A Report on Discoveries and Achievements at the University of California
Volume 6, Number 2, September 1997
The following is a glimpse of some recent achievements by the faculty, students and staff of the University of California
New NAS Members . . . Eleven UC scientists and researchers are among 60 new members elected to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences, bringing UC's total membership to 266. Four are from UC Berkeley, two are from UC San Diego and one each are from UC Riverside, UC San Francisco, UC Santa Barbara, UCLA and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
You’re the Tops . . . After two years of intensive research, innovation and design, student engineers at UC Davis beat all other students at the nation’s top engineering schools during this year’s Future Car National Challenge held in Michigan and Washington, D.C. With their hybrid vehicle and mechanical know-how, the students won the nation’s top prize for fuel efficiency, low emissions and the application of advanced material and technology.
Peace Corps Support . . . Four UC campuses are among 25 colleges nationwide that have produced the most Peace Corps volunteers. UC Berkeley topped the list, UCLA was ninth, UC Santa Barbara 14th and UC Davis 18th according to the Peace Corps. College graduates make up 97 percent of the more than 150,000 Peace Corps volunteers who have served in 132 countries.
Best Hospitals . . . Five UC medical centers were among America’s Best Hospitals ranked by U.S. News & World Report. UCLA and UC San Francisco medical centers made the U.S. News "honor roll," ranking fifth and seventh respectively. To make honor roll, hospitals were rated first in at least six of 17 specialties. Also scoring high on the list of 135 of the nation’s 7,000 hospitals were UC San Diego, UC Davis and San Francisco General Hospital, a UC affiliate. The rankings are based on annual surveys of 2,550 physicians from a variety of specialties and hospitals around the country.
Public Service Scholarships . . . Two UCLA students were among 10 California college juniors awarded $10,000 scholarships from the Donald A. Strauss Public Service Scholarship Foundation. Ginny Tal created a community outreach program for women and Carlota Garcia designed a tutorial program that doubles as a child care center for children of adults attending evening classes.
Schizophrenia Treatment . . . The schizophrenia drug risperidone, widely used to reduce hallucinations and other outward symptoms of the mental disorder, also helps improve patients’ memory. UCLA School of Medicine neuropsychologist Michael Green found that patients who took risperidone showed significant improvement in their short-term memory. This is the first evidence that the drug eases aspects of schizophrenia not targeted before by drug therapy.
Hope for Infertile Couples . . . A new test developed by UC San Francisco fertility specialist Paul Turek determines if non-moving sperm are "alive," giving hope to men who were once considered infertile. A healthy baby boy, born recently to a Bay Area couple, is the first reported success nationwide resulting from the sperm test which can determine if pregnancy can be achieved through "in vitro fertilization."
Brain Aneurysms . . . UCLA doctors have developed a non-invasive method of "patching" aneurysms, bubble-like protrusions at the weak spot of an artery. Under the direction of computer scientist Walter E. Karplus, a team of UCLA researchers developed a computer system that can create highly accurate simulations of blood flow and map its dynamics. This system is used to conduct a virtual reality tour of the aneurysm. Treatment involves injecting a swirl of soft platinum through a catheter into the protrusion to patch the weak spot in the artery.
AIDS and Bone Cancer . . . Researchers at UCLA’s Jonsson Cancer Center and the West Los Angeles Veteran Affairs Medical Center identified an AIDS-related virus that may play a critical role in triggering multiple myeloma, a malignant tumor found in bone marrow. UCLA’s Dr. James Berenson and his colleagues believe the virus, Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpes virus, causes the bone marrow cancer by infecting non-malignant cells. The discovery has implications for therapy, prevention and a possible cure for the disease.
Reducing Epileptic Seizures . . . UC San Diego Medical Center was one of 20 medical centers studying the Vagus Nerve Stimulator, an implant that reduces seizures in epilepsy patients and recently received FDA approval. UCSD’s study, led by associate clinical professor of neuroscience Evelyn Tecoma, included 12 of the 196 patients studied nationwide. Of those patients, 80 percent experienced a reduction in seizures after receiving the implants.
Gene Therapy & the Spine . . . A team of UC San Diego Medical Center researchers, led by neuroscientist Mark H. Tuszynski, reported the first successful use of gene therapy to achieve partial recovery from spinal cord injuries. In studies involving laboratory rats, gene therapy was used to stimulate the regrowth of damaged nerve fibers by changing the function of an injured animal’s cells, allowing them to partially regenerate at the site of injury.
