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(04/09/99 9:00am)
After four years of waiting, Penn Health System researchers are finally moving into the new $148 million Biomedical Research Building 2/3, which administrators say will put the University's medical research facilities on par with other top institutions. At 384,000 square feet, the new building -- completed last month and scheduled for a May 13 dedication ceremony -- will house many of Penn's top medical research institutes, like the Abramson Family Cancer Institute and the Institute for Human Gene Therapy. The building, which was completed on schedule and $1 million under budget, represents the completion of the first part of the Health System's 1991 facilities upgrade plan and will provide new labs and workspace for scientists. According to Medical School Senior Vice Dean Richard Tannen, a major objective for the new building is to help attract high quality researchers to Penn. "Certainly the biggest impact is allowing us to recruit and retain stellar faculty by providing the additional research space that we need," Tannen said. BRB 2/3 will open behind the Quadrangle next to the Stellar-Chance Building, which opened in 1995 and was originally called BRB 1. Construction of the second building was delayed by city zoning problems. The name of the new building will likely change, too, officials said, once they can decide for whom to name it. The researchers housed in the building will work primarily in the fields of the biology of cancer, gene therapy and reproductive biology. Having the different disciplines in one location will "tie them all together in a way that we really haven't been able to do in some of our other research buildings," said Steven Wiesenthal, the Health System's associate vice president for architecture and facilities management. As an example of this cooperation between programs, Tannen explained that the Institute for Human Gene Therapy would be located on the same floors as the Abramson Family Cancer Institute. Researchers working on gene therapy treatments for cancer would then be able to take advantage of the knowledge and facilities of both institutions. Other important programs moving to BRB 2/3 include the Developmental Biology Program, the Center for Research on Reproduction and Women's Health and the Center for Experimental Therapeutics. And by moving these facilities into the new building, other departments will finally have room to expand or locate all of their offices in a central location. In addition to providing more research workspace, the building will be the home of a medical bookstore -- run by Barnes & Noble University Bookstores, Inc. -- and a cafe operated by Au Bon Pain. It will also have a large auditorium, seminar rooms and a faculty lounge. "It's been designed not just to provide additional research laboratory space but also to become the new hub of activity for the medical center campus," Wiesenthal said. Ralph Johnson of Perkins and Will, which won the National American Institute of Architects Firm of the Year award, was the lead designer for the building. "The architecture is designed to reflect both the traditional architecture of the brick and limestone campus but also? reflect the technology of the 21st century and the height and scale of a newer, larger research building," Wiesenthal said. The May 13 dedication is scheduled to be attended by University President Judith Rodin, Health System Chief Executive Officer and Medical School Dean William Kelley and Abramson Institute Director Craig Thompson.
(04/01/99 10:00am)
When Hansell Stedman was growing up, his brother's debilitating hereditary illness -- muscular dystrophy -- seemed so far from a cure that Stedman never believed he would research it. Now, as this April's cover of Nature Medicine attests, the 40-year-old Penn surgery professor may be on his way to finding it. Stedman -- the principal author of the study published in the prestigious scientific journal -- and his team were able to restore a group of critical proteins to muscle tissue that had lost these proteins from the onslaught of a muscular dystrophy. The loss of these proteins typically results in muscle weakness that can lead to paralysis and even death. Experts in the field are calling Stedman's breakthrough study very encouraging. "These exciting achievements confirm that we're on the right track," Donald Wood, the Muscular Dystrophy Association's director of science technology, said in a press release. "We're more committed than ever to begin clinical trials of gene therapy for muscular dystrophy." Muscular dystrophy is actually a group of diseases, all hereditary, characterized by the weakening of the body's muscles. It is usually fatal, according to the MDA World Wide Web site. The different types vary in the age of onset and the rate of progression. Stedman, who works at Penn's Institute for Human Gene Therapy, used gene therapy techniques to help repair the muscle cells of hamsters ravaged by a muscular dystrophy called Limb Girdle. When Stedman and team member James Greelish, a surgical resident at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, delivered certain genes to the muscle cells, they found that those cells were able to produce key proteins in large quantities -- raising the hope that the restoration of full muscle function could some day be possible. Leonard Su, a medical student at HUP, cloned the genes that would be effective in producing the desired proteins, but Stedman still needed a way to transport those genes to the muscles. James Wilson, director of the Institute for Human Gene Therapy, had done extensive work with a harmless virus that seemed like the perfect carrier for Stedman's genes. But the virus was too big to exit the main vessels of the circulatory system and reach the targeted muscle cells. To solve this quandary, Stedman used a drug to enlarge the openings connecting main blood vessels to smaller branches, enabling the virus to escape the vessel and get to the damaged cells. While Stedman treated Limb Girdle muscular dystrophy, his technique may also work with a type called Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a fatal disease found in one of every 3,000 men, according to Stedman. "Duchenne muscular dystrophy may well be the most common lethal single-gene defect in man," Stedman said. The next step is to prove the new therapy is safe and effective in humans, a goal Stedman said he hopes to realize this year.
