cholesterol, the research may show that precise doses of cornstarch —the common treatment for some types of GSD — could be a safer and more effective treatment to combat cholesterol in carriers than the medications currently used, Weinstein said.

With no other foundations funding type III glycogen storage disease research, the Johnny Damon Foundation’s continuing support and $16,000 donation earmarked specifically for the new research center is particularly significant, Weinstein said.

“For us, this donation was an opportunity to support research that could make a difference in the lives of children living with what can be a devastating disease without the right therapy,” said Arden Czyzewski, executive director of the Johnny Damon Foundation. “We are also excited that this work could potentially help advance understanding about other common health conditions that affect people across the world.”

Damon currently plays for the Cleveland Indians but is perhaps most well-known for his play with the Boston Red Sox when the team won its historic World Series in 2004 and for his five years with the New York Yankees, where the team also won a World Series.

At UF, home to the largest center in the world for the liver forms of glycogen storage disease, Weinstein sees patients with the type III GSD from every continent except Antarctica. He started working with patients on the Faroe Islands in 2008 after meeting a German doctor who frequently visited the country to treat children with the disease. With Weinstein’s help, the health of children on the island with the disease has greatly improved, said collaborator Runa Olsen, M.D., a pediatrician at Queen Alexandrine’s Hospital on the Faroe Islands.

“It is very exciting, the fact that we are establishing a research community on the island is very good for other diseases, too,” Olsen said.

Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center and the University of South Florida College of Medicine are studying a program in which medical students practice breaking bad medical news to actors who portray patients.

All medical students at USF are required to participate in a two-to-three hour training session where they learn how to communicate bad news. After the session, the students role-play with an actor who is trained to act the part of a patient with a particular type of cancer.

The encounters typically last about 15 minutes. At the end, each student discusses the session peers and a surgical oncologist. They review the strengths and weaknesses of the interaction and offer suggestions.

Role-playing has long been a popular method for training medical students, particularly when it comes to communication. Advocates say it helps students learn to listen to their patients, instead of merely relying on data.

At the University of South Florida, students are taught to focus on both verbal and non-verbal communication, including eye contact. They’re also taught how to deal with different reactions, such as denial or tears.

At the end of the session, students were asked to fill out a questionnaire about the training method. It received an overwhelmingly positive response. Most students said the role-playing felt realistic and gave them a better idea of how to react.

That’s good news for their future patients, who will likely need all the patience and sympathy they can get at such a difficult time.

Kirstan K. Meldrum, M.D.

Kirstan K. Meldrum, M.D., has joined the University of Florida College of Medicine department of urology as chief of pediatric urology.

A board-certified pediatric urologist, Meldrum will provide the community with comprehensive pediatric urological care, a medical specialty more commonly found in large cities and previously unavailable in north central Florida.

Pediatric urologists care for patients with abnormalities of the genitalia and urinary tract, treating conditions such as urinary reflux, bladder abnormalities, obstruction of the urinary tract, undescended testicles, penile and urethral abnormalities and ambiguous genitalia.

Her arrival expands UF’s nationally recognized urology program, which is ranked 23rd in the nation and No. 1 in Florida by the U.S. News & World Report, according to Johannes Vieweg, M.D., professor and chairman of the department of urology in the College of Medicine,

“Dr. Meldrum brings enthusiasm for her work and a breadth of surgical expertise that will provide our community and northern Florida with much-need comprehensive pediatric urological care,” Vieweg said. “She embodies the multidisciplinary vision of our program as a clinician, surgeon and researcher.”

Prior to her arrival at UF, Meldrum spent 10 years at Riley Children’s Hospital in Indiana, where she maintained a busy clinical practice and served as the director of pediatric urological research. Riley Hospital has one of the highest ranked pediatric urology programs in the country and is a nationally recognized center of excellence for complex genitourinary reconstruction in conditions such as spina bifida and disorders of sexual differentiation.

Meldrum completed her undergraduate degree at Smith College, her medical degree with honors at the University of Colorado, her urology residency training at Indiana University and her pediatric urology fellowship training at John Hopkins University.

“Since I’ve been here, I have been overwhelmed with the amount of support I have received from Dr. Vieweg and the University of Florida, and have been truly amazed at the excitement that exists out in the community over having a pediatric urologist back at Shands,” Meldrum said. “I went into pediatric urology because I love taking care of children and having the ability to make a meaningful contribution to their lives. It is incredibly rewarding to have the opportunity to practice in a community that has been in such great need of pediatric urological care.”

Meldrum’s most memorable case involves a little girl who was born with nonfunctioning kidneys, an absent bladder, a blind-ending vagina and abnormal genitalia. Doctors didn’t expect her to survive to term, but she was born healthy aside from her kidney disease and urological issues. After massive reconstructive surgery to create a bladder, vagina and normalize her genitalia, she is growing up to be a healthy girl and is now a candidate for kidney transplant, Meldrum said.

Meldrum moved from Indiana to Florida with her husband, Daniel Meldrum, M.D., chief of cardiothoracic surgery in the UF College of Medicine department of surgery’s division of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery.

Meldrum’s immediate goals for the division of pediatric urology are to provide comprehensive pediatric urological care to Gainesville and the surrounding area, but ultimately, she would like to make UF&Shands a major referral center in the state of Florida for fetal anomalies and complex genitourinary reconstructive cases.

“I love Gainesville and am very excited to have the opportunity to rebuild the pediatric urology program at the University of Florida,” Meldrum said. “There is a great history here, and it is an honor to follow in the footsteps of Dr. Dixon Walker, the former chief and one of the true pioneers in pediatric urology.”

New research shows that hepatitis C kills more people than H-I-V due to undiagnosed liver disease. More than 3 million American have hepatitis C, and about two-thirds of those infected are Baby Boomers born between the years 1945 and 1964 … but about half don’t know they are infected because screening is rare.

May is National Hepatitis Awareness Month. Like H-I-V, it can be spread through injectable drug use — which Baby Boomers are more likely to have tried than younger or older generations. Screening for blood donors didn’t start until the late 1980s, so it could have been spread through blood transfusions, too. And hospitals didn’t practice infection control as strictly as they do now.

So what can you do to protect yourself? First, practice safe needle use. If you get a tattoo or acupuncture, make sure the practitioner sterilizes needles thoroughly.

It’s just as important to get yourself tested. There aren’t many symptoms, so hepatitis C can go undiagnosed for decades, causing significant damage to the liver. Deaths from H-I-V have decreased thanks to better screening and improved access to care, so getting tested is the first step, and the sooner the better.

If you do have hepatitis C, you can prevent spreading it to others by avoiding exchange of bodily fluids. Keep cuts, blisters and open wounds covered and throw out bandages. Don’t share your toothbrush, razor, nail clippers or anything that could have your blood on it. But contrary to belief, hepatitis C is not spread through saliva. So you can kiss your loved ones — just don’t bleed on them. Staying smart about hepatitis C can keep it contained.

Now it appears drinking may also help your joints.

An article published by the journal Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases suggests alcohol consumption reduces the risk of rheumatoid arthritis.

That’s a chronic disease that occurs when the immune system attacks the joints, causing inflammation, pain and eventual destruction of cartilage and bone.

Previous studies have shown alcohol may diminish production of chemicals that cause inflammation.

In the article, researchers analyzed data from two studies, one in Sweden and one in Denmark.

Each study involved hundreds of rheumatoid arthritis patients.

The participants provided blood samples and health information including their past and present alcohol use.

The researchers divided participants into four groups… nondrinkers and those with light, moderate or heavy alcohol use.

In both studies, light drinkers were about twice as likely as heavy drinkers to have rheumatoid arthritis.

The contrast was even more dramatic when the researchers accounted for two additional factors… tobacco use and the presence of a specific antibody.

Among people with the antibody, rheumatoid arthritis was more than four times as common among teetotalers who smoked, compared with drinkers who’d never smoked.

The researchers stopped short of recommending alcohol use to prevent rheumatoid arthritis, though they did recommend further study.

One thing they didn’t hesitate to recommend… the best way to cut your risk of rheumatoid arthritis is to avoid smoking, or quit.

That’s good advice… no ifs, ands or cigarette butts.

Jeffrey Abbott, D.V.M., Ph.D., an assistant professor of anatomical pathology in the department of infectious diseases and pathology, University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine

Jeffrey Abbott, D.V.M., Ph.D., an assistant professor of anatomical pathology in the department of infectious diseases and pathology, has been named the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine’s 2012 College Council Teacher of the Year.

The council annually selects an outstanding teacher to receive the designation, based on criteria including knowledge of subject matter, clarity of presentation, concern for students’ mastery of subject, fairness, enthusiasm for teaching and overall interest in student welfare. The winner receives $2,000 and a plaque.

A board-certified anatomical pathologist, Abbott received his D.V.M. degree with honors from Washington State University in 1997. He completed a residency in comparative anatomical pathology as well as a Ph.D. in immunology in 2004.

Abbott has been a member of the UF veterinary college faculty since 2005. He presently supervises the histology laboratory at the UF Veterinary Hospitals and serves as assistant director of the comparative immunology and retrovirology laboratory in the department of infectious diseases and pathology.

The college’s freshman veterinary students selected Abbott as their Teacher of the Year in 2011 and in 2008. Veterinary students also chose Abbott as their Basic Science Teacher of the Year in 2010 and in 2009. He was also a finalist in 2010 for the college’s Carl Norden-Pfizer Distinguished Teacher of the Year Award.

Abbott’s research interests include immunology of infectious diseases, cytokine therapy and vaccine development.

“The most important facet of effective teaching is engaging the students in the subject matter,” Abbott said. “If the student is not engaged, the amount they can learn is limited. As a teacher, it is my responsibility to impart to the students a love of the subject and a foundation upon which they will be able to build the skills necessary to be able to continue to learning during their careers throughout their lifetime.”

Robert Caude, PhD, a professor in the UF College of Dentistry’s oral and maxillofacial surgery department

The University of Florida Research Foundation has named Robert Caudle, Ph.D., as one of 33 Research Foundation Professors for 2012.

Caudle, a professor in the UF College of Dentistry’s oral and maxillofacial surgery department, was selected for his notable record of research and strong research agenda likely to lead to further distinction in his field. This three-year award garners a $5,000 annual salary supplement and a $3,000 grant.

The UF Research Foundation selects award winners based on recommendations from deans and department chairs and takes into account evaluations of research accomplishments evidenced by publication in scholarly journals, external funding and honors and awards.

