“Mobiquity’s decision to expand in Florida and create 260 jobs is great news for our families,” said Florida Gov. Rick Scott. “Today’s announcement shows that Florida’s STEM workforce continues to rapidly grow. Strong support for STEM fields is enhanced by Florida’s top-notch higher education institutions like the University of Florida. Florida is the perfect place for businesses to succeed and grow, and for Florida families to be able to live their version of the American Dream.”

The Council for Economic Outreach worked with local and state partners including representatives from the University of Florida, Santa Fe College, Innovation Square, FloridaWorks, the City of Gainesville, Alachua County, and Enterprise Florida Inc. to show Mobiquity that Gainesville is truly a leading hub for innovation and technology.

“The unique combination of highly educated students, graduates and professionals, and an ideal location, brought us to Gainesville,” said Bill Seibel, founder and CEO of Mobiquity. “The University of Florida provides a rich pool of engineers that will allow us to meet the demand of our clients to create quality, enterprise-class mobile solutions, while generating more jobs right here in the U.S. It is a win/win.”

“The addition of Mobiquity to the Gainesville area is testimony to the outstanding effort of the Council for Economic Outreach in working with so many stakeholders to showcase the talents and potential of Gainesville,” said Gainesville Mayor-Elect Ed Braddy. “The number of jobs created and the economic boon to the city is a further step toward a prosperous community that we want for all of our citizens.”

The Council for Economic Outreach, the designated economic entity for Alachua County, has been working to recruit Mobiquity since December 2012 when the company first decided to expand from its Boston headquarters. Mobiquity joins others like SumTotal Systems, Silver Airways, Mindtree Ltd., and Sears Holdings as companies that have either relocated or expanded to Gainesville in recent years, further establishing Gainesville as a hub for innovation and technology.

“The dedication to fostering innovation in our thriving community is quickly becoming known throughout the nation and the world,” said John Carlson, chairman of the Council for Economic Outreach. “Keeping our world-class talent produced by our educational institutions has been a main focus in developing our innovation economy, and the recruitment of growing, innovative companies like Mobiquity and the 260 jobs that it plans on creating exemplifies that focus.”

Mobiquity expects the office to be located in Innovation Square, the live/work/play research community being developed on Southwest Second Avenue between the UF campus and downtown Gainesville.

Cammy Abernathy, dean of UF’s College of Engineering, welcomed the announcement.

“In order to compete in today’s global economy, employers like Mobiquity must be able to recruit employees that are not only technically proficient but also those who can also innovate and communicate. Gator engineering graduates not only have a longstanding legacy of professional excellence, they are also trained to think and act as leaders and creative problem solvers,” she said. “We are very proud that the excellence of our students and faculty served as a key ingredient in recruiting Mobiquity to Gainesville. Together with the rest of the community, we extend our warmest welcome.”

Mobiquity plans to replicate its successful model as it already has implemented in Boston, leveraging proven agile processes to keep efficiency and quality high, and costs competitive.

“We are thrilled to welcome an innovator like Mobiquity and support their growth with the amazing talent being produced by the University of Florida,” said Ed Poppell, a representative for UF’s Innovation Square. “We look forward to a long and fruitful partnership as they grow and establish themselves here in the Gainesville community.”

A community celebration welcoming Mobiquity to Gainesville has been scheduled for 10 a.m. May 8 at Ayers Plaza in Gainesville.

About Mobiquity

Mobiquity is a leading professional services firm working with the Global 2000 to create engaging enterprise-class mobile solutions and apps that drive business value. Because mobile is in our DNA, clients benefit from how we expertly and effectively blend the three key disciplines that unleash the power and innovation of mobile computing: strategy, user-centered design and core technology. Since inception in 2011, we have worked with more than 140 companies, including CVS, Fidelity Investments, MetLife, the New York Post, Putnam Investments, The Boston Globe and Weight Watchers International. SAP also selected Mobiquity as a partner to help customers develop and implement mobile strategies and applications that optimize investments in SAP enterprise solutions. To learn more, visit www.mobiquityinc.com.

About the Council for Economic Outreach

The Council for Economic Outreach (CEO) is the designated economic development entity for all of Alachua County. CEO’s charge is to assist existing businesses through expansion, to help grow new companies in our community and to attract new opportunities to Alachua County. CEO was the first economic development organization in the state of Florida to earn recognition as an Accredited Economic Development Organization by the American Economic Development Council. Learn more at www.gceo.com.

“It’s always special when the University of Florida can say one of its programs is the best in the world,” said David Day, director of the incubator and UF’s Office of Technology Licensing. “Today, we’re the best incubator in the world.”

Statistics back up the award. Incubator companies have attracted more than $1 billion in funding, and successes include the acquisition of incubated companies for $113 million, $98 million and $34 million. Since it opened in 1995, the incubator has had 28 companies graduate out of the facility or be acquired by other companies.

The UF incubator won one of two Dinah Adkins Incubator of the Year awards for incubators with a technology focus, then went on to win the highest award, the Randall M. Whaley Incubator of the Year for overall excellence. In the process, it topped incubators more than twice its size, such as the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corp.

Patti Breedlove, associate director of the UF incubator, said the award caps “a cascade of really good news over the last eight months. We’ve had our best year ever.”

The incubator is a 40,000-square-foot facility located in Progress Corporate Park in Alachua, Fla., and is currently home to nine resident companies and 14 affiliated clients. It produces an average annual economic impact of $100 million for Alachua County.

