GAINESVILLE, Fla. — University of Florida researchers have come up with a new gene therapy method to disrupt cancer growth by using a synthetic protein to induce blood clotting that cuts off a tumor’s blood and nutrient supply.

In mice implanted with human colorectal cancer cells, tumor volume decreased 53 percent and cancer cell growth slowed by 49 percent in those treated with a gene that encodes for the artificial protein, compared with those that were untreated.

The research team, led by Dr. Bradley S. Fletcher, an assistant professor of pharmacology and therapeutics in the College of Medicine, created the so-called fusion protein to target another protein called tumor endothelial marker 8, or TEM8, which was recently found to be preferentially expressed in the inner lining of tumor vessels. Such differences in protein expression enable delivery of drug molecules to the cells that harbor these proteins.

“The protein we created did a very good job of homing to the tumor and binding,” said Stephen Fernando, who recently completed his doctoral studies. “By targeting TEM8, we can potentially create a therapy against cancer.”

The Fletcher group is the first to target cancer cells through protein binding to TEM8. The findings, now available online, are featured on the cover of the June 15 edition of Cancer Research.

“If you can cut off the blood supply, then you can inhibit the tumor from growing — there have been many attempts,” said Brad St. Croix, director of the National Cancer Institute’s Tumor Angiogenesis Section, whose group first identified the TEM genes that over-express in tumor endothelial cells. “The concept of targeting tumor blood vessels has been around for many years, but it’s good that we’re finally getting around to the stage where we can see the vessels being targeted therapeutically — it’s pretty exciting, I think.”

St. Croix was not part of the current research team, but donated some experimental materials.

The UF group created a “fusion protein” — part of which binds to TEM8, and the other which promotes thrombosis, or blood clotting — and delivered genes that encode for it to the lungs of mice. The delivery vehicle was a transposon called Sleeping Beauty, a piece of DNA that can insert new genes stably and efficiently into a cell’s genome.

The lungs then functioned as a factory to produce the protein that later found its way to the target cells in the tumor vessels.

“We felt that TEM8 was an ideal target because it was inside the vessel, preferentially expressed there and unique,” Fletcher said.

In addition to promoting blood clots, the strategy also resulted in reduced tumor vessel density, possibly by interfering with TEM8 function.

Fletcher’s group previously applied the Sleeping Beauty transposon gene delivery method to the treatment of hemophilia and pulmonary hypertension and the prevention of lung transplant rejection in animal studies. After developing those three successful models, they looked for disease applications in which poor outcomes would be worth the risk associated with gene therapy.

“We felt that cancer was potentially a target,” Fletcher said. “Gene therapy has a lot of risk associated with it, so you don’t want to do it for diseases that are not life-threatening.”

The group plans to come up with a method to increase the amounts of the thrombosis-inducing protein produced in the body, and test whether higher dosing leads to unintended blood clots.

They are also looking into ways to deliver the protein directly to the sites of interest, rather than through genes that later produce the protein, and apply the method in other areas such as prostate cancer. Other work will include the use of coated nanoparticles to detect tumors and deliver drugs or radiate heat to destroy cancer cells when bombarded by radio waves.

The work was supported by a grant from the James and Esther King Foundation, and a travel grant for Fernando from the American Society of Gene Therapy.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The University of Florida is being recognized by a statewide organization for helping young people with disabilities gain exposure to the world of work.

The Florida Governor’s Alliance for the Employment of Citizens with Disabilities (The Able Trust) will award UF the Business Mentor of the Year Award for its outstanding commitment to serving the community by providing mentoring and internships to Florida youth with disabilities.

Since 2002, mentors from 15 UF departments have worked with students with disabilities as part of Florida’s Disability Mentoring Day and the Florida High School/High Tech program. Florida’s Disability Mentoring Day is a one-day program in October when young people with disabilities shadow professors and other professionals to gain exposure to different careers and potential internships. The High School/High Tech program is a year-round program designed to reduce the dropout rate for students with disabilities, increase their enrollment in post-secondary education and improve employment opportunities.

UF has had a long history of working with these programs to benefit the Gainesville area, said Sally Ash, Florida High School/High Tech assistant program manager and Disability Mentoring Day coordinator.

