Author: kmf17

A Case Western Reserve University School of Law team in the 2009-10 Niagara International Moot Court Competition made it all the way to the Final Round in Washington, D.C., during competition Thursday through Saturday. The team members are Christine Chambers, David Byrnes, David Kocan, Brandon Wheeler and Candice Sengillo.

Chambers/Kocan beat Mercer University School of Law in the quarter-final round. Byrnes/Wheeler beat McGeorge School of Law of University of the Pacific in the semi-final round, and in the finals Chambers/Kocan lost a very close decision to American University Washington College of Law.

The CWRU team was coached by law professors Cassandra Robertson and Karla Bell.

The Canada-United States Law Institute, based at Case Western Reserve’s law school, administers the Niagara International Moot Court Competition, which draws dozens of teams from law schools in Canada and the United States. Participating teams address a hypothetical dispute before an International Court of Justice.

Earlier in February, the Law School’s National Moot Court Team traveled to New York to compete in the National Finals at the New York City Bar Association. Team members Erica James, George Zokle and Amy Cohn competed in a very close second round, eventually being defeated by the University of Arkansas, which went on to win the competition. Interim Dean Robert H. Rawson, Jr. congratulated the members of the team and faculty advisers for successful results in a highly competitive field.

For more information contact Marv Kropko, 216.368.6890.

The academic fields and disciplines of the 2009-2010 Glennan Fellows vary as widely as the projects in which they are engaged.

Awarded each spring, Glennan Fellowships are administered by the University Center for Innovation in Teaching and Education (UCITE) and designed to reward excellence in faculty and to nurture their growth as teachers and scholars. Each Glennan Fellow has been awarded $6, 500 to be used toward their projects.

Case Daily will feature each of the 2009-10 award recipients’ projects.

Nicola Lacetera, assistant professor of economics

Project: Industrial Organization and the Economic Analysis of Business Strategies

For his Glennan Fellowship project, Lacetera proposes a reorganization of an existing class, Industrial Organization (ECON 364). He wants to shift the course’s focus from the policy and anti-competitive implications of business strategies to the implications of these strategies for the profitability of firms.

“This approach is meant to address the main interest of students for this class: Their quest for understanding how firms can be profitable in the marketplace, while at the same time maintaining
formal economic rigor so as to provide consistency to the various claims,” Lacetera wrote in his proposal.

His plan includes more than just a change in the materials and overall approach to the class. It also includes a change in the teaching methods in order to put students in more direct contact with business strategy situations. For instance, students play an online strategy simulation game throughout the course where concepts learned in class are applied. Students also read business cases from specialized and popular press, discuss these case studies in class, and connect them to formal economic models. Students are also asked to search for more examples from the press. By doing this, they participate in the building of the syllabus teaching materials for next year’s course.

Winston Churchill called his own depression his “black dog.” Others simply suffer from “the blues.” Borrowing from these words, Case Western Reserve University Associate Professor of English Kimberly Emmons found the title for her forthcoming book, “Black Dogs and Blue Words: Depression and Gender in the Age of Self-Care” (Rutgers University Press).

“Since no blood, imaging or X-ray tests exist to diagnose depression, it is an illness known primarily through the language people use to describe it,” Emmons said.

Emmons specializes in understanding the meaning of words and is particularly interested in medical writing.

In “Black Dogs and Blue Words,” she focuses on depression information in the public arena over the past 20 years.

The popularity of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor drugs—of which Prozac was the first to be approved by the FDA in 1987—combined with the relaxed marketing restrictions on direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertisements contained in the Food and Drug Modernization Act of 1997 catalyzed an explosion of public discussion of depression.

“Once the dark matter of anti-rhetoric,” Emmons said, depression has emerged from behind closed doors through a relatively recent public expansion of information venues. While for centuries depression has been the subject of lengthy medical, philosophical, and personal meditations, the recent immediacy of television, Internet, and self-help genres has focused public attention on the illness.

Depression is no longer a closet illness for 18 million Americans—or about 13 percent of the population—who suffer annually from at least one bout of it.

Now, memoirs like Elizabeth Wurtzel’s “Prozac Nation” or Andrew Solomon’s “Noonday Demon” top the bestseller’s list as people crave these texts in their search to understand how this illness has become a part of their own personal experiences.

“One thing I found in all this literature, even in the National Institute of Mental Health brochures, is that depression is never precisely defined,” Emmons said. “It is a little of everything, a collection of symptoms: low moods, loss of interest in usual activities, fatigue, crying, and even over or under eating.”

These vague descriptions have become so pervasive in the literature that they are the ones doctors listen for in their patients’ descriptions of what is wrong.

Words with the Ability to Persuade

Emmons said, “I want individuals to pay attention to where some of these messages about health and illness come from and to think about what some of the metaphors for depression mean.”

An example she gives for having the blues, feeling out of sorts, or being in a Prozac moment is a mechanical metaphor of a malfunctioning thermostat or a washing machine that needs a quick fix. In the context of laundry, the metaphor’s setting targets women, reinforcing the statistical findings that they are twice as likely as men to report and be diagnosed with depression.

“Socially we do not recognize or even look for depression in men with the same frequency we do in women,” Emmons explained.

