BREAKING RESEARCH
UNIVERSITY NEWS
New wheels for UB Stampede
A new fleet of UB Stampede buses arrived on campus this spring. Each is festooned with a white-outlined UB Bull “wrap” running along the sides of the vehicle. The new buses are designed to handle a heavier passenger load—more than 24,000 passengers ride them during peak periods. Among green features, the buses run on a nontoxic, alternative fuel. Each bus has front-end racks for three bikes, offers wheelchair access and can be tracked using a UB Mobile phone app.
UNIVERSITY NEWS
Scholarship honors human rights activist The university has established a scholarship in memory of Alison L. Des Forges, the historian and human rights activist who was killed in the crash of Continental Flight 3407 near Buffalo on Feb. 12, 2009.
MELENDY
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With more than 180 distinct isotypes or variations cataloged to date, human papilloma virus (HPV) presents an extremely difficult target for broad-range treatments. And while the HPV vaccine provides protection against the most common HPV infections, it covers only four of the 180-plus isotypes. But now UB microbiologist Thomas Melendy has identified a protein interaction that could present the first viable, broadrange HPV drug target. This protein sequence in the viral DNA synthesis system is not only necessary for HPV synthesis, it is highly conserved between all HPV isotypes. To find out if this protein interaction might be the basis of a drug that would work against all HPV isotypes, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health has awarded a $1.65 million grant to Melendy, associate professor in the medical school. “Currently, no antiviral drugs exist that act directly against HPV,” says Melendy, whose laboratory is a world leader in identifying critical interactions between the HPV proteins and human proteins that the virus uses to duplicate viral DNA. His work explains why HPV integrates so readily into the genome of human cells.
DOUGLAS LEVERE, BA ’89
DOUGLAS LEVERE, BA ’89
Scientist identifies possible target for HPV therapeutics
Working with the Alison L. Des Forges Memorial Committee, UB created the Alison L. Des Forges Memorial Scholarship Fund to provide financial
support for graduates of the Buffalo Public Schools who are committed to studying human rights and social justice.
The scholarship will be open to students of any major and will be awarded for the first time “When we lost in fall 2014. A Alison, family and DES FORGES committee is friends wanted to being established to help act to keep her memory in the recruitment and alive and advance the selection process. causes she devoted her life to,” says Roger Des Forges, professor of history at UB. “One of those was improving K-12 public education in Buffalo; another was protecting human rights in central Africa.”
Alison Des Forges tirelessly advocated on behalf of citizens of central Africa and wrote a landmark book, “Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda.”
Bruce Jackson, James Agee Professor of American Culture; and Diane Christian, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Department of English, illuminate the grim world of death row inmates in their new book,“In This Timeless Time” (University of North Carolina Press, 2012). Included is a DVD of their 1979 documentary, “Death Row.” www.alumni.buffalo.edu UBTODAY Fall 2012
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