(03/31/99 10:00am)
Just because "Brother" Stephen White hasn't been seen denouncing sinners and whoremongers lately on College Green doesn't mean he hasn't been busy. Over the past three months, White has continued his crusade at Princeton University despite his arrest there last fall for trespassing. He also argued with crowds of students at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J., and was arrested at Howard University in Washington, D.C. And now he's hawking a video of his preaching for $15. White, a self-proclaimed "open-air preacher" who runs Soldiers For Christ, a Pentecostal Christian Fellowship at Temple University, has often been a source of controversy at Penn. Last semester White got into a heated debate with a group of gay students over family values and his anti-gay views. His arguments so infuriated one particular student that she pushed him in anger, White recalled. On his subsequent visits to other campuses, White's preaching has been no less controversial. At Rutgers in January, he got into another charged argument when White asked a Hindu student whether he "will come back [to life] as a fly," in reference to the Hindu belief in reincarnation. That same day a different student slapped White for a remark she thought was sexist. At Howard University, a predominantly African-American school, White ran into even more trouble. He started preaching at 1 p.m. and within minutes was surrounded by a large group of students. Campus security told White that they were worried students would react violently to his preaching and urged him to leave campus. When he refused to leave at the request of city police officers, White was arrested for "disorderly conduct and inciting a riot." He was placed in jail for a few hours before his wife bailed him out for $50. But not all students have responded negatively to White's preaching -- several have even given him positive feedback, he said. When preaching at Princeton in February, he twice went to dinner with students who wanted to talk with him at length. And at Rutgers a football player, who White calls Brother Dennis, stood by as a "bodyguard" while White argued religion. Here at Penn, White has received several favorable e-mails from both Christians and non-Christians as well as a request to be the guest speaker for a Bible study group. To help support his ministry, White is selling videotapes of his experiences preaching the gospel at college campuses entitled How Shall They Hear Without a Preacher? He said he has sold about 15 videos so far. In the coming months White plans to bring his preaching to the University of Connecticut as well as Columbia, Yale and Harvard universities. And, sure enough, he said he'll be back on his College Green perch next week. "Ivy League students are intellectually stimulating," he said.
(03/03/99 10:00am)
Chemistry Professor Ralph Hirschmann was a Merck VP before coming to Penn. When many people retire they migrate to Florida, California or any warm climate where they can rest and relax in a sunny community. But in 1987, upon turning 65, Ralph Hirschmann decided to do something out of the ordinary. After retiring from his position as senior vice president for pharmaceutical giant Merck and Co., as all officers for the company are required to do at that age, Hirschmann became a member of Penn's Chemistry Department. "I think it's unavoidable that my background is different than my colleagues, since I worked nearly 37 of my 50-year career in industry," Hirschmann said. In March, Hirschmann will be presented with the American Chemical Society's Arthur C. Cope Award, an award to "recognize outstanding achievement in the field of organic chemistry" that comes with a $25,000 honorarium and a grant of $150,000 to be spent on research in organic chemistry, according to the ACS World Wide Web site. And one month later, the 76-year-old professor will receive the National Academy of Sciences Award for the Industrial Application of Science, another $25,000 prize given every three years for scientific work that has a "significant, beneficial application in industry," according to an NAS press release. "What the National Academy [of Sciences] award relates to is that I spent a fair amount of time in industry -- 37 1/2 years," Hirschmann said. Hirschmann was born in the German province of Bavaria, coming to the U.S. at age 14 to escape Nazi Germany. After earning an undergraduate degree in chemistry from Oberlin College, he served for three years in the U.S. Army before finishing his schooling with a doctorate from the University of Wisconsin in 1950. Shortly thereafter, Hirschmann went to work as a chemist at Merck in the process research division. Rising through the ranks, Hirschmann became senior vice president of basic research in 1976. While head of basic research, Hirschmann's group discovered and developed many drugs, including Vasotec, which lowers blood pressure; Mevacor, which decreases cholesterol levels; and Ivermectin, a drug that kills the parasites responsible for river blindness, the leading cause of blindness in developing countries, Hirschmann said. In 1988, Hirschmann came to Penn to collaborate with Chemistry Professor Amos Smith and former Chemistry Professor K.C. Nicolaou, who now works at the Scripps Institute in San Diego. The three colleagues worked together on research that would later be recognized by the Cope Award. This