CHAMPAIGN – Four researchers at the University of Illinois are using a little bit of force – that is a mechanical force so small it can’t be seen with the naked eye – to make a huge new discovery in the world of stem cell research.

“Our results suggest that small forces may indeed play critical roles in inducing strong biological responses in embryonic stem cells, and in shaping embryos during their early development,” Ning Wang, the lead researcher in the project, said in a University press release. 

The venture, being led by Wang, is the first of its kind. According to Wang, many projects have been done in the past using chemical force to manipulate stem cells, but this project is revolutionary. 

The researchers attached a metal bead to an embryonic stem cell. They then used controlled vibration and a magnetic field to move the bead, and consequently the cell, up and down. They measured the distance the bead traveled and were able to determine the effect of the vibration and how “soft” the cell was.

The “softness,” Wang said, is very important to successfully studying and manipulating stem cells. 

“As stem cells differentiate, they become stiffer,” Wang explained in the same press release. “The stiffer the stem cell, the less it spreads under stress.”

They experienced the same success when they applied the method to human muscle cells, but did not experiment with human stem cells. Fei Wang, a professor of cell and developmental biology, Tetsuya Tanaka, a professor of animal sciences and Farhan Chowdhury a postdoctorate research assistant are the other three professors working on the project.

According to Chowdhury, co-author of the research paper, the project started as a collaboration between the department of animal sciences and the department of mechanical science and engineering after many talks among the professors. 

“There’s no specific way to differentiate stem cells,” Chowdhury said. “People were talking about using a mechanical force, but no one was doing it.”

He said their research may eventually play a pivotal role in the medical world. 

According to the National Institute of Health’s (NIH) Web site health benefits are a major goal of stem cell research. In the future, stem cell research could lead to the reproduction of human organs (meaning no more patients on organ waiting lists.) Potentially, a long term goal is to use the knowledge about how stem cells work to cure diseases.

“Some of the most serious medical conditions, such as cancer and birth defects, are due to problems that occur somewhere in stem cells,” said a spokesperson for the NIH. “A better understanding of normal cell development will allow us to understand and perhaps correct the errors that cause these medical conditions.”

Chowdhury said that if he and the other researchers in the project can successfully put their experiment to use, they may be able to take cancerous cells from a specific person’s body and reprogram them into healthy cells. 

“Currently there are some issues because the method is not fully developed,” he said. “In the future we will be trying to differentiate them into individual lineages such as heart cells or liver cells.”

Human stem cell research is now being used in hospitals in surgeries such as bone marrow transplants. But, to some, embryonic stem cells are a more viable option for curing diseases.

Until recently, much embryonic stem cell research was banned, financially speaking, due to ethical concerns. The Bush administration cut funding for the NIH (the major federal group that deals with stem cell research). But on March 9, 2009, President Barack Obama sent out an executive order that stated: “The purpose of this order is to remove these limitations on scientific inquiry, to expand NIH support for the exploration of human stem cell research, and in so doing to enhance the contribution of America’s scientists to important new discoveries and new therapies for the benefit of humankind.”

And many Americans support Obama’s decision. Many new projects like the one at the University have cropped up all over the world since the executive order was released. 

But not all people feel this way. Many have ethical concerns associated with embryonic stem cell research in particular. When the cells are removed to conduct research, the embryo dies. Some people, religious groups in particular, believe that life starts with conception. Therefore, stem cell research raises the same qualms as abortion does. 

“The position is very simple,” said Dr. Kenneth Howell, who has been the Director of the Institute of Catholic thought for over 10 years. “All scientific research is to be encouraged within proper moral boundaries. We would say that stem cell research can be done as long as it isn’t in any violation of moral norms.”

For Howell, and many others, deciding exactly what an embryo represents to them is at the root of the issue.

“Embryonic stem cell research is the destruction of a human embryo,” Howell explained. “To destroy a human embryo is to destroy human life – that is murder.”

Howell said he believes that even though the research may provide future promise for curing diseases, “the logic behind that thinking is flawed.”

“Saving one life does not justify killing another,” he said. “That’s a moral position that (people) take because it’s pervasive in our society – a business model being applied to human life.”

