Rashmi Bansal (Chris Defrancesco/UConn Health Center)

A University of Connecticut Health Center researcher is the recipient of a prestigious investigator award for her study of neurodegenerative diseases and the hope it may bring to those suffering from multiple sclerosis and related diseases.

Rashmi Bansal, professor of neuroscience, was selected by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) to receive the Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award, a seven-year grant given to only a select number of outstanding scientists for their superior competence and outstanding productivity. The award recognizes a body of work from an investigator with a history of exceptional performance.

“I had submitted a proposal to renew my current five-year grant because it was coming to an end,” Bansal says. “It is a competitive renewal process, and I had to provide a proposal for my next ideas. I was very happy to hear that it was selected for the Javits Award.”

This work involves research on a protein called fibroblast growth factor and the role it plays in diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS). Fibroblast growth factor helps the body make myelin, the coating on nerve cells that protects the cells’ axons, which are what carry nerve impulses.

“Myelin is important for nerve condition,” she explains. “In people with MS, myelin is broken down. My research involves understanding how myelin is made and how this growth factor supports it. We hope that this knowledge can be applied in the long run to devise strategies for myelin repair in MS and other demyelinating diseases.”

MS is a debilitating disease in which the body’s immune system destroys myelin, eventually causing irreversible damage to nerves. It often strikes people in their teens and early 20s, and in severe cases can cause them to lose their ability to walk or see. MS symptoms can be treated and the progression of the disease can be slowed, but there is no cure.

Bansal has published an estimated 50 papers on her research. “I was interested in studying a subject that was disease oriented,” she says. “MS is a very prevalent disease and nobody clearly knows why people get it. There are some interesting aspects to this disease, such as the fact that it affects women more than men.”

Javits awards are made to distinguished investigators who have a record of substantial contributions at the cutting edge of neurological science, who are leaders in their field, and who can be expected to continue to be highly productive during the seven-year award period.

Nominations for the award are made and approved by NINDS staff and by members of the National Advisory Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NANDS) Council. The award was established in 1983 by the U.S. Congress in honor of the late New York Senator Jacob Javits, who was afflicted with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease) and was a strong advocate for support of research in a wide variety of disorders of the brain and nervous system.

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Jim Wohl, University Ombuds, at his office in Homer Babbidge Library. (Peter Morenus/UConn Photo)

Jim Wohl recently joined UConn as its new University Ombuds, coming to Storrs from his previous position as University Ombudsperson and professor of veterinary medicine at Auburn University.

Wohl, a native of Schenectady, N.Y., was a practicing veterinarian and Auburn faculty member when he started exploring his growing interest in conflict management several years ago. It led him to roles in workplace mediation in higher education and the power industry, and also a stint as interim University Ombudsperson at Louisiana State.

He became Auburn’s founding Ombudsperson in 2008, and joined UConn this spring when President Susan Herbst revived the Ombuds Office that was previously in place from 1970 to 1991. The University has also updated the office’s charter.

An ombuds office helps workers find strategies and solutions to workplace difficulties, improving their on-the-job experiences and the efficiency and operations of the institution as a whole.

The UConn Ombuds Office is located on the second floor of the Homer Babbidge Library, in rooms 2-189 and 2-191 of the Jausz Family Reading Room of the Art and Design Library.

Wohl invites University employees and graduate students to call him at 860-486-5143 to learn more about how his services can help or to schedule an appointment to talk in person.

Undergraduate students are asked to continue to contact the Office of Student Services and Advocacy in the Division of Student Affairs with questions or concerns that may be affecting their educational or personal goals.

Wohl sat down recently with UConn Today’s Stephanie Reitz to answer some of the questions that may be on people’s minds.

———

Q.        First, the basics. What does an ombuds officer do and not do, and what services does your office provide?
A.        The office is designed for faculty and non-faculty employees, administrators, and graduate students at Storrs and the regional campuses. It’s an off-the-record, informal resource for people to address any concerns that are affecting their work experiences at UConn. It’s important to understand that it doesn’t replace other offices that are set up to address specific concerns, but is a supplement to them.

Ideally, it’s a resource for conflict management at the very earliest phase of a problem when it can be identified and addressed, rather than being allowed to ripen over a period of time. We’ll end up talking about different options and strategies – they can range from finding coping strategies to, on the other end of the spectrum, identifying the formal offices where they can report a concern for follow-up. Options in between might include helping them prepare for a conversation they believe may be difficult, or helping identify signals that a situation has the potential to get better.

Here’s what an ombuds officer doesn’t do: I have no authority to force anyone to make any decisions, and I can’t overturn any decisions. I don’t have reporting lines that give me authority over anyone else. From a neutral position, I assist people to try to find mutually agreeable solutions.

Q.        It can be difficult for people to talk about conflicts they have with another person, given that even acknowledging those conflicts can exacerbate the tension. Do both sides of a dispute need to participate in the ombuds process?
A.        Absolutely not. The whole idea is to preserve confidentiality to the strictest extent permitted by law so people know that when they’re coming here, it’s a safe place to have a candid conversation without fear of retaliation.

That being said, there may be times when each party wants to come together and discuss the issue, and doing that with an ombuds to help guide the conversation and consider the options can be very productive. They would need to be mutually agreeable to that, though – I won’t speak to anyone else without the person’s permission, even to the extent of confirming that a conversation with me took place.

Q.        What principles guide you and the ombuds process?
A.        There are four of them, and they’re very clear-cut.

The first is confidentiality, and that’s the cornerstone. Our discussions are always confidential to the extent permitted by law, with the only limitation being if something is discussed that includes the imminent risk of serious harm. Beyond that, it’s important that people feel safe that it’s a private conversation.

The second principle is informality, by which we mean that the Ombuds Office isn’t considered a formal “office of notice” for the University and doesn’t participate in formal compliance and personnel matters or investigations. There may be times when people attempt to seek a solution through the Ombuds Office and a solution isn’t reached, and it goes to a grievance process – but I don’t participate in that. There are no official records kept at the office beyond non-confidential annual reports I would prepare on its overall operations.

Another important principle is neutrality. I don’t serve as an advocate for the University nor for any individual who visits the office. Instead, my energy is focused on surfacing the interests of everyone involved. That can often be the best way to find a workable and mutually agreeable solution.

The final principle is independence. It’s a common and fair question to be asked how someone in the ombuds role can be independent when you’re being paid by the University like everyone else and working under the same rules. But one of the benefits of being among the workforce is that it gives the ombuds officer a good understanding of the rules, being that I have to live by them like everyone else.

The independence is also affirmed by the way the office is structured. I report directly to President Herbst, but she doesn’t regulate my day-to-day activities. Since the position isn’t pulled into the reporting structure of another office on campus, I can remain independent of those offices. At the same time, I also have access to the people on the management side of the institution to look for solutions to meet everyone’s needs.

Q.        Can I email you about my problem?
A.        I won’t communicate anything substantive over email, largely because email is never a safe place to discuss sensitive issues. It is not a confidential medium, and as I said, privacy is critical to this process. It’s OK to reach out by email to set up a time to talk, but the telephone or face to face is the much more preferred method of discussing an issue.

I also do discourage people from spontaneously dropping by the office because I like to be able to manage by appointment as people are coming and going. That’s another way to help ensure everyone’s confidentiality and comfort in the privacy of the process.

Q.        My schedule can make it difficult for me to meet with you during business hours, especially if I’m generally at another campus and don’t get to Storrs often. Am I out of luck?
A.        This office is a resource to the entire University and its workforce and graduate students, and that’s not limited by geography. I’m visiting the five regional campuses this summer and starting the process of getting to know as many people as I can, and getting the word out that the office is available.

I’ll travel, I’ll meet with people on weekends and after hours. I know it can be difficult for people to get away and meet during office hours or get to my office, so I’ll do all that I can to be flexible. I’ll meet with people wherever and whenever they’re most comfortable.

Though the Health Center and Law School have personnel systems that are unique to their campuses, I’m still available to employees and graduate students there if I can be helpful.

Q.        What were your first impressions of UConn? Do you have any favorite spots on campus yet? Have you settled on a favorite ice cream at the Dairy Bar?
A.        I had a really positive feeling right away when I visited for the interview. There was a really palpable sense of excitement about the future and a commitment to finding quality solutions to workplace problems. The enthusiasm was contagious, and every day that I’ve been here has been satisfying and fascinating, in all sincerity.

One of my favorite spots is the shaded space behind The Benton. It’s so beautiful and peaceful. But I think my very favorite spot has to be the [Albert E. Waugh] sundial garden – I’ve been able to see spring blossom there and all around campus and it’s been amazing.

And at the Dairy Bar, it’s Husky Tracks for me, definitely. It’s fantastic.

For the spring 2013 Faculty Large Grant competition, the Research Advisory Council received 62 proposals, and made 30 awards totaling more than $481,000. The proposals were peer reviewed by members of a panel.

