A Florida State University geneticist has earned one of the most prestigious awards available to early career faculty for her work investigating how genetically identical individuals raised in the same environment, like identical twins, can still be different from each other.

Assistant Professor of Biological Science Amy Webster received a 2026 Faculty Early Career Development Award, or CAREER Award, from the National Science Foundation to study how genes are regulated to affect their traits. The award provides $1.1 million in funding. Webster is one of four FSU faculty members to receive CAREER awards so far this year, all from the College of Arts and Sciences.

“The Webster Lab is still relatively young, so this support provides momentum to build a strong foundation for the future,” Webster said. “We know our genomes are important for many of our characteristics, so we expect genetically identical individuals to be broadly similar. But we also know DNA sequence doesn’t predict everything about us. Many traits and diseases are influenced by the environment, and some differences arise in a seemingly random way. My lab studies how ‘noise’ in gene regulation can have important consequences for organisms.”

The CAREER Awards Program offers NSF’s most significant awards in support of early career faculty with the potential to serve as role models in research and education and lead groundbreaking advances in their fields. The award provides faculty with five years of funding to support students and conduct research while affording them the opportunity to work closely with NSF staff on developing their professional endeavors.

“NSF CAREER awards are prestigious and bring attention to the high caliber of our faculty,” said Karen McGinnis, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and professor of biological science. “Dr. Webster’s combination of expertise in mathematics, genetics, and genomics allows her to tackle interesting and significant questions about genetic inheritance, evolution and variation among individuals.”

While a person’s DNA remains largely unchanged throughout life, how their genes are expressed can change due to environmental factors such as sun exposure, diet and stress. For instance, smoking cigarettes represses a specific gene that prevents cancer; when smokers quit, this gene can resume its cancer-fighting functions over time. Webster’s research focuses on how and why certain genes are flipped “on” or “off,” an area of the field known as gene regulation.

“By understanding DNA’s interactions with other factors to influence gene regulation, we can gain insight into how biological differences arise during an individual’s life,” Webster said. “Long term, this work helps us better understand why individuals differ in traits and disease risk, even when genetics alone doesn’t fully explain those differences.”

To study the interactions between an organism’s genome and environment, the Webster Lab raises and observes Caenorhabditis elegans, a microscopic roundworm that shares 60 to 80 percent of its genes with humans and can express half of all known human disease genes.

“Although they’re clones raised under identical conditions, we’ve found that some genes are regulated differently across individuals, which can affect important traits such as reproductive output,” Webster said. “We’re now working to understand why some genes are regulated consistently, while others are more variable. We’re also investigating how genome sequence and epigenetic modifications, the chemical changes influencing how DNA is packaged and regulated, contribute to these differences.”

Additionally, the award will enable the Webster Lab to investigate whether non-genetic differences that arise in one generation can affect subsequent generations. To do this, Webster will observe evolution in real time by employing experimental approaches allowing her lab to grow more than 200 generations of Caenorhabditis elegans populations.

NSF CAREER awards also support researchers’ investment in educating and training the next generation of scientists, and this award will bolster the Webster Lab’s offering of student opportunities in bioinformatics — a field combining computer science, statistics, and mathematics to analyze massive biological datasets — and artificial intelligence. For example, the Webster Lab employs these technologies to assist in identifying gene regulation patterns that are difficult and time consuming to detect manually.

“Since starting my lab at FSU, it’s been incredibly rewarding to see students and researchers become invested in the questions we’re asking and take ownership of their experiments and analyses,” Webster said. “We’ve accomplished a lot already, and I’m excited to see what we can do next with sustained NSF support.”

Webster joined FSU’s faculty in the Department of Biological Science in 2024 and earned a First-Year Assistant Professor Award in 2025. She earned a doctorate in genetics and genomics from Duke University in 2021 and was a postdoctoral scholar in the Institute of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Oregon before coming to Tallahassee.

Visit the Department of Biological Science website for more information on faculty research.

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A Florida State University research team has received a $350,000 grant from the Humana Foundation to develop and test an artificial intelligence-powered system that helps older adults build social connections through volunteering and community engagement.

The two-year project, “ALCOVE: A Personalized AI Concierge to Promote Community Engagement and Social Connectedness Among Older Adults,” will create a digital platform tailored to the needs, preferences and lifestyles of older adults across North Florida.

Led by FSU School of Information Professor and Institute for Successful Longevity Director Zhe He, the interdisciplinary team includes co-principal investigators Mia Liza A. Lustria and Dawn Carr, along with collaborators from multiple FSU departments and partner institutions.

“Social isolation is one of the most pressing public health crises, yet it is often an overlooked challenge facing older adults, and this grant from the Humana Foundation gives us the opportunity to do something meaningful about it,” He said. “ALCOVE harnesses the power of AI to help older adults find meaningful volunteer and social activities in their community — in a way that feels personal and supportive. It supports people in taking meaningful steps to reconnect with their communities and improve their overall well-being. We are deeply grateful to the Humana Foundation and look forward to making a real difference in the lives of older adults in North Florida.”