Caudle, who joined the university in 1998, focuses his research on the molecular and physiological processes that initiate and maintain chronic pain with a goal of developing novel strategies to avoid onset of chronic pain and new therapies to treat chronic pain once it is established.

“Dr. Caudle came to our college as part of a Health Science Center pain initiative focused on improving our understanding of basic pain mechanisms. Pain represents arguably the most common and costly public health condition in the United States. Rob’s research is critical to improving our understanding of pain which should ultimately lead to improvements in pain management and the quality of life for the millions affected by this condition,” said Teresa A. Dolan, D.D.S., M.P.H., professor and dean. “It is of fundamental importance in all areas of health care and we’re proud to have Dr. Caudle and his research as part of our college program.”

The answer is peripheral arterial disease, but if you’ve never heard of P-A-D you’re not alone. The American Heart Association reports that between 4 and 5 million women have P-A-D but don’t know it — and worse, even fewer seek treatment. The condition occurs when arteries that supply blood to the extremities become clogged with fat and narrow, limiting blood flow. It usually affects the legs and pelvis and can sometimes lead to amputation.

What many women don’t realize is damage to these arteries can be as serious as damage to arteries leading to the heart and brain. And women with this condition are two to three times more likely to have a stroke or heart attack than women without it, especially if they are 50 or older. It’s important to pay attention to the disease because it’s also evidence that atherosclerosis (a-thuh-ro-skluh-ro-sus) is occurring throughout the body.

The danger with P-A-D is that many people don’t experience symptoms. But when they do, they suffer leg pain and cramping when walking or exercising. Maybe it makes you walk less, or you’ve had a pesky sore on your foot that just won’t heal. Other suspicious signs include legs that are cooler than arms or shiny skin and loss of hair on your leg. Some risk factors that might increase your chance of developing this disease include diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol, smoking and having a sedentary lifestyle.

If you think you might have peripheral arterial disease, don’t wait to get treatment because women tend to suffer a rapid decline in function. Drug therapy, surgery to restore blood flow and exercise can help. If any of the symptoms sound familiar, better check with your doctor. Be in the know and make a step toward healthier legs.

Dance Marathon at UF representatives present a $886,726 check for the Children’s Miracle Network at Shands Hospital for Children. Accepting for UF&Shands are David S. Guzick, M.D., Ph.D., UF senior vice president for health affairs and president of the UF&Shands Health System (left); Edward Jimenez, Shands senior vice president and chief operating officer (sixth from left); and Timothy M. Goldfarb, Shands chief executive officer (third from right). The money was raised during the 2012 Dance Marathon event.

Today, anthrax has faded from the headlines. But scientists and defense experts still work to avoid a comeback. An article published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences includes surprising information about how different people respond to anthrax.

Anthrax is a bacterium that produces “anthrax toxin” inside its victims. The toxin is what makes people really sick. But the new research shows it may not be super dangerous for everyone. Some people seem to handle it better than most.

The scientists say expression of a particular gene is partly responsible. The main purpose of that gene, known as CMG2, is to promote capillary growth and aid formation of umbilical veins.

But researchers say the gene also affects how the main component of anthrax toxin binds to cells. It produces a protein in cell membranes that the toxin uses as a latching-on point. The less toxin bound to a cell, the better chance it has of surviving. Other factors also affect anthrax susceptibility, but CMG2 is a major influence.

Of 234 people studied, three were extremely resistant to anthrax toxin. But vulnerability in the remaining group of subjects still varied greatly. Some people were 250 times more susceptible to anthrax toxin than others.

Scientists may one day use information on anthrax susceptibility to predict who would likely survive an anthrax attack, and who would be good first responders. Let’s hope the people with the best genes want the job.

Ayalew Mergia, Ph.D., biomedical researcher at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine

Ayalew Mergia, Ph.D., a biomedical researcher at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine, has received a UF Research Foundation professorship.

Sponsored by the university’s Division of Sponsored Research, the professorships are awarded to tenured faculty members campuswide for distinguished research and scholarship. The honor includes a $5,000 salary increase each year for three years and a one-time $3,000 award for research support.

Mergia, a professor in the college’s department of Infectious Disease and Pathology, works to develop antiviral gene therapies to prevent HIV infection and AIDS in humans.

The UF Research Foundation professorships were created by the foundation to recognize faculty members who have established a distinguished record of research and scholarship that is expected to lead to continuing distinction in their field.

Mergia has been a member of the UF veterinary faculty since 1993.

The number of humpback whales in the north Pacific has risen to more than 20,000, up from 8,000 in the 1990s and a mere fourteen-hundred in the mid-20th century. The most recent estimate comes after a three-year international study in which scientists catalogued the distinctive tail fin patterns of individual whales.

What’s more, this cheery new tally is probably an underestimate because whales in currently unknown breeding areas escaped the tail count.

So if you ever see a humpback mother and calf leap out of the water off the coast of Alaska, California or Hawaii, thank those dedicated individuals who’ve helped protect these stately giants of the sea.

Dogs and cats carry instincts from their wild ancestors, and these instincts tell them to hide discomfort. So we need to look for more subtle signs. These can be as simple as chewing or licking a sore spot, a decrease in self-grooming, weight loss or gain or any change in behavior.

Suffering pets may become restless, unusually quiet or needy. They may shun our touch or snap when handled. Panting or restless sleeping can also indicate pain.

Veterinarians are attuned to these signals and can help you find where your pet hurts. They can also draw on a modern armory of safe pain medications to help our furry friends feel better. So even if your special pal is stoic, you don’t have to be.

Many things can cause rabbits to itch, but parasites are among the most common. Like dogs and cats, rabbits can become infested with fleas or tiny mites. Fleas cause itching as well as blood loss. Bad infestations can even lead to anemia. Mites can inhabit the ears or the entire hair coat, leading to intense itching, redness and loss of fur.

Fortunately, treatment of these pesky parasites is easily handled with topical medications or insecticide injections. Just don’t apply anything on or in your furry friend unless it’s been prescribed by a veterinarian.

So keep your bunny free of itchy parasites, and keep those rabbit feet where they belong — hopping around in the garden after some tasty carrot tops.

Trusted friends and coworkers can give personal recommendations, and the American Animal Hospital Association has a website that can direct you to its members. But what’s the best way to decide?

Make some appointments with likely candidates or just ask to visit the practice. Is the staff friendly, organized and knowledgeable? Does the hospital look and smell clean? How much time do veterinarians spend asking and answering questions? Do they perform a thorough, hands-on examination that covers ears, eyes, throat, coat, chest and belly? Keep your eyes and ears open, and don’t be afraid to ask questions.

So when you make that move, spend time choosing the right veterinarian, and there’ll be tail wags and purrs all around.

Research has shown that the kings of the sea communicate information about their identity so that they can keep in touch over long undersea distances, using the various chirps, clicks and whistles that form a complex social interaction.

But in fact, their whistles aren’t really whistles at all, they’re more akin to human speech. Dolphins vibrate connective tissue in the nose the same way that people vibrate vocal cords to talk. There is also evidence that dolphins use sound to see, much as sonar or ultrasound produces images. Therefore, it may be possible to decipher their calls into pictures, like hieroglyphics.

So not only can we swim with dolphins, one day we may actually be able to talk to them. Doctor Doolittle would be pleased.

New research has found patterns to these unseen irritants, providing clues on how to avoid them. Fine particles are most abundant during dry weather, especially when barns are closed. Morning rituals like feeding and cleaning increase the particle load, especially when there are multiple horses.

To spare sensitive airways, regularly wet down dusty surfaces in the barn. Turning off vehicles or moving them away can also reduce fine particles from exhaust.

So keep your equine friend breathing easy by considering fine particles. Out of sight does not mean out of airways.

Adults and children between 6 and 10 years old listened to dog barks recorded during play, aggression or isolation. They were then asked to match the barks to the appropriate situations. Young children didn’t do too well, but the 10-year-olds scored as well as adults.

This indicates that basic understanding of canine speech develops at an early age, suggesting that people may have evolved this ability over our eons bonding with man’s best friend. Blind people are also adept at “speaking dog,” supporting the idea that this ability does not require visual cues.

So the next time your chatty chow chow voices her opinion, listen closely.

The fact is, kids get pinworms from other kids. Dogs see some colors like blue and purple, but can’t separate red from green. The specialized retina and reflective lining of the feline eye helps cats see in dim light, but not total darkness. And cats that fall from heights can be injured, just like dogs and people.

Perhaps the most dangerous myth is that female dogs should have a litter before they’re spayed. This common legend increases both the risk of mammary cancer and the number of unwanted pups. So if you want to separate facts from fancy, ask your veterinarian, the greatest myth buster of all.

Thirty-minute walks once or twice a day are also a great way for both you and your dog to stay in shape. Running or jogging can be good too, but check with your veterinarian first to make sure your pup is healthy enough for strenuous activity.

During hot months, schedule walks for early morning or late afternoon when it’s cooler and take water for drink breaks. Try to walk your canine companion on the grass to cushion joints and prevent hot summer roads and sidewalks from burning sensitive paws.

So for a healthier and happier relationship with your pet, keep the exercise up and the snacking down. You’ll both benefit.

An increasing number of animal hospitals are setting up donation programs, frequently offering donor incentives such as hospital credit and free blood work. Dogs have seven blood types, and about 40 percent of pooches are universal donors.

The best donors are large dogs and cats with a pleasant disposition that allows them to relax during the 20-minute donation process.

Just as when people donate blood, each visit ends with a tasty treat for the donor … and the satisfaction of knowing others will greatly benefit.

Traditionally, a transmitter in the collar tells scientists an animal’s location at any time. But a new generation of collars may be able to tell a whole lot more. Combining GPS with accelerometers, these smart collars can build a daily diary that tells when and where animals are resting, hunting or stalking. Metabolic data from captive animals can then be used to estimate the calories burned and oxygen used for each of these activities.

The collar is currently being developed for mountain lions but may soon be adapted for wolves, coyotes and eventually prey species such as elk.

By using these collars, scientists hope to gain a record of the ebb and flow of an ecosystem.

The key is to be calm, confident and quick. Ask your veterinarian for tricks to improve your technique. Wrapping cats in a towel and holding a small pet like a football help restrain Fluffy while you get the job done. Coating pills in a little butter improves the taste and helps them slide down better. After the pill goes in, a rub of the throat or a blow across the nose will help your patient swallow it.