“We just want to recognize them for all the service to their community,” she said.

Carl Crane, a professor in the UF mechanical and aerospace engineering department, has been the individual most involved with the mentoring programs, Ash said. In 2008, UF had four departments participate in the two programs, resulting in seven mentored students and two internships. Crane will attend the 2009 Ability Awards ceremony on Friday to accept the award on the university’s behalf.

Crane said the point of the program is not only to expose students to jobs they wouldn’t know about otherwise, but to contribute to the richness of people who will be involved with the university in the future.

“It’s a people business,” he said.

The Able Trust Ability Awards annually recognize individuals and organizations for outstanding contributions toward the employment of Florida citizens with disabilities. The awards ceremony will be held in Tallahassee at the Golden Eagle Golf and Country Club. Other recipients in the business community will include Lockheed Martin, Florida Public Radio and Volunteer Florida.

Information about volunteer or sponsorship opportunities with The Able Trust may be obtained at info@abletrust.org or 888-838-2253. For more information about its programs, visit www.abletrust.org.

WE KNOW DRUGS CAN PROVE ADDICTIVE, NOW IT TURNS OUT HIGH-CALORIE FOODS CAN TOO.

UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA RESEARCHERS HAVE FOUND THAT WHEN PEOPLE CONSUME PROCESSED FOODS WITH LOTS OF CALORIES, LIKE DESSERTS AND SODA, IT CAN LEAD TO A “REFINED FOOD ADDICTION.”

Dr. William S. Jacobs/UF Associate Professor of Medicine: “They overeat. They simply cannot control their use. They have craving, they have intense desire. When they do eat, they have loss of control over their ability to eat or not eat.”

IN FACT THEIR BEHAVIOR MEETS EXISTING CRITERIA FOR A SUBSTANCE USE DISORDER. AND IT OFTER TAKES TREATMENT TO OVERCOME A FOOD ADDICTION. EXPERTS SAY SOME HAVE RAISED LEGAL ISSUES ABOUT HOW RESTAURANTS USE INGREDIENTS IN THEIR FOOD.

Dr. William S. Jacobs/UF Associate Professor of Medicine: “Certainly, we know fine restaurants and top chefs manipulate the content and presentation of their foods to make particularly their desserts better and get us to come back to their restaurants.”

LEFT UNTREATED, REFINED FOOD ADDICTION CAN AT TIMES LEAD TO OBESITY. AT THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA, I’M MERISSA RICHMOND.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Mark Swinson, chief scientist for the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command, received the 2009 Outstanding Alumnus Award for the University of Florida department of mechanical and aerospace engineering.

The award recognized Swinson for outstanding leadership and management excellence in the fields of engineering and information technology for national security applications. He was nominated for the award by current university faculty.

The award was presented by Professor S. “Bala” Balachandar, chairman of the department of mechanical and aerospace, at a spring awards ceremony. Awards are presented in several categories each year.

Swinson earned his Ph.D. from the UF, a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and a Master of Science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Wisconsin (Madison).

Sun Sports’ new campaign for “Breakfast with the Gators,” set to launch in August, is not only made for Gators. It’s also made by Gators.

After months of brainstorming, eight University of Florida advertising students recently saw their ideas come to life on the set of a television commercial they created for Sun Sports’ “Breakfast with the Gators” program. Creatively titled “Feed Your Growl,” the multi-media campaign will promote the network’s Sunday morning programming, which is devoted exclusively to Gator sports year-round and includes network-produced replays of Gator football games each fall.

The commercials were filmed with professional actors and a Los Angeles-based film crew during a three-day period in May. The location was a rented house in Kissimmee.

One of the commercials features a sleeping Gator fan who is awakened by the UF Marching Band playing the Gator Fight Song in his bedroom. Another commercial shows a family rushing to make breakfast as if getting ready for an important event. The commercial ends with the family settling down on the couch to watch “Breakfast with the Gators.”

Fox Sports, owner of Sun Sports, teamed up with UF’s department of advertising as part of its Creative University project that incorporates local universities in the network’s regional sports campaigns.

“This project is a perfect example of where we are going as an educational institution – bridging the gap among organizations, their real-world challenges and the fresh, innovative solutions provided by our students,” said John Sutherland, UF department of advertising chair.