The award recipients are:

Alfredo Angeles-Boza, Chemistry, Mechanistic Studies of C02 Binding and Activation, $25,000

Michael Bradford, Dramatic Arts, The Lorca Triptych: Love, Death, and Duende, $9,246

Timothy Byrne, Marine Sciences, Imaging a Breakup Lithospheric Plate during an Arc-Continent Collision in Taiwan (Sabbatical), $3,781

James Chrobak, Psychology, Consequences of Chronic Ketamine (NMDA Antagonist) On Memory, Proactive Interference, and Neuroanatomy at Different Developmental Ages in the Rat, $14,000

James Cole, Molecular & Cell Biology, Mechanism for Activation of Rig-I by Viral RNA, $14,000

Christopher Cornelius, Chemical, Materials, & Biomolecular Engineering, Designing Nanomaterials, $24,999

Kimberly Cuevas, Psychology, A Systematic Analysis of the Infant EEG Mu Rhythm, $25,000

Martha Cutter, English, The Illustrated Slave: Graphic Narrative and the Visual Culture of the Transatlantic Abolition Movement, 1820-1852, $3,030

Gerald Dunne, Physics, Quantum Control in Intense Laser-Particle Physics (Sabbatical), $10,805

Monty Escabi, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Optimizing Electrical Stimulation Algorithms for Auditory Implants, $28,217

Roslyn Holly Fitch, Psychology, Language Deficits in Autism and Assessment of the Cntnap2 Mouse, $14,000

Amy Gorin, Psychology, Development and Testing of a Behaviorally Based, Ecologically Grounded Weight Management Intervention for Active Duty Submariners, $24,918

Idethia Harvey, Human Development & Family Studies, Social Relationships and Diabetes Self-Management Practices among Caribbean Women Residing in Connecticut, $19,774

John Ivan, Civil & Environmental Engineering, Statistical Modeling of Highway Crash Severity: A Multi-State Hierarchical Bayesian Multiple-Response Framework, $27,182

Prakash Kashwan, Political Science, The Socio-Economic, Ecological, and Political Drivers of Forest Land Rights in India, $15,000

David Knecht, Molecular & Cell Biology, Why do Silica Particles Kill Cells: The Role of Phagosomal Maturation and ROS Generation, $14,000

Hassanaly Ladha, Literature, Culture, & Languages, The Idea of Arica: Hegel, Architecture, and the Political Subject, $5,410

Yizao Liu, Agricultural & Resource Economics, Evaluating Consumer Demand, Consumer Learning, and the Health Effects of Bottled Water Consumption in the U.S., $24,009

Robert Mason, Marine Sciences, Examination of the Factors Controlling the Net Input of Mercury to the Ocean (Sabbatical), $4,294

Eric May, Molecular & Cell Biology, Computational Study into the Structure and Dynamics of the Lassa Virus Ribonucleoprotein Complex, $20,000

Barbara Mellone, Molecular & Cell Biology, A Novel Approach to Study Neocentromere Formation and Inactivation, $20,000

Kenneth Noll, Molecular & Cell Biology, Thermus thermophilus: Biofuel Generation through Design and Analysis of a Genetically Tractable Extreme Thermophile, $5,500

Margaret Rubega, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Thermal Imaging for Ecological Research, $14,000

Mary Rumpho-Kennedy, Molecular & Cell Biology, Shifting Our Approach Towards Identify Mechanisms of Establishment and Maintenance of a Unique Host-Symbiont Association, $20,000

Elizabeth Schifano, Statistics, Statistical Methods for High-Dimensional Genomic Data, $19,470

Juliette Shellman, Nursing, A Peer Reminiscence Intervention to Decrease Depression in Minority Elders, $17,238

Luis Van Isschot, History, Understanding the Impact of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Latin America’s Conflict Zones, $7,764

John Volin, Natural Resources & the Environment, Phenological Responses to Climate Warming, and their Implications for Exotic Invasive Plants in Temperate Forest Understories: A Pilot Study, $20,000

Sarah Willen, Anthropology, Renegade Moralities: “Illegality,” Exclusion, and Existential Struggle among African and Filipino Migrants in Israel, $3,610

Pinar Zorlutuna, Mechanical Engineering, Cell-Based Logical Gates Using Microfabricated Substrates, $26,837

From the expertise of our renowned faculty to inspiring student achievements, UConn pride is spreading locally, nationally, and globally. Take a look at our roundup of some recent major stories:

Diagnosing Autism and Overcoming Symptoms

UConn psychology professor Deborah Fein weighs in on the need for resources and funding to help children diagnosed with autism in the Boston Globe, and is referenced in The New York Times for a study about children who have overcome autism symptoms. Read the Boston Globe story and the New York Times story.

High Five for the Class of 2013

UConn ranks #5 of flagship universities whose graduates earn the highest starting salaries, as reported by CBS News. Read the story.

AEDs over EKGs

In a recent New York Times article about young athletes and heat stroke, UConn professor and COO of the Korey Stringer Institute Douglas Casa advocates for athletic trainers and training on automatic external defibrillators (AEDs). Read the story.

Tracking Cicadas, All in a Day’s Work

As Connecticut awaits the emergence of billions of cicadas, UConn evolutionary biology professor John Cooley is on the road, tracking the insects that have lived underground for the past 17 years. He talks to nature.com about the importance of his cicada research. Read the story.

Looking for more UConn news coverage like this? Keep reading UConn Today and follow UConn’s social media accounts for daily news, photos, and more. We’re on Facebook, Google Plus, Twitter, and more.

“If you were to consider your life in general, how happy or unhappy would you say you are, on the whole?”
Source: The University of Connecticut/Hartford Courant survey of 1,006 randomly selected adults nationwide, June 4-June 11, 2013.

While very few Americans say that money is the most important factor in determining whether they’re happy in life, the more they earn the happier they are, according to a new University of Connecticut/Hartford Courant Poll.

The survey provides an in-depth look at how Americans feel about their lives, gauging happiness by everything from specific qualities of jobs to how often people exercise.

“If you had to say, which one of the following things do you think is most important in determining how happy you are in life …”
Source: The University of Connecticut/Hartford Courant survey of 1,006 randomly selected adults nationwide, June 4-June 11, 2013.

Overall, most Americans say intangible qualities are key to their happiness, with 50 percent identifying closeness to family as the most important factor and 21 percent saying it’s good health. Just 3 percent identify a lot of money as the top factor, and only 8 percent say it’s a rewarding career.

At the same time, 71 percent of Americans earning $100,000 a year or more report feeling either completely happy or very happy with their lives, compared to 60 percent of those making between $60,000 and $100,000 annually, and 49 percent of people earning under $60,000.

Other factors tied to personal wealth relate to the likelihood of being happy, the survey found: 68 percent of homeowners report feeling happy, compared to 47 percent of renters. And 58 percent of people with jobs say they’re happy, compared to 47 percent of unemployed people.

Overall, 58 percent of Americans say they’re either completely happy or very happy, but that seeming bliss has some complications. Forty-two percent say they frequently experience stress in their daily lives, and 62 percent say they’d be happier if their household incomes were to double.

“In general, how often do you experience stress in your daily life — never, rarely, sometimes, or frequently?”
Source: The University of Connecticut/Hartford Courant survey of 1,006 randomly selected adults nationwide, June 4-June 11, 2013.

“We’ve all heard some variation of the phrase ‘money can’t buy happiness,’ and while people are reluctant to say it’s the most important thing in life, it clearly plays a role,” UConn Poll Director Jennifer Necci Dineen said. “Money can also factor into some of these other areas, like quality of health and housing, which contribute to overall happiness.”

In addition to the broader measures of happiness, the UConn/Courant Poll discovered fine-grained detail about specific aspects of Americans’ lives, including:

• A set of questions in which Americans rate from 0 to 10 the importance of various factors in determining their happiness: relationships with family and spouses or partners rank as the most important;
• The frequency with which people perform activities related to happiness: the happiest people are more likely to exercise and pray daily, and to donate time, goods, or money, among other factors;
• Aspects of work that may play a role in happiness: the survey found that majorities of Americans with jobs are not only happy with their pay, but with factors like the degree of independence they have and the intellectual challenge of their work.

For a complete set of questions and tabulations, visit http://poll.uconn.edu.

These findings are based on The University of Connecticut/Hartford Courant Poll. The national sample of 1,006 randomly selected adults were interviewed by landline and cellular telephone between June 4 and June 11, 2013. The margin of sampling error for the survey is +/- 3 percentage points for the entire sample, and larger for subgroups.

The data have been weighted by the number of adults in a household and the number of telephone numbers, land and cellular, at which adults in the household can be reached in order to equalize the chances of an individual adult being selected.  The data have also been weighted by the sex, race and level of education of the respondent based on the American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census.

Anti-bullying class organizers, from left: seated, Michelle Slivinsky and Dr. Marian Moca and standing, third-year medical students Christine Castater and Christine Shapter. (Sarah Turker/UConn Health Center Photo)

Bullying – whether it’s verbal, physical or cyber – seems to be pervasive among adolescents and may lead to significant emotional and behavioral problems.

Communities may offer multiple programs to address the issue, often with variable results. That may be because some teens find it difficult talking about the issue with adults.

That’s why the University of Connecticut’s School of Medicine has embarked on a different model. The Anti-Bullying Class (ABC) is led by UConn medical students and primarily targets kids in middle school, the age when bullying typically peaks.

“It seems students don’t feel comfortable going to teachers or administrators, or even their parents,” says Christine Castater, third-year medical student. “All they really do is talk to their peers.”

The med students have found the children perceive them as more accessible and approachable than school personnel or clinicians. Even though there is an age difference, they still look at them as their peers, rather than authority figures.

“When we say, ‘I was bullied too or this was an experience that I had,’ it’s almost like modeling,” says Castater. “They hear about our experiences and see that we are now happy and successful, so they realize that maybe that is something they could achieve, too.”

The ABC task force holds workshops in schools throughout the state. The workshops may involve a large group of 15 to 20 students or a smaller group of five to seven students. The groups are led by one or two medical students.

“They play games and role-play to encourage participation,” says Dr. Marian Moca, assistant professor of psychiatry in the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and director of the UConn Public School Consultation Service. “They focus on the relationship between ‘bullying’ and ‘feelings.’”

“We talk about how bullying feels when it’s being done to you but also how does it feel when you are watching it being done to somebody else,” adds Castater. “And we talked about actions. What do you do or who do you go to ask for help if you or someone else is being bullied?”

“It is our honor to be able to connect with young minds in open dialogue about bullying, and it is our responsibility to ensure we do everything we can to reach those who need help now—and to do our part in building the type of culture where bullying will be seen as a thing of the past,” says Oscar Gerdner, a third-year medical student and member of ABC.

Depression Education and Health Promotion Project

ABC is an off-shoot of another UConn school-based educational program called Depression Education and Health Promotion Project (DEHPP).

Project coordinator Michelle Slivinsky says that the DEHPP travel to schools and various organizations in the state and give presentations to children, parents and teachers about depression as well as mental health awareness.

(Shutterstock Photo)

“So much of our life is based on emotion,” says Slivinsky. “Parents are so concerned about providing food and clothing, but sometimes don’t think about the emotional development of their child.”

Depression Education aims to help teachers and parents – and even the kids themselves – identify who might be at risk for developing depression.

Moca says by age 24, most adult mental disorders have onset already, so caring for a child’s mental health should be a priority. “Mental health patients are typically pushed to the periphery but instead of pushing them away, they need to be encouraged to talk about their feelings.”

“Getting them help early and de-stigmatizing depression and mental illness is important in preventing long-term emotional problems,” adds Slivinsky.

During the Depression Education presentations, many of the questions and feedback they received from participants revolved around the issue of bullying. That’s when Moca and Slivinsky decided they needed a program like ABC in December of 2011.