research focused on improving drugs made out of certain biologically active materials called peptides. By replacing a peptide's natural molecular "backbone" structure -- called a scaffold -- with an artificial scaffold created in the lab, Hirschmann and his collaborators were able to remove some of the undesirable properties of peptides. "We're trying to make new [molecular backbone structures] that nature has never made before," Hirschmann said. Hirschmann said his Penn job has had some great perks, especially the opportunity to mentor budding scientists. "The relationship between a graduate student and their major professor is something that has no precise counterpart in industry," he said. "What is really enormously satisfying for a teacher is when there comes a point in the training of most graduate students when suddenly they take off on their own," he added. "The students come up with better ideas than my own, and this is not something I find depressing -- it's something I find wonderful." Having spent time in both industry and academia, Hirschmann is in a unique position to comment on the differences between the two institutions. "Ideally, academic research should address problems that are long-term problems where it's not necessarily clear at the beginning where this [research] is going to lead," he explained. "Industry takes a more short-term view."
(02/22/99 10:00am)
Instilling high self-esteem in children has long been an important goal of the American educational system. Penn Psychology Professor Steven Heine, however, has found evidence that the cultural importance of self-esteem varies between America and Japan. Heine has been testing people from North America and Japan for several years, trying to find out the role of cultural differences on self-esteem. His findings indicate that the concept has much less relevance in Japanese society than in the United States. "There's more of a dialogue about the importance of self-esteem here in the U.S. than you hear anywhere else in the world," Heine said. "In Japan, self-esteem looks a lot lower and no one seems concerned about this fact." In the U.S., people with high self-esteem generally have more satisfying relationships, are more productive and feel better about themselves, Heine said. However, Japanese psychologists have had difficulty finding the relationship between high self-esteem and strong psychological health in the Japanese population. Heine, who lived in Japan for several years and speaks Japanese, said the contrast is a reflection of two different cultures. "Here we put more emphasis on individualism than they do and there they put more emphasis on collectivism than we do," Heine said, noting that the differences between societies are relative and that there is a significant overlap. To test his theories, Heine has been conducting experiments at Penn and in Kyoto, Japan, designed to measure the role of self-esteem on the behavior of Japanese and American students. Subjects are placed in a room and asked to complete logic tests that are designated as either easy or hard. After the student completes the task -- either correctly or incorrectly -- the conductor of the experiment leaves the room and gives the students two more tasks, telling them that they can work on these tasks if they want to. Of the two new tasks, one is similar to the task the student already performed. The experimenter then watches to see which task the subject chooses. Heine found that when Japanese students failed the first task, they spent much more time working on the new task to which it was similar. If the Japanese students succeeded at the first task, then they tried the different task to make sure they could do that job as well. In contrast, American students who failed the first task often moved to the different task, not wanting to do something at which they were not adept. If they succeeded at the first task then they would generally continue with a similar task, knowing that they could succeed. "In the U.S. case, people are sensitive to their strengths and focus on what's good about themselves," Heine explained regarding the results of his study. "In the Japanese case people are sensitive to weaknesses and areas where they feel they are not good enough." According to Heine, American psychologists dominate the field of social psychology, leading other countries to "import U.S. precepts." The results of Heine's experiment may prove that these American psychology theories are not valid outside our borders, meaning that the field of social psychology would have to become much more culture-specific. "You can't use standard Western measures of central health [outside of Western individualist societies] because they have implicit in them all of our cultural assumptions," Heine said. This knowledge may also help to smooth relations between the two countries by increasing understanding of social behavior. For instance, Heine recalled being quite surprised and a little annoyed when he won a Japanese speech contest during his stay in the country and the presenter pointed out every speaking error that the winners made instead of giving praise and congratulations. He realized later, however, that in Japan the teachers don't encourage good work by trying to raise the self-esteem of the students with praise. Instead, they call attention to weaknesses to encourage the student to learn from them.
