Dr. Tan appointed to $2-million Silver Chair in Developmental Neurobiology
September 25, 2007 @ 11:40 am · Filed under Research Really Matters, Press Releases
Tampa, FL (Sept. 25, 2007) – University of South Florida neuroscientist Jun Tan, MD, PhD, has been appointed to the $2-million Robert A. Silver Chair in Developmental Neurobiology. The endowment will support the work of Dr. Tan, associate professor in the Silver Child Development Center, Department of Psychiatry, as he broadens his current research in neuropsychiatry to discovering how brain development affects the behavior of infants, children and adolescents.
Archie A. Silver, MD, professor emeritus of psychiatry, and his wife Mary Louise established the endowment in 1997 to honor their son, Robert A. Silver.
“The Department of Psychiatry owes an infinite debt of gratitude to Dr. Tan for his pioneering work in the field of neuroimmunology, which will now be extended to improve the lives of millions of children with mental disorders,” said Francisco Fernandez, MD, professor and chair of the Department of Psychiatry. “Dr. Tan’s work has spawned revolutionary advances in immunopathogenesis of neuropsychiatric disorders. This is a particularly exciting for all of us as USF has chosen an outstanding scientist who is a local hero.”
“The selection of Dr. Tan to serve as the Robert A. Silver Chair in Developmental Neurobiology is a strong reflection of the institutional commitment to create a program in this discipline at USF Health,” said Abdul S. Rao, MD, MA, DPhil, professor of surgery and molecular medicine and senior associate vice president, USF Health. “Dr. Tan will play a critical role in helping further develop a program in Developmental Neurobiology that will complement the efforts underway in basic, translational and clinical research in the Interdisciplinary Signature Program in Neurosciences.”
Dr. Tan served as scientific director of the Neuroimmunology Laboratory in the USF Institute for Research in Psychiatry since 2003. He is a leader in developing novel treatments for Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders such as HIV dementia. Recently, his team received national attention for their work showing that a transdermal vaccine (such as a skin patch) may be a promising noninvasive therapy for Alzheimer’s disease. Using a new mouse model for HIV-related dementia, Dr Tan and colleagues found that a green tea extract protects the brain against the neurotoxicity of proteins secreted by the AIDS virus.
He is a principal investigator or co-principal investigator for $2.3 million in federal research projects funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute on Aging. He holds several patents for potential treatments for neurodegenerative disorders.
Dr. Tan will bring his expertise in immunity and inflammation in the adult brain to bear on disorders of brain development affecting children. He was first to characterize an immune molecule on the surface of nerve cells, or neurons, called CD40. Recent results from ongoing studies suggest this molecule could play an important role in the creation of neurons and their differentiation in the developing fetus. These and other findings may lead to a better understanding of the abnormal physiology underlying childhood neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and Tourette’s syndrome, and hopefully result in new treatments.
- USF Health -
USF Health is dedicated to creating a model of health care based on understanding the full spectrum of health. It includes the University of South Florida’s colleges of medicine, nursing, and public health; the schools of biomedical sciences as well as physical therapy & rehabilitation sciences; and the USF Physicians Group. With $310 million in research funding last year, USF is one of the nation’s top 63 public research universities and one of Florida’s top three research universities.
USF Health neuroscientist featured speaker at Congress of Neurological Surgeons
September 26, 2007 @ 10:31 am · Filed under National Prominence
Paul Sanberg, PhD, DSc, Distinguished University Professor and director of the Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair at USF Health, was a featured speaker Sept. 19 at the Congress of Neurological Surgeons 2007 Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA. The prestigious meeting is attended by thousands of surgeons from across the world.
“The Congress represents U.S. and many foreign neurosurgeons. The organization’s selection of Dr. Sanberg to give an update on stem cell research in the United States speaks to the premier status of Dr. Sanberg and his team at the Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair,” said Harry van Loveren, MD, professor and chair of the Department of Neurological Surgery, where the center is based. “The Center’s work brings worldwide distinction to the University of South Florida.”
Dr. Sanberg was on the roster with such speakers as novelist Salman Rushdie, who was condemned to death by the Ayatollah Khomeini after publishing Satanic Verses; astronomist Steve Squires, PhD, who works on NASA’s Mars Rover mission; and Robert Sapolsky, PhD, the Stanford University neuroendocrinologist who has lived with and studied baboons in Africa.