Of course, some chowhounds will wolf down almost anything hidden in liverwurst, peanut butter or cheese, so you don’t have to worry about pilling by hand. But make sure the meds get down the throat, not spit out on the carpet, or behind the couch … or in your slipper.

May is National Asthma and Allergy Awareness Month, but one of the peskiest times of allergy season is still a few months away. According to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, late August and September are known as ragweed season, and each ragweed plant can produce up to 1 billion pollen grains, which float freely in the air.

Many people who suffer from ragweed and grass allergies take prescription medication or have weekly allergy shots to suppress the immune system’s reactions. These shots are filled with tiny amounts of the proteins that cause the allergic reaction.

But researchers may have found an easy, chewable alternative to shots for people with ragweed allergies. In a study of more than 500 people, those given experimental tablets had less nasal congestion, eye tearing and other allergy symptoms than those who had been given the placebo.

The tablets are already on sale in Europe and the company that makes them, Merck, plans to apply for approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration next year.

But for those who can’t wait to ease their allergy symptoms, there are some easy steps you can take to alleviate the pain and aggravation. First, find out what you’re actually allergic to by visiting an allergist. Also, if you have dogs or cats, try to keep your home as free of pet dander as possible. Begin taking your allergy medication in late August, preferably before you start sneezing. Another tip? Avoid outdoor activities between 5 a.m. and 10 a.m. when pollen counts are at their peak.

And though allergy season can be painful for many, new treatments may soon help stop the sneezes.

Motorists parking in Garage 3 should plan on entering via Gale Lemerand Drive beginning Sunday, May 6, through Tuesday, May 8. During that time, Mowry Road will be limited to a single lane with workers at each end of the construction zone to control the flow of traffic. Pedestrians will be rerouted along areas where work will affect sidewalks.

Mowry Road access to the parking garage will reopen on Wednesday, May 9, but one-lane traffic will continue through the week.

(From left) Past APhA President Tim Tucker (University of Tennessee), UF students: Mika Fujinaka, Dani Underwood, Jeanette Connelly, Dean Bill Riffee, and Past APhA President Ed Hamilton (UF)

The University of Florida dean of the College of Pharmacy is becoming a delegate for patient care in the largest U.S. association of pharmacists. The American Pharmacists Association elected William H. Riffee, Ph.D. as speaker-elect to its House of Delegates at its annual meeting last month.

More than 60,000 practicing pharmacists, pharmaceutical scientists, student pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and others advancing the profession are members of APhA. Its House of Delegates, represented by more than 450 elected members from 50 state associations, meets each year at an annual meeting in a forum for discussion, consensus-building and policy-setting for the pharmacy profession.

Riffee believes it’s important for representatives from the academic world of pharmacy to be involved in APhA policies.

“We bridge between what is being done now in patient care and what will happen in the future as educators for the next generation of practitioners,” Riffee said.

Next year as speaker, Riffee will begin serving two years on the Board of Trustees, which implements the policies developed in the House of Delegates.

Drug supply shortages and their impact on patient care, standardization of pharmacy practice descriptions and recognition as health care providers and controlled substances regulation are some of the issues Riffee expects to weigh in on as a delegate on the national level.

In 2011, as an officer of the Florida Pharmacy Association, Riffee presided as speaker of its House of Delegates during the 121st annual meeting.

Adding to Riffee’s honor were recognition of UF faculty and students at the meeting.

Professor Carole Kimberlin, Ph.D. received the Academy of Pharmaceutical Research and Science Research Achievement Award. Kimberlin was chosen for her significant contributions to pharmacist-patient relationship and communications, and her research impact on and patient health attitudes and behaviors related to medication use.

Other faculty recognition included the Phi Lambda Sigma Advisor of the Year Award to Michael McKenzie, Ph.D., senior associate dean for professional affairs; and the A. Richard Bliss Kappa Psi Grand Council Citation of Appreciation awarded to Tony Palmieri, Ph.D., an assistant clinical professor.

More than 50 UF student pharmacists, traveling by bus, joined their professors at the New Orleans meeting. Among them, Jeremy Lund, a third-year student from the Orlando campus, received an APhA Foundation Scholarship as the John Gans Scholar. The pharmacy students also received the Chapter of the Year award from the International Pharmaceutical Students’ Federation, and the APhA Academy of Student Pharmacists Region 3 Award for their Heartburn Awareness project.

Finally, the UF students and alumni won the challenge for the APhA-PAC Award, by raising $11,000 that was matched by the challenge matching program for a total of $22,000, far exceeding last year’s PAC donations of $3,000.

The meeting closed at a special breakfast with just a bit of gloating for the Gator Pharmacy Nation, Riffee said. APhA past-President Tim Tucker from the University of Tennessee had to wear a Gator apron while serving the Gator tables along with the Florida Past President Ed Hamilton, a UF alumnus.

New research shows that while women may not want to put on the pounds, a considerable number are not aware of the increase when they do gain weight.

In a first-of-its-kind study, investigators surveyed women’s perception of weight gain and also looked for any possible correlation to birth control use. They analyzed the weight gain of almost 500 over a three-year period. About one-third of these women used a birth control shot, while another third used oral contraceptives and one-quarter relied on non-hormonal birth control methods.

Every six months the women were given a questionnaire that asked them if they felt they had gained weight.

The findings indicated that of those who gained about five pounds over a six month period, almost one third of the subjects had no idea of the additional pounds put on. One quarter of the women who had gained nearly 10 pounds also had no clue. However, black women, as well as those using the birth control shot, were significantly more conscious of their weight gain. This may be because weight gain is a potential side effect of the shot, so women who get it could be paying more attention to weight fluctuations.

Being mindful of your weight is important to staving off potential health problems like heart disease and diabetes, so the researchers offer one simple tip to women: Weigh yourself. Stepping on the scale regularly and keeping track of your weight can help you keep a two-pound gain from turning into a 20-pound one.

New research published in the Journal of Nutrition found that even mild dehydration sapped energy levels and the ability to concentrate. Scientists at the University of Connecticut’s Human Performance Laboratory induced mild dehydration in 25 women through exercise and diuretic pills. They found that in general, mild dehydration did not affect women’s mental ability — but they did perceive tasks as more difficult and couldn’t concentrate as well. The same held true for men in a similar study.

The results lend credence to the age-old advice to drink six to eight glasses of water a day. About three-fourths of our brains are composed of water, and brain cells depend on fluid to run efficiently. So with the slightest hint of dehydration, even making minor calculations, like setting your alarm to get to work on time, can seem insurmountable.

But by the time you feel thirsty, it’s already too late. Headache and fatigue are also signs you need to guzzle a glass or two. Need help remembering to hydrate habitually? Make it a morning routine to drink a glass or two as soon as you wake up. Sleep is the longest we go without drinking, but even then we lose small amounts of fluid just by breathing. Sass up your water with lemon slices, chunks of fruit or mint. Invest in a portable water bottle to get H-2-O on the go.

And if not for your brain, drink for your beauty — skin cells also rely on water to function properly, so hydrated cells a beautiful face make.

Dance Marathon at UF is a year-round fundraising organization whose year culminates in the annual 26.2 hour Dance Marathon event. The funds are raised throughout the entire year by students engaging in letter-writing campaigns, online peer-to-peer fundraising and events hosted by the organization throughout the year.

David S. Guzick, M.D., Ph.D., UF senior vice president for health affairs and president of the UF&Shands Health System, will accept the check on behalf of Children’s Miracle Network at Shands Hospital for Children.

In its 18 years in existence, Dance Marathon at UF has raised $5,383,341. Dance Marathon at UF 2012 was held March 31 through April 1.

The pills are made from small, tightly compressed pieces of finely ground tobacco powder, as well as binders and flavorings. Tobacco company officials argue that the pellets have far fewer cancer-causing chemicals than cigarettes or smokeless tobacco and could be used to help people kick their nicotine habit.

But anti-smoking activists say the flavors and the packaging will appeal to children. They fear kids will try the pills, get hooked on the nicotine and then graduate to smoking or smokeless tobacco.

Dissolvable nicotine tablets debuted back in 2001. But in the past year, the number of products on sale or in test marketing jumped considerably, with major companies such as Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds stepping into the field.

Public health officials are especially worried about the effect these pills might have on teeth and gums after holding the product in the mouth for between 10 and 20 minutes. They are also concerned that swallowing the chemicals could affect the stomach.

For now, little is known about the health risks associated with tobacco pills. But at a time when the use of smokeless tobacco is on the rise in the United States, especially among youth and teens, it’s a safe bet the little pellets will be getting a closer look from doctors and government regulators alike.

David Brushwood, R.Ph., J.D., a professor of pharmaceutical outcomes and policy at the University of Florida College of Pharmacy

David Brushwood, R.Ph., J.D., a professor of pharmaceutical outcomes and policy at the University of Florida College of Pharmacy, joined the ranks of world-renowned clinical ethicists on April 13 when he was recognized at the 11th annual Healthcare Ethics and Law Institute conference.

Sponsored by Samford Universitys McWhorter School of Pharmacy, Brushwood received a Pellegrino Medal at a special ceremony, which also recognized John Lantos, M.D., a professor and director of the Childrens Mercy Bioethics Center in Kansas City, Mo.

The medal is named for Dr. Edmund D. Pellegrino, the first recipient of a lifetime achievement award from the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities.

Brushwood addressed pressing health-care ethics and law issues during the program, “Moral distress at the bedside: A role for hospital ethics committees.”

After 35 years in the pharmacy profession, Brushwood spoke of the challenges he still faces since his commitment on the day he first recited the Pharmacists Oath.

“Pharmacists are placed in an untenable position where they are ethically obligated to provide opioid medications to chronic pain patients who suffer every minute of their lives,” Brushwood said, “but, they also must comply with legal requirements to deny access to abusable drugs for those who should not have them.”

A graduate of the schools of pharmacy and law at the University of Kansas, Brushwood taught at West Virginia University and Philadelphia College of Pharmacy before joining the UF College of Pharmacy. His research focus is in regulating for outcomes, pharmacist professional responsibility, and pain management policy.

The scientists examined lysozymes [lye-suh-zymes], which are enzymes found in your tears that are capable of breaking down the cell walls of bacteria. The enzyme’s antiseptic properties were first discovered back in the 1920s by Scottish biologist and pharmacologist Alexander Fleming, the man who also discovered penicillin. However, no one knew exactly how lysozymes were capable of destroying bacteria so much larger than them. For example, white blood cells — the body’s first line of defense from bacteria — destroying bacteria by engulfing them. Lysozymes had to be far more subtle.