(02/18/99 10:00am)
Research is turned into profits at Penn's Center for Technology Transfer. University professors may be great researchers, but they usually need help navigating through the process of patenting their inventions to see their ideas break into the commercial world. Steering through the obstacles between a discovery and its public use, Penn's Center for Technology Transfer works to bring the latest scientific breakthrough to local pharmacies, grocery stores and malls. "Our job here is to move research discoveries from the lab to the marketplace," explained Louis Berneman, managing director of the CTT. To help facilitate that move, the CTT -- which is also in charge of licensing the Penn name to outside companies -- takes the results of University research and evaluates the business potential of these discoveries. If the potential is high enough, the center finds a way to commercialize the product. Working out of their offices at 3700 Market Street, the CTT staff of 16 employees judges the disclosure on technical merit, commercial potential and protectability -- whether an idea is unique enough to be safe from copycat technology. By providing this service, the CTT takes the commercial burden off of the faculty members who make the initial discoveries, giving them more time for research and teaching. The University owns all discoveries made on campus using its resources, and professors are required to disclose any new discovery to the CTT. They are also not permitted to leave Penn to market the product on their own unless the University licenses them the patent. Most disclosures are patented and then licensed out to large companies where the discovery will improve or replace the technology currently being used. For the 1998 fiscal year alone, the center executed 48 patent licenses, filed 128 new patent applications and generated $8.7 million in revenue for the University, according to its financial report. The faculty member responsible for the discovery receives 30 percent of the net revenue generated from a patent and his or her lab receives an additional 15 percent. Occasionally a discovery will be so unique that no company has a similar technology and no market exists for the product. The CTT then starts a new company by finding investors to fund the venture and experienced managers to run it. One example of this is Protomed Inc., which was started to develop cancer therapies and other products using a unique production process invented by Ann Kennedy, a professor of Radiation Oncology. Kennedy said that when investors approached her with a funding proposition, she referred them to the CTT, which worked out the funding and legal agreements to officially found Protomed. Berneman said he believes the center will grow in importance as the factors of globalization and the information age shape the future's economy. "We've moved from an energy-based economy to a technology-based economy," Berneman said, adding that technology stems from knowledge. "Universities will increasingly become more important in applying knowledge." Technology transfers at universities, however, is already a big business. Stanford University's, in Palo Alto, Calif., has the largest income for a single university, with a gross revenue of $51 million for fiscal year 1997, according to its fiscal report. While few technology transfer offices generate income in the $50 million range, most large research institutions have an agency devoted to bringing the discoveries of their faculty to the public. "The real thing that we do is get the technology developed, we get new companies created, we get new jobs created, we get new medical cures created," said Lita Nelsen, the director of the Technology Licensing Office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "That's our real job." "The money is small and secondary," she added.
(02/10/99 10:00am)
While a national health campaign is encouraging people to detect cancer at an early stage, a team of Penn scientists is working to make the detection process cheaper and less intrusive. Physics Professor Arjun Yodh and Biophysics Professor Emeritus Britton Chance are working with advanced imaging techniques that can essentially look "through" the body's outer layers to find, among other things, tumors that are inside human tissue -- without having to put the patient through a painful biopsy procedure or an expensive MRI exam. Yodh, Chance and their team of researchers use light just above the infrared wavelength -- called near infrared, or NIR light -- to learn about the inner composition of tissues. Unlike light on the upper end of the spectrum, this type of light doesn't get absorbed by the tissue as quickly -- thus allowing researchers to detect what is inside the tissue itself. "It provides a whole new set of tools for clinicians as well as basic scientists to look at the relationship between [molecular structure and function] in tissues," said Bruce Tromberg, a professor of Physiology, Biophysics and Biomedical Engineering at the University of California at Irvine. According to Tromberg, who also heads the Laser Microbeam and Medical Program at the Beckman Laser Institute in California, the optical imaging represents a faster, more portable and cheaper way to gather information about the body's hidden activities. Tromberg noted that currently, to perform a state-of-the-art MRI exam, a doctor must first buy the machine for upwards of $1 million and then charge $1,000 each time he uses it. But, he said, doctors can get the same result from Yodh's optical scan at a fraction of the cost. Besides the cost benefits Chance said the imaging technique is much more patient-friendly than other methods. "Is there any other way to diagnose [certain ailments]? Sure, we take a hunk of you, a biopsy, and not many people like biopsy," Chance said. "We're non-invasive, that's why they come to us -- to see whether they need a biopsy." Chance pointed out that the technique has social implications as well. "[Optical breast cancer detectors] can be made cheaply and affordably, and it's portable," he said. "There are a lot of people? economically deprived or opposed to an X-ray, who don't get examinations [but] might be encouraged to get examinations." Recently, Yodh has been working specifically on identifying tumors in breast tissue, research that could lead to a new method for detecting breast cancer. To identify a tumor, Yodh places a light source on the surface of the tissue being examined and then shines the light on and off, creating "waves of brightness." When these waves travel through the tissue, their pattern is changed by the tissue's contents. Detectors along the outside of the tissue measure the new patterns and computers then figure out what's inside by analyzing how much the wave pattern changed during its journey "When you send light through these tissues, then you get patterns on the other side," Yodh said. When the light bounces back from the tissue, it hits a special detection machine which enables doctors to measure how much the light pattern has changed. If it hits a tumor, the doctor can see it in the pattern. Yodh and Chance have helped to discover exactly what type of pattern a tumor creates.
