THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
FRIDAY OCTOBER 23, 2009
NEWS 3A
CANCER (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
in the lab supervised by Blagg.
Blagg was also recently recognized nationally for his work. He received the 2009 David W. Robertson Memorial Award, which is given annually to scientists under the age of 40 who have made substantial contributions to medicinal chemistry.
Blagg has been a key player in Donnelly's research, which involves targeting Hsp90, or heat shock protein 90. Cancer cells rely on this protein to proliferate. Although Hsp90 inhibitors exist in some drugs, Donnelly's research, and the research of everyone in her lab, will target the protein in a unique way that wouldn't exhibit the side effects of known Hsp90 inhibitors. Donnelly said it that they would be inhibiting cancer through a novel mechanism.
Donnellly had applied for the medicinal and organic chemistry fellowships, both highly competitive and prestigious awards. After she didn't get the medicinal chemistry fellowship, she said she had
assumed that was the end of it. A few weeks later, she was sitting at her computer, munching on a granola bar when the e-mail saying that shed been selected to receive the one of the ACS Division of Organic Chemistry Graduate Fellowships came.
Donnellly laughed when she recounted Blagg's reaction to the news. She said his complete astonishment at the news she had received the award was almost insulting.
Blagg said his shock had more to do with Alison applying for an organic chemistry fellowship as a medicinal chemist. He said fewer than five medicinal chemists had received organic chemistry awards in the last 20 years.
"I was shocked because, for some reason, medicinal chemistry is considered like the stepsister of organic chemistry," he said. "And they don't really give any of these organic chemistry awards to medicinal chemists."
A year has passed since Becky's
diagnosis. She underwent a second surgery and more biopsies in the months that followed to determine if chemotherapy would be necessary. Two days before Christmas, the Donnellly family received the news that Berky was cancer free.
"Best Christmas present ever," Becky said.
When complimented on her research, Donnelly is quick to say she is not the only one doing it, but rather, she's the only one that applied for the fellowship. Blagg said Alison got the fellowship through her own performance, citing her outstanding letters of recommendation, work ethic, tenacity and insight. He said her motivation was one of her greatest attributes.
"There are a lot of things that students can be taught in class and with textbooks," he said. "But ambition is one that's kind of inherent in the individual. She seems to have quite a bit of it."
Edited by Lauren Cunningham
Third year medicinal chemistry doctoral student Alison Donnelly works in the lab as part of her cancer research. Donnelly has never had cancer herself, but her sister Becky was diagnosed last fall.
Mike Gunnoe/KANSAN
ECM (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
of Lawrence Modern, which studies post-World War II architecture, said buildings needed to be at least 50 years old to be on the register. He said 50 years didn't sound like a lot, but it represented a time when architecture changed.
"We started using glass as walls. That was different from any other type of architecture before World War II," Harper said, "I just think it's a beautiful and important building that represents that era in a significant way."
Jason Hering, Hutchinson
senior and member of the Student Leadership Team at ECM, said the historic site designation should work to draw attention to ECM's renovation efforts. The ECM is looking to raise $832,000 to make renovations such as replacing its kitchen, windows and repairing a central air conditioning system that has been broken for decades.
Holcombe said ECM hosts more than a thousand people every month.
"Our heating system has never been updated for 50 years."
Holcombe said. "We used to have air conditioning until the '60s."
Hering said that students were helping to design what the renovations should look like, and that ECM also produced a video in its pitch to be placed on the register.
"That will help the overall thing to try to explain that it's not just like a church organization," Hering said. "This is a center for a lot of radical thought that's happened on campus and around Lawrence."
Edited by Jonathan Hermes
CRIME
Federal police escort handcuffed suspect Jose Roberto de la Sancha as he is presented to the press in Mexico City on Thursday. De la Sancha, detained along with five others in a recent police operation, is an alleged member of the Mexican drug cartel "La Familia," according to police. More than 300 people were arrested around the U.S. in the strike against the cartel.
Authorities strike against drug cartel 'La Familia'
BY ELLIOT SPAGAT AND SEAN MURPHY Associated Press
OKLAHOMA CITY — In the largest single strike at Mexican drug operations in the U.S., author-
ties arrested more than 300 people in a sting that demonstrates a young cartel's vast reach north of the border.
The tentacles of "La Familia" extend coast to coast and deep into America's
In the Dallas and Seattle areas, dozens of children were removed from houses where authorities found drugs, guns or cash.
Oklahoma parking lots, suppliers were advised to weld drugs into tire rims for transport, and in the Dallas and Seattle areas, dozens of children were removed from houses where authorities found drugs, guns or cash derived from
heartland, with arrests announced Thursday in 38 cities from Boston to Seattle and from St. Paul, Minn., to Raleigh, N.C.
Drug deals went down in
Perhaps more than any other cartel, La Familia projects a Robin Hood image. The Drug Enforcement Administration said the group is "philosophically opposed to the sale of methamphetamine to
drug sales.
Mexicans, and instead supports its export to the United States for consumption by Americans."
One of the gang's alleged recruiters, detained last spring, ran drug rehabilitation centers, helping addicts to recover and then forcing them to work for the drug gang or be killed, according to Mexico Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna.
recruit. The gang has hung banners in towns saying they do not tolerate drug use, or attacks on women or children.
La Familia is rarely mentioned in the same breath as the handful of other Mexican gangs that control the flow of drugs into the United States, fueled by Colombian cocaine suppliers. The Sinaloa, Juarez, Gulf and Tijuana cartels have roots that go back many years, even decades.
Mexican police say the gang uses religion and family morals to
La Familia was founded around 2004 and really took off in 2006, Braun said.
Chance Dibben/KANSAN
Rex Buchanan, deputy director for the Kansas Geological Survey, also said he saw green initiatives as being influential on the future of the Kansas economy.
Robert E. Litan, Vice President of Research and Policy at the Kauffman Foundation gives a presentation in the Ball Room of the Kansas Union Thursday afternoon. Litan was one of many speakers who presented as part of the KU Institute for Policy and Social Research event, which discussed ideas about advancing the economy of Kansas.
Housing and urban development but also try to implement some green infrastructure within," Woods said.
ECONOMICS (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
He focused his speech,
"Mapping the Kansas Economy
— The Natural Environment," on the natural resources Kansas used and ways to create jobs through reforming the use of those natural resources.
If Kansas did get into the business of sequestration, he said, it could be the poster child for the practice because Kansas has so
In his presentation, Buchanan showed that Kansas ranked highly in the total amount of greenhouse gases it emitted — 26th in the nation. Buchanan advocated creating jobs in the business of carbon dioxide sequestration, where carbon dioxide is taken from the atmosphere and buried more than 3,000 feet below the ground.
"Energy is a hugely complex issue." Buchanan said. "As important as it is, it's not one of those things that we're going to sort of solve and change the way we do
However, Buchanan said he didn't see renewable energy making a drastic effect on the Kansas economy just yet.
much unused land.
business overnight."
Administrators of the institute said the presentations would be online at www.ipsr.ku.edu/conferen/kepc09 in about a week to anyone who was interested in ideas for the future of the Kansas economy.
Edited by Abbey Strusz
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