This year �鶹��Ʒ S�s Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences Graduate Research Symposium featured more than 50 research projects. Students shared their findings with faculty and competed for cash prizes for the top research.

The symposium provides young researchers with the opportunity to analyze their data and create compelling presentations that can ultimately get support from research funding organizations, says Jackie Zhao, a Burnett School professor and symposium chair.

�鶹��Ʒ S�It takes a lot of effort and hard work to … get the data for these presentations. Without that, you cannot have a presentation, �鶹��Ʒ S� he says. �鶹��Ʒ S�Students also need to … pull that together into a good story that they can continue to work on �鶹��Ʒ S� from the bench, into clinical trials and potentially into a new drug. �鶹��Ʒ S�

Second-year doctoral student Aaron Beaird joined the Burnett School with a passion for understanding infectious diseases. He discovered a mentor in Tara Strutt, associate professor and College of Medicine immunology researcher.

Beaird’s research focuses on better understanding influenza so medicine can develop one complete vaccine, rather than changing the flu vaccine every year based on the disease �鶹��Ʒ S�s newest strain.

Current vaccines are designed to attack influenza �鶹��Ʒ S�s surface proteins, which change constantly. Beaird is looking at ways to attack the virus �鶹��Ʒ S� internal, more stable proteins to create a superpowered vaccine patients might only have to take once.

Generally, vaccines work by introducing a weak or inactive version of a virus to the body. This allows the immune system to recognize the virus as a threat and remember how to fight it when you �鶹��Ʒ S�re exposed to the flu.

However, not all of the body �鶹��Ʒ S�s memory cells are created equal. Beaird �鶹��Ʒ S�s research is examining the makeup of the strongest memory cells to see how future vaccines can be developed that program these cells to help the body create superpowered defenses against the flu.

Beaird says that the conference gave him experience on the best ways to present his scientific discoveries.

�鶹��Ʒ S�Having the opportunity to talk with my peers and faculty who understand this research and are contributing to the advancement of science is super exciting, �鶹��Ʒ S� he says. �鶹��Ʒ S�When we go to conferences, we are going to have to present posters, and you don �鶹��Ʒ S�t want that to be your first time doing it, so you need practice presenting. �鶹��Ʒ S�

The event also allows undergraduates and new graduate students to experience the variety of research happening at the Burnet School of Biomedical Sciences. Its faculty researchers are focused on finding cures and treatments for the diseases that plague humanity �鶹��Ʒ S� including infectious, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases and cancer.

“The Burnett research symposium is a great opportunity for our students and postdocs to showcase their research work to their peers and faculty, �鶹��Ʒ S� says Saleh Naser, the Burnett School �鶹��Ʒ S�s associate director of graduate studies. �鶹��Ʒ S�It also allows our new students to be introduced to the ongoing research at the Burnett labs. �鶹��Ʒ S�

Congratulations to this year’s winners in each of the categories:

Best Ph.D. poster

Anamaria Morales-Alvarez from Hung Nguyen’s lab

Poster: Metabolic Reprogramming of T Cells via GPR84 Inhibition Improves Cancer Immunotherapy

Best Postdoc poster

Jichao Ma from Zixi Jack Cheng’s lab

Poster: Identification of Spinal Afferent Innervation in the Rat Heart: Atria and Ventricles: Anterograde Tracing

Best M.S. poster

Erika A. Serravalle from William Self’s lab

Poster: Evaluating the Antimicrobial Properties of Fungus-Derived Xanthoquinodins against Clostridioides difficile

On Saturday, he will collect his Ph.D. in biomedical sciences �鶹��Ʒ S� one of 181 students graduating from the �鶹��Ʒ S�s .  During the ceremony, Burnett graduates will be awarded 166 bachelor �鶹��Ʒ S�s degrees, including nine with university honors, 13 master �鶹��Ʒ S�s degrees and two Ph.Ds.