One graduate, Nanotherapeutics, just landed a Department of Defense contract that could amount to $360 million over 10 years to build a drug development and manufacturing facility in Alachua. Recent successes include the acquisitions of Pasteuria for $113 million, Celunol Inc. for $98 million and EraGen Biosciences for $34 million. Playing a role in building an economic engine like that is rewarding, according to Breedlove and Day.

“The companies succeed, and we measure our success by their success,” Breedlove said.

Randy Morris, member services director for the NBIA, said the awards panel looks at an incubator’s record of success and whether it has the financial footing for future success. The panel also looks at whether the incubator uses best practices established by the NBIA, which serves more than 1,900 members in more than 60 nations.

Breedlove said the UF incubator owes its success in part to “a remarkably effective commercialization process at the University of Florida,” and to pioneers who saw the economic potential in UF expertise.

“We wouldn’t be here without the visionary thinkers at the University of Florida in the mid-1990s who created this program when really there was no role model for biotechnology incubation,” Breedlove said. “They gave us everything we needed to be a successful program.”

Day said the research generated by UF — the 12th largest public research university accounting for one-third of the academic research in Florida — fuels the incubator.

“We have a big extended team to work with scientists to build successful companies,” Day said.

The NBIA announced the two awards at its 27th International Conference on Business Incubation in Boston this week.

Battelle, a global research and development organization, released a study Tuesday that shows agriculture, forestry and fisheries production in a 13-state region of the southeastern U.S. plus Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands generates $240 billion in regional economic activity and supports more than 2.2 million jobs, with labor income totaling $62 billion.

According to the Batelle study, agbioscience research and development spending went from $213 million to $501 million from 2000 to 2010.

“I think what this study clearly tells us is that for Florida to continue to see this kind of economic growth, we’ve got to continue to invest in these areas,” said Jack Payne, the University of Florida’s senior vice president for agriculture and natural resources. “Agriculture and related sciences touch nearly every aspect of our lives. They’re a robust driver of our economy and they will help our state thrive as the country pulls itself out of a rough economy.”

Agbioscience, as defined by the report’s authors, includes not only research related to the food we eat, but the development, production and use of plant and animal organisms for food, health, fuel and industrial applications.

The study offers case studies that highlight technological advances and research being done by the southeastern land-grant universities. They include UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences’ research that shows irrigation can be vastly reduced by using soil moisture controllers and its work on renewable fuels.

Sustaining the Extension Service and Experiment Station System, further investing in it, and addressing its challenges are keys to maintaining the strength of the economic and social fabric of the nation, the region and the state, the report’s authors said.

The full report may be viewed at: http://www.LSUAgCenter.com/SouthernAgbioscienceImpact.

Battelle is one of the nation’s leading charitable trusts focusing on societal and economic impact and actively supporting and promoting science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, education.

The University of Florida is among 15 land-grant university sponsors of the study, commissioned by the Southern Association of Agricultural Experiment Station Directors and the Association of Southern Regional Extension Directors.

The eight-year, $4.2 million study was funded by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to determine the effectiveness of current UF/IFAS fertilizer recommendations, which have been in use since about 2000, said John Hayes, UF/IFAS dean for research. Florida has more than 5 million acres of home and commercial turf.

“This work is an important body of information generated here to address important questions about nutrient management,” Hayes said. “We’re proud to communicate our findings and we hope they will play a substantial role in helping residents, industry personnel and policymakers protect water quality.”

Three hours of technical presentations from a Jan. 15 live symposium are available at http://tinyurl.com/be2la7q and a three-minute video aimed at educating the public has been posted at http://tinyurl.com/ajy4ytr.

The results generally are consistent with current UF/IFAS recommendations for fertilizer use, Hayes said, but the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services plans to review the state’s urban fertilizer rules in light of the study findings. The agency will hold public meetings to seek comment about possible changes.

The study involved three locations, numerous establishment, fertilization and irrigation practices, and multiple turf varieties, including St. Augustinegrass, zoysiagrass, centipedegrass and bahiagrass.

Despite the differences, researchers made several basic conclusions:

* Very little nutrient leaching results from summertime application of UF/IFAS recommended fertilizer rates to healthy, growing turfgrass.

* Summertime fertilizer bans could potentially deprive healthy turf of nutrients when needed most, threatening turf health and quality.

* Nutrient leaching can result from fertilizer application to dormant or unhealthy turf.

* Newly laid sod should not be fertilized for 30 to 60 days because it will not have an established root system for effective nutrient uptake and it is likely to carry nutrients from fertilizer applications at the sod farm where it was grown.

The study involved experiments conducted at UF/IFAS research facilities in the Panhandle, Gainesville and Fort Lauderdale, using turf, soils and management practices common to each area. The state’s most popular turf, St. Augustinegrass, was studied at all three sites.

Faculty members John Cisar, Jerry Sartain, Laurie Trenholm and Bryan Unruh led the study and presented their research findings at a public meeting in Citra, where much of the footage was shot. The video includes a question-and-answer session with the scientists, and comments from Andy Rackley, director of agricultural environmental services for FDACS.

Several researchers mentioned that their findings raised new questions and pointed out the need for additional research on topics including the use of biosolids and other organic nitrogen sources, the use of reclaimed water, turfgrass phosphorus requirements, and the effects of summertime fertilizer bans.

“We’re in some conversations with DEP (the state Department of Environmental Protection) still about moving forward with some additional data analysis,” Unruh said.