Jason West, a sophomore majoring in Biology at the University, said he thinks the whole issue of sacrificing some lives to save others can be a “tricky situation.”

West said he has not personally been confronted with the issue thus far, but as a student hoping to become a doctor he said he will “probably have to take a stand on it at some point.”

“As a Christian I believe in preserving life,” he said. “When you get in the business of trading one life for another you get into an ethically gray area.”

And then comes the question of where the stem cells would come from. One proposed option is from frozen in-vitro eggs. According to a study by the Stem Cell Researchers of America, over 400,000 of these eggs are discarded annually. They want to do research on those eggs. But other data shows only 37,000 of those are actually useable. And much of difference in research spawns from difference in opinion.

Another student, Stephanie Maldonado, a sophomore, also said that she thought the issue was very complicated. 

“I think when you start talking about sacrificing one life for another it gets pretty philosophical,” she said. “I don’t think we should have a right to do that.”

But Maldonado also said that while she has a problem with this specific issue, she has strong abortion rights views. So, like many others, Maldonado does not have a specific view on stem cell research.

“As a non-science person, I just don’t know enough information to make a real decision,” she said. 

Chowdhury said that so far in their research, they have come up against many ethical issues. 

“Some people think killing embryos is killing life,” he said. “Others think life starts when the heart starts beating. I respect both schools of thought.”

As a solution, many people would like to bypass the entire debate and instead focus on stem cell research that does not tamper with embryos such as experimenting with cells from umbilical cords and human stem cells. 

“I just feel like if we discovered so much about embryonic stem cells,” Maldonado said, “then there has to be another way. We just haven’t done enough research on alternative options.”

CHAMPAIGN – Gene Robinson holds numerous titles at the University of Illinois – director of the neuroscience program, an entomology professor and director at the bee facility that is named in his honor. He has written over 200 scientific articles and has been quoted in prestigious publications such as Nature and The New York Times. He is described as the foremost scholar on the social behavior of honeybees and is described by colleagues as a “pioneer.”

But he may never have discovered his love of working with bees if he had not first discovered his hatred of grapefruits. 

The summer after his freshman year of college, Robinson decided to take a year off from school and work in Israel on a kibbutz, a communal farm. 

“We had random odd jobs and my job had been picking grapefruits,” Robinson explained. “After awhile I got so sick of picking grapefruits and I asked if there were any other jobs I could do. They said they needed help with bees, but I knew nothing about bees.”

Robinson said that after only one day of working with the honeybees he was “smitten.” He said that assisting the beekeeper was “compelling.” But he quickly realized that, though he loved bees, commercial beekeeping was not his passion. 

“I fell in love with bees but I thought, ‘What are they good for?’” he said. 

The next fall he entered Cornell University as an entomology major and as Robinson put it, “the rest is history.” 

Robinson’s passion for honeybees is apparent even in one glimpse of his office. His shelves are overflowing with stacks of magazines like Nature, Journal of Neuroscience and Insects Sociaux. His walls are plastered with bee posters and flyers for entomology events. On his bulletin board, jokes and notes about honeybees overlap with photographs of Robinson smiling with his kids and wife. On the right wall of his office, he even has his own working honeybee hive enclosed in a glass case. 

Robinson has come a long way from that curious teen in Israel. These days, he is committed to working to understand the correlation between honeybees’ brains and their social behavior. And in the last 20 years of research, he has come farther then he ever though he would.

“We’re trying to understand how the brain produces social behavior and the bee is a compelling model,” he said. “They have teeny tiny brains but a complicated social life. We’re using techniques from evolution, behavior, physiology, neuroscience, molecular biology and genomics to try and accomplish this goal.” 

Doing this type of research requires many steps and precision. First, bees are collected for study. Then, a researcher, usually a graduate student, dissects the brain and sends it through a QPCR (quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction). This machine measures gene activity and extracts and measures the RNA. Then the extracted RNA is sent to the imaging room. Once it reaches the imaging room a technician will look at the substance through a microscope. It is then compared to other images and can have chemicals added. These observations help to shape Robinson’s research. 

