2. Many immunologists and parasitologists are interested in how parasites infect and interact with their hosts. Here, a parasitic wasp larva attacks and consumes embryos from a non-related brood.

3 and 4 - The Coverdell Center provides bioimaging facilities that enable scientist to examine everything from stem cells (3) to the brain (4).

When working within a large institution, researchers often assemble themselves into professional or issue-oriented entities. The Coverdell building is designed to enable a new kind of assembly — one that brings representatives from several of these entities together, around a core facility and support system, for simultaneously sharpening their focus and broadening their individual and group research objectives. The building houses people from three centers, one institute, one college, and one group, as well as a $2.3-million bioimaging suite and, in the basement, a rodent barrier facility accessible from the labs [see sidebar on page 17].

Coverdell tenants include:

CTEGD focuses on the study of “orphan diseases,” infections that predominantly affect the poor in developing countries and that do not get much attention from researchers, the drug industry, and the public in developed countries. Nevertheless, “orphan diseases are major global problems,” said Dan Colley, a UGA immunology professor and head of the center. “Over a million children die of malaria every year, but because they don’t all die at once — as in a tsunami situation — the disease is largely overlooked but has huge impact on human suffering and economics.”

There are no more than two or three people within CTEGD that come from any one discipline, but they all share the common goal of combining their knowledge and work — in immunology, parasitology, bioinformatics (the electronic analysis of large amounts of biological data), entomology and other areas of biology — to pinpoint weaknesses in microbial defenses and methods of treatment for afflicted populations.

“We study everything from the parasites that cause malaria and African sleeping sickness to the bugs that transmit them and the behaviors of the people who become infected with them. But this is the first time we’re all in real conjunction with each other in the same space, so I’m eager to see our productivity grow with closer interactions,” said Colley. Moreover, in Coverdell, this phenomenon at CTEGD need not be limited to its members alone.

Developmental biology involves more “discovery science” than the work of CTEGD and others, said Nancy Manley, a genetics professor who heads the group. “We incorporate a broad interest in developmental biology and developmental genetics rather than focus on a specific mission or disease.”

Though their investigative strategies may often be dramatically different, representatives of DBG moving into the Coverdell facility do have common needs as scientists. All of them use animal models, and some researchers use mouse models to investigate areas that range from epilepsy to congenital blindness while others analyze fruit-fly behavior to learn about the neural implications of obesity.

Coverdell’s support services, including the animal and bioimaging facilities will not only assist but also enrich these researchers’ work, said Manley. “The MRI [magnetic resonance imaging] machines can actually take pictures of different parts of the mice without our having to sacrifice them. One of the difficulties in aging research, for example, has been that you have to keep animals for a long period of time. If you keep starting over with a different mouse to investigate the changes of aging, you lose continuity in your work.”

BHSI’s membership of over 160 researchers across the campus includes many members of CTEGD and DBG, and its programs draw on all members to create a richer and universally accessible database of information. “BHSI was formed to initiate and enhance interdisciplinary communication,” said Harry Dailey, director of the institute and professor of microbiology, biochemistry and molecular biology, and it has created some very significant joint endeavors already. In fact, said Dailey, BHSI served as an “incubator” for the College of Public Health, as the master’s of public health (MPH) degree was first created within BHSI, then rolled over to CPH at the new college’s inception.

“But in addition to encouraging these interactions between our members, we also focus on communicating with the public,” said Dailey. “If I develop a drug that cures a disease but I can’t get people to take it, then I’ve wasted my time. So we’re interested in helping people trained in journalism and public relations to learn to communicate with the scientific community, and vice versa.”

BHSI researchers work closely with members of the CPH and the Center for Health and Risk Communication, both of them tenants of Coverdell, to translate the results of biomedical research for relevant publications, organizations and communities. For example, BHSI sponsors a series of lectures, given by teams of university scholars and outside scientists, on “hot” topics such as bird flu and health considerations for foreign travel.

BIRC facilities are open to all university faculty to do research in imaging-related areas, said Steve Miller, professor of psychology and director of the center. “Fifteen or so faculty have already identified themselves, and we expect that number to grow as the researchers in Coverdell interact with each other and recognize the value of our magnet and other aspects of the system.”

At present the BIRC’s use is largely in brain imaging, which allows researchers to investigate topics ranging from thought pathways to visual images of the brain’s surface. “Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) takes advantage of differing levels of oxygen in the brain,” said Miller. “If I ask you a question, certain areas of your brain will activate — in order to process the question and recall information that you’ll use to develop an answer — and oxygen-rich blood flows into different parts of your brain.” Researchers measure changes in the magnetic properties of this response and develop “pictures” of the thought process. This technique can be used to study everything from schizophrenia to dishonesty.

BIRC also has resources for tissue imaging, which is of interest to researchers studying how the aging process affects bone and muscle composition; and an ultrasound system. Magnetic resonance technology can be used for treating animals in UGA’s veterinary hospital as well as for other research.

CHRC combines the expertise of faculty in disciplines from speech communication to computer programming, said Vicki Freimuth, professor of communication and head of CHRC. It supports the other members of the Coverdell facility while maintaining its individuality and instigating new projects, both within the unit and with others. “We’re integrally involved with BHSI and working within the research community and with a lay audience to help the two interact in a productive manner,” Freimuth said.

“Health communications is about learning how people process information about their health and well-being, whether they receive it from a doctor, a magazine article or a television commercial,” Freimuth said. “For example, if you want to prevent kids from smoking you may need to avoid the rational message about health risks that would likely convince an adult because kids tend to be more about feeling and doing than logic. You have to figure out how your audience is making decisions, and then adjust your message to fit the target.”

Freimuth and her team recently received a grant from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to create a new UGA entity — the Southern Center for Communication, Health and Poverty. This center will focus on improving the health of the poor and near-poor living in the southern United States by means of improved health communications and marketing. “The poor are more prone to almost every health risk and disease,” she said. “Communication and marketing can reduce these gaps, but not if the message is irrelevant or culturally inappropriate.”

The office of the dean of CPH and one of the college’s three departments are housed in Coverdell. “We decided that the department of health administration, biostatistics, and epidemiology should be in the building largely because of the flexible and dynamic environment,” said Phillip Williams, interim dean of CPH. “We’re a young college, and that one department will expand into three separate entities as we grow, so the ‘organic’ aspects of Coverdell will be ideal for this expanding department.” Interactions between epidemiology — the study of the relationship between diseases and their causes — and biostatistics — he development of new statistical methods for examining human health data — and other Coverdell members will enhance the expansion of CPH and further the interests of the other CPH units throughout the community, he said.

The college works most closely with BHSI and CTEGD because of the worldwide human health implications of their research. “We can help prevent the global spread of diseases through our research like the researchers in CTEGD and BHSI,” said Williams, “and — in conjunction with that role — we can also look at the affected target populations as a whole and find relationships between where and how people live and work and their associated health issues.”

CHC will also work closely with CPH. “Health policy, along with our department of health promotion and behavior, is important in developing programs of prevention, for which effective communication is hugely important,” Williams said.

A basic purpose of CPH, of course, is the training of public health professionals, and it offers bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees. Residence at Coverdell will aid this mission too, he added, as students’ interactions with communications experts and researchers there should enhance their educational experience and yield a highly versatile graduating class.