New restaurant Audrey opens inside Hammer Museum, offers full bar

A new restaurant and bar opened inside the Hammer Museum on Tuesday.

Audrey at the Hammer opened its doors as part of a 4-year project to expand the museum. The restaurant features a full bar and a menu emphasizing European flavors.

Soa Davies Forrest, restaurateur and Audrey’s co-founder, said in an email statement the restaurant will offer a wide range of prices to accommodate all guests, including UCLA students.

“The menu offers an array of different dishes for guests looking to have a sit-down dinner, lights snacks or casual cocktails,” Forrest said. “There are many different options with various price points.”

Andrew Thomas, executive director of the Westwood Village Improvement Association, said he thinks the restaurant will encourage students to visit spaces in the Hammer, like the surrounding courtyard, more frequently.

“I bet students will visit (the restaurant) and I think they’ll enjoy it,” Thomas said. “That courtyard is a really amazing resource, and it’s fun to spend time there.”

Forrest said the restaurant aims to be inclusive of the entire Westwood and Los Angeles community.

“The design highlights the inclusive, approachable setting of the museum, with an extensive outdoor patio anchoring the space,” Forrest said.

Thomas said he thinks Audrey will be a quality destination in Westwood Village for residents and visitors alike.

“You can never have enough quality destinations in a district,” Thomas said. “It’s going to be universally supported, appreciated and visited by folks in our district.”

Lisa Giffen, head chef and Audrey’s co-founder, said in an email statement that the local cultures of Los Angeles inspired her choices for Audrey’s menu.

“When developing the menu, I was greatly influenced by the micro-cultures of Los Angeles and its surrounding areas,” Giffen said. “Guests will find elevated and soulful cooking with a contemporary Southern California feel, yoked to the region’s seasons.”

Giffen added Audrey uses ingredients and produce from local farmers and small-scale winemakers.

Forrest added the restaurant is also open to anyone, regardless of whether they are visiting the Hammer.

“Anyone visiting the museum will have access to the restaurant, and guests of Audrey can also enter through a separate entrance on Lindbrook Drive,” Forrest said.

Keegan Smith, a third-year philosophy student, said he has not visited the Hammer Museum before, but good reviews about Audrey might sway him to explore the Hammer.

“If I hear through people that it’s a fun place to be or it has good food, I would absolutely visit the museum,” Smith said.

Sina Keramat, a first-year financial actuarial mathematics student, said he thinks Audrey would be a good addition to the restaurant market in Westwood.

“I think it’s a good idea,” Keramat said. “Westwood has plenty of places to eat, so what’s one more, right?”

Pritish Patil, a first-year psychobiology student, said while he would be more likely to visit the Hammer to try Audrey’s food, he is not sure if it would be a good idea to house a restaurant inside a free establishment.

“I don’t know per se that the Hammer Museum is a good place to keep it because the whole point of that is to be a free art place,” Patil said. “But it seems like a cool idea.”

Forrest said the restaurant was named after Audrey Irmas, a philanthropist and Hammer Museum board member.

“We are excited to honor Audrey Irmas, a close friend of the Hammer and longtime patron of the arts,” Forrest said. “She is a great supporter of our vision and has been integral in helping us bring our idea of Audrey into fruition.”

The larger ongoing multiphase expansion of the Hammer Museum also includes the expansion of existing galleries and office space by 2020.

Immunotherapy drugs seem effective in UCLA trials treating recurrent cancers

UCLA researchers found administering a drug that harnesses the body’s immune system to brain cancer patients both before and after surgery could effectively treat recurrent cancer.

In a study published Feb. 11 in Nature Medicine, researchers showed patients who received the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab before and after surgery lived almost twice as long as patients who only received the drug after surgery. Immunotherapy drugs use the body’s own immune system to attack tumor cells. The study was co-led by Robert Prins, associate professor of neurosurgery and molecular and medical pharmacology, and Timothy Cloughesy, professor of neurology and director of the UCLA Neuro-Oncology Program.

