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acksonville's rich tapestry of medical product and health care service organizations continues to experience healthy growth. Medical product companies in the area include Vistakon Johnson & Johnson Vision Products, Medtronic Xomed, Zassi Medical Evolutions, and Physician Sales and Service. The area also boasts highly renowned research hospitals, such as Mayo Clinic and Shands Jacksonville — a teaching hospital for the University of Florida.
   Dr. Alan Fields, Ph.D., chair of Cancer Basic Science Research at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, leads a team of researchers at the C.V. and Elsie R. Griffin Cancer Research Building, the first building at any Mayo campus dedicated exclusively to cancer research. The team's goal: studying the molecular mechanisms that lead to cancer and using that knowledge to develop interventions to attack cancers at their most treatable stages.
   Formerly of the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Dr. Fields relocated to Jacksonville in 2003, finding both professional opportunities and an appealing family-oriented lifestyle on the First Coast. He joins more than 5,000 Mayo employees in clinical work and research activities in Jacksonville.
   "The combination of public and private investment, the presence of Mayo Clinic, one of the preeminent biomedical and health-care institutions in the world, the region's natural beauty, outstanding schools and affordable housing all make Jacksonville a perfect place to live and work," he said.
   Dr. Fields' research has identified a gene that plays a critical role in the development of lung cancer and colon cancer, as well as drugs that target this gene. This accomplishment and others are part of what Dr. Fields calls the "first phase" in the development of the research program in Jacksonville's Griffin facility, which will play an increasingly important role in Mayo's multisite comprehensive Cancer Center.
   The University of Florida (UF) also continues its fight against cancer with a powerful new weapon. Construction of the College of Medicine's new proton beam treatment facility at Shands Jacksonville is well underway.
   Proton therapy uses proton particles to deliver high doses of radiation to the target site with minimal damage to healthy tissues in the delivery path, thereby reducing unnecessary cell damage and side effects that can result from conventional radiation treatment.
   "From the beginning, we felt that it would be more viable to locate the proton beam facility at the Shands Jacksonville campus," said C. Craig Tisher, M.D., dean of the College of Medicine. "An independent feasibility study looked at such things as the international airport and easier access to other parts of the Southeast, and proved that we were right."
   When complete in mid-2006, the UF proton beam therapy facility will be one of only four in the nation and the only one in the Southeast. By the third year of operation, it will be staffed by a 115-member support team and is expected to reach its capacity of 200 patients a day.

   For more information visit www.ExpandInJax.com.