Dr. Desmond Schatz, associate chairman of pediatrics at the UF College of Medicine and medical director of the UF Diabetes Center of Excellence

The University of Florida is one of 14 nationally recognized diabetes clinical centers selected to participate in the TrialNet research network aimed at preventing or delaying the onset of type 1 diabetes.

The $3 million, five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health provides funding for TrialNet studies at UF and represents a continuation of resources that have supported type 1 diabetes research at UF for more than 20 years.

The TrialNet consortium of 14 centers in the United States and five international centers is funded jointly by the NIH and private diabetes foundations. Through the research network, scientists hope to improve the understanding of the natural history of type 1 diabetes, screen and identify persons at risk and conduct clinical trials to evaluate promising new therapies that prevent, slow or reverse the progression of the disease.

“Involvement in TrialNet is critical because these kinds of studies require participation from hundreds of patients if we are to really understand what treatments are effective,” said Dr. Desmond Schatz, associate chairman of pediatrics at the UF College of Medicine and medical director of the UF Diabetes Center of Excellence. “One center cannot recruit enough patients to reach these numbers, so we are successful only if we work together.”

Abigail Neal was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 4. At the time, she was the youngest patient to receive an insulin pump at Shands at UF.

Type 1 diabetes, previously known as juvenile diabetes, is usually diagnosed in children and young adults. It is an autoimmune disease in which the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas are destroyed by the immune system, requiring daily insulin replacement and frequent blood sugar checks by patients. Type 1 diabetes is one of the most prevalent chronic diseases diagnosed in children in the United States.

UF’s TrialNet investigators include Schatz, Dr. Michael Clare-Salzler, chairman of the department of pathology, immunology and laboratory medicine; Mark Atkinson, professor of pathology and the American Diabetes Association eminent scholar chair; and Dr. Michael Haller, assistant professor of pediatric endocrinology.

As one of the original institutions participating in TrialNet, UF has been a top performing center in the network. TrialNet studies at UF include a vaccination study that aims to preserve insulin production in patients with newly onset diabetes, a study to determine the risk of diabetes for family members of children with type 1 and research into the prevention or delay of diabetes through the administration of insulin.

Lasker Prize-winner Leroy Hood, a renowned systems biologist and inventor of the sequencing technology that led to the decoding of the human genome, described how medicine will become much more proactive within a few short years.

Click here to listen to him explain it in his own words from his presentation at the UF Genetics Institute’s annual symposium in October.

Leroy Hood, Lasker Prize-winner

During November, the University of Florida will shine a “blue” spotlight on diabetes during Diabetes Awareness Month, which  Shannon Lyles, a registered nurse in the pediatric endocrinology department at UF, says is a very good idea.

“Diabetes is a disease that everyone seems to have misconceptions about, like only older people get diabetes and diabetes is caused by eating too much sugar,” said Lyles, who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at 16.  “Education and awareness are necessary to help people understand type 1 diabetes and why we need research to help find a cure.”

Lyles knows firsthand what her patients go through as they live with type 1 diabetes and how hard it can be for children to constantly check their blood sugar, count carbohydrates and take insulin shots. Her own experience as a teen coping with diabetes led her to her career path.

Shannon Lyles, a registered nurse in the pediatric endocrinology department at UF, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at 16.

“I never looked back once I decided that I wanted to be a diabetes nurse,” she said. “My patients continually motivate me to find ways I can help them in their personal fight with diabetes.

“I hope people can begin to see that diabetes is a very important issue that needs attention,” Lyles said.

This year’s Diabetes Awareness Month kicks off next week at UF and in Gainesville with free diabetes screenings, a festival for children with diabetes and their families, a ceremony at which the Century Tower on the UF campus will be lit blue and even a chance to win airline tickets for two to anywhere Southwest Airlines flies.

Events are sponsored by the University of Florida Diabetes Center of Excellence, Health Gators 2012, the department of pathology, immunology and laboratory medicine, pediatric endocrinology at UF, the Rotary Club of Gainesville, GatorWell and the College of Medicine.

Diabetes Awareness Month Activities

Free Blood Sugar Screenings
When: Tuesday, Nov. 10, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Reitz Union Colonade
Thursday, Nov. 12, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Shands at UF Atrium
Details: The UF Diabetes Center of Excellence encourages you to “Know Your Numbers.”All UF faculty, staff, students, and community members are encouraged to join us at one of these events for free blood sugar screening.