He also noted that the results suggest UF/IFAS’ nutrient recommendations for zoysiagrass may need to be modified, but any changes to those nutrient recommendations must come about through a vetting process by the Plant Nutrient Oversight Committee, a team of administrators and scientists who review all nutrient recommendations from UF/IFAS.

Extension personnel will be trained to help them communicate the findings to homeowners and there may be additional public workshops, Trenholm said.

Homeowners with unhealthy lawns should contact county extension personnel to discuss the problem and not automatically assume that fertilizer is needed, Cisar said.

“If you have a lawn that’s in bad shape, it makes sense to ascertain why,” he said. “It may be that the grass needs fertilizer but it could be something else, like a lack of proper irrigation, proper mowing height, or the grass isn’t getting enough light.”

UF activated its 100 Gbps connection Jan. 30, a move that is expected to unleash scientific discovery and collaboration on a scale not possible at 10 Gbps, the current research standard.

“This is a terrific milestone in our quest to be a top 10 public university. It puts us squarely on an even footing with other leading institutions by giving our researchers a great tool that accelerates their work exponentially,” said UF President Bernie Machen. “It’s good for the university, and it’s good for the state of Florida.”

The new research computing power represents an investment of $2.4 million, with $1.9 million from National Science Foundation grants and $500,000 in institutional funding. UF is one of the pilot sites chosen to connect to the Internet2 Innovation Platform, designed to be the quickest and easiest way to move data from one research laboratory to another, even internationally.

“Having the capacity to move data at 100 Gbps is a watershed moment in UF’s research environment,” said UF Vice President and Chief Information Officer Elias Eldayrie. “This 10-fold increase in capability will enable scientific contributions and the impact to UF has to the national and international research communities.”

The computing power has the potential to transform research at UF. In a world where genomes are sequenced and vast reaches of the globe — and the stars — are mapped in minute detail, scientists find themselves increasingly dealing with floods of data but limited by the computing pipeline to transmit and share that data.

For example, one project alone, related to the High Energy Physics experiment that announced the discovery of the Higgs boson last July, approaches the previous limit of 10 Gbps on a regular basis, said Erik Deumens, director of research computing. UF researchers will no longer labor under those constraints.

“This upgrade gives us the headroom to keep supporting that research at the levels it needs, while taking on support of new research projects like the iDigBio project for digitization of biological data,” Deumens said. “This investment by the University of Florida with partial funding by the National Science Foundation is part of the effort to provide our researchers and their collaborators the infrastructure to do their research that ranks among the top 10 in the nation.”

The need for data storage and computing power will only grow, said Andy Li, associate professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering.

“Upgrading the UF research network to 100 Gbps will enable us to explore big data sciences, high-performance computing, future Internet and future cloud research, and interdisciplinary collaborations among scientists and engineers,” Li said. “This development further boosts the scientific contribution and impact of UF in Florida, nationally, and internationally. Because we are connecting to a substantially upgraded information highway, UF can serve the needs of terabyte data throughput around the world for researchers and their collaborators.”

Florida LambdaRail’s (FLR) 1,540-mile Research & Education Network, owned and operated by 12 partner universities, including UF, connects the university to the regional, national and international research and education community.

The other institutions and regional optical networks with 100 Gbps data transport capability include Indiana University, Ohio State University’s Ohio Academic Resources Network, and the University of Oklahoma’s Oklahoma Area Network.

The Campus Research Network had to be rebuilt, piece by piece, to accommodate the 100 Gbps connection. But the network is now poised for innovations scheduled this spring, including GatorCloud, a 200 Gbps campus computing initiative, and a computer cluster that will be the largest in the state of Florida.

The focus on computing is expected to be an economic booster, too, UF administrators said. UF computing networks support Innovation Square, a business and technology incubator blocks from campus, and Progress Corporate Park, home to many biotechnology startups that originated with UF research.

The fungus infects more than 90 percent of wild Florida Torreyas in their native range, which covers parts of North Florida and South Georgia close to the Apalachicola River, said Jason Smith, an associate professor with UF’s School of Forest Resources and Conservation, part of the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.

Smith is part of a research team that discovered the fungus, Fusarium torreyae, and formally described it in the journal Mycologia. Personnel from Atlanta Botanical Garden and the state Department of Environmental Protection are also involved.

“Over the years, the most common hypothesis was that a disease was killing Torreya,” Smith said. “But nobody had pinned down the cause until now. Now we hope to use this information to conserve the species and make some progress toward re-establishing the tree in its native range.”

The Florida Torreya is a primitive evergreen related to pines and firs. Once logged for its rot-resistant wood, the tree began dying off in the 1930s. Today, it’s one of the world’s rarest tree species, found primarily in Torreya State Park in Florida’s Liberty County.

Though all adult Florida Torreyas are gone, the species may continue to survive in the wild in a stunted form. Many of the remaining Torreya stumps send up healthy young shoots that survive until the fungus infects and kills them, usually about the time the shoots are 3 feet tall. A mature Florida Torreya tree can be 75 feet tall.

A few of the wild specimens are disease-free, and Smith says one of the research team’s priorities is to conduct genetic testing to determine whether those trees possess natural resistance to the fungus. If so, it may be possible to induce resistance in other Florida Torreyas through conventional breeding or other means.

The team is also raising healthy Florida Torreyas from seed. Some are being returned to the wild, but their prospects are uncertain. After extensive surveying, the researchers concluded that the fungus is present throughout the tree’s native range.

To give those transplanted specimens a fighting chance, the researchers carefully select and prepare planting sites, amending soil and removing vegetation that might compete for sunlight.