What the UC-Irvine scientists found sounds like something straight out of a horror movie. They discovered that each molecule of the protein acts like a voracious set of jaws that chomps into cell walls and won’t let go. As a result, lysozymes slice through bacteria as easily as a knife slipping through butter.

Unraveling this mystery wasn’t easy. The proteins bind with the molecules and undergo tiny changes as they tear through the walls. But the movements are so miniscule, they can be hard to track. So the scientists built a tiny transistor and attached it to a single protein molecule so they could monitor how it changes.

Besides begin really cool, what’s the benefit of this discovery? Scientists hope they can one day use this method to detect cancerous molecules earlier than current techniques. Now if only they could turn the killer lysozymes on cancer cells, too.

Mike Rivers, dog handler, performs a “bite and protection” exercise with Xander, one of the animals that participated in the recent UF study of heat stress in dogs. (Photo by Robbie Kuyrkendall)

Working dogs, such as K-9 officers, war dogs serving during military conflict, or rescue dogs who help with search and rescue efforts after natural disasters, often find themselves in life-threatening situations. But something seemingly more benign is often responsible for taking the lives of these animals — heat-related illness.

In working dogs, overheating can lead to dehydration, exhaustion, impaired ability to work or even death. But there are no evidence-based guidelines for preventing such heat-related issues. Now University of Florida researchers have conducted preliminary studies that may help fill that void and guide the prevention of heat-related illness in working dogs.

“These are real concerns, especially in the South in the summer as well as for working dogs deployed to the Middle East,” said lead researcher Sheilah Robertson, Ph.D., formerly a professor of veterinary anesthesiology at the UF College of Veterinary Medicine, now an assistant director of animal welfare at the American Veterinary Medical Association. “We don’t know what a ‘work-rest’ schedule should be under different environmental conditions.”

Based on their studies, the researchers recommend that, as much as possible, dogs work for short periods in morning and evening hours when the temperature is lower, and are kept in shady, well-ventilated areas. They also recommend that dogs wear protective Kevlar vests in dangerous situations, because despite concerns, there isn’t evidence that the vests contribute to overheating. In addition, specially designed cooling vests can help dogs cool down faster after strenuous work.

The findings were presented earlier this year during the 28th International Canine Sports Medicine Symposium in Orlando.

Working K-9s have often made headlines over the past decade because of high-profile assignments such as deployment in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, their use in rescue efforts after Hurricane Katrina, and even in hunting down terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden last year in Pakistan.

Acquiring and maintaining working animals is expensive. Each fully trained dog represents at least a $30,000 investment and countless hours of training. The true value of working dogs, however, can’t be measured in dollars, Robertson said.

Although most seasoned handlers try to minimize the risks to their dogs in hot and humid conditions, recommendations are based on best guesses or those used for humans. But big differences in physiology mean there is a limit to the usefulness of such efforts. For example, whereas humans use sweating to cool the body, dogs rely more on panting.

“What would also help us, as trainers, would be guidelines and explanations of the symptoms that we should be on guard for, so that we can recognize heat stress before it is serious,” said Phil Hoelcher, an internationally acclaimed Shutzhund trainer who has worked with many police departments and K-9 handlers around the U.S. “Our experience in the field is that once a dog’s temperature starts to spike, it is very hard to reverse it without going to our emergency methods of cold water, ice, fans and so on. We know that if it’s possible for even the most experienced trainer to miss the signs, it is not surprising that pet owners and less experienced trainers don’t even realize it is happening until it is too late.”

In the UF study, seven dogs went through intense 10-minute sessions that involved running at high speed, finding a hidden person and apprehending a “suspect” by the arm. Dogs performed the exercise with no vest, with a protective Kevlar vest and with a cooling vest that uses patented rechargeable packs to help maintain a comfortable body temperature. The dogs’ blood glucose, acidity levels and other values were measured, along with pulse and respiratory rates and rectal and core body temperatures before and immediately after activity, and throughout recovery periods. The study, funded through a $19,000 Morris Animal Foundation grant, was carried out during summer and winter months.

Robertson and co-investigator Kirsten Cooke, D.V.M., an associate professor of small animal medicine at the UF veterinary college, found that it took dogs longer to return to baseline temperature in the summer than in the winter — many cases 50 to 60 minutes longer. And in the summer, rectal temperatures could be 2.5 degrees Celsius higher than those at the body’s core. Dogs often needed more than an hour to cool down after intense summer exercise, and cooling vests helped some of them cool down faster.

There was no evidence that dogs were hotter when they wore Kevlar vests than when they went without, either in summer or winter.

“We recommend seeking more data on the use of cooling vests, and correlating rectal and core body temperatures to give a better understanding of how hot the dogs really are,” Robertson said. “In addition, we would like to see more studies of different cooling methods such as fans, air conditioned recovery areas or standing in water, and more research into the effect of repeated work cycles on the dogs over time.”

The United Network for Organ Sharing approved the reactivation on Friday, April 20. UNOS is the private, nonprofit organization that manages the nation’s organ transplant system and the national transplant waiting list under contract with the federal government.

UF&Shands leaders voluntarily suspended their adult and pediatric liver transplant programs and pancreas transplant program in August 2011 after several key transplant surgeons were recruited by medical centers in larger, more urban areas. The institution’s other organ transplant programs were not affected and remained operational.

“As always, our commitment to our patients is the No. 1 priority,” said David S. Guzick, M.D., Ph.D., senior vice president for health affairs and president of the UF&Shands Health System. “Transplantation programs combine highly skilled, interdisciplinary medical teams, heroic organ donors, donors’ families and a commitment to excellence. It is an honor to be able to help patients in this way, and we take the responsibility very seriously.”

Key to the reactivation of the liver transplant program was the arrival on March 4 of Jeffrey Fair, M.D., who became the new chief of the division of transplantation surgery in the UF College of Medicine’s department of surgery. The division focuses on transplantation of abdominal organs, including the kidneys, liver and pancreas.

Fair, a nationally renowned liver, kidney and pancreas transplant surgeon, most recently worked at the Comprehensive Transplant Center at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He also served as a professor of surgery at the University of California Los Angeles.

“Our transplant programs have earned a stellar reputation with our long-standing commitment and service to transplant patients from across the state,” said Kevin Behrns, M.D., chair of the department of surgery. “This enabled us to recruit a top-caliber transplant chief while maintaining outstanding relationships with our patients and peer transplant centers during this transition.”

UF&Shands leaders also plan to reactivate the pancreas transplant program this summer, after they hire another pancreas transplant surgeon and receive approval from UNOS.

With Fair, UF&Shands has three experienced and highly trained abdominal transplant surgeons. Ivan Zendejas, M.D., a UF assistant professor of surgery, is an expert in multi-organ transplantation of the liver, kidney and pancreas; and Thomas G. Peters, M.D., a professor of transplantation and hepatobiliary surgery at UF and the Methodist Medical Center Professor of Surgery at the UF College of Medicine–Jacksonville, specializes in kidney transplantation. Department of surgery leaders say they plan to hire three more liver and pancreas transplant surgeons.

“Our goal now is to complement the existing transplant team with at least three more surgeons who are credentialed to perform both liver and pancreas transplants,” said Michael L. Good, M.D., dean of the College of Medicine.

Transplant teams are now working to assist liver transplant patients who wish to return to UF&Shands for care. During the deactivation period, UF&Shands continued to provide post-transplant care for patients.

“Special thanks go to all our transplant colleagues, including our dedicated faculty and our exceptional transplant coordinators, who provided continued support to patients and their families,” said Tim Goldfarb, chief executive officer of Shands. “Thanks to them, many patients who have transitioned to other transplant centers and still await transplants may return to Shands for transplant care.”

Fair said the UF liver and pancreas transplant teams at UF&Shands remain strong and will continue to grow.

“UF possesses the depth of clinical and academic excellence to rebuild an outstanding liver transplant program,” Fair said. “We are committed to developing all our transplant services to make UF&Shands the state’s premier provider with national consequence and fulfill our mission as an academic medical center, providing outstanding patient care, education and innovation in discovery.”

But a trip south might solve both problems. Interesting new research reaffirmed the idea that Southerners, who enjoy year-round sunshine, also benefit from a lower risk of developing inflammatory bowel disease. The results, published in the journal Gut, found that women living in southern regions had a 52 percent lower risk of getting Crohn’s disease by age 30 and a 38 percent lower risk of getting ulcerative colitis compared with their neighbors to the north.

These results held up even when researchers ruled out factors that would increase a person’s risk for I-B-D, like family history. One theory for southern states’ success is that people living there get more exposure to U-V light, and therefore more vitamin D, which helps control immunity and inflammation. Regional differences, environmental pollution and infections could also offer explanations.

But one fact pokes a hole in the findings — studies have shown that miners, who spend hours underground, also have lower rates of I-B-D. So the solution to treating these diseases is not as simple as swallowing some vitamin D pills.

But what you can do to get Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis under control is keep stress in check. Stress has been to known to cause flare-ups. Some antibiotics, oral contraceptives and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, like aspirin and ibuprofen, can also cause irritation. Add a daily dose of probiotics, or “good” bacteria found in yogurt, to aid digestion. And if you’re lucky enough, move south for a dose of sunshine, too.

Mark L. Hudak, M.D., a professor and associate chairman of pediatrics at the UF College of Medicine-Jacksonville

Longtime professor and prolific neonatology researcher Mark L. Hudak, M.D., is the new chair of the pediatrics department at the University of Florida College of Medicine-Jacksonville.

The pediatrics department is the largest within the UF College of Medicine-Jacksonville and has specialty clinics and pediatric centers across Northeast Florida.

“The University of Florida College of Medicine–Jacksonville is privileged to have Dr. Mark Hudak as the new chairman of pediatrics and looks forward to great accomplishments from him and his department as he assumes his new role,” Daniel R. Wilson, M.D., Ph.D., vice president for health affairs and dean of the college wrote in an email to faculty.

Hudak succeeds Thomas Chiu, M.D., M.B.A., who stepped down as chair but remains on faculty.

“It is an extraordinary privilege to have been given this opportunity. I am humbled to be succeeding Dr. Tom Chiu, whose vision and innovation over more than 20 years have resulted in tremendous growth of our clinical, educational, and research missions,” Hudak said. “So I feel a very keen responsibility to our faculty, staff and partners and certainly to the patients and the community we serve.”