The result is women and men are portrayed differently.

A popular message: depressed women are sad; depressed men are mad. Women take pills, and men act out through violent actions from suicides to assaults and homicides, she said.

Consistent with the message, an example is of an ad portrayal of a mother in the depths of depression. SHE sits dejected in the foreground of a popular anti-depression medication ad on television. Her concerned children stand frightened in the background. All the mother has to do, the ad implies, is pop a pill and suddenly she is back in the pink, ready to feed her family as good mothers do. Everyone is happy; order is restored. In addition to promoting the message that depression is easily remedied (by taking a pill), this ad also shapes public attitudes toward women’s roles and responsibilities in their families.

Emmons does not want to underplay the realities of the illness of depression, but has concerns about the messages these ads leave with the viewer and the impression that women can be restored quickly to their traditional roles of being good moms.

She pointed out what’s missing from the message: anti-depression medications come with side effects, use may be lifelong, and in some people the medications actually trigger suicidal thoughts and actions.

“Being an empowered health care consumer requires more than just reading words on the page. It requires being critical about whose interests are served by the messages one receives and about the underlying implications of the tag lines, mascots, and shorthand terms we all use to describe complex illnesses such as depression,” the author of “Black Dogs And Blue Words” stated.

For more information contact Susan Griffith, 216.368.1004.

For the second year in a row, Case Western Reserve University has been named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll by the Corporation for National and Community Service.

The President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll annually recognizes institutions of higher education for their commitment to and achievement in community service. The Honor Roll recognizes contributions that colleges and their students make to local communities and the nation as a whole.

Honorees are chosen based on a series of selection factors including scope and innovation of service projects, percentage of student participation in service activities, incentives for service, and the extent to which the school offers academic service-learning courses.

“This award celebrates the great work our campus engages in around the community each year,” said Latisha James, director for the Center for Community Partnerships. “It demonstrates how important it is for the university to capture data about our community service.”

Case Western Reserve received the recognition based on information submitted by the Center for Community Partnerships about the university’s extensive community outreach initiatives.

Campus members and organizations still have an opportunity to share all of the different ways they volunteer by taking a brief Community Service Survey. The survey deadline is Monday, March 1. The updated inventory will continue to quantify just how engaged the Case Western Reserve community is in helping people and organizations in need. James said that information on how campus members serve the community, how many people volunteer, the amount of hours volunteered, the university’s community partners and more are important to record.

The complete 2009 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll list is available online.

For more information contact Kimyette Finley, 216.368.0521.

Case Western Reserve University will be an essential partner in a new medical education pipeline created and supported by the Joan C. Edwards Charitable Foundation.

Announced at last evening’s White Coat Ceremony at the Cleveland School of Science and Medicine at John Hay Campus (CSSM), the first phase of the Joan C. Edwards Charitable Foundation’s Health Profession Pipeline Program is the creation of the Edwards Scholarship Endowment at Case Western Reserve. An initial investment of $10 million to $12 million over 10 years will establish an endowment for full-tuition scholarships for students to earn bachelor and medical degrees at Case Western Reserve.

Beginning in 2011, the Health Profession Pipeline Program will provide this scholarship opportunity to one student per year from CSSM. The program has the potential to educate 98 doctors from traditionally underrepresented minority and low-income backgrounds over the next 60 years through a potential total investment of up to $90 million.

As part of the effort, members of the Case Western Reserve community and physicians at UH Case Medical Center will provide academic programming and individual mentoring to students at CSSM.

“Case Western Reserve University is honored to be a part of this visionary pipeline project,” says President Barbara R. Snyder. “One of our core values is diversity, and this program provides a wonderful opportunity to support promising students and at the same time meet a critical societal need.”

The Joan C. Edwards Charitable Foundation was created by a bequest from the Joan C. Edwards Trust in 2006 at the time of Mrs. Edwards’ death. Mrs. Edwards was a philanthropist and former jazz singer. Her husband, James, who died in 1991, was owner and CEO of National Mattress Company in Huntington, W.Va., where the couple lived most of their lives.

The foundation considered Cleveland to be an ideal candidate for this program because of the presence of a science and medicine school like CSSM and nationally ranked Case Western Reserve University and its School of Medicine and UH Case Medical Center. It was also drawn to the area because so many surrounding Cleveland neighborhoods have been designated as Health Professional Shortage Areas by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.

“Mrs. Edwards believed deeply in the importance of giving underrepresented minority and low-income students greater opportunities to become physicians, and that they in turn could provide medical care to underserved populations,” says Thomas M. McDonald, Cleveland distribution director for the Joan C. Edwards Charitable Foundation. “The foundation believes these goals will be best achieved by enabling partners in public schools, university education and health care to build on their already strong collaborative relationships.”

The foundation hopes that the Cleveland pipeline program will be a successful model for others nationwide.

For more information contact Marv Kropko, 216.368.6890.

The Reinberger Foundation and Case Western Reserve University share a common mission to improve lives through education, arts and community development. Established in 1966, the foundation has awarded nearly $4 million to Case Western Reserve over the years. Much of its support has been directed to initiatives that promote groundbreaking medical research, thus raising the level of health care in Northeast Ohio and around the world.

