Monday, February 23, 1998
Community Briefs
AIDS team to study immune system
UCLA researchers will test a dormant part of the human body to
see if they can regenerate an immune system in patients with
AIDS.
Jerome Zack, associate director of the UCLA AIDS Institute, and
Beth Jamieson will work with a $75,000 grant won by Zack from the
American Foundation for AIDS Research. They will investigate if the
thymus, which grows dormant after the age of 18, can reproduce
T-lymphocyte cells, immune cells that combat viruses.
The researchers will transplant adult human thymus tissue into
mice without immune systems and test whether the thymus grows
active and produces T-cells. If successful, Zack and Jamieson will
investigate whether the thymus can continue to function in the
presence of HIV.
Last fall, these researchers made a similar discovery, finding
that an HIV-infected immune system can regenerate itself with
antiviral drug therapy.
"Our early research gave us hope that HIV directly affects the
T-cells," Zack said. "Now we must determine if the adult thymus has
potential to regenerate a new immune system."
USAC will hold student issues forum
USAC is sponsoring a town hall-style meeting Tuesday, where
students can speak with UCLA representatives about issues ranging
from campus construction to transportation to the Instructional
Enhancement Initiative.
Present at the forum will be Charles Oakley, head of capital
programs and campus architect; John Sandbrook, assistant provost of
the College of Letters and Science; Renee Fortier, associate
director of Transportation Services; and, tentatively scheduled to
appear, Michael Foraker, director of housing administration.
The forum will be held Tuesday, from noon to 1:30 p.m. in the
Ackerman second floor lounge, next to the grand ballroom.
UCSF faculty,
students recognized
Four people at UC San Francisco recently were awarded the Martin
Luther King Jr. Award for promoting diversity and ideals inspired
by the civil rights leader.
Daniel Lowenstein, M.D., one of the recipients, served as
co-chair of the Chancellor’s Steering Committee on Diversity from
1995 to 1997.
In that position, Lowenstein helped develop programs addressing
campus diversity and affirmative action. He also obtained funding
for committee activities.
Stella Hsu, who served with Lowenstein on the steering
committee, played a role in establishing programs that promote
mutual respect, understanding and appreciation for cultural
diversity at the campus.
Kyra Bobinet and Jennifer Danek, fourth-year medical students,
received the award for the program of instruction they devised to
help at-risk youth at a San Francisco youth guidance center.
Getty awards grant to Fowler Museum
The UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History was just given a
$130,000 grant from the Getty Grant Program. The grant money will
help fund publications about non-Western textile studies.
"Among the world’s art forms, clothing traditions are one of
those most intimately tied to fundamental issues of identity,"
Doran H. Ross, the Fowler Museum’s director, said.
The Fowler Museum already publishes highly regarded scholarship
on non-Western textile studies. Its own collective includes more
than 10,000 items related to textiles which span two millennia and
five continents.
Compiled from Bruin staff and wire reports.