The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.cam
Thursday, February 13, 2014 - 3A
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Thursday, February 13, 2014 - 3A
CROWDFUNDING
From Page IA
National Science Foundation,
according to the University. This
funding has seen steady decline
in recent yegrs. Last year, the
University received $9.6 million
less than it had in previous years
from the NIH, which accounts for
about 38 percent of the Univer-
sity's funding.
The researchers in Herron's lab
plan to set up their crowdfunding
through experiment.com, a web-
site that allows scientists to pro-
mote their projects and receive
financial contributions from indi-
viduals and companies.
"We hope that there will be
companies that will donate large
blocks of money, but also for indi-
viduals, who might not have as
much funding, but who also want
to help with fundraising to keep
this research going ... can also
donate money," Herron said. "Our
hope is that it will be a combina-
tion of the two."
With the help of the funding,
Herron is growing diseased heart
muscle cells from induced plu-
ripotent stem cells. IPS cells are
undifferentiated, meaning they
have the potential to grow into
various types of specialized cells,
such as liver, heart or muscle
cells.
Herron's lab has been working
closely with a single family that
has a history of stress-induced
arrhythmia. Individuals with this
condition experience irregular
heartbeat when engaging in exer-
cise or other physically stressful
activities.
Six members of family have
already been studied. By taking
biopsies from both diseased and
healthy members of the family,
the lab has the ability to establish
changes in the cell lines that may
lead to the future development of
treatments for the disorder.
"Our ultimate goal is to use
these induced pluripotent stem
cell to create cardiac muscle in
a dish," Herron said. "We can
actually recreate their heart
muscle cells in a dish and then
we can study why they're dis-
ease. We can also use them as a
platform to test new drugs and
new therapies."
Although many of the family
members inherited the genetic
factors causing the disease, the
lab must grow new stem cells for
each patient in order to accurate-
ly characterize the disease. The
process costs about $4,500 per
individual, according to Herron.
If successful, the crowdfunding
campaign will help cover the
costs of chemicals and other sup-
plies necessary to continue the
experiments with other family
members.
"It's essential to create patient
specific stem cell lines," Herron
said. "It's not really applicable to
make just one stem cell line and
then say that it's representative
of all the family members."
Unlike embryonic stem cells,
IPS cells do not require tissue
from an embryo. Cells from the
study were isolated from skin
samples. This avoids the con-
troversy that has arisen over
the use of embryonic stem cells
in research, but it has yet to be
proven that IPS cells have the
same versatility.
"There is still some debate in
the research field about whether
the induced - pluripotent stem
cells are as good as the embryon-
ic stem cells," Herron said. "The
IPS cells are synthetic - they're
made in a laboratory - whereas
the embryonic stem cells are
nature's stem cells."
In addition to the potential
therapies that could be devel-
oped with IPS cell research,
Herron said the lab now has an
added incentive: a newborn baby
in the family being studied. If the
researchers can discover the bio-
logical mechanisms that cause
the family's genetic arrhythmia,
it could provide physicians with
valuable information on how
to care for the child before any
symptoms appear.
WEATHER
From Page 1A
Severe Weather was formed.
To gather opinion from the
various University units, the 24
members are from a variety of
departments and include Chief
Health Officer Robert Winfield;
Laurita Thomas, associate vice
president of human resources;
Andy Burchfield, director of
emergency management; Dean of
Students Laura Blake Jones and
Dentistry Prof. Rex Holland, a
member of SACUA.
"There were many concerns
raised by faculty, staff, students
and parents regarding this deci-
sion," the committee's charge
document states. "A review of
our current policies and proce-
dures specific to severe weather
is warranted to ensure they are
in alignment with our principles
and values of stewardship and
safety."
Onesuch concernwasinregard
to staff, and was epitomized after
hazardous temperatures forced
the University to cancel class just
two weeks later.
While classes were canceled
Jan. 28, dining halls, librar-
ies, buses and health services
remained open. All 28,500 staff
members were instructed to
report to work. A memo sent out
to faculty and staff did request
supervisors be flexible due to the
conditions, but staff members
unable or unwilling to brave the
cold had to use a vacation day or
unpaid time off.'
One University staff member,
who wished to remain anony-
mous, said they disapproved
of the University's decision to
require faculty and staff to report
to work.
"That couldn't possibly be fair,"
the staff member said. "If the stu-
dents are available to come to the
library, they will. That doesn't
mean we need to be open. We only
needed a bare-bones staff to run
the librarythat day."
However, another staff mem-
ber, who works in a dining hall,
said it was necessary that din-
ing hall staff show up for work
regardless of the conditions, since
a large number of students, espe-
cially freshmen in the dorms, rely
on their meal plans.
Under the current emergency
closure policy, no distinction is
drawn between critical and non-
critical staff. A "Critical Services"
subcommittee of the larger severe
weather committee is addressing
the question in bi-monthly meet-
ings.
