PRO/CON: DOES ARIZONA
Rialto Theatre’s 90th anniversary
celebration recalls Tucson’s past
BELONG IN THE AP TOP 10 SPORTS, A6
WILDLIFE, B4
ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT
wednesday, october ,
tucson, arizona
dailywildcat.com
Diabetes, cancer cure research receives $1.1 million grant
UAPD tweets for safety Twitter tool for campus updates By Lucy Valencia ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT The University of Arizona Police Department is using Twitter to keep the UA community safe. Twitter is a social network that allows users to share information in “tweets,” messages limited to 140 characters.
Twitter: twitter.com/uofazpolice Name: UofAZPolice Web: uapd.arizona.edu Following: 0 Followers: 354 Tweets: 48
Hallie Bolonkin/Arizona Daily Wildcat
Dr. Christopher Hulme, professor in the College of Pharmacy and the lead researcher for the development of “small molecule” drugs, discusses science with Breland Smith, a second year biochemistry dotoral student, in a lab located in the College of Pharmacy. This research development began after a $1.1 million grant was given to the UA to help develop medicine to cure cancer and diabetes.
NIH funds small molecule study to see usefulness in medicine By Brenna Goth ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT A new grant will help UA researchers advance drug development. The three-year, $1.1 million National Institutes of Health grant will help UA researchers continue to develop small molecules, the foundation of many drugs. “What we’re trying to do is make different kinds of molecules,” said Victor Hruby, regents’ professor emeritus in the department of chemistry and biochemistry and researcher for the project. “And then see if any of them, some of them, or most of them might be useful for drug development.” Small molecules are already used in many medications, such as painkillers and drugs for high cholesterol and cancer. “Almost every drug you take orally is a small molecule,” said lead researcher Christopher Hulme, professor in the College
of Pharmacy. The research is a collaboration between UA researchers and the Translational Genomics Research Institute in Phoenix. Their work started several years ago. “Research is not usually something that starts when you get a grant,” Hruby said. “It’s something that starts when you get an idea.” Hulme said this specific grant funds the development of new molecular probes with the goal of going “from bench to bedside.” “That someone could potentially in the future use to develop drugs,” Hulme said. Hruby said the grant will help with this goal. “It allows you to get a lot more done,” Hruby said. “What we’re trying to do now is put ourselves on the map much larger than a small group of people.” The team has made about 10,000 potential small mole-
cule probes over the past three months, according to Hulme. “We just need fast and expedited ways of exploring this huge, untapped chemical space,” Hulme said. Research challenges include gauging the reaction of the human body to the small molecule probes. “We’re interested in making things compatible with life. Most of our drugs are toxic, so you can only take so much of them,” Hruby said. “What you need to think about is a molecule with useful functions and does so without toxicity.” The team is also working to develop a database of small molecules. Once researchers create small molecules, medicinal chemists must determine how they can be used to treat diseases. “Finding the right small molecule is like finding a needle in a haystack in many ways,” Hulme said. The collection will help centralize knowledge.
“It will enable them to find small molecule starting points,” Hulme said. Two researchers from the Translational Genomics Research Institute are also working on the project. Nathalie Meurice, associate investigator for the Translational Genomics Research Institute, helps develop small molecule probes. “You need a mix of different expertise,” Meurice said. “It’s like a tripod: if you’re missing one leg, it’s not going to stand.” Meurice said the research will potentially lead to new types of medicine. “We have a focus of helping the patient,” Meurice said. Hulme said the possibilities for drug innovation stemming from this research are limitless. “We’ve only made a grain of salt, if you will,” Hulme said. “As a race, we’ve only scraped the surface of small molecules with drug-like characteristics.”
From the Archive: Family Weekend 1963 Mom and Dad Watched Polo On 1929 Day By Harold Cousland ARIZONA WILDCAT The Arizona Daily Wildcat pulled this article from its archives to show the changes the UA has gone through since the original “Mom and Dad’s Day.”This article was published on Oct. 11, 1963. Mom and Dad’s Day has changed in many ways since 1929 when it was originated by Mortar Board, senior women’s honorary, and Bobcats, a senior men’s honorary. Parents coming this year look forward to the Arizona football game, but in 1929, the traditional polo game between the varsity and alumni teams vied with
football for popularity. Polo was a feature of Mom and Dad’s Day until the war years. The 400 parents who came for the first Mom and Dad’s Day received free tickets to the football game. Halftime entertainment was provided, as it is now, but then it was by the University girls’ marching squad. Parents who had sons on the 1929 football team were allowed to sit on the bench during the game. At the time, “Pop” McKale, football coach, said the arrangements would “arouse the enthusiasm of the squad and result in a winning game.” The Wildcats won 28-0 over New Mexico State. Mothers and fathers who
COMING FRIDAY — SPECIAL ISSUE
Family Weekend
registered in the lobby of the Agricultural Building in 1929 came from 31 Arizona towns and 8 states. The first award given to the parents who traveled the greatest distance to be with their children went to a woman from Detroit. Last year, when 4,000 parents came to the campus, Mrs. Emilio Yu won an “A” blanket for traveling 7,695 miles from Hong Kong. Loving cups honoring parents with the most children in school were given for the first time in 1933. One year, a mother registered 14 children. Investigation proved she had had 14 children in the University, but not all at the same time. In 1946, the practice of giving “A” blankets for the award began.
The Daily Wildcat will publish a seperate section dedicated to family at the UA on Friday.
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ASUA pushes clickers By Jazmine Woodberry ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT
Mom and Dad’s Day was cancelled two weeks before the scheduled date in 1942 because the administration decided not to sponsor any activities which encouraged travel during World War II. The University had no football team during the next two years. Mom and Dad’s Day was resumed in 1945, when more than 600 parents attended. During the 1946 Mom and Dad’s Day football game, James C. Shackleford, Sr., turned himself in at the press box after wandering though the football crowd for his wife and college son. The announcer asked the Shackleford family to identify their whereabouts, the wandering father was finally returned to his family.
Queer Film Series shows a new film about The Mormon Propsition, 7p.m. at the Gallagher Theater.
UAPD’s Twitter account, “UofAZPolice,” was created in July of 2009 in the hopes of reaching more UA students, parents and faculty. School shootings were among the events which UAPD Public Information Officer Sgt. Juan Alvarez said were factors that led university police to create the Twitter account. “It came about because of a need to put information out to the public quicker and to reach a broader audience,” said Alvarez. “At first, we had the listserv UAlerts as one of the few ways to put information out to the UA’s community. It is distributed to members of the community who are registered in the listserv and who must have a ‘.edu’ account,” Alvarez explained. “But it was only reaching a small group.” Nowadays, UAPD uses its Twitter account to disseminate Campus Watch Alerts, crime prevention tips and UAPD activities to its 353 followers. UAPD Chief of Police Anthony Daykin sends out Campus Watch Bulletins, but Alvarez,
The clicker resolution, which aims to streamline UA to a single classroom responder, is up for discussion at this week’s senate meeting. “Instructors have recently chosen various brands of classroom responders for their classes, placing an unnecessary financial cost for students with each additional brand of classroom responder,” readss Sen. Chad Travis’s drafted resolution to the ASUA Senate. “Using a single brand and model of classroom responder will decrease the unnecessary costs for students, as well as simplify technological problems among responders.” He calls for the “strongest possible support” for the Task Force on Classroom Responders, a mission he’s championing, along with ASUA President Emily Fritze, as one of his ASUA, page 3
Rebelution, Zion I, and Tribal Seeds perform live at the Rialto Theatre, 318 E. Congress St. 7 p.m.
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