Sutherland worked with Fox executives to create the concept of how UF and Fox Sports would coordinate efforts.

“They (UF) are an important partner,” said Steve Liverani, senior vice president and general manager of Fox’s Florida-based Sun Sports and Fox Sports Florida. “It was a chance for us to give back to the university and it was a great experience for the students.”

The crew of Urban Legend Productions and Chris Hannan, senior vice president of marketing for Fox Regional Sports Networks, flew from Los Angeles for the making of the commercials.

The students’ plans for the commercial were followed closely. For example, the film crew ordered a specific alarm clock and had it shipped overnight to the set so it would closely resemble the clock drawn in the students’ storyboards.

“They really valued our opinion and took our advice,” UF junior Christina Burnham said.

The students were able to closely observe what was being filmed on a separate monitor set up by the crew, and they were able to watch the production from an upstairs balcony in the house.

Seeing how a commercial is produced and watching the production crew was a valuable experience that could not have been taught in the classroom.

“It was interesting to see how they manipulate lighting on the set,” UF junior Ashley Bowden said. “I didn’t realize how difficult it is to get the exact lighting.”

Being on the set also gave the students an opportunity to see how their ideas were transferred from the storyboards they did in class onto film.

“You never realize how technical things are when you’re in class,” Burnham said. “I learned so much about the production, the dimensions and formats when I saw it firsthand.”

In addition to Burnham and Bowden, Rachel Eichenbaum, Shane Fryer, Kimberly Oquindo, Hanna Palmer, Allison Schnur and Andrea Simon worked on the campaign.

The eight students were chosen based upon concepts they developed during the 2008 fall semester Copy and Visualization class. About 100 students worked in pairs to create 50 concepts for the “Breakfast with the Gators” campaign. The ideas were presented to Fox Sports and Sun Sports executives, who then selected what they considered the four strongest concepts.

“I was pleasantly surprised by the level of creativity and ideas that all the students put forth,” Liverani said. “The students were polished beyond what you would expect. It was really top notch.”

During the spring semester, the students worked under the direction of Robyn Goodman, advertising professor, to strengthen and revise their ideas.

“I am extremely proud of them and what they were able to accomplish,” Goodman said. “Personally, it was the most fun and most rewarding teaching experience I’ve had at UF.”

The students also developed billboards, print ads and radio ads for the campaign. The campaign will launch just in time for football season.

For more information on the campaign, including pictures and student bios, visit www.fsncreativeuniversity.com.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Physicians treating breast cancer first look to lymph nodes in a patient’s armpit to see whether cancer is spreading elsewhere in the body — but they may not be evaluating the nodes in the most effective way.

Initial research suggested that enlargement and abnormalities of axillary sentinel lymph nodes — located in the armpit area near the breast — were predictive of cancer. But a University of Florida Shands Cancer Center researcher says it’s not the size of the node or enhancement, but the loss of a key part of a normal node’s structure called the fatty hilum that more accurately signals the spread of disease. The findings are available online in the Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

In addition to changing ideas about what doctors should look for while evaluating lymph nodes, the finding reinforces the value of using MRI to determine the extent of breast cancer prior to surgery.

“We found that the loss of fatty hilum in an axillary lymph node on MRI correlated with finding the spread of breast cancer in axillary nodes at the time of surgery,” said Dr. Stephen Grobmyer, an assistant professor of surgical oncology and endocrine surgery at the UF College of Medicine, who noted that not all nodes without fatty hilum necessarily had cancer.

The UF study retrospectively examined 56 female patients ranging in age from 30 to 82. All women had a sentinel lymph node biopsy. Fifteen women had cancer in the nodes that required complete removal. Four of eight patients in whom a loss of fatty hilum was seen in an axillary node on MRI were found to have cancerous lymph nodes at the time of their breast surgery. By comparison, only 11 out of 48 patients, or 23 percent, with all fatty hilum in place had cancer.

Grobmyer said these findings provide surgeons with another tool to help personalize medicine and evaluate factors that could indicate whether cancer has spread prior to surgery.

