Researchers identify molecule’s structure, role in autoimmune conditions

UCLA researchers found the structure of a molecule that can trigger the overactivation of the immune system in autoimmune diseases.

Gerard Wong, a bioengineering professor, discovered the structure and role of the molecule LL-37 in the body’s immune system, according to an article on the study published in March. Wong said while researchers knew the molecule played a role in the immune system, they did not know its exact relationship with DNA. The study found that because the molecule interacts with one’s own DNA, it can play a role in the overactivation of the immune system, which occurs in autoimmune diseases.

Wong said LL-37 changes the spacing, or arrangement, of DNA to make it easier for a particular kind of receptor to bind to the DNA. These receptors are proteins that are able to recognize double-stranded DNA.

“Imagine if you have teeth in a comb and you imagine putting something in between the teeth of the comb. When it is at exactly in the right spacing then it will go right in,” Wong said. “If you don’t (have the right spacing) then you have a hard time.”

Wong added that correct DNA spacing allows the immune system to respond a hundred times stronger than if DNA spacing were incorrect.

Wong said LL-37 can detect both bacterial DNA and the body’s own DNA, known as self-DNA. When LL-37 binds itself to and arranges self-DNA, it strongly triggers the immune system to attack the body’s own DNA and, thus, its own tissues and organs. This is what happens in autoimmune conditions, such as psoriasis, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.

“Having LL-37 around allows your immune system to ramp up significantly and have a more robust response. When this is done at the right time and the right place you wind up with a robust response against infection,” Wong said. “When it is done at the wrong time in the wrong place, then you wind up with an autoimmune condition.”

Wong said scientists still do not know why LL-37 binds to self-DNA in people with autoimmune diseases. Ernest Lee, a medical student and co-first author of the paper, said people with autoimmune conditions overexpress the gene for LL-37.

In order to find the structure of the LL-37 and DNA complex, Wong’s lab used X-ray diffraction, a technique in which an X-ray beam hits a structure and causes the beam to scatter. They found that LL-37 and DNA form a crystalline structure.

Wong said researchers from The University of Texas at Austin created computer models of the proposed structure to make sure the model made sense on a molecular level. Wong added that the computer model allowed them see what the X-ray diffraction pattern of that molecule would look like. They found the computer model confirmed the model they proposed.

Cole Malkoff, a fourth-year molecular, cell and developmental biology student who worked on the research project, said the researchers measured the inflammatory response in immune cells to the DNA and LL-37 structure and used X-ray scattering data from the structure in order to determine the physical and chemical requirements for the structure to form.

Lee said researchers hope to use their knowledge of the structure of the LL-37 and DNA complex to develop treatments for autoimmune diseases.

“The structure was correlated to the immune cell experiments and all of this tells us some of the molecular rules for the LL-37 and DNA complex,” Lee said. “We are working on new treatments that can disrupt the formation of those complexes.”

SB 50 garners support from NWWNC amid concerns over city planning, affordability

A California senate bill may lift height restrictions on residential buildings near transit lines if passed.

Buildings in the Village are generally limited to 40 feet, according to the Westwood Village Specific Plan, the master document for Westwood Village. If Senate Bill 50 is passed, local ordinances preventing the construction of denser and taller housing near single-family homes may be removed in areas near major transit locations, including some bus and train stops.

The North Westwood Neighborhood Council voted in support of the bill at a council meeting Wednesday.

Ryan Snyder, a member of the NWWNC who teaches an urban planning course at UCLA, said he thinks the bill offers a solution to the prevalent issue of affordable housing in Westwood by encouraging the construction of affordable housing near transit areas.

“It’s important that the city see that there are people in Westwood who think that the affordable housing issue is big and that converting some single-family residential neighborhoods is a big part of that solution,” Snyder said.

Los Angeles City Councilmember Paul Koretz, who represents Westwood and surrounding areas, proposed a resolution opposing SB 50.

Koretz said in a press release he thinks the bill focuses mainly on real estate commercialization and takes away planning powers of local governments like the LA City Council.

