FSU College of Medicine 2017 annual report 2017 Annual Report - FSU College of Medicine | Page 47

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INSPIRING OTHERS
The College of Medicine graduated its first two Ph.D.
candidates in 2008 and has produced an average of about
five a year since then. In 2017, Lataisia Jones became the
first African-American to complete the program, earning her
Ph.D. in neuroscience.
Jones’ achievement became big news, in part because her
sister shared it on Twitter – where it was shared more than
6,000 times.
Soon, Jones was being contacted by aspiring young
scientists worldwide seeking words of wisdom and
encouragement. Jones, now a postdoctoral fellow at the
Children’s National Health System in Washington, D.C., was
more than happy to offer inspiration.
SUPPORT FOR
HEALTH TECHNOLOGY
During her time at Florida State, she regularly visited
elementary schools with predominantly minority students to
pique their interest in science and inspire them about their
The College of Medicine and the Florida A&M University
/Florida State University College of Engineering entered
future.
“I think it is very important to have that pipeline created
into a collaborative research partnership with Mayo Clinic in even as early as elementary school,” she said. “I fear for the
Florida. The agreement involves financial support for FSU people who don’t have advisors like I did, who can guide
researchers developing health technology breakthroughs with them toward their future and give them the knowledge and
the potential for commercialization. motivation to do it on their own.”
“It’s a unique partnership providing specific pathways for
health technology developed at FSU to move toward the
marketplace in a way that increases the likelihood of getting
new ideas from the lab to where they can benefit patients,”
Senior Associate Dean Jeffrey Joyce said.
“We’ve never done anything like this before, and I’m
excited about where this will lead.”
Examples of recent collaborations between the medical
and engineering schools include a novel therapy for treating
metastatic cancers that would involve attaching tiny devices
to white blood cells that can accumulate in tumors. Another
project involves developing a novel in vitro Alzheimer’s
disease model with artificial “organoids” that can be used for
testing and identifying treatments.
Under the agreement, Mayo could choose to provide
financial support for the expensive process of taking such
ideas from the lab to the marketplace.