Treatment of glioblastoma, the most aggressive form of brain cancer, typically involves surgery, chemotherapy and radiation treatment. Even if patients undergo all three forms of treatment, those with recurrent glioblastoma have a median survival rate of less than 15 months.

In recent years, researchers have explored using immunotherapy drugs to treat metastatic cancers like melanoma, Prins said. However, glioblastoma has not responded to immunotherapy treatments as well as other types of cancer.

The study, which is the first to observe the effects of also using pembrolizumab before surgery as opposed to just after, offered new and surprising results regarding the effectiveness of the drug in treating glioblastoma, Cloughesy said.

Pembrolizumab works by blocking an immune checkpoint protein called PD-1, which exists on the surface of cells that regulate the body’s immune system and prevent it from attacking the body’s own cells. However, this protein can also prevent T-cells – the body’s immune defense system – from attacking tumors.

In order for the body’s immune system to attack tumor cells, it has to recognize the tumor as a foreign body and develop T-cells that target the specific antigens on the tumor, Cloughesy said.

“When they recognize those, they make these memory T-cells where they can expand those T-cells and kind of develop a small army that will now go against that specific antigen that is on the tumor,” Cloughesy said.

However, the body has checkpoints to prevent the immune system from creating T-cells against itself. When these T-cells begin attacking the tumor and creating inflammation, the body will express PD-1, a protein that interacts with the T-cells to essentially deactivate them, he added.

“Now you have a bunch of soldiers ready to go to work and wage war against the tumor but they’ve been put to sleep, so they’re just kind of sitting there in the field sleeping,” Cloughesy said.

He said this is where the immunotherapy drug becomes useful. The drug unlinks these PD-1 receptors and thus reawakens the T-cells to fight the tumor cells.

In the study, the drug was administered to participants before and after surgery or just after. The study aimed to understand the effect the PD-1 blockade has on tumors, Prins said.

However, the study also showed that the drug unexpectedly increased the life expectancy of patients. Patients in the group administered the drug before and after surgery lived an average of 417 days, compared to an average of 228 days for those who received the drug after surgery.

“When the study was designed, it was really just the main focus to see what happens in the tumor,” said Aaron Mochizuki, co-first author on the study and a fellow in pediatric oncology and hematology at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. “At first we didn’t believe it, to be honest.”

Cloughesy added they were not looking to observe a clinical benefit and that he was surprised by the results.

“When we saw there was a clinical benefit my first thought was ‘I don’t believe it, it doesn’t make sense,’” he said.

The researchers hypothesize administering the drug before surgery helps enhance the immune response, as it allows the drug to awaken the T-cells present around the tumor that might otherwise be removed during surgery before they have the chance to wake up, Prins said.

Even when the tumor is removed surgically, microscopic tumor cells are left behind Cloughesy said. By activating T-cells programmed to fight the tumor before they are removed before surgery, the immune system is able to fight the cancer cells that are left after surgery and slow their regrowth.

When the drug is administered only after surgery, many of the T-cells are removed along with the tumor, he said. These T-cells then aren’t present to be awakened by the drugs administered after surgery.

“What we learned was if the patients had T-cells there, then you can enhance their function,” Prins said. “You have to have T-cells … in order for this drug to work.”

These results, although promising, need to be replicated in larger trials to generate more data that could help the treatment gain approval from the Food and Drug Administration, Mochizuki said. He added the researchers hope to expand the group of patients receiving the drug before and after surgery in their next run of the study from 16 patients to around 41.

Mochizuki said the researchers are also planning new studies to explore the effects of combining immunotherapy drugs with other methods of harnessing the body’s immune response. By combining immunotherapy treatments, they hope to bring in more T-cells that will attack cancer cells and would otherwise go unnoticed by the body’s immune system.

Cloughesy said the study’s positive results indicate that immunotherapy drugs could be a viable treatment for glioblastoma. He added if these drugs become more effective in treating glioblastoma, they may eventually be able to treat the cancer by themselves without surgery.