(01/29/99 10:00am)
The deadline for obtaining on-campus housing is fast approaching while the number of off-campus houses left on the market diminishes each day. For those still deciding whether to live on or off campus, crunch time is here. A little under 60 percent of undergraduates typically live on campus, leaving about 40 percent of the student body to live in West Philadelphia and other nearby areas. "I think that traditionally there is a tendency for the undergraduates, as they get older, to move away from campus," said Mihaela Farcas, director of the Office of Off-Campus Living. For Dave Scales, a College sophomore who lived off campus this year, independence was definitely an issue. "I didn't want to have to swipe my card every time I went into a dorm," Scales explained. "I wanted people to be able to get into my place without having to sign them in." Besides independence, students also choose to live off campus with the hope of saving money, Farcas said. Scales noted that while his monthly rent was less than if he lived on campus, utility bills, furnishing costs and purchases of common household goods add up. "There are a lot of small things you have to buy to keep the apartment running," he noted. After a year spent in the Quadrangle, Scales noted that the two biggest advantages of living off campus were being assured a single and the absence of quiet hours. "Now I can come in at three in the morning and put on music without having to worry about it," he said. Some students, however, are content to remain on campus. After living in a four-bedroom high rise apartment this year, College sophomore Pam Meredith chose to keep her room again next year. "I have my own single and it's convenient to be on campus," she said. Meredith admitted that the security procedures of living on campus can be "a little annoying at times, but I know it's for our safety so I don't mind that much." "When you are in the Quad you feel like you are almost living in camp," she said. "When you come to the high rises, it's a different story -- you are living in an apartment with only a little bit of monitoring going on." Aside from the disadvantage of supervision, Meredith listed several advantages to remaining on campus. "On campus, I get Resnet access, furniture and one bill for everything," she said. "Also, I feel quite safe here and security is key." On these issues, Scales admitted that on-campus living had its advantages. "I'm more worried about safety here [off campus] than I was on campus." With regards to Internet access, Scales pointed out that living off campus, without an Ethernet connection, becomes less convenient. "Since I'm dialing in I do less stuff on the computer? I don't check e-mail as much. I don't go on the Internet as much." Summing up the decision to live on or off campus, director Farcas called it a "trade-off." "If you live on campus, you are very, very close, somebody else takes care of your security and safety and you have Resnet," she said. "If you live off campus, you have to be more in charge, you have to know where to move, you have to be more in control of your safety and of your budget. There are a lot more responsibilities."
