Section A · Page 2
The University Daily Kansan
Wednesday, January 21, 1998
Cancer drug may slow Alzheimer's
By Graham K. Johnson gjohnson@kansan.com Kansan staff writer
Research conducted by two professors has strengthened the University of Kansas' ties to Taxol research and taken the research in a new direction.
Mary Michaelis, professor of pharmacology and toxicology, and Gunda Georg, professor of medicinal chemistry, have evidence that Taxol, a drug which kills cancer cells, also helps protect brain cells from the effects of Alzheimer's disease. Their research will be published in The Journal of Neuro-
chemistry in April.
Lester Mitscher, distinguished professor of medicinal chemistry, patented a process for harvesting Taxol from yew tree needles.
"Gunda and Mary have made a very surprising discovery," Mitscher said. "Taxol has been one of the most exciting developments in cancer research in years. To have it extended to Alzheimer's as well is really exciting."
Michaelis cautioned that the results applied only to lab cultures and have not been tested in animals yet, much less humans.
"I am pretty hopeful that if we can just understand the process well
Alzheimer's disease slowly destroys brain cells leading to a decline in a victim's mental capacities.
enough, we can try to delay Alzheimer's significantly," Michaelis said.
Scientists believe the mental decline is a result of the buildup of protein bits called amyloids, Michaelis said. This buildup weakens the protein called tau, which holds cell structures together.
Michaelis said University of Pennsylvania researchers theorized that Taxol, which prevents cancer cells from dividing by freezing their structure, might protect brain cells the same way. The drug could hold
Michaelis, Georg and their graduate students tested the theory on rat brain cells treated with Taxol before and after the introduction of the toxic amyloids.
the cell's structure together the way the *tau* protein is supposed to.
"It turned out that in all cases Taxol protected quite nicely," Michaelis said.
Milan Slavik, professor of pharmaceutical chemistry, helped develop the method for measuring levels of Taxol in the blood.
"Many anti-cancer drugs, like Taxol, have been found to be useful in other diseases." Slavik said.
Where to get it? Taxol was originally discovered in the bark of the Pacific yew tree, a small, slow-growing tree native to the western United States and Canada. Recent experiments suggest that taxol can also be extracted from the tree's leaves
Taxol facts
what it does: Taxol forms stable microtubules in cell structure. This helps to stop the growth of tumors by keeping chromosomes from passing to new cells.
Side effects: Taxol is known to cause numbness, tingling in toes and fingers, and reduced effectiveness of white blood cells. It also leads to hypersensitivity and bone marrow depletion, two conditions which are dangerous but treatable by premedication.
Internet users get more gigs
Andrew Rohrback / KANSAN
Computing service increases memory replaces old servers
By Aaron Knopf
Kansan staff writer
Internet users at the University of Kansas now can create larger Web sites and save more e-mail in their accounts because Academic Computing Services has upgraded the main Internet account servers.
The eagle and falcon Internet servers house approximately 21,000 University Internet accounts. During winter break, Academic Computing Services replaced the old eagle and falcon with more powerful servers and increased their disk space from 34 gigabytes to 126 gigabytes.
Academic Computing Services now will allow the University's Internet account holders to store five megabytes of information in their accounts — more than double the old limit. Users also should see faster load times when accessing Web sites and e-mail accounts.
"Right now there's excess disk capacity, but based on past experience, this never lasts long," said Wes Hubert, Academic Computing Services assistant director.
Other improvements made during break include 32 new telephone lines to the University's dial-in service in Lawrence and 16 lines to the Kansas City-area service. As a result, dial-in users should hear fewer busy signals when dialing the University for Internet service.
Internet usage at the University has grown significantly in the past three years. In 1994, there were only about 2,500 University Internet account holders. Now there are nearly nine times that many users, and more than 5,000 dial-in users from outside the campus network.
The dial-in service pays for itself through dial-in user fees, Hubert said. This year, the budgeted dial-in revenues and expenses are approximately $287,000. The addition of dial-in lines cost $47,000, $35,000 for equipment and $12,000 a year in ongoing line charges.
The total cost of the improvements to eagle and falcon, including the purchase of new equipment, was approximately $60,000. Hubert said the majority of money was spent on the increased disk space. Some money also paid for memory chips for the eagle and falcon servers.
The old falcon is now the server for Usenet newsgroups, a collection of online discussion forums for a growing number of topics. Listproc software, used to maintain and distribute e-mail messages to different University organizations and interest groups, also runs on this machine.
The old eagle server now stores the KU Facts Web site, which is the homepage for the University and several departments.
These services used to coexist on a single, less powerful server.
The movement of these services to the eagle and falcon servers did not go as smoothly as planned. Hubert said.
Richard Kershenbaum, Computing Services manager, was part of the team that moved the services and encountered some difficulties.
A major setback occurred when the migration team was unable to restore the Listproc mailing
THE KU
lists from backup tapes to the new location.
"We finally decided in the morning hours we weren't going to be able to get everything back," Kershbaum said.
Kershenbaum said that Computing Services had started using the backup program, Legato Networker, a month earlier. It had functioned properly during the comprehensive testing process, so its failure was surprising.
They decided to use a backup of the mailing lists that had been made before Computing Services began using Legato Networker but did not know what caused Legato to fail
"I'd say it was baffling in that we didn't know" whether it was hardware or software, "Kershenbaum said.
After all the hardware problems were resolved, Academic Computing Services was left with reconnecting nearly 900 Listproc mailing lists.
Carine Ullom, Academic Computing Services software trainer, administers the Listproc system. She said that ultimately 90 to 100 lists needed repairing. She also works with the users who maintain their respective lists.
"I'd say most of them are taking it in stride," Ullom said of the Listproc users' response to the difficulties.