He delivered a special lecture, titled “Navigating Cellular Repair for the Nervous System,” in which he spoke about the tremendous potential of regenerative medicine. “If stem cell therapy using neurosurgical approaches is FDA approved and becomes commercially viable for any of the big three neurodegenerative diseases – Parkinson’s, stroke or Alzheimer’s – there may not be enough neurosurgeons to handle the demand,” he said.
Currently clinical trials testing stems cells for brain repair are being conducted in patients outside the United States; studies in this country continue to progress in animal models.
Dr. Sanberg directs a pre-eminent USF research center that is developing new therapeutic strategies — including therapies derived from adult stem cells and human umbilical cord blood — to promote repair and regeneration of the aging and diseased brain. His early work was pioneering in understanding the role of cell death in neurological disorders.
Dr. Sanberg is an inventor on several patents involving the use of nonembryonic stem cells for brain and spinal cord injury. He is editor-in-chief of the journal Cell Transplantation, executive director of the American Society for Neural Transplantation and Repair, and past president of the Cell Transplant Society.
- Story by Anne DeLotto Baier
Dr. Hauser receives Michael J. Fox Foundation award to study Parkinson's disease subtypes
July 17, 2007 @ 4:06 pm · Filed under Research Really Matters, Press Releases
Dr. Robert Hauser directs the USF Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders Center of Excellence.
Tampa, FL (July 18, 2007) — The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) has awarded Robert Hauser, MD, director of the University of South Florida Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders Center of Excellence, $124,996 to identify different forms of Parkinson’s disease based upon patterns of long-term outcomes in patients.
Dr. Hauser, principal investigator, will collaborate with co-principal investigator Michael P. McDermott, PhD, of the University of Rochester. USF was among seven research teams worldwide receiving $710,000 in total funding for projects to initially characterize Parkinson’s disease subtypes – distinct forms of the disease that may differ in onset, progression and response to treatment. All seven studies will leverage existing data and patient populations.
The USF study will evaluate whether it is possible to identify Parkinson’s disease subgroups based on how patients are faring seven to eight years after initial diagnosis. Some patients experience few symptoms at this stage of the disease, while others have problems with thinking and memory, motor fluctuations, mood, parkinsonism (slowness, stiffness, tremor) or autonomic function (blood pressure, urinary and bowel function).
“Early identification of patients who are anticipated to develop particular patterns of symptoms may allow physicians to select specific therapies that would be most beneficial for a specific type of patient,” said Center Director Robert Hauser, MD, MBA, who is leading the MJFF Parkinson’s Disease Subtypes project at USF. Characterizing disease subtypes could also help delineate genetic and environmental causes of Parkinson’s, Dr. Hauser said.
The USF project will tap into two significant clinical research populations in the Parkinson’s field — the DATATOP (Deprenyl and Tocopherol Antioxidative Therapy of Parkinsonism) study and the CALM-PD (Comparison of the Agonist Pramipexole with Levodopa on Motor Complications of Parkinson’s Disease) study.
“One of the most frustrating aspects of Parkinson’s disease — for patients, researchers and clinicians alike — is the significant variability in how the disease manifests itself from patient to patient,” said Sarah Orsay, chief executive officer of the Foundation. “The retrospective studies funded under PD Subtypes aim to analyze data already gathered on different forms of the disease. This analysis could yield valuable information with potential to improve clinicians’ ability to treat patients with existing therapies. It could also advance development of new treatments and enable better design of future clinical trials.”
USF was the only institution in the Southeastern United States to receive a MJFF grant to advance the understanding of Parkinson’s disease subtypes. Dr. Hauser is director of the Signature Interdisciplinary Clinical Research Program in Neuroscience at USF.
- About USF Health -
USF Health is a partnership of the University of South Florida’s colleges of medicine, nursing, and public health; the schools of biomedical sciences and physical therapy & rehabilitation sciences; and the USF Physicians Group. It is a partnership dedicated to the promise of creating a new model of health and health care. One of the nation’s top 63 public research universities as designated by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, USF received more than $310 million in research contracts and grants last year.