(01/28/99 10:00am)
Imagine a therapeutic and beneficial sugar found naturally in the body, and a sugar that has never existed in any one place in more than a few handfuls. Former Biology Department Chairperson Stephen Roth, the chief executive officer of the Horsham, Pa.-based Neose Technologies Inc., knows how to make this sugar, and for the first time in history a factory will be making large amounts of this precious substance. Neose and Roth aren't just making one sugar, but several different types of complex sugars, which are combinations of several simple sugars. When inserted into the body, this type of sugar serves to attract bacteria so that they leave the body's cells alone -- thus fighting off infections. While similar to using antibiotics, this technique is more useful because the bacteria cannot become immune to it. Manufacturing a simple sugar isn't too difficult, but according to Roth, combining them to make the intricate structure of a complex sugar is such an arduous task that mass-production has been impossible -- until now. "Two simple sugars, like glucose and galactose, can be stuck together in 20 different ways. That makes manufacturing [complex sugars] very, very difficult chemically," Roth explained. In order to mass produce the sugars, Roth decided to use enzymes to speed up the process. An enzyme is basically a chemical mediator made of protein that regulates reactions between two substances in the body. "In theory, anything that an enzyme does will happen by itself, but you may have to wait for, say, 10,000 years," Roth said. "If you don't have that kind of time, then an enzyme could make it happen in 10 minutes." The process moved the dreams of a few Penn researchers into a commercial reality. Roth left the Biology department in 1992 to work on medicinal applications of complex sugars at Neose. "When we started the company, the real question was, 'Can you make the enzymes produce these compounds in large amounts?'" Roth recalled. "Now nobody asks that anymore. It's always, 'How inexpensive can you make it?'" Before Roth discovered a cheap way to make the sugars, scientists weren't sure exactly how it might be useful. "Everyone knew that sugars must have some critically important function but because the technology wasn't available we really couldn't figure out what that function was," remembered Emory University Cellular Biology Department chairperson Barry Shur, who is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board at Neose. "Now that the technology is available it's becoming obvious that sugars are really important." A first application of complex sugars as an anti-infective could be to put it in infant formula. "Breast-fed babies are much less likely to get bacterial infectious diseases than formula-fed babies," Roth explained. "The thought is that the [sugars] protect the breast-fed babies." Neose is working on several other possibilities, as well. It has agreements with Bristol-Meyers Squibb to work on a cancer vaccine and with a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson to produce a sugar commonly grown in plants. Future prospects range from anti-plaque treatments to cosmetic applications for the skin, according to Neose's World Wide Web site. But despite all the optimism, Shur cautioned that in an unpredictable market "great ideas fall apart and bad ideas can go sky high." "Still, with that caveat I think Neose is off to a great start," he said. "I think the future looks real bright."
(01/19/99 10:00am)
Today, most medicines are made by big pharmaceutical companies with large staffs and vast resources. But one day soon, according to experts, that same medicine might be produced in the human body using its own genetic make-up. A study published in this month's edition of the journal Science by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania Health System is moving that day closer. The study's research team, led by Molecular and Cellular Engineering Department Chairperson James Wilson, found a way to regulate the amount of medicine created by the body. Once the technique of gene therapy is perfected, doctors will be able to inject a gene into someone's body, which would then create the medicine at will. Until now, scientists have been unable to turn the medicine-production mechanisms "off" after inserting the gene. And too much medicine can be fatal. Wilson's experiment turned the switch off in rhesus monkeys -- raising hope that it could also be used in humans after scientists complete work on the solutions to a few problems. Such an advance would be advantageous for patients with chronic illnesses like diabetes who must routinely inject medicine into themselves. Using Wilson's technique, a patient receives a gene injection, which remains inactive until he takes a special pill. Another important advantage is that gene therapy allows the user to maintain a consistent level of medication in the body, unlike conventional medicine, which starts fast but then slows down. The new technique is a significant breakthrough, experts say. But despite the optimism, scientists must still find a way to make the technique work on humans. "The major next step is running clinical trials. That should take several years; this is all four or five years away from being completed," said Harvey Berger, the chief executive officer of the Cambridge, Mass.-based ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, which was involved in the study and hopes to market and sell the technique. Wivel, though, cautioned that the pill used in the experiments is harmful to humans, since it "suppresses immune response." But Wilson, who is also the director of the Institute for Human Gene Therapy at the Wistar Institute, maintained that he would be able to get around that problem by using a smaller dose or different kind of pill, on which scientists are currently working.