The ALCOVE system will function as a personalized “digital social concierge,” guiding users through a simple conversational process to learn about their interests, mobility, transportation options and social preferences. The platform will then match participants with vetted volunteer and community opportunities and provide ongoing reminders, encouragement and follow-up support to help them stay engaged.

The project addresses a growing public health concern. Research has linked chronic loneliness among older adults to increased risks of cognitive decline, heart disease, depression and premature death, as well as billions of dollars in annual health care costs. ALCOVE aims to connect older adults to community, purpose and opportunity.

“Finding opportunities is only part of the solution. People are much more likely to stay engaged when opportunities reflect who they are and fit the realities of their daily lives,” Lustria said. “AI makes that level of personalization possible by learning about each person’s interests, motivations, abilities, transportation options, and other real-world circumstances, allowing ALCOVE to deliver tailored recommendations and ongoing support that simply wouldn’t be feasible at this scale. Ultimately, our goal is to make meaningful community engagement more accessible, helping older adults find purpose, build relationships, and strengthen their connections with the communities around them.”

Carr, director of FSU’s Claude Pepper Center, noted the importance of the specific focus of this project on volunteering.

“Volunteering is a particularly novel and important health behavior to focus on with older adults at risk of experiencing social isolation and loneliness because it is among the most well-established activities for promoting meaningful social connections,” she said. “Not only does volunteering help people feel more connected in the community and with others, it’s also as effective as other health behaviors like exercising and eating well, showing that people who regularly volunteer experience reduced physiological aging over time.”

The project reflects FSU’s leadership in community-engaged and innovative aging research. ALCOVE builds on more than seven years of collaborative research by the team, including NIH-funded efforts to develop AI tools that support healthy aging and long-term engagement among older adults.

The Humana Foundation grant supports the development of the AI system, community-based research and evaluation of outcomes related to social engagement, loneliness and emotional well-being.

Through focus groups and co-design workshops, researchers will work with older adults in North Florida to identify challenges to social participation and shape the platform’s development. The team will then test the system in a two-year pilot study with approximately 50 participants.

Ultimately, the research team aims to use findings from the ALCOVE pilot to pursue additional federal funding and expand the platform to serve older adults nationwide.

The project includes collaborators from Weill Cornell Medicine and Arizona State University, as well as community partners such as the Tallahassee Senior Center, which will help connect researchers with local participants and organizations.

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Shark Awareness Day, observed every year on July 14, encourages a better understanding of sharks and the important role they play in healthy marine ecosystems.

Summer fears often focus on shark attacks instead of far more common dangers such as rip currents, extreme heat or even dehydration. On average, shark attacks cause one to two fatalities nationally per year, while rip currents result in more than 100 annual deaths and heat-related illnesses contribute to nearly 2,400 deaths each year, according to 2023 data from the National Center for Biotechnology Information.

Florida State University Associate Professor of Psychology David March studies threat perception, or how people judge and respond to danger. He leads the March Research Laboratory that examines how automatic and deliberate thinking shape perception, decision making and behavior. March says people naturally process dramatic events such as shark attacks differently than more common but less visible dangers, shaping how they think about risk before they ever step onto the beach.

“There is an evolved bias toward acute, identifiable physical threats,” March said. “A shark is a clear and imaginable agent of harm. It has teeth, movement, intentional behavior and the capacity to cause immediate bodily harm. In contrast, rip currents and dehydration are more diffuse, gradual and harder to visualize as ‘attackers.’ They do not fit the evolved threat prototype, even though they may be more dangerous in practical terms.”

That imbalance, March said, is especially clear among beachgoers who may understand the ocean more as a place of recreation than as a changing natural environment with less visible risks.

“Threat perception is not simply a response to objective danger. It is shaped by experience, attention, cultural messages and how easily a threat can be imagined,” March added. “For tourists, the beach may feel generally safe and recreational, while the most emotionally available danger is the shark. The result is misallocated fear, leading to vigilance toward the wrong threat and underpreparedness for the risks most likely to cause harm.”

Media interested in interviewing associate professor of psychology David March about the misplaced summer fears of shark attacks may reach out to him via email at march@psy.fsu.edu.

David March, associate professor, Florida State University Department of Psychology

Statistics show shark attacks are rare, yet rip currents and extreme heat claim far more lives. Why do so many people worry more about sharks at the beach?

Sensationalized news coverage contributes to an overperception of how often shark attacks occur. This reflects the availability heuristic: because shark attacks are dramatic and widely reported, examples of them come to mind easily, which makes them feel more common than they actually are. In contrast, dangers like rip currents or dehydration may be statistically more frequent, but they are less likely to receive the same kind of vivid media attention.

This availability effect is paired with the especially vivid and emotionally intense nature of shark attacks. The idea of being attacked by a large predator is easy to imagine, visually graphic, and associated with fear and pain. Those affective reactions can make the risk feel more immediate and serious, even when the actual probability is low. As a result, when someone is at the beach, they may become more vigilant about signs of sharks than about less dramatic but more likely dangers.