- About The Michael J. Fox Foundation -
The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research is dedicated to ensuring the development of a cure for Parkinson’s disease through an aggressively funded research agenda. To date, the Foundation has funded over $94 million in research directly or through partnerships.
USF site for national study testing creatine for Parkinson's disease
March 21, 2007 @ 9:53 am · Filed under Research Really Matters, Press Releases
Tampa, FL (March 22, 2007) – The University of South Florida Parkinson’s and Movement Disorders Center will participate in a large-scale national clinical trial to determine if the nutritional supplement creatine can slow the progression of Parkinson’s disease (PD). While creatine is not an approved therapy for PD or any other condition, it is widely thought to improve exercise performance. The potential benefit of creatine for PD was identified by Parkinson’s researchers through a new rapid method for screening potential compounds. The trial, which begins today, is sponsored by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NIH-NINDS).
The double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase III study is one of the largest PD clinical trials to date. The USF Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders Center is one of 51 medical centers in the United States and Canada that will be recruiting patients as past of Florida.
“This is a landmark trial that will explore whether we can improve long-term outcomes for patients wirt of an effort to enroll 1720 people with early-stage PD. USF is the only site on the West Coath Parkinson’s disease,” said local principal investigator Robert A. Hauser, MD, professor of neurology and director of the USF Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders Center. “We want to identify therapies that will slow, and perhaps one day stop, the progression of the underlying disease process.”
“This study is an important step. We are pleased to have so many sites participating in this study, which may help us move more quickly toward developing a therapy that could change the course of this devastating disease,” says Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D., director of the NIH. “The goal is to improve the quality of life for people with Parkinson’s for a longer period of time than possible with existing therapies.” Currently no treatment has been shown to slow the progression of PD.
The trial is the first large study in a series of NIH-sponsored clinical trials called NET-PD (NIH Exploratory Trials in Parkinson’s Disease). USF has been affiliated with the program since 2002, and Dr. Hauser has served on the steering committee that identifies promising therapies and designs trials to test them since 2005. The NIH has organized this large network of sites to allow researchers to work with PD patients over a long period of time, with a goal of finding effective and lasting treatments. NET-PD builds on a developmental research process ― from laboratory research to pilot studies in a select group of patients to the definitive phase III trial of effectiveness in people with PD.
PD is a degenerative disorder of the brain in which patients develop symptoms such as progressive tremor, slowness of movements, and stiffness of muscles. It affects at least 1 million people in the United States. Although certain drugs, such as levodopa, can reduce the symptoms of PD, there are no proven treatments that can slow the progressive deterioration in function.
Creatine is marketed as a nutritional supplement. Studies have suggested that it can improve the function of mitochondria, which produce energy inside cells. It also may act as an antioxidant that prevents damage from compounds that are harmful to cells in the brain. In a mouse model of PD, creatine is able to prevent loss of the cells that are typically affected.
The study will enroll people who have been diagnosed with PD within the past five years and treated for two years or less with levodopa or other drugs that increase the levels of dopamine in the brain. Many symptoms of PD result from the loss of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that helps to control movement. Half of the participants will receive creatine and half will receive a placebo. Neither participants nor their doctors will know which treatment they receive. The investigators will measure disease progression using standard rating scales that measure quality of life, ability to walk, cognitive function, and ability to carry out other activities of daily living.
Avicena Group, Inc. will provide the creatine and the placebo for the study.
People interested in participating in this study locally can call (813) 844-4455. For additional information, call NINDS at 1-800-352-9424, email info@parkinsontrial.org, or visit http://www.parkinsontrial.org/ to see a list of study sites.
The NINDS is a component of the NIH within the Department of Health and Human Services and is the nation’s primary supporter of biomedical research on the brain and nervous system.
The National Institutes of Health — The Nation’s Medical Research Agency — includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.
USF Health is a partnership of the University of South Florida’s colleges of medicine, nursing, and public health; the schools of basic biomedical sciences and physical therapy & rehabilitation sciences; and the USF Physicians Group. It is a partnership dedicated to the promise of creating a new model of health and health care. One of the nation’s top 63 public research universities as designated by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, USF received more than $310 million in research contracts and grants last year. For more information visit, www.health.usf.edu.
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