School of law panel discusses racial, economic discrimination in health care access

A resident physician, a nonprofit founder and a lawyer debated national health care accessibility with prospective law and medical students at an event Monday.

The panelists offered perspectives on the roles of race, poverty and justice in health care access from their respective areas of expertise at the UCLA School of Law event. They discussed issues such as biases in hospitals and prisons, drug pricing and how students can effect institutional change.

Merith Basey, executive director for North America at Universities Allied for Essential Medicines and the event’s moderator, said she thinks biomedical research and development practices discriminate against people from low socio-economic backgrounds, citing price surges for drugs used to treat HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C and certain cancers.

“(UAEM) believes that no one should be sick because they are poor or be poor because they are sick,” Basey said.

UAEM is a global network of university and college students who aim to improve health care accessibility in poor nations by engaging with the research, licensing and patenting decisions at universities.

Liza Brereton, legal counsel at AIDS Healthcare Foundation and a UCLA School of Law alumna, said she thinks drug companies find ways to extend medication patents to prevent the sale of generic versions of the medication that cut into their profits.

Brereton said, in her experience with personal injury litigation, she has encountered pharmaceutical companies that concealed research and spent large amounts of money on marketing to push people to switch to more expensive versions of a drug.

“The pharmaceutical industry is the most profitable industry in the United States,” Brereton said. “Access to medication has lots of problems and disproportionally affects people of color and people living in poverty.”

Reshma Ramachandran, a family medicine resident at Kaiser Permanente and activist, said she examined relationships between professors and pharmaceutical companies and how these relationships affect medical education and prescription practices. She said these relationships can lead to biases in how professors train their students and price drugs.

“My patients make just enough money that they can’t get (the drugs they need) for free,” Ramachandran said. “The research and development budgets of pharmaceutical companies do not change even after they have gained their money back.”

Ramachandran said companies are not investing in research and development despite having the means to do so. For example, biotechnology company Gilead Sciences Inc. regained all of its manufacturing and production expenses in just 18 months after the release of a new drug, yet it did not increase its budget for research and development, Ramachandran said.

“Research and development is done by students who pay taxes, not the pharmaceutical industry,” Ramachandran said.

Adam Foss, founder and president of Prosecutor Impact, a nonprofit organization that aims to educate American prosecutors on how to connect with the black communities they serve, said he thinks health care inaccessibility is not just about cost, but also about a social or cultural disconnect between doctors and patients.

This disconnect can lead to implicit biases that worsen treatment outcomes, Foss said. Black women are four times more likely to die during childbirth, 70 percent more likely to die of cervical cancer and 50 percent more likely to die of breast cancer, Foss said.

Foss said people do not necessarily have to pursue a career in medicine or public health to leave an impact. He said students can make a difference by promoting discussion about health care accessibility and thinking more critically about the issue.

“Students can help by organizing and using their power at universities,” Foss said. “It’s important to take advantage of opportunities to stand up and get your voice heard. Ask yourself who is not in the room and why.”

Marlin Gramajo, a prospective law student who attended the event, said she chose to attend because it was the only event offered to prospective students that focused on critical race studies. She said she found the conversation informative and eye-opening.

“I thought it was a good mix of people from different points of entry to the problem,” Gramajo said. “The question that stood out to me was where are the impacted people.”

Ramachandran said the opioid crisis has deep roots in the pharmaceutical industry. The leading cause of death for people under 50 is drug overdose. While laws are now trying to curb drug use, the effects are already widely felt and this benefits pharmaceutical companies, she said.

“Between 2013 and 2015, the places with heavy opioid marketing in the form of dinners, gifts and academic events saw an 18 percent increase in mortality,” Ramachandran said.