The foundation’s grants include funds to establish the Reinberger Professorship in Molecular Biology and Microbiology at the School of Medicine, currently held by Jonathan Karn, PhD. It has also awarded support to the Center for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine—a basic science and clinical research consortium between Case Western Reserve, Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals. The center advances non-embryonic stem cell research ranging from the study of basic stem cell biology to clinical trials in humans. Perhaps most notably, Reinberger funding has allowed the university to leverage the Ohio Eminent Scholar award from the Third Frontier Project, which was instrumental in recruiting pediatric hematology and oncology researcher and physician Kenneth Cooke, MD.

In addition to medical research, the foundation has also supported the Case School of Engineering, in honor of its inaugural adminstrators, William C. Reinberger (CIT ’43) and Robert N. Reinberger (CIT ’43). The Reinberger Product and Process Laboratory in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering has established itself as a premier design, manufacturing and inspection facility in which mechanical engineering curriculum and research development naturally evolve.

For more information contact Amy Raufman, 216.368.0547.

There is typically a shortage of donated blood in the United States, and research at Case Western Reserve University is looking for ways of improving the life-saving supply.

Nicola Lacetera, assistant professor of economics at the university’s Weatherhead School of Management, notes that about 38 percent of Americans are eligible to donate blood and only about 8 percent do. Many of those who donate a first time don’t donate again, and there are some population segments which very rarely give blood.

So an important question nationally is: What is the proper incentive so that the rate of blood donation can increase?

“There is a big demand and supply is not keeping up,” Lacetera said. “There is a vast population of people who could donate but don’t. There is an extensive campaign by the American Red Cross and other organizations about blood shortages. So people do know about it.”

The biggest draw tends to be a sense to do something good for humanity after a crisis that gets national attention, such as after terrorist attacks in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, or the recent earthquake in Haiti. But the need for blood supplies is large whether or not a disaster occurs.

“There is a general perception that you need blood for emergencies or an organ transplant. Most of the blood needed every day is for chronic conditions, such as for cancer patients. Therefore, blood is needed every day,” Lacetera said.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, through the National Science Foundation, is funding the collaborative research effort. Throughout this year, Lacetera’s team is planning extensive data analysis involving over 14,000 blood drives in northern Ohio to assess whether the provision of incentives boosts donations.

“We are excited about the research being done by Case Western Reserve and feel the results will help our organization better understand how donors are motivated to give,” said Brent Bertram, Red Cross director, donor recruitment, for the Northern Ohio region. “This knowledge will allow us to recruit donors more effectively and use our resources in the best way possible to meet the needs of local patients.”

Lacetera said the collaboration with the Red Cross is beneficial for his research and the social service agency.

“They believe this study might benefit them in understanding how to increase blood supply in a region like Northern Ohio, where it’s particularly relevant because there are so many big hospitals.”

Gifts of T-shirts, lapel pins, coupons or gift cards indeed could be an attraction, but do those motivate blood donors to return to future blood drives? And there are some who say gifts shouldn’t be involved at all, because people motivated to donate might not want to feel they are rewarded for giving.

Lacetera says that in some countries, in particular Italy, blood donors are given a day off work for their generosity. That benefit is unlikely in American blood drives, but data shows that small gifts for donation do increase turnout at sites. But a question is whether the people donating blood are simply switching from another site to another and would have donated anyway, referred to as a substitution effect.

At Weatherhead School of Management, Lacetera teaches entrepreneurship and industrial organization. He graduated from Bocconi University, in Milan, Italy, and holds his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Lacetera is co-principal investigator along with Mario Macis at the University of Michigan. A co-investigator at The University is Sydney is Robert Slonim, who until recently was also on the faculty at Weatherhead.

For more information contact Marv Kropko, 216.368.6890.

Clare Rimnac, the Wilbert S. Austin Professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, has been promoted to associate dean of research at the Case School of Engineering.

Rimnac will implement the school’s strategic research plan, coordinating the school’s four new institutes, and assisting with new faculty hires.

Dean Norman C. Tien said he selected Rimnac for this role based on her reputation as an excellent researcher with an eye for new talent and the high regard in which she is held among her fellow faculty members. She will work closely with Pat Crago who continues to provide oversight for engineering education and student programs.

Rimnac’s own research focuses on implant retrieval analysis, mechanical behavior and constitutive modeling of materials used in total joint replacements, and damage and fracture behavior of bone tissue.

Iwan Alexander, the Cady Staley Professor, replaces Rimnac as chair of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

Alexander, who has been at the university for 12 years, brings broad experience in academia, having been a researcher and professor in physics, oceanography and ocean engineering, and materials science prior to beginning his professorship here.

He wears several hats at the university, having served as director of the National Center for Space Exploration Research since 2005, and as a creator and now faculty director of the Great Lakes Energy Institute.

Alexander’s recent research focuses on crystal growth, fluids and combustion in the microgravity of space, and energy storage in space and on earth.

For more information contact Kevin Mayhood, 216.368.4442.

Following the Board of Trustees meeting this weekend, Chairman Charles “Bud” Koch announced more than $6 million in new leadership gifts from five trustees. While individual donors have chosen to remain anonymous, the impact of their collective philanthropy on student, faculty and programmatic support will be evident on campus for generations to come.