�鶹��Ʒ S�I felt defeated after that incident … but eventually I decided to pick myself up and work towards a new goal. �鶹��Ʒ S� �鶹��Ʒ S� Cody Sharp, UCF doctoral student

�鶹��Ʒ S�I felt defeated after that incident because I was riding on that football career, �鶹��Ʒ S� says Sharp, who injured his shoulder while playing football at Birmingham Southern University. �鶹��Ʒ S�But eventually I decided to pick myself up and work towards a new goal.  I �鶹��Ʒ S�ve always loved science and I found the bachelor �鶹��Ʒ S�s in biotechnology program at UCF and it was exactly what I wanted to do �鶹��Ʒ S� research in medicine. I wanted to do more than treat patients, I wanted to be the one to find cures and treatments. �鶹��Ʒ S�

In 2008, Sharp enrolled at UCF and pursued undergraduate studies in biotechnology with a minor in coaching and athletics. He stayed at UCF to complete his master �鶹��Ʒ S�s in biotechnology followed by a doctorate degree. For his Ph.D. program, he joined the lab of infectious disease specialist Saleh Naser and researched Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis or MAP, a strain of bacteria found in cows that can be spread to humans through consumption of milk and beef products.  He helped discover a connection between MAP and rheumatoid arthritis and his study, published in the Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology journal, gained national and international attention.

�鶹��Ʒ S�Cody �鶹��Ʒ S�s story is a testament that life �鶹��Ʒ S�s obstacles can sometimes translate to a successful story. �鶹��Ʒ S� �鶹��Ʒ S� Saleh Naser, UCF professor

�鶹��Ʒ S�Cody �鶹��Ʒ S�s story is a testament that life �鶹��Ʒ S�s obstacles can sometimes translate to a successful story, �鶹��Ʒ S� says Naser. �鶹��Ʒ S�As his advisor, research mentor and friend, I am very proud of what he has achieved and what he has become, and I have full confidence that he will achieve whatever he sets his mind to. �鶹��Ʒ S�

The Burnett School offers undergraduate degree programs in biomedical sciences, biotechnology and medical laboratory sciences and prepares students for medical, veterinary, and other related professional schools. Others continue post-graduate studies to become research scientists.

�鶹��Ʒ S�We are very happy to see our students grow, mature and now leave as colleagues, �鶹��Ʒ S� says Naser, who is also the associate director of Burnett �鶹��Ʒ S�s graduate program. �鶹��Ʒ S�I am proud of the development of our graduate program and we owe it to the hard work and contributions of our students. �鶹��Ʒ S�

After graduation, Sharp will begin a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Florida in January. There, he will research Type 1 diabetes at the UF Diabetes Institute.

�鶹��Ʒ S�I �鶹��Ʒ S�m very excited to collect my Ph.D. and to enter this new chapter of my life, �鶹��Ʒ S� Sharp says, �鶹��Ʒ S�but I am also really emotional because I �鶹��Ʒ S�ll be leaving this lab, it �鶹��Ʒ S�s like my second home. After being at UCF for 10 years, it �鶹��Ʒ S�s going to be very different not coming here every day, but I �鶹��Ʒ S�m very excited to see what my future holds. �鶹��Ʒ S�

The Scroll and The Quill were separate societies in the 1980s at UCF; the scroll representing research achievement and the quill representing creative achievements such as published books and plays. In 2015, Faculty Excellence revamped the society, honoring legacy members and welcoming new faculty into this prestigious organization.

More than 60 faculty members and guests attended the Oct. 30 reception at the Burnett House.

�鶹��Ʒ S�This society is a community of scholars who have continued to advance UCF �鶹��Ʒ S�s transformational impact for at least a decade, inspiring students, fellow faculty and the community, �鶹��Ʒ S� said Jana Jasinski, vice provost for Faculty Excellence.

The 2018 inductees are:

Sixty-one new graduate students begin programs at the Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences this week, including 17 doctoral candidates and 42 master �鶹��Ʒ S�s students.

�鶹��Ʒ S�I was never a strong academic and so I thought it was a dream that was far-fetched for me,” he says. �鶹��Ʒ S�It was not until I did a lab-based course as an undergrad that I realized that science and research is not something that is impossible to do, it �鶹��Ʒ S�s something that you can learn to do and I started doing more of it and now I �鶹��Ʒ S�m here. �鶹��Ʒ S�

Today, as a budding scientist, he researches actin, a protein that allows cancer cells to metastasize or spread with hopes of finding a new anti-metastatic drug.

Heidings, who begins his master �鶹��Ʒ S�s degree in biotechnology this fall, is one of 61 new graduate students who begin programs at the this week.