Together, media sensationalism, availability, vivid affect, and evolved sensitivity to acute predators prepare us to overperceive the risk of shark attacks, leading to greater concern that is oversized relative to the actual danger. This is especially the case when we are at the place where such a threat may occur.

One behavioral data point suggests that a large portion of rip current fatality victims are out-of-state tourists — many who visit beaches more for leisure. How much does mindset play a role in these types of fatalities, and how does this tie into threat perception overall?

Experience likely plays an important role because it shapes both how people approach the beach and which threats they know how to recognize. Tourists with less regular beach exposure may see the beach primarily as a leisure setting rather than a dynamic natural environment with changing surf, currents, heat and other hazards. They also have fewer ordinary, uneventful beach experiences to counter the cultural narrative that sharks are the major ocean danger. At the same time, they may be less familiar with rip currents, less likely to recognize their warning signs, and less likely to have encountered public messaging that treats them as a serious threat. This stacks the deck toward underperceiving common but less vivid dangers while overperceiving dramatic but rare ones.”

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Researchers at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering and the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory have shown how higher magnetic fields can improve analysis of the molecules linked to Alzheimer’s disease, a finding that could aid the development of future treatments.

In a study published in Solid State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, the researchers showed how a high-magnitude magnetic field can improve the accuracy of measurements that show the chemical composition of amyloid beta fragments, small pieces of proteins that have been shown to play a critical role in Alzheimer’s disease. They were able to analyze amyloid proteins even when they were structurally complex and mixed with lipids, creating conditions that more closely resemble the human brain than traditional laboratory samples.

By better understanding the composition and structure of these molecules, scientists can design compounds that may disrupt disease progression and lead to more effective treatments.

“The current treatment plans for Alzheimer’s disease are not working well enough,” said study co-author Ayyalusamy Ramamoorthy, a professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering. “This disease follows a complex process. We are looking into the mess of molecules implicated in memory loss, investigating how they promote toxic compounds in the brain and trying to stop them.”

How it works: finding a way to block Alzheimer’s disease

Researchers are still studying the exact mechanisms that cause Alzheimer’s disease, but amyloid beta proteins are believed to play a central role in the disease. These proteins are found clumped together among neurons inside affected brains. Studies have shown them to be a good benchmark for tracking disease progression and a potential target for treatment.

By mapping the structure of amyloid beta catalyzed by lipids, researchers can develop compounds that could effectively bind to its surface and fully stop them from killing neuronal cells within the brain.

“It’s like an incredibly complex puzzle piece,” Ramamoorthy said. “We want to create another puzzle piece that can match with it and stop it from binding with something within the brain responsible for memory.”

 What they did

To find the edges of that puzzle piece, Ramamoorthy and the research team used a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer. NMR spectrometers work by placing a sample in a strong magnetic field and applying radio waves to excite atomic nuclei. By measuring how the atomic nuclei absorb and re-emit these radio waves, scientists can determine properties like the chemical composition of molecules.

Instead of clean samples, researchers analyzed amyloid beta interacting with a lipid found in the membrane of neural cells. That emulated the tangled mix of cells found within the brain.

They measured samples with a 600-megahertz spectrometer and a 1,100-megahertz spectrometer and compared the results. Researchers already knew that a higher magnetic field would enhance the spectral resolution of amyloid beta proteins. This study showed that an NMR spectrometer using a higher magnetic field could also better identify discrete parts of amyloid beta within a realistic sample.

Even though the protein-lipid mix looks chaotic overall, the improved measurements revealed distinct, well-ordered segments within the combined samples and evidence of a central core inside amyloid proteins.

“When you have these amorphous collections of different cell types, they are not well-ordered. When you try to take a picture, it looks very blurry,” Ramamoorthy said. “We were able to zoom in and get a look at the structured regions within the protein.”

Why it matters and future research

The study shows that a higher magnetic field NMR spectrometer can identify information from amyloid proteins that exist in a diverse mixture of cell types. Scientists studying Alzheimer’s disease are no longer limited to ideal samples. They can study complex mixtures and still get atomic-level clues.

The researchers plan to use the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory’s 1.5-gigahertz NMR spectrometer for future research.

“This is the only place in the world where such an ultra-high magnetic field (1.5-GHz) NMR spectrometer is available,” Ramamoorthy said. “We want to push the challenges and overcome the hurdles in developing potential drugs to treat Alzheimer’s and related diseases, and these resources are crucial for this work.”

FSU postdoctoral researcher Jhinuk Saha and University of Wisconsin researcher Thirupathi Ravula were co-authors on this study. This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIDDK), the National Science Foundation, and Florida State University. The research used NHMFL at FSU and the National Magnetic Resonance Facility at the University of Wisconsin.

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A leading global agency of the United Nations has tabbed Florida State University as its first chair focused on sport ecology — a landmark agreement that places FSU at the center of one of the world’s most critical and emerging fields of study.