“Like so many of our alumni and friends, our trustees are inspired every day by the outstanding students and faculty at Case Western Reserve,” says Koch. “These trustees’ generosity is a shining example to others of the value of supporting an institution that improves people’s lives through excellence in education and research.”

These gifts build upon the fundraising success at Case Western Reserve University that has been growing since Barbara R. Snyder’s investiture as president in 2007. In fiscal year 2008-09, the university received $108 million in total fundraising, the second-highest year in its history.

These gifts also follow major trustee gift announcements in Fiscal Year 2008-2009, including $3 million from outgoing board chairman Frank N. Linsalata and his wife, Jocelyne; $5 million from incoming board chairman Bud Koch and his wife, Katie; and $7.5 million from trustee Chuck Fowler and his wife, Char.

“I often say that our Trustees know us best,” President Barbara R. Snyder said. “When these leaders invest in Case Western Reserve, they send a powerful message to the broader community about the progress we are making. I am grateful to every one of them for their support.”

For more information contact Amy Raufman, 216.368.0547.

Case Western Reserve University is positioning itself as a leader in the field of health information technology (HIT). The university recently collaborated with several regional hospitals, community colleges and other partners to apply for millions of dollars in grants that could set an example for how HIT-related education and infrastructure is established in Northeast Ohio and around the country.

Julie Rehm, Ph.D., senior associate dean and associate vice president of strategic initiatives at Case Western Reserve, participated in the collaborative effort among the university’s schools and community partners to submit multiple HIT grant applications.

Because Case Western Reserve educates students through schools directly impacted by HIT-related initiatives—the School of Medicine, the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing, the School of Dental Medicine and the Case School of Engineering—Rehm said applying for the grants was a natural fit.

“Some of the federal stimulus funding is set aside for education, workforce training, research, and infrastructure, which is what Case Western Reserve decided to pursue,” Rehm explained. “If federal investments to incentivize HIT adoption by physicians are going to be effective, the workforce and future providers need to be trained in the technology.”

She added that Case Western Reserve’s collaborative effort to pursue multiple HIT grants is probably a first in the region. Some of the partnerships—with health care institutions, local community colleges and others—are long-standing, while others are fairly new and were solidified during the grant process.

“This really shows how the university can be a catalyst for and facilitate collaborations with internal and external partners,” Rehm said.

Case Western Reserve expects to learn the status of the grants in March. If the grants are awarded, the projects will be implemented over the next one to three years.

For more information contact Kimyette Finley, 216.368.0521.

Katie Couric, anchor and managing editor of the “CBS Evening News with Katie Couric” and correspondent for “60 Minutes,” will be front and center on Sunday, May 16, to deliver the keynote Commencement Convocation address to approximately 1,750 graduates in Case Western Reserve University’s Class of 2010.

Ceremonies begin at 9:30 a.m. in the Veale Convocation, Athletic and Recreation Center. In addition to delivering the Commencement address, Couric will receive an honorary doctorate degree from the university.

The Commencement Web site is now live. Students who are scheduled to graduate and plan to participate in Commencement must register online by 5 p.m. EDT on April 1. Additional information is available online.

Couric, who became the first female solo anchor of a weekday evening newscast when she took the seat at the “CBS Evening News with Katie Couric” in 2006, has reported on and anchored newscasts and broadcasts for some of the biggest domestic and international stories and has conducted numerous exclusive newsmaker interviews, including the historic 2008 Presidential Election.

Her recent work at the “CBS Evening News with Katie Couric” has earned her and the broadcast several notable accolades. The Radio Television Digital News Association honored the program with the prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Newscast in both 2008 and 2009. Also in 2009, the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication awarded Couric with the Walter Cronkite Award for Special Achievement for “National Impact on the 2008 Campaign.”

Learn more about Couric.

For more information contact Susan Griffith, 216.368.1004.

Case Western Reserve University School of Law‘s Jessup International Law Moot Court team has won the Midwest Super Regional rounds of the Jessup Moot Court Competition in Chicago last weekend.

Team members are Sarah Pierce, Brin Anderson, Katharine Quaglieri, Kate Gibson and Cameron MacLeod. The team is coached by Margaux Day and Professor Michael Scharf.

For the fourth year in a row, the CWRU team won the Best Brief Award at the Midwest Jessup competition. Out of 92 competitors, Pierce won the award for Fifth Best Oralist and also won the prize for Best Oralist in the Championship Round. Quaglieri and Anderson also received awards for ranking among the top 10 best oralists.

The team defeated Michigan State, Valparaiso and Marquette in the preliminary rounds, and then bested John Marshall College of Law in the quarterfinals, Thomas M. Cooley College of Law in the semifinals and Loyola University School of Law in the final. The team has earned the right to represent the United States at the White & Case International Rounds in Washington, D.C., during March.

This is the third time in four years that CWRU’s Law School has advanced to the international rounds, and the first time since CWRU won the World Championship Jessup Cup in 2008.

Established 51 years ago, and counting 530 schools from over 80 countries as participants, the Jessup is one of the oldest and most prestigious moot court competitions in the world.

For more information contact Marv Kropko, 216.368.6890.