Alison Simard, a spokesperson for Koretz’s office, said she thinks the bill would overtake and slow down the progress their office has made in regard to transit-oriented planning.

According to the resolution, the bill would override Measure JJJ, which set affordable housing requirements and hiring restrictions to favor local workers on residential projects. The measure also created the Transit Oriented Community Affordable Housing Incentive Program, which aims to encourage more construction of affordable housing near transit lines.

Unlike the senate bill, the TOC program was crafted specifically for Los Angeles neighborhoods and does not extend into single-family neighborhoods. The program also aims to keep the expanded development within commercial districts, according to the resolution.

The TOC program is also tailored to each specific community while the implementation of the senate bill is not as clearly defined, according to the resolution.

The LA Department of City Planning also created the Transit Neighborhood Plans program in 2012 in partnership with LA Metro. TNP aims to build residential areas and jobs around Metro’s transit network, according to Metro’s website.

Simard said she thinks the senate bill would forfeit LA City Council’s control over city planning.

“SB 50 would stamp out the TNP and TOC work and replace it. We have been working on it a couple years down the line,” Simard said. “We can’t deny upzoning – you’ll have a whole block of one- to two-story homes and in the middle of it a seven-story building.”

Simard also said she thinks upzoning would lead to negative environmental impacts because the buildings would create heat islands that would contribute to climate change.

She added she thinks there are too few required affordable housing units in the new buildings.

“It is not affordable housing,” Simard said. “Developers want a return on their investment.”

Laura Lake, a member of the Westwood Homeowners Association and a board member of a nonprofit public safety advocacy group called Fix the City, said she is against the bill because she thinks it will cause density-related issues, such as slower emergency response times and increased traffic.

“It’s deceptive and a threat to public safety and quality of life of people in the community,” Lake said.

Lake said she is against the bill for safety reasons, specifically related to Emergency Medical Services response times.

“The response time is really only five minutes 40% of the time and density will only make that worse when disaster strikes,” Lake said.

Snyder said because of the increased amount of people living in proximity to transit lines, there would be less density because they will be using transit lines. He said despite a potential increase in the number of people who live near transit lines, the bill would not make these areas denser because the transit lines would allow residents to get around the city more efficiently.

“More people would live near transit, school and their jobs, ” Snyder said. “You have people using transit who wouldn’t normally.”

Lake said she does not think this will necessarily be the case because not everyone will use the transit lines.

“It will increase traffic congestion because not everyone will take the rail line,” Lake said. “They may need to work elsewhere.”

Snyder said the bill would lower rent rates for students in the area surrounding the new residential buildings, even if the newly constructed buildings are expensive.

“The market is horrible for affordable housing right now. There is a high demand for housing and an undersupply which leads to high prices,” Snyder said. “But when there is more supply, that should lower the prices.”

Lake said only 7% of the new residential buildings would contain low-income housing units.

“It’s a Trojan horse in the guise of providing low-income housing units, but only provides 7%,” Lake said.

Lake also said the rest of the units will be luxury housing which she thinks would drive up the price of other housing.

However, Snyder said he thinks the bill is necessary for addressing the lack of affordable housing.

“(SB 50) is a blunt planning tool, but it’s a drastic measure to help with affordable housing and climate change,” he said.

New professional writing minor drafts curriculum to teach career-specific skills

UCLA will offer a professional writing minor for students to improve their practical writing skills.

The minor offers an array of specialized writing courses in topics including web literacy, entertainment, business, science and technology, nonprofits and public engagement.

Students can enroll in the minor after satisfying their Writing II requirement and submitting a brief application essay.

UCLA Writing Programs and the English department began developing the minor in 2015 to address the lack of a coherent, intensive writing program for students across all disciplines, said Lowell Gallagher, the English department chair.

Karen Cunningham, a senior continuing lecturer in the English department, said the minor also came from a desire to teach students practical writing skills they can use in a professional setting after graduating. The minor is designed to help them develop skills specific to their professional aspirations.