(12/07/98 10:00am)
Standing in a room packed with faculty, students, alumni and other admirers, Pennsylvania Professor of the Year Al Filreis was all smiles during a celebration of his numerous achievements at the Kelly Writers House Saturday. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching selects just one winner from each state for the annual award, which is given, according to the foundation's World Wide Web site, to the professor who demonstrates an "extraordinary dedication to undergraduate teaching." Filreis, a professor in Penn's English Department, said yesterday that he was honored that his efforts have received this type of recognition. "How can he be professor of the year? He only taught one course this year!" jokingly exclaimed Ira Winston, executive director of computing for the School of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering and Applied Science and a longtime friend of Filreis, who is currently on an academic sabbatical. Indeed, Filreis' accolades stem not so much from lectures in the classroom, but rather from how he uses technology and creative innovations to go beyond the limitations of a 50-minute class. The Class of 2002 listserv is an example of a project Filreis has used to foster learning and academic interaction. Thirty incoming freshmen read Alberto Manguel's A History of Reading and discussed the book over a special listserv during the summer, with Filreis helping to moderate the discussion. "[Filreis] responded to a lot of us individually," College freshman Wendy Shiekman said. "He made us really excited to come [to Penn]," offered Ariel Horn, another College freshman who participated in the project. Filreis also worked on starting the Electronic Writing Advising program, a service allowing students to submit a paper to trained advisors and receive comments and critique over e-mail, 24 hours a day. "He's absolutely instrumental in getting things done," said College senior Myra Lotto, who worked with Filreis on the program. The Kelly Writers House itself is a project Filreis initiated and has kept up with as faculty director. Currently he and director Kerry Sherin are raising money for the Writers House endowment to help fund future ideas. "If he comes up with a vision, he's always thinking about how he can make it happen," Sherin said. Yet Filreis' visions extend beyond the University; or rather, he extends the University beyond the campus. Evelyn Bender, a librarian at North Philadelphia's Edison-Fareira High School, has worked with Filreis on the Penn-Edison Partnership, an initiative that brings University students to the high school to serve as tutors and mentors. Bender, Filreis' friend for 10 years, stressed that Filreis "is so full of ideas and energy." Echoing this statement, English Professor Robert Lucid said that when Filreis began his three-year term as undergraduate chairperson of the English Department in 1993, "things started blowing all over the place as soon as he came in." University Trustee Paul Kelly, the benefactor of the Kelly Writers House, said simply, "[There is] one outstanding reason for Al's success: He gets things done."
(11/11/98 10:00am)
Undergraduate Engineering Dean John Vohs answered questions at a SCUE dinner last night. How will the University help bioengineers find jobs? How will the Computer Science Department continue to attract high-quality professors when the job market in private industry is so lucrative? How does an Engineering senior balance academics and job searches? John Vohs, the undergraduate dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science, tried to answer these and other questions over dinner with 15 budding engineers at the Faculty Club last night. The Student Committee on Undergraduate Education sponsored the forum as part of its "Dinner with the Deans" program. "SCUE sees this as a wonderful opportunity to increase communication between undergraduates and the dean responsible for each student's education," said College junior Jason Schaechter, a SCUE member who helped organize the event. Engineering junior Sarah Winnacker said she worried that the school's emphasis on theory over specifics would make it more difficult for graduates to compete for jobs. "Clearly you need a balance between the two. You don't want too much theory or too much application," Vohs replied. He continued by stating that specific knowledge can be useful in the short run, but, in the long run, a good theoretical background is indispensable. When asked about the difficulties of hiring Computer Science faculty, Vohs admitted that "the job market is extremely strong" but that the University has still been able to hire highly competent professors. Cathy La Rocco, an Engineering junior, asked Vohs how students should balance their studies with the job hunt. "There is clearly a difficult balance to be drawn there," Vohs responded, adding that students should limit time to their most desirable job prospects. On the subject of bioengineering job prospects, Vohs said the University was trying to get more recruiters on campus. Engineering senior Chris Wallgren wondered about whether academics were being ignored in favor of new construction projects. "They've built a lot of nice malls, [but] we've lost three or four deans, a provost," he said. Vohs pointed to the recently implemented college house system -- which provides more academic services in residences -- as an example of an academic development and noted that deans tend to move on to other positions toward the eighth or ninth year of their terms. Many students said they enjoyed the intimate discussion. Winnacker suggested that the concept could extend beyond dinner with just the deans. "I think that faculty would be open to ideas presented in forums like this one," she suggested. On Monday SCUE is sponsoring a dinner with Wharton Undergraduate Dean Richard Herring. College students will have the opportunity to dine with their dean, Richard Beeman, next month.