Ridding Rinderpest . . . A cattle vaccine, genetically engineered by UC Davis veterinarian Tilahun Yilma to combat a deadly viral disease called rinderpest, has been approved for widespread use throughout Africa, bringing long-awaited relief to millions of impoverished herders and a fragile African economy. Yilma hopes the rinderpest vaccine will increase the food supply for subsistence level African herders and eventually enable countries with rinderpest to sell their livestock on the world market.
Leaky Homes . . . Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientist Alan Meier discovered many household appliances such as televisions, VCRs, answering machines and cordless phones are "leaking electricity," or drawing power in their "standby" mode. Meier and his colleagues estimate that the national power consumption lost to leaking electricity is equivalent to five standard power plants. The scientists have developed strategies to reduce this loss, including a circuit which reduces the power draw of appliances that need continuous energizing.
Aging the Brain . . . UC Irvine scientists Charles Ribak, Gary Lynch and Eric Bednarski have discovered how to accelerate the aging process in brain cells, causing neurons that are barely a month old to appear as if they are 70 years old. The development adds another piece to the baffling puzzle of how and why the brain is ravaged by time, and may lead to new treatments for fending off memory loss and other debilitating mental conditions.
Tour de France . . . A cyclist cant c'ompete with a lactating mouse who, when nursing, can expend energy at a rate of 7 times her basal metabloic rate, compared to about 5.5 for the cyclist. No animal has been found to exceed a sustained metabolic rate over 7. UC Riverside biologist Kimberly A. Hammond and UCLA physiologist Jared Diamond suggest that it may be the cost of maintaining larger intestinal and other vital organs that is the limiting factor. Their conclusions may benefit burn victims, whose resting metabolism increases to repair tissue and maintain body heat.
A Future Challenge . . . UC Irvine researchers have conducted a comprehensive study of the computer industry in Asia and have identified Japan and Korea as the biggest challenges to U.S. firms facing head-to-head competition in a global market they once dominated. UCI’s management professor Kenneth L. Kraemer and research associate Jason Dedrick say the Asian firms to watch include Fujitsu, Hitachi and NEC. The study also concludes that universities will play a crucial role in future U.S. competitiveness because well-trained entrepreneurs, engineers and computer scientists are the U.S. computer industry’s greatest asset.
A Light Jacket . . . One of the lightest solid materials on Earth is protecting the diminutive Sojourner rover against subfreezing nights on Mars. Panels of silica aerogels made from technology developed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists provide insulation for the robot, protecting electronic components such as its camera and spectrometer from Mars’ wide temperature swings.
Safer Vaccines? . . . UC San Diego Medical Center researchers, led by professor of medicine Maurizio Zanetti, have developed a new method to trigger immunity by selecting cells and introducing new genetic material into a host without a viral carrier. This is the first example of in vitro gene targeting of a specific immune cell type to initiate immunity and may result in cheaper, safer and more effective vaccines.
Treating Skin Disease . . . An electronic instrument that will help physicians treat a range of disfiguring skin diseases, including a tropical disease called leishmaniasis, was developed by a commercial company using Los Alamos National Laboratory technology. The device uses radio frequency to deliver more controlled, localized heating to destroy tumor tissue. LANL engineer James Doss created computer software that modeled electric and thermal fields in tissue.
Jellyfish Glow . . . A team of UC San Diego researchers led by chemist W.E. Moerner have found a way of controlling a synthetic version of a protein that gives the glow to the Pacific Northwest jellyfish. The discovery not only sheds light on the inner workings of the green fluorescent protein but could be used as a biological marker. Switching on the glowing factor could make it easier for scientists to track when and where genes are expressed inside living cells and tissues.
Ice Ages . . . Contrary to popular belief, researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory report that 10 periods of glaciation in the past million years are caused by changes in the tilt of the Earth’s orbit. The team, led by physicist Richard Muller, found that cyclical changes in the location of the Earth’s orbit cause differing quantities of extraterrestrial debris to come into the Earth’s atmosphere. This phenomenon results in variations of climate on the planet.
An Astronomical Puzzle . . . How the Sun and planets formed from a swirling mass of gas and dust may also explain the puzzling hot and cold composition of the most common meteorites, the chondrites, which date from the formation of the solar system some 4.5 billion years ago. Meteoriticists have long puzzled over the paradoxical mix of minerals and now UC Berkeley astronomer Frank Shu and his colleagues propose stars like the Sun recycle some of the dust falling into the star, throwing it out from the center in a fiery spray that seeds the colder matter with small "chondrules" or beads of melted rock.