Ardiem Medical Inc. has obtained a non-exclusive license to make and sell neuromodulation devices based on intellectual property developed at Case Western Reserve University’s Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) Center in Cleveland.

The agreement grants Ardiem Medical, a medical devices manufacturer based in Indiana, Pa., rights to intramuscular recording and stimulating electrodes, epimysial recording and stimulating electrodes, spiral cuff peripheral nerve electrodes, and a universal external control unit. Additional details of the agreement were not disclosed.

Technologies first developed for internal research at Case Western Reserve and the FES Center will now be directly available through Ardiem to other researchers working in the neuromodulation field. Neuromodulation is among the fastest growing areas of medicine, involving many diverse specialties.

The 2009 two-volume book “Neuromodulation” explains that the technology’s recent advancement has led to rapid growth of the neuromodulation device industry. P. Hunter Peckham, one of the book’s editors, is Donnell Institute Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Orthopaedics at CWRU. Peckham serves as the director of the FES Center.

The FES Center is a consortium of three institutions: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland Louis Stokes Veterans Affairs Medical Center and MetroHealth Medical Center. It leads clinical, educational and technology activities related to restoring function through the use of electrical activation for people with disabilities.

For more information contact Marv Kropko, 216.368.6890.

Case Western Reserve University engineers target industry to oceans

An ultra-lightweight sponge made of clay and a bit of high-grade plastic draws oil out of contaminated water but leaves the water behind.

And, lab tests show that oil absorbed can be squeezed back out for use.

Case Western Reserve University researchers who made the material, called an aerogel, believe it will effectively clean up spills of all kinds of oils and solvents on factory floors and roadways, rivers and oceans.
Watch a video demonstration.

The EPA estimates that 10 to 25 million gallons of oil are spilled annually in this country alone. Spilled oil ruins drinking water, is a fire and explosion hazard, damages farmland and beaches and destroys wildlife and habitats. The harm can last decades.

The aerogel is made by mixing clay with a polymer and water in a blender, said David Schiraldi, chairman of the macromolecular science and engineering department at the Case School of Engineering.

The mixture is then freeze-dried; air fills the gaps left by the loss of water. The resulting material is super light, comprised of about 96 percent air, two percent polymer and two percent clay.

The oil-absorbing form is just one of a growing list of clay-based aerogels being made in Schiraldi’s lab. By adding different polymers, they produce materials with different properties.

“This particular one is oleophilic or oil-loving,” Schiraldi said. “Chemically, it hates water, loves oil: the perfect combination.”

The aeorgel can be made in granular form, in sheets or in blocks of almost any shape and is effective in fresh and saltwater or on a surface. Because absorption is a physical phenomenon, there is no chemical reaction between the material and oil. If the oil is otherwise not contaminated, it can be used.

Oil spill experts on both coasts say that the ability to squeeze out and conserve the oil is an advantage over other products currently available.

The material was first made when Schiraldi challenged his then-PhD student Matt Gawryla with idea of making kitty litter. Gawryla added the oil cleanup concept to the program.

Case Western Reserve has granted a 9-month exclusive license for this and other clay-based aerogel technologies to AeroClay, Inc. a startup company. Schiraldi will be chief scientific officer of the new company.

For more information contact Kevin Mayhood, 216.368.4442.

Reporting in Nature Cell Biology, researchers describe the discovery of a specific protein called disabled-2 (Dab2) that switches on the process that releases cancer cells from the original tumor and allows the cells to spread and develop into new tumors in other parts of the body.

The process called epithelial-mesenchymal transdifferientiation (EMT) has been known to play a role in releasing cells (epithelial cells) on the surface of the solid tumor and transforming them into transient mesenchymal cell: cells with the ability to start to grow a new tumor.

This is often the fatal process in breast, ovarian, pancreatic and colon-rectal cancers.

Searching to understand how the EMT process begins, Ge Jin, who has joint appointments at the Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine and the Lerner Research Institute at the Cleveland Clinic, began by working backwards from EMT to find its trigger.

The researchers found that a compound called transforming growth factor-ß (TGF-ß) triggers the formation of the Dab2 protein. It was this protein, Dab2, that activated the EMT process.

He discovered that when the researchers knocked out Dab2, EMT was not triggered.

“This is the major piece in cancer research that has been missing,” Jin said.

Most tumors are epithelial in origin and have epithelial markers on their surface. The EMT process takes place when some of those cells dislodge from the surface and undergo a transformation into a fibrous mesenchymal cell maker with the ability to migrate.

“EMT is the most important step in this process,” said Jin. He was part of a six-member research team, led by Philip Howe from the Department of Cancer Biology at the Lerner Research Institute in a National Institute of Cancer-funded study.

The research group studied the biological processes that initiated the cancer spread by using cancer cells in animal models.

“It’s a complicated cascade process,” Jin said.

“If we can understand the signaling pathway for modulating EMT, then we can design drugs to delay or halt EMT cells and control tumor progression,” Jin said.

Beyond cancer, Jin said. “The process we discovered may lead to understanding how other diseases progress.”