“Depending on how they shape the minor, a student may want to become a journalist. On the other hand, they may want to be a model engineer equipped to write a great proposal or public paper,” she said.

Leigh Harris, director of UCLA Writing Programs, said she thinks students have been looking for faculty to share their professional writing expertise.

“We have an interdisciplinary faculty with wide expertise, so the minor is a great way for us to meet a student need with our talented instructors,” she said.

Megan Stephan, faculty coordinator for writing in the professional writing minor, added that the minor is beneficial to all students because many fields in today’s workforce require good writing skills.

“It is very easy for people to want to discredit the skills students build as English majors,” she said. “One of the things that feeds into the professional writing minor is that we can put those skills front and center.”

Courses in the minor will allow students to experience writing for various disciplines by teaching them how to create pieces such as op-eds, legal memos, grants and formal proposals.

Janet Goodwin, associate director of UCLA Writing Programs, said she hopes the minor curriculum will not only help students in their careers but also in their graduate school or internship experiences. She added that former English students have expressed how their writing abilities have aided them in both their academic work and job prospects.

Stanton Thomas, a third-year English student, said he believes the minor will serve as good preparation for individuals who want to go into a job that requires specialized writing.

“I want to work in Silicon Valley as a technical writer and I hope the skills I learn through the minor will help me be ready for that experience,” Thomas said.

Daniela Shirazi, a fourth-year molecular, cell and developmental biology student, took a medical writing class under the minor curriculum and said what she learned is very useful to her future career aspirations.

“As a STEM major going into the field of medicine, many crazy things happen. To be able to say what I experience in a readable and relatable manner is a very useful tool,” Shirazi said. “I know that as a young professional I will take what I learned with me.”

Harris added she hopes many students enroll in the minor and that Writing Programs and the English department continue to meet their academic needs.

Dance Marathon 2019 raises $330,000 for Pediatric AIDS Coalition

The Pediatric AIDS Coalition at UCLA raised $330,037.79 at Dance Marathon, a $12,438.50 increase from last year’s event.

PAC hosts Dance Marathon annually as a way to raise money to combat pediatric AIDS and HIV in youth.

This year, the event featured performances by student groups, outside performers and speakers from the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation and the UCLA AIDS Institute.

Each participant must raise or donate $260 to participate in the event. People can also sign up to maintain dancers’ morale in three-hour shifts.

The theme of this year’s event was embracing the campaign against HIV/AIDS, said Melissa Miller, the president of PAC and a fourth-year political science and Russian languages and culture student.

“This year we want to highlight the importance of both physically embracing our fight against pediatric HIV/AIDS and embracing the work that needs to be done to successfully combat a virus as multifaceted as HIV,” Miller said.

Nicole Tobin, a pediatric infectious disease specialist who has worked both at the University of Washington and the UCLA AIDS Institute, spoke Sunday morning about the origins of HIV research in the 1980s.

“When we go back to the beginning of the HIV, the syndrome was actually first described here at UCLA,” Tobin said. “I’m so excited to see that UCLA is still passionate about HIV and still working to cure HIV and AIDS.”

Tobin added that since the beginning of HIV research, medical advancements have lengthened the lifespans of those infected with the disease.

“People with HIV are living near-normal lifespans,” Tobin said. “(There has been) tremendous work and tremendous progress, but there’s still a lot to be done.”

David Gere, a world arts and cultures/dance professor and member of the UCLA AIDS Institute, was also a speaker at Dance Marathon. Gere said although he is HIV-negative, many of his friends passed away as a result of the virus and its progression into AIDS.

“I have to go back to the early years of the epidemic. I have to think about my friends Joah, Bill and Steve who died in the late 1980s, and hundreds of our friends and acquaintances (who) were dying at the same time,” Gere said. “It was a horrible, horrible time.”

Gere said he knows some who have been able to live decades after their diagnoses, however.

“I have to highlight my best friend Daniel, who has been living with HIV for 35 years now, a long-term survivor,” Gere said.

Dontá Morrison, an HIV education and prevention advocate and a speaker at Dance Marathon, said he was disheartened he did not see a lot of people of color at the event. One of the groups hit hardest by the HIV and AIDS epidemic is men of color, Morrison said.