UNESCO, which stands for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, selected FSU for a four-year partnership that connects the university to the global agency’s priority-setting work and to peer institutions on six continents. There are 14 UNESCO Chairs in sport-related fields worldwide. FSU is the only one based in the United States and the only one dedicated specifically to sport ecology.

The distinction positions FSU at the forefront of a rising discipline linking sport, environmental science and global policy.

“Holding the world’s first UNESCO Chair in sport ecology is a distinct honor for Florida State University, and a recognition that sport’s relationship with the environment is worthy of serious study,” said Timothy Kellison, FSU’s chairholder and an associate professor of sport management within the Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences.

“Holding the world’s first UNESCO Chair in sport ecology is a distinct honor for Florida State University, and a recognition that sport’s relationship with the environment is worthy of serious study.”

– Timothy Kellison, associate professor of sport management

Sport ecology is the study of the bidirectional relationship between sport and natural environment. It is a critical field examining both how sport affects the environment — whether through carbon emissions, energy use or facility construction — and how environmental change affects sport.

According to UNESCO, the academic infrastructure for understanding and improving sport’s environmental performance remains nascent. A UNESCO Chair dedicated to sport ecology fills a gap in both scholarship and international policy, helping shape a multi-hundred-billion dollar global sports industry with a large environmental footprint.

The designation gives FSU’s research and faculty opportunities for international collaboration and access to the agency’s knowledge networks. For students, it will signal that FSU provides an education in a discipline of growing career relevance as sport organizations face growing pressure to address sustainability.

Over the four-year partnership, FSU will build a collaborative research network of UNESCO Chairs and academic institutions worldwide; strengthen the education and training of sport ecology; facilitate knowledge for researchers, practitioners and policymakers; and raise public awareness.

FSU is among just 33 institutions in the U.S. with a UNESCO Chair designation — joining other research universities such as Harvard, Stanford, Chicago, Penn, Georgetown and Northwestern.

FSU’s faculty team includes an interdisciplinary group of experts from across the university spanning sport management, urban and regional planning, geography, design, political science, anthropology and history. This faculty, which will work together to address the challenges of sport ecology, includes Eric Coleman (political science); Ronald Doel (history); Tisha Joseph Holmes (urban and regional planning); Amy Kim (sport management); Amy Kowal (anthropology); Meaghan McSorley (urban and regional planning); Victor Mesev (geography); Meghan Mick (interior design); and Devra Waldman (sport management).

For more information on the FSU Department of Sport Management, which was recently voted a top three program among public institutions, visit the department’s website.

Find out more about UNESCO by visiting its website.

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A Florida State University computational scientist is paving the way for future medical breakthroughs by developing mathematical models and simulations to predict the behavior of a unique drug-delivery method, which aims to deploy treatments directly to targeted sites in the body.

Florida State University Associate Professor of Scientific Computing Bryan Quaife is part of a multi-institutional team of engineers, mathematicians and computational scientists who are conducting foundational research essential to the design of a drug-delivery system that could reduce medication side effects while increasing treatment efficacy. Their research expands upon work proposing the use of magnetic particles to guide cell-like drug carriers toward a specific target, like a tumor.

This work, which was published in Physical Review Letters, the American Physical Society’s flagship publication, reveals how tiny particles moving inside microscopic drug carriers can gradually stress and eventually rupture the enclosing membrane. These findings could help engineers design smarter drug delivery systems to protect therapeutic cargo during transport and release it on demand at the desired location.

“Our paper shows how mathematical models and computations can reveal processes that are difficult to measure experimentally,” Quaife said. “We needed to study how magnetic force affects the cell-like membrane that transports a drug to a specific site to prevent it from rupturing inside the body. Many measurements — such as the membrane’s ‘floppiness’ and the amount of magnetic force its internal walls can withstand — can’t be taken at such a small scale. I filled in the gaps by developing computer code that predicts experimental outcomes.”

How it works

Medicines like pills and injections circulate throughout the body, which can dilute potency and lead to side effects. For example, chemotherapy drugs are administered to kill cancer cells, but they often also cause severe exhaustion, nausea, hair loss, increased infection risk and anemia. By transporting drugs directly to the site they’re meant to treat, researchers aim to enhance drug efficiency while alleviating unnecessary strain on the body and potentially reducing debilitating side effects.

Researchers first encapsulate a magnetic particle and cargo, such as a drug molecule, within an artificial cell membrane called a vesicle. In this scenario, the vesicle is like a car, the magnetic particle provides the driving force, and the cargo are the passengers being transported. A magnet field outside the body guides the vesicle to the desired location where a specific stimulus, such as light, deteriorates the vesicle membrane and releases the drug into the body. The technique can be used in cases that benefit from pinpoint accuracy in treatment, such as delivering a drug directly to a tumor or to sites of localized inflammation.