Authors on the Nature article, TGF- ß-mediated phosphorylation of hnRNP E1 induces EMT via transcript-selective translational induction of Dab2 and ILEI,” are Arindam Chaudhury and George S. Hussey from the Lerner Research Institute at the Cleveland Clinic and Cleveland State University; Partho S. Ray from the Lerner Research Institute and the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (India), Ge Jin, the Lerner Research Institute and Case Western Reserve University; Paul Fox and Philip Howe from the Lerner Research Institute.

For more information contact Susan Griffith, 216.368.1004.

East Cleveland, Ohio, Mayor Gary Norton stood at the front of the bus as it pulled away from Case Western Reserve University’s campus. He began an inspiring tour for a busload of leaders from across Cleveland, sharing the city’s assets, as well as his hopes and plans for economic, physical, and community revitalization.

The 90-minute tour kicked off a half-day session at Case Western Reserve University for people interested in the transformation of East Cleveland.

The event was sponsored by CWRU’s Social Justice Alliance and Institute (SJA/I), a newly launched university-wide strategic initiative, whose debut collaborative project focuses on East Cleveland.

The Social Justice Alliance and Institute seeks to promote collaborative research, pedagogical innovation and curriculum development, the growth of social justice leaders, and annual programming to foster intellectual inquiry, civic dialogue, and community-bridge building.

SJA/I’s debut collaborative project will incorporate research on anchor institutions, encourage civic dialogue, develop a community engagement process, and enhance and build partnerships with the goal of achieving urban revitalization and racial equity, said Rhonda Y. Williams, director of the Social Justice Alliance and Institute and College of Arts and Sciences Associate Professor of History.

Valuing the voices and expertise of multiple stakeholders, including community residents, is central to this transformative vision, according to Mark Chupp, debut collaborative project director and Mandel School of Applied and Social Sciences‘ Assistant Professor of Community Development. The effort will focus on bringing together expertise and assets to support the revitalization of East Cleveland by working in partnership with the City of East Cleveland, residents, and the nonprofit, business and faith communities of East Cleveland.

Jacqueline Gillon, a former member of the East Cleveland City Council who went on the bus tour and participated in the dialogue, said this collaborative must build upon and strengthen resident leadership in East Cleveland so that citizens have a stronger voice in their future.

Because the challenges are great, the Social Justice leadership team recognizes the importance of working in partnership with leaders and experts from Greater Cleveland.

CWRU is providing overall leadership for the East Cleveland Partnership with an active leadership role in economic development, planning and public management from the Cleveland State University Levin College of Urban Affairs.

The partnership will further benefit from another new collaborative initiative between East Cleveland and CWRU, the core research project of the CWRU Prevention Research Center for Healthy Neighborhoods. This project, under the direction of Jessica Kelley-Moore of the College of Arts and Sciences and also a member of the SJA/I leadership team, is a collaborative initiative designed to increase access to healthy foods in underserved communities like East Cleveland.

The work of the SJA/I debut collaborative project is to serve as a catalyst to convene leaders and harness their knowledge, expertise, and enthusiasm, as well as support education, research, and active engagement, in order to help shift perceptions and support revitalization based on respect and reciprocity, Chupp and Williams said.

The Tour

Norton, who has been in office for five weeks, showcased many assets: historic homes, the fully occupied retail center at Superior and Euclid Avenues, Cleveland Clinic’s Huron Hospital, GE’s Nela Park, McGregor Home, new public school facilities, Forest Hill Historic Homes and Park, and an arts district with a stellar public library.

But what’s lacking in East Cleveland, as well as in neighboring Cleveland communities such as Glenville and Collinwood, is a major grocery store, Norton said. Attracting a full-service grocery store to East Cleveland, Norton reports, would reap economic and social benefits for the CWRU community and the surrounding region.

The revitalization that Norton desires to see begins at the railroad bridge near E. 117th Street and Euclid Avenue on the fringe of CWRU’s eastern border.

Lamenting the negative perceptions of East Cleveland, the mayor calls the bridge a barrier to his city, because people view it as a landmark that signals danger. In the years ahead, he envisions instead a gateway the campus community and Greater Cleveland pass through to seek housing, retail, entertainment and entrepreneurial opportunities.

People think of the city as plagued by crime, Norton said. “We need to change perceptions about the city.”

Norton spoke of teaming up with “the most powerful learning environment” to wipe out the blight and unsafe streets for a better life for current city residents and for those working at CWRU and other University Circle Incorporated organizations who decide to make East Cleveland their home.

The City of East Cleveland’s initial plans are to demolish 150 homes and rehab 15 homes in a 10 block area bordered by Cleveland to Superior Avenue and between Forest Hills and Euclid Avenues.

One of the first stops on the tour, Woodlawn Avenue, is in this area targeted for revitalization with $2.2 million in federal funds from the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. Additional support will come from the new Cuyahoga County Land Reutilization Corporation.

While streets like Woodlawn and Lakeview on the city’s western edge appear as an abandoned wasteland with few occupants, Norton sees opportunities that demolition creates for new kinds of spaces that might include new housing or parks.

After the first four blocks, streets like Alvason, Farmington and Idlewood have some of the best homes in the City, the mayor said. These are primarily upscale, well-kept owner-occupied historic homes from the late 1800s and early 1900s.