Committee member Kathleen
Donohoe, the associate director
of University human resources,
said the subcommittee's goal is
"to define policy and practice
for the sustainability of critical
operations ... and to recommend
systems to support the work life
issues affecting both critical and
non-critical staff."
Donohue said critical staff
would be those working in facili-
ties and services that must be
maintained around the clock,
such as the hospital, dining halls,
dorms and snow removal.
University spokesman Rick
Fitzgerald said some staff mem-
bers are not bound to the office for
their work, and an updated policy
may qualify that distinction.
"Some employees have the abil-
ity to do their jobs from home so
there's flexibility that exists now,"
Fitzgerald said.
The committee's second
monthly meeting is approach-
ing, but no changes will be made
until the policy review is finished
in April, and members submit a
list of recommendations to the
committee's sponsors: Pollack,
Ora H. Pescovitz, executive vice
president for medical affairs and
Timothy P. Slottow, executive
vice president and chief financial
officer.
INNOVATION
From Page 1A
nect to almost any device - such
as iPhones, Androids, MacBook
Pros, and Playstations - Aveg-
ant hopes the Glyph will revo-
lutionize the way we consume
media.
"People are using devices
today primarily to watch video:
streaming Netflix, playing
games, watching YouTube vid-
eos - and these experiences are
what we designed our device
for," said Tang, the company's
CEO.
The Glyph, unlike many
other media devices, will forego
a'screen in lieu of using small
LED lights with a special mirror
array to mimic how objects are
seen naturally.
"We're using 2 million micro-
mirrors to bounce light into your
eye similar to the way you see
MICHIGAN
From Page 1A
in workshops and doing things
that enable them to go back to
their settings and do much bet-
ter work with teachers," Ball
said.
LessonSketch, a collaboration
between Education Profs. Patri-
cio Herbst and Vu Minh Chieu
and a professor at the University
of Maryland, is a program that
helps teachers model possible
classroom scenarios. Through
100kin10, LessonSketch has
been invited to help teacher edu-
cators who already use the pro-
gram create "representations,"
Ball said.
"They're things you can
watch where you see examples
of really good teaching," she
said. "And those representa-
tions that these people will
build will be distributed to peo-
ple all over the country. So it's
like a project to get people who
are really good at working with
teachers to build materials that
can be used by other teacher
educators."
The two programs are part of
almost 200 other projects that
make up 100Kin10. Ball said the
"big workforce investment" is
aimed not only at training new
teachers, but also those who
have been in the classroom for
years.
Many teachers are fac-
ing changes in content they're
in real life," Evans said. "That
creates a type of light that your
brain really likes."
The device takes advan-
tage of MEMS - micro-electro
mechanical systems - engineer-
ing to provide many cutting-
edge features, such as the ability
to play 3D movies and videos,
and the ability to track a user's
head movement. This is poten-
tially intriguing for video game
developers who will be able to
allow users to look around just
by moving their head naturally.
Tang said Ann Arbor is the
prime location for the startup
due to its constant flow of gradu-
ates.
"Michigan is the leading
MEMS university probably in
the world," Tang said. "And this
device has a lot of MEMS tech
in it, from the micromirrors to
the head tracking. And several
members of our team have spe-
cialized in MEMS at Michigan."
instructed to teach, as well as
the strategies used to bring it
across to students. Engineering
concepts are beingintroduced as
early as elementary school and
math problems are increasingly
being taught as complex puzzles
to be solved and debated over the
course of days.
Ball added that these changes
also affect new teachers coming
into the classroom for the first
time.
"The other issue is that there
are new teachers that have to be
prepared to teach this content,"
Ball said. "When they were
growing up as kids their only
experience in school actually
was different from what they're
going to be expected to do as
new teachers."
100kinlo also aims to increase
diversity in STEM fields, Ball
added.
"It's kind of like a workforce
solution about teachers in order
to change the nature of who the
people are in our society who are
actually interested in going into
these fields," she said.
The Carnegie Foundation
of New York and Opportunity
Equation put together a variety
of types of organizations to make
100kinlo possible, Ball said.
"It's kind of a matching pro-
cess between an organization
that can contribute to building
up really great math and science
teaching together with a funder
who can put money towards
this."
LECTURE Terry Thompson, assistant education. Thompson said. "So this contin-
From Page 1A professor of public health, said "We have a strong social ues to show you our commitment
Sharkey's findings change the way dynamic here, so we address and to understanding what is going
students and faculty should look at look at certain issues like this," on in everyday life."
"The most peaceful time in the last hundred years is right now."
- New York University Professor Patrick Sharkey
Violence in Major Cities 1990-2010
Chicago Cleveland
28.86% Less Violence 43.28% Less Violence
28.8% Les VilenL
N
@MICHIGANDAILY
Denver
47.54% Less Violence
Philadelphia
22.91% Less Violence
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