The group includes 17 doctoral candidates and 42 master �鶹��Ʒ S�s students who, with the mentorship of faculty, will do research in areas including infectious diseases, neurosciences, cancer and cardiovascular/metabolic diseases.

Two students are enrolled in a joint M.D.-Ph.D. program that will prepare them to become physician-scientists.

Six students are enrolled in a new program this year �鶹��Ʒ S� a master �鶹��Ʒ S�s in integrated medical sciences, designed to prepare students who want to go to medical school or enter other health professions. The program allows students to take two first-year M.D. program courses along with graduate school courses.

�鶹��Ʒ S�This year we received almost 400 applications across all programs, a significant increase from last year when we received 280, �鶹��Ʒ S� says Saleh Naser, associate director of Burnett �鶹��Ʒ S�s graduate program. �鶹��Ʒ S�This is a testament to the growth of our programs, our multidisciplinary faculty, and an increase in the visibility of our school and its offerings. �鶹��Ʒ S�

The new students come from a range of backgrounds including biomedical sciences, psychology, exercise physiology, environmental health and statistics.  They are from 14 countries including Germany, the Philippines, Japan, Egypt, Libya and Peru, and also represent 14 states. Many hope to go on to medical school or pursue careers in dentistry, veterinary medicine, environmental health and pharmaceutics.

The students were welcomed with a weeklong schedule of orientation activities that included a research colloquium featuring 66 poster presentations from current graduate students.

Trina Rudeski-Rohr is one of two new students who will be doing the joint M.D.-Ph.D. program. She joins her husband, Michael, who is also in the joint program, entering his third year. She previously earned a master �鶹��Ʒ S�s in biotechnology at UCF, where she researched age-related neurodegenerative diseases such as glaucoma and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Lou Gehrig �鶹��Ʒ S�s disease.

�鶹��Ʒ S�I want to approach medical care with a creative and kindhearted perspective and at the same time would also like to pursue groundbreaking research which may directly impact patient care, �鶹��Ʒ S� she says. �鶹��Ʒ S�A career combining research and medicine in this field feels like a perfect way for me to help bridge the gap between research and medicine. �鶹��Ʒ S�

Many students, such as Sakina Miller, are excited about the opportunity to do research for the first time.

�鶹��Ʒ S�Coming to this colloquium and seeing all the different posters and research really piqued my interest and has me thinking about a lot of things I want to do research on, �鶹��Ʒ S� says Miller, who will study metabolic and cardiovascular sciences in her master �鶹��Ʒ S�s program. �鶹��Ʒ S�I �鶹��Ʒ S�ve always been interested in fetal and maternal health and would love to do research on health disparities in outcomes in different races. �鶹��Ʒ S�

A team of researchers has discovered a link between rheumatoid arthritis and Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis, known as MAP, a bacteria found in about half the cows in the United States. The bacteria can be spread to humans through the consumption of infected milk, beef and produce fertilized by cow manure.

The UCF researchers are the first to report this connection between MAP and rheumatoid arthritis in a study published in the Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology journal this week. The study, funded in part by a $500,000 grant from the Florida Legislative, was a collaboration between Saleh Naser, UCF infectious disease specialist, Dr. Shazia Bég, rheumatologist at UCF �鶹��Ʒ S�s physician practice, and Robert Sharp, a biomedical sciences doctoral candidate at the medical school.

Naser had previously discovered a connection between MAP and Crohn �鶹��Ʒ S�s disease and is involved in the first ever phase III-FDA approved clinical trial to treat Crohn �鶹��Ʒ S�s patients with antibiotics. Crohn �鶹��Ʒ S�s and rheumatoid arthritis share the same genetic predispositions and both are often treated using the same types of immunosuppressive drugs.  Those similarities led the team to investigate whether MAP could also be linked to rheumatoid arthritis.

�鶹��Ʒ S�Here you have two inflammatory diseases, one affects the intestine and the other affects the joints, and both share the same genetic defect and treated with the same drugs. Do they have a common trigger? That was the question we raised and set out to investigate, �鶹��Ʒ S� Naser said.

For the study, Bég recruited 100 of her patients who volunteered clinical samples for testing.  Seventy-eight percent of the patients with rheumatoid arthritis were found to have a mutation in the PTPN2/22 gene, the same genetic mutation found in Crohn �鶹��Ʒ S�s patients, and 40 percent of that number tested positive for MAP.