“If you look at the statistics, the highest hit are black men, black gay men, so when we see those statistics, and then we come in this space and we don’t see ourselves, it’s kind of disheartening,” Morrison said. “We thank you all, but we want to do work on our community because we’re the ones getting infected, and we’re the ones out there just trying to raise the awareness.”

Attendees at the event said they were excited not only to spread awareness of the fight against HIV/AIDS, but also to let people affected by the diseases know they have their support.

Buddy Al-Aydi, a first-year biochemistry student, said he participated in the event because he wished to not only let HIV patients know they are visible and understood at events like Dance Marathon, but also to educate them on progress in the development of treatments for AIDS.

“As a member of the queer community, (I wanted) to do my part in destigmatizing HIV,” Al-Aydi said. “(We need) to let them know that their needs are being noticed.”

Tina Bui, a first-year neuroscience student, said seeing children from Camp Laurel, a residential camp that aims to support youth affected by HIV/AIDS, at the event was encouraging.

“I was really tired in the beginning, but then I saw all the kids run out and I got really emotional,” Bui said. “I was emotional because they have to go through this, and we’re very able-bodied so this is the least we could do for them.”

Editorial: UCLA’s stonewalling of records requests toes line of illegality

UCLA is in the crosshairs of yet another lawsuit – something it could have avoided if only it had known the meaning of the word “promptly.”

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a nonprofit that advocates for free speech rights at colleges, filed a lawsuit in March against UCLA to force it to comply with a records request. The organization requested the university release the communications it had regarding the release of a video of United States Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin’s 2018 speech on campus. But more than a year later, UCLA still hasn’t provided these records per the California Public Records Act, and has extended the expected date of the release five times.

This is hardly the first time UCLA has stonewalled an organization on a records request. In 2015, The San Diego Union-Tribune made a records request to release communications between UCLA and the California Public Utilities Commission, which was then under investigation. UCLA delayed the request for nearly a year while giving unconvincing reasons for the delay, according to the newspaper.

But the university is fooling no one with these flimsy excuses. This lawsuit, in context of the university’s troubled history, presents an obvious trend: UCLA Records Management & Information Practices has acted in an obstructionist nature and is clearly violating California law.

Surprisingly, the university – a public institution – seems to care little.

Even when it cares to not ignore records requests, the university tends to provide fragmented and incomplete accounts of the requested information. In 2016, Reveal, an investigative journalism organization, asked UCLA for a squad list of all sports teams, including the rowing team. UCLA provided it with the list, but with everything redacted. The university argued it could not disclose the names of players – most of whom were already listed online – to protect their privacy. Only when Reveal pushed back did UCLA provide the list of names.

The Daily Bruin itself has experienced firsthand the opaque nature of UCLA Records Management & Information Practices. In 2013, The Bruin requested communications UCLA Health made with officials in Malawi, which outlaws homosexuality but has strong research ties with the university. The emails came more than a year later. In 2016, when The Bruin requested records pertaining to UCLA Health employees, the office delayed the request and then didn’t bother to give an update for when the request would be filled.

Over a four-day period in January 2018, The Bruin requested UCLA’s emergency management procedures and communications from Chancellor Gene Block and Michael Beck, the administrative vice chancellor. Fifteen months later, the paper has so far only received a single, easily producible document containing UCLA’s evacuation policies despite such a simple request.

It’s painfully obvious the university has a pervasive culture of stonewalling. Searching for email communications, listing players’ names and redacting sensitive information shouldn’t take 13 months and shouldn’t involve blacking out everything.

And yet UCLA Records Management & Information Practices repeatedly stumbles over itself and does just that, making it hard to believe it actually makes an effort to produce requested documents and abide by state law.

The fact remains: California law specifically states public institutions should promptly make records available. Taxpayer dollars go toward this university, and failing to comply with Californians’ calls for transparency is, put bluntly, illegal.

It doesn’t take a pricey lawsuit and a judge to know that. But administrators could use the lesson.

