USF Opens Newest State-of-the-Art Research Core

Facility is focal point for research using advanced microscopy and cell imaging

A generous gift by Pam and Les Muma supported construction of the core facility, named after their daughter Lisa Muma Weitz.

USF Health celebrated the grand opening Sept. 4 of its state-of-the-art core laboratories for biological imaging – the dazzling centerpiece its research cores. The facility was made possible through a gift by Pam and Les Muma to combine cutting-edge research with the best treatment for newborns.

The 5,300-square-foot Lisa Muma Weitz Advanced Microscopy and Cell Imaging Core is the only facility of its kind in Florida and one of few in the nation, said Abdul Rao, MD, MA, DPhil, senior associate vice president for USF Health and vice dean for research and graduate education at the College of Medicine.

“This facility has widespread applications for basic and translational research in neonatology, pediatrics and perinatology," Dr. Rao said. "But it will also be useful for research involving hereditary diseases, cardiovascular diseases, neurological diseases and every other discipline that comes to mind.”

After cutting the ribbon at the research facility's entrance, Pam Muma is cheered on by, left to right, Dr. Abdul Rao, her husband Les Muma, USF President Judy Genshaft, and Dr. Stephen Klasko.

The core facility at USF Health is named for Lisa Muma Weitz, the Mumas’ daughter who lives in Charleston, SC. It was built with a portion of the Mumas’ gift, worth $14 million, to support a major USF-Tampa General Hospital initiative to apply research to transform newborn intensive care. The gift, given in 2006, will also be used to expand and redesign TGH’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and rename it the Jennifer Leigh Muma Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, in memory of Pam and Les’s daughter who died in a neonatal nursery.

“This is a celebration of vision, leadership and transformation,” Stephen Klasko, MD, MBA, senior vice president of USF Health and dean of the College of Medicine, said at the grand opening of the core facility.

“What Pam and Les did will create a brighter future for premature babies who receive care in the Tampa Bay area," Dr. Klasko said. "It also shows that when a university and a hospital are committed to excellence in education, research and clinical care, they can achieve so much more together than either could do alone.”

USF President Judy Genshaft lauded the difference that the Mumas have made at USF and across the greater community. “They are the most passionate, caring and generous people, particularly about children and making sure, through prenatal and postnatal research, that newborns receive the best possible care. They set the bar high,” Genshaft said. “USF is one of the fastest growing universities in the nation, and this lab will make a difference in how we move forward.”

In their welcoming remarks, Dr. Klasko and President Genshaft introduced neonatologist Lewis Rubin, MD, who was recruited last year from The Cleveland Clinic’s Fetal Care Center to fill the Pamela S. and Leslie M. Muma Endowed Chair in Neonatology at USF. With Dr. Rubin’s leadership, USF and TGH are building research and medical teams to advance newborn treatment.

Later in the day at the first USF Health Distinguished Lecture, attended by the Mumas, Dr. Rubin spoke about his research examining the role of carotenoids (antioxidant micronutrients) in regulating fetal vitamin A production and gene expression.

Pam Muma called Dr. Rubin “the very best neonatologist” for the USF-TGH initiative. “He is not just one of the finest clinicians and researchers, but a great and compassionate man,” she said.

David Birk, PhD, scientific director of the Muma Microscopy & Cell Imaging Core, led tours of the new facility following the ribbon-cutting. The facility is the one of 12 research cores established at USF Health since 2006. Over the last 18 months, more than $9 million has been invested in these state-of-the-art core facilities -- including laboratories for murine neurobehavior, in vivo animal imaging, hyperbaric biomedical research, human performance and motion analysis, and cell isolation and analysis, to name a few.

Story by Anne DeLotto Baier, USF Health Communications
Photos by Eric Younghans, USF Health Communications