“ACHIEVING $100 MILLION IN NIH GRANT AWARDS
DEMONSTRATES THE MOMENTUM OF OUR FACULTY AND PROPELS
US FORWARD AS ONE OF THE NATION’S BEST PUBLIC RESEARCH
Graduate student committee builds
lecture series from the ground up
A small conference room in the
Academic Research Building
hums with activity as a
F O R S T U D E N T S , B Y S T U D E N T S :
By TYLER FRANCISCHINE
group of students in the UF College
of Medicine Graduate Program in
Biomedical Sciences plans their
next move.
The eight-student committee
is working to establish an annual
Distinguished Lecture Series, an
initiative to bring prominent researchers
to the Health Science Center.
The group wanted to start the
series with an impressive speaker and
recruited New York University School of
Medicine professor of pathology and
microbiology Dan Littman, MD, PhD,
to give the first lecture, which took
place Feb. 1.
Littman, an investigator for the Howard
Hughes Medical Institute who has made
several important discoveries in virology
and immunology, spoke on the influence
of the microbiota on T-cell immunity.
Clayton Santiago, PhD '18, in the department of ophthalmology, said the
committee’s goal in organizing the new lecture series was to provide opportunities for
students to have a dialogue with established researchers and scientists.
“We want students to have face-time with high-profile scientists to learn about their
career paths and research findings and see how they did it,” he said. “That doesn’t
happen very often.”
6 | DOCTOR GATOR
Filipa Moniz, a graduate research
assistant in the UF College of Medicine,
said students of several fields benefited
from learning both the research and
life experiences of Littman, an
immunologist whose work boasts
more than 58,000 citations.
“The multidisciplinary aspects of Dr.
Littman’s research attracted students
from across the Health Science Center,”
she said. “Even though Dr. Littman is a
high-profile scientist now, he was once
a student with all the same dreams and
struggles as us.”
Littman's lecture attracted a full
house, with people standing in the back
and leaning against the walls to listen.
“I’ve never been welcomed by so many
students at one time,” he said. “This level
of unparalleled enthusiasm is something
I’ve never experienced.”
Littman commended the lecture series
organizers for their commitment to
“We want students to have face-time with high-profile
scientists to learn about their career paths and research
findings and see how they did it.”
— Clayton Santiago, PhD '18
bringing high-profile research directly to their campus.
“You’re doing something right here,” he said. “Students should be front and center in
the research experience.”
Casey Keuthan, a PhD candidate in the department of ophthalmology, said her
committee hopes this event will become an annual occasion.
“Even after we’ve graduated and moved on, we hope students will take this project
on and continue to recruit high-profile scientists to our campus,” she said.
To UF Health researchers and faculty, this
means renewed support for experimental
therapeutic research in a variety of areas,
such as neurodegenerative diseases, the
brain, cancer, diabetes, sepsis, infectious
diseases and age-related diseases. The
figure contributes to a total of $141.8
million of NIH awards to the colleges,
centers and institutes that comprise UF
Health, the university’s academic health
center. This marks the seventh consecutive
year that NIH funding for UF Health has
increased, according to David S. Guzick, MD,
PhD, senior vice president for health affairs
at UF and president of UF Health.
“Due to the talent, dedication and
persistence of faculty and staff across
UF Health, there has been consistent
improvement in NIH funding,” he said.
“This continuing growth shows the
scientific excellence of the research
conducted by faculty at UF Health is
recognized at the national level.”
Reaching this milestone is a testament to
the expertise and hard work of researchers
and physicians, both those who have
worked at the college for many years and
those recently recruited as part of UF’s
preeminence faculty recruiting initiative,
said UF College of Medicine Dean Michael L.
Good, MD.
“Achieving $100 million in NIH grant
awards demonstrates the momentum
of our faculty and propels us forward as
one of the nation’s best public research
universities and medical schools,” he said.
Stephen Sugrue, PhD, UF College of
Medicine senior associate dean for research
affairs, said the college experienced a
funding increase of 8.5 percent over the last
year, exceeding the 6 percent increase in
the NIH budget.
“Not only did the number of grants
increase, the size of our grants also
increased considerably,” he said. “This
means we are doing bold, multidisciplinary
science with a high impact. These are
cooperative, collaborative efforts. Our
biggest success is in recruiting the right
people who can form teams to attack
important issues of human health.”
UNIVERSITIES AND MEDICAL SCHOOLS.”
PHOTO BY JESSE S. JONES
Dan Littman, MD, PhD, addresses the audience on Feb 1.
A milestone reached,
a future forged
continued from page 1
— Michael L. Good, MD
Dean, UF College of Medicine