“We look at the gene activity and look at brain changes,” he said. 

Robinson said that these days he does not have as much hands-on time with the bees, but has come to enjoy other aspects of his many jobs. 

“My favorite part has changed over the years,” Robinson said of doing honeybee research. “When I first started a a graduate student I liked doing experiments, but now I work more with people. At this point, I’m enjoying seeing students growing as scientists – becoming creative thinkers and seeing them go out and get their own jobs.” 

Seth Ament, a Ph.D. student in Neuroscience at the University, has worked with Robinson for five years in the bee facility.

“He is a true professional,” Ament says of his mentor. “He demands a lot of all his students but he treats us with enormous caring.”

Ament said he admires the way Robinson handles all of his responsibilities.

“I look at him as a role model,” he said. “He works really hard and puts in close to 80 hours a week. He succeeds in his career but also has a very fulfilling and balanced life. Some people are just happier than others and he always seems satisfied. That is encouraging as a graduate student.”

Samuel Beshers, who works with Robinson as coordinator of the neuroscience program, said Robinson is “someone you can always count on.”

“He is very attentive to his responsibilities,” he said. “He is some combination of integrity, responsibility and enthusiasm.

Beshers stressed that Robinson is dedicated to his work.

“Once when we were working on a paper he suffered a death in the family,” Beshers said. “But he took time to look at the paper even in the midst of all that.” 

But Karen Pruiett is quick to point out that Robinson is not always about work. Pruiett has worked with as Robinson as bee research specialist at the Robinson lab since 2001. 

“I was sick for a year and a half and he made every effort to help me,” she said. “That is such a sweet thing in this day and age. He is a wonderful boss and a great guy to work for.”

Sydney Cameron, who is currently working on a research project on messenger RNA transcripts, has known Robinson since the 80s. 

“He’s very persistent and incredibly brilliant,” she said. “He has such a curiosity and enthusiasm, but he also enjoys a good joke. He has a great laugh.” 

Cameron said Robinson’s dedication to his research is inspiring. 

“From the beginning he has followed a straight path,” she said, “but he’s broadened it. He really is a pioneer.”

CHAMPAIGN – Speeding by a University police officer may not be the most intelligent decision according to Lieutenant “Skip” Frost – the man in charge of the police force on-campus. .

Frost said that most people do not realize that University police have the authority to give speeding tickets, or the right to many other enforcements that affect them. 

“People have the wrong idea about what we do,” he said. “In Champaign-Urbana there are five agencies that work on top of each other. We all have jurisdiction but we have individualized districts.”

And Frost said that as the University authority on-campus the police force has special problems. He said that most common crime on campus is what he calls “opportunity theft.” That is, when someone sees something unattended and swipes it. 

Another college-specific issue is underage drinking.

“Alcohol causes us a variety of problems,” Frost said. “But honestly, it is very little of what we do.”

Frost explained that it frustrates him that his police force gets a “bad rap” as targeting college kids and giving out tons of drinking tickets.

“You always hear about people getting drinking tickets,” Frost said. “People refer to us as ‘beer nazis,’ but we only give about 150-200 per year.”

Frost stressed that the force is simply enforcing the law. 

“You will not find someone that enjoys a cold beer more than me,” he said. “When I was in college I drank enough to sink a battleship, but when I became an officer I took an oath.”

Frost said his journey from his partying college days to the professional, policeman life he now leads was not the typical path. He attended Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. 

But then he attended the FBI National Academy the following spring. He was then a bomb squad commander and a narcotic investigator.

When the position opened for head of the University patrol division Frost jumped on it and he said he has enjoyed his time in that position.

“We don’t have the same issues as urban areas,” he said. “There is no poverty or urban blight. Most of our clientele is very well-educated.”

He said this cuts down on confusion when issues arise.

“It’s just different with better-informed folks,” he said. 

Frost said, thought, that there have been issues in the past with the media.

“There’s a lot of friction between police and the media,” he said. “The media will get ahold of something and then it puts us at a disadvantage for investigating.”

Frost said he just wants the media to treat the police how police try to treat the community they serve. 

“The media shouldn’t show favoritism,” he said, “but be fair, unbiased and balanced.”

