UF Genetics Institute leaders express cascade of optimism

With a wide open scientific frontier awaiting, leaders of the University of Florida Genetics Institute will build on existing expertise, develop new research strengths and recruit world-class scientists, the institute’s new director said.

“Genetics is really the most exciting area there is in the sciences because of recent advances and because it represents the underpinning of biology,” said Kenneth Berns, M.D., Ph.D. “This is where biological sciences are going, and along the way we will consider many ethical, sociological, economic and legal implications. Because UF intends to remain a major, research-intensive university, the Genetics Institute is a very logical effort.”

Berns, a former UF vice president for health affairs and dean of the College of Medicine, began his appointment as director of the campuswide UF Genetics Institute on Sept. 2. Just prior, he was president and chief executive officer at Mount Sinai Medical Center, CEO at Mount Sinai Hospital and CEO of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.

Known for pivotal genetics discoveries and the development of gene-transport molecules for use in gene therapy, Berns returns to campus at a time when genetics research is brought to the forefront through the construction of a major new building that will centrally house basic researchers from the UF Genetics Institute, the UF Shands Cancer Center and the Interdisciplinary Center for Biotechnology Research.

Berns says the central location will engender collaboration and synergy.

“The ICBR provides many of the core facilities that people working in cancer and genetics research will want to use,” Berns said. “I think that many of the fundamental questions of cancer and genetics research are indistinguishable — cancer is a genetic disease.”

What’s more, the partnership among the cancer, genetic and biotechnology researchers will enhance the collaborative effort already fostered by the UF Genetics Institute, Berns said. The goal of the UF Genetics Institute is to harness the diverse academic talents and resources of the genetic research community from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences and the Health Science Center to make advancements that will improve people’s health.

“The genes in plants, people and animals are quite comparable, and hence we need to increase collaboration among the scientists exploring genetic makeup and gene expression in various species,” he said. “We plan to build on UF’s strengths in these areas of research in the privately funded Powell Gene Therapy Center, the UF Center for Mammalian Genetics, the colleges of Medicine, Liberal Arts and Sciences, Pharmacy, Dentistry and Veterinary Medicine, and the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.”

Meanwhile, construction is expected to be under way by late fall on the new research building, with a tentative completion eyed for spring 2006, planners say. The building will include research laboratories, animal-research facilities, faculty and administrative offices and a rooftop greenhouse.

The Genetics Institute wing will have six stories facing north toward Lake Alice and Mowry Road, while the UF Shands Cancer Center research wing will have five stories on the south side of the building, near the existing Jerry and Judith Davis Cancer Center. The ICBR will be mainly on the first floor of the south wing.

“There’s a palpable sense of momentum in the genetics institute with both the naming of the new director and the impending groundbreaking for the building,” said Douglas Barrett, M.D., vice president of health affairs and a professor of pediatrics. “I think that excitement is felt across campus, in the Health Science Center, IFAS and College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. We have an enormous opportunity to capitalize on that momentum in terms of recruiting excellent faculty, and Dr. Berns’ national visibility and contacts throughout the genetics world will definitely be a benefit.”

Meanwhile, Richard Jones, Ph.D., dean for research at IFAS, said the genetics institute is a springboard for opportunity at the university.

“We’re looking forward to it really taking off,” Jones said. “We’re talking about how to work together. There are extremely strong programs in molecular genetics and genomics in plant sciences at IFAS, so we welcome the opportunity to work with molecular genetics people from the Health Science Center and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Anytime you can get scientists working together in the same field with different approaches, you get synergism and multiply your expertise.”

Echoing that sentiment is Neil Sullivan, Ph.D., dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and a physics professor.

“We have very strong programs in plant genetics,” Sullivan said. “Botanists such as Pamela and Douglas Soltis are leaders in the Floral Genome Project, and one of our focal points is to build that strength to a new level. In addition, one of the things that will be in the new genetics building is a unique DNA detection lab for forensic sciences. It will make our forensic sciences department under Dr. Anthony Falsetti one of the top three in the country.”

