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The Idea Factory

Research that Improves Lives Across the Globe

By Kim Franke-Folstad

A male professor walking through inspecting solar panels

Engineering professor Yogi Goswami inspects a solar array at USF Tampa.

Universities are idea factories. They attract talented problem solvers with the intelligence, passion and creativity to improve society, and support the work these people do.

A research university with an international view takes it to the next level, with breakthroughs that change the world for the better.

USF is committed to using its dynamic resources to turn research into patents and products, and it consistently ranks among the top universities worldwide for U.S. patents granted. Here are just a few of the faculty researchers whose inventions and innovations are improving lives across the globe.

Eradicating Malaria

John Adams, PhD, a Distinguished University Professor in the USF College of Public Health, has dedicated his career to eradicating malaria, one of the leading causes of death and disease worldwide.

The complex nature of both the malaria parasite and the human immune response have made it difficult to find a way to protect and treat those exposed. The research projects in Adams' laboratory focus on host-parasite interactions and improving the understanding of the processes of infection and development of Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax, two species of malaria parasites that most commonly infect humans. By studying how the parasite invades, develops and exits human cells, researchers hope to find drugs and vaccines that will someday eliminate the disease.

Adams currently holds three patents for this work, and two more are in process. His patents cover his work developing a vaccine candidate for Plasmodium vivax (the major cause of malaria outside of Africa), a mutation method for the genome of Plasmodium falciparum (the more virulent form of malaria mostly found in Africa), and methods for cryopreserving malaria parasites

Adams collaborates with the U.S. military and institutions in malaria-endemic regions of Southeast Asia and South America. He trains scientists from collaborating groups in research methods developed and optimized in his lab.

Solar Energy

Yogi Goswami, PhD, a Distinguished University Professor and director of the Clean Energy Research Center at USF, has spent a lifetime researching solar energy and developing applications to provide for the world's environmental needs.

It began back in the early 1970s, when he saw long lines of cars waiting to buy gas. The more he thought about finding an energy source that would last forever, the more he was convinced solar energy was the answer. At first, there was some pushback; researchers didn't think solar energy could ever provide for all our energy needs. But Goswami persisted, and he has played a part in today's solar revolution.

In the early '90s Goswami testified before Congress about investing in energy research and storage. He also advised leaders in India on energy policy and the deployment of solar power. And as president of the International Solar Energy Society and editor-in-chief of the journal Solar Energy, he brings the importance of solar research to others around the world.

Goswami is also known for the photoelectrochemical oxidation air disinfection technology he invented – based on the principles of solar technology to clean air – to alleviate his son's allergies and asthma. The technology is now patented, with patents at USF and the University of Florida. Molekule, a company co-founded by Goswami and located in USF's Tampa Bay Technology Incubator, has commercialized products based on his inventions.

Mobile Health

Anna Pyayt, PhD, an assistant professor who directs the Innovative Biomedical Instruments and Systems (IBIS) Lab at USF's Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, saw a need and found a way to fill it.

After working in the field of mobile health for many years, she saw that the number of inexpensive, portable, easy-to-use and accurate diagnostic tools was limited. And the need was vast -- especially in low-income countries and limited-resource communities, where a trek to the lab for tests, and then back for results, is sometimes out of the question. So she and her team found a way to turn the gold standard for biochemical testing, ELISA (Enzyme-Linked ImmunoSorbent Assay) into the less expensive and far more portable MELISA – or Mobile-ELISA.

This smartphone-based system can be used at a clinic, doctor's office, a patient's home, or anywhere it needs to go. A lightweight device is used to incubate the samples, and then an app analyzes them. MELISA can detect and monitor biomarkers of different diseases, which means patients can be diagnosed and treated sooner. Pyayt and her team are now working on making commercial-quality prototypes.

Clean Water

Daniel Yeh, PhD, an associate professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, is another USF sustainability superstar.

Rapid, unplanned urbanization is becoming a serious threat across the world, putting major stress on critical infrastructure such as water and sewer lines. To help solve growing water and sanitation problems, Yeh and his team of graduate students developed the patented NEWgenerator, which uses microbes to break down waste and turn it into fertilizer, renewable energy and clean water. The solar-powered generator, which mimics a miniature wastewater treatment plant without the same energy intensity, was first field-tested in India in 2016.

This April, with the support of a $1.14 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the team installed a new and improved NEWgenerator in Durban, South Africa. The team's goal is to get the technology into developing countries that don't have reliable electricity or lack access to clean water and safe sanitation facilities.

Leading Type 1 Diabetes Research on a Global Scale

By Anne DeLotto Baier '79

Distinguished University Health Professor Jeffrey Krischer, PhD, coordinates type 1 diabetes and rare diseases studies on an international stage with clinical sites in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. His 2017 National Institutes of Health research funding in the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research report totaled more than $75.3 million, making him the No. 2 NIH-funded principal investigator in the world.

Picture of Jeffrey Krischer

Jeffrey Krischer, Distinguished University Health Professor, is one of the world's top National Institutes of Health researchers.

Krischer, an epidemiologist who joined USF in 1993, has a history of attracting record federal research dollars. The USF Health Informatics Institute team he leads coordinates, analyzes and maintains massive amounts of data from NIH-sponsored clinical networks investigating causes and outcomes of type 1 diabetes, with the aim of discovering new treatments or preventive approaches. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system attacks the cells making insulin, a hormone that keeps blood sugar levels stable. The incidence of this lifelong disease, requiring daily insulin injections, has increased globally in children and adults.

TrialNet, with 200 sites in nine countries, screens people at genetic risk for type 1 diabetes, following those at early risk to study disease progression. The USF Diabetes Center is one of 18 U.S. clinical centers offering TrialNet studies to learn more about how the disease develops and find targeted ways to delay or stop it.

TEDDY, or The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young, seeks to identify environmental triggers of type 1 diabetes in genetically susceptible children. The consortium is following 8,600 newborns for up to 15 years to investigate the role that diet, infections and other environmental factors may play in the disease process.

These two projects complement each other, with virtually every major university medical center conducting type 1 diabetes research linked to Krischer's institute at USF.

Key findings have included insights into the co-occurrence of type 1 diabetes and celiac disease autoimmunity, effects of gluten consumption, dietary recommendations on gluten for children in Sweden, and the effect of oral insulin in prevention. Krischer's work has led to the detection of two distinct patterns of autoimmunity in high-risk children, which give rise to diabetes-associated autoantibodies that are age and genetically linked.

Krischer also directs a major NIH data coordinating center supporting the Rare Diseases Clinical Research Network, which studies more than 200 rare diseases, from brain vascular malformations and primary immune deficiencies to bone diseases and neuropathies.

During USF's spring commencement, Krischer received the President's Global Leadership Award, the highest recognition USF bestows on individuals for their accomplishments in international leadership or global relations. And Lund University Faculty of Medicine in Sweden recognized Krischer as an internationally leading researcher in autoimmune diseases with an honorary doctor of medicine degree in May.

Find out more about USF patents.