Tufts Makers expand resources available to students through Maker Network see FEATURES / PAGE 3
Men’s lacrosse stays undefeated in NESCAC but loses first game to Stevenson
Tufts Culinary Society finds their way to students’ hearts see WEEKENDER / PAGE 5
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VOLUME LXXI, NUMBER 43
Tufts receives $10 million grant to study complex cell formation by Joe Walsh
Assistant News Editor
Tufts has been awarded a $10 million grant to create one of the two Allen Discovery Centers in the nation for the study and eventual manipulation of the morphogenetic code. The grant, which will officially begin tomorrow, was given by Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen and his recently created foundation Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group for interdisciplinary bioscience research. The new center, which will be led by biology professor Michael Levin, will be based primarily at the Science and Engineering Complex (SEC), according to Levin. Research at the center will examine the morphogenetic code, which determines how cells form into complex tissues and organs, he explained. “The question that we are investigating here is, where is that code written, in what form, and how can we learn how to read and write that code to alter shape?’” he said. According to a Mar. 23 article in Forbes Magazine, the other Allen Discovery Center will be at Stanford University and will study the interaction between bacteria and the immune system. In a press release from the Frontiers Group, University President Anthony Monaco explained that the Tufts Discovery Center has the potential to make significant discoveries in the realms of human and environmental health. “We expect this Center to drive a fundamental change in how we investigate, teach and learn the quantitative biological sciences, and how we extend that knowledge,” Monaco stated. “If we can unravel the mystery of how organisms develop and control their shapes, we may see significant applications to other biological phenomena, including disorders such as cancer and diabetes, and even further to large-scale, complex systems involving high-level controls above the cellular level.” Levin, who is also the director of the Tufts Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology. Levin said that most of his current team will be involved see DISCOVERY CENTER , page 2
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President of Armenia speaks to Fletcher students during first working visit to Boston by Emma Steiner and Arin Kerstein News Editor and Executive News Editor
President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan spoke to a group of 15 Tavitian Scholars from Tufts at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy yesterday morning as a part of his first working visit to Massachusetts. The president’s Boston tour began on Monday and will continue to Washington, D.C. for the Nuclear Security Summit. The students who met with Sargsyan are part of the Tavitian Scholarship Program, a six-month training program for mid-career Armenian professionals, jointly run by the Fletcher School and the Tavitian Foundation. The program intends to educate professional Armenians and encourage economic development, as well as the telecom, software, banking and tourist industries in Armenia. During Sargsyan’s meeting with the scholars, he addressed Armenia’s foreign policy, economic perspectives and strategic goals, according to Tavitian Scholar Yeva Ter-Sahakyan. Following the discussion, Sargsyan held a question and answer session with the group. Ter-Sahakyan explained that Boston has one of the oldest and most active Armenian communities in the country, making the city an important stop on the president’s visit. “His visit to Massachusetts is very significant in terms of acknowledgement of the Armenian diaspora and Armenian organizations in the state, and the work that they are doing for promoting and developing Armenia the country and the nation,” she told the Daily in an email. “Also, Boston is leader in bio and information technologies, which is a rapidly growing field in Armenia. All in all, [the] president’s visit to USA and to Massachusetts is an indicator of [the] countries’ strengthening relations and already established links.” Earlier in the week on Tuesday, Sargsyan led a wreath-laying ceremony at the Armenian Heritage Park on the Rose Kennedy Greenway. The park is dedicated to the memory of the approximately 1.5 million Armenian victims persecuted by the Ottoman Turks during the Armenian Genocide, from 1915-1922, according to a March 30 article in the Boston Globe. Sophomore Nairi Krafian, who attended the public ceremony, said that Sargsyan’s visit in the United States is an exciting moment in Armenian-American relations. “I think it’s a step in the right direction for genocide recognition, seeing as
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President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, pictured here on April 22 , 2010, spoke with students from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy on the morning of Mar. 31, 2015. now we’re playing a role in the foreign affairs of the United States… This is finally a time where [Armenians] hold some stock in America’s foreign affairs,” Krafian said. Also on Tuesday, Sargsyan delivered a speech at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) titled “Education and Human Capital: The path to sustainable development,” to an approximately 300-person crowd, according to Ari Kazanjian, a leader of the Tufts Armenian Club. In the speech the president discussed the personal and national benefits of education, Kazanjian explained. “As we were developing the idea to create the Luys Foundation and fund the education of our young people admitted to the world’s top universities, we had one goal in mind: to bring home all progressive and new that is constantly created around the world, studied and developed in the world’s leading scientific centers,” Sargsyan said in his speech. “Home includes each and
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every one of you — our extended family called Armenians and Armenia.” Kazanjian, a junior, said that he, several Tufts alumni and the Tavitian Scholars all attended the event. “It was an honor to be present at the event and I was proud to be in a room with such accomplished Armenians who were discussing the importance of education and using education to tackle the most important issues around the world,” he said. Sargsyan also attended a gala dinner on Tuesday at MIT titled “A New Generation of Armenian Thinkers,” hosted by the Luys Foundation, according to a Mar. 30 press release on Sargsyan’s website. The Luys Foundation provides scholarships and loans to Armenians to promote education and economic development in Armenia, according to the organization’s website. see ARMENIAN PRESIDENT, page 2
NEWS............................................1 FEATURES.................................4 WEEKENDER..........................5 ARTS & LIVING.......................6
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