Formula assesses
complications
in bone marrow
recipients
By PARISHA NOVA
Daily Staff Reporter
University researchers have
developed a new testing sys-
tem that can improve care for
patients who need bone marrow
and stem cell transplants.
Graft-versus-host disease is a
life-threatening condition that
can occur in response to trans-
plants. GVHD causes immune
cells from the transplant to
attack the body’s healthy tissue.
In patients with diseases such as
leukemia, which compromises
the body’s immune system, bone
marrow or stem cell transplants
are necessary.
John Levine, professor of
pediatrics and the study’s lead
author, said in these types of
cases, GVHD is a real danger.
“Following
transplantation
surgeries, our major concern is
the development of GVHD in our
patients,” Levine said. “How-
ever, it is difficult to predict the
severity of GVHD at the onset of
the symptoms as it varies from
patient to patient.”
Prior to the research, there
was no method for determining
the severity of a GVHD case and
whether or not it needed treat-
ment. The treatment involves
high doses of medication that
reduce immune activity, so doc-
tors must be extremely cautious
when treating GVHD. Levine
and his co-investigators assessed
nearly 800 patients and created
a scoring system that uses three
proteins to assess the severity of
each case of the disease.
“We found out that it was
not one protein but a combina-
tion of three recently validated
biomarkers TNFR1, ST2, and
Reg3a,” Levine said. “We then
formulated an equation which
computes the concentration of
the biomarkers into three Ann
Arbor scores. The scores are
positively correlated with the
amount of risk the diagnosed
patient is in, so a score 1 indicates
a patient with minimal risk while
a patient diagnosed with a score
michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Thursday, January 22, 2015
CELEBRATING OUR ONE-HUNDRED-TWENTY-FIFTH YEAR OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
INDEX
Vol. CXXIV, No. 52
©2015 The Michigan Daily
michigandaily.com
NEWS......................... 2A
OPINION.....................4A
SPORTS ......................7A
SUDOKU..................... 2A
CL ASSIFIEDS...............6A
B - S I D E . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 B
NEW ON MICHIGANDAILY.COM
Mechanical problem causes Ross evacuation
MICHIGANDAILY.COM/BLOGS
GOT A NEWS TIP?
Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail
news@michigandaily.com and let us know.
WEATHER
TOMORROW
HI: 34
LO: 23
A look at how, why and where
‘U’ students get their local grub
» INSIDE
the food b-side
Stephanie Chang
becomes inaugural
Asian-American
woman in House
By DYLAN BENNETT
For the Daily
When the Michigan Legis-
lature kicked off a new session
Wednesday, the House floor
included a number of new faces,
including state Rep. Stepha-
nie Chang (D–Detroit), the first
Asian-American woman to serve
in the Michigan House of Repre-
sentatives.
Earning a bachelor’s degree
in Psychology at the Univer-
sity in 2005, she said the skills
she developed through student
leadership roles on campus ulti-
mately gave her the confidence
and experience to run for state
representative.
“When I was on campus
around the time of 2005, the
Supreme Court case on affirma-
tive action was going on, and I
was involved in an organization
of students supporting affirma-
tive action,” Chang said. “We
mobilized people to get on buses
to go to D.C. It was really a train-
ing ground for me in terms of
learning how to organize and
practice
coalition
building
skills.”
After graduating in 2005,
Chang became a community
organizer in Detroit. While liv-
ing on the city’s east side, she
served as an assistant to Grace
Lee Boggs, an influential Asian-
American political activist, and
as a mentor with the Detroit
Asian Youth Project. She said
her experiences at the University
prepared her for these tasks.
“A lot of the things I did in
college really helped prepare me
to learn how to organize, build
relationships and how to really
effectively advocate on differ-
Public service
videos, counseling
make up initiative
By KATIE PENROD
who has this position
The University is piloting
a new program designed to
draw attention to the mental
health for student-athletes.
The program, which was
piloted in the fall and includ-
ed a public service videos and
drop-in counseling sessions,
drew participation from 90
percent of the University’s
931 student-athletes.
The program, which is a
collaboration between the
Athletic
Department,
the
School of Public Health and
the University’s Depression
Center, is supported by an
$50,ooo NCAA grant.
The
pilot
consisted
of
presentations that showed
two videos in which two
former
student-athletes,
former football player Will
Heininger and former swim-
mer Kally Fayhee spoke about
coping skills and their expe-
DELANEY RYAN/Daily
Ta-Nehisi Coates, an Atlantic senior editor and writer, discusses race relations in America at the MLK Symposium at Rackham Auditorium Wednesday.
ANDREW COHEN/Daily
LSA senior Rebecca David examines fruit flies as part of a genetics course in which students analyze patterns of
inheritance and gene interaction in the Undergraduate Science Building Wednesday.
ANALYSIS
See DRIVING, Page 2A
See TRANSPLANTS, Page 3A
See ATHLETES, Page 3A
See CHANG, Page 3A
See RACE, Page 3A
A glimpse at the Helen Zell MFA
fiction writing program
» INSIDE
the b-side literary issue
Alum starts
historic first
term in state
legislature
GOVERNMENT
Ta-Nehisi Coates
lectures on slavery,
discrimination
By ALLANA AKHTAR
Daily Staff Reporter
Members of the University
community crowded Rackham
Auditorium Wednesday evening
to hear acclaimed journalist Ta-
Nehisi Coates discuss the his-
tory and institutionalization of
anti-Black racism in America.
“In this country, we believe
racism to be a kind of psycho-
sis,” he told the crowd. “A kind
of insanity, a sort of inexplicable
madness.”
Coates, a senior editor for The
Atlantic, spoke about his widely
discussed Atlantic cover story,
“The Case for Reparations,”
which examines the historical
oppression of Blacks in the Unit-
ed States.
The speech, part of the Uni-
versity’s
month-long
Martin
Luther King Jr. Symposium, was
sponsored by the Institute for
Research on Women and Gen-
der along with the Department
for Afroamerican and African
Studies, the Ford School of Pub-
lic Policy and the Center for the
Education of Women. Some stu-
dents and faculty were turned
away before the event began
because the auditorium was at
capacity.
“I hope to provoke people;
I hope to give them what they
brought me here to do,” Coates
said in an interview with The
Michigan
Daily
before
his
Award-winning journalist
talks race, history in address
University receives
grant from AAA
Foundation for
Traffic Safety
By KATIE PENROD
For the Daily
The AAA Foundation for Traf-
fic Safety granted the Univer-
sity
Transportation
Research
Institute a contract to conduct
research on the effects of age on
driving. The University’s con-
tract, as well as a similar contract
given to Columbia University, will
fund research in New York, Mary-
land, Colorado and California.
Research Prof. David Eby, head
of the Behavioral Sciences Group
at UMTRI, will serve as the co-
principal
investigator
on
the
UMTRI portion of the project.
The project will last five years and
address topics such as the effects
of medication on driving behav-
ior and outcomes. The pilot of the
study will begin in the spring.
Eby said while this is the first
extensive study on this topic in the
‘U’ creates new
scoring system
for transplants
HEALTH
Pilot program focuses on
mental health for athletes
WELLNESS
SCIENCE
Researchers
to assess age
correlation
with driving