“There’s some hope,” Smith said. “If we can reduce the stress on the tree by growing it under different conditions, we might be able to boost its natural resistance to the fungus.”

The team also plans to analyze the fungus and investigate ways to manage it. Researchers believe the pathogen is not native to the United States, but determining its origins could be difficult. The Fusarium genus is large and widely distributed around the globe, and scientists believe many species remain undetected in their natural habitats.

If the fungus’ natural habitat is found, researchers may be able to pinpoint natural enemies useful in controlling the disease.

Ironically, Smith’s biggest concern about the fungus doesn’t even concern the Florida Torreya tree. He’s afraid it will infect Fraser fir and red spruce trees, economically important species shown to be highly sensitive to the fungus.

Those trees grow in the Appalachian Mountains, several hundred miles north of the Florida Torreya’s native range. In theory, they should be safe. However, a group of environmental activists has been raising Florida Torreya trees and planting them in the wild, including parts of Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee.

The activists say they believe the species was once native to the Southern Appalachian Mountains and want to re-establish it there. But Smith is worried they’ll end up introducing the fungus.

“Almost all the cultivated Torreya trees we’ve seen have been infected,” he said. “So we’re concerned that one of these Torreya being planted in the Appalachians could end up leading to infection of spruce and fir trees. The consequences could be disastrous.”

Wagner Vendrame, an associate professor of environmental horticulture with UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, is trying to improve a technique known as cryopreservation, in which living cells or tissues are frozen in liquid nitrogen at minus 321 degrees Fahrenheit for later use. So far, his results from cryopreserving orchid seeds have been promising.

The Florida orchid industry generated more than $43 million in sales in 2011. It produces orchids for both the specialty and mass market using hybrid plants that can be cultivated and are thus not in danger of extinction as many orchid species are.

By freezing seeds, orchid breeders can store them for later use if they have space constraints and are only able to germinate a portion of their seed stock, said Vendrame, who is based at UF’s Tropical Research and Education Center in Homestead. Freezing could also enable scientists to store endangered plants for future studies and restoration efforts.

“It could be a good means of preserving other types of plants that might be disappearing from the face of Earth,” Vendrame said.

There are more than 30,000 species of orchids in the world, and Florida is home to 99 of them — the largest number of naturally occurring orchid species in the United States.

Of the native orchid species in Florida, more than half are either threatened or endangered, including the ghost orchid that was made famous with the book “The Orchid Thief” and the 2002 film “Adaptation,” starring Nicolas Cage and Meryl Streep.

Overcollection and habitat loss are often the biggest threats to wild orchids.

In a study, published in the current issue of the journal Scientia Horticulturae, Vendrame’s team used hybrid orchid seeds to evaluate two cryoprotectants, Supercool X1000 and phloroglucinol. These compounds are added to solutions used for pretreating living tissues before being frozen. Cryoprotectants are similar to antifreeze and minimize freezing damage to tissues by preventing the formation of ice crystals within cells.

The team treated one group of seeds in a solution containing Supercool X1000, another with a solution containing phloroglucinol, and a control group where the solution had no cryoprotectant added. After being frozen for 24 hours, scientists removed the seeds from the liquid nitrogen, thawed them and tried to sprout or germinate them. Successful germination meant a seed had survived freezing.

Adding Supercool X1000 to the pretreatment solution only increased seed germination by about 1 percent more than the solution alone. But adding phloroglucinol increased seed germination by nearly 30 percent.

Altogether, about 79 percent of the seeds treated with phloroglucinol germinated.

So it’s pretty significant,” Vendrame said. “These are excellent results.”

The study is one of the few that has looked at phloroglucinol, which is extracted from brown algae, as a cryoprotectant for plants, he said.

Guillermo Salazar, a UF/IFAS Florida Yards and Neighborhoods extension agent in Miami-Dade County, is an orchid enthusiast who has studied the plants under Vendrame.

He attributes the fascination with orchids to their uniqueness and diversity.

“There are thousands of different species with diverse shapes, colors and scents,” Salazar said. “And they can be found in a variety of ecosystems, from growing on cliffs to in trees and beside rivers. It just really makes them interesting, and you want to experience them all.”

He said there are some orchid species that have disappeared completely and others that can only be viewed in private collections.

“If we could have the possibility to preserve a particular species that is endangered, then future generations would have the ability to enjoy them as well,” said Salazar.

In addition to Vendrame, study authors also included Renato F. Galdiano and Eliana G.M. Lemos with the Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho in Jaboticabal, Brazil and Ricardo T. Faria with Universidade Estadual de Londrina in Londrina, Brazil.

The statistics are compiled from NSF’s annual Higher Education Research and Development, or HERD, survey, which is the primary source of information on research expenditures at higher education institutions in the United States. The report shows that nationally, universities increased their expenditures for research and development by 4 percent between the 2010 and 2011 fiscal years. UF beat the national average, increasing its research expenditures by 8.5 percent from 2010 to 2011.

Florida also moved up in rankings that include private research institutions like Johns Hopkins University and Stanford University. UF placed 18th in the current report, compared with 21st in 2010. Rankings of other institutions in the survey include the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill at 17, Washington University in St. Louis at 19, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at 20 and the University of California, Berkeley at 21.

UF is the only university in Florida on the list with $740 million in research and development spending in 2011.

“These expenditures represent dollars entrusted to the University of Florida by sponsors in the public and private sectors for the expressed purpose of creating new knowledge, solving relevant problems and creating innovative technologies that are highly valued for both present and future generations,” said David Norton, UF’s vice president for research. “Our research competitiveness relative to the very best universities in the United States directly reflects the talent and capabilities we have assembled here at UF.”