Lauren Bowen, a graduate student in English, said though she didn’t picket, she did support the cause. 

“This isn’t affecting me directly,” Bowen said, “but it speaks volumes about how the University treats grad students. We are the central force that keeps the University running.”

“If the University continues under compensating, I wouldn’t support that,” she added. 

She also addressed the conditions graduate students are currently under. “It’s never easy to make ends meet,” she said. “What we’re protesting is tuition waivers. Without that I wouldn’t be in graduate school.”

John O’Connor, an in-state graduate student, said that although he was in good standing to keep his tuition waiver, his protesting was more a matter of principle.

“I am in solidarity with the people whose waivers are in danger,” said O’Connor who picketed in the rain for about 2 hours yesterday. “And I still have debt – I’m taking out student loans. The University put out false numbers about that; it’s ridiculous. And I don’t even have a family to support.”

“I feel good about what we’re doing,” he said. “We need to try to keep getting conditions improved.”

Ashlee McLaughlin, a P.H.D. student in Urban Planning, danced in a circle in front of Foellinger with around other 100 students to celebrate.

“I feel really satisfied,” McLaughlin said. “I haven’t been intimately involved in the negotiations but it seems to have worked – and I wasn’t super positive to begin with.”

In the end, Julien Ball, a member of GEO and the RSO International Socialist Organization, feels that the struggle was a matter of who get education.

“Is education for the rich or for all of us?” he asked. “Workers deserve to stay on the job and students can’t afford that without tuition waivers. It should be an affordable campus for all working people.”

GEO member Linda Vigdor agreed with this sentiment.

“I believe in Unions all the way,” she said. 

Many undergraduates gathered around Foellinger just to take in the festivities. And although Cameron Smith and James Tropper, both undergraduates, were not protesting, they were affected by the strike. 

“I had no class today and usually I have two,” Tropper said. “It’s cool to see the polar opposites of what the GEO is saying and what the University is saying.”

Smith said he also enjoyed watching the spectacle. 

“It’s really exciting,” he said. “It’s really cool to see something special like this that doesn’t happen everywhere.”

CHAMPAIGN – Everyone knows that the best birthday parties are the ones that reflect the celebrated individual. So, it seems fitting that when the Beckman Institute turned 20 years old, the guests would be top researchers from across the globe and the party would be a symposium of the most revolutionary research.

“Beckman Institute is really one of the jewels of the Illinois campus,” said Sue Johnson, Director of Communications at the research facility. “So we wanted to celebrate the past and look toward the future as well.”

The symposium, held at the facility on Monday, October 5, hosted speakers at the top of their fields in various areas. The topics bridged a wide range, appropriate to the facility’s initial goal.

“Our general mission is to remain an interdisciplinary research center,” she explained. “We have over 40 departments and all different kinds of research going on.”

The symposium spanned two days of keynote speakers open to faculty and students. Though the event was open, Johnson said it was directed more at insiders rather than the entire community.

“[The planning committee] really did a fabulous job,” Johnson said of the celebrations. “They did a good job putting together the program.”

The first celebratory event, held April 16, was more geared towards celebrating with the community. 

“The first celebration brought the community together,” Johnson said, “but this was more of a scientific celebration.”

April 16 is the day Beckman Institute opened for the very first time, more than 20 years ago. Before then, Beckman Institute looked drastically different.

According to Steve McGaughey, the land where the institute now stands was once a baseball field. Only after University officials proposed the idea of Beckman Institute and a generous donation of $40 million was made by Arnold Beckman, whom the institution is named, did the idea begin to take shape. 

And now, over 20 years later, McGaughey said current research may help to shape the future. 

“The discoveries just keep coming,” he said. “And they’re the kinds of things that someday people might be using on a daily basis.”

McGaughey spoke specifically about John Rogers, whose research is in biomedical imaging. His research deals both with electronics and medicine. He said some day, people may undergo surgery using a type of malleable silicon he is currently developing.

Another revolutionary thinker doing research for Beckman is Todd Coleman. Coleman’s research focuses on artificial intelligence, specifically, how the brain works and trying to replicate that.

