Biomedical Sciences Seminar Series Fall 2002 Abstracts April 4 Student Advisory Committee April 11 Bioassay-Directed Chemical Analysis Dr. Shane Que Hee UCLA, Department of Environmental Health Sciences WEB-SITE: http://www.ph.ucla.edu/ehs/faculty/quehee.htm Shane Que Hee, Professor, Department of Environmental Health Sciences and UCLA Center for Occupational and Environmental Health, UCLA School of Public Health, 650 Charles Young Jr Drive, Los Angeles CA 90095-1772; Phone: (310)206-7388; Fax: (310)794-2106; E Mail: squehee@ucla.edu There are millions of molecules of different types that could be analyzed for contamination and pollution of environmental and biological media. It does not make much economic sense to try to analyze for every chemical species that might be in a given sample if human health or ecological health are to be protected since only toxic samples need be analyzed exhaustively. This seminar discusses some of the author's research and the literature involved in using screening bioassays to identify toxic components in complex mixtures as well as the spectroscopic techniques and sample subfractionation or cleanup that must also be used for toxin isolation, identification and quantification. In particular, the use of light emitting systems based on bioluminescence (Vibrio fischeri) for acute and subchronic toxicity, and back reverting dark mutants to detect genotoxins will be emphasized. References: 1. SH Yim, SS Que Hee. Bacterial mutagenicity of some tobacco aromatic nitrogen bases and their mixtures. Mutat Res: Gen Toxicol Environ Mutagen 492: 13-27, 2001. 2. SH Yim, SS Que Hee. Genotoxicity of nicotine and cotinine in the bacterial luminescence test. Mutat Res 335: 275-283, 1996. 3. HF Chen, SS Que Hee. Ketone EC50 values in the Microtox test. Ecotoxicol Environ Safety 30: 120-123, 1995. 4. CC Chou, SS Que Hee. Saliva-available carbonyl compounds in some chewing tobaccos. J Agr Food Chem 42: 2225-2230, 1994. 5. MA Newman, BG Valanis, RS Schoeny, SS Que Hee. Urinary biological monitoring markers of anticancer drug exposure in oncology nurses. Am J Public Health 84: 852-855, 1994. 6. R Boucher, GK Livingstone, SS Que Hee. In-vitro micronucleus bioassay of human peripheral lymphocytes for adriamycin in the presence of cyclophosphamide and urines of patients administered anticancer drugs. Environ Molec Mutagen 21: 372-382, 1993. 7. CC Chou, SS Que Hee. Separation of pH, dilution, ionic strength and chemical matrix effects for biological monitoring ofnurines using nicotine, cotinine, and reference urines. J Biochem Chemilum 8: 39-48, 1993. 8. CC Chou, SS Que Hee. Microtox EC50 values for drinking water byproducts produced by ozonolysis. Ecotoxicol Environ Safety 23: 355-363, 1992. 9. MA Newman, SS Que Hee, RS Schoeny. Mutagenesis assays on urines produced by patients administered adriamycin and cyclophosphamide. Environ Molec Mutagen 16: 189-203, 1990. 10. MA Newman, SS Que Hee, RS Schoeny, L Lowry. Biological monitoring screening of patients provided antineoplastic drugs including adriamycin, cyclophosphamide, 5-fluorouracil, methotrexate, and vincristine. Cancer res 50: 3351-3366, 1990. 11. AK Giri, SS Que Hee. In-vivo sister chromatid exchange induced by 1,2-dichloroethane on bone marrow cells of mice. Environ Molec Mutagen 12: 331-334, 1988. April 18 Investigations Into the Biochemistry of Gene Silencing in Arabidopsis Shirley Lomeli CSULA Bridges to the Ph.D. Scholar Cell-Specific Expression and Potential Roles of Cyclic GMP-Dependent Protein Kinase I in the Rat Ovary Emerson Perez CSULA MBRS-RISE Graduate Scholar  April 25 Interactive Effects of Stress, Estrogen and Sex on Nueral and Cognitive Function Dr. Victoria Luine Hunter College, City University of NY, Department of Psychology Interactive effects of stress, estrogen and sex on neural and cognitive function. Victoria Luine, Dept. of Psychology, Hunter College of CUNY.Spring 2003. Recent studies indicate that steroid hormones of adrenal and gonadal origin influence cognitive function in animal models and in humans. Corticosterone, released by stress, impairs cognitive function when stress is chronic. On the other hand, estradiol promotes cognitive function in females with low levels of circulating gonadal hormones. Using a variety of visual and place memory tasks, the effects of altered steroid hormone levels in male and female rats will be presented. Under chronic stress (21 days of daily restraint),performance of males on all tasks was impaired while performance of females was either enhanced (spatial memory tasks) or not impaired (visual memory task). Activity of monoamines was also measured in areas contributing to memory ­ frontal cortex, hippocampus and amygdala. Sexually dimorphic changes, which may underlie cognitive effects, were noted in dopamine and serotonin. Finally, the role of estrogen as a possible neuroprotectant during stress and in activating neurons responsible for cognitive function will be presented. Thus, our behavioral and neurochemical results support the hypothesis that differences/alterations in steroid hormones which occur as a result of stress, aging and/or disease