takeaway:
MOUNT DESERT ISLAND BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY
Voot Yin ’96
media outlet:
Portland Press Herald
headline:
Bar Harbor lab gets patent to develop molecule that could repair heart tissue
1996 Reunion 2021, June 11–13 class co-presidents Ayesha Farag-Davis faragdavis@aol.com James D. Lowe jameslowemaine@yahoo.com
date:
Aug. 23, 2016
takeaway: Drug discovery is about small steps toward big advances Researcher Voot Yin ’96 and a team at Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory won a patent to continue work on a drug that could solve an urgent medical challenge: helping heart tissue regenerate after a heart attack. The Portland Press Herald story notes that the “patent award represents a major step forward in moving the molecule MSI-1436 toward clinical trials in humans.” The stakes are high. “There are currently no approved treatments to stimulate regeneration of heart muscle in humans,” writes reporter Dennis Hoey. Yin’s work with zebrafish offered clues to MSI-1436’s promise. Unlike the human heart, the zebrafish heart “robustly regenerates missing or damaged tissue in as little as 30 to 60 days,” Yin explains. When he and his colleagues introduced MSI-1436 into zebrafish, the regeneration accelerated.
70
won the 2016 Old Dominion Athletic Conference title and advanced to the Division III Sweet 16. He was inducted into the ODK National Leadership Honor Society....Robin Postman Benson and her family started a new adventure in Minnesota and are loving it. Her daughter is 2 and growing up closer to family....John Smith is a director of admissions for Asheville (N.C.) School, a boarding school where his wife Katie teaches chemistry. Connor is 13, Abby 11....William Somers took sons Nathaniel (15) and Andrew (12) on a cross-country trip, camping and hiking. Lizzy Polizzi Somers joined them for a week....Jen Tiner Robert, her son, and father were featured in a Sun Journal story about the family’s prowess in golf and other sports. Son Alex is one of the top golfers on the Lewiston High team, a sport he picked up from his grandfather, Mike Tiner, who was the longtime golf coach there. Jen chose basketball and soccer as her athletic endeavors; she was a four-year starter in soccer at Bates and a basketball player her senior year....Brad Whipple lives with his wife Emlyn and daughter Alivia (2) in south Florida.
Spring 2017
Marine ecologist Ari Friedlaender ’96 says, “The most important piece of research that is coming out of the Antarctic right now is understanding how different species cope with the changing environments.” Grammy-nominated conductor Andrew Cyr and his Metropolis Ensemble celebrated their 10th anniversary last fall with a multisensory party and festive concert experience at the Angel Orensanz Center in New York....A National Geographic Channel series featured marine ecologist Ari Friedlaender’s research on whales in Antarctica and how the changing climate is impacting their environment. He measures their size, underwater behavior, and diet with the goal of understanding what whales need to survive. “The most important piece of research that is coming out of the Antarctic right now is understanding how different species cope with the
changing environments — the rapidly warming air, the increased amount of precipitation, the decreased amount of sea ice,” he says in one episode. Ari is associate professor of fisheries & wildlife at Oregon State Univ.’s Marine Mammal Institute.
1997 Reunion 2017, June 9–11 class co-secretaries Chris Gailey gaileycj@gmail.com Leah Wiedmann Gailey lgailey@bates.edu class president Stuart B. Abelson sabelson@oraclinical.com Jennifer Gollan, an investigative reporter at The Center for Investigative Reporting and Reveal, won a national Emmy Award for her investigation “Deadly Oil Fields,” showing how major energy companies dodge accountability for workers’ deaths. Based in Reveal’s Emeryville, Calif., office, she covers labor issues, including worker safety and corporate malfeasance....Patti Daniels reports the Vermont Public Radio program she helped start a decade ago is still going strong. She looked forward to a threeweek, peripatetic vacation across Russia, 21 years after her JYA there. “That was a memorable, life-changing year that is deeply intertwined with my appreciation for Bates and the enormous encouragement I received from Professor Jane Costlow.”…Laurie Gallagher and Beka Smith welcomed Finn Jesse Gallagher on Dec. 2, 2015....Todd Zinn and his family moved to Manhattan where his husband became director of the Bank Street School for Children. Their twin 8-yearolds also attend the school, “and I will continue to maintain my position of Parent of the Year.”
1998 Reunion 2018, June 8–10 class committee Rob Curtis robcurtis@eatonvance.com Douglas Beers douglas.beers@gmail.com Liam Leduc Clarke ldlc639@yahoo.com Renee Leduc Clarke rleducclarke@gmail.com Tyler Munoz tylermunoz@gmail.com Jon Allen was granted tenure and promoted to associate professor of biology at the College of William & Mary. He returns to Maine most summers with his wife and two children to conduct research on intertidal marine ecology....Kate Bishop is a visiting assistant lecturer in environmental studies at the Univ. of New England in Biddeford.... Jennifer Clark Rao was named