�鶹��Ʒ S�We believe that individuals born with this genetic mutation and who are later exposed to MAP through consuming contaminated milk or meat from infected cattle are at a higher risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis, �鶹��Ʒ S� Naser said.

About 1.3 million adults in the U.S. have rheumatoid arthritis – an autoimmune and inflammatory disease that causes the immune system to attack a person �鶹��Ʒ S�s joints, muscles, bones and organs. Patients suffer from pain and deformities mostly in the hands and feet. It can occur at any age but the most common onset is between 40 and 60 years old and is three times more prevalent in women.

Although case studies have reported that some RA patients suffer from Crohn �鶹��Ʒ S�s disease and vice versa, the researchers say a national study needs to investigate the incidence of the two diseases in the same patients.

�鶹��Ʒ S�We don �鶹��Ʒ S�t know the cause of rheumatoid arthritis, so we �鶹��Ʒ S�re excited that we have found this association, �鶹��Ʒ S� Bég said. �鶹��Ʒ S�But there is still a long way to go.  We need to find out why MAP is more predominant in these patients – whether it �鶹��Ʒ S�s present because they have RA, or whether it caused RA in these patients. If we find that out, then we can target treatment toward the MAP bacteria. �鶹��Ʒ S�

The team is conducting further studies to confirm findings and plan to study patients from different geographical and ethnic backgrounds.

�鶹��Ʒ S�Understanding the role of MAP in rheumatoid arthritis means the disease could be treated more effectively, �鶹��Ʒ S� Naser said.  �鶹��Ʒ S�Ultimately, we may be able to administer a combined treatment to target both inflammation and bacterial infection. �鶹��Ʒ S�

Naser holds a Ph.D in Medical Microbiology from New Mexico State University. He joined UCF in 1995. He has been investigating Crohn �鶹��Ʒ S�s disease and other auto-immune diseases for more than 30 years. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and has presented his work at numerous conferences.  He has several patents including a licensed DNA technology for detecting MAP.

Bég, a board-certified rheumatologist, has been with UCF since 2011 after completing her fellowship in rheumatology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. In addition to practicing medicine at UCF Health, she is a full-time faculty member at the college. Her research and clinical interests include conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, lupus and osteoporosis.

Htun was one of 19 graduate students who presented their research at the May 8 Burnett School of Biomedical Science �鶹��Ʒ S�s 12th Annual Graduate Research Symposium. The Masters and Ph.D. candidates presented their thesis research on a breadth of subjects �鶹��Ʒ S� from repairing ailing hearts with stem cells to understanding the perfect microbial environment for brewing beer.

Htun �鶹��Ʒ S�s research examined whether patients with Crohn �鶹��Ʒ S�s disease �鶹��Ʒ S� a debilitating inflammatory bowel disease �鶹��Ʒ S� have a genetic pre-disposition to get the condition. She said gastroenterology has always fascinated her but she needed to come to the U.S. to achieve her dreams.

�鶹��Ʒ S�Being from a Third World country, I didn �鶹��Ʒ S�t have experience with research, �鶹��Ʒ S� she said. �鶹��Ʒ S�I was good at diagnosing, but not at finding solutions. Research is about finding solutions to a problem, not just treating it. �鶹��Ʒ S�

She heard about UCF from a friend and fellow medical school alumnae, Dr. Nway Lei, who is doing her internal medicine residency at the UCF College of Medicine �鶹��Ʒ S�s partnership program with the Osceola Regional and Orlando VA medical centers. �鶹��Ʒ S�Every time we talked, it was all UCF, UCF, UCF, �鶹��Ʒ S� Htun said. �鶹��Ʒ S�I wanted to come to UCF to get the research experience I could not get in my country and to take me further in medicine. �鶹��Ʒ S�

She arrived in 2015. She is defending her Master �鶹��Ʒ S�s thesis on May 15 and on June 19 begins her internal medicine residency at Louis A. Weiss Memorial Hospital in Chicago. After her three-year residency, the 27-year-old doctor hopes to do a fellowship to become a gastroenterologist.