exert effects on cognition over the lifespan. Moreover, sex or gender appears to be a critical determinant of the nature of the effects. Recent Review: RE Bowman, KD Beck and VN Luine, Chronic stress effects on memory: sex differences in performance and monoaminergic activity. Hormonesand Behavior 43: 48-59 (2003). May 2 Studying Alzheimer's Diesease in Mice Dr. Frank LaFerla UC Irvine Department of NeurobiologyWebsite: http://neurobiology.bio.uci.edu/faculty/laferla/laferla.htm Abstract: The neuropathological correlates of Alzheimer's disease (AD) include amyloid-ß (Aß) plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. To recapitulate these features, we derived a triple transgenic model (3xTg-AD) harboring three mutant transgenes: PS1M146V, APPSwe, and tauP301L. Rather than crossing independent lines, we microinjected two transgenes into single-cell embryos from homozygous PS1M146V knockin mice, generating mice with the same genetic background. 3xTg-AD mice progressively develop Aß and tau pathologies, consistent with the distribution found in the human AD brain. Here we report that synaptic dysfunction, including LTP deficits, manifests in an age-related manner, but before plaque and tangle pathology. The synaptic dysfunction appears to be due to intraneuronal Aß, as PS1M146V/tauP301L transgenic mice do not show LTP deficits. These studies suggest a pathogenic role for intracellular Aß with regards to synaptic activity. The recapitulation of salient features of AD in these mice clarifies the relationships between Aß, synaptic dysfunction, and tangles, and provides a valuable model for testing potential AD therapeutics as the impact on both lesions can be assessed.   Email Address: laferla@uci.edu Mailing Address: University of California, Irvine Neurobiology & Behavior Irvine, CA 92697-4545 Title: Associate Professor Department: Neurobiology & Behavior Office Address: 1109 Gillespie Neuroscience Research Facility Zot Code: 4545 Phone: (949) 824-1232 Fax Number: (949) 824-7356 Other Info: Lab address: 1216 Gillespie Neuroscience Lab phone: 824-3471  May 9   TBA Leon Pape Lecture Lene Hau    May 16 Ethnic Identity: Conceptualization and Current Research Dr. Jean Phinney CSULA Department of Psychology May 23 The Risk of Osteoporosis in Mexican American Women: Lifestyle and Physiological Determinants Noe C. Crespo MBRS-RISE Graduate Scholar Urban Pollutant Gradient on a Fine Spatial Scale Mauricio Ramos CSULA MARC Scholar May 30 Characterization of the Regulatory Role of Arginine 226 of Maize PEP Caboxylase Laurel Hartle CSULA MBRS-RISE Undergraduate Scholar The Experience of Stress in First Year College Students: A New Approach to an Old Problem Ben Hidalgo CSULA MBRS-RISE Graduate Scholar  June 6  Andreoli-Woods Lecture Research, the Academy and Being a Minority Scientist (Alderete's Rules for Success) John Alderete Department of Microbiology & Immunology The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio Brief Biosketch of J. F. Alderete, Ph.D. John F. Alderete, Ph.D. is Professor of Microbiology at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, where he has received over $12 million in research support and over $3 million to support minority organizations and activities. He was born in Las Vegas, New Mexico in 1950. He received two B.S. degrees (mathematics and biology) as an undergraduate student at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology at Socorro. His first and second publications were from work as an undergraduate with Dr. Gilbert Sanchez at Tech and as a student intern with Dr. Tom H. Wilson at the Department of Physiology at Harvard Medical School, respectively. He received his Ph.D. in microbiology in 1978 from the U. Kansas-Lawrence. He did postdoctoral work at UNC-Chapel Hill prior to a faculty position at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio. He has been director of two training grants from NIAID/NIH. He has published over 100 publications in peer-review journals and is the author of 31 book chapters and invited OP-ED editorials. His research on sexually transmitted diseases and on the number one, non-viral sexually transmitted agent, Trichomonas vaginalis, has been presented as abstracts published in 117 proceedings of national and international scientific meetings, where he has also participated in, chaired, and organized scientific symposia. He has given over 300 presentations at colleges, universities and conferences across the country and throughout the world, of which 226 were seminars on his research work. His research has resulted in 5 patents and 1 patent-pending. His laboratory has submitted 23 sequences to the GenBank database. He has an exclusive license agreement between the Board of Regents of UT and Xenotope Diagnostics, Inc. He has been a member of study sections and panels for NIH institutes, the NSF, USDA and other government agencies. He is a member of the National Advisory Research Council for the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research/NIH. Dr. Alderete served on a National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine panel to examine the