Research center seeks medicine's cutting edge

By WES ALLISON

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 16, 2000

ST. PETERSBURG -- Even in a laboratory packed with sophisticated equipment for decyphering human genes, scientists rely heavily on a dozen simple, tiny zebra fish to understand how some children develop defects in their immune systems.

Dr. Jeff Yoder periodically dips one from the aquarium tank and draws a blood sample, then compares the genes of healthy fish with those of fish with blood or immunological disorders. By isolating genes in the fish, scientists hope to determine what went wrong in children with similar problems.

And one day, that might help find a cure.

"The goal is to see what gene is missing or defective in people," Yoder explained.

Yoder, a young researcher with a coveted grant from the National Institutes of Health, is among the first medical investigators to move into the new, $12-million Children's Research Institute built by the University of South Florida and All Children's Hospital just south of downtown St. Petersburg at Sixth Avenue S and Fourth Street.

At 4 p.m. today, All Children's and USF will dedicate the 50,000-square-foot building at a ceremony featuring Dr. Francis Collins, head of the National Genome Project in Washington.

The new center will foster research into the treatment and prevention of childhood diseases, focusing on seven areas: immunology, oncology, behavioral pediatrics, cardiovascular disease, cardiology, child health policy and molecular genetics, where Yoder works.

USF and All Children's, which serves 100,000 children a year from 14 counties in West Central Florida, have long worked together, but hospital president J. Dennis Sexton said the institute will vastly increase the scope of their research.

"The real goal, at some point in time, is to have a very small children's hospital taking care of a limited number of children -- that through vaccination, immunizations, nutrition, whatever, a lot of childhood diseases will no longer exist," Sexton said.

"If you're not doing this, you're really just a service station. You're not a real children's hospital."

Thanks to $21-million from private donors, the institute boasts six endowed chairs and a research endowment in cardiology. Dr. Gary Litman is the only one already there, having held the Ann and Andrew H. Hines Jr. Chair in Molecular Genetics since it was established in 1989. The other spots are new, and USF's Department of Pediatrics will lead the search to fill them.

Because the endowments are generous -- $3-million to $4-million -- officials expect to draw scholars of national renown. Each will bring a research staff, though medical and graduate students, visiting researchers and physicians will work there, too.

With top scholars leading each department, All Children's patients should benefit from the best and latest treatments, studies and trials. "We expect the majority of the chairs to be involved clinically with children," Sexton said. "We're looking for people who are not only great scientists, but can work with the hospital -- great researchers who love kids and are nice people."

Managed care has pressured doctors to see more patients to cover costs, so all but a few physicians have abandoned research, Sexton said. The center, two blocks from the hospital, also is designed to help reignite collaboration between doctors and scientists.

Litman helped design the center to accommodate a variety of scientists and research. The top three floors are packed with labs, and it's laid out so scientists share many standard but expensive pieces of lab equipment, such as centrifuges and deep freezers. Portable benches and rolling cabinets will make labs easy to reconfigure.

"One of the big problems was planning for the future needs of people who haven't come here yet," Litman said. "The element of flexibility is the key."

All Children's work with USF dates to the opening of the medical school in 1971, and nearly 50 doctors-in-training see patients there every day. In 1985, the hospital and USF established the Children's Research Institute on one floor of the hospital, but it had become woefully cramped.

USF and the hospital raised $6-million for the new one, and the state matched it. The city of St. Petersburg donated the land.

Dr. Martin L. Silbiger, dean of the USF College of Medicine and vice president of health sciences, said the collaboration has allowed an expansion of research at a time when most medical schools are strapped for cash.

The college now is looking for a new chairman of the USF Department of Pediatrics, who then will lead the search to fill the remaining endowed chairs. Twenty people have applied for the job, and Silbiger hopes to choose someone by summer.

He said the institute will push what doctors call transitional research: transferring what they learn in the lab to treatment of the patient.

"This is an arrangement that's going to change the face of pediatric research, not only in the region but in the country," Silbiger added. "Here we have an opportunity to move into a select area, in pediatrics, with money, facilities and emotional support from the university, the hospital and the community."

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