Hudak said he wants to expand the educational mission and the clinical quality and depth of the department. He also envisions growth of existing partnerships and creation of new collaborations as essential for augmenting the research and discovery missions of the department.

Hudak joined the UF College of Medicine–Jacksonville in 1995 as a professor of pediatrics and chief of the division of neonatology. He has been associate chairman of the pediatrics department since 2007 and is also the college’s assistant dean for managed care.

Hudak earned his medical degree at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, where he also completed his pediatrics residency and a fellowship in neonatology. Hudak was on faculty at Johns Hopkins for six years and was an associate professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo for five years before moving to Jacksonville.

He is the site principal investigator for the NIH National Children’s Study at Baker County, and was named the first Robert C. Nuss Researcher/Scholar of the Year in 2011.

Hudak is a past member of the FDA Pediatric Advisory Subcommittee and the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Drugs and is often consulted by the FDA for his expertise on issues related to drug therapy and clinical trials in neonates and children.

To address that issue, University of Florida researchers have received a $9.9 million grant from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Texas State Health and Human Services Commission to test whether increasing access to wellness services could improve the health of patients already facing physical and mental health conditions.

Study subjects who take part in the Texas Wellness Incentives and Navigation project will receive a small stipend to pay for items such as gym memberships, tools to quit smoking or even a simple bathroom scale. They also will work closely with a navigator who will help them set goals and identify health risks, said Elizabeth Shenkman, Ph.D., director of the UF Institute for Child Health Policy and the grant’s primary investigator.

“We know that patients with co-morbid physical and mental health conditions are at particularly high risk for a shortened lifespan, a sedentary lifestyle and alcohol use. They also are at risk for high health expenditures because they are hospitalized or use the emergency room often,” said Shenkman, who also serves as chairwoman of the UF College of Medicine department of health outcomes and policy. “Some of these folks have conditions such as asthma, diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease combined with depression or other mental health problems. The improved healthy lifestyle can help people better manage their physical health conditions and also have a positive effect on their mental health.”

For each year of the three-year study, participants will receive a $1,150 debit card to use on various wellness services and products, based on the plan each makes with his or her personal navigator.

Using a counseling technique called motivational interviewing, navigators will coach participants and help them determine what services they need and what steps they need to take to achieve a healthy lifestyle. Participants will meet with their navigators once a month.

“The utilization of motivational interviewing has been shown to be effective in improving patient engagement in and commitment to the treatment process in numerous clinical contexts, including in health care settings,” said Carson Ham, Ph.D., a UF psychologist and expert on motivational interviewing.

The researchers are developing an electronic form that will not only help assess patients’ risks and needs but also will be coded to provide links to resources in the specific areas where patients live.

“Many of these patients have transportation issues that affect their access to services, too,” Shenkman said.

The study is one of 10 the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently funded to assess how helpful financial incentives are in promoting wellness. After the studies are complete, the most effective projects will be used as models for the rest of the country.

Keeping in mind the ability to serve as a model, UF researchers are working in concert with three health plans in Houston that handle Medicaid. The navigators are working with patients through the three health plans as part of the grant.

“We want the project to take place in a context where it could be implemented in other settings,” Shenkman said.

To measure the success of the study, researchers will examine several key outcomes, such as whether it reduces visits to the emergency room. They also will monitor participant’s blood pressure and cholesterol levels and total health care expenditures. If health benefits and cost savings are achieved, hiring health navigators and providing small stipends for wellness up front could save money down the road by keeping patients out of hospitals, Shenkman said.

“We are very excited about this partnership with the health plans, to really test a novel program and see what works best,” Shenkman said. “This is a phenomenal opportunity.”

Researchers say fake tans are the answer. A study of more than 400 fair-skinned young women living in perennially sunny Atlanta, Georgia found that the more they fake-baked with spray tans and skin-tinting lotions, the less they went out to get sunkissed the old-fashioned way.

The research results, published in the Archives of Dermatology, run counter to dermatologists’ previous concerns that fake tans would encourage more self-sunning and more burning. But using a sunless product to get bronze decreased sunbathing by 37 percent and tanning bed use by 38 percent. The more women slathered themselves with sunless product, like lotions, foams or sprays, the better. Even using the stuff just five times a year translated to less U-V exposure.

After all, there’s no skirting the fact that tan is in and pale is out. The study also found that more than 90 percent of women preferred tan to white and almost 80 percent felt more beautiful when their skin was bronzed.

But even sunless tanners come with some safety concerns of their own. The main ingredient is D-H-A, which reacts with cells in the outermost layer of skin to darken its appearance. In some cases it can cause rashes and should not be inhaled.

And of course, bearing a beautiful bronze by bottle is no excuse to skimp on sunscreen once you do hit the rays. Slather on sunscreen that is at least S-P-F 30 about 15 to 30 minutes before heading outside. Remember to reapply every two hours or after swimming. A tan may look pretty, but skin cancer is not.

The results surprised authors of the study, which was published in the journal Open Anthropology. They thought the subjects would show little or no preference, but no matter how they framed the questions, there was still a strong leaning toward one gender or the other. But why? Scientists think it could have something to do with our ancestors.

Men simply have a greater ability to father more children than women could ever birth. But women’s penchant for daughters is not as clear. It could be a desire to share the experience of motherhood, or a need to foster mother-daughter emotional bonds. They could even want their girls to enjoy the same social and financial empowerment of modern-day womanhood.

But behind the notion that dads want boys and moms want girls, there’s concern that learning baby’s gender before he or she born could lead to abortion in parts of the world where males are valued more than females. Research revealed a new blood test that can determine a baby’s sex as early as seven weeks.

Long before science sought an answer to that question, parents have been trying all kinds of tricks to sway nature in one direction or the other.

Supposedly, conceiving closer to ovulation will bring you a boy, and including nuts and dairy in your diet will get you a girl.

But if you just want to have a healthy baby, it’s best to follow solid prenatal nutrition rules, like avoiding caffeine and alcohol and eating foods rich in folate, iron and calcium. Your baby is more likely to a healthy blessing, boy or girl.

In England, the situation is no better. In fact, it may be even worse than the United States. But health experts are fighting back — with the aid of a well-known celebrity chef. Jamie Oliver is a British chef who regularly appears on the Food Network. Now, the chef has paired up with health experts to revamp hospital menus throughout the UK.

Oliver and his partners in this campaign say they were horrified to see cardiac patients being served traditional English fry-ups for breakfast: a greasy combination of bacon, fried eggs, sausage and baked beans.

This is not the first time Oliver has tackled unhealthy eating. Back in 2005, he led a campaign to improve school lunches in Great Britain. This campaign resulted in the creation of tough new minimum nutritional standards.

In fact, the Consensus Action on Salt and Health recently analyzed the content of 451 meals, snacks and desserts served to children in English hospitals. They found that almost half of the meals had so much salt or saturated fat that they could not be offered to school children under the current standards. One hospital meal, a chicken and rice dish, had fourteen times more salt and eight times more fat than a similar meal served at schools.

Campaign supporters hope their efforts will result in nutritional standards similar to those imposed on school lunches.

If their efforts are successful, some nutritional experts are hoping the campaign crosses the Atlantic to the United States. Now, if they could also do something about the taste …

April is national Donate Life Month, and Shands Transplant Center team members will participate in the eighth annual Katie Ride for Life, a cycling and walking event on Amelia Island to raise awareness for organ donation and transplantation.

The event will be held Saturday, April 21 at the Fernandina Beach Recreation Center on Amelia Island. Everyone is welcome register with the Shands Transplant Center at the University of Florida team at www.KatieRideforLife.org.

This is the first year that Shands Transplant Center will be an official sponsor of the event, and participating team members are eager to support the cause.

“This fitness philanthropy is a wonderful showcase of how organ donation and transplantation help patients lead healthy and active lifestyles,” said Juan C. Salgado, M.D., a UF College of Medicine assistant professor of medicine and associate director of the Lung Transplantation Program. “More than a dozen employees have already registered to walk or cycle to support the mission, donors, donor family and recipients.”

Shands Transplant Center team members also will have an educational booth at the reception after the event where attendees can ask clinicians questions, collect informational materials and toss organ-shaped pillows into a small basketball hoop to promote organ donation and win prizes.

Shands Transplant Center has performed many firsts in Florida transplantation and has the expertise to work with higher-risk patients.

There are currently more than 110,000 individuals waiting for transplants in the United States. For more information about organ donation or to sign up on Florida’s organ and tissue donor registry, please visit www.DonateLifeFlorida.org.

New research from Boston University investigated the idea that potentially poisonous polyfluorinated compounds, or P-F-Cs, could be permeating the air in offices and causing illness in those who spend many of their waking hours in them. These chemicals are found in consumer products like furniture, paint, carpet stain repellants, food packaging and even clothing ¬¬— and they have been linked with health problems such as low birth weight, high cholesterol and early menopause.

To determine the common sources of these chemicals, scientists sampled air from more than 30 Boston offices over a period of four days. They also took blood samples from the nine-to-fivers.

The results found high levels of a P-F-C called fluorotelomer (floor-o-tell-uh-mer) alcohols, or F-T-O-Hs. In fact, the concentration of F-T-O-Hs in offices was three to five times higher than levels found previously in household air.

The workers’ blood samples reveal a byproduct of F-T-O-Hs, suggesting that office air is a main source of contamination. The newer the building, the higher the level of P-F-Cs.

More than 95 percent of people in the U.S. have been found to have traces of P-F-Cs in their blood, but you can avoid these chemicals by opting out of stain treatment when buying new carpets and furniture. Don’t wear Teflon or Scotchgard-treated clothes. Steer clear of packaged or fast food that comes in treated wrappers. And while you’re at it, cook with stainless steel or cast-iron cookware instead of non-stick types. Keep your body and your abode P-F-C-free.

According to the National Center for Health Statistics’ latest Mortality Report, life expectancy increased slightly for Americans in 2010. It’s now at 78.7 years, instead of 78.6. True, that’s not much of a change … just over a month of additional time … but who’s complaining?

There also were fewer deaths in 2010 from the top five causes: heart disease, cancer, lung disease, stroke and accidental injuries. However, the top culprits still kill astonishing numbers of Americans. Forty-seven percent of deaths in the U.S. in 2010 were due to heart disease or cancer. That’s nearly half.

For Americans between the ages of 1 and 44, accidental injury was the most prevalent cause of death. Infants were most likely to die from birth defects and abnormalities.

