A Sampling of Clips for November 19^th, 2009

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

Don't Blame Fast Food: Mummy Had Heart Disease
Fox News, Nov. 18 -- Sixteen mummies had heart and blood vessel tissue to analyze. Definite or probable hardening of the arteries was seen in nine. You can't blame this one on McDonald's: Dr. Michael Miyamoto of UCSD and several researchers have found signs of heart disease in 3,500-year-old mummies." More

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S.D. Needs Partners for Biofuel Endeavor
San Diego Union-Tribune, Nov. 19 -- While San Diego seeks to establish itself as a center of biofuel research, experts say the work won’t pay off without large partnership deals with established energy companies. A panel of experts said yesterday at a meeting of the local biotechnology group BioCom that such deals will be critical to providing the billions of dollars in capital necessary to get the industry up to commercial scale. Larger companies will also be necessary for distribution power and other infrastructure required for commercialization. (Quotes B. Gregory Mitchell, a biologist with UCSD’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography) More

Two County Quarantines Target Medflies, Asian Citrus Psyllid
San Diego Union-Tribune, Nov. 19 -- UCSD receives $100 million in federal stimulus funding Researchers at UCSD have received more than $100 million in federal stimulus funding, school officials said Tuesday. The money, part of the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed by Congress in February to boost the economy, is being used for a diverse range of scientific efforts — from drug and disease studies to basic research in oceanography and engineering. More

Fee Hikes Anger UC Students
San Diego Union-Tribune, Nov. 19 -- Tuition hikes totaling 32 percent will hit University of California students next year under a plan expected to get final approval by the Board of Regents today. A board committee approved two doses of increases yesterday despite angry pleas from hundreds of students who repeatedly shut down the meeting with protests and songs. There were 14 arrests. The 175,450 undergraduate students at UC campuses will pay about half of the increase in January and the rest starting in the next academic year. In-state fees for 2010-11 will rise to $11,290, not counting room and board. (Mentions UCSD) More

All is not Lost in our Education System
San Diego Union-Tribune, Nov. 19 -- First thing Monday morning, I telephoned Harry Weinberg to wring hands over the dismal state of American public education. Weinberg, the former superintendent of county schools, lives in Oceanside and teaches doctoral students at Cal State San Marcos in a joint program with UCSD. For his whole life, he has lived and breathed school, from the gym to the boardroom. On Sunday morning, we had both watched an oddly matched trio — Arne Duncan, the U.S. secretary of education; Newt Gingrich, the former Republican speaker of the House; and the Rev. Al Sharpton, the black civil rights leader — discuss on “Meet the Press” their bipartisan partnership to rescue a failing system. More

KUSI Medical Report: Debate Over New Mammogram Guidelines
KUSI, Nov. 18 -- Each Wednesday during Good Morning San Diego, KUSI provides the latest research, advice, and health information. The debate continues over some new recommendations for mammograms. According to a government panel of doctors and scientists, most women don't need a mammogram in their 40's, and should only get one every two years after turning 50. They also stress that breast self-exams do no good. That's a change from the American Cancer Society's recommendation that annual mammograms should begin at 40. We were joined by Dr. Anne Wallace, from UCSD Medical Center, and breast cancer survivor Jennifer Brady, to get their opinions on these new governmental guidelines. More

LJ Institute Dedicates Research Center, Wall
La Jolla Light, Nov. 18 -- The La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology, an international leader in immunology research and San Diego's only research institute focused solely on immune-mediated diseases, dedicated its new Elam Discovery Wall and Type 1 Diabetes Research Center at an event on Oct. 29 attended by more than 130 area residents. The wall, a visually stunning scientific research and education tool, was dedicated in memory of William N. Elam Jr., M.D., a longtime family physician and stepfather of Rancho Santa Fe resident and institute friend Kevin Keller. The wall technology was developed by the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) at UCSD, which designed and now hosts the largest visualization wall in the world. More

Brothers Back and Forth
San Diego Reader, Nov. 18 -- Link and younger brother Booth have virtuoso hands. To hear him tell it, Link was “the Stink,” the “be all end all,” best three-card monte hustler in town. He could “throw” the cards — two hearts, a deuce of spades — and leapfrog them over each other so fast his mark’d get mystified and never pick the deuce. And Booth? He has few rivals as a “booster.” Give him a thick overcoat. Put him in a classy store. Game over. When he steals, Booth says, he steals “generously.” Though how he swiped that ornate, three-panel folding screen would boggle even the gullible. The African-American brothers are the Tiger Woodses of their respective crafts. But they have street skills, neither of which translates into what Link wants: a legal, “sit-down job with benefits.” To reach that status, in Suzan-Lori Parks’s Top Dog/Underdog, a UCSD production directed by theatre and dance professor Nadine George-Graves, Link works at an arcade playing his namesake, Abraham Lincoln. He sits, as if at the Ford’s Theatre, and people pay to assassinate him with a cap pistol. More

Boxer Visits UCSD, Touts Stimulus Grants
La Jolla Light, Nov. 18 -- Scientists at the Moores Cancer Center at the UCSD School of Medicine were in the spotlight last week as Sen. Barbara Boxer toured the facility, asking questions and congratulating the researchers. She also touted the $45 million in 152 research grants that have been awarded to UCSD through the Federal Recovery and Reinvestment Act. More

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