“Beyond biochemical targeting, one targeted drug delivery approach is like a truck pulling a trailer, using a particle or microrobot to move the drug where they want it to go,” said On Shun Pak, a co-author on this work and associate professor of mechanical engineering and applied mathematics at Santa Clara University, California. “However, attaching and manipulating cargo can be challenging at the microscale. We instead employ a microparticle encapsulated within a drug carrier to generate propulsion from the inside, rather than towing it from the outside.”

This magnet-driven method was first explored last year in the journal Nanoscale by a research team including Pak, Yuan-Nan Young, professor of mathematical sciences at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and Jie Feng, assistant professor of mechanical science and engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Many aspects of the drug delivery system they conceptualized were too small for scientific instruments to measure without destroying the experiment. Young, who led this subsequent research, connected with Quaife to explore the underlying mechanisms using customized, sophisticated computer codes.

“The particle-driven vesicle configuration is so unique and challenging that it’s impossible to simulate using common commercial software,” Young said. “In the beginning stages, Bryan’s expertise helped us identify magnetic-driven drug delivery as something that’s actually possible. After the code was implemented, we did more analytic calculations to determine how the process can work without rupturing the membrane entirely.”

Why it matters

In addition to medicine, this research could eventually lead to new forms of environmental remediation. By swapping a drug for another type of active agent, the vesicle system could potentially be used to neutralize contaminants in water systems or clean up oil spills, especially in areas that are difficult to reach by traditional means.

“This is highly collaborative work at the intersection of fluid dynamics, soft matter and biophysics,” Quaife said. “Experiments informed decisions we made while developing the code, but when we discovered new things through computation and modeling, we relayed that back to the experimentalists. This allowed us to have a full-circle loop among the experiments, analysis, modeling and computation.”

Additional co-authors on this National Science Foundation-funded work include Hervé Nganguia, associate professor of mathematics at Towson University and Howard Stone, the Neil A. Omenn ’68 University Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University.

Visit the FSU Department of Scientific Computing website to learn more about the department’s research.

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The William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust has awarded two faculty members in the FSU Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences (Anne’s College) a $500,000 grant to train the next generation of professionals working with individuals with autism.

With the generous funding, Anne’s College will offer competitive scholarships to provide full financial support to teachers pursuing the Autism Spectrum Disorder Graduate Certificate. The grant will support 75 in-service teachers over the next three years.

Veronica Fleury, associate professor in special education at Anne’s College, says that access to the Autism Spectrum Disorder Graduate Certificate curriculum will greatly benefit teachers.

“It is currently estimated that 1 in 31 children are identified with autism,” Fleury said. “This means all teachers, regardless of grade level or educational setting, will have students with autism in their classes. Educators who complete this program will be better equipped to support the varied needs of their learners, specifically the growing autistic student population.”

The William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust has a long history of awarding grants in education. Addie McConomy, clinical assistant professor and program leader for special education at Anne’s College, explains that this funding will serve the long-term goal of bolstering the teacher workforce.

“Any plan to strengthen the Florida teacher pipeline must involve concerted efforts to retain teachers who enter the field,” said McConomy. “A key factor in retention lies in professional preparation. Funding from the William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust will allow us to provide teachers access to high-quality coursework in teacher education.”

McConomy and Fleury’s sustaining vision is that teachers who are prepared to teach will be prepared to stay. With the support of the William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust, they are making actionable steps toward this shared goal.

To be considered for the funding opportunity, prospective students should complete an online application found on the Autism Spectrum Disorder Graduate Certificate website. All teachers are eligible to apply; however, priority will be given to those who hold a temporary license, as they may benefit most from professional learning opportunities.

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Florida State University, through FSU Health, has awarded $250,000 to the five inaugural recipients of its Clinical Catalyst Grant Program, an initiative that brings together FSU researchers and local clinical providers to address healthcare challenges through collaborative projects. 

“Clinical Catalyst creates an exciting opportunity for our research teams to join forces with local clinical providers and accelerate progress on some of the most urgent issues affecting patient care in our community,” said Vice President for Research Stacey S. Patterson.  

FSU launched Clinical Catalyst to give clinicians an opportunity to share ideas for addressing healthcare needs identified through their daily work. The program also supports the broader goals of FSU Health by bringing additional resources and opportunities to healthcare in the region. 

The 2025-2026 Clinical Catalyst awardees are: 

• Accessible and Engaging Non-Pharmacologic Management of Chronic Pain Combining Music Therapy and Brain Stimulation: Kevin Johnson from the FSU College of Medicine and his team are partnering with Dr. Gilbert Chandler from Tallahassee Orthopedic Clinic to explore a promising, non-drug approach to chronic musculoskeletal pain by combining music therapy with Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation. 

• Building a New Care Pathway: ICAN-Guided Nutrition Support for Aging Adults in Clinical Settings: Julia Sheffler at the FSU College of Medicine and a multidisciplinary team of nutrition and exercise experts are collaborating with Dr. Cielo Rose from Capital Health Plan’s Nancy Van Vessem Center for Healthy Aging to build a structured nutrition and lifestyle program designed to better support older adults in clinical settings. 