Specifically, Norton points to advances in health care, engineering, agriculture, and the basic sciences that promise to have significant impact both here in Florida and beyond.

For example, UF research has begun using patients’ personal genetic makeup to more effectively prescribe medication following heart procedures. UF engineers and chemists set a world record in the performance of plastic solar cells, and agricultural researchers discovered the enzyme that improves flavor in ripening tomatoes.

In addition, a UF biologist discovered a small African mammal that has the unusual ability to regrow damaged tissue, perhaps leading to new advances in regenerative medicine.

“These are just a few examples of the amazing impact being realized by UF research,” Norton said.

The report states that U.S. research universities spent the majority of their 2011 research dollars, totaling $65.1 billion, on life sciences — namely medicine and agriculture. The next largest field of study was engineering.

“The University of Florida is one of the few institutions with significant strengths in each of the four major areas of sponsored research — the health sciences, agriculture, engineering, and the physical and natural sciences,” Norton said. “This gives us a competitive advantage in staying at the cutting edge of research at the intersections of diverse disciplines.”

UF reported $644 million in research awards for the 2012 fiscal year which ended in June. About two-thirds of that came from federal agencies such as NSF, the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense. Remaining support came from industry and private foundations. Funding from the private sector rose 24 percent in 2012, helping to offset a nearly 21 percent drop in state and local funding.

“While the majority of sponsored research at UF is fundamental in nature, we do have activity and significant capacity for applied research that is directly relevant to the shorter-term needs of industry,” Norton said. “We view our mission as a public, land-grant university to include both the creation of new fundamental knowledge and the extension of new knowledge to the benefit of society within the state and beyond.”

The UF Research and Academic Center at Lake Nona officially opens today (Nov. 30). The $53 million roughly 106,000-square-foot facility extends UF’s presence into the greater Orlando area through the following colleges, institutes and centers:

• College of Pharmacy
• College of Medicine
• Center for Pharmacometrics and Systems Pharmacology
• Institute for Therapeutic Innovation
• Institute on Aging
• Clinical and Translational Science Institute

“The new center harnesses the resources, expertise and research capabilities of multidisciplinary teams, bringing together renowned researchers, clinicians, teachers and students with the ultimate goal of providing effective therapies and improving health for patients,” said Dr. David S. Guzick, UF senior vice president for health affairs and president of the UF&Shands Health System.

In addition, the facility is built to satisfy requirements of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, certification program of the U.S. Green Building Council, which honors energy efficiency, resource conservation and pollution reduction.

The center’s proximity to the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, Nemours Children’s Hospital and other health care organizations within the Lake Nona medical city complex and the wider Orlando area will foster collaboration that stimulates innovative approaches to research and patient care.

“We, and the other major partners at Lake Nona, put down roots not to reproduce what we already have, but to originate what we all wish for: Research and innovation that elevates our ambitions, magnifies our strengths, accelerates our achievements and — lest we lose sight of the most important goal — benefits society at large,” said UF President Bernie Machen.

The UF College of Pharmacy’s Center for Pharmacometrics and Systems Pharmacology, housed at the new facility, is among the first academic centers in the nation to adopt sophisticated mathematical modeling and computer simulations to mimic clinical trials of new drugs. Simulated trials allow researchers to avoid investing unnecessarily in drugs that are unlikely to be of benefit. The result is that resources and research efforts can be better targeted toward drugs that have the potential to help millions of people, and the drugs that emerge from the process will be more likely to receive quick approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

“Our mission revolves around getting efficacious, safe and affordable drugs to the American public and the people in Florida,” said Larry Lesko, director of the Center for Pharmacometrics and Systems Pharmacology, who previously worked for 20 years at the FDA. “I’m bringing a lot of that experience down here to the center and, in particular, the knowledge I have of regulatory strategies to help move potential new drugs to the marketplace in as efficient and affordable a way as possible.”

The pharmacy research center complements the education efforts of the College of Pharmacy; Doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows will complete their training in the new center.

The new facility also allows expansion of the UF professional Pharm.D. program from 200 students to 280 over four years. Student pharmacists at Lake Nona receive the same curriculum as classmates in Gainesville, Jacksonville and St. Petersburg. The Orlando-based students also will have access to research opportunities available at the UF Lake Nona campus and with its Medical City partners.

The UF College of Pharmacy Medication Therapy Management Communication and Care Center at Lake Nona is staffed by faculty, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. Through the telehealth call center, student pharmacists gain experiential training in comprehensive medication reviews for Medicare patients and their health care providers.

The UF Institute for Therapeutic Innovation focuses on developing and testing new treatments and cures for a variety of infectious diseases caused by drug-resistant pathogens. The institute’s work in basic biomedical research and clinical trials dovetails with efforts by the Infectious Diseases Society of America to have 10 new anti-infectious disease drugs on the market by 2020. The work has far-reaching implications for the practice of medicine, notably with respect to surgeries and organ transplantation, procedures that rely heavily on infection control.

“The ability to treat hospital-acquired infections supports the ability to do all those things,” said institute director Dr. George L. Drusano. “That’s the impact of having these new drugs.”

Supported by more than $40 million in funding, primarily from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the Institute for Therapeutic Innovation has created more than 30 new well-paying jobs in the region through faculty and technical positions.

“Our economic footprint in the area is going to be substantial, and so will our scientific stamp,” Drusano said.