Dog Years . . . While many scientists have believed, based on archaeological records, that domestic dogs dated back only 14,000 years, UCLA researchers have found dogs have ancient origins dating back perhaps 100,000 years or more. Molecular genetic techniques show that man’s best friend is much older and evolved from wolves. Robert K. Wayne, an associate professor of biology, led the study.
Fishing For Solutions . . . While better scientific analyses may help reduce worldwide overfishing and depletion of many ocean fish species, new management systems must be instituted to shield global marine fisheries from the political pressures to overfish. Louis W. Botsford, a wildlife and fisheries biologist at UC Davis suggests that several changes in the way marine fisheries are managed would improve sustainability, regardless of improvements in marine science. These include giving commercial fishers a greater vested interest in long-term health of fisheries as well as establishing protected marine refuges for exploited fish populations.
Death on the Reservation . . . The transfer of many Native Americans to reservations in the 18th and 19th centuries became the catalyst for accelerated disease and death rates, which is still felt in descendant tribes, according to Cliff Trafzer, a professor of ethnic studies at UC Riverside. Trafzer found death rates at the Yakama Indian Reservation in Washington state were significantly higher than the general U.S. population, particularly infant mortality and fetal mortality rates.
Musical Notations . . . Efforts to notate African-American music using traditional Western methods are inevitably destined to fail because such methods are incapable of completely capturing the emotional essence of African-derived music, according to Earl Stewart, an assistant professor of Black Studies at UC Santa Barbara. A composer by training, Stewart is developing a new vocabulary to describe the nuances of black music that defy notational methodology and terminology.
An Insidious Criminal . . . White-collar crime is estimated to rake in at least $250 billion per year, making it the country's most costly illegal activity. According to UC Irvine criminologist Henry Pontell, "white-collar" criminals cause more pain and death than all common criminals combined. In his book, "Profit Without Honor: White Collar Crime and the Looting of America," Pontell presents case histories on all kinds of white-collar crime, including environmental, governmental, computer and medical crimes; insider trading; crimes against consumers; financial institution fraud; cultural corruption; and crimes against employees.
Taking On Kidney Disease . . . Research into the causes of cardiovascular problems in patients with chronic kidney disease has been bolstered by a $250,000 donation from Thomas Yuen, chair and chief executive officer of SRS Labs in Santa Ana. The gift will support research led by Nick Vaziri, a professor of medicine and chief of UC Irvine’s Division of Nephrology.
A Scholars Program . . . A new scholarship program has been created at UC Berkeley, targeting outstanding Bay Area students transferring from community colleges who are from low-income backgrounds and first in their families to attend college. The scholarships will be funded by a donation from Bay Area philanthropist George A. Miller, a graduate of the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.
Lung Cancer Research . . . Steven Dubinett, a physician at UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center, has won a $35,000 national award from the American Lung Association for his lung cancer research. Dubinett anticipates his research will give rise to new clinical therapies that will intensify the ability of a patient's immune systems to fight lung cancer.
Fellowship Award . . . Jeffrey T. Irelan has won a prestigious three-year postdoctoral fellowship to pursue fundamental cancer research in UC Santa Barbara’s Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology. Irelan is one of only 56 chosen from more than 600 young scientists worldwide who submitted proposals to the Runyon-Winchell Fellowship Awards.
A Global Pioneer . . . Charles David Keeling, a pioneer in the study of global climate change at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, received a "special achievement award" from Vice President Al Gore at a White House ceremony for his 40 years of outstanding scientific research associated with monitoring of atmospheric carbon dioxide in connection with Mauna Loa Observatory.
Highest Award . . . Los Alamos National Laboratory Director Sig Hecker received the Department of Energy's Distinguished Associate Award, the highest honor the DOE bestows. Hecker, who is stepping down as director in mid-September, received the award to celebrate his career.
A Scholarly Chemist . . . David Van Vranken, an assistant professor of chemistry at UC Irvine, has been named by the Glaxo-Wellcome pharmaceutical company as one of three Chemistry Scholars of 1997. The award is accompanied by a two-year, $40,000 research grant and is presented to exceptional young faculty in the fields of organic, bioorganic, medicinal and structural chemistry.
Medal Of Honor . . . Jay A. Nadel, a professor of medicine and
radiology at UC San Francisco, received the Edward Livingston Trudeau Medal
of the American Lung Association. The award is presented annually for major
scientific achievement in the prevention and treatment of lung disease.
Nadel studies the effects of air pollutants on lung biology. Work in his
laboratory has contributed to the concept of asthma as an inflammatory
disease.
Investing in Education
Compiled by Communications Services, Office of the President, Larissa.Branin@ucop.edu