(11/06/98 10:00am)
Though many people start on the path to success with humble beginnings, David Granger is perhaps the only one to go from Muppet to editor. In a speech Wednesday at the Kelly Writers House, Granger, the executive editor of Esquire magazine, outlined his career highs and lows --Ewhich included writing for Muppet Magazine under the byline of Rolf, the dog Muppet -- to a diverse audience of faculty, students and alumni. Granger noted that the story of the men's magazine is filled with at least as many ups and downs as his own life. Esquire was at one of its low points when Granger left GQ magazine to become Esquire's editor in June 1997. Bringing his personal philosophies with him -- as well as several GQ staff members -- Granger promptly turned Esquire around, increasing circulation by five percent and advertising pages by 40 percent. Asked by an aspiring journalist for advice on entering the business, Granger recommended "getting any job, losing it quickly and then getting another job." Indeed, Granger's first professional experience was writing book reviews for Muppet Magazine as Rolf. He lost the position after 18 months. Before landing at GQ, Granger worked at publications ranging from Sports Inc. to Ad Week. At GQ, he started employing the ideas that would eventually get him the job at Esquire, such as actively seeking out stories. In a feature on handguns, for example, Granger and his staff envisioned a piece on how the weapon is used and who it affects. They then toured maximum security prisons looking for "articulate murderers" who could provide the actual story. "You have to believe in something and make it the foundation of your magazine," he said. "Never put anything in a magazine just to get press." After Esquire managers noticed the direction GQ took under Granger's philosophies, they offered him the magazine's executive editor position. Esquire, he said, was "the first magazine I read that I connected with." At the time, he explained, Esquire was down to its lowest advertising revenue in years and was facing disparaging criticism in papers like The New York Times. At the helm of Esquire, Granger stuck to his ideas and tried to "publish stories that make you feel something." In doing so, he let his writers "take incredible chances with the English language." One story, entitled "Old," so vividly described the life of an elderly man that Granger recalled crying when he first saw it. Readers also responded emotionally, and soon advertising revenues were on the rise. Harrison College House Dean Art Casciato asked Granger -- a long-time friend of his -- to give Wednesday's lecture, entitled "Saving a Magazine." "No one I've met cares as deeply about literature as David Granger," said Casciato, a former University of Miami English professor. Casciato hoped Granger's speech would inspire students with his enthusiasm and success story. College senior Caroline Babson, for one, said she "worked over the summer at a magazine, so it was really interesting to hear another perspective."
(10/27/98 10:00am)
Just two days after discussing executive privilege at the University of Minnesota on a panel that included Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr, Penn Political Science Professor Mark Rozell shared his views on the Clinton scandal yesterday with about 25 faculty and students. "The White House has made the most extreme and unsupportable claims of executive privilege since Watergate," Rozell said in an interview yesterday. "Starr was absolutely right to challenge those claims." In his influential book, Executive Privilege: The Dilemma of Secrecy and Democratic Accountability, a book Clinton has read, Rozell defines executive privilege as simply "the right of the President and important executive branch officials to withhold information from Congress, the courts and ultimately the public." While the phrase was coined by the Eisenhower administration, the use of executive privilege dates back to George Washington, who used it in 1791 to withhold information from Congress about a disastrous military confrontation with Native Americans, Rozell explained. During the recent Monica Lewinsky sex scandal, the White House used the doctrine in attempts to prevent key aides and Secret Service agents from testifying before Starr's council. Rozell noted that Federal judge Norma Holloway Johnson ruled against this claim last May, forcing the Clinton staff members to testify in front of Starr's grand jury. Addressing the Lewinsky matter in the speech, "Executive Privilege and the Clinton Scandal," Rozell explained to the crowd gathered in the Political Science undergraduate lounge that executive privilege should only be invoked when it protects national security and serves the public interest. Commenting on the Clinton case, Rozell said there was "no national security justification" and Clinton's misuse of the doctrine gives executive privilege a "bad name" that could make it more difficult for future presidents to use in any situation. He then pointed out that Clinton's executive privilege claims contradicted the administration's own policy and cited an internal memorandum, written earlier in the presidency, stating that executive privilege should never be used in "investigations of personal wrongdoing by government officials." When not being interviewed by CNN or Time magazine, the 39-year-old Rozell works as the new on-site associate director of Penn's Washington Semester Program. Gathered in the audience to hear their director speak were future Washington Semester students Joy Silvern and Matt Vamvakis. Silvern, a College junior, felt that "because the issue doesn't have any effect on policy or American lives, [Clinton] should have been able to use executive privilege," and that the whole relationship "should never have been an issue in the first place." Vamvakis, a College sophomore with hopes of becoming a White House intern, countered by saying, "I don't think Clinton was just in his invocation of executive privilege because there were no lives at stake."