“I think this is another step to understanding how we can use MRI to improve care of breast cancer patients,” said Grobmyer, medical director of the UF Comprehensive Breast Center. “We are just suggesting that there may be information that people have not yet paid attention to that may impact our understanding of the staging of a patient’s disease. With this technology, if you look and see there is a node or several nodes with no fatty hilum, one would be very suspicious that there might be metastatic disease present. Instead of doing an invasive sentinel node biopsy, one could do a less invasive image-guided biopsy to obtain important staging information.”

He added it is also important that we now understand that MRI features that suggest cancer in the breast do not apply for evaluating disease in axillary lymph nodes. Currently, there is no standard MRI criterion for determining if cancer is in the nodes.

Although not routinely administered to all breast cancer patients, magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, can offer a detailed picture of the breast, providing precise details about breast cancer locations and size. The scan is augmented through a technique known as contrast enhancement, which makes it easier to discern between cancerous and healthy tissue. The standard scan includes the axillary lymph nodes, the most common first site of spread for breast cancer.

Dr. Steven E. Harms, a radiologist with the Breast Center of Northwest Arkansas, said the accurate diagnosis of lymph node metastases is critical for patients with breast cancer, and the ability to determine their presence before the initial surgery could spare many patients the need for more than one operation.

“Over-treatment with a full axillary node removal is associated with a high incidence of lymphedema, a lifelong and often debilitating condition resulting from the disruption of lymph channels,” said Harms, who, in 2007, helped to draft the American Cancer Society breast cancer screening guidelines which recommend breast MRI screening for high risk patients.

Grobmyer said he hopes studies of a larger number of patients will further validate these findings so they can be broadly applied. He said the great advantage of an MRI is its ability to pick up more than 95 percent of invasive breast cancers.

In late 2007, UF researchers presented findings about the diagnostic value of MRI in influencing treatment plans for women, citing that it can find previously undetected cancerous areas, including cancer in the opposite breast. MRI also helps to better determine tumor size and assess an individual’s response to chemotherapy, making it useful for planning surgical procedures, UF surgeons say.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Manned mostly by students, the University of Florida’s Public Broadcasting Service station recently won two national Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Awards.

“It’s a confirmation of our hands-on, high-expectations method of teaching and learning,” WUFT-TV News Director Mark Leeps said. “We push our students to deal with daily deadline pressures to create news products for pro in-house stations that reach a wide audience.”

WUFT, which is part of UF’s College of Journalism and Communications, earned SPJ’s coveted Television Newscast award. Two of its students, junior Miles Doran and senior Patrick Fleming, won the Television Breaking News Reporting award for their coverage of Tropical Storm Fay.

“At the drop of a hat,” Leeps recalled, “they traveled 75 miles to report the storm’s landfall in St. Augustine.”

Doran and Fleming will receive their award Aug. 28 at the 2009 SPJ Convention & National Journalism Conference in Indianapolis.

“Our main purpose is teaching,” Leeps said. “But our main goal is very similar to that of a pro TV newsroom: to be a reliable source of news for those who watch our newscasts, and to frequently offer special stories or extra perspectives that viewers won’t be able to find on other Gainesville/Ocala TV stations.”

The college is a national leader in the professional education of future journalists and other communication practitioners. It offers undergraduate programs in advertising, print and broadcast journalism, public relations, and telecommunication production and operations; and graduate programs in science/health communication, media law, political communication and international communication.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – With the start of the hurricane season, the University of Florida is ready to help tourism industry professionals prepare for any crisis, whether caused by nature or man.

The Tourism Crisis Management Institute at UF offers an online tourism crisis management certificate program for destination management organizations, attractions industry professionals and lodging industry professionals.

“It is critical for tourism industry businesses and organizations to develop comprehensive tourism crisis management plans to assist them through all phases of tourism crisis management,” said Lori Pennington-Gray, the institute’s director. “Expertise in tourism crisis management is essential in today’s unpredictable environment.”

Elaine McLaughlin, strategic operations director of the institute, said, “With budget decreases, registering for the certificate program is the perfect opportunity to invest in training without the expense of travel to a conference site.”

These online tourism crisis management certificate programs are 29 consecutive days with consistent interaction between industry professionals and expert instructors. Every participant will create a solid tourism crisis management plan for his business or organization. The online tourism crisis management certificate program for destination management organizations begins June 12 and is repeated Aug. 28.