Type 1 Diabetes Screening
When: Friday, Nov. 13, 1 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Location: Children’s Medical Services – building A , 1701 S.W. 16th Ave.
Details: Free screenings will be offered for moms, dads, siblings, and cousins of people with type 1 diabetes.

Century Tower Lighting Ceremony
When: Friday, Nov. 13, 5:30 p.m.
Location: University of Florida campus
Details: Join Gainesville Mayor Pageen Hanrahan, Rep. Chuck Chestnut and the rest of the Gator Nation as we light the Century Tower in recognition of World Diabetes Day.

Fall Festival for Children with Diabetes and their Families
When: Saturday, Nov. 14, 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Location: Westside Park, 1001 N.W. 34th St.
Details: Meet and greet with families who live with diabetes while enjoying carnival games, arts and crafts and sports. Speak with medical professionals and directors of the Florida Diabetes Camp.

First Annual World Diabetes Day Walk
When: Saturday, Nov. 14
Location: Begins at the Kirby Smith Administration Building

Public Open House
Date: Saturday, Oct. 24
Time: 9 a.m. to noon
Location: Shands Cancer Hospital at UF

Parking: Please park in the Shands at UF South Campus parking garage, located off Southwest 13th Street (follow event parking signs).

Details: The Public Open House will showcase the Shands Cancer Hospital and Shands Critical Care Center at UF to Alachua County and surrounding area residents. Attendees can take tours of the new medical center and enjoy family-oriented activities such as photos with Albert and Alberta, face painting, Shands SafeKids safety games, a fire truck and ambulance. We will also offer a health fair to promote cancer awareness, preventative healthcare, and trauma and accident prevention, among other services. For more information, please call Shands HealthCare Marketing and Public Relations at (352) 265-0373.

Candlelight Celebration & Blessing of the Hands of Hope
Date: Sunday, Oct. 25
Time & Locations:
6:30 p.m. Meet at Shands at UF Atrium (optional)
7 p.m. Event starts outside Shands Cancer Hospital at UF

Parking: Please park in the Shands at UF South Campus parking garage, located off Southwest 13th Street (follow event parking signs).

Details:If you’d like to start out from the Shands at UF Atrium, please meet there at 6:30 p.m. to hear opening remarks, receive battery operated candles, and walk as a group across the street to the Shands at UF South Campus. The event begins at 7 p.m. outside the Shands Cancer Hospital, and candles will also be distributed there. A short program will be followed by Shands chaplains providing the Blessing of the Hands of Hope to honor our caregivers who serve our patients. Light refreshments will follow the event.

For more information, please contact the Shands HealthCare Office of Development at (352) 265-7237 or Heather Gavan at gavanh@shands.ufl.edu.

Marco Pahor, M.D.

The University of Florida will receive $29.5 million in federal stimulus funds over the next two years from the National Institute on Aging to begin a six-year study on whether a program of structured physical activity can prevent or delay major movement disability in older adults.

When completed, funding for the project is expected to total more than $60 million from the NIA, including the $29.5 million through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The total will amount to the largest federal award to UF, as well as fund the largest study to prevent mobility disability in seniors.

Many studies have shown that regular exercise improves physical performance. And the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends that adults engage in at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic activity each week, as well as muscle-strengthening activities.

Still, little is known about whether exercise can actually help prevent major mobility disability, defined as the inability to walk a quarter of a mile, or four blocks.

For older adults, staving off disability could help them maintain their physical independence and enhance the quality of their later years.

“We all know that physical activity is good for our health, but the definitive evidence whether it can prevent disability in older people — whether you can prevent them from being unable to walk — is lacking,” said principal investigator Marco Pahor, M.D., director of the UF Institute on Aging.

The new study, called the Lifestyle Interventions and Independence for Elders, or LIFE study, seeks to fill that gap in scientific knowledge. This phase 3 randomized controlled trial of 1,600 sedentary adults ages 70 to 89 who are at risk of mobility disability will be conducted at eight institutions around the country.

It expands on the results of a pilot study that found the rate of onset of mobility disability was lower among a group of older adults who engaged in a structured exercise program for a year, compared with a group of seniors who took part in a health education program for a year.

“This grant reflects NIH’s recognition of the excellence of Dr. Pahor’s work in this area over the past 10 years,” said David S. Guzick, M.D., Ph.D., UF’s senior vice president for health affairs and president of the UF&Shands Health System. “It represents the kind of translational research that UF will increasingly be in a position to conduct.”