Her UCF research experience in right in line with that goal. Htun is working with Dr. Saleh Naser, professor of medicine and associate director of graduate studies at the Burnett School, whose lab is involved in a Phase III clinical trial to treat Crohn �鶹��Ʒ S�s patients with long-term antibiotics. Naser believes the bacterium Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis, known as MAP, causes Crohn �鶹��Ʒ S�s disease. Cows can carry the bacterium in their intestines and can spread it to milk and ground meat.

As part of the study, Naser and Htun are looking at whether patients who get Crohn �鶹��Ʒ S�s have a genetic predisposition that causes them to get the disease after being exposed to MAP. As part of the clinical trial, Naser �鶹��Ʒ S�s lab is receiving tissue and blood samples from Crohn �鶹��Ʒ S�s patients at more than 95 clinics worldwide. Htun �鶹��Ʒ S�s research found that almost 82 percent of patients who tested positive for MAP also had a specific gene mutation. If that connection can be verified, scientists hope to develop a treatment patients with the genetic mutation could take to prevent Crohn �鶹��Ʒ S�s.

Naser noted that his student has received several presentation awards for her research and called her �鶹��Ʒ S�a true testament to our graduate Master �鶹��Ʒ S�s program. �鶹��Ʒ S�

�鶹��Ʒ S�ZinMar impresses me so much with her focused goals, hard work and unwavering determination, �鶹��Ʒ S� he said.

Dr. Naser �鶹��Ʒ S�s research centers on Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis, known as MAP. The bacterium is found in about half the cows in the United States, and can be spread to humans through milk, beef and produce fertilized by cow manure. Dr. Naser believes MAP is an underlying cause of Crohn �鶹��Ʒ S�s.

Dr. Naser is using some of the legislative grant to examine the role of the MAP bacterium and to understand the disease mechanism in  Crohn �鶹��Ʒ S�s patients with a genetic predisposition to the disease. �鶹��Ʒ S�I need to learn more about the bacterium and the host to better determine who is at risk, �鶹��Ʒ S� he said. �鶹��Ʒ S�We need to understand why one person can eat a piece of meat and end up with Crohn �鶹��Ʒ S�s disease while others can be fine. �鶹��Ʒ S�

More than 750,000 Americans suffer from Crohn �鶹��Ʒ S�s, a disease that currently has no cure. According to the latest Florida Department of Health statistics, 35,000 Floridians have Crohn �鶹��Ʒ S�s disease �鶹��Ʒ S� or 222 per 100,000 people. The numbers are higher with people suffering from ulcerative colitis, Dr. Naser said. He emphasized that because MAP is present in our food chain, �鶹��Ʒ S�understanding the role of MAP in Crohn �鶹��Ʒ S�s disease should impact diagnosis and treatment of the disease and ultimately may impact regulatory policies to support public health and food safety. �鶹��Ʒ S�

The University of Miami is using its share of the grant for clinical research. Dr. Sampath Parthasarathy, interim associate dean for research at the College of Medicine, is using a portion of the grant to examine whether inflammatory agents in fried foods cause Crohn �鶹��Ʒ S�s-like symptoms or exacerbate symptoms in patients who have the disease through bacterial infection. Understanding whether there is a dietary component in Crohn �鶹��Ʒ S�s symptoms could lead to preventative measures and shed light on non-microbial causes of the disease, Dr. Parthasarathy said.

Dr. Griffith Parks, director of the Burnett School, applauded the legislative award. �鶹��Ʒ S�The work of all those involved is an impressive show of collaborative efforts to address this devastating disease, �鶹��Ʒ S� he said.

Meanwhile, more than 40 clinical sites in three different countries are participating in the UCF clinical trial that is testing whether MAP is present in patients before, during and after a one-year treatment an antibiotic regimen known as RHB 104.

Crohn �鶹��Ʒ S�s patients have learned about the clinical trials through clinicaltrials.gov and social media and Dr. Naser is receiving daily inquiries from patients wanting to volunteer in the study. Several boxes of specimens are arriving at his UCF lab each day for the trial.

�鶹��Ʒ S�I have high hopes that this clinical trial may lead to finding a cure, �鶹��Ʒ S� he said. �鶹��Ʒ S�I am so thankful to be in a position to make a difference in people �鶹��Ʒ S�s lives. �鶹��Ʒ S�

Patients are expected to be on the treatment for one year. Results and findings of the double-blind study will then be released at the conclusion of the study.