Revamping class planning process would help reduce student stress, confusion

It’s straight out of the 1990s: Websites are still poorly formatted globs of text and information is scattered across the internet. Universities are slowly moving onto the web, but finding what you need is like looking for a quarter of a needle in a haystack.

Students would think this is a thing of the past. UCLA, however, is still forcing them to go on cyber scavenger hunts in 2019.

To call the class planning process a hassle is an understatement. First, students must look under the General Catalog, which provides descriptions of all courses offered by a department, to determine the classes they might like. They then have to check their department’s website to see which courses meet their major requirements. Finally, they have to check the Schedule of Classes to see when the course in question is and if it fits into their schedule.

But not all courses are offered every quarter. Some are only taught once or twice a year. Classes that must be taken in sequence also vary in terms of the quarters they are offered, meaning students have to plan carefully to fit them into their schedules.

To make matters worse, some departments list courses that have not been offered in more than eight years, causing students to bank on taking classes that likely will not be offered anytime soon.

The lack of coordination is maddening. UCLA needs a centralized system, ideally part of the class planner feature, which shows students course descriptions and what quarters in which previous iterations of the courses have been offered. This information is vital for students to effectively plan their quarters at UCLA, and would help ensure students don’t waste countless hours – or quarters – so they can leave the university on time with a degree.

UCLA spokesperson Ricardo Vazquez said courses are offered by demand, and the Undergraduate Council may remove a course from the catalog if it has not been offered in more than five years.

But that clearly hasn’t been the case.

Take for example the math department’s program in computing courses, the majority of which have not been offered in more than 10 years.

Chris Anderson, the director of the PIC program, said the department allocates all its resources toward a handful of the PIC courses offered due to the high demand for those courses. He said if the trend continues, several of the more advanced PIC courses listed in the catalog will be removed.

This reasoning might make sense, but continuing to list those courses in the catalog is misleading. Only six of the 16 PIC courses listed on the math department’s website and in the General Catalog are regularly offered. And some of the listed courses, like “Data Structures and Algorithms,” have not been offered since 2008.

Vazquez said the schedule of course offerings is determined by each department, and some courses are infrequently offered because the professor is on leave or has retired.

But departments know which classes are and aren’t being offered regularly. Not conveying this information to students interferes with their academic careers, making it difficult to accurately plan degrees.

Lara Eng, a second-year cognitive science student, said she needs to take Psychology 100B to graduate, but doesn’t know when it’s going to be offered.

“I was trying to figure out if it would be offered in the quarters following and had no idea,” Eng said.

Eng ended up having to enroll in a summer session as a buffer because she was not sure if the course would be offered in the fall.

The Academic Senate audits all departments every eight years, which includes inquiring about courses that have not been offered in more than three years. However, this process is clearly not doing its due diligence if outdated courses are going unnoticed.

And even the university acknowledges there can often be discrepancies between what is posted in the General Catalog and what is on the department’s website.

It shouldn’t take an audit of that information every eight years for students to be informed. Misleading information can extend to the General Catalog, adding to the confusion.

A consolidated system that maintains a single source of up-to-date information would save administrators, counselors and students a lot of time and stress – instead of forcing them to rifle through websites to find information that is oftentimes outdated.

While some might say it’s up to the department and course changes cannot be anticipated, it’s not as if course availability is changing out of the blue or that departments are unaware of their classes’ histories. Not conveying this information is a result of lack of follow-up and coordination – the basics any college student should be able to expect from their university.

Classes are important. Convenience is important. A university as advanced as UCLA ought to have an updated system for students to see in one place which courses will be offered and when.

In this day and age, easier enrollment is not much to ask – especially for the school that invented the internet.

Documentary works to destigmatize mental health in Asian-American community

The model minority mindset establishes a certain demographic as more successful than others, said Wendy Wang.

However, those labeled as such – like Asian-Americans – often find it difficult to discuss, she said.

Being Asian-American, she said her culture often puts pressure on younger generations to accomplish more. Students tend to overwork themselves to achieve their goals, but still don’t feel like it is enough, Wang said.