These two community outreach programs are an important part of the UConn School Consultation Service, a relatively new service initiated and developed by Moca since 2010. “Working with schools is central in our work as child psychiatrists and other health professionals. People have asked us if we were doing this because of the Sandy Hook tragedy. The answer is no; we have been doing this for quite some time and need to be doing even more,” says Moca.

“As the next generation of physicians, we are on the forefront of mental health care, poised in a meaningful position to effect cultural change by working directly with students and schools to make our communities safer and healthier places to grow up,” adds Gerdner.

First-Year Findings

Preliminary findings from ABC’s first year found that the middle school students were comfortable in working with the medical students. They also found that the children openly shared their emotions and learned about psychiatric conditions for which they could get help.

They also found that older students were more preoccupied with social rejection while younger students were concerned with physical aggression.

Moca is pleased the program was well received in the community and hopes they can expand the program into more Connecticut schools. They also plan to collect data during their workshops to help aid in future research on the topic.

Other goals for Moca include recruiting more medical students to get involved with ABC, especially first- and second-year students to ensure continuity of the program; and applying for grants and trying to attract donors to help fund it.

“Right now we have no formal funding, just passion and commitment,” says Moca. “But we feel it’s such an important program and a good way of giving back to the community. Our motto is ‘help is all around’…and we’re hoping people will be there to help us, too.”

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Dr. Yifrah Kaminer

Doctor at UConn Health Center Hopes to Treat Pot Users

New Britain Herald, June 16, 2013

Dr. Yifrah Kaminer of UConn Health Center is developing a ‘treatment tree’ to help teenagers struggling to break their addiction to marijuana.

Read More >

Dr. Ren-He Xu

Stem Cell Grants Target Multiple Sclerosis, Epilepsy, Cancer

The CT Mirror, June 13, 2013

One of the largest awards, $1.13 million, went to a startup company, ImStem Biotechnology, which is based on research by Dr. Ren-He Xu, director of UConn’s Stem Cell Core.

Read More >

Dr. Thomas M. DeBerardino

Yankees and Red Sox Injuries

ESPN Radio, June 11, 2013

Dr. Tom DeBerardino joined The Bower Show to discuss the various Yankees and Red Sox injuries including another injury to a key starting pitcher.

Listen to the broadcast >

Dr. Jane Grant-Kels

New Technology to Detect Melanoma

WFSB-CBS TV, June 6, 2013

Every 62 minutes, a person in the U.S. dies from melanoma. WFSB-TV’s Irene O’Connor talks with the head of dermatology at the UConn Health Center, Dr. Jane Grant-Kels, about new 3D imaging technology that helps make diagnosing lesions easier without having to biopsy.

Watch the broadcast >

Dr. Cheryl Oncken

Exploring the Impact of Electronic Cigarettes

WTNH-ABC TV, June 4, 2013

There isn’t a lot of data on electronic cigarettes. How safe are they? That’s what Dr. Cheryl Oncken at the UConn Health Center wants to know. Battery powered cigarettes are marketed as an alternative to tobacco. Most contain nicotine and flavoring.

Watch the broadcast >

Dr. Rebecca Andrews

Staying Healthy in the Heat

WTIC NewsTalk 1080 Radio, May 30, 2013

Dr. Rebecca Andrews, primary care physician, discusses potential health hazards associated with the heat.

Listen to the broadcast >

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UConn joined the group, known as eduroam (short for “education roaming”), this spring and started offering connectivity in mid-May. The service allows anyone with a UConn-issued NetID to use those credentials for fully encrypted Internet access at thousands of other institutions that participate in eduroam in more than 60 nations and territories.

The access eliminates the need for users to get guest credentials from the institution they are visiting, and avoids data roaming charges. Access is available through iPhones and iPods in addition to standard laptops, tablets, and other properly configured computers.

It’s expected to be a particularly beneficial service for UConn students in study abroad programs, educators traveling for research trips or conferences, and others who need quick access to a secure Internet hotspot around the globe.

“Being part of the eduroam federation allows UConn to reach out globally to enhance its research and institutional goals,” says Jason Pufahl, UConn’s chief information security officer. He says UConn’s participation came to fruition as part of a collaborative effort by the various departments in the University Information Technology Services office.

UConn students and faculty members started using their credentials right away to access eduroam hotspots in the weeks after UConn’s participation became official on May 10. One professor was so pleased with the new service that she immediately emailed a UConn computer technician to report its success as she logged on through eduroam while visiting the British Museum of Natural History in London.

UConn’s participation in the eduroam federation also will help overseas researchers and international visitors when they come to UConn’s campuses, removing the administrative steps of needing to get a NetID, and enabling them to get access to the Internet quickly so they can continue their work.

While the international access will be beneficial for students and staff during overseas visits, accessing the Internet at other U.S. sites can also be helpful for students studying in their home states during semester breaks, at internships away from UConn’s campuses, or on other trips.

The eduroam collaboration started in Europe in 2003 as a pilot program with six countries participating, and now includes partners at institutions in more than 60 nations and territories worldwide.

Nationally, UConn is among about 100 eduroam participants, including seven other colleges and universities in New England.

Nurse Wendy Martinson, quality assurance specialist, CHA Healthcare Hero (Janine Gelineau/UConn Health Center Photo)

Wendy Martinson, a registered nurse with the role of quality assurance specialist at the UConn Health Center, is a Connecticut Hospital Association 2013 Healthcare Hero.

Colleagues recognize Martinson as the driving force behind the Health Center’s initiative to help heart failure patients make the transition back home. It includes the establishment of what’s become known as “The Dream Team,” a group of community service providers that meets monthly to discuss care for heart failure patients. Two years later, the Dream Team has grown to nearly 50 community members and has received national recognition. The UConn Health Center has shown significant improvement in heart failure readmission rates, which are now below the state and national averages.

“Wendy’s outstanding work spearheading our heart failure program has improved the lives of hundreds of heart failure patients who come through the UConn system, and we are very lucky to have her as part of our team,” says Dr. Jason Ryan of UConn’s Pat and Jim Calhoun Cardiology Center.

Wendy Martinson, with Dr. Jason Ryan, who nominated her for the CHA Healthcare Hero award. (Janine Gelineau/UConn Health Center Photo)

Ryan wrote in his nomination, “At the broader hospital level, we have seen a dramatic improvement in the care we provide to heart failure patients. None of this would have happened without Wendy’s dedication and hard work.”

UConn Health Center Chief Nursing Officer Ellen Leone says, “Wendy Martinson is a nurse leader in a nontraditional leader role within the Department of Quality Programs. She is steadfast and persistent in her approach to coordinating care for our heart failure patients, demonstrating the ability to pull a team of professionals together to improve the lives of our patients. We are very proud to have her as one of our nurse colleagues.”

CHA will present its 2013 Healthcare Hero awards at its annual meeting June 25 in Southington. The award goes back to 2002, intended to celebrate health care workers’ contributions to their field and community.

“I am so very honored to receive the Connecticut Hospital Association’s Healthcare Hero Award,” Martinson says. “I am humbled by Dr. Jason Ryan’s nomination and I am proud of all the work that the heart failure team has accomplished, and I share this award with them.”

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Dr. Runjhun Misra (Tina Encarnacion/UConn Health Center Photo)

When I found out I’d be delivering the graduation speech, I was elated.

But as the realization set in, I panicked.

How do you write a graduation speech to summarize a journey that showed us life, death, suffering and salvation? I really didn’t know where to begin.

It’s been three years, or 36 months, or 1,095 days, or 26,280 hours, or 1,576,800 minutes, or exactly 94,608,000 seconds since residency started. You get the point.

It’s been a long journey—at least 23 years of education—and it’s finally coming to an end. How could I explain this journey in the best way possible?

So I tried to find another journey that could compete with our ridiculous one.

And then it came to me: “Lord of the Rings” and the journey through “Middle-earth.”

Let me clarify some similarities between the two journeys:

1. “Lord of the Rings” starts with a handful of strangers who are assembled and led by a white-haired wizard atop a horse. We’ll call him Gandalf. Our class started off with a handful of strangers, who were assembled and led by a white-haired individual atop a motorcycle. We’ll call this man Dr. Lane. (Dr. Lane, I guess horses aren’t really that fashionable anymore?)
2. Frodo and his pack were the first group Gandalf assembled. The class of 2013 was the first class Dr. Lane assembled. I would like to point out that it was the best class he ever assembled. Ahem. Thank you.
3. In “Lord of the Rings,” the days were tough, the hours long, and the rest little. Our class was the last one to experience “real” medicine, before ACGME, the governing body, imposed limits on resident working hours to a maximum of 16 per shift. That meant, for us, the days were tough, the hours long, and the rest, little.
4. Like Frodo forced to eat stale bread and water, our meals during calls often comprised of saltine crackers and ginger ale from the emergency room pantry.
5. In the journey through Middle-earth, Frodo and his team were often travelling all day and sleeping short hours. Like them, we worked long hours and sometimes never saw the sight of a bed during our 30-hour calls.
6. Sméagol was often a big hindrance and threat during the journey through Middle-earth. Although I haven’t seen any slimy bald hobbits crawling around at New Britain hospital, I know that we have all fought our own demons in the past three years.
7. Although we were a bit weary of one another initially, like Legolas was to the red-haired dwarf, we soon realized that in strangers we can find family. In both stories, by the end, these strangers had become inseparable, their lives being intertwined forever.
8. Gandalf was always aware of his team’s strengths before they realized it themselves. Dr. Lane, not surprisingly, knew of our potential before we were tested.
9. And lastly, Gandalf was always the biggest supporter, advocate and guardian of his team. Even when he wasn’t physically around, he was present in spirit. Dr. Lane was no different. His unwavering faith in his team and unconditional support and encouragement led his team to where they stand today: graduation. When the end was near and the travelers tired, Gandalf sent in eagles to fly them home. Dr. Lane went a step ahead: he didn’t just give us wings, he taught us how to fly.

I guess in that sense, wizards come in many forms. They don’t all have to come on horses with long white hair billowing in the mountain wind.

Carson Mullers once said, “The closest thing to being cared for is to care for someone else.” In that sense, we have all been well cared for these past three years. At some point, all of us realized that we had taken not only taken the Hippocratic oath, but also a personal one to be a lifelong caregiver. Unknowingly, the same patients we took care of were also the ones taking care of us.