• Feasibility, Acceptability, and Preliminary Efficacy of Vagus Nerve Stimulation for Stroke Aphasia: Sladjana Lukic from the FSU School of Communication Science and Disorders, in partnership with Dr. Narlin Beaty at Tallahassee Neurological Clinic, is exploring an innovative approach that could help stroke survivors regain language abilities by reactivating critical neural networks. 

• Redesigning Post-Mastectomy Bras: Investigating Design Innovations to Reduce Seroma and Hematoma Formation and Enhance Patient Satisfaction: Jessica Ridgway Clayton from the FSU Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship is working with Dr. Shlermine Everidge from TMH Physician Partners, to develop improved bras for mastectomy patients to support recovery, improve comfort and enhance patient satisfaction. 

• Increasing the Uptake of Advanced Care Directives in Hospital and Clinical Settings: Miles Taylor from the FSU Pepper Institute on Aging and Public Policy, in collaboration with Dr. R. Kelley Myers from the Tallahassee Memorial Family Medicine Residency Program, aims to make end-of-life planning easier and more accessible for patients and families while helping reduce unnecessary medical treatments and costs. 

“These projects reflect the strength of interdisciplinary collaboration at FSU and our shared commitment to delivering innovative ideas that can make a meaningful difference in clinical practice and patient outcomes,” Patterson said.  

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FSU Health brings together researchers, clinicians and local clinical partners under one umbrella to transform health and healthcare in Florida. To learn more about FSU Health, visit  fsuhealth.fsu.edu. 

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June marks Alzheimer’s and Brain Awareness Month, an opportunity to foster public understanding for the most proactive brain health habits. A Florida State University Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine professor is reframing the way we look at brain health, helping individuals form a whole-body approach to reduce dementia risk.

Julia Sheffler is the director of the Integrative Science for Healthy Aging research program in the FSU College of Medicine. Her research focuses on improving scientific understanding of risk and resiliency factors related to late-life health and cognitive functioning.

According to the Alzheimer’s Association, more than 55 million people live with Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias worldwide. In the United States, approximately 7.4 million people aged 65 and older live with Alzheimer’s — an irreversible brain disorder that erodes memory and thinking skills.

Sheffler helps people build the knowledge, skills and confidence to make changes that are scientifically supported in combatting cognitive decline; while also paying attention to their own health, preferences, values and daily life to find an approach they can maintain over time.

“The best lifestyle change is often the one a person can realistically sustain,” Sheffler said of how individuals can best prevent cognitive decline through changes of their own. “For some people, improving diet may be the most impactful starting point. For others, it may be quitting tobacco, reducing alcohol use, increasing movement, improving sleep, or spending more time with friends and family. The reality is that even very healthy dietary patterns may not work the same way for everyone, in part because individuals differ in how their bodies metabolize and respond to nutrients.”

Sheffler’s research allows her to develop personalized strategies for individuals that integrate important factors such as nutrition, movement, mental health and social connection. By forming healthy habits that benefit the whole body, individuals are supporting their own brain health.

“The message I most want people to know is that brain health is not something we should only think about after memory problems begin,” Sheffler added. “Many of the same behaviors that support the heart, blood vessels, metabolism, mood, and sleep also support the brain. Even small, sustainable changes can be meaningful when they become part of a person’s everyday life.”

Media interested in understanding Julia Sheffler’s critical research and practical habits for promoting brain health may reach out to her via email at julia.sheffler@med.fsu.edu.

Julia Sheffler, assistant professor, Department of Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine

Based on your research and understanding, how much does a person’s background dictate their lifetime risk for dementia?

A person’s background can play a meaningful role in dementia risk, but I would not say it “dictates” their future. Dementia risk is shaped by a combination of factors, including genetics, medical history, education, socioeconomic context, neighborhood resources, access to healthcare, stress exposure and lifestyle factors. Some of these begin very early in life and can accumulate over time. For example, opportunities for high-quality education, access to nutritious foods, safe places to be physically active and good preventive healthcare can all influence brain health across the lifespan.

At the same time, one of the most important messages is that dementia risk is not fixed. Even for individuals who may be at higher risk because of family history, vascular risk factors, or social and environmental barriers, there are still meaningful opportunities to support brain health. My work focuses on identifying realistic, accessible ways to help people make and sustain changes that may reduce risk, especially in communities where those resources have not always been easy to access.

You’ve done a lot of research on nutrition as it relates to Alzheimer’s and dementia. Would you consider nutrition the single-most important lifestyle change someone can make to help prevent cognitive decline in the future?

I would say nutrition is one of the most important lifestyle factors for brain health, but I would be cautious about calling it the single most important one for everyone. Brain health is influenced by many interconnected behaviors and health conditions, including diet, physical activity, sleep, stress, social connection, blood pressure, diabetes, heart health, and mental health. Nutrition is powerful because it touches many of those systems at once. What we eat can affect inflammation, vascular health, metabolism, gut health, and other biological pathways that are highly relevant to cognitive aging. We are not yet at the point where we can provide precise, individualized nutrition recommendations for brain health on a large scale.