The online certificate programs for the attractions industry and lodging industry begin Aug. 28 and are repeated Oct. 2. To register for the online tourism crisis management certificate programs go to www.dce.ufl.edu/sandbox/tourism.

For more information about the tourism crisis management certificate program, please visit www.tourismcrisis.com or contact Elaine McLaughlin at 239-292-0218, 352-392-4042, ext. 1315, or by e-mail at emclaughlin@hhp.ufl.edu.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — University of Florida scientists have discovered why a paralyzing brain disorder speeds along more rapidly in some patients than others — a finding that may finally give researchers an entry point toward an effective treatment for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, often referred to as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Of more than 100 possible mutations of a single gene inherited by people with familial ALS, the mutations most inclined to produce clumps of problematic cellular debris known as “protein aggregates” appear to be associated with quicker progress of the disease, according to researchers with the University of Florida’s McKnight Brain Institute writing online this week in Human Molecular Genetics.

Meanwhile, in a separate study recently online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists describe how these protein clumps — long considered a defining characteristic of ALS — do not cause the disease, but appear later on, increasing in number between onset of weakness and paralysis in patients.

Together, these findings suggest that the deadly course of the disease is linked to the formation of these protein clumps, even though the sickness may have been well under way.

“Blocking aggregation of these proteins could be a therapeutic target for individuals with this genetic mutation,” said David Borchelt, a professor of neuroscience and director of the SantaFe HealthCare Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at UF’s McKnight Brain Institute. “Right now, there is little that can be done to help these patients.”

ALS involves the death of nerve cells that stretch from the brain to the spinal cord, and from the spinal cord to muscles. It strikes people between the ages of 40 and 70, according to the ALS Association. An estimated 30,000 Americans have the disease at any given time.

Patients usually have a life expectancy of two to five years, with some notable exceptions, such as Cambridge University scientist and author Stephen Hawking, who has survived for more than 40 years since his diagnosis.

The cause of ALS is unknown in about 80 percent of cases, but 10 percent to 20 percent of ALS cases can be traced to an inherited genetic defect. No matter the cause, scientists believe that a basic cellular process in which amino acids are folded into proteins goes wrong in ALS. The misfolded proteins cannot perform their intended function. Instead, they form the troublesome protein aggregates.

UF’s research centered around one gene that produces an enzyme called superoxide dismutase 1, or SOD1. Although SOD1 performs an important role in cell maintenance by warding off dangerous molecules known as free radicals, 146 different mutations in the SOD1 gene have been identified in patients with inherited ALS.

UF scientists, including doctoral student Mercedes Prudencio with Dr. Peter Andersen of Umea University in Sweden, analyzed data from ALS patients to correlate the disease features with more than 30 different variants of SOD1. They found that the mutations most associated with protein aggregation are generally predictive of a more rapid disease progression.

In the PNAS study, UF researchers with investigators from the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio pinpointed when the protein clumping begins and how long the disease has been at work before symptoms actually appear.

By studying SOD1 in mice genetically engineered with a form of ALS, UF doctoral student Celeste Karch demonstrated that the protein clumps appear in spinal cord tissues later in the disease, about the same time that symptoms appear, but well after cell damage occurs from nerve loss and the formation of fluid-filled pockets called vacuoles.

The finding suggests the aggregated proteins may elude normal cellular “housecleaning” methods, or their formation is heightened by stress conditions in the cell.

“As the disease enters the symptomatic stage in mice, the buildup of protein is rapid and dramatic,” Borchelt said. “However, the formation of these aggregates is not the whole story. It is well established that significant damage to the nervous system occurs well before the symptoms appear. The uncontrolled misfolding of SOD1 seems to be confined to the late stage of disease, which is when symptoms first appear, giving hope that treatments targeting this process could be beneficial.”

Furthermore, the findings suggest that there is a larger therapeutic window to treat ALS, if scientists can find a way to diagnose the disease before the hallmark protein clumping begins.