Now, back to the good news. The homicide rate in our country also was down in 2010. In fact, homicide moved out of the top 15 causes of death for the first time since 1965. It’s currently at No. 16. The report doesn’t speculate on why the murder rate is down.

A condition called “pneumonitis (noo-moe-NIE-tis) due to solids and liquids” now occupies spot number 15. That’s lung inflammation that occurs when a person sucks food or drinks into their lungs while trying to swallow. It’s common among the elderly and those confined to a bed.

Medical conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, kidney disease, influenza, chronic liver disease, hypertension and Parkinson’s disease remain leading causes of death.

That’s an intimidating list, and researchers are hard at work looking for cures and better treatments to tackle these problems. Let’s hope 2012 brings solutions for some of these tough medical challenges.

Anesthesiology chief resident David A. Edwards, M.D., Ph.D., discusses his research during the 2012 College of Medicine Celebration of Research at the Hilton UF Conference Center.

Social networking is not just about fun and games. It’s also key to patient safety and effective medical practice. No, not Facebook or Twitter, but communication among different types of medical professionals involved in getting patients quickly into care once they show up at the hospital. UF biochemistry major Anas Dalloul and colleagues in the anesthesiology department used computer software to perform a social network analysis of a hospital’s system for handling stroke patients and getting them to therapy within the critical first hours before irreparable damage occurs.

Dalloul, who is mentored by anesthesiology associate professor Steven Robicsek, M.D., Ph.D., was among more than 300 researchers who presented their work during the 2012 College of Medicine Celebration of Research at the Hilton UF Conference Center. The studies covered basic science as well as clinical and translational research.

“This session shows the size and scope of the College of Medicine research program,” said Michael L. Good, dean of the UF College of Medicine. “This type of breadth is possible only at the very best research-oriented medical schools.”

UF college senior Rachel Thome, right, discusses her research during the 2012 College of Medicine Celebration of Research at the Hilton UF Conference Center.

Here are some highlights from the Celebration of Research:

• With a focus on patient safety and reduction of human error, Dalloul and colleagues borrowed an analysis technique used routinely in the fields of aviation and mail delivery to identify potential weak spots that could lead to failure of an entire system. The analysis, using software developed at Carnegie Mellon University, took into account people, tasks, information and equipment. It revealed critical staff roles, which, if removed or operated poorly, increased the likelihood of a failure that could harm patients.

• Also borrowing a computing technique used in other fields, in this case law enforcement and commerce, anesthesiology chief resident David Edwards, M.D., Ph.D., used an algorithm to predict which patients with back pain would have lasting benefit from surgery and which ones would instead have a recurrence of symptoms six months after surgery. The calculation, based on raw text data from electronic medical records, made accurate predictions more than three-quarters of the time. The new calculation method did a better job at those predictions than did physicians who made recommendations based on their knowledge of a patient’s case. It also outperformed standard statistical methods. Since the calculations take only a few seconds, Edwards foresees being able to run them on applications on mobile devices or in electronic medical records systems. Such a system that aids decision-making could save on health care costs.

• David Winchester, M.D., M.S., an assistant professor of medicine, worked with UF/Orlando Health partner hospitals to implement a new protocol aimed at reducing radiation exposure of patients receiving a CT scan. The researchers developed criteria that involved lowering the amount of radiation produced by reducing the voltage used to generate X-rays and reducing the length of time the X-ray beam is turned on. They were able to reduce the average radiation dose patients received up to 25 percent, showing that simple measures taken in community-based medical settings can greatly enhance patient safety.

Neuroscientist Michael Lane, Ph.D., discusses his research with Johannes W. Viewig, M.D., chairman of the department of urology, during the 2012 College of Medicine Celebration of Research at the Hilton UF Conference Center.

• Neuroscientist Michael Lane, Ph.D., an assistant professor who works with Paul Reier, Ph.D., a professor and eminent scholar in the department of neuroscience, studied how the nervous system can compensate for loss of function after injury. Lane and his graduate student Lynne Mercier found that cells in the brain that normally direct breathing might change what they do after spinal cord injury. The work gives insight into the ways in which the nervous system can adapt, and could form the basis of new treatments.

• UF college senior Rachel Thome, under the mentorship of rheumatology professor Roland Staud, M.D., studied how patients who have the pain syndrome fibromyalgia see their bodies. She found that the more pain people had, the smaller they estimated the size of their hands to be. Studies such as these are exploring biological bases for a disease thought by many to be psychological.

“What’s really outstanding is the breadth of research being done here,” said Johannes W. Viewig, M.D., chairman of the department of urology. “Seeing how inspired some of these young researchers are is very encouraging for the future of our university and for medicine.”

As the science showcase keeps expanding year after year, the research programs that feed it must be nurtured by ensuring sufficient funding and resources, said Stephen Sugrue, Ph.D., senior associate dean of research affairs.

“We need to sustain our efforts and continue the growth.”

Dr. Lucian (Loo-Shun) Leape says it’s time for this to stop. Dr. Leape is generally considered the father of the patient safety movement in America. Now, he and members of the National Patient Safety Foundation are calling on medical schools to expand their curriculum to include more training in teamwork and collegiality and to emphasize respectful behavior.

If anyone can launch this movement, it’s Leape, who is now a health policy analyst at Harvard University. A pediatric surgeon by training, he had a successful clinical practice for more than 25 years. In 1994, he turned his attention to patient safety. His paper, Error in Medicine, launched the conversation about preventable medical mistakes that continues today.

For years, medical schools have trained students to work autonomously. But Dr. Leape said the practice of medicine is now too complex to continue to rely on individuals. By emphasizing teamwork and collegiality, not only will patient safety improve, but it will also make hospitals and health care systems a more pleasant place for both patients and employees.

A few hospitals have already taken Dr. Leape’s recommendations to heart, including health systems at the University of Illinois-Chicago and the University of South Florida. The American Medical Students Association also plans to make this topic the theme of their annual conference.

Only time will tell if Dr. Leape’s campaign will be successful. But it could mean a happier — and safer — health care industry for all.

Recent discoveries indicate that certain symptoms could make earlier diagnosis of autism possible. On the heels of this news, researchers have found one more way to help kids cope with the disability.

A Michigan State University study found that teaching kids with autism to imitate others helped them improve their social skills. The study, published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, revealed that toddlers and preschoolers who were taught to imitate others tried harder to draw another person’s attention to an object through hand motions and eye contact. These two traits are notably absent in most kids with autism, and imitation is an important milestone to maturity that teaches kids how to relate to each other.

Autism is typically diagnosed between the ages of 2 and 3, but scientists are finding symptoms in tots as young as 12 months. Earlier diagnosis means earlier intervention and better chances for a sociable life.

Symptoms of autism include difficulty with conversation and relating to people and surroundings. Parents should pay attention to unusual ways of playing, like lining up toys in a particular way. Repetitive body movements, like hand flapping and head banging, a lack of imagination and a tendency to play alone are also signs.

If you spot these symptoms or have other concerns, make an appointment with your pediatrician. Autism doesn’t have to limit your child’s social life … and the first step is getting help.

Kathleen Ann Long, Ph.D., R.N., dean of the UF College of Nursing, was one of only 20 nursing deans nationwide present in Pennsylvania Wednesday when Obama and Dr. Jill Biden announced the commitment from nurses across the country eager to serve our veterans and military families. LeAnne Whitlow, associate director of nursing at the North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health System, was also in attendance as a representative of local VA medical centers from across the country.

In partnership with the North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health System in 2007, the UF College of Nursing was one of the first four universities selected to receive a VA Nursing Academy, an initiative from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, to address a shortage of nurses across the nation and ensure that veterans continue to receive high-quality care. Since its inception, the initiative has sparked improvements in nurse recruitment and retention at VA facilities, increasing nursing educational opportunities, enhancing clinical activities, and improving nursing practice environments.

“I was proud to represent our college at an event that highlights the commitment to preparing nurses who will provide the best possible care for veterans and their families,” said Long. “Our already close partnership with our local VA through the VA Nursing Academy exemplifies our strong commitment to quality patient care for our nation’s veterans. It is our hope that the Joining Forces

initiative will continue to strengthen that commitment as well as allow us to further educate our nursing students on the unique health needs for veterans.”

In a broad, coordinated effort, more than 150 state and national nursing organizations including the North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health System and more than 500 nursing schools including UF have committed to further educate the nation’s 3 million nurses so they are prepared to meet the unique health needs of service members, veterans, and their families.

“Whether we’re in a hospital, a doctor’s office or a community health center, nurses are often the first people we see when we walk through the door. Because of their expertise, they are trusted to be the frontline of America’s health care system,” Obama said.

Together, UF and the North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health System — with the American Nurses Association, American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, American Association of Colleges of Nursing, and the National League for Nursing, in coordination with the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Defense — will work to enrich nursing education on how to recognize and care for veterans impacted by posttraumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, depression and other combat-related issues, in a variety of nursing practice settings. The group has also committed to disseminating effective models for care and to sharing the most up-to-date information on medical conditions across academic and practice settings.

“We are extremely proud of our existing commitment to excellent nursing care for veterans and are inspired by first lady Obama’s vision for expanding these efforts,” said Whitlow. “Our local VA Nursing Academy partnership is a key example of how nursing education and practice can work together to improve patient care for veterans. We look forward to building upon those efforts.”

By working to expand the body of clinical knowledge in this arena and by partnering with other health care providers and institutions, nursing leaders across the country will continue to advance high quality treatment for veterans in every community. More information is available at www.JoiningForces.gov.

Hosted by UF, Teams from 14 universities carefully prepare formulas during the Student Pharmacist Compounding Competition

The University of Florida College of Pharmacy hosted the second annual Student Pharmacist Compounding Competition in March, welcoming national leaders in compounding pharmacy and students competing from 14 U.S. pharmacy colleges.

The weekend competition, sponsored by Medisca Group of Companies, was organized in three phases. Each university team of three student pharmacists conducted and documented a drug compounding preparation; prepared a written response to a posed regulatory issue; and presented a poster to illustrate the response.

“The students participating in the competition were some of the best and brightest in the country. Given the high-pressure environment they were competing in, the preparations and responses they achieved were more like those of a practicing pharmacist, rather than of a student,” said Rick Schnatz, Pharm.D, senior scientific liaison at U.S. Pharmacopeia and keynote speaker. Read the USP news announcement.

UF Pharmacy Dean William H. Riffee, Ph.D. sees the competition as a way for education to foster the growth, development and integrity of the art and science of compounding.