UF is the coordinating center and a field site for the LIFE study, with other field sites at Northwestern

University, Pennington Biomedical Research Center — a campus of the Louisiana State University system, Stanford University, Tufts University, the University of Pittsburgh, Wake Forest University Health Sciences and Yale University.

Recruitment will begin in early 2010. Eligible participants will be randomly assigned either to take part in a program of moderate-intensity physical activity or a health education program on successful aging. Individuals will be followed for up to three-and-a-half years.

It will be the largest randomized controlled trial ever conducted on physical activity in older adults, and the size of the study will allow scientists to examine the effect of physical activity on a large number of outcomes in ways that have not been possible before.

Primarily, the study seeks to gauge whether there are long-term effects of physical activity interventions on major mobility disability. Investigators will also examine the effects of physical activity on a number of factors, including cognitive function, serious fall injuries, disability in basic activities of daily living, cardiovascular events and hospitalization and nursing home admission. They will also examine quality-of-life measures such as depression symptoms, sleep quality, stress and satisfaction with life.

In addition, the project will allow an assessment of the cost effectiveness of walking programs for the elderly, and whether the money spent on such programs can help reduce medical expenses for injuries and illness that might otherwise result from lack of adequate physical activity.

As life expectancy increases in the United States, the care of older adults has become a major issue for clinical practice as well as public health policy. Average life expectancy today is 77.7 years — almost seven years more than in 1970, according to CDC data.

As adults age, many lose vitality and the inclination or ability to engage in physical activities as simple as walking. Older adults ages 60 to 85 spend almost 60 percent of their time — more than eight of their waking hours — in sedentary behaviors, according to data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

The length of time spent in sedentary behaviors has been associated with increased risk of weight gain and various diseases, including diabetes and heart disease. And people who lose their mobility have higher rates of sickness, hospitalization and death than others who do not have disabilities.

“Limitations in walking ability compromise independence, and contribute to the need for assistive care,” said Evan C. Hadley, M.D., director of NIA’s Division of Geriatrics and Clinical Gerontology, whose program is overseeing the trial. “Older people with impaired walking are less likely to remain in the community, have higher rates of certain diseases and death, and experience a poorer quality of life. A successful intervention might help prevent these bad outcomes.”

Dr. Joe Verghese, associate professor of neurology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Louis and Gertrude Feil Faculty Scholar in Neurology will present the keynote address. Lunch will be provided and RSVP is required by Monday, Oct. 12 to Sandy Pulcini at (352) 273-5885 or pulcini@ufl.edu.

McKnight Brain Research Foundation Board of Trustees Site Visit
AGENDA
Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2009
8 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Evelyn F. & William L. McKnight Brain Institute
100 S. Newell Drive
Gainesville, FL 32611
RSVP required by Oct. 12 to Sandy Pulcini 273-5885 or pulcini@ufl.edu

8 a.m. Continental Breakfast, LG110
8:30 a.m. Opening Remarks, LG110

Basic Science Speakers DeWeese Auditorium
9 – 10:15 a.m.
Michael King, Ph.D.
Preliminary Study of Nanorexin for age-related memory dysfunction in rats
Christy Carter, Ph.D.
The influence of increased physical activity on assessing cognitive function in aged rats after life-long calorie restriction
Brandi Ormerod, Ph.D.
Biomarkers predict successful versus unsuccessful aging in rats

10:15 – 10:30 a.m.
Break

Clinician Speakers DeWeese Auditorium
10:30 – 11:45 a.m.
Michael Marsiske, Ph.D.
Intervening with cognition in late life
Zvinka Zlatar, M.S.
Brain activity differences between sedentary and fit older adults: A cross-sectional MRI study
Catherine Price, Ph.D.
Neuroanatomical predictors of post-operative cognitive dysfunction: the role for white matter and entorhinal cortices

11:45 a.m. – noon
Break

Noon – 1 .p.m.
Keynote Speaker
Joe Verghese, M.B.B.S.
Cognitive reserve and cognitive remediation

1 p.m.
Box Lunch Provided

This contest, sponsored by the Marston Science Library and the UF Alumni Association and its partners the UF Health Science Center Libraries and the UF Architecture and Fine Arts Library, will showcase research at UF  in an imaginative and unique format. Current faculty, students, staff and UF alumni are invited to submit artistic 2-D representations of their scientific research. A panel of judges will award cash prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place as well as an Alumni Prize to entries that creatively merge science and art. The submission deadline for artwork is Dec. 21.