As we travelled this road, we provided care in many different forms. It wasn’t always administering the right medication at the right time. Sometimes it meant holding a wife’s hand while her husband took his last breath, or bringing water to a patient who had just passed his swallow test after a stroke. In that respect, defining a physician was a little tough. So I decided to look up the definition. I went to Webster’s Dictionary, and it said: “a person skilled in the art of healing.” I was intrigued. This was a very unconventional definition, a broad one that encompassed many unsaid truths. Knowingly and unknowingly, we heal in many ways. Sometimes, a human touch is all that is needed between sickness and health. There is so much to the art of healing that we are still learning that I cannot begin to unveil today. However, I do remember that healers have been linked to divinity in ancient times, because they were a means of guarding and safekeeping our most prized possession: our health. Healers are no different today. They work hard to preserve health and ultimately, life.

A smart man once said to Peter Parker that, “with great power comes great responsibility.” I am reminded today, of how true it rings for all of us on this day when we will finally take our solo flight. We have been given this gift: the opportunity of being able to protect life. With that immense ability comes an even greater responsibility.

In a world where war is ever prevalent, where hatred lurks in school yards, buses and in places of worship, the hospital is perhaps one place where everyone is treated equally, regardless of creed, race or social status. As a healer, then, we have the ability to convey a strong message: If people are mandated to receive the same quality of medical care, why shouldn’t we be mandated to treat everyone with the same love and respect we reserve for our friends and family?

In medical school, we were given the privilege to dissect a human body. More than just teaching us about human anatomy, it reinforced the fact that we are identical inside.

Although it’s been a long journey, I’m glad we took it together. We are leaving today having made countless memories together. Like “The Fellowship of the Ring,” our journey has come to an end. Everything we have been through in the past three years will never be forgotten. The lessons we had to learn in the toughest of situations will continue to mold us through our lifetime. Nothing worth having in life comes without sacrifice. And residency was no different. In order to be where we are today, we have had to sacrifice the things we cherished and the time we spent with people we love. I just wanted to say, on behalf of you all, a thank you to our loved ones for enduring this journey with us. A thank you to our dedicated faculty whose time spent with us often meant missing their child’s recital or science project.

It takes a village to raise a child. And although we are no longer children, it definitely took a hospital to raise a doctor.

We thank you today for every time we forgot to acknowledge an act of kindness bestowed upon us. I know we will never forget the last three years, our teachers, or each other. The end is today, but our fellowship will endure for many years to come. So let us celebrate what we have been looking forward to for so many years, and let us make this a night to remember.

In the words of Tolkien, “If this is to be our end, then I would have them make such an end, as to be worthy of remembrance.”

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Carol Masheter ’83 MA, ’88 Ph.D. (Photo by Anne Marie Spencer)

Carol Masheter ’83 MA, ’88 Ph.D. has been to the tops of the world. Last year, she became the world’s oldest woman, at age 65, to reach the top of every one of the highest mountains on each of the seven continents, known as the Seven Summits, plus Carstensz Pyramid in Papua, Indonesia. Despite her fear of heights and longtime battle with anxiety, Masheter decided to take on high-altitude mountaineering starting at age 50, in her struggle to overcome the grief and distress of losing her job, her long-term relationship, and her mother – all within 18 months of one another.

A crowd of reporters and friends greeted me as I trotted down the stairs to the baggage claim area of the Salt Lake City International Airport. I was returning from Australia, where I had summited the last of the Seven Summits, becoming the oldest woman in the world to have climbed the highest peak on each continent. The fatigue of travel evaporated as friends hugged and congratulated me, and reporters crowded around to ask questions.

When I first learned about the Seven Summits in my early 40s, they seemed beyond reach – too difficult, too far away, too expensive. Besides, I was busy launching my second career as a university professor. But when my life fell apart at age 50, I headed to the Bolivian Andes to heal and discovered that I was a pretty decent mountaineer.

Masheter reaches Antarctica’s highest peak on Jan. 8, 2012. (Photo by Simon Gower)

One climb led to another; I gained skills and experience. By the time I had reached age 60, I was climbing Aconcagua, the highest peak in South America, in memory of my dad, who had died of his second heart attack at the same age.

A year and a half later, I was climbing Everest – a 10-week expedition.

The World’s Tallest Mountain

For several of those weeks, I lived alongside my fellow climbers at Base Camp. There, our cluster of tents were pitched amidst a jumble of ice formations, gray rock, and boulders near the base of the Khumbu Icefall, a dramatic tumble of giant ice blocks and crevasses 1,800 feet high.

Occasionally, icebergs calved and crashed into a frozen lake behind my tent, while the glacier beneath us moaned and shifted like a restless beast under my sleeping bag. Every avalanche cracked with sounds of doom, certain to roar through Base Camp and kill us all.

Battling winds more than 70 miles per hour to summit Aconcagua on Jan. 21, 2007. (Photos supplied by Carol Masheter)

As we ascended week by week, camp by camp, our bodies adapted to higher elevations, and Everest’s summit got closer. The night we started our summit attempt, I squinted in the dark at the thermometer on my pack. It read minus 15 degrees Fahrenheit, warm by Everest standards. I felt lucky, even as my face turned numb.

Several times as I labored up rugged, steep terrain, I smelled frying bacon. I was puzzled; no one would be frying bacon at an elevation above 27,000 feet. Slowly, a memory rose through my altitude-fogged mind. I had experienced a similar olfactory hallucination about 15 years ago during another demanding event, a 26-hour, 76-mile hike through central Utah. I realized I wasn’t losing my mind, just hallucinating.

After many challenges and setbacks, I stood on Everest’s peak. The view from the top was magical, one that documentaries and photos do not fully capture; far below me, many of the world’s highest mountaintops floated like enchanted islands in a sea of clouds. I could have been on the summit 10 minutes or 30 years. I could not say. Time stood still.

Taking the Next Step

People often ask why I climb. The otherworldly beauty atop the highest peaks is one reason. In the mountains, I feel centered, focused, fully alive. And I have learned so much from mountaineering – from breaking big problems into small, doable steps to realizing that perceived enemies can be one’s closest allies.

Each mountain has its own challenges. On Everest, acclimatizing to the thin, cold air takes weeks of climbing up and down the mountain. Though Denali in Alaska is nearly 9,000 feet lower than Everest, there are no porters or yaks to help climbers carry gear. On Vinson Massif in Antarctica, extreme cold, exacerbated by wind, is the main danger. People have gotten lost and died in snowstorms even on Mount Kosciuszko in Australia, the lowest of the Seven.

Climbing Indonesia’s Carstensz Pyramid in 2012. (Photos supplied by Carol Masheter)

I treat each climb as though it is my last. Now age 66, I see each climb as a gift. I plan to climb as long as I enjoy it and am not putting my fellow climbers at unnecessary risk. But taking the next step is always what is most important.

If you have an unfulfilled dream of your own, whether it is climbing the Seven Summits or just getting into better shape, come up with a workable plan. Then do something, no matter how small, toward making that dream happen. It might be as simple as making a phone call. Keep in mind, after all, that the second hardest thing is to start. The first hardest is to keep going.

Carol Masheter ’83 MA, ’88 Ph.D. is a former research chemist, university professor in human development and relationships, and public health epidemiologist. She recently retired to spend more time sharing lessons learned in the mountains and is now a full-time mountaineer, author, and speaker. Her first book, No Magic Helicopter: An Aging Amazon’s Climb of Everest (Aventine Press, 2010), chronicles her preparation for and climb of Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain, in 2008 at age 61. She is currently working on a second book. For more information, visit carolmasheter.com.

From left: UConn Health Center Board of Directors Chair Sanford Cloud, State Sen. Gary LeBeau, Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, UConn President Susan Herbst, UConn Health Center Executive VP for Health Affairs and Medical School Dean Frank Torti, and UConn School of Dental Medicine Dean R. Lamont MacNeil join in the groundbreaking for the first of the Bioscience Connecticut Construction projects June 11, 2012. (Tina Encarnacion/UConn Health Center Photo)

In the year following its groundbreaking last June, all aspects of Bioscience Connecticut have moved forward on time and on budget. Of note, the project has created about 500 construction and related jobs on the UConn Health Center campus in its first year, including higher-than-required averages for small business participation and 85 percent of all work going to Connecticut-based contractors. The number of construction jobs will rise significantly over the next three years.

“Bioscience Connecticut was an important first step in positioning Connecticut as a leader in the industry,” said Governor Dannel P. Malloy. “This investment, in conjunction with the new Bioscience Innovation Fund and our other efforts, not only creates thousands of good paying jobs with good benefits, but also highlights the commitment we have to growing this sector of our economy. Our vigorous approach to establishing long-term partnerships between our universities, medical centers, and private sector businesses will strengthen Connecticut’s overall economic strength and competitiveness.”

Championed by Malloy and approved by the Connecticut General Assembly in 2011, Bioscience Connecticut is a forward-thinking plan to create thousands of construction and related jobs in the short term and generate long-term, sustainable economic growth based on bioscience research, innovation, entrepreneurship, and commercialization. It is a multifaceted plan that will help reinvent the state’s economy, drawing upon research resources from UConn, the UConn Health Center, Yale University, and points in between.

“As we move forward with this exciting project, we remain enormously appreciative of the support and confidence entrusted to us from Governor Malloy and the General Assembly,” says Dr. Frank M. Torti, the Health Center’s executive vice president for health affairs and dean of the UConn School of Medicine. “Bioscience Connecticut is changing the landscape of the UConn Health Center as well as the entire region. The plan includes both construction and renovations on the Farmington campus, in addition to community-based initiatives to help solve pressing health care problems and increase the number of health care providers available to care for our state for years to come.”

Garage 3 shortly before opening on April 16, 2013. (Janine Gelineau/UConn Health Center Photo)

Of note, Bioscience Connecticut garnered more than $1.45 million in philanthropic support in its first year. This includes proceeds from the 2013 White Coat Gala, as well as gifts of $250,000 each from Richard and Jane Lublin and the Chase family: David and Rhoda Chase, Arnold and Sandra Chase, and Cheryl Chase and Stuart Bear.

Here is a look at the progress of the first year, connected with the three main goals of Bioscience Connecticut.