“Our many U.S. colleges of pharmacy have made great strides in providing quality pharmacy education with unique learning opportunities for students, and meeting the challenge of industry demands,” Riffee said.

Ice is commonly used to relieve pain in aching muscles because it causes the blood vessels to constrict. This slows down activity and allows your body time to recover. But wait before you put an ice pack on those aching muscles mid-workout. Researchers at the University of Ulster and the University of Limerick in Ireland found that icing sore muscles may not actually help you recover and get back in the game.

The researchers reviewed about three dozen studies that examined how ice affects sore muscles. According to the researchers, there’s not much scientific evidence to show that icing sore muscles can speed healing … but it is effective in numbing soreness.

In fact, the scientists say that icing sore muscles reduces muscle power and strength. For people like athletes, who quickly ice muscles before resuming physical activity, there may be a greater chance of injury afterward because your body can’t signal the beginning of serious pain. Athletes who returned to play immediately after icing also showed poorer athletic performance.

However, the negative effects of icing only last about 15 minutes and are less severe depending on how long you keep the ice on muscles.

Those who do ice sore muscles at the very end of a long workout should continue. There’s nothing wrong with simply wanting to numb the pain. And ice is an effective —and cheap — way to keep the aches and pains of a grueling workout at bay.

Scientists have long understood the role of messenger RNA, known as mRNA, in translating instructions from DNA to make protein. Inherited diseases are caused by faulty genetic instructions, but a study led by Laura Ranum, Ph.D., director of the Center for NeuroGenetics and a professor of molecular genetics and microbiology, has introduced a new twist to the plot.

“Our research disputes the conventional dogma about what causes proteins to be expressed within cells and why,” said Ranum, whose original study was done while she was at the University of Minnesota. “We discovered that proteins can be made across some repetitive disease-causing mutations in the absence of ‘green light’ or ‘start’ signals, previously thought to be required. This discovery has the potential to change the course of scientific investigation on human disease because we may have been grossly underestimating the number of proteins cells express.”

Ranum specializes in the study of myotonic dystrophy — the most common form of muscular dystrophy in adults — and ataxia, a rare brain disease that robs people of their coordination and motor control. She and colleagues set out to study how proteins are made and to dig for the disease-causing genes hidden within the human genome.

A lot of DNA is made up of repetitive sequences, called genomic stuttering, said Maurice Swanson, Ph.D., the associate director of the center and a professor of molecular genetics and microbiology at the UF College of Medicine. Fifty percent of human DNA is made up of repetitive sequences, which historically have been dismissed as unimportant information, he said.

“The discovery that unusual, potentially harmful proteins are translated within these regions adds another layer to the basic biological process,” said Swanson, who will help lead the new study. “The discovery leads to a whole new way of looking at disease.”

Keck funding will help researchers determine how this repeat-associated non-ATG translation, or RAN translation, works, if it is a key to neurological disease and whether other repetitive sequences in the genome are translated into proteins.

“This prestigious award is significant news for the university,” said UF medical Dean Michael L. Good, M.D. “It is very exciting that an influential organization such as the W.M. Keck Foundation recognizes the strength of the research program at the College of Medicine, particularly the cutting-edge expertise of Dr. Ranum and Dr. Swanson and their colleagues.”

The Keck Foundation’s history is to invest in scientific pursuits that have great promise, but that are outside-the-box and viewed by some as risky, Ranum said.

“We are grateful for this opportunity and excited about what we will learn,” she said.

Based in Los Angeles, the foundation was established in 1954 by the late W.M. Keck, founder of the Superior Oil Company. The foundation’s grant making is focused primarily on pioneering efforts in the areas of medical research, science and engineering. The Keck Foundation is known for funding high-risk, high-return projects. Keck awards fall outside the mission of public funding agencies and support transformative ideas that are investments in the future.

The Center for NeuroGenetics is located within UF’s College of Medicine and affiliated with the department of molecular genetics and microbiology, the McKnight Brain Institute and the Genetics Institute. In addition to Ranum and Swanson, the research team includes Tao Zu, Ph.D., John Cleary, Ph.D., and Tammy Reid, M.Sc.

A new study published in Injury Prevention found that pedestrians who pop earbuds in are at a greater risk of injury or death than those who walk without headphones. The number of injuries or deaths involving pedestrians, headphones and vehicles tripled from 2004 to 2010. The study also found that almost one-third of the victims hit by trains or cars didn’t hear the warning horns and sirens. Half of the incidents involved a train and almost ninety percent occurred in urban areas. Nearly three-fourths of the accidents were fatal, and men under the age of 30 were the most common victims.

The findings serve as a warning to head-in-the-clouds headphone-wearers to keep their eyes and ears open when walking near heavy traffic.

Researchers think a certain kind of distraction called “inattentional blindness” dulls the interpretation of sound and detracts attention away from almost everything except the task in front of you, like calling a friend or searching for a new song on your iPod. Environmental isolation, or simply not paying attention to what’s going on around you, could also cause mishaps. Both factors seem to be the same culprit behind car accidents, too.

So whether you’re walking on your own two legs or driving a two-ton vehicle, it’s best to concentrate on the task at hand. Keep your eyes and ears tuned to what is going on around you instead of on your favorite songs. This should help keep you and others safe. Stay aware and stay alive.

Clinicians with the Shands Transplant Center at the University of Florida will trade in their white lab coats for neon spandex, sweatbands and sunglasses at night to celebrate National Donate Life month at “Life-a-palooza,” a concert series event to raise awareness for organ donation and transplantation.

“Life-a-palooza” is hosted by UF student organ donation awareness organization Get Carded. It will feature musical performances by Hundred Waters and Maximino as well as Shands Transplant Center patient testimonials from those whose lives have been enhanced by organ and tissue donation.

The event is from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Thursday, April 12, at the Orange and Brew. It is free and open to the public. Transplant recipients will share their stories to help put a face to organ donation. Transplant recipients may have a new organ, but they lead healthy, active lifestyles. Many Shands Transplant Center patients even participate in Olympic-like athletic competitions like the Transplant Games.

Shands Transplant Center team members and representatives from the local organ procurement organization will be available to answer questions about organ donation, and guests can register at the event to become donors on Florida’s online registry.

“Get Carded has set a goal to register 50 new donors on the Joshua Abbot State Registry,” said Get Carded President Haley Appel. “We hope to bring education and awareness to the increasing need for donations.”

Shands at UF provides subspecialty services such as advanced trauma care and organ transplantation. Shands Transplant Center has performed many “first” transplants in the state of Florida.

For more information about organ donation or to sign up on Florida’s organ and tissue donor registry, please visit www.DonateLifeFlorida.org.

Now, a new study offers good news to people who crave the crispy crunch and flavor of fried goodies. Researchers from Spain found no link between heart disease and foods fried in certain oils.

For 11 years, the scientists analyzed the cooking habits of 40,000 adults who did not have heart disease at the beginning of the study. They reviewed participants’ cooking methods and eating habits and made an interesting discovery: Eating foods cooked with olive oils and sunflower oils did not lead to heart disease or an increased risk of death.

Study participants used a Mediterranean cooking style, which relies on using smaller amounts of fresh olive and sunflower oils for frying. Cooks in the United States tend to fry with solid fat and re-used oils, which are less heart-healthy.

But don’t think that frying with olive oil gives you the green light to chow down on your favorite sizzling craving any time you want. Frying food with any oil increases the calorie count tremendously, which can lead to obesity and other health issues.

So, just remember, the next time you are confronted with the choice between a baked potato or French fries, you should probably still choose the baked potato. Those fries may look yummy, but chances are they were not cooked in a heart-friendly olive oil. But who knows, as news of the heart-healthy benefits of frying with olive oil spreads, maybe Mediterranean ways will make their way into the USA.

Those with a lot of hits under their belts are already at risk for brain trauma from multiple concussions, and carrying extra weight could compound the conundrum. The study, published in the journal Translational Psychiatry, found that retired pro football players who are overweight suffer from more thinking and memory problems than those who stay fit post-gridiron.

Scientists compared blood flow in the brains of healthy weight players and overweight retirees. Heavy players had less blood flow to areas of the brain responsible for attention, reasoning, organizing and planning. They also performed worse on tests measuring attention and memory. Scientists believe the extra burden of obesity increases the release of inflammatory markers associated with impaired brain function.

In fact, another study found retired football players have an increased risk for mild cognitive impairment, which is a precursor for Alzheimer’s disease. Concussions and traumatic brain injuries are a common injury in football, even with helmets. They happen when a hard collision causes the brain to bump against the skull, resulting in dangerous bruising or even bleeding in extreme cases. Symptoms include dizziness, blurred vision, confusion and nausea. The best remedy for a concussion is rest — the brain needs to heal. The worst remedy is another hit to the head, which can cause permanent damage.

So whether you’re a parent, coach, spectator or player be sure to keep your head on straight, play smart and take a time-out if concussion symptoms appear. Like any athlete, a brain needs rest, too.

The UF&Shands Florida Recovery Center, a nationally recognized academic and clinical research-driven addiction treatment program, will bring new treatment options to patients in Central Florida with a new location at the Orlando Health Behavioral Specialists practice at South Seminole Hospital. The FRC, based at the University of Florida, is rated by the Annenberg Foundation as one of the nation’s top three addiction programs and training sites.

Beginning in April, the new center, named UF&Shands Florida Recovery Center at Orlando Health, will serve as a destination for the evaluation and treatment of people facing alcohol and drug addiction.

The UF&Shands Florida Recovery Center at Orlando Health bridges the gap in outpatient services for people suffering with an addiction who are receiving fragmented inpatient and outpatient services, or those who are leaving the Central Florida area to seek addiction treatment elsewhere.

“Addiction is both a national and local public health concern,” said Gilbert T. Tamakloe, medical director, Behavioral Health Services, Orlando Health. “Additional outpatient services for addiction are a great need in our community. Although there are programs available, there are few programs that compare to the comprehensive approach the FRC provides to its patients. We are pleased that the Florida Recovery Center will join our health care organization in meeting our community’s growing needs.”

Orlando Health and UF&Shands look forward to offering the community a partnership in alcohol and drug addiction evaluations, inpatient and outpatient services and addiction intervention and treatment, officials said.