The UF Institute on Aging and College of Medicine aging and geriatric research department clinical research unit at the Lake Nona center will allow thousands more Floridians to take part in clinical and translational research studies aimed at improving the health and independence of older adults.

Residents of Orlando and its environs will be better able to take part in ongoing and new clinical studies. Existing studies on the Gainesville campus include the LIFE study, aimed at determining whether physical activity or health education can prevent or delay physical disability in older adults; and the TTrial, which seeks to determine whether administering testosterone to men who have depleted levels can help improve health and mental, physical and sexual function. The ability to broaden the pool of study participants to more of Florida’s residents will help strengthen the reliability of data collected and the validity of conclusions drawn from clinical studies.

The UF Clinical and Translational Science Institute through its Community Engagement and Research Program will help increase participation in clinical studies such as the Institute on Aging’s studies and others by connecting patients with a wide range of clinical trials.

“The UF Research and Academic Center at Lake Nona represents a community of researchers and educators working together to help meet the health needs of our broader community and the nation,” Guzick said. “This investment in the lives and health of our citizens will yield dividends for generations to come.”

“Budding entrepreneurs will gain round-the-clock access to a collaborative working environment, where they can benefit from educational seminars, networking opportunities and personalized advice from experts,” said Innovation Hub Director Jane Muir.

The program, which costs $400 for three months of mentorship, events and collaborative workspace, has rolling application deadlines. Companies that meet or exceed performance goals are eligible for a one-time renewal.

“We’re very excited about The Hatchery,” said Gayle Dykeman, the Innovation Hub’s building manager. “This is a great program for individuals who may have an idea for a business but haven’t yet thought about incorporating or renting office space. They can experience the creative collision of the Innovation Hub without making a long-term commitment.”

An experienced entrepreneur will serve as a “Mentor in Residence” to Hatchery entrepreneurs, providing advice on strategic and tactical approaches to starting technology-based companies.

Resident partners and service providers, including accountants, attorneys and venture capitalists also donate their time and sponsor educational workshops, which will be available to Hatchery participants.

”The Hatchery is for entrepreneurs who would like to locate in the Innovation Hub but haven’t quite developed their business concept enough to qualify,” Muir said. “This program enables us to provide them with the help they need to become a viable business entity.

“We see many budding entrepreneurs who want to start a company but often find the transition between simply having a great idea and actually forming a company around it rather difficult. By offering entrepreneurs a wide range of resources and support, we can make the much less daunting.”

Built with an $8.2 million grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration and a $5 million contribution from UF, the 48,000-square-foot Innovation Hub opened in October 2011 as the first building in Innovation Square, a 24/7/ live/work/play research community. It is one of the only incubators in the nation to house a leading university technology-transfer office, service providers and other partner organizations, such as UF Tech Connect and the Florida Institute for the Commercialization of Public Research, which nurture high-tech companies.

In the first 10 months, the Innovation Hub’s two dozen startup companies created 85 jobs and secured $7.2 million in private investment.

Contact Dykeman at gbdykeman@ufl.edu or 352-273-4819 for a Hatchery application or to learn more about the program.

Though the initial investment can run from $18,000 to $25,000 per acre plus labor, high tunnels deliver better quality fruit, bigger early yields and higher prices if growers beat competitors to market, said Bielinski Santos, an associate professor with UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.

The study, published in the current issue of HortTechnology, tracked two growing seasons on a commercial blueberry farm in Alachua County. The results showed that temperatures outside the tunnels plunged to freezing or near-freezing 61 times during the study. Temperatures fell that low just three times inside the unheated tunnels.

High tunnels may increase air and soil temperatures and protect the plants from wind and rain damage, leading to better flowering and more fruit, said Santos, based at UF’s Gulf Coast Research and Education Center in Balm.

Plants grown in the tunnels produced about 4.5 tons of ripe fruit per acre by the end of March; no ripe fruit came from similar plants grown outdoors during that time. Wholesale prices for domestic blueberries are highest early in the season, starting at about $7 per pound in early April, he said.

“Usually, Florida growers start harvesting in early April,” Santos said. “The more fruit you can harvest early in the season, the more money you’ll make.”

Growers can also save money with high tunnels because they minimize the need for another freeze protection strategy – sprinkling the plants with water to form a layer of ice. In the study, tunnel-grown plants needed about one-tenth the water for freeze protection as plants grown outdoors.

The study involved two blueberry varieties developed at UF, Snow Chaser and Springhigh. Snow Chaser is especially well-suited to life in high tunnels, Santos said.

Made by stretching thick plastic sheeting across an arched frame, high tunnels resemble Quonset huts, he said. Although they have variable dimensions, most tunnels have roofs anywhere from 8 to 20 feet high, with ends and sides that can be open or sealed, depending on the weather.

The technology is popular in other parts of the world but still catching on in the United States, Santos said. In Florida, high tunnels and other protective structures account for about 250 acres of production, mostly for high-value crops such as blueberries, strawberries, tomatoes and bell peppers.

“We always thought it was really complicated and expensive,” Santos said. “So for the past six years I’ve tried to ‘vulgarize’ the technology and develop a system anyone can use.”

Santos said he knows of one Florida blueberry grower using high tunnels; the owners tried 2 acres in 2010 and later expanded to 80 acres. Others have expressed interest in the system.

Santos and co-author Teresa Salame-Donoso, a research associate at the Balm center, have begun collecting data for an economic study on blueberry production in high tunnels.