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CAMPUS BRIEFES
Interim director named for KU health services
Jim Boyle has been named Interim Director of Student Health Services, said University Relations News Coordinator Kathryn Clark, vested in.
Boyle has worked for Student Health Services at Watkins Memorial Health Center since 1987 and has served as associate director since April 1991.
Boyle is filling in for James E. Strobl, who is on an indefinite medical leave, Clark said.
Strobli began working at Student Health Services in 1972 as an administrative officer. He was appointed associate director of the health center in 1974 and was named acting director in 1984.
Man faces sentencing for Potter Lake fight
A man who was arrested for pointing a gun at a University of Kansas student at a fraternity party last fall will be sentenced at 11 a.m. Jan. 29 in Douglas County District Court.
Ernie L. Batsell, a St. Louis resident, pleaded guilty Dec. 9 on a felony charge of criminal threat.
The party followed Beach-N-Boulevard, a Hawk Week event. A fight ensued when members of the Phi Beta Sigma fraternity showed up at the party.
The charge stemmed from an Aug. 19 Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity party at Potter Lake Pavilion.
Batsell admitted to pointing a 9 mm semi-automatic weapon at a student. No shots were fired.
Facilities operations workers searching for a leak in a water line dug a hole eight feet deep on the northeast corner of the power plant yesterday.
University employees search for water leak
Rex Hays, facilities operations assistant director, said workers could not find the leak and would continue the search this morning.
"Typically a leak like that is on a mechanical joint," he said.
Hays said repairing the problem might require temporarily shutting off the water line that supplies Watson Library and Twente Hall.
Hays said that the leak was not related to winter weather.
Ambulance dispatched to help KU employee
The victim, a University of Kansas food-services employee, was not transported to Lawrence Memorial Hospital.
An ambulance was dispatched at 11:47 a.m. yesterday to a bus stop at Jayhawk Boulevard and Sunflower Road to help a seizure victim. KU police said.
System defect triggers false alarm at Malott
The alarm was triggered by a system malfunction, Sgt. Chris Keary said.
A false fire alarm at 2:08 p.m. yesterday caused the evacuation of Mabot Hall, KU police said.
Keary did not have an estimate on the number of people evacuated.
April Wiley, who works in the chemistry department, said the evacuation lasted 15 to 20 minutes.
-- Kansan staff reports
ON THE RECORD
$1,000 in damage was caused to a vehicle in Lot 90 Thursday, KU police said.
■ A laptop computer and ethernet card were taken from Room 207 of Green Hall between 5 p.m. Dec. 29 and 10:30 a.m. Jan. 5, KU police said. The items were valued at $1,075.
A laptop computer and ethernet card were taken from Room 275 of Parrot Athletic Center between 5 p.m. Dec. 14 and 4 p.m. Jan. 15, KU police said. The items were valued at $2,180.
Less than $100 in damage was caused to a door in Corbin Hall Thursday night, KU police said. A towel hanging on the doorway caught on fire.
$1,100 in damage was caused to a KU student's vehicle in lot 114 between 10 p.m. Tuesday and 3 p.m. Thursday, KU police said.
A KU student's parking permit was taken from Lot 90 between 9 a.m. Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday, KU police said. The permit was valued at $75.
A KU student reported an accident late Friday evening at lot 102 and Engel Road, KU police said. Another KU student was ticketed for
Two fire extinguishers were taken from the 3rd and 4th floors of Oliver Hall early Saturday morning, KU police said. The items were valued at $50.
A KU student's video game and control deck were stolen from a room in McCollum Hall early Saturday morning, KU police said. The items were valued at $174.99.
A cellular phone, keys and other items were taken from Room 211 of Robinson Center Saturday morning, KU police said. The loss was valued at $209.50.
n An accident in Lot 111 Sunday caused minor damage to three vehicles, KU police said.
$13 in cash, a black nylon purse and a black wallet were stolen from a Jayhawker Towers employee's car in the 1100 block of Tennessee late Thursday night. Lawrence Police said.
duty to report an accident.
Lawrence police responded to a KU student's report of domestic battery early Sunday morning. Police said the incident occurred in the 1400 block of Tennessee between 4:00 and 4:30 a.m.
A KU student's "hella" light and light covers were stolen from his car in the 1400 block of Tennessee early
Two Visa cards and an American Express were stolen from an employee of the Economics Department between 8:00 a.m. on Jan. 12 and 5:30 p.m. Jan 16, Lawrence police said. The cards had no dollar value.
- A black leather wallet, driver's license and social security card were stolen from a KU student in the 900 block of Massachusetts between 8:30 Friday night and 8:00 Saturday night, Lawrence police said. The items were valued at $45.
A KU student lost $199 dollars in books, plus his driver's license and book bag, when they were stolen from his car in the 800 block of Michigan between 9:00 and 9:50 Sunday night. Lawrence police said
A KU student's license plate, valued at $5, was stolen from his car in the 300 block of Windsor place, Lawrence police said.
A KU employee's car was broken into, and a Burma leather coat taken from it, between midnight and 1:45 Thursday morning, Lawrence police said, causing $600 total damage.
Monday morning, Lawrence police said. The items were valued at $400
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Mon.- Fri. 8am-5:30
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Currently accepting reservations for your apt. or townhouse for FALL
842-4200 It's time to step up to Meadowbrook
Tickets on sale at the Lied Center Box Office (864-ARTS);
Murphy Hall Box Office (864-3982); SUA Box Office (864-3477) or
Ticketmaster (785) 234-4545. Visit our website www.ukans.edu/~lied
Stand Out. Become an RA.
ALL application materials
are due to the
Department of
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Corbin Hall, by
6:00pm Tuesday.
January 30,1988.
For more information,
contact Scott Strawn
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at 785-864-8784
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