“It is an ideal scenario to bring a new, expert Florida Recovery Center team with special training and skills to Orlando Health, which is a state leader in so many other areas of medicine and surgery,” said Mark S. Gold, M.D., a professor and chairman of the department of psychiatry at UF. “We know from the calls for help that we receive that Orlando is an underserved area. Dr. Scott Teitelbaum, our division chief of addiction medicine, is the president of the Florida Society of Addiction Medicine and we know from his work that board-certified, fellowship-trained addiction physicians are very hard to find in the Orlando area.”

Addiction medicine specialist Timothy Huckaby, M.D., has been appointed as the medical director of the UF&Shands Florida Recovery Center at Orlando Health. He will evaluate patients, consult with physicians and health care professionals at South Seminole Hospital and others in the Central Florida community, and oversee an intensive outpatient program (IOP), a three- to six-week program that integrates patients back into their communities, families and work lives.

The IOP also consists of group meetings four nights a week for 12 to 16 weeks. The primary goal of the IOP is to help assist patients in their recovery from addiction and help integrate them back into living healthy lives.

Dr. Huckaby and his clinical team will examine some of the behaviors that have caused the patient to have difficulty in the past, and change those behaviors to establish and maintain a sober support system. The FRC team will provide family, couples and group counseling as well. The goal of the program is to help those in recovery effectively manage the social, spiritual, physical and emotional aspects of life to maintain a lifestyle of recovery.

The FRC team will work the Orlando Health Behavioral Healthcare at South Seminole Hospital (inpatient) and the Orlando Health Behavioral Specialists (outpatient) teams of certified and experienced psychiatrists, nurses, social workers and other clinicians to provide patient care.

Dr. Huckaby is a board-certified anesthesiologist who also has been trained in an addiction medicine fellowship at UF and an obstetric anesthesiology fellowship at Harvard. His experience in pain, pain management, women’s health and iatrogenic addictions will add to FRC at Orlando Health’s suite of treatment options. In addition to addiction services, Dr. Huckaby also will offer pain medicine services through the UF&Shands Florida Recovery Center.

Because the Florida Recovery Center is affiliated with the University of Florida and UF’s McKnight Brain Institute, patients have the benefit of a bench-to-bedside approach to addiction science, receiving treatment based on the latest addiction medicine research.

The UF&Shands Florida Recovery Center at Orlando Health is part of an ongoing collaboration of health initiatives between Orlando Health and UF&Shands, making care more accessible to millions of patients over a 20-county region. The alliance was formed in 2010 as a result of a longstanding history of close working relationships.

In addition to the recent addiction medicine initiative, the organizations have formed or will begin several joint clinical programs in areas including pediatrics, neuroscience, oncology, women’s health, transplantation and cardiovascular medicine.

For additional information about the Florida Recovery Center at Orlando Health, contact 855.265.4FRC(4372), or visit FloridaRecoveryCenter.UFandShands.org.

Well, researchers have found scientific proof that food prepared with love really does taste better. A study from the University of Maryland discovered that good intentions can pacify pain and increase pleasure.

Researchers put participants through three experiments to see how perceived intentions affected sensation. The first experiment tested whether kindness could reduce pain. Subjects were shocked and then told it was accidental, on purpose or for good intentions. Those who thought they were being shocked for a good reason felt less pain — good news for doctors who often have to inflict pain for health.

The second experiment evaluated the effect of goodwill on pleasure. The results showed that a massage given by a compassionate partner rather than an uncaring computer made for more bliss.

Lastly, the researchers gave candy to subjects to see whether a touch of tenderness made it taste sweeter. The candy had either a nice or indifferent note attached. Sure enough, the benevolent bonbons seemed sweeter.

The study results have implications for almost everyone. Doctors and nurses can improve their bedside manner and ease pain with a simple smile. For spouses and significant others, be sure to show you care with affectionate acts and words of love. Restaurant wait staff can enhance the taste of diners’ dishes by delivering great service.

But by the same token, past research shows that a depressed mood can increase pain. Your frame of mind has the power to not only sweeten your life, but also sour it, too.

They’re also illustrations of another issue that plagues our society: racial health disparities. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, black adults are more likely to die of heart disease or stroke than white adults. Hypertension, which can lead to those killer conditions, is also more prevalent in black people. Among people who have hypertension, Mexican Americans are least likely to have it under control.

The debate about why such disparities exist is complicated. It’s safe to say many factors are at play here. But a recent article in the Archives of Internal Medicine describes one factor that doesn’t seem obviously related: the use of electronic health records.

The authors examined data from 17,000 primary care visits conducted in 2007 and 2008. They found that if a person’s primary care office used electronic health records, he or she was more likely to have healthy blood pressure levels, regardless of race. In offices not using electronic records, typical racial disparities emerged. African Americans and Hispanics whose doctors didn’t use electronic records were more likely to have high blood pressure than the same providers’ white patients.

It’s not clear why blood pressure levels differed by race for one group and not the other. Perhaps electronic health records help doctors address challenges that can lead to racial disparities. For example, some record programs offer doctors useful suggestions, like recommending less expensive options for those who can’t afford pricey medications.

Electronic health records alone probably won’t solve racial disparities in our health care. But they could be a step in the right direction.

UF College of Veterinary Medicine student Morgan Menasco hands out programs during the college’s annual open house in April 2011.

A longtime community tradition, the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine Open House will intrigue and entertain audiences of all ages during a full day of educational demonstrations, tours and much more from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 14.

The event is free and open to the public. Snacks and College of Veterinary Medicine merchandise will be available for purchase.

The Gainesville Police Department’s mounted unit will be on hand and numerous educational exhibits and demonstrations will take place throughout the day. The event will feature demonstrations of echocardiogram and ECG techniques, dialysis and endoscopy. Visitors also will be able to see canines using an underwater treadmill, horses using a high-speed treadmill, agility dogs and animal rescue demonstrations.

Tours of UF’s large and small animal hospitals will be provided, and veterinary students will offer a teddy bear clinic for people who bring their damaged stuffed animals for repair.

Pet adoptions featuring local shelter animals also will be available, as will information about veterinary school admissions.

The UF College of Veterinary Medicine is located at 2015 SW 16th Ave., Gainesville, FL 32608.

Visit www.vetmed.ufl.edu for more information.

UF scientists in many different specialties are part of the Cardiovascular Cell Therapy Research Network, a national NIH-funded consortium that seeks to discover stem cell therapies for heart disease. Carl J. Pepine, M.D., leads the UF team. (Photo by Maria Farias/University of Florida)

University of Florida researchers and colleagues at six other institutions have received a $63 million, seven-year grant from the NIH National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute to develop heart disease therapies that use a patient’s own bone marrow and heart cells to generate new healthy heart cells and restore function.

“The work has the potential to change the paradigm from the management of patients with heart disease, which right now is aimed at prevention and slowing progression,” said UF principal investigator Carl J. Pepine, M.D., a professor and eminent scholar emeritus of cardiovascular medicine. “This has the ability to move treatment into the regenerative medicine field.”

Heart disease, also called cardiovascular disease, is the leading cause of death in the U.S., killing more than 600,000 men and women a year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 27 million Americans are estimated to be living with heart disease, which encompasses a range of abnormalities of the heart and blood vessels such as heart failure, narrowed arteries, irregular heartbeat and heart defects present from birth. Those conditions can, in turn, lead to chest pain, heart attack and stroke.

The new grant is to the Cardiovascular Cell Therapy Research Network, or CCTRN, a national clinical trial consortium that, in addition to UF, includes the University of Miami, Indiana University, Stanford University, Texas Heart Institute, the University of Louisville and the Minneapolis Heart Institute. Originally funded in 2007, the network received the first federal funding for cooperative studies of so-called adult stem cells, in which patients are treated with cells taken from their own bodies. The UF-led team includes satellite study sites at UF College of Medicine-Jacksonville, Orlando Health and Pepin Heart Hospital in Tampa, Fla.

The network’s large size allows recruitment of hundreds of patients over relatively short periods for important clinical trials. Member researchers are specialists in a wide range of fields, including stem cell processing, bone marrow transplantation, interventional cardiology, MRI, EKG, cardiac anesthesia, pharmacology and gene and cell therapy.

“Stem cell therapy holds great promise for treating heart disease, and researchers involved in CCTRN are helping determine how these promising therapies might be most beneficial to patients,” said Sonia Skarlatos, Ph.D., deputy director of the division of cardiovascular sciences in the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. “This new round of funding is an important step in helping to improve cardiovascular health.”

The award, of which UF’s portion totals more than $5 million, allows the researchers to build on findings from rigorous randomized clinical trials funded by an earlier five-year grant to the network. The researchers previously found that in patients who had heart failure and/or chest pain, called angina pectoris, but were not eligible for standard surgical treatment to improve blood flow, delivering two types of stem cells from the patient’s own bone marrow resulted in a small but notable improvement in the heart’s ability to pump oxygen-rich blood around the body.

In other studies, the researchers sought to determine the optimal time for delivering therapeutic stem cells to patients after a heart attack. They administered the therapy in the first and third week after a heart attack, respectively. Giving the therapy in the third week yielded no benefit, and conclusions from the first-week study are pending.

This pioneering work in adult stem cell therapy for cardiovascular disease has laid the groundwork and set the standards for translating insights from basic stem cell biology research into clinical application.

With the new funding, the researchers will work to identify new kinds of stem cells that can be used for therapy. They will explore patients’ bone marrow and hearts to find cells ultimately capable of becoming new heart cells. The research will also extend to new categories of patients, including those who have a condition called peripheral vascular disease, in which narrowed arteries limit blood flow to the limbs. The effectiveness of stem cell therapy will also be evaluated in patients with heart failure or weak hearts and who have implanted mechanical pumps called left ventricular assist devices that help send blood around the body.

“What we are doing today is going to change cardiovascular medicine 10 years from now,” said Stanford University principal investigator John Cooke, M.D., Ph.D. “We are going to have better therapies for heart failure, myocardial ischemia and arrythmia. We’re going to have regenerative therapies for vascular disease and myocardial disease. These new therapies will have the ability to extend the quantity and quality of human life and lift the burden of cardiovascular disease from humanity.”

Intact males tend to roam in search of females, often leading to injury from fights and car accidents. Other bad habits include urine marking and sometimes aggression. Medically, intact males can get testicular cancer and are at higher risk of prostate disease.

Most dogs and cats should be neutered around six months, when the risks of surgery are minimal. Giant breeds may have to wait slightly longer, so as not to interfere with normal bone growth.

Neutering does not change your pet’s personality, but he may seem more relaxed and less likely to wander. So do the right thing for your pet’s health and behavior, and schedule that neuter.