Bioscience Innovation

• Research Renovations: In December 2012, the first of two multi-phased renovation projects started in the Health Center’s original research tower. The work is being undertaken in phases to minimize disruptions to researchers’ ongoing work. To date, demolition work has been completed for the first part of the first phase and the renovation construction work is underway. The entire renovation will be completed in late 2017.
• Space for Startup Businesses and Commercialization: Design work is underway for the addition of 28,000 square feet of new incubator space to foster new bioscience industries and startups. The incubators, as well as a data disaster recovery center, will be built as an addition to the Health Center’s Cell and Genome Sciences Building and are expected to be completed in late 2015.
• Colleagues from Maine Have Arrived: Construction of the Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, which resulted from the first return on the state’s Bioscience Connecticut investment, is moving forward. A portion of land on the Health Center campus was cleared in October to allow construction to begin. The steel structure on the Health Center’s lower campus is now complete and construction is expected to end in late 2014. About 55 workers are currently on the construction site each day. In the meantime, 37 full-time employees – many of whom are from Connecticut – are now working in Farmington for the Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, and recruitment continues. In addition, the University created an Institute for Systems Genomics that includes faculty from the Health Center and Storrs, and has the potential to raise the University’s stature as a global leader in genomics research.

Meeting the Health Care Needs of Connecticut’s Future

• Making Way for More Students: Bioscience Connecticut calls for a 30 percent increase in the Schools of Medicine and Dental Medicine class sizes. Design work is now underway for the additions and renovations to the academic building that are necessary to accommodate this growth. All work is expected to be completed by 2017.
• And More Teachers: The Health Center expects to start recruiting new faculty to meet the demands of the increased class sizes this summer. The goal is to recruit 100 new faculty members, including clinician-scientists, basic scientists, and clinicians. The added brainpower will allow the Health Center to increase access to services and to double federal and industry research awards.
• Meeting Needs in the Community: Bioscience Connecticut funded a series of community-based initiatives that are linked to the University and are aimed at addressing and solving pressing health care needs. Progress has been made in many areas, including the maturation of the Connecticut Institute for Primary Care Innovation, a joint effort of the UConn School of Medicine and St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center, and the Health Disparities Institute, which is a collaborative effort among community leaders, the University, the Health Center, and others.

Construction is underway on the site of the new outpatient care building and accompanying parking garage. Webcams on this construction site are updated every half hour. (Chris Defrancesco/UConn Health Center Photo)

Improving Access to State-of-the-Art Health Care in Connecticut

• New Outpatient Care Building: In partnership with private financing from TIAA-CREF, work is underway on the lower campus to build a new, 300,000 square-foot outpatient care center that will house many of the Health Center’s services including primary care, the Center on Aging, the Carole and Ray Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center, and a range of specialty services. The building is designed to foster collaboration across medical specialties and will provide a modern, state-of-the-art patient experience. The building will include a connected parking garage. The 1,400-space garage is expected to be completed by year’s end and the building is scheduled to open in early 2015. To date, the precast concrete sections of the garage are being assembled and the steel structure is being erected. The exterior wall construction will begin in the fall.
• New Hospital Tower: The completion in April 2013 of the Health Center’s new parking garage near its main entrance enabled work to begin on the new hospital tower. The tower will rise from space that was originally a tiered parking deck.  Construction crews are demolishing the tiered parking structure and work is beginning on the new hospital and its adjoining parking garage. Once completed in early 2016, the hospital tower will include 11 floors, 169 private rooms, a new and expanded emergency department, new surgery suite, and a new inpatient rehab center.
• Renovations to Main Building/Clinical Areas: This project is in its early stages. Planning and programming work to develop a master plan for the renovations is underway. Renovations will upgrade the dental practice and clinics as well as the Pat and Jim Calhoun Cardiology Center.

Bioscience Connecticut Fast Facts

• With only 8 percent of the project budget allocated, construction workers have expended nearly 126,000 hours on the project.
• To date, 62 construction contracts have been awarded – 85 percent of them to Connecticut companies.
• The Health Center has awarded more than $116 million in contracts; approximately 38 percent of this was awarded to small businesses and minority‐owned companies.
• The construction and renovation projects will cover more than 1.1 million square feet of space over eight years.
• In the end, the Health Center’s Farmington campus will have three new parking structures, a new hospital tower, an incubator lab addition, a new outpatient care building, and renovations to the existing hospital, clinic, academic, and main research buildings.
• All projects are on time and on budget.

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Graduate student Kersey Lawrence conducts seminars on tracking as part of her effort to educate people about their environment. (Photo courtesy of Kersey Lawrence)

Lawrence first developed an interest in tracking while completing her B.S. in Natural Resources Management. That is when she first went to Africa to learn the ancient art from those who are considered the best trackers in the world … the Shangaan people who live in the area between the Kruger National Park and the Drakensberg Mountains, in South Africa’s Mpumalanga and Northern Province.

“I wanted to go to Africa and learn tracking from the Shangaan because they are the acknowledged masters of the art,” she says. “I have traveled to Africa every summer since 2008, and I spent one of my early visits taking a course in field guiding and tracking. That’s when I first learned about a software tool called CyberTracker that involves using a hand-held, GPS-capable computer – there are icons rather than words – so trackers who aren’t literate can still record what they see.

“In this way, a trained tracker, even someone who can’t read or write, can actively contribute to monitoring projects in parks, or as part of scientific studies. By pushing an icon, an animal’s behavior can be recorded, in some cases down to the most-minute detail.”

Along with the software, Lawrence also learned about the CyberTracker ‘tracker evaluation process’ which measures tracker reliability.

This means of evaluating the abilities of individual trackers provides assurance that when information is recorded it can be evaluated according to the demonstrated expertise of the person reporting the data. There are multiple levels, each requiring more in-depth knowledge.

Lawrence successfully passed all the tests in this process and then became the first non-African woman, and the second woman overall, to achieve certification as a Professional Tracker.

Melding old and new knowledge

The tracks of a mature male leopard in an overstep walk (the hind foot lands ahead of the front foot) as the big fellow moves casually through his territory in the Greater Kruger Area of South Africa. The device on the right is a Leatherman multitool, a utilitarian item commonly carried by trackers and others. (Kersey Lawrence for UConn)

Some might wonder why tracking wild animals is important in an age when even remote communities are linked by computers and where industrialization is increasingly overtaking rural landscapes. For Lawrence, there are a number of answers.

In South Africa, the ancient ways of the Shangaan trackers are disappearing because young people are looking for more lucrative ways to make a living. “Tracking skill and the oral history that goes with it have been handed down from generation to generation, and now they are in danger of being lost,” Lawrence says. “I would like to give young people a reason to continue learning the old traditions by putting them to good use.

“In a perfect world, I would like to be able to set up true experiential expeditions to different parts of the world where people from indigenous cultures could be employed to show people from the modern world how to experience the natural environment around them.”

She continues, “One of the things the CyberTracker system facilitates is the ability to take trained trackers from anywhere in the world and place them in different surroundings. For instance, I’m interested in a project in Wyoming [Panthera’s Teton Cougar Project] that is evaluating cougar population dynamics. I would love to be able to bring South African trackers here and have them follow those mountain lions so that we can learn more about their environment, their social interactions, and how we might be able to get them to co-exist with people as their range gets smaller.

The leopard that left these footprints is the dominant male in his territory. (Kersey Lawrence for UConn)

“This would benefit the trackers, the field biologists doing the research, and the population as a whole – not to mention the animals who are so often viewed as being a nuisance when they are just trying to survive.”

Lawrence adds that while she is fascinated by the natural world, she is also continually improving a philosophy of teaching that will enable her to reach students who may have different learning styles.

She has earned a Certificate in College Instruction and received an award for Outstanding Graduate Teaching from UConn’s Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, and is focused on developing her ability to reach out to students on every level.

“My research takes me to places like Patagonia in Chile, Limpopo and Kruger in South Africa, and the Grand Tetons in Wyoming, where I’m doing ongoing studies in observer reliability with trackers. Locally, I teach at a nature connection program that is part of a home schooling curriculum for kids, and I often do tracking seminars on a volunteer basis for people of all ages. That’s in addition to the undergraduate courses I’ve taught in the department [of Natural Resources and the Environment] and the work I’ve done with the Center for Teaching and Learning,” she says.

Lawrence sums up her devotion to the environment and her dedication to teaching by saying, “My goal is to engage people in the natural world. I’m trying to get them to slow down, to observe, and to ask questions. Tracking requires that you be observant. There’s a connection to the environment, and once someone develops a personal relationship to the environment, they are much more inclined to defend it.”

From left, ImStem Biotechnology’s Drs. Xiaofang Wang and Ren-He Xu were awarded $1.1 million in state stem cell funding. (Tina Encarnacion/UConn Health Center Photo)

Nine scientists at the University of Connecticut Health Center received grant awards Monday totaling $4.5 million from the Connecticut Stem Cell Research Program, making UConn the largest recipient of the $9.8 million total grants awarded this year.

Included in the UConn awards was $1.1 million for ImStem, a company launched from the Health Center stem cell core facility and directed by Dr. Ren-He Xu. The goal of ImStem is to explore new approaches to utilizing human embryonic stem cell lines for future clinical applications, such as developing a treatment for multiple sclerosis. ImStem is the second UConn-launched company to be funded by the state’s stem cell fund. The first was Chondrogenics, Inc., a company seeking to develop a stem cell-based treatment for cartilage repair and osteoarthritis.

UConn investigators and their companies have been awarded $37.25 million since the state stem cell funding program was launched in 2006.

“This support has allowed us to develop world-class stem cell research projects and to contribute to the state’s economic development through Bioscience Connecticut,” says Marc Lalande, director of UConn’s Stem Cell Institute and its Institute for Systems Genomics. “The timing of these awards couldn’t be better given the current reductions in federal funding for biomedical research.”

Two Health Center researchers received grants of $750,000 each:  Christopher Heinen, assistant professor of medicine, for his research using human embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells to test the significance of hereditary cancer-associated variants; and Kristen Martins-Taylor, assistant professor of genetics and developmental biology, for her research uncovering molecular pathways disrupted in Prader-Willi Syndrome.

Here is a complete list of state stem cell funds awarded to UConn researchers:

Click image to view larger version.

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Leo Lefrançois is principal investigator of an ongoing study of how the immune system responds to viral and bacterial pathogens.

The UConn Health Center has been awarded a grant of more than $13 million from the National Institutes of Health to study pathogens, their products, and our immune responses to them.

“We seek to understand the way in which the immune system responds to a number of infections that not only are clinically relevant but also are relevant to biodefense,” says principal investigator Leo Lefrançois, chair of the Health Center’s Department of Immunology.

