Community Briefs
By Daily Bruin Staff
Jan. 18, 1999 9:00 p.m.
Tuesday, January 19, 1999
Community Briefs
BRIEFS:
Physician awarded for cancer research
Dr. Charles Sawyers received the first Franklin D. Murphy, M.D.,
Prize for achievements in prostate cancer and leukemia research.
His research has resulted in the publication of more than 50
peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals. Sawyers is director
of the Prostate Cancer Program at UCLA’s Jonsson Cancer Center, the
Center’s associate chief for basic research and an associate
professor in the division of hematology-oncology at the UCLA School
of Medicine.
"In less than 10 years as a scientist at UCLA, Charles Sawyers
already has led many unique, exciting investigations in prostate
cancer and leukemia, and he continues to help pioneer promising new
ways to treat those types of cancer," said Dr. Leonard Rome, an
administrator for the Stein Oppenheimer Endowment, which sponsors
the Murphy Prize.
The Stein Oppenheimer Endowment established the Murphy Prize
this year to honor a UCLA faculty member whose research best
demonstrates innovation and leadership in the pursuit of knowledge,
said Rome, senior associate dean for research at the UCLA School of
Medicine and director of the Jonsson Cancer Center’s Molecular,
Cell and Developmental Biology Program.
Scientists find structure of DNA repair protein
Last month, a team of UCLA scientists discovered the
three-dimensional structure of a critical structure of a human DNA
repair protein.
This discovery could have important medical and pharmaceutical
applications.
The protein, called HHR23A, is involved in repairing DNA damaged
by ultraviolet light. One of its regions, interacts with a protein
called Vpr, produced by the AIDS virus.
This interaction triggers a chain of events resulting in the
death of T-cells – an integral part of the body’s immune system’s
defense.
"Nothing was known about the structure of this domain or about
how it interacts with Vpr," said Juli Feigon, professor of
biochemistry at UCLA, who led the research team.
"If we can understand the interaction between Vpr and the repair
protein domain, we would have some hope of designing drugs that
would immobilize Vpr," she added. "Knowing the structure of the
domain is a critical first step."
In the December issue of Nature Structural Biology, the
scientists report the arrangement of the repair protein domain’s
amino acids, determined using nuclear magnetic resonance
spectroscopy.
Understanding repair proteins – which appear to serve as fix-it
shops that repair the deterioration of DNA as humans and other
organisms age – should have important applications for cancer, AIDS
and other deadly diseases, said Elizabeth Withers-Ward, an
assistant research biologist at the AIDS Institute.
Paternal absence could lead to life of crime
The absence of fathers in a home doubles the likelihood that
young sons will turn to crime, according to William S. Comanor, a
professor of economics at the University of California, Santa
Barbara.
Comanor and his colleague, Llad Phillips, a UCSB economics
professor, found in a recent study of fatherless homes that fathers
play critical roles in steering sons away from delinquency.
The rising juvenile delinquency in the last 30 years can be
blamed easily on the increasing divorce rate, Comanor argues. More
often than not children lose daily contact with their fathers after
a divorce.
Furthermore, a stepfather cannot replace the father’s influence,
he said. A mother-only family is preferable to the introduction of
a new father-figure whether it is a boyfriend or a new husband.
Compiled from Daily Bruin staff reports
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