Former USF Alzheimer's researcher courts state schools

TAMPA -- The head of a nationally recognized Alzheimer's research institute who resigned from the University of South Florida is working to affiliate with Florida's three other medical schools as he moves the entire center from Tampa.

The Roskamp Institute is leaving USF, taking with it dozens of scientists and millions of dollars in private donations and federal grants. But to operate at the same level as before, it needs a relationship with a university.

Such a relationship would make it easier for Roskamp to get federal grants and permission to use animals and allow graduate students to help conduct research. Institute head Michael Mullan and other scientists could receive the same privileges as faculty members.

The universities benefit by getting a cut of the grants, faculty to teach classes, a learning experience for students and prestige being associated with cutting-edge research.

"It's always desirable to have affiliations," said Longboat Key philanthropist Robert Roskamp who donated money to start the institute. "Collective wisdom solves the problem quicker."

Mullan, part of a British team of researchers that in 1990 discovered a gene that causes the disease, has led the institute since its founding in 1998 with $5-million from Roskamp to develop a drug that could cure the degenerative brain disease.

The Roskamp Institute will spend the next several months moving into a former Bausch & Lomb building near the Sarasota Bradenton International Airport in southern Manatee County. Roskamp is buying the building, which at 42,000 square feet is more than five times larger than the USF space.

"It's not trivial to shift an operation," Mullan said. "It doesn't happen overnight."

A related memory disorder clinic, similar to the one Mullan ran at USF, will open next week in a leased space on 46th Avenue N near Fowler Avenue in Temple Terrace.

Most of the 40 people who work at the two centers will accompany Mullan but USF officials said they do not have an exact count. Some people haven't left yet, though Mullan resigned in January.

Mullan's resignation came as USF concluded a yearlong investigation of sexual harassment allegations.

The report outlined allegations by three woman who worked for Mullan. It remains sealed while Mullan appeals the internal investigation conducted by USF's equal opportunity office. Mullan has since sued one of the women for defamation, and insisted that his resignation had nothing to do with the inquiry, which he said exonerated him. He won't say what specifically he is appealing.

"Maybe people are just interested in a sex scandal," Mullan said. "But we will carry on doing what we're doing. That's my job."

In the last month, Mullan has begun negotiating with William Luttge, executive director of UF's McKnight Brain Institute, and Raymond Bye, FSU's vice president for research. He also has approached Carl Eisdorfer, chairman of the University of Miami's psychiatry department.

"If you open the door to the place, you move forward faster," Mullan said. "The Roskamp Institute will be affiliated with a lot of schools."

FSU has dozens of scientists conducting $10-million of research into Alzheimer's, which produces dementia and memory loss in more than 4-million Americans. It has looked at expanding its research since opening a medical school in 2001.

"They have a very strong program," Bye said. "Our faculty has done work with Roskamp. They're very familiar with them."

Bye said he heard about Mullan's rocky relationship with USF administrators and the sexual harassment allegations but didn't ask about either when the two met in February in Tallahassee.

"I didn't raise that with him," he said. Anyone who worked here "would be expected to live up to rules and regulations of faculty."

The original $5-million pledge from Roskamp runs out at the end of June, and he plans to continue to fund the institute at a higher rate. "Whatever it takes," said Roskamp, founder of Freedom Group Inc., which develops and manages senior living communities throughout the country.

Roskamp said he and his wife, Diane, became interested in diseases of the mind after his schizophrenic brother committed suicide in the 1970s. But he focused on Alzheimer's when he learned about Mullan's work, Roskamp said. He also donated $300,000 for institute equipment and $600,000 to establish an endowed chair in biological chemistry at USF.

He hopes to expand the institute to include 100 scientists in the next decade and study other issues, including addiction and Tourette's syndrome.

The Roskamp Institute has worked with and received millions of dollars in grants and gifts from the federal government, private labs and other schools over the years. Last year, its budget was $4-million, and included money from the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

USF is one of the pre-eminent centers of Alzheimer's research in the nation. Even without Roskamp, it still has dozens of scientists working on various aspects of research, including a vaccine.

Since Mullan left, other USF faculty working on Alzheimer's signed a letter to assure the public that Alzheimer's research still is being conducted there. University officials also downplayed Mullan's departure, and Robert Daugherty, dean of USF's College of Medicine, e-mailed his employees last week to ease concerns.

"USF agrees with Dr. Mullan that this is an appropriate time for such a move because it allows both institutions to pursue their own goals," Daugherty wrote.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright