New York, NY (March 13, 2003) -- The guilty gene responsible for initiating oncogenesis in Kaposi's Sarcoma has been identified -- at last -- by researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College. As reported in the latest issue of Cancer Cell, Kaposi's Sarcoma associated Herpes Virus (KSHV), which is consistently detected within this highly vascularized cancer, carries the gene, vGPCR. The vGPCR (viral G-Protein Coupled Receptor) gene has been a suspect for a long time. However, scientists have been faced with the conundrum that vGPCR is not expressed either long enough or in enough of the cells within the KS tumor to be "pinned"down.Now, Dr. Enrique Mesri of Weill Cornell and colleagues propose a new scenario and a new mechanism -- namely, a "hit and run" type of crime, where vGPCR is expressed just long enough to cause the initial damage, but then retreats so as not to be caught. These findings, generally, reveal a new way to look at the role of viruses in disease and to determine which genes may be important targets for treatments. Specifically, this research offers the promise for alternative treatments of Kaposi's Sarcoma by blocking the actions of the vGPCR protein itself.
The U.S. Postal Service -- America's largest public enterprise -- is in need of reform and should be transformed from a government-owned entity into a privately owned firm, says an expert at Cornell University. In a new book, Saving the Mail: How to Solve the Problems of the U.S. Postal Service (American Enterprise Institute Press), assistant professor of policy analysis and management Rick Geddes argues that the postal service should become a completely demonopolized company that offers publicly traded shares. Germany and Holland have successfully privatized their postal services. (March 12, 2003)
Culminating a six-year development and building process led by Cornell University's Steven Squyres, the second of two Mars-bound clusters of scientific instruments, called the Athena payload, arrived March 11 at the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Fla. The instruments will ride aboard NASA's twin Mars Exploration Rovers, scheduled for separate launches beginning May 30 and June 25. (March 12, 2003)
Yolanda Tseng, a senior in the College of Engineering at Cornell University, has been awarded a 2003 Winston Churchill Scholarship for a year of graduate study at Cambridge University in England.
Cornell University will be awarded up to $124 million over the next five years by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support research at the Laboratory for Elementary-Particle Physics (LEPP) and the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS), a national user facility. Of the award, approximately $99 million already approved by the National Science Board, the NSF's policy body, would go to LEPP. Up to $25 million, recommended by NSF program managers, would go to CHESS, with $2.44 million of this amount funded by the National Institutes of Health's National Institute for General Medical Sciences. Both research facilities share use of the Cornell Electron Storage Ring (CESR), the university's high-energy particle accelerator. (March 11, 2003)
Shoals Marine Laboratory, which began as an island-based marine sciences field station, then expanded with noncredit courses for adults, now extends the welcoming gangplank for children and teenagers.
Two-career couples in the United States continue to struggle in managing conflicting family and work demands. Increasingly outdated workplace and work-hour policies based on the one-career-per-family model, they find, have little regard for the needs of workers, their spouses or their families, according to a Cornell University sociologist. A new book, It's About Time: Couples and Careers (Cornell University Press), edited by Phyllis Moen, the Ferris Family Professor of Life Course Studies at Cornell and director of the Cornell Careers Institute, says that U.S. employers need to create new career paths that support dual-career couples. These options should have innovative flexibility, such as reduced work hours for new parents and semiretired workers whose benefits and future career options would be protected. (March 11, 2003)
The Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies program at Cornell continues to offer a slate of free public lectures for the entire community during Women's History Month and into April.
Recognizing the seriousness of the proposed $183.5 million reduction in tax dollar support for the 34 state-operated campuses of the State University of New York, including the contract colleges at Cornell.