Foss said the opioid crisis has entered prisons and, without proper treatment, people will go back to using drugs once they leave prison. He said instead of going after pharmaceutical companies who create the drugs in the first place, a new California legislation aims to criminalize young people who sell drugs that lead to overdoses. He said he thinks most people who sell on the street are addicts, so the war on drugs should focus on this more homogenous discreet population.

Ramachandran said UCLA, as one of the biggest recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, has a lot of influence over how the University of California negotiates patent licenses and contracts with pharmaceutical companies. According to the panel, the NIH has a yearly budget of $33 million for drug research.

For example, UCLA proposed blocking the production of the generic version of a prostate cancer drug in India. After India rejected the proposal, UCLA filed a patent claim appeal, which is currently being assessed by the High Court of Delhi.

Ramachandran said she is working with UC students to convince the UC Board of Regents to pay more attention to the implications of universities’ ability to prevent the production of generic versions of drugs. UCLA students from David Geffen School of Medicine will attend the UC Board of Regents meeting March 13 to ask the regents to reconsider the patent claim appeal in India.

UCLA professors conduct research on effects of Woolsey fire on local ecosystems

UCLA professors are conducting a field research study to examine how wildfire severity affects species native to the Santa Monica Mountains.

Brad Shaffer, a distinguished professor in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology, and Jon Keeley, an adjunct professor in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology, are researching the effect of the Woolsey fire on plant and animal species in the federal parkland of the Santa Monica Mountains. The Woolsey fire, which spread from Ventura County to Los Angeles County in November, burned more than 80 percent of the federal parkland.

Shaffer, who led the project, said some of the species in the Santa Monica Mountains cannot simply move away from the area to find other food sources after their habitat has been destroyed by a fire.

“Think about it from the point of view of a spider that needs something to eat or a lizard that eats insects,” he said. “They can’t wait three months for something to come back.”

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Student volunteers from UCLA and nearby colleges are helping with the fieldwork in Shaffer’s research study.

Pairs of students each study 10-meter sections of burned habitats, Shaffer said. Within these areas, students record the number and concentration of species of plants and animals they find in several 1-square-meter sections. A 100-meter stretch of burnt habitat contains about 55 of these 10-meter sections.

Shaffer said the researchers will observe the fire’s impact in these habitat sections to determine how the severity of the fire affected the overall biological systems in the Santa Monica Mountains.

“It might be that the fire severity was the same along that whole 100 meters because it was a flat area, or sometimes even over 100 meters, it could have different impacts,” Shaffer added. “It might be the wind was different or the slope.”

Shaffer said this study needs to be replicated several times, and the habitats require constant re-evaluation.

He added many students at UCLA are interested in learning about their local landscape and contributing to the research project.

Marti Witter, a fire ecologist and the Central and Southern California region coordinator of the California Fire Science Consortium, said the National Park Service helped the researchers pick locations to study by using a computational method to select random plot locations.

Witter said the results of this study may be different from past studies on the impact of wildfires on biological systems because the Woolsey fire was preceded by four to five years of drought, which may have made the effects of the fire more intense than usual.

Keeley said one way they measure fire severity is by looking at the diameter of the smallest living branch on a shrub.

“If the fire was extremely hot then all the branches will be burned off,” Keeley said. “If it wasn’t real severe there will be some of the smaller branches surviving, so by measuring the diameter of the smallest stem it can correlate to how intense the fire was.”

Shaffer said studying the impact of the Woolsey fire will provide more general insight into how fire severity impacts the environment’s biological systems and how that impact shifts with global climate change.

“There is a lot of concern that global warming is changing conditions during fires, so we want to see if the Woolsey fire was any different from previous fires,” Keeley said.

Baseball aims to shine brighter than CSUN, break three-year road loss streak

The Matadors have given the Bruins trouble on the road.

No. 4 UCLA baseball (6-1) will play CSUN (5-3) on Tuesday with a chance to win its first road game against the team since 2015.

In six meetings between the two teams in the past three years, the Bruins have gone just 4-2, including three straight road losses. Last season, UCLA defeated CSUN at home 15-2, but lost 4-3 on the road.

