A Sampling of Clips for Aug. 2, 2010

* UCSD faculty and staff may obtain a copy of an article by e-mailing the University Communications Office

Cancer Switch Found for Blood Vessel Growth
USA Today, Aug. 2 -- A genetic switch that feeds blood vessels to tumors may serve as a target for cancer drugs, researchers report Sunday. In the journal Nature Medicine, a team led by Sudarshan Anand of UC San Diego, reports the discovery that "miR-132" in mice and human umbilical cord blood acts as a "angiogenic switch" to spur blood vessel growth (or angiogenesis) in tumors. More

Researchers Develop Wireless Glucose Monitor for Diabetics
Voice of America, Aug. 2010 -- Bioengineers at UC San Diego have developed an implantable wireless monitor for diabetics that can measure glucose levels continuously for up to a year before needing replacement.  The device, if approved by federal regulators, would give diabetics a more reliable and less painful alternative to current glucose monitoring devices. More

Similar story in
Los Angeles Times 

3-D Brain Model Could Revolutionize Neurology
MSNBC, July 30 -- A new project aims to produce a Google Maps-like guide of the brain's labyrinthine structure. At a presentation here at the SIGGRAPH interactive technology and computer graphics conference, researchers highlighted how a complete 3-D model of the brain could spark a new era in neurological research. Called The Whole Brain Catalog, the project compiles data from across the research spectrum, in a variety of forms. (Quotes Stephen Larson, a neuroscience researcher at UC San Diego who works on the Whole Brain Catalog) More

UCSD Door Widens for Transfers
San Diego Union-Tribune, Aug. 1 -- A record number of students are expected to transfer to UC San Diego  this fall — primarily from California  community colleges — helping to diversify the student population at the La Jolla campus. More

UCSD Named One of Top 25 Research Schools
San Diego Union-Tribune, Aug. 2 -- UC San Diego has been ranked the 22nd best research university in the country, a standing that places the campus ahead of such well-known schools as Princeton, Caltech and the University of Chicago. More

The Academic –Industrial Complex
The New York Times, July 31 -- While academics can often bring fresh perspectives, managerial experience and the imprimatur of a respected institution to a board, they are also serving in an era when corporations wrestling with fallout from the financial crisis (think Bank of America, Citigroup  and Goldman Sachs) or very public mishaps (think BP, Johnson & Johnson and Toyota) have raised the stakes for board members expected to guide corporations. (Mentions UC San Diego Chancellor Marye Anne Fox) More

Students Raised in Foster Care to Get
Priority Housing at California Universities
Los Angeles Times, Aug. 2 -- State universities are paying much more attention these days to the academic, financial and housing needs of the relatively small group of former foster youths who are enrolled there. About 700 are enrolled at UC  ampuses and 1,200 in the Cal State system, plus several thousand at community colleges who might transfer to those four-year schools, estimates show.(Mentions UC San Diego) More

Research Links Lax Resident Supervision to Medical Errors
Dallas Morning News, Aug. 1 -- National medical research increasingly supports the long-held concern that poor supervision of doctors-in-training at teaching hospitals contributes to patient harm, even death.  (Mentions research by UC San Diego) More

Calif. Tea Party Heavily Favors GOP Candidates
Sacramento Bee, July 30 -- California's tea party activists frequently accuse outsiders of mischaracterizing their emerging movement as a combative arm of the GOP. But it is increasingly clear that while the tea party is nonpartisan in name, the vast majority of its members are Republicans and independents who vote Republican - a fact that leads some experts to question the tea party's ability to make real waves at the polls. (Quotes Gary Jacobson, a political science professor at UC San Diego) More

Similar stories in
San Diego Union-Tribune

Many Who Supported Term Limits
in Calif. Now Regret Pushing Legislation for it
Sacramento Bee, July 31  -- The strictest term limits in the nation, enacted 20 years ago to end the "stench of greed and vote-selling" in Sacramento, have instead made California's government so dysfunctional, many who once backed the reform say, that they now regret pushing for it. (Quotes Thad Kousser, a political science professor at UC  San Diego and a term limits expert) More

Heart-valve Inventor, Philanthropist Shiley Dies, Age 90
San Diego Union-Tribune, July 31 -- Donald P. Shiley, the heart-valve inventor turned philanthropist who has several research facilities that bear his name, died Saturday after years of ailing health. He was 90. Shiley, who suffered from macular degeneration in recent years, helped support an eye center at UC San Diego and promoted science and technology at the University of San Diego. More

Similar stories in
NBC San Diego
10News
La Jolla Light

Mechanical Mishap is Teachable Moment
San Diego Union-Tribune, July 30 -- British author Joseph Addison said, “If you wish to succeed in life, make perseverance your bosom friend.” Some sleep-deprived graduate students and their professor did just that early Friday in an empty parking lot at UC San Diego. It didn’t lead to a “eureka” moment, but their refusal to surrender to frustration might make it easier to program robots to protect humans. More

Similar story on
NBC San Diego

State Cannot Afford to Go It Alone on Global Warming
San Diego Union-Tribune, Opinion, Aug. 1 -- When AB 32 was passed in 2006, California’s unemployment rate was 4.8 percent. It now exceeds 12 percent, the worst since the Depression. AB 32 is not a national or international strategy but a California go-it-alone law putting our state’s struggling businesses and economy at further disadvantage and risk of failure. (Written by Bryan Bloom, president of Priority Moving, Inc. in San Diego who holds an undergraduate degree in economics and a minor in chemistry from UC San Diego) More

Fatalities Escalate in Afghanistan War
San Diego Union-Tribune, July 31 -- The U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan passed a grim milestone Friday, when the deaths of several service members made July the deadliest month for American troops in the nine-year war. (Quotes Eli Berman, a UC San Diego professor who leads a Pentagon-funded research project on political violence) More

Will August Bring Out the Sun?
NBC San Diego, Aug. 1 -- Cooler water off the coast has been causing San Diego temperatures to dip. It's not just local; the temperatures in the ocean off the entire coast of North America are cooler then normal. The pool of cool water stretches from Baja all the way to Alaska. This isn't a rare occurrence, but the pool of water is larger than normal, said Dr. Sam Iacobellis, a specialist in Climatology at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. More

Bebop, Buildings and the 'Brary
Voice of San Diego, July 30  -- There's going to be a new library built downtown -- its groundbreaking now a near news-afterthought in the chaos of this week. I thought we should ask Dirk Sutro, who wrote about architecture for years for The San Diego Union-Tribune and the local edition of the Los Angeles Times, how the public should think about big buildings like these.  Sutro now manages communications for the music department at UC San Diego.  And Sutro's new guidebook about architecture at UCSD will be kicking off some public events in September. More

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