Sullivan also points to the work of statistics professor and chairman George Casella, Ph.D., which involves both the colleges of arts and sciences and medicine, as an emblem for the campuswide mission of the Genetics Institute. Further, he said Casella is fortifying the statistics department with the acquisition of world-class personnel, which will help institute leaders address some pressing concerns.

“One of the areas where we have to make more of an effort is in bioinformatics,” Berns said.

Bioinformatic capabilities are important because analytical tools such as microarrays, often called DNA chips, are producing vast amounts of data. More researchers who seek a molecular understanding of disease or injury are turning to DNA chips, said Nicholas Muzyczka, Ph.D., the American Cancer Society Edward R. Koger eminent scholar and professor of molecular genetics and microbiology.

“All of these chip projects tell us new things about what's happening with gene expression, whether it's when someone gets cancer, or progresses through various phases of a spinal cord injury, or contracts an bacterial infection during cystic fibrosis,” Muzyczka said.

In addition to helping a growing number of scientists who need to work with huge data sets, issues of recruiting researchers and staffing the new building must be discussed, Berns said.

““We have two major areas of strength,” Berns said. “One is in gene therapy and the other is in plant genetics. What we want to do is develop comparable strength in additional areas. We need to decide what kinds of people we want to recruit, then we have to organize the different components of university, because whomever you recruit is going to be primarily in some academic department first, then a member of the UF Genetics Institute. Our goal is to get the best people that are out there.”

A way to aid recruitment and to shore up collaborations would be to start a graduate program in genetics that essentially transcends the normal boundaries of the university, Berns said.

“In many instances, these genetic courses are being taught, but there may be some new courses we would add, and that would have an effect on recruitment efforts,” Berns said. “One of the things we’re trying to achieve is to have people in the Health Science Center relating to people in IFAS and CLAS so that we truly have a genetics institute that draws on faculty throughout the university. We have to do some things that engender that kind of attitude, and a graduate program will go a long way to perform that function.”

Another issue is to finish the building and decide who goes into it, Berns said.

“The building creates an opportunity to attract new kinds of people, which we will, but it’s not clear that only new people should go into the building. We don’t want to isolate new people from old. We want to create a situation where they can mesh,” he said.

The UF Genetics Institute is already on the map for identifying genetic abnormalities linked to insulin-dependent diabetes, inherited eye diseases, kidney stones, Parkinson’s disease, recurrent tumors associated with neurofibromatosis and tooth decay. One significant example was the successful use of gene therapy to generate sight in sheep dogs born blind because of a rare, inherited eye disorder. The accomplishment was reported in 2001 by eminent scholar William Hauswirth in UF’s ophthalmology department.

Successful use of gene therapy in mice with an often-fatal genetic disorder called alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency — reported in 1999 by UF medical researchers — set the stage for upcoming clinical trials, which also will be the first in the world.

Berns, who holds both a medical degree and a doctorate in biology from The Johns Hopkins University, and Muzyczka won international recognition for work they performed at UF in the early 1980s when they modified the adeno-associated virus, or AAV, for use as a vector for carrying corrective genes. More recently, UF medical geneticists have proven the safety of gene therapy — with use of the AAV vector — in the world’s first gene therapy trial in patients with cystic fibrosis. Studies of the latter disease are ongoing.

The U.S.-patented vector is now used by scientists worldwide in gene therapy, and UF produces the world’s reference standard AAV vector with National Institutes of Health support.

Meanwhile, IFAS researchers have won U.S. patents for the use of a group of genes in grapevines expected to make the plants resistant to a fungal disease that is endemic in the Southeast, and for genetically engineered bacteria that produce a high yield of ethanol from sugarcane residues, wood waste and other organic materials. The latter research by microbiology Professor Lonnie Ingram, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, has led to a licensing agreement with a commercial firm.