The target viral and bacterial pathogens are the influenza virus, listeria, salmonella, and staphylococcal toxins. The grant, from the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, covers years 8-12 of the project “Modulation of Biodefense Responses to Microbial Pathogens.”

“Immunity to infections and to microbial toxins falls into two major categories: those responses that protect against infection (e.g., vaccination) and those that result in increased sickness (i.e., immunopathology),” Lefrançois says. “The team will delve into the mechanisms by which both of these processes occur.”

Purple dots represent bacteria in listeria infection, one of the pathogens UConn Health Center immunology researchers are continuing to study with the backing of a $13 million federal grant.

The other principal investigators are Anthony Vella and Linda Cauley, also from the Health Center’s Department of Immunology, and Stephen McSorley of the University of California-Davis, a former Health Center faculty member. The projects are supported by UConn Health Center core facilities including the Flow Cytometry Core, headed by H. Leonardo Aguila, and the Fluorescence Microscopy Core, headed by Kamal Khanna and Ann Cowan.

“Overall, the outcomes of this work will help improve vaccination and provide insight into how to control deleterious responses to infections and toxins,” Lefrançois says.

The study abstract is available on the NIH website.

The McNair Scholars Program, new to UConn this year, supports promising undergraduates in pursuit of doctoral study, mainly in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and math). The program is open to low-income, first-generation students and those from populations under-represented at the graduate level.

The McNair Program pays for the students’ room and board and also provides a stipend while they complete their summer research. Here is what these four McNair Scholars will be studying this summer:

McNair scholars from left, Luis Organista, ’14 (CANR), Angelina Hernandez ’14 (CLAS), Robert Stickels ’15 (CLAS) and Tiahna Spencer ’15 (CLAS) at the Wilbur Cross Building. (Peter Morenus/UConn Photo)

Angelina Hernandez ’14 (CLAS) – How New College Students Cope with Stress

With the help of students in UConn’s Student Support Services (SSS) pre-collegiate summer program, rising senior Angelina Hernandez will conduct research on how new college students cope with stress. Hernandez is pursuing a double major in psychology and human development/family studies. Her McNair faculty mentor is psychology professor Crystal Park.

At various points during the six-week SSS summer program, in which incoming freshmen live on campus and take university-level courses, participants will take an online survey that indicates their perceived stress levels, as well as their exercise and eating habits. Hernandez will analyze students’ eating and exercise coping mechanism trends throughout the summer. She hypothesizes that the social support students get from being part of the summer program will ameliorate the stress of adjusting to college life.

In the fall, Hernandez will survey incoming freshmen with backgrounds similar to the summer students, but who did not attend the summer program. She will compare the results to determine whether, and to what extent, the summer program helps students cope with the transition to college.

Luis Organista ’14 (CANR) – The Effects of Fishing on Largemouth Bass

Luis Organista, a rising senior majoring in natural resources and the environment, will study the effects of fishing on the growth rate of largemouth bass. His faculty mentor, Jason Vokoun, is director of UConn’s Wildlife and Fisheries Conservation Center.

Organista will examine largemouth bass from fished and non-fished ponds near Storrs and compare the two populations. He hypothesizes that the bass from the fished populations will lack genetic information present in the non-fished populations, and therefore may grow at a slower rate.

In the fall, Organista will continue the study, looking at the metabolic rates of the bass and studying their scales. The rings on a fish’s scales can be used to measure the growth of the fish similar to the way the rings in a tree’s trunk can be used to measure the tree’s growth from year to year.

The goal of Organista’s research is to determine how the sport of fishing may impact fish populations.

Tiahna Spencer ’15 (CLAS) – Treating Parkinson’s Disease

Tiahna Spencer, a rising junior majoring in physiology and neurobiology, will work with faculty mentor John Salamone in the Department of Psychology investigating a treatment for Parkinson’s disease.

Spencer will observe mice that have been exposed to a drug that induces tremors similar to those experienced by humans diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. First she will examine how long it takes for the mice to develop Parkinson’s symptoms. Then she will expose the same mice to another drug that reduces Parkinson’s symptoms, and analyze the results.

Through her study, Spencer aims to learn more about the causes of Parkinson’s disease, and contribute to research that may lead to an effective therapy for human patients with this debilitating disease.

Robert Stickels ’15 (CLAS) – Estrogen’s Role in Male Reproductive Development

Molecular and cell biology major Robert Stickels, a rising junior, will study the role of estrogen in the development of the male reproductive system. He will work with faculty mentor Andrew Pask in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology.

Previous studies have shown estrogen treatment at birth to induce full sex reversal in the wallaby, a marsupial. Because estrogen is known to have this effect on another mammal species, Stickels wants to see if it may have the same effect on humans.

Stickels will study how estrogen influences a particular type of human cell that nourishes developing sperm cells. His goal is to examine how estrogen interacts with the human genome to affect sexual development.

This study, which he will continue during the 2013-14 academic year, could help shed light on the increase in sexual-development disorders over the past century, according to Stickels. These disorders have been linked to a rise in the use of plastic and pesticide compounds, which exhibit estrogen-like activity.

In addition to working with faculty mentors and graduate students in their research laboratories over the summer, the McNair Scholars will attend GRE-preparation and scientific writing courses and professional development seminars. They will also go on educational outings around New England to explore graduate programs and career opportunities in the STEM fields. The goal is to prepare the Scholars for admission to graduate school, teach them how to communicate with the scientific community about their research, and help them identify potential career choices open to those with a Ph.D. degree.

Managed by the Center for Academic Programs, the McNair Scholars Program is funded by a five-year, $1.1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The program is named for NASA astronaut Ronald E. McNair, who died in an explosion during the launch of the space shuttle Challenger in 1986.

For more information about UConn’s McNair Scholars Program, visit www.cap.uconn.edu/msp or email mcnair.scholars@uconn.edu.

From infancy to old age, women are simply healthier than men. Out of the 15 leading causes of death, men lead women in all of them except Alzheimer’s disease, which many men don’t live long enough to develop. Although the gender gap is closing, men still die five years earlier than their wives, on average.

Cardiovascular Disease: The Leading Men’s Health Threat

One in five men and women will die from cardiovascular disease. For unclear reasons, though, men’s arteries develop atherosclerosis earlier than women’s. Men’s average age for death from cardiovascular disease is under 65. Women catch up about six years later.

Even in adolescence, girls’ arteries look healthier than boys’. Experts believe women’s naturally higher levels of good cholesterol (HDL) are partly responsible. Men have to work harder to reduce their risk for heart disease and stroke:

• Get your cholesterol checked, beginning at age 25 and every five years.
• Control your blood pressure and cholesterol, if they’re high.
• If you smoke, stop.
• Increase your physical activity level to 30 minutes per day, most days of the week.
• Eat more fruits and vegetables and less saturated or trans fats.

Lung Cancer: Still a Health Threat to Men

By the time it’s found, lung cancer is often advanced and difficult to cure. Less than half of men are alive a year later. Tobacco smoke causes 90 percent of all lung cancers.

Prostate Cancer: A Leading Cancer for Men

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men other than skin cancer. But while one in six men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in his lifetime, only one in 35 will die from it. Many prostate cancers are slow-growing and unlikely to spread, while others are aggressive.

Screening for prostate cancer requires a digital rectal exam (the infamous gloved finger) and a blood test for prostate specific antigen (PSA).

Depression and Suicide: Men Are at Risk

Experts previously thought depression affected far more women than men. But that may just be men’s tendency to hide depressed feelings, or express them in ways different than women’s. Instead of showing sadness or crying, men get angry or aggressive. Men are also less likely to seek help for depression.

The results can be tragic. Women attempt suicide more often, but men are more successful at completing it. Suicide is the eighth leading cause of death among all men; for young men it’s higher.

Diabetes: The Silent Health Threat for Men

Boys born today have an alarming one-in-three chance of developing diabetes in their lifetimes. Overweight and obesity are likely feeding the diabetes epidemic. Diabetes usually begins silently, without symptoms. Over years, blood sugar levels creep higher, eventually spilling into the urine. The resulting frequent urination and thirst are what finally bring many men to the doctor.

Exercise, combined with a healthy diet, can prevent type 2 diabetes. Moderate weight loss – for those who are overweight – and 30 minutes a day of physical activity reduced the chance of diabetes by more than 50 percent in men at high risk in one major study.

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Editor’s Note: This story describes the excavation of a remarkable archaeological finding by University of Connecticut researchers in Old Chesterfield, Conn., which is already making waves in the field of Jewish studies. A brief historical survey of late 19th century Jewish agricultural communities in Connecticut follows.

A monument marks the location of the former Chesterfield Synagogue. (Peter Morenus/UConn Photo)

A practically pristine Jewish ritual bath, or “mikveh,” possibly dating back to the late 19^th century in this tiny rural community is a one-of-a-kind discovery that will reshape our understanding of a fascinating but often-overlooked part of Jewish life in America, according to University of Connecticut researchers who excavated the site.

A mikveh is an essential part of married life in traditionally observant Jewish households, and this stone and wood-lined structure from Old Chesterfield may be the only mikveh excavated outside a major North American city and may be the only example of its kind at one of the settlements created by a wealthy philanthropist who in the 1890s established farming communities for Jewish immigrants in New Jersey and Connecticut.

The existence of a ritual bath in a rural eastern Connecticut community that barely totaled 500 people at its height throws new light on the religious and social lives of those settlements which were established during a time when American rabbis were lamenting the decline of religious observances like ritual bathing, said Prof. Stuart Miller, Academic Director of the Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life at UConn and an expert on ritual baths in ancient Israel. Along with State Archaeologist Nicholas Bellantoni, Miller was one of two UConn faculty members overseeing the excavation of the Old Chesterfield site.

“The image many people have of those who belonged to the earliest agricultural communities is that they were largely socialists, and that they weren’t particularly religious,” Miller said. “This is going to enable us to write a chapter of Jewish history which to my knowledge hasn’t been written, one that will deal with the spiritual life of these communities.”

Bellantoni and Miller plan more excavations, but for now, it’s already causing a stir in the field of Judaic Studies. Miller’s proposal to present a paper on the find at the 45^th annual Association for Jewish Studies conference in Boston in December has now grown into a full-blown session, with presentations from scholars in the U.S. and Israel.

“This mikveh is very exciting because there’s really nothing else like it in the United States,” Miller said. “It’s intact, it’s magnificent, and from a religious law point of view, it’s a marvel.”

