Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences, College of Medicine Biannual Newsletter
Recombination
VOLUME 6, FEBRUARY 2022 UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA The Recombination annual newsletter describes the activities of the Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences from July 1, 2021 through January 28, 2022
LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR Dr. Pappachan E. Kolattukudy
prepare them for tomorrow’s employment market. New courses in biotechnological areas such as stem cell biology, tissue engineering, bio-imaging and biotechnology laboratory methods are being offered. The newly developed biotechnology B.S. and M.S. programs are already beginning to generate workforce for the emerging biotechnology industry. The new M.S./M.B.A. and Ph.D./M.B.A. programs being offered in collaboration with the College of Business Administration are to provide the managerial workforce for the biotechnology industry.
IN THIS ISSUE: • Research News • New Faculty • Faculty Accomplishments • Student Achievements • Faculty News • Other News
Thanks to the foresight of Vice President M.J. Soileau, Provost Gary White House and President Hitt, who made the commitment to support the plan I proposed to them seven years ago to build a biomedical research and education enterprise, such an enterprise is now flourishing at UCF. It is a great pleasure to report that the Burnett School is making great progress in meeting our goals on all fronts, thanks to the dedication and exceptionally hard work of our faculty, staff, and research personnel. Our physical facilities expanded to Provide space for the growing programs. The 198,000 sq. ft. Burnett School of Biomedical Science building at Lake Nona became ready for occupancy last spring and currently 13 research teams are working in the building. This building has a variety of sophisticated state-of the-art shared core instrumentation facilities that should enhance our ability to research the cutting edge. The 25,000 sq. ft. transgenic animal facility has become functional and started serving the research needs of our programs. We completed the refurbishing of the Biomolecular Science annex in the Research Park. A laboratory vacated by Cardiopulmonary Sciences in HPA2 is being converted into a state-of-the-art biotechnology teaching laboratory with modern instrumentation. Shuttle service and video hookups started to function to help meet the challenges posed by the 25-mile separation of the Burnett building from the main campus although many challenges remain. Our academic programs are constantly undergoing renewal to provide our students training in the emerging technologies in biomedical science to
Our academic programs are growing in quality and size. Last year more than 14,000 students were enrolled in our courses and this fall our enrollment increased more than 11 percent we currently have 2,523 majors in our undergraduate degree programs, more than 12 percent increase over the last year. Our graduate programs also are growing; currently, we have 115 graduate students, 70 in Ph.D. and 45 in the M.S. programs. More than 100 undergraduate students are conducting laboratory research. Five of our undergraduates are listed as co-authors on journal articles and 22 contributed to 21 different abstracts/presentations. Thanks to the efforts of our advising staff who pays special attention to students with special needs, BSBS has one of the lowest percentage of students on probation. Of the 25 presentations given at the Showcase of Undergraduate Research (SURE), our students received two first place, a second place, and two honorable mentions in the Life Sciences category. Of the 1,665 students in the Burnett Honors College, 222 of them are Molecular Biology and Microbiology majors. Of the 270 active Honors in the Major students, 13 are in Burnett School. We have 61 active LEAD Scholars. Two Molecular Biology and Microbiology majors won Honors in the Major and three students won the Order of Pegasus, the university’s most prestigious award. We had six students from abroad—Holland, Spain, South Africa, China and Iraq—sent here to receive training by working in our research laboratories. Our faculty collaborate with researchers at the national level at the University of California, University of Miami, Ohio State University of Florida, etc., and internationally in Switzerland, Canada,Austria, Brazil, China, France, India, Italy, Japan, Jordan, etc. The faculty of the Burnett School are supported by more than $12.6 million per year from nationally competitive sources such as the National Insti-
tutes of Health (NIH) and Department of Defense. A shared instrumentation grant was awarded to set up a sophisticated confocal imaging system. This is a remarkable achievement by our extremely dedicated faculty, considering the fact that the success rate in obtaining such nationally competitive grants have hit the lowest point ever. Our faculty members continued to publish in high-impact journals such as Nature Cell Biology, Journal of Immunology, Cell Death and Differentiation, FASEB Journal, Cardiovascular, Journal of Biological Chemistry with a total of 80 publications last year. Research conducted in the new Burnett, the building has already appeared in scientific journals; one in the Bio-chem Journal, and another with the work in Stem Cells and Development where it is featured on the cover of the journal. Our faculty made more than 95 presentations at professional meetings and were on 75 national review panels last year. They were very active in intellectual property development; they filed 18 invention disclosures, 44 patent applications and 10 patents were issued in the past year. These constituted advances in novel ways of treating diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, HIV/AIDS, producing plant-based vaccines and bio-pharmaceuticals,and in understanding cancer, cardiovascular diseases, strokes and tuberculosis. Faculty research was featured in “The Scientist”, UCFTV, Orlando Magazine’s Orange Appeal, the Orlando Sentinel, Channel 13 (English and Spanish), WUCF, Channel 9 Eyewitness News, among others. The Luminary Series, initiated by Ms. Bernadine Douglas, currently sponsored by Dean Mead and Fifth Third Bank, showcases cutting-edge research being done in the Burnett School. Thanks to the efforts of Chip Roberts, Carlee Thomas and Lorraine Scholler, it continued this the year with presentations “Mending the Broken Heart” by Dr. Dinender Singla and “Your Body Produces Antibiotics that Fight Deadly Germs” by Dr. Alexander Cole and “Stat3 Protein: New Target For Breast Cancer Therapy” by Dr. James Turkson. With the availability of state-of-the-art research facilities, we are embarking on an aggressive search process to recruit faculty members researching at the cutting edge in cancer, cardiovascular and metabolic, neurodegenerative and infectious disease. We also expect to enhance our collaboration activities with Sanford-Burnham, the hospitals, and other biomedical research establishments in Florida, the U.S. , and abroad.