“They all told me to take this hard core math that I learned earning my Ph.D. and apply it toward helping out mankind,” Coleman said. “So I told myself ‘well now I have a job waiting on me so let me do something completely different and have some fun.’”

Another scientist shaping the future is Gene Robinson. His research on bees could someday be used to understand DNA better. McGaughey calls this the “second genomic revolution.”

But Johnson pointed out that in research, the future is an ever-evolving mystery. No one knows what the future will hold. 

“The institute is constantly revolving and being reviewed,” Johnson said. “We always want to have new ideas and new people and to be the best of the best.”

Q&A with Jim Kloeppel, a IU News Bureau engineering writer.

Q. What are the most important issues?

A. I don’t really deal with issues, the nature of my job here is that when I have a researcher who has a paper coming out in a major journal, I get a copy of the paper before it’s published, if I think public interested, I prepare two page news release that summarizes the work and send that out. The basic idea is to interest them. Nature of technology is changing. I don’t really deal with issues.

Q. What is the biggest obstacle?

A. For me, time. Some of journals let us know when paper is accepted. When they do that I have plenty of time. Some journals, like Nature, they don’t let us know about it except for a few days and we have to scramble. Thats not as good and doesn’t get picked up as well. 

Q. Why enjoy technology beat?

A. What I enjoy is I get to meet a lot of really smart people and I learn something every day. Learning and then writing for the general public. 

Q. How overcome all the big words/tech-y talk?

A. Sometimes I can’t overcome it. Each field has their own jargon and I try to write things to the high school level but sometimes the stuff is so complicated and it’s so hard to describe something sometimes I do resort to jargon. Those news releases aren’t really intended for high school students. 

Q. Who are the main players?

A. Nick Holonwak-invented light-emitting diode. He did that back in late 50s early 60s. He’s a genius won major awards. Milton Feng has invented light-emitting transistor.

Won $500,000 award is John Rogers – he is a material science genius. Working on flexible and electronic circuits and nano-scale printing techniques. An electronic camera in shape of eye ball.

Steve Granick is another written a lot about. He’s a genius also I would say.

Q. Which sources give you exclusive information vs. a news feed?

A. I am the source. (He basically does PR for the News Bureau)

Q. Which sources are most reliable and helpful?

A . Generally speaking the paper has already been given a stamp of approval. If I learn about work from faculty member, I won’t write about it until I actually see it. 

Q. Which public records are most helpful?

A. There aren’t really any that I use, because what I am writing about is at the forefront, but if I don’t understand a concept I go to wikipedia or something and look up the definition.  

Q. What story ideas have you always wanted to do but haven’t had a chance to follow?

A. No, if I don’t have time then by the time I would it is old news. We make time – sometimes I work on weekends or evening and stuff. 

Q. Background?

A. My Bachelors is in Physics and was a research technician. I’ve been a science writer for 23 years so actually I know a lot of the writers that I’m sending stuff too both as technician and science writer. They know me and trust me.

CHAMPAIGN – As Zina Bhaia, 30, sat in an airplane waiting for takeoff almost two years ago, she felt she had a good grasp on life in the United States. She imagined skyscrapers covering the landscape. She pictured Americans spending much of their time in leisure.

     But after her plane landed in Chicago and she took a 3-hour drive through snowy, rural areas to Champaign, she realized America was much different than she had pictured.

      Her view of the U.S. was shaped mostly by television programs she had translated for her former employer, a broadcast company in her native country of Iraq. That job is what brought her to the University of Illinois.

      Bushara, her former boss, was broadcast on NPR asking for support because they had no equipment. Illinois’s Lynn Holley was listening at the time and decided to help the company. Through this, Illinois sent over equipment and also presented a scholarship to Ibrahim to pursue a Master’s degree in Broadcast Journalism.

      “I never thought I wanted to come and live here,” Ibrahim said with a raise of her perfectly curved, expressive eyebrows, “but it’s a very good opportunity and I’ll never regret it.”

      Irbahim’s future looks very different than it did only a few years ago. She explained that in Iraq, she had to go into the green zone every day – with a disability this was very difficult.

