By Arline Phillips-Han
Senior Director, HSC News and Communications
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (July 11, 2003) — Kenneth Berns, M.D., Ph.D., of New
York City, known for pivotal genetics discoveries and the development of
gene-transport molecules for use in gene therapy, has accepted appointment as
director of the campuswide University of Florida Genetics Institute.
UF Vice President for Research Win Phillips, D.Sc., announced that
Berns will assume the administrative position between mid-August and Sept. 1.
Berns, who received his doctoral degrees from the Johns Hopkins University, is a
former UF vice president for health affairs and dean of the College of Medicine.
He succeeds Terence Flotte, M.D. — now chairman of UF’s pediatrics department —
who worked with Berns and state officials to establish the genetics institute in
1999.
“Berns has influenced major developments in experimental gene therapy during the
past two decades, and gained world recognition for discoveries that have paved
the way for safe and potentially effective gene therapy for a variety of
devastating human diseases,” Phillips said. “He is a leading player in all of
the world’s leading scientific academies related to genetics and microbiology,
including the National Academy of Sciences and its Institute of Medicine.”
UF Provost David
Colburn, Ph.D., said, “Berns brings extraordinary qualifications to the
director’s position in genetics. He is widely regarded nationally and
internationally for his research and administrative leadership, and he has
the perspective as a scholar and administrator that will be invaluable in
our efforts to build one of the leading genetics programs in the United
States.”
Berns and eminent scholar
Nicholas Muzyczka, Ph.D., (interim director), 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 in gene
therapy. 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.
Enthusiastic about
returning to Gainesville, Berns said he hopes to help the UF Genetics
Institute — with several hundred faculty researchers — become one of the
world’s significant contributors of new knowledge regarding the genetics of
people, animals, insects and plants.
“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 (particularly chemistry), Pharmacy,
Dentistry and Veterinary Medicine, and the Institute of Food and
Agricultural Sciences.
Berns said research will
be greatly expanded in the broad field of evolutionary genetics, led by
botany professors Pamela Soltis, Ph.D., and Douglas Soltis, Ph.D.,
who are leaders in a worldwide Floral Genome Project aimed at generating new
insights into common gene functions in plants and the origins of variations
among diverse species. As key players in this project, funded by the
National Science Foundation, the Soltises are collaborating with scientists
and students in nine countries to answer ecological and evolutionary
questions at all taxonomic levels.
The UF Genetics Institute
already is 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, Ph.D., 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.
At the Institute of Food
and Agricultural Sciences, research breakthroughs include genetically
modified wheat plants that produce more grain than conventional wheat plants
with the same amount of fertilizer — an achievement expected to benefit
developing countries where nitrogen fertilizer is a costly nutrient. Aided
by a $5 million National Science Foundation grant, IFAS researchers also are
investigating how genes control development of corn and other cereal grains
— the source of about 90 percent of the world’s food supply.
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, Ph.D., a member of the National Academy of Sciences, has led
to a licensing agreement with a commercial firm.
Berns returns to campus
at a time when genetics research stands to gain a major boost through the
upcoming construction of a major new building to centrally house the
majority of basic researchers in the related disciplines of genetics, cancer
and biotechnology. Collaboration among these scientists will be expanded in
the larger facility.
Press contact: John Pastor, (352) 392-3845, e-mail: jpastor@vpha.health.ufl.edu