Since establishing the Integrative Science for Healthy Aging Program, has there been an “a-ha” moment in your research? Something you’ve stumbled upon that you feel is most important for people to know when it comes to dementia and brain health?

One of the biggest “a-ha” moments for me has been appreciating just how closely brain health is connected to the rest of the body, especially metabolism. We often think about memory and thinking abilities as being separate from physical health, but the brain is an extremely energy-demanding organ. It depends on healthy blood vessels, stable metabolic function, and a steady supply of fuel to work well. When systems like blood sugar regulation, cardiovascular health, inflammation, or lipid metabolism are disrupted, those changes can also affect the brain over time.

That connection has shaped much of my work. I have become increasingly interested in how nutrition and other lifestyle behaviors may support brain health by influencing multiple systems at once, including vascular and metabolic health, inflammation, sleep, mood, and daily functioning. It has also made me think about dementia prevention as something that needs to be practical and whole-person focused. It is not enough to tell people that a certain diet or exercise routine may be good for the brain; we need to help them understand why these changes matter and support them in making changes they can actually sustain. The “best” intervention for one person may actually be very different for someone else. 

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Conference brings together researchers, clinicians, industry leaders and families to discuss advances in genomic screening and gene therapy

For families affected by rare diseases, unexplained developmental delays or medical symptoms often mark the beginning of a “diagnostic odyssey,” a frustrating search for answers and treatment options.

The longer the search continues, the greater the emotional toll on families. Without a diagnosis, effective treatment may be delayed. Millions of families worldwide face this challenge each year.

The Florida Institute for Pediatric Rare Disease (Florida IPRD) at the Florida State University College of Medicine is working to shorten that journey.

Through a newborn whole-genome sequencing pilot program, family counseling, care management, rare disease research initiatives and professional training, FSU faculty and scientists are helping families better care for their loved ones with a rare disease.

With support from the state legislature, Florida IPRD is helping to expand access to genomic medicine and accelerate research into rare diseases to transform lives. The institute is partnering with the A.J. Anderson Foundation on its shared mission to improve pediatric rare disease healthcare.

Transforming personal tragedy into a movement to help Florida families

Rep. Adam Anderson (R-Palm Harbor) and his wife, Brianne, started the A.J. Anderson Foundation in 2018 after their son Andrew was diagnosed with Tay-Sachs disease, a rare genetic disorder that destroys nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. Their own diagnostic odyssey followed as they sought care for their son. The experience prompted them to look for a way to support other families seeking rare disease treatment.

The foundation’s goals are to advocate for improved research and treatment to put an end to pediatric rare diseases and to increase access to genetic testing.

“The partnership between the A.J. Anderson Foundation and the Florida Institute for Pediatric Rare Diseases demonstrates what can be accomplished when advocacy, science, medicine, industry and public policy come together to accelerate diagnosis, expand treatment opportunities, and improve outcomes for children with rare diseases,” said Pradeep Bhide, director of Florida IPRD. “Representative Anderson and Brianne Anderson have been extraordinary champions for children with rare diseases, and their leadership has helped create programs such as ours that are positioning Florida as a national leader in genomic medicine and early diagnosis.”

Rare Disease Conference: Bringing together research and industry leaders

On Wednesday, the A.J. Anderson Foundation and Florida IPRD cohosted a rare disease conference in Pinellas County, bringing together researchers, healthcare professionals, industry partners and families to learn about ongoing work and provide a look into the future of treatment.

Dr. David Bick, the principal clinician for the Newborn Genomes Programme at Genomics England, delivered the keynote address. Attendees also heard from two panels, one focused on genomic newborn screening and the other focused on advances in gene therapy. Panelists from GeneDx, Nest Genomics, Alexion Pharmaceuticals and Amazon Web Services shared their insight in the first session. Panelists from UMass Chan Medical School, Florida IPRD and the University of Florida spoke during the second session.

Together, the panels represented two major, complementary goals: Diagnosing children with rare disease at birth and offering them an opportunity for early intervention and rapid treatment.

“The promise that these gene and cell therapies offer is that if you can detect a condition at birth, before symptoms occur, you can prevent those symptoms from ever showing themselves, and that child can live a perfectly healthy life,” Anderson said.

The Sunshine Genetics Program

Genomics medicine in Florida received a major boost last year with the passage of the Sunshine Genetics Act. With the support of the state legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis, the act established the Florida Institute for Pediatric Rare Diseases and provided additional funding for research and a genetic screening pilot program.

For the Floridians who now have the opportunity to screen their children for a rare disease and for the millions more people who can be helped through research breakthroughs, the work is urgent and crucial.