“We already have some numbers, and we’re collecting the kind of information growers need to make up their own minds about using high tunnels,” he said. “I see more people doing it eventually.”

On Tuesday, 55 women will emerge from a new program, Empowering Women in Technology Startups, or eWiTS, ready to change these statistics — and the world.

The University of Florida Office of Technology Licensing, UF Tech Connect and the Florida Innovation Hub partnered with local women technology entrepreneurs and community leaders to launch eWITS.

During the nine-week program, participants formed teams around nine technologies developed by female researchers at UF. Experienced women entrepreneurs and business executives volunteered to mentor the teams toward their goal: to develop a business plan and present the opportunity to a panel of female investors.

These investors, also volunteers, will judge the presentations in a competition from 3 to 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Florida Innovation Hub at UF, 747 SW Second Ave., Gainesville. Winners will receive prizes including iPads and gift certificates to Dragonfly Sushi and a local spa.

“The women in this program have worked incredibly hard,” said Innovation Hub Director Jane Muir, who founded the program. “They’re graduating from this program with training and skills that will empower them for the rest of their lives. From our perspective, we’ve developed a talent pool of potential entrepreneurs who will help the university commercialize research discoveries.”

Organizers modeled the initiative after Startup Quest, another collaborative effort by UF Office of Technology Licensing, FloridaWorks and the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce. That program, which concluded in 2011, resulted in three new companies based on UF technologies.

The STEM disciplines — science, technology, engineering and math — have historically been dominated by men.

“In our working lives, we’d all had the experience of being the only woman in the room,” Muir said. “There’s no good reason for this since every one of us knows smart, highly capable women who could make meaningful contributions to the STEM fields.”

For more information, visit www.ewits.org.

Women interested in future information sessions can register here for updates once dates for the next program are announced: http://ewitswaitlist.eventbrite.com/

Here are some of the teams’ technologies:

http://apps.research.ufl.edu/otl/pdf/marketing/12685.pdf
http://apps.research.ufl.edu/otl/pdf/marketing/12687.pdf
http://apps.research.ufl.edu/otl/pdf/marketing/12808.pdf
http://apps.research.ufl.edu/otl/pdf/marketing/12845.pdf
http://apps.research.ufl.edu/otl/pdf/marketing/13272.pdf
http://apps.research.ufl.edu/otl/pdf/marketing/13398.pdf
http://apps.research.ufl.edu/otl/pdf/marketing/13812.pdf

Four companies have already graduated, most recently Shadow Health, which started with three employees and now employs more than two dozen.

“We are required to collect data and report back to the Economic Development Administration for the $8.2 million they granted us,” said Innovation Hub Director Jane Muir. “We contacted each of the companies and were thrilled with the numbers they reported in just ten months.”

Built with an $8.2 million grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration and a $5 million contribution from UF, the 48,000-square-foot Innovation Hub is a unique innovation ecosystem that houses not only startup companies, but also service providers, including accountants, attorneys, venture capitalists and product designers that sponsor events, host educational workshops and donate at least eight hours of their time each month to the startup tenants.

The Innovation Hub is one of the only incubators in the nation to house a leading university technology transfer office in addition to those service providers. The Innovation Hub also houses the UF Development Corp., which is responsible for developing Innovation Square, and other partner organizations that nurture high-tech companies such as UF Tech Connect and the Florida Institute for the Commercialization of Public Research.

UF Tech Connect, housed in the Office of Technology Licensing, recently received a $645,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration to support its efforts to commercialize university research and create technology-based startup companies. During the last fiscal year, UF Tech Connect client companies created 230 new jobs and generated $180 million in private investment. During that same time period, the UF Office of Technology Licensing received 324 invention disclosures executed a record-setting 79 licenses, and helped start 15 new companies founded on those new discoveries.

“OTL staff, Tech Connect staff, Innovation Hub employees and Resident Partners all work in collaboration,” said David Day, director of the UF Office of Technology Licensing. “We all want these startup companies to succeed and we all help them do this in different ways. Education and networking opportunities are particularly vital.”

The Innovation Hub will celebrate its one-year anniversary with an open house from 2 to 5 p.m. Oct. 19 featuring demonstrations by technology-based startup tenants. Registration is available at http://anniversaryopenhouse.eventbrite.com/. A special tour is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. Oct. 20. http://anniversarytour4.eventbrite.com/.

A new study by researchers with the University of Florida’s Levin College of Law and Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, or UF/IFAS, suggests that many buyers aren’t aware that living on the coast brings special challenges. In 2006, following two active hurricane seasons, state lawmakers strengthened real estate laws to ensure home and condominium buyers are told about the regulations and risks before their purchases are completed.

But the study findings suggest many who bought Florida coastal real estate in recent years either didn’t get the warning or didn’t absorb it amid the flurry of document-signing that accompanies closing a real estate deal.

“They’re either not being informed or they simply don’t remember – both of which are plausible,” said Tom Ankersen, director of the law school’s Conservation Clinic and Florida Sea Grant College’s legal specialist. Florida Sea Grant operates in partnership with UF/IFAS.

The UF Levin College of Law Conservation Clinic and Florida Sea Grant collaborated on the survey, sent to about 2,500 property owners in five coastal counties who bought property after the disclosure laws took effect. The study included follow-up interviews with some survey recipients and coastal real estate agents.

Their findings showed that nearly 86 percent of the 290 mail-survey respondents either did not receive the coastal hazards disclosure or did not recall receiving it. In fact, a majority of those who responded to the survey had no idea their property was partly or totally seaward of the coastal construction control line, also known as the CCCL.