For the few deteriorated structures scattered among this housing stock, Norton spoke about plans to spend $100,000 in renovating each home and then selling them for $50,000.

“I want to ensure that a good family gets a home and stays in the city without the threat of foreclosure,” he said.

Norton also talked about tearing down homes to increase lot sizes for the current residents. He put forth a vision for reducing congestion and incorporates more green space, such as community gardens and parks.

The Collaborative Initiative’s Beginning

The Social Justice Alliance and Institute’s debut collaborative project builds on the groundwork of the East Cleveland Partnership, which was crafted through three years of community development research and service learning at the Mandel School.

In 2009, over 100 first-year graduate students at MSASS, as part of their course work, surveyed and graded every vacant house in East Cleveland. Chupp reported that the survey found about that 20 percent of all parcels with residential structures were vacant and of those, 40 percent of the vacant housing earned a “D” or “F” grade. There were 236 vacant lots, accounting for about 4 percent of all lots. The students at the time developed 75 proposals for addressing the impact of vacant housing on the city’s education, safety, employment and senior citizens.

The SJA/I debut collaborative seeks to expand the East Cleveland Partnership in two ways. First, the partnership will coordinate with other CWRU faculty and students working on East Cleveland-based initiatives, including those focused on education, health, dental medicine, as well as the campus community service engagement efforts of student, staff, and faculty.

Second, the East Cleveland Partnership is being expanded to incorporate other University Circle institutions and organizations from across greater Cleveland. Many of these groups participated in the day’s events, including nonprofit organizations, public entities, funders, and academic institutions. CWRU is providing overall leadership for the East Cleveland Partnership with an active leadership role in economic development planning and public administration from the CSU Levin College of Urban Affairs.

This debut research initiative represents the beginning of a proposed multi-phased project which aims to “transform Greater University Circle into a great urban place.” The goal is to blur the boundaries between University Circle and its surrounding neighborhoods, creating mutually-beneficially relationships and promoting development without displacement, noted Chupp.

Following the tour, Williams shared with some 75 people gathered at the Mandel Center for Nonprofit Organizations the Social Justice Alliance and Institute’s vision: “Working toward equal access to opportunity for all people through understanding and addressing the root causes of social injustice and developing innovative solutions.” She told them SJA/I values humanistic inquiry, creative expression, and applied research. The alliance is part of the five-year CWRU strategic plan called Forward Thinking. Approved in June 2008, the university-wide plan is being implemented under the leadership of President Barbara R. Snyder and Provost W.A. “Bud” Baeslack III.

For more information contact Susan Griffith, 216.368.1004.

With a constant supply of fresh water at their fingertips via fountains and faucets, why are so many American consumers hooked on bottled water?

In Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It, this year’s selection for the Common Reading Program, environmental journalist Elizabeth Royte explores the staggering popularity of bottled water, the multi-billion-dollar industry that supports it and the building backlash against it.

In the book, one of Entertainment Weekly‘s 10 “Must Read” nonfiction titles of 2008, Royte travels to Fryeburg, Maine, home of Poland Spring water. In this small town and other like it across the country, she finds the people, machines, economies and cultural trends that have made bottled water a $60-billion-a-year phenomenon, even as it threatens local control of natural resources and dumps tons of plastic waste into the country’s landfills.

Moving beyond the environmental consequences of making, filling, transporting and landfilling those billions of bottles, Royte examines the state of tap water today and the social impact of corporations sinking ever more pumps into rural towns.

Ultimately, Bottlemania makes a case for protecting public water supplies, for improving our water infrastructure and better allocating the precious drinkable water that remains.

Acclaimed author of Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash, Elizabeth Royte’s writing on science and the environment has appeared in Harper’s, The New Yorker, National Geographic, Outside, The New York Times Magazine and other national publications. A former Alicia Patterson Foundation fellow and recipient of Bard College’s John Dewey Award for Distinguished Public Service, Royte is a frequent contributor to the New York Times Book Review, a contributing editor for OnEarth, and a correspondent for Outside magazine. Her work is included in The Best American Science Writing 2004, and her first book, The Tapir’s Morning Bath: Solving the Mysteries of the Tropical Rain Forest, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year for 2001.

The Common Reading Program was started in 2002 for first-year students, who are asked to read the selection before the start of the academic year. The assigned book then serves as a basis for programs and discussions beginning at orientation and throughout the year. As the featured author for the 2010 Common Reading selection, Royte will deliver the keynote address at Case Western Reserve University’s fall convocation, which will be held on Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2010.

Learn more about the Common Reading program.

Story written by Jackie Fitch.

For more information contact Susan Griffith, 216.368.1004.

As cancer survivors live longer, questions arise about what kind of care long-term survivors require.

A recently published study from Case Western Reserve University’s Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences found 245 older married women who survived cancer had more health problems as compared to a sample of 245 married women without cancer.

The article, “Health and Well-Being in Older Married Female Cancer Survivors,” was published as part of a special supplement of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, along with other articles that resulted from a conference at CWRU on geriatric oncology, said Aloen Townsend, the lead researcher and associate professor of social work.

“There is a pressing need to study older cancer survivors,” Townsend said. “It is critical to disentangle the experiences that are unique to older cancer survivors from experiences that are common to aging individuals.”