Trying to fulfill the expectations of those around her inspired Wang to direct the documentary “Things I Never Said,” which addresses the stigmas around mental health in Asian-American communities. Following the stories of five different individuals, the documentary will cover anxiety, depression and bipolar disorder. The team is currently trying to promote their work through Instagram livestreams and YouTube videos, with UCLA students as interns marketing with the help of social media influencers. Wang said she aimed to find individuals with different experiences in order to resonate with a wide audience.

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“Mental health issues will occur in every culture, but because of the model minority myth, you don’t necessarily hear Asian-Americans expressing their struggles with mental health,” Wang said. “When you’re struggling, you might feel like you can’t seek help or be vocal about it because everyone else that looks like you seems fine.”

As the individuals discuss mental health, Wang said the film touches upon both representation and resources in the Asian-American community. In addition, she said such cultures often do not prioritize mental health awareness and resources for help.

Although it is important to highlight the similarities surrounding experiences with mental health across communities, she said it is especially important to shed light on the Asian-American experience specifically. The model minority myth labels this demographic as more successful in terms of education, income and low criminality, she said. With this stereotype, many Asian-Americans feel obligated to meet those expectations, and Wang said they are afraid to speak out against them.

Parents and individuals who have lived in older generations often don’t understand their children’s struggles and parents tend to blame themselves in the process, said Clara Chan, a third-year communication student and intern for the “Things I Never Said” project. Growing up in Singapore, Chan said she was constantly surrounded by the notion of perfection and high expectations for success. She said there was pressure to make sure you were on top of everything that was going on in your life: academics, business, social life and time with family.

“I was surrounded by people who automatically assumed that you were crazy or speaking for attention if you struggled with mental health,” Chan said. “This wasn’t just my immediate family, but also my close friends.”

Her work as an intern for the “Things I Never Said” project currently includes running social media campaigns. Due to her personal experiences, she became passionate about destigmatizing mental health in Asian-American communities.

“I didn’t want to disappoint my parents in anything I did,” Chan said. “Trying to destigmatize mental health in Asian-American communities comes from the pressure to honor your family’s name, and to make your parents proud.”

Third-year global studies student and project intern Lydia Joe said she sees culture differences between her immediate family and the families of her close non-Asian friends. For example, she saw a disconnect between her father and her grandmother, who did not have a steady relationship due to her grandmother not being able to understand what her father was going through mentally and emotionally.

“My father and my grandma don’t agree on a lot of levels,” Joe said. “My grandma does not understand the importance of personal space or mental health; she is always yelling and guilt-tripping my dad, definitely not allowing for constructive conversation.”

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Joe said the reason she became involved in the planning of the project’s upcoming events stemmed from her desire to bridge the gap between older, more traditional Asian generations and younger, more Americanized generations. The disconnect stems mainly from the collectivist mindset of East Asia versus the more individualistic mindset of the West.

“Immigrant parents really want their children to succeed because they’ve sacrificed so much to get their children to where they are now,” Joe said. “But the children have a hard time fitting in because they’re not quite American, and things are different culturally … but parents don’t understand.”

In order for the film to be educational, Wang said she will include mental health researchers, therapists and professors to explain the root of the stigma, as well as options for help that are available to those in need. For example, researchers will discuss why Asian-American culture is set up this way, and what has led to the placement of the stigma in the first place. Specifically, they will be explaining issues such as why Asian parents may pressure their kids to go into the medical field, Wang said.

Wang said that there is a certain power in sharing stories, and she hopes audience members can relate with the stories in the documentary. By including each individual’s support system, such as family, friends or spouses, the audience can also see how they can find help, she said. She also said the goal of this documentary is to showcase real experiences from others in order to normalize the conversation of mental health. Because people tend to look down on those who have mental illnesses, Chan said many people keep their stories to themselves.

“Ultimately, this documentary is an extra resource that allows people to realize that whatever they’re feeling is valid and that they’re not alone,” Chan said. “It’s OK to not be OK.”