Being seaward of the line can mean homeowners have to follow restrictions, such as keeping lights dimmed at certain times to avoid distracting sea turtles as they nest. Erosion is an ongoing issue for coastal property owners, who often want to build or repair seawalls or bring in material to restore the beach, only to learn that it may be prohibited.

In developing the study, Garin Davidson, senior geographic information system analyst with Florida Sea Grant’s Boating and Waterways Planning Program, sifted through property record databases in Brevard, Nassau, Sarasota, St. Johns and Walton counties to pinpoint homes that were sold after the law took effect and are covered by the CCCL. She said many homeowners were confused.

“Some property owners either remembered seeing (the notice), or it was like the radon notice and other disclosures, you may know it’s there and you may even remember signing it but you may not remember the purpose or meaning of the disclosure. There was a lot of uncertainty,” Davidson said.

The project was funded by the Florida Climate Institute at UF, because of the agency’s interest in sea-level rise. Kevin Wozniak, a UF law student whose work was supported with a climate institute grant, assisted with the survey’s creation as well as legal research and policy recommendations.

The Florida Sea Turtle Conservancy backed the original legislation, said Gary Appelson, the organization’s policy coordinator, and wanted to know if the 2006 law had been effective.

“The bottom line is, it doesn’t work, it doesn’t provide notice,” he said. “Or the notice is insufficient to convey any useful knowledge about living on the coast.”

Appelson said his organization will look into strengthening the current law.

The UF research team that conducted the survey included policy recommendations. Among them: The coastal hazards disclosure statement should be provided through a separate brochure or pamphlet so as not to blend in with other real estate documents, and it should be provided earlier in the transaction process. Also, buyers should no longer be permitted to waive their right to receive the notice, which the current law allows.

A copy of the report and summary can be found at: www.flseagrant.org/images/PDFs/tp194_coastal_hazards_disclosure_law.pdf.

“We’re extremely concerned and want to help however we can,” said Jack Payne, UF’s senior vice president for agriculture and natural resources. “An estimated 2,500 people work in Franklin County’s oyster industry and businesses closely allied with it. Many of them are now wondering how to put food on the table.”

In August, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services issued a report with bleak projections for the 2012-13 oyster harvest.

When Florida’s oyster season opened Sept. 1, Apalachicola Bay oystermen found few harvestable oysters. Since then, Gov. Rick Scott has requested federal aid for the community and reports of oyster declines have come in from Dixie, Levy and Wakulla counties.

In recent years, Apalachicola Bay has produced about 10 percent of the U.S. oyster supply, and accounted for 90 percent of Florida’s harvest. The dockside value of Franklin County’s 2011 oyster harvest was $6.6 million.

On Friday, Payne announced formation of the UF Oyster Recovery Task Force and named Karl Havens to lead it. Havens is director of Florida Sea Grant.

The task force has multiple priorities, including: learning why oyster populations declined, finding ways to help them bounce back, and identifying solutions for social and economic impacts, Havens said.

Franklin County has long hosted UF/IFAS and Florida Sea Grant oyster and ecosystem research projects. It’s home to a UF laboratory dedicated to post-harvest processing that safeguards raw oysters from Vibrio vulnificus bacteria, he said.

Members of affected coastal communities and industry will be invited to participate in the task force in the coming weeks, he said.

“In order for this process to be effective, it must be a partnership between the affected communities and the experts at UF, because local knowledge is critical to getting to the bottom of what caused this problem and finding a practical solution,” Havens said.

The task force includes UF experts on mollusk biology, aquaculture, commercial seafood processing, food and resource economics, water chemistry, environmental toxins, marine ecology, public health and more. Among them are Chuck Adams, Tom Frazer, Peter Frederick, Andrew Kane, Bill Mahan, Glenn Morris, Tom Obreza, Steve Otwell, Bill Pine, Leslie Sturmer, Craig Watson and Anita Wright.

Many of the UF faculty members involved also were part of a university-wide task force that addressed the 2010 Gulf oil spill. Havens said the challenges today are about as complex as those facing researchers two years ago.

“There are many factors we have to look at, particularly in terms of how we can help to ensure a lasting increase of the oyster populations,” he said. “The good news is that UF has the unique expertise needed to address a multifaceted ecological issue of this magnitude.”

The Apalachicola Bay system covers almost 210 square miles, neatly fenced off from the Gulf of Mexico by long, narrow islands. The Apalachicola River empties into the center of the bay, providing a steady influx of fresh water; it lowers the bay’s salinity to a range oysters find agreeable.

Recent reduced flow in the Apalachicola River may play a role in oyster population declines, Havens said, but other causes have been suggested, including increased fishing pressure in recent years. In response to concerns raised by the communities, the task force initially will test for the presence of contaminants, pathogens and other factors affecting oyster growth and development, in order to narrow down the possible cause of the decline.

The task force is expected to officially begin work in late September but preliminary activities have already begun. Currently, Havens is taking inventory of the expertise available at UF, and assigning faculty members to address topics of concern for producers, citizens, reporters and the public.

Florida Sea Grant expects to provide funding for rapid-response research in a number of areas. Additional funding for the task force will be provided by UF/IFAS, Payne said.

“We are committed to seeing this project through and establishing stewardship practices to keep the Apalachicola Bay oyster industry sustainable in years to come,” he said. “Apalachicola oysters are an iconic symbol of real Florida. It would be a tremendous loss if consumers were no longer able to enjoy them.”