The FDA-approved phase III trial is expected to commence within weeks by RedHill Biopharma, which licensed Naser �鶹��Ʒ S�s DNA technology for detecting Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis, known as MAP. It is believed to be associated with Crohn �鶹��Ʒ S�s disease. RedHill Biopharma developed the anti-MAP antibiotic regimen known as RHB 104. Crohn �鶹��Ʒ S�s disease is a chronic inflammatory disease of the gastrointestinal tract characterized by cramping and diarrhea.

Naser developed and patented a way to detect MAP from milk, blood and tissue clinical samples. The bacterium is known to cause inflammation in the intestines of cows. It is also linked to Crohn �鶹��Ʒ S�s disease, although its role has been debated for more than a century. Naser believes MAP is an underlying cause of the disease.

�鶹��Ʒ S�Crohn �鶹��Ʒ S�s disease affects more than 750,000 Americans, yet traditional treatments only address the symptoms of inflammation and not the cause, �鶹��Ʒ S� Naser said. �鶹��Ʒ S�I have seen case studies where patients �鶹��Ʒ S� lives have been restored following treatment, which removes MAP. I have high hopes that this clinical trial may lead to finding a cure. �鶹��Ʒ S�

RedHill will be enrolling 240 subjects from the United States, Canada and Israel in this double blind clinical trial in which blood and intestinal biopsy specimens from Crohn �鶹��Ʒ S�s patients will be tested for MAP before, during and following the one-year treatment with the antibiotic RHB 104.

�鶹��Ʒ S�Since we acquired the license to Dr. Saleh Naser �鶹��Ʒ S�s MAP detection technique in 2011, we have had an excellent collaboration with UCF, �鶹��Ʒ S� said RedHill �鶹��Ʒ S�s CEO Dror Ben-Asher. �鶹��Ʒ S�The UCF team of researchers �鶹��Ʒ S� is at the forefront of global academic research on MAP and its detection. �鶹��Ʒ S�

Naser is looking forward to the trial and hopes this will end the academic debate regarding MAP and Crohn �鶹��Ʒ S�s disease.

�鶹��Ʒ S�I am ecstatic to be part of a team, which will help determine whether or not MAP is associated with Crohn �鶹��Ʒ S�s disease; certainly a final answer to a one hundred-year old controversy, �鶹��Ʒ S� Naser said.

Naser joined UCF in 1995 and has been a faculty member in the medical college since its foundation. He teaches clinical chemistry and infectious processes in the Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences within the medical school. He also serves as the graduate coordinator for three masters programs in the College of Medicine.

The new nanoparticle-based technique also may be used for detection of other microbes that have challenged scientists for centuries because they hide deep in human tissue and are able to reprogram cells to successfully evade the immune system.

The microbes reappear years later and can cause serious health problems such as seen in tuberculosis cases. Current testing methods to find these hidden microbes exist, but require a long time to complete and often delay effective treatment for weeks or even months.

UCF Associate Professor J. Manuel Perez and Professor Saleh Naser and their research team have developed a method using nanoparticles coated with DNA markers specific to the elusive pathogens. The technique is effective and more accurate than current methods at picking up even small amounts of a pathogen. More important, it takes hours instead of weeks or months to deliver results, potentially giving doctors a quicker tool to help patients.

�鶹��Ʒ S�Our new technique has surpassed traditional molecular and microbiological methods, �鶹��Ʒ S� said Naser, a professor at the UCF College of Medicine.  �鶹��Ʒ S�Without compromising specificity or sensitivity, the nano-method produced reliable and accurate results within hours compared to months. �鶹��Ʒ S�

The group �鶹��Ʒ S�s translational research works is published in today �鶹��Ʒ S�s edition of the journal PLoS ONE.  To view the article .

The team created hybridizing magnetic relaxation nanosensors (hMRS) that can fish out and detect minuscule amounts of DNA from pathogens hiding within a patient’s cells. The hair-thin hMRS are composed of a polymer-coated iron oxide nanoparticle and are chemically modified to specifically bind to a DNA marker that is unique to a particular pathogen.

When the hMRS bind to the pathogen’s DNA, a magnetic resonance signal is detected, which is amplified by the water molecules that surround the nanoparticle. Then the researcher can read the change in the magnetic signature on a computer screen or portable electronic device, such as a smartphone, and determine whether the sample is infected with a particular pathogen.