An open house and awards reception to honor the winning artists will be held in the Marston Science Library during the beginning of the Spring 2010 semester. Winning entries will be displayed at the Marston Science Library, the Health Science Center Library and on the contest Web site throughout 2010. For more details and to access the entry form, visit http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/msl/art

he Marston Science Library invites all UF faculty, students and staff to submit artwork to its second annual “Elegance of Science” contest.

Leroy Hood, founder of the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle.

Five internationally acclaimed genetics researchers, including Leroy Hood, who invented the sequencing technology that led to the decoding of the human genome in 2001, have accepted invitations to present findings Oct. 28 and Oct. 29 at Florida Genetics 2009, the annual symposium of the UF Genetics Institute.

Hood, the founder of the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, will discuss “Systems biology and systems medicine — Catalyzing a transformation from reactive to proactive medicine” at 5 p.m. Oct. 28 in the Health Professions/Nursing/Pharmacy complex auditorium.

A full schedule with complimentary online registration and abstract submission is available at the UFGI Web site at http://www.ufgi.ufl.edu/.

Additional guest speakers include Terry Van Dyke, a professor at the University of North Carolina’s department of genetics; Michael Levine, a professor of genetics, genomics and development at University of California, Berkeley; Anna Di Rienzo, a professor at the University of Chicago’s department of human genetics; and John Doebley, professor of genetics at University of Wisconsin, Madison.

The International Space Station photographed following separation from the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 2001. The 70mm frame was exposed by one of the STS-100 crew members onboard the shuttle. Photo by NASA

Citing a discovery by scientists with the McKnight Brain Institute of the University of Florida and four other research groups, a Colorado-based electronics engineering firm has begun the first-phase design of an instrument that would help protect astronauts from radiation on the International Space Station and during deep-space flights.

The findings in late 2007 — by McKnight Brain Institute researchers with collaborators from the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Neuroscience Associates and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center — suggested that identifying medications or physical shielding to protect astronauts from cosmic and solar radiation will be important for the success of human space missions beyond low Earth orbit.

The researchers discovered that a certain type of neural stem cell that was not expected to be overly sensitive to radiation was actually the most vulnerable.

The scientists said that radiation in low Earth orbit is not a concern, but during extended missions to the moon or Mars, measures to protect astronauts from health risks caused by exposure to space radiation will be important, according to Dennis A. Steindler, Ph.D., executive director of the McKnight Brain Institute, who designed the study.

Acting on those findings, Advantage Electronic Product Development of Colorado recently announced it is developing radiation-detecting instruments. The company said prototype instruments are expected to be completed and ready for testing by the first quarter of 2010.

On the eve of the new year 2009, Bill Hahn (left) received a kidney-pancreas transplant with help from members of the Renal Transplant Program at Shands at the University of Florida medical center. This week he and fellow surfer and transplant recipient Richard Salik are preparing for the 24th annual National Kidney Foundation Surf Festival.

Like many people, professional surfer Bill Hahn was considering his future on the eve of 2009.

Champagne and parties were distant from his mind.

Instead, he prepared himself for a kidney-pancreas transplant with help from members of the Renal Transplant Program at Shands at the University of Florida medical center.

He wondered if he would ever ride the waves again, of if he would regain the active lifestyle he had before diabetes and kidney disease took a toll on his health.

Looking back, those fears seem groundless.

Today, Hahn is preparing for the 24th annual National Kidney Foundation Surf Festival, slated for Sept. 3 to Sept. 7 at Cocoa Beach. This year’s event features professional and amateur surfing competitions, live music and a silent auction to increase kidney-disease awareness, with an emphasis on prevention and support for organ donation and transplantation.

“I am back to running 20 miles a day and running my business in the health and wellness industry,” Hahn said “My life has been forever enriched by the kidney and pancreas transplant I received at Shands. No more diabetes, no more insulin shots and no more dialysis.”

The key to success with a transplant is limiting the time spent on dialysis before the transplant, according to Herwig-Ulf Meier-Kriesche, M.D., a professor of medicine and the medical director of renal and pancreas transplantation at the UF College of Medicine.

“Early contact with a transplant center when kidney disease is discovered is the key to timely transplantation and exceptional accomplishments as witnessed in these outstanding surfers,” Meier-Kriesche said. “The stories of surfers Bill Hahn and Richard Salick who are organizing this event highlight the impressive recovery from kidney disease which kidney transplantation can offer and that exceptional quality of life can return with a successful transplant.”

Next year, for the quarter centennial of the surf festival, the Renal Transplant Program would like to offer a “surf clinic”—not the type of clinic that teaches surfing skills, but a traditional health clinic to offer care for surfers and attendees at the event.