“Many scientists had accepted that protein aggregation was tied to the causation of ALS,” said Joan Selverstone Valentine, a UCLA professor of chemistry and biochemistry who did not participate in the study. “But this research shows these aggregates form during disease progression, not initiation. It is important to know what to look for as an early cause of the disease and what causes it to get more severe. That means we have to look for something upstream of aggregation as a cause, as well as understand the steps in the progress. If you can prevent or halt the aggregation, you can stop the disease in its tracks. That’s as good as a cure if it can be done early enough.”

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GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Sunflowers track the sun as it moves from east to west. But people usually have to convert sunlight into electricity or heat to put its power to use.

Now, a team of University of Florida chemists is the latest to report a new mechanism to transform light straight into motion – albeit at a very, very, very tiny scale.

In a paper expected to appear soon in the online edition of the journal Nano Letters, the UF team reports building a new type of “molecular nanomotor” driven only by photons, or particles of light. While it is not the first photon-driven nanomotor, the almost infinitesimal device is the first built entirely with a single molecule of DNA — giving it a simplicity that increases its potential for development, manufacture and real-world applications in areas ranging from medicine to manufacturing, the scientists say.

“It is easy to assemble, has fewer parts and theoretically should be more efficient,” said Huaizhi Kang, a doctoral student in chemistry at UF and the first author of the paper.

The scale of the nanomotor is almost vanishingly small.

In its clasped, or closed, form, the nanomotor measures 2 to 5 nanometers — 2 to 5 billionths of a meter. In its unclasped form, it extends as long as 10 to 12 nanometers. Although the scientists say their calculations show it uses considerably more of the energy in light than traditional solar cells, the amount of force it exerts is proportional to its small size.

But that won’t necessarily limit its potential.

In coming years, the nanomotor could become a component of microscopic devices that repair individual cells or fight viruses or bacteria. Although in the conceptual stage, those devices, like much larger ones, will require a power source to function. Because it is made of DNA, the nanomotor is biocompatible. Unlike traditional energy systems, the nanomotor also produces no waste when it converts light energy into motion.

“Preparation of DNA molecules is relatively easy and reproducible, and the material is very safe,” said Yan Chen, a UF chemistry doctoral student and one of the authors of the paper.

Applications in the larger world are more distant. Powering a vehicle, running an assembly line or otherwise replacing traditional electricity or fossil fuels would require untold trillions of nanomotors, all working together in tandem — a difficult challenge by any measure.

“The major difficulty lies ahead,” said Weihong Tan, a UF professor of chemistry and physiology, author of the paper and the leader of the research group reporting the findings. “That is how to collect the molecular level force into a coherent accumulated force that can do real work when the motor absorbs sunlight.”

Tan added that the group has already begun working on the problem.

“Some prototype DNA nanostructures incorporating single photo-switchable motors are in the making which will synchronize molecular motions to accumulate forces,” he said.

To make the nanomotor, the researchers combined a DNA molecule they created in the lab with azobenzene, a chemical compound that responds to light. A high-energy photon prompts one response; lower energy another.

To demonstrate the movement, the researchers attached a fluorophore, or light-emitter, to one end of the nanomotor and a quencher, which can quench the emitting light, to the other end. Their instruments recorded emitted light intensity that corresponded to the motor movement.

“Radiation does cause things to move from the spinning of radiometer wheels to the turning of sunflowers and other plants toward the sun,” said Richard Zare, distinguished professor and chairman of chemistry at Stanford University. “What Professor Tan and co-workers have done is to create a clever light-actuated nanomotor involving a single DNA molecule. I believe it is the first of its type.”

The National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation funded the research. The other coauthors of this paper are Haipeng Liu, Joseph A. Phillips, Zehui Cao, Youngmi Kim, Zunyi Yang and Jianwei Li.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The president of a Florida foundation and former foreign service officer has been named the first director of the Graham Center for Public Service at the University of Florida. Ann Henderson will take the reins from interim Director Tony Rosenbaum on July 1.

Henderson has worked in nonprofit management in Florida for 20 years. She served as the executive director of the Florida Humanities Council, which creates and supports public policy and educational programs through the state. As the funding director of the Abacoa Partnership for Community, she secured $4 million in donations for a New Urbanist community in northern Palm Beach County.