The researchers used Mycobacterium avium spp. paratuberculosis (MAP), a pathogen that has been implicated in the cause of Johne �鶹��Ʒ S�s disease in cattle and Crohn �鶹��Ʒ S�s disease in humans, to test out their technique. They used a large number of blood and biopsy tissue samples from patients with Crohn �鶹��Ʒ S�s disease and meat samples from cattle with Johne �鶹��Ʒ S�s disease.

�鶹��Ʒ S�It is all about giving medical professionals easy and reliable tools to better understand the spread of a disease, while helping people get treatment faster, �鶹��Ʒ S� said Perez, who works at UCF �鶹��Ʒ S�s Nanoscience Technology Center. �鶹��Ʒ S�That �鶹��Ʒ S�s my goal. And that �鶹��Ʒ S�s where nanotechnology really has a lot to offer, particularly when the technology has been validated using clinical, food and environmental samples as is in our case. �鶹��Ʒ S�

The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), which is a part of the National Institutes of Health, and funded the research, said this kind of basic research can provide the foundation for medical breakthroughs.

�鶹��Ʒ S�Just last year, Dr. Perez and his team unexpectedly discovered the DNA binding property of their magnetic nanosensors, and now they have shown that it may become the basis for a rapid, sensitive lab test for hard-to-measure bacteria and viruses in patient samples, �鶹��Ʒ S� said Janna Wehrle, Ph.D., of NIGMS. �鶹��Ʒ S�This is a wonderful example of how quickly an advance can move from the research bench to meet an important clinical need. �鶹��Ʒ S�

Charalambos Kaittanis, who received his doctoral degree at UCF and worked as a postdoctoral Research Associate under Perez, has lead the experimental work in this study. Kaittanis is now a research fellow at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Saleh Naser, a professor in the Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences in UCF �鶹��Ʒ S�s College of Medicine, developed the patented technology to test for the MAP bacterium (Mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis). It is estimated that nearly half of the people who suffer from Crohn �鶹��Ʒ S�s disease have MAP in their system.

Crohn �鶹��Ʒ S�s disease is an inflammatory disorder of the gastrointestinal tract affecting about 700,000 people in the U.S. alone. There is no cure for the painful disorder.

Naser received a U.S. patent in 2009 for his method of detecting MAP from blood samples.  He has spent more than 20 years researching Crohn �鶹��Ʒ S�s disease and has published papers suggesting that MAP is an underlying cause of the disorder.

RedHill Biopharma Ltd., an emerging Israeli biopharmaceutical company, licensed Naser �鶹��Ʒ S�s technology to strengthen its portfolio of medications that fight Crohn �鶹��Ʒ S�s. RedHill is developing a drug, RHB-104, which is intended to treat Crohn’s patients who have MAP bacterium, considered to be one of the possible causes of the disease.

As part of the agreement, RedHill will use Naser �鶹��Ʒ S�s technology to screen Crohn’s patients for MAP infection to determine whether RHB-104 would serve as an effective treatment option.

The company is preparing two parallel clinical trials in Europe and the U.S with RHB-104 for the treatment of Crohn’s patients who are MAP-infected.

�鶹��Ʒ S�Patients will benefit the most because of this breakthrough since it will advance the diagnosis and treatment of Crohn �鶹��Ʒ S�s disease, �鶹��Ʒ S� Naser said of the diagnostic technology he created.

Patrick Mclean, RHB-104 Product Manager for Redhill, said that acquisition represents a �鶹��Ʒ S�key milestone �鶹��Ʒ S� in the continuous development of a new treatment for Crohn’s patients.

�鶹��Ʒ S�The UCF team of researchers, led by Dr. Saleh Naser, is a global academic leader in MAP detection research, and we are grateful to have been given the opportunity to cooperate with them,” Mclean said.

MJ Soileau, UCF �鶹��Ʒ S�s vice president for research and commercialization, said the agreement between the company and the university could hasten development of a treatment.

Soileau said that the partnership with RedHill was helped by a trade mission led by the Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission last spring that put Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and other business leaders including Thad Seymour, vice president and general manager, Health & Life Sciences at Lake Nona Property Holdings, in touch with some of Israel �鶹��Ʒ S�s leading defense, airline, life sciences, simulation and energy companies.