      “It was not easy to hid myself,” Bhaia said.

      Bhaia, whose legs were disabled by polio when she was an infant, uses two crutches to get around. She said in Iraq, women with disabilities are a shame to the family, and are often kept unseen in their homes. But having to overcome that negative view has made her the strong woman she is today.

      “Well yeah, I walk with crutches,” she said, “but they got me over here. They made me who I am today.”

      Having a disability is not the only obstacle Bhaia has overcome in her life. When her brother, Mohammad, was 16-years-old, he was lured away and kidnapped because of her family’s religion. She also worked for Uday Hussein, Saddam Hussein’s son, at the broadcast company she previously worked for.

      And even though America is not exactly what she had pictured, she said she is glad she made the decision to come because of all the opportunities. One thing Bhaia experienced in the United States that would not be possible in Iraq was a recorrective spine surgery. She said she grew several inches and went from a size 10 to a size 2.

      “I can’t believe the transformation,” she said of the surgery. “I can’t wait for my parents to see me in person – to see their facial expressions.”

      She has also been able to enjoy traveling. She said she has traveled to over 20 states in the short time she has been here with her boyfriend.

      “You can move very freely here,” Bhaia says explaining the difference from Iraq. “Nobody will ask you for your I.D. I love to travel.”

After the scheduled Champaign City Council meeting on Tuesday, October 20, the board opened the room for audience participation.
“The entire community has been impacted,” Champaign Mayor Jerry
Schweighar said before he opened up the room for comments. “We need to share in the grief and then move forward.”
Following Schweighar’s statement, each person was given roughly 5 minutes to speak. Combined, various community members spoke for over 3 hours. Many of the comments were in response to the shooting death of Kiwane Carrington that occurred on October 9.
Many placed the blame for the incident on police chief R.T. Finney.
“Finney seemed open to healing deep wounds at first,” said Danielle Chynoweth who served on the Urbana City Council from 2001-2008, “but over the years, this hope has faded. We have come to see him as central to the problem.”
Several who spoke at the meeting, including Chynoweth, expressed that Finney should “step down or be removed.”
Barbara Kessel, a resident of Urbana, criticized the accessibility of police documents.
“‘Why are police policies so inacessible?’” she asked the board.
Kessel then went on to describe a change in police policy effective October 1 of this year that states police officers may use deadly force even if their life is not in eminent danger of death. She then
proposed a police review board.
“Considering the distrust of the police,” she said, “it is time to institute a civilian police review board.”
Others suggested an independent review of the shooting death of Kiwane.
Many also directed anger and blame at the board members themselves.
Several who spoke directed the mayor directly as a central cause to the problem.
But Kiwane’s aunt, Regine Rivers, spoke in favor of peace and reconciliation.
“I think they need to get off you a little bit,” Rivers said addressing Mayor Schweighar. “You’re going through it too; we’re all going through it. Only God holds the final answer to any decision.”
Religion played a large part in many peoples’ comments. Several pastors and reverends spoke on peace. More than peace though, Reverend Charles Nash spoke in favor of action.
“We need you to do more than listen,” he said addressing the board.
“We need you to act.”
Nash also stressed the importance of relationships between Champaign communities.
“We need relationship building,” he said.”We’re at a fork in the road. The answer determines that relationship.”
Due to the length of time, council members could not address individual inquiries when they were presented. But council member Marci Dodds, who represents the area where the shooting took place,
said communication is key.
“Unfortunately there was no time to dialogue back and forth,” Dodds said. “I would urge community members to call me and the office or at home to talk.”
Overall, Dodds thinks the session was positive.
“We are always working to have a sense of where the community’s head is,” Dodds said . “Feedback is valuable.”
Teryl Brewster, a P.H.D. student at the University of Illinois attended the meeting Tuesday evening.
“It’s pretty interesting to see young people interact and voice their opinions,” she said.
And Melodye Rosales wants that expression to continue. She offered that young people who want to speak their minds should attend a march for the organization “No More Stolen Lives” on Thursday, Oct. 22. The group will meet at the terminal at 4:00 p.m. and then march in protest to the Champaign Boys and Girls Club.