FSU College of Medicine 2017 annual report 2017 Annual Report - FSU College of Medicine | Page 49

2 0 1 7 A N N U A L R E P O R T 47 Angelina Sutin, assistant professor effective ways of treating many in the Department of Behavioral neurodegenerative diseases. Gary Ostrander, associate vice Sciences and Social Medicine, and Sutin Terracciano Antonio Terracciano, associate president for research at Florida professor of geriatrics, received a State and a professor of biomedical $2.8 million NIH grant to search sciences at the College of Medicine, for the origin of personality traits Ostrander that impact longevity. The five-year the Florida Department of Health. study will seek to identify prenatal Ostrander and FSU Assistant Vice and childhood neighborhood President for Research Eric Holmes risk factors contributing to the will use human clinical trials to test development of personality traits a drug approved and on the market most consequential for healthy for tapeworm infections to see if it’s aging. A better understanding of those relationships is the first step Megraw million awarded by Gov. Rick Scott to Florida State after more than 1,000 people in Florida were Sciences Michelle Arbeitman diagnosed with travel-related Zika received two NIH grants totaling cases in 2016. Scott awarded 34 $2.2 million for her work in grants to 10 Florida institutions. understanding how a person’s Meckes The remainder of the funding going to Florida State involved of complex behaviors. One grant College of Medicine scientists Tim Megraw and David Meckes. focuses on genes and epigenetic Megraw, associate professor of biomedical sciences, received changes causing behavioral $857,000 to understand mechanisms by which the Zika virus differences between males and activates activity in the centrosome and to identify drugs that females. The other looks at the interfere with the process, blocking the virus’s spread. central nervous system and how Meckes, assistant professor of biomedical sciences, received different neuronal connections make $200,000 to identify markers in males and females behave differently. pregnant women that let doctors Yi Zhou, associate professor know if the fetus has been infected with the Zika virus. of biomedical sciences, received Henry Carretta, assistant a five-year, $1.8 million NIH grant to study potential molecular professor of behavioral sciences therapies for schizophrenia. He Tomko Ostrander’s grant is part of $2.2 improve health outcomes. genetic makeup influences a range Zhou effective in combating the Zika virus. toward earlier interventions to Associate Professor of Biomedical Arbeitman received a $1.1million grant from and social medicine, is principal will be looking in particular at a Carretta brain protein that may be critical in $600,000 study funded by the Agency for Health Care maintaining proper synaptic transmission. Robert J. Tomko Jr., assistant professor of biomedical investigator for a three-year, Administration to evaluate the MEDS-AD (Meds for Aged and Disabled) Waiver Program. The program aims to improve sciences, received a $1.5 million NIH grant to advance the quality of pharmacological treatment among elderly and understanding of how cells dispose of their protein waste. disabled patients with limited financial resources. The work seeks to unlock secrets that could lead to more