She also served as the cultural affairs and press officer for the American Embassy in Honduras where she supervised the activities of the only two public libraries at that time in Honduras. She received a meritorious honor award from the U.S. Department of State.

Most recently she created and served as the founding president of the Rodel Charitable Foundation, which supports programs critical to civic life, including affordable housing, environmental issues and education. She has just completed two terms as chairwoman of the Donors Forum of South Florida, an association of 140 private and public foundations, government agencies and corporations from Palm Beach to Key West.

Henderson received a bachelor’s degree from Vassar College and a master’s in the arts of teaching from University of New Hampshire. She completed her doctorate in American civilization at George Washington University. She was an Eisenhower Fellow and a Smithsonian Fellow. She was also a Fulbright-Hays Scholar and studied at Jadavapur University in Calcutta, India.

The Graham Center for Public Service provides students with opportunities to train for future leadership positions, meet policymakers and take courses in critical thinking, language learning and studies of world cultures.

The government accidentally posted on the Internet a list of government and civilian nuclear facilities and their activities in the United States, but U.S. officials said the posting included no information that compromised national security. (June 3)

Vladimir Rakov, professor of electrical and computer engineering and lightning expert, was quoted in a June 2 Los Angeles Times story about the disappearance of the Air France airbus over the Atlantic Ocean.

Barton Weitz, executive director of the Miller Center for Retailing Education and Research, was quoted in a June 1 Florida Trend story about the possible corporate takeover of the Winn-Dixie supermarket chain.

Stan Smith, director of the Bureau of Economic and Business Research, was quoted in a May 31 Associated Press story about the economic decline of Sun Belt states.

Political science professor Daniel A. Smith was quoted in a May 19 New York Times story about the race for Florida’s governorship.

Zoology professor Douglas J. Levey was quoted in a May 18 Associated Press story about his research into the ability of mockingbirds to discern human faces. The story was the result of a News Bureau news release.

English professor David Leavitt’s review of Reynolds Price’s memoir, “Ardent Spirits Leaving Home, Coming Back,” was published May 17 in the New York Times’ Sunday Book Review.

Archaeologist Kathleen Deagan was quoted in a May 17 Washington Post story about research into the settlers of La Isabela, made up of crew members from Christopher Columbus’ ships on what is now the Dominican Republic.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Eighteen academics from around the world are coming to the University of Florida to better understand and appreciate the intricacies of U.S. foreign policy.

The U.S. Department of State has renewed the UF political science department’s grant of nearly $290,000 to conduct the 2009 Study of the United States Institute on U.S. Foreign Policy.

The institute starts Monday and will end July 17. Its theme — “Domestic Sources of U.S. Foreign Policy: Beyond the Beltway, Beyond CNN” — will be studied during the four-week academic residency in Gainesville and two weeks of study tours to Miami, Chicago and Washington, D.C. The program also includes day trips to Tampa, Orlando, Tallahassee and St. Augustine.

More than 30 experts in international affairs and U.S. politics will teach at the institute, including many from political science and other departments. Political science professors Ido Oren and Aida Hozic are the institute’s co-directors.

“The idea is to expose them to American society in order to improve their understanding of U.S. policy,” Oren said. “This will help them improve their curriculum and course offerings.”

A few of the countries represented include Nigeria, Mongolia, Cameroon, Venezuela and Turkey, and no two people are from the same country. The participants were selected for the program by the Department of State. All teach in their home country and are required to have a working knowledge of English.

The institute offers opportunities that some would not have in their home countries, including extensive access to research or library resources, but Oren said that the spirit of academic cooperation among the participants ensures that the faculty learns as much as they teach.

“How many opportunities does one have to spend an extended amount of time with such an extraordinarily diverse group of people?” he said.

The program has lasting effects for its teaching staff, participants and the students they teach, according to Oren. People from last year’s inaugural program are still in e-mail contact, interacting on a social and professional level. Their connections improve not only their ongoing international understanding and appreciation but their academic research as well.

About 30,000 people participate annually in exchanges managed by the Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs Study of the U.S. Branch every year. Other programs include the Fulbright Program and the International Visitor Leadership Program. The Bureau seeks to increase mutual understanding between the United States and other countries through a range of academic and professional exchanges.