Health care for cancer survivors is a growing concern, according to the researchers.

Beginning with the first wave of the Health and Retirement Study (1992), survey answers from married women who had malignant tumors (excluding skin) were compared with information provided by a sample of married women with no cancers.

The women in both groups were matched for age (51 to 61), ethnicity, and race. They had 12 years of education, came from homes with annual incomes of around $47,000 and had been married between 27-29 years, on average. Nearly half of all women in the study had others, in addition to their husbands, living in their homes.

On average, the cancer group had been diagnosed about 10 years earlier. Most had breast or gynecological cancers.

Overall the cancer survivors had more health problems than for the women without cancer. The survivors also reported higher levels of fatigue, physical limitations, more doctor visits and more days in bed for health reasons than the other group. Before controlling for other variables, they also reported more symptoms of depression.

In both groups, significant predictors for depression were fatigue, pain and a lower education level.

After adjusting for health problems, fatigue and pain, both groups of women had similar depression levels, leading the researchers to note that higher depression levels found in cancer survivors in some prior studies may be due to the worse health, pain, and fatigue experienced by survivors.

CWRU contributors to the article were: Karen J. Ishler, Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences; Karen F. Bowman, Department of Sociology; Julia Hannum Rose, School of Medicine; Nicole Juszczak Peak, Department of Psychology.

The study received support from the National Institute on Aging, the National Cancer Institute, the Aging and Cancer Research Program at the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences.

For more information contact Susan Griffith, 216.368.1004.

When Adrienne Allotta recently needed emergency child care for her toddler son, Jackson, she turned to a new program available to Case Western Reserve University faculty, staff and students.

She found help through the Temporary and Back-up Child Care program, which launched last fall. The program places caregivers with families on a full-time or temporary basis.

Allotta, associate director for career development at the Weatherhead School of Management, used the service for two weeks while her regular child care provider recuperated from an illness. “I don’t have family in town, so for my situation it was a perfect solution,” she explained.

The Temporary and Back-up Child Care program—along with the Child Care Support During Travel program—are two pilot projects that emerged from the work of the President’s Committee on Child Care Options during 2008-2009. Benefits-eligible faculty and staff are able to participate in the initiatives.

The Department of Human Resources is responsible for administering the two pilot programs. According to James Ryan, chair of the child care options committee and senior director of benefits, about a dozen people have used the programs so far.

For the Temporary and Back-up Child Care program, the university established a relationship with Erin’s Nannies, a highly regarded service. Founder Erin Taub said several faculty and staff had already been using her service, and one of them suggested to the child care committee that her agency would probably be a great fit.

As part of the university’s relationship with Erin’s Nannies, the $175 sign up fee and for the first two times a nanny is provided, the agency’s usage fees are waived. The faculty or staff member is responsible for paying the nanny directly.

Jacqueline Lipton, professor of law, was already familiar with Erin’s Nannies. She began using the service in 2005. “It was through word of mouth from other people at the university. I talked with Erin and she seemed knowledgeable and flexible.” Lipton started out using the service on a part-time basis and ended up finding her full-time child care provider through the agency.

She said the university’s decision to provide child care options for campus members is a good one. “I think it’s very useful. If an academic has to go away to a conference and their spouse is also away, the service is a good way to get reliable people to fill in for you. Many professors don’t have their children’s grandparents or other family in the same city.”

When Allotta realized she was going to need temporary care for her son, she remembered reading about the new initiatives and immediately contacted the agency. “Erin contacted me that night. She gave me option to text, e-mail or call her. She found a nice person who lived in my area.” Allotta said she had an opportunity to talk with the nanny ahead of time, which “put me at ease.”

Erin’s Nannies services all of Northeast Ohio. Campus members interested in the program are encouraged to sign up in advance so that their information is in the system in case an emergency arises. Most of the nannies prefer to work a minimum of four hours.

Campus members should contact the Department of Human Resources with specific questions about the two pilot programs. Erin’s Nannies can be reached by phone at (216) 381-6600 or by e-mail at [email protected].

For more information contact Kimyette Finley, 216.368.0521.

Case Western Reserve University has received a $250,000 challenge grant from Johnson & Johnson Services, Inc. through The Johnson & Johnson Corporate Office of Science and Technology (COSAT), and its affiliates. The university will utilize this research grant to support science, medicine and engineering projects to improve human health.

CWRU will match or possibly exceed COSAT’s commitment in support of these projects. Applicants for these grants must be affiliated with a CWRU school or department, and preference for funding will be given to interdisciplinary and translational projects. Grants will range in size from $50,000 to $100,000.

“We’re pleased to advance interdisciplinary research and development across the campus in key areas of biomedicine,” said W. A. “Bud” Baeslack, Case Western Reserve provost.

The translational and commercial perspective at CWRU has been highly accelerated by the university’s relationship with the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation. The agreement with COSAT is modeled after the Coulter-Case Translational Research Partnership (CCTRP) process that has been instrumental within the biomedical departments at Case Western Reserve in promoting translational research on campus. Some funds may be used to support new or further accelerate existing CCTRP projects on the pathway to the patient.

For more information contact Kevin Mayhood, 216.368.4442.