Both teams are coming off series wins, with UCLA taking two of three at Georgia Tech and CSUN winning three of four at home against Gonzaga.

UCLA lost the first game of the weekend series 4-3 in extra innings, but bounced back to win the next two games by a combined 12 runs.

“It shows how competitive and how strong our team is,” said freshman center fielder Matt McLain. “To come out the next day and compete the way we did, I thought was a really good sign for our team.”

Similarly, CSUN lost its first game against Gonzaga 10-8 in extra innings, but then took the next three games of the series.

Coach John Savage said the Matadors have proven to be a formidable opponent in recent years.

“Coach (Greg Moore) has done a really good job with that program,” Savage said. “They’ve been very competitive the past couple of years. We just need to get back home, get a practice in and be ready to face them on Tuesday.”

The Bruins received key contributions this weekend from a pair of freshmen, McLain and right-hander Jesse Bergin. McLain went 4-for-11 in the series and hit the first home run and double of his collegiate career, while Bergin tossed six shutout innings to earn his second win in as many tries.

UCLA will turn to another freshman Tuesday – right-hander Nick Nastrini. In his first collegiate start Feb. 19, Nastrini pitched 4 2/3 shutout innings while striking out nine.

Bergin said he and Nastrini have built a bond as first-year starters.

“We’ve gotten a lot closer throughout the year,” Bergin said. “It’s really fun having another freshman pitcher who’s also a starter. It’s kind of like we’re in this together. We’ll spend time after practices and it’s just us two. It’s just really fun working with him.”

Nastrini will face a Matador lineup that has scored 22 runs in its past two games. CSUN’s offense has gotten contributions from freshmen such as right fielder Andrew Lucas, who went 3-4 on Sunday with a home run and double.

Savage said the Bruins are using these early road games for development first and foremost.

“We just need to keep on building our identity as a team,” Savage said. “I think this game against CSUN will be another good test for us.”

First pitch will be at 2 p.m. Tuesday.

Men’s tennis to play against Grand Canyon, prepares for upcoming Pac-12 play

The Bruins haven’t dropped a point to Grand Canyon across the past two seasons.

No. 14 UCLA men’s tennis (4-4) will face Grand Canyon (6-2) on Tuesday at the Los Angeles Tennis Center. The match will mark the third meeting between the teams in three consecutive seasons.

The Bruins completed 7-0 sweeps of the Antelopes in both of their previous two encounters. UCLA dropped just one set in its early-season home meeting with Grand Canyon last year. Then-senior Austin Rapp eventually claimed the match for the Bruins with a straight-set win, 6-3, 6-4.

Junior Ben Goldberg said Grand Canyon is a solid team and shouldn’t be underestimated.

“(No. 1 through No. 4 singles), they are still a good team,” Goldberg said. “It’s nice to have. I don’t want to say an easy match, but we’ve had a few matches rained out against this type of team.”

The Antelopes have tallied two losses on the season, falling to Arizona and UC Santa Barbara by scores of 5-2 and 6-1, respectively.

The Bruins have already notched more losses this season than the entirety of last season, when they posted a record of 30-3. The losses have all come from teams ranked in the top 25.

“We’ve played all tough opponents, and I’m sure we’ll all feel more comfortable (back at home),” said coach Billy Martin. “We had (three) matches in Chicago and then (one) at USC. The team feels comfortable playing here so I think that will help.”

The Bruins are battling two injuries to players in their starting lineup.

The absences of sophomores Connor Hance and Keegan Smith have granted younger Bruins a chance at the starting lineup.

Freshman Eric Hahn filled the No. 6 singles spot against USC and fell by a score of 6-0, 6-3. It was a match where Hahn said he had no answer.

“The nerves kicked in,” Hahn said after his loss Friday. “I couldn’t do much out there. It’s a completely different experience here at USC.”

Martin said Hahn will play against Grand Canyon despite the loss.