Bellantoni is the Connecticut State Archaeologist and is affiliated both with the Connecticut State Museum of Natural History and Archaeology at UConn along with UConn’s Department of Anthropology. He recently worked with New England Hebrew Farmers of the Emanuel Society (“NHHFES”), comprised of descendants of the original Jewish community of Chesterfield, to secure the designation of the site as the State’s 24^th State Archaeological Preserve, which led to its inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places.

The significance of the discovery might have remained unappreciated if it hadn’t been for a fortuitous email from Bellantoni to Miller last Spring.

“You didn’t tell me you had the pool”

As state archaeologist, Bellantoni is as much detective as scholar, being called in to assist in police investigations whenever human remains are discovered, and overseeing the preservation of sites in the state ranging from Native American history to colonial ruins.

In 2012, he was looking into the possibility of excavating the site of the Jewish farming

Stuart Miller, professor of Hebrew, history, and Judaic studies, points to the spot at which water would enter a former mikveh in Old Chesterfield. (Peter Morenus/UConn Photo)

settlement in Old Chesterfield, a small rural community located in the town of Montville. Roughly 120 years ago, the area was home to a cluster of Russian Jewish families who had relocated from the teeming neighborhoods of New York City’s Lower East Side to make a living as poultry and dairy farmers. Although the community was essentially defunct by World War II, the area still has the remains of the synagogue, the creamery, and what Bellantoni was told had been the home of the ritual slaughterer, a necessity for Jews who observe kosher dietary laws.

While talking with society member Jerry Fischer, Bellantoni realized that both men knew Miller, who had worked for many years on the staff of a major excavation at Sepphoris in Israel, studying ancient Jewish society and especially ritual baths. Bellantoni and Miller had earlier discussed the possibility of teaming up on a dig in Italy, and the archaeologist decided to see if the Judaic Studies professor might be interested in looking around the Old Chesterfield site.

“I’ll be honest. I wasn’t really expecting anything,” Miller said. “I was thinking, ‘I write about and work at sites that are 2,000 years old. What am I going to find in Chesterfield?’”

After showing Miller the ruins of the creamery and the synagogue, Bellantoni led him over to the slope where the ritual slaughterer’s house was. As he saw the high walls, Miller’s curiosity was piqued. He had been told the site might contain a ritual bath, and he was just finishing a book manuscript on Jewish ritual bathing in antiquity. But nothing prepared him for what he saw when he gazed down from the top of the wall into what had been the basement, and saw steps descending into a narrow space.

“I wish someone had taken a picture of the look on my face,” he said. “I think my first words were, ‘You didn’t tell me you had the pool!’”

Miller was aware of a previous excavation of a mikveh in Baltimore from the 1840s, but that looked nothing like what Bellantoni was showing him. This, in fact, didn’t look like anything from Miller’s experience in America: the stone construction reminded him of nothing so much as the mikvehs he had helped excavate in Israel.

“I know what a mikveh is,” he said. “I’ve been in a mikveh. And this doesn’t look anything like a modern mikveh. What I’m expecting is a tiled pool. And suddenly I’m seeing concrete. I’m standing there staring at this and thinking, ‘Where am I? Am I in Sepphoris? Is this really Chesterfield, Connecticut?”

For Bellantoni, Miller’s excitement heightened his own appreciation of a remarkably well-preserved archaeological site, although he didn’t fully understand his colleague’s fascination until Miller began to explain the importance of the find for understanding Jewish life in the United States.

“This was definitely my first experience with Judaic tradition in archaeology,” Bellantoni said. “I mean, how often do you get to work with something like this in Connecticut?”

Water from the heavens or the earth

A mikveh, Miller explained, is vital to an observant Jewish community. According to

A view showing the wooden steps of a former mikveh. (Peter Morenus/UConn Photo)

Jewish law, husbands and wives, can resume marital relations only after a woman bathes in the mikveh a week after menstruation ends. Although some men bathe in a mikveh, especially before the high holy days, and a mikveh is also needed for conversions to Judaism and for the immersion of new food vessels before their use, the ritual bath’s primary function today is to ensure the monthly renewal of a marriage.

What made this find particularly startling was not only the mikveh’s seemingly archaic construction, but the fact that it existed at all. At the time the Chesterfield community was settled, around 1891, rabbis across the U.S. were decrying the decline of traditional religious practices, especially ritual bathing, Miller said.

“You had various forces that were contributing to these changes,” he said. “You had increasing accommodation and assimilation of East European Jews to American life and the rise in importance of the Reform movement, which didn’t emphasize these types of observance. Instead of building mikvaot, many Jews were either foregoing the practice altogether, or using municipal bath houses in cities, which were problematic from the point of view of religious law,” Miller explained further.

“Mikveh literally means ‘gathering,’ or a collection of water,” he said. “The water in a mikveh has to come from the heavens or from the ground. It has to flow directly to the bath and cannot be interfered with by human hands. You can’t just turn on the tap, fill a bucket with water, and bring it to the mikveh.”

That insight would provide Bellantoni and Miller with a crucial clue on where to dig around the structure, but in the meantime they realized they had to organize an excavation. Miller quickly worked with UConn’s summer school program to put together a field school. Over the course of three weeks last July, the researchers and seven students not only uncovered the remaining structure from years of neglect and forest debris, but also found fascinating remnants of a vanished way of life: children’s toys, household items, cattle bones, even a wagon wheel.

“When they walked away from this community, everything remained just the way they left it,” Bellantoni said. “That’s what makes it such a great research lab. If this community had persisted into the 21^st century, all of this would have been changed.”

Using Miller’s knowledge about how mikvaot are built, the team excavated a length of pipe running from the structure up a nearby slope. They theorize that the settlers fulfilled the religious command to use only water from the heavens or the earth by connecting the mikveh to a brook or pond about 200 yards away and relying on gravity to draw the water into the ritual bath.

The researchers also began digging through printed records and sources to try and piece together a picture of life in the Jewish settlement of Chesterfield 120 years ago. The memoir of a woman who had grown up in Chesterfield proved valuable, as did a precious photograph showing the ritual slaughterer’s house, creamery, and synagogue in the same frame. Miller unearthed a “heartrending” letter in Yiddish written around 1915, when the creamery was going bankrupt and members of the community feared it would be sold to non-Jews.

The excavation also yielded some surprises, as when the team discovered the mikveh’s stairs and walls were lined with wood. Miller knew that according to Talmudic law wood was forbidden for use in the construction of mikvaot, but research led him to the discovery of an alternative interpretation of the law followed in many Eastern European communities.

“At every step, we were finding something I didn’t expect to find,” he said.

The next chapter

Much work remains to be done. Aside from Miller’s session at the conference in Boston, he’s giving a talk on the site in West Hartford on June 13^th for the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Hartford. Bellantoni is studying the cattle bones found at the site to determine if the animals involved were slaughtered according to Jewish dietary law.

And of course, there’s more excavation to be done, as the two scholars hope to definitively establish the source of water for the mikveh as well as the layout of the room in which it was found.  They also plan to turn their attention to the synagogue remains. There are plans for a conference at UConn in 2015, which would be the 125^th anniversary of the community’s foundation.

“The excavations in Chesterfield represent an exciting new direction for my colleagues at UConn,” said Prof. Jeffrey Shoulson, Director of the Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life. “I can think of no more appropriate archeological research to be supported by UConn’s Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life than their work on this fascinating and forgotten Jewish agricultural community, one of the oldest Jewish communities in the state.”

But for now, there’s the energy and vigor both scholars display as they talk about the remarkable discovery. For Bellantoni, it’s a new side of Connecticut history he hadn’t previously encountered, the Jewish dairy farmers of Old Chesterfield taking their places alongside the Puritans and the Pequots in the rich history of human habitation in the state.

“Having Dr. Bellantoni and Dr. Miller, an internationally renowned interpreter of the history and meaning of mikvaot, and their students excavate the mikveh so carefully last summer has added immensely to our understanding of what life was like then,” said Nancy Savin, a resident of Riverdale, NY, who serves as president of the NHHFES and whose great-great-grandfather led the first settlers to Chesterfield nearly 125 years ago. “It helps us piece together how this small community maintained their traditional religious practices while taking full advantage of the economic and social freedoms they found in Connecticut.”

And for Miller, a New Jersey native who grew up knowing about similar farming communities in that state, it’s the revelation that a lifetime of scholarship in ancient Israel can be applied much closer to home.

“This has opened a window we couldn’t look through before,” he said. “This suggests that we don’t know as much as we think about these communities or about religious life among Jews during this period.”

And in some ways, all those new insights can be traced to a phone call last year.

“It’s funny. Nick and I were talking about working together on an ancient Roman site in Italy,” Miller said. “And here we are on an archaeological dig less than an hour from my house.”

______________________________________________________________

Uncovering Eastern Connecticut’s Jewish history

Nicholas Bellantoni, state archeologist, left, and Stuart Miller, professor of Hebrew, history, and Judaic studies look down into the site of a former mikveh. (Peter Morenus/UConn Photo)

The one-of-a-kind discovery of a Jewish ritual bath by University of Connecticut professors Stuart Miller and Nicholas Bellantoni invites a new look at one of the most fascinating chapters in the history of the Land of Steady Habits.

In the late 19th century, a wealthy German philanthropist named Baron Maurice de Hirsch whose money came from railroad construction created a fund with the aim of resettling Jewish immigrants from the crowded neighborhoods of New York City’s Lower East Side to agricultural colonies in the northeast.

Most of the participants moved to towns in New Jersey and Connecticut, with a few settling in Massachusetts. In Connecticut, relatively large settlements were established in Colchester, Ellington, Windham, Hebron, and Columbia.

However, Old Chesterfield, in Montville, was the first. The first land for the settlers was purchased in November, 1890 and the community’s synagogue, built for $900, was dedicated on May 6, 1892. Families, mostly of Russian origin, established dairy farms and sold brown eggs, made clothing, and took in summer boarders from New York City, creating what Miller calls “a kind of Catskills in Connecticut.”

The settlers were, initially, a source of benign curiosity for their Yankee neighbors. “The recently settled Russian Jews of Chesterfield are attracting a great deal of attention by their industry,” a Sept. 28, 1891 story in the New London Day reported. “They lost no time after taking up their residence in Chesterfield before they went into business, and not agriculture alone.”