“Rare diseases test our healthcare systems, our scientific capabilities and our collective compassion. At the same time, they inspire determination, collaboration and hope,” said Dr. Alma Littles, dean of the FSU College of Medicine. “At Florida State University, we are proud to support the Florida Institute for Pediatric Rare Diseases and the Sunshine Genetics initiative as part of our broader commitment to expanding precision medicine, expanding access to care, and bringing together clinicians, scientists, educators, policymakers, industry leaders and patient advocates around a shared mission.”

Visit the Florida IPRD website for more information about the institute. Visit the A.J. Anderson Foundation website to learn more about the organization’s mission.

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Florida State University’s College of Communication and Information, through its School of Communication Science and Disorders, will launch the FSU Health Mobile Speech and Hearing Clinic later this summer, expanding healthcare services that the university has provided to Floridians since the 1950s.

The mobile clinic will bring screenings, evaluations and therapy to underserved communities throughout North Florida and the Panhandle, while also providing hands-on clinical training for FSU students.

Led by Director Becky Greenhill, a speech-language pathologist and clinical instructor, the fully accessible clinic builds on the longstanding work of FSU’s Speech and Hearing Clinic, which serves children and adults with communication disorders, cognitive challenges and hearing conditions.

Greenhill discussed the growing need for speech and hearing services, the role the mobile clinic will play in rural communities and how the effort reflects Florida State’s broader healthcare mission through FSU Health.

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A team of researchers from Florida State University and the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory is looking to nature to find microbes that can be used to create new antibiotics to treat the growing threat of drug-resistant bacteria.

Infection from so-called “super bugs” is a leading cause of death globally. Drug resistant bacteria contribute to nearly five million deaths every year, according to the World Health Organization. As more pathogens develop resistance, that number is expected to jump nearly 70% in the next 25 years.

The team of FSU and MagLab researchers will screen soil microbes from around the world to hunt for sources of new antibacterial drugs. The Novo Nordisk Foundation is funding the project as part of an international drug discovery initiative.

“People have been searching for new antibiotics for many years, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to discover novel compounds. Our goal is to revolutionize the drug discovery pipeline,” said Xiangpeng Li, an assistant professor in the FSU Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. “If we don’t do anything, antibiotic resistance will be a huge problem for the human race.”

Buried treasure: Potential medical marvels in the soil

Molecules made by microbes have long been used to treat bacterial infections. The first antibiotic, penicillin, was developed from mold nearly 100 years ago. Common antibiotics like streptomycin are produced by bacteria.

The researchers will test soil samples supplied by Rob Spencer, a biogeochemist and professor in the Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Science. He studies the carbon cycle, and particularly the rapidly changing environments of the Arctic and tropics.

“It’s common to think about soils as just dirt, but they are essential for our nutrient, carbon and water cycles, and microbes in soils hold huge potential for discovery of new drugs,” Spencer said.

His samples from extreme environments like the polar regions hold particular promise because they have not been extensively examined.

“Those samples might contain very novel microbes,” Li said. “They have been frozen for maybe tens to hundreds of thousands of years. We are more likely to find new things.”

How it works

To find sources for potential new antibacterial drugs, the team has the ambitious goal of screening a billion microbes.

Li specializes in droplet microfluidics, manipulating tiny drops of fluid about the width of a human hair through troughs etched on a silicone disc to rapidly conduct chemical screening. His microfluidics system will quickly process tens of thousands of droplets at a time.

“Typically, when we search for new compounds from nature, it’s a rather arduous process working with individually isolated microbes, but with the speed of microfluidics and the analytical power of the Ion Cyclotron Resonance Facility, we can sample all of the microbes from a variety of environments all at once. It’s a very exciting collaboration,” said Edward Kalkreuter, an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

Inside the droplets, soil microbial cells will be combined with a common antibiotic-resistant bacterium called Klebsiella pneumoniae and a fluorescent color-coded tag to allow for rapid sorting.

Then the MagLab’s Ion Cyclotron Resonance Facility, or ICR, will identify bioactive molecules from the soil microbes.

“You might have a soil sample and it kills the Klebsiella, but you don’t know what those molecules are. So that’s where we come in,” said ICR Director Kicki Håkansson.

The lab’s powerful ICR mass spectrometers will analyze the droplets that show antimicrobial activity to determine which molecules are responsible for the antibacterial properties. The precision analysis will also be crucial for making sure the discovery is indeed new.

“We’re looking for signals that have not been discovered before. We don’t want to rediscover penicillin,” Li said. “To do that, we annotate the molecular composition of each signal and compare it against databases of known compounds.”

Taking on that data analysis challenge will be the team’s fifth member, Ryan Rodgers, a researcher at the ICR.

International collaboration

The researchers will also share data and ideas with 21 other research groups around the world as part of an international drug discovery consortium with additional funding provided by the Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust. This coordinated investment and collaborative effort will accelerate the search for new medications that are crucial to addressing this growing crisis.

“This new approach allows us to look very thoroughly at compounds that haven’t been looked at,” Håkansson said. “And if we find something, this could be transformative, which is what’s really exciting.”

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