“We need (Hahn) to play,” Martin said. He was as unhappy as anybody (after his loss). I think it was overwhelming for him. (Playing a rivalry game) is probably something he’s dreamed about for quite a while and didn’t handle the emotions very well.”

Martin said Tuesday’s match will be a good chance for his players to keep improving as Pac-12 play looms around the corner.

“I’m expecting a hard fought match,” Martin said. “I always stress to my team, don’t play (down to the level) of the other guy. Always be ready to come out and play at a high level, and hopefully, we’ll strive to do that.”

UCLA gymnastics heads into Oklahoma matchup with high national rankings

The Bruins are dialing in.

No. 2 UCLA gymnastics (7-0, 6-0 Pac-12) defeated then-No. 4 Utah (7-1, 5-1) on Saturday with its second straight score above 198. Junior Kyla Ross said she is confident the Bruins can make scores over 198 their new normal.

“I’m really excited about this team,” Ross said. “We’ve found what works and what doesn’t. I think that we have a good chance of being able to get above a 198 again, since we have for the past two weekends. We just have to stay close and keep doing what we’ve been able to do for the last two meets.”

The Regional Qualifying Score has officially been introduced to the ranking system. The RQS accounts for a team’s top six scores, three of which must be from away meets. It excludes the highest score and averages the other five top scores. This average determines which teams will advance to the regional championships.

UCLA’s RQS is 197.800, just .125 below No. 1 Oklahoma.

UCLA ranks first in the country on uneven bars. Ross is ranked No. 1 individually in the event and has recorded three perfect scores on bars alone this season.

Junior Madison Kocian is one of just two gymnasts besides Ross with a 10 on bars this year. The only non-UCLA gymnast with a perfect 10 on uneven bars is Oklahoma’s Nicole Lehrmann, who ranks fifth overall for the event.

Freshman Norah Flatley is tied for 13th on bars and is the only other Bruin to post a 9.975 or higher on the event this season.

“I like to focus on my handstands,” Flatley said. “If we have good handstands, they set up a really great bars routine and we are good about doing that.”

The Bruins also rank No. 1 as a team on balance beam. Two UCLA gymnasts own top-10 spots as individuals, with one of them being No. 1-ranked senior Katelyn Ohashi, who has scored a high of 9.975 on the event.

A total of four other gymnasts have recorded season highs of 9.975, including Ross, who ranks fourth in the nation on beam. Despite a No. 235 ranking, sophomore Nia Dennis has also scored a 9.975 on beam this season. No gymnast in the country has scored a perfect 10 on beam yet this year.

“Our beam lineup is coming together and getting stronger,” Ross said. “(A 10 on balance beam) is definitely possible for this team.”

UCLA also owns the No. 1 spot on floor exercise. The two Bruins who rank in the top 5 for the event are Ohashi – who is ranked first in the nation and has posted three perfect scores with her viral floor routine this season – and Ross, who is ranked fifth and needs a 10 on floor to complete a career “gym slam.”

“I honestly thought I had one of my best floor routines (Saturday),” Ross said. “So I know that if I keep dialing in, I can do it. Overall, floor routine has gotten better for me and better for everybody. I’m excited to see where it goes.”

Junior Gracie Kramer is tied for No. 12 in the country on floor. Ross and Kramer have both posted season highs of 9.950.

UCLA is now ranked fifth on vault in the nation. Two Bruins hold top-15 spots in the individual rankings, with Ross ranking third and junior Felicia Hano tied for 13th. Ross owns two perfect scores on vault this season, while the only other individual in the country to score a 10 on vault is No. 6 Michigan’s Natalie Wojcik.

Ross ranks first in all-around in the country with a high score of 39.850.

UCLA will put their high rankings to the test against Oklahoma (6-0) in Norman, Oklahoma on Sunday morning.

“I hope this meet brings us confidence going forward (to Oklahoma),” said coach Valorie Kondos Field. “Confidence. Loads and loads of confidence.”