Congressionally-mandated request on how NIH prioritizes its research and was the reviewer of two IOM panel reports. He serves on three editorial boards and has been an ad hoc reviewer of 32 scientific journals. He is asked to speak on issues involving minorities, higher education, and the scientific workforce by government agencies. These include the President's National Science Board, the NIH, the Federal FDA, the White House Office for Science and Technology Policy, and White House "One Nation" on race and health disparities. He was asked to moderate the session in October 1999, a Public Policy Forum on the "Digital Divide" as part of the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee and The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. In April 2000, he moderated a session at the Office of Research on Minority Health/NIH conference on health disparities in Washington, DC. He has received many honors and awards, most notably the Premio Encuentro Award for Science and Technology in 1992, the single highest honor given to an Hispanic in America. He was elected into the honorific societies Sigma _i and as a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, and in the fall of 2001 was honored at the National Atomic Museum in New Mexico. Also in 2002, the Spring issue of Hispanic Engineer & Information Technology magazine honored Dr. Alderete for his efforts to bridge the "Digital Divide" for minorities, among other outreach activities. Hispanic Magazine selected him as one of the 100 Most Influential Hispanics in America. He conducted for over a ten-year period a Saturday Morning Science Camp for minority students, parents and teachers, which was adopted by a community-based organization. He has mentored underrepresented minorities from undergraduate institutions and high schools as summer interns in his laboratory. He has given presentations throughout K-12 schools in the San Antonio and South Texas area. He has mentored 1 M.S. student, 7 Ph.D. students, 13 postdoctoral fellows, 7 visiting scientists, 2 M.D. fellows, and 32 minority high school and undergraduate students. Dr. Alderete is the past-president of the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in the Sciences (SACNAS). More recently, he is co-founder of a biotechnology company, Xenotope Diagnostics, Inc. (http://www.xenotope.com), a company that specializes in development of diagnostics for infectious diseases. The company is FDA-approved for two products for the diagnosis of STD vaginitis. For other information on Dr. Alderete, visit the following websites: www.uthscsa.edu/micro/faculty/alderete.html www.sacnas.net/biography/Biography.asp?mem=26&type=2 NEWS RELEASE NEWS RELEASE: The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, January 14, 2003 XENOTOPE AND GENZYME SIGN DEFINITIVE DEAL. Xenotope Diagnostics, Inc. and Genzyme Corporation have signed a definitive agreement whereby Genzyme is authorized to manufacture a proprietary diagnostic developed by Xenotope for the detection of Trichomonas Vaginalis, a sexually transmitted disease (STD). The diagnostic was developed from research originating from the microbiology lab of John F. Alderete, Ph.D. at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Specific terms of the deal were not announced, but include milestone payments and royalties. Trichomonas Vaginalis infects both men and women and is the most prevalent non-viral STD in the world, with an estimated 350 million women alone affected each year. The FDA-approved Xenotope diagnostic test is the only rapid test available for diagnosing Trichomonas infections and is extremely accurate. Xenotope, founded just 2 years ago in San Francisco, has a business and scientific focus around products resulting from molecular biology and infectious disease research in areas of unmet medical needs where it can be a market leader. According to Paul Castella, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder, "The richness of The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio's infectious disease research and cooperative spirit in commercializing its intellectual properties encouraged us to move to San Antonio. We hope to play a major role in expanding the technology base here. This agreement is a pivotal event in our young company's growth, and I believe establishes an excellent foundation to reach our objectives." Genzyme, founded in 1981, is a public company with 5,500 employees, world-wide operations and corporate offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is composed of 3 divisions: (1) Genzyme Biosurgery, serving the market for specialized biotechnology products used in surgery; (2) Genzyme General, specializing in diagnostic products and therapeutics; and (3) Genzyme Molecular Oncology, which develops breakthrough solutions in the treatment of cancer. Product revenues exceeded $1 billion in 2001 and 2002. Contact: Paul Castella, Ph.D. Xenotope Diagnostics, Inc. San Antonio Technology Center 3463 Magic Drive, Suite T-2 San Antonio, Texas 78229 (210) 582-5838 - PHONE (210) 582-5839 ­ FAX paul@xenotope.com

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