The settlers established a village store (still in business today as a gas station and convenience store), a creamery, a pants factory. “How wide a range their industries cover no one knows, but they keep scratching and no one can tell what they will ultimately grow to,” the Day wrote.

But farm life in Eastern Connecticut was not easy.

“Many of the Russian Jews of the Chesterfield colony are said to be deserting their farms,” the Hartford Courant reported on Feb. 11, 1893. “The suffering there during the cold weather is said to have been very great.”

Of the 28 families found in the settlement in August, 1892, only 15 remained by the autumn of 1894, although the departing families were replaced by newcomers. At its height, before World War I, it had some 50 families, accounting for about 500 people.

But as more families moved to Connecticut, they faced occasional outbreaks of prejudice and bigotry. In 1904, police swarmed Chesterfield and other Jewish settlements, believing that families there were providing shelter to a Jewish fugitive from Colchester named John Marks, although it later emerged that Marks had attempted to flee the state on a ferry boat. The author and journalist Poultney Bigelow wrote an attack on Jewish farmers in 1911, arguing “that the farms of Connecticut are deteriorating because no longer worked by native stock.”

Seventeen years later, during a widespread backlash against immigrants across the U.S., a Hartford Courant headline warned of an “Alien Invasion of Connecticut Farms,” noting that 30 percent of the family farms in the state were “in the hands of a man of foreign birth.”

“What does it mean for the future?” the story asked. “A new poverty-stricken Poland, Galicia, Ireland, or Russia in the pleasant valleys of this state? The Yankee farmer driven to the stones and snows of the North, or, like the Indian before him, obliterated?”

Even a story that favorably portrayed the successes of the farmers traded in ugly stereotypes: “Living down their reputation as mere middlemen who do no labor, they have shown that they can till the soil and make it pay,” ran a 1928 Courant article.

Despite those attitudes, the Jewish farmers did prosper. Most spectacular were the successes of the colony in Ellington, which early in its existence switched from dairy to tobacco during the latter’s height as an industry. But even the poultry and dairy farmers did well: by 1944, the largest single poultry farmer in the state was Max Reisman of Brooklyn, with more than 200,000 broilers and 10,000 layers on his property.

Rural communities everywhere were declining in the first half of the 20^th century, though, and Chesterfield was no exception. The creamery went bankrupt in 1915, and by World War II the community was all but deserted, with a few families coming back to the old farmhouses in the summertime. The synagogue was partially destroyed by arson in 1972, and completely destroyed eight years later.

All that remains now are the ruins of the old buildings, a few farmhouses and other properties long since sold to outsiders, and the lovingly tended cemetery not far from the old synagogue. But the experiment in rural living left a lasting impression on the descendants of the settlers, who continue to cherish the memory of the colony even today.

“Two things favored these immigrants,” wrote Micki Savin, granddaughter of Chesterfield settlers, in 1984. “They had complete love of, trust, and hope in God … and they possessed a great joy in their sheer physical existence. Their zest and belief in life infused all they did.”

Pramod K. Srivastava, M.D., Ph.D.

The scientific work of a University of Connecticut Health Center doctor has led to the creation of a vaccine that has shown promising results in fighting a deadly form of brain cancer.

A preliminary analysis of a multi-center, single-arm, phase 2 clinical trial of the vaccine plus chemoradiation in patients with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) showed a 146 percent increase in progression-free survival and a 60 percent increase in overall survival compared to those who receive chemoradiation alone.

“Many years ago I had made some observations and developed some ideas that led to a method that potentially may be used to treat any type of cancer,” says Dr. Pramod Srivastava, who serves as director of the Carole and Ray Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center and holds the Northeast Utilities Chair in Experimental Oncology. “It is different from other treatments in its individuality – we take tumor tissue after surgery and extract the vaccine from it. Because the drug is made from each patient’s tumor for that specific patient, it is highly individualized.”

The vaccine used in the trial is based on the role of heat shock protein (HSP) in immune response, an area pioneered by Srivastava and his trainees. Heat shock proteins are cell components present in all living organisms that play an essential role in helping the immune system recognize and destroy diseased cells. Researchers believe that the HSPs can be used for immunization against a wide array of diseases, including cancer. Recently, this approach has shown positive results in the treatment of genital herpes, and a Phase 2 study has completed enrollment.

Dr. Pramod K. Srivastava, director of the Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center, in his lab. (Chris DeFrancesco/UConn Health Center Photo)

A number of clinical trials have come from the HSP approach. A worldwide-randomized phase 3 trial of an HSP-based vaccine (vitespen) to treat locally advanced kidney cancer yielded data strong enough for the Russian Ministry of Health to be the first to approve it, and it has been used there since 2008. This was the first therapeutic cancer vaccine to be approved for regular use anywhere in the world. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) required one more confirmatory trial before it could be approved in this country, but it was not done in kidney cancer because of a lack of time and funding.

The early results of the GBM trial have shown “some pretty impressive numbers for glioblastoma,” Srivastava says. “This is a very bad disease with no good treatments available. Even though many studies have been done, nothing has actually worked very well in the past.”

Cancer vaccines offer treatment without the toxicity that comes with other treatment methods. The HSP-based cancer vaccines contain a precise “fingerprint” of a person’s particular cancer that is designed to reprogram the body’s immune system to target only cells with this fingerprint, which reduces the risk of damage to healthy cells.

There are still challenges to overcome in the development of cancer vaccines, however, such as selecting and delivering the appropriate antigens (a substance that induces an immune response in the body) and counteracting cancer’s suppression of the immune system.

The Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program (CTEP) of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) is supporting a study of the GBM vaccine in a large randomized phase 2 trial, sponsored by the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology, a National Cancer Institute Cooperative Group formed by the merger of the American College of Surgeons Oncology Group, Cancer and Leukemia Group B, and the North Central Cancer treatment Group.

“In light of the striking data from the (smaller) phase 2 trial, the CTEP trial is expected to enroll at about 50 centers in the country,” Srivastava says. “It will be testing my vaccine or Avastin, which is a current treatment for glioblastomas in the U.S., or a combination of the two.  It is the largest NCI-funded trial ever done in this patient population, and the largest trial combining Avastin with a vaccine.”

Results of the CTEP study will be known in about four years. The study is led by Dr. Andrew Parsa of Northwestern University, and Srivastava is co-chair of the trial’s Correlative Study Group. Although the UConn Health Center will not be a site for this study because it does not have a large enough glioblastoma patient population, Srivastava is the inventor on the many patents for the science that is the basis of the trial; these patents are owned by the academic institutions where he has worked, including UConn.

Srivastava began his academic career as a paleontologist with little interest in medicine. His focus changed due to sheer circumstance. “I used to sign up to use this scanning electron microscope to look at my fossils,” he recalls. “The person who was often using it ahead of me was studying cancer cells. I would stand behind her and notice that the cancer cells looked unordered, chaotic. Normal liver cells, by contrast, looked so beautiful and ordered, like cobblestones.”

Struck by the difference, Srivastava spoke up. “I said that if you look at the proteins on the cancer cells and normal cells, the differences might provide a clue to treatment. She told me to go back to my fossils. So I thought I’d teach myself to look at the proteins. I started this work thinking that I’d go back to my fossil studies one day. But this work has been so absorbing for me that I’ve yet to make it back.”

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Using a combination of techniques, including phylogenetics, molecular biology, and video microscopy, the scientists show that a novel essential gene in fruit flies, born via the process of gene duplication is only – yes, only – 15 million years old, and yet has acquired, in a stepwise fashion, a new job so important that the flies can’t live without it. The study, “Stepwise Evolution of Essential Centromere Function in a Drosophila Neogene,” is published in the June 6 edition of the journal Science.

Barbara Mellone, assistant professor of molecular & cell biology, works with a student in her lab. (Paul Horton for UConn)

“The majority of these genes are not going to acquire essential functions,” says Barbara Mellone, assistant professor of molecular and cell biology in UConn’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, of genes that, like the one they studied, have been duplicated. “But the interaction network is completely rewired for this gene.”

Mellone and colleagues at the University of Washington, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, and the University of Munich traced the evolutionary steps by which a gene from the well-known fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, known as Umbrea, acquired its essential role. The gene is vital to chromosome segregation, the process of splitting genetic material when cells divide to generate more cells, tissues, and organisms.

“The genus Drosophila offers an unprecedented system in which to study gene evolution because of the detailed evolutionary and genomic data available,” says Mellone. “Learning about how new genes acquire new functions is crucial to understanding how whole genomes undergo functional innovation, which is what is needed for new traits to appear in populations that natural selection can act upon.”

What puzzled the scientists is that Umbrea plays the role of strengthening the connections between chromosomes, making sure that chromosome segregation happens correctly. And although it is also present in other species of fruit fly, it’s not essential in all of them. How then could a gene that has only been around for a fraction of this species’ history have acquired such an essential role?

Image of cells dividing, recorded from video microscopy. The image on the left depicts normal cell division in a fruit fly cell. The cell on the right has had the Umbrea gene removed, and has failed to divide normally, resulting in cell death. (Photo courtesy of Barbara Mellone)

To understand this paradox, the researchers used gene sequencing to understand the gene’s history and captured video of cells with Umbrea removed dividing under a microscope in Mellone’s laboratory. Their methods showed that after its birth Umbrea was lost in some of the species, but in one species, Drosophila melanogaster, cells without it failed to segregate chromosomes correctly, confirming its critical role.

But their results also showed that several stepwise changes led to Umbrea’s current-day time in the limelight: it lost its previous, nonessential function; the network of proteins it interacts with was completely rewired, and it acquired new, “tail” domains on the ends of its sequence that allowed it to relocate to the centromere, a structure present on all chromosomes in all species, necessary for genome segregation during cell division.

“This gene emerged and wasn’t going either way, toward or away from essential function,” says Mellone. “Then something happened elsewhere to help make it essential.”

The researchers argue that although most duplicated genes either become non-functional or are simply lost, keeping some of them around might benefit cells in the long run.

“Centromere proteins experience rapid evolution in many organisms, including humans, in a constant ‘arms race’ that exists to maintain the equal segregation of genetic traits,” says Mellone.

So if the genes involved in genome partitioning are evolving so fast, then perhaps it’s a good idea to keep other, nonfunctional genes around – those that can acquire new essential functions when necessary.

The scientists suggest that this could change the way scientists think about other biological processes that may require recurrent genetic innovation to adapt to new challenges.

To see a video of fruit fly cell division, visit Cell Life, Cell Death