Discovery Increases Chemotherapy Response
Xuan Liu, professor of biochemistry, and Xin Cai, a postdoctoral researcher working in her lab, found that treating cancer cells with apigenin, a naturally occurring dietary agent (or flavonoid), can localize the gene tumor suppressor p53 in the cell nucleus – a step that results in some tumor cells better responding to chemotherapeutics.

The study, published in the Oct. 20-24 online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provides a novel approach to conquer tumor resistance to chemotherapeutics treatment and suggests an avenue for developing safe chemotherapy via naturally occurring agents.

“Interestingly, apigenin is mainly found in fruits, vegetables, nuts and plant-derived beverages,” said Liu. “Thus, our studies also advocate the inclusion of vegetables and fruits in our daily diet to help prevent cancer.”

Monitoring the Spread of Virus
One limitation scientists face when studying human viruses in water in the environment is that the use of PCR (polymerase chain reaction)-based molecular methods is not acceptable for many applications.

This is because it is not possible to ascertain the infectivity of the viruses using PCR, a technique widely used in molecular biology. As a result, scientists must use cell culture assays, which can take days or weeks to enable the detection of infective virus particles, severely limiting the utility of the method.

Now a UCR study, published in the Oct. 27-31 online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, describes a method that allows researchers to detect one infective virus in as little as two hours post-infection.

“The method allows researchers to monitor, in real time, the spread of virus infection from cell to cell,” said Marylynn Yates, a professor of environmental sciences and one of the study’s researchers. “The potential applications of this extend far beyond detection of viruses in water.”

Hsiao-Yun (Christy) Yeh, a graduate student in the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering and Wilfred Chen and Ashok Mulchandani, both professors of chemical engineering, also participated in the study.

Be Conscientious, Live Longer
Conscientious people live longer, according to a study by Howard S. Friedman, distinguished professor of psychology, and graduate student Margaret L. Kern. The study was published in the September issue of Health Psychology, the journal of the American Psychological Association.

Friedman and Kern analyzed data from 20 studies that focused on conscientiousness-related traits and longevity, and involved more than 8,900 participants from the United States, Canada, Germany, Norway, Japan and Sweden.

This aspect of personality is reliably predictive of mortality risk across studies, Friedman said, and seems to be as important as most commonly assessed medical risk factors, few of which are psychological.

Conscientious individuals have better health habits and take fewer risks, but they also “travel life pathways toward healthier psychosocial environments and may even have a biological predisposition toward good health,” he said.

A 1993 study by Friedman, based on follow-up with participants in the eight-decade Terman Life Cycle Study, suggested that conscientiousness measured in childhood could predict longevity decades into the future.

Highly conscientious people live on average two to four years longer, are less likely to smoke or drink to excess, and live more stable and less stressful lives, Friedman and Kern found. People who are the least conscientious are 50 percent more likely to die at any given age than those who are highly conscientious, they said.

Cooling the Planet with Plants
Darrel Jenerette, an assistant professor in the Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, has received a grant from the National Science Foundation to investigate the effects of vegetation on “urban heat islands” – metropolitan areas that are much warmer than their surrounding areas.

The $135,000 grant will allow him to research plants’ potential to reduce summer extreme temperatures in urban heat islands.

Much of the cooling associated with vegetation comes at a cost for water. Along with colleagues at Arizona State University, Jenerette also will look at the trade-off between water use and how it affects local climate and spatial components.

Research Tied to Nobel Prize
An experiment performed by Owen Long, associate professor of physics and astronomy, and John William Gary, professor of physics and astronomy, was instrumental in proving the theory that recently earned the 2008 Nobel Prize in physics.

The prize was awarded jointly to Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa for the discovery of the origin of broken symmetry in subatomic particles, and to Yochiro Nambu for the discovery of the mechanism of broken symmetry.

The experiment done by Long and Gary confirmed the theory of Kobayashi and Maskawa, proposed 30 years prior to the experiment. Their theory of broken symmetry helps explain why our universe exists in its current state.

Long and Gary studied about one million particles a day for eight years before collecting enough data in 2002 to observe the validity of the theory.

Keillor to Read Simon Poem
“Prairie Home Companion” host Garrison Keillor will read Maurya Simon’s poem “Waste Management” from her new collection, “Cartographies” on Nov. 16 on his nationally syndicated program “The Writer’s Almanac.” Simon is a professor of creative writing.

“The Writer’s Almanac,” aired by American Public Media, is broadcast on 320 noncommercial radio stations around the country. Keillor’s reading will be available as a podcast and archived at writersalmanac.publicradio.org.

Keillor read two poems from Simon’s “Ghost Orchid” on the program in 2004.

Graduate Student to Mentor High School Students
Michelle Brown, a graduate student working in Natasha Raikhel’s laboratory, has been selected to join the Master Plant Science Team – a group of 20 graduate students and postdoctoral scholars sponsored by the Botanical Society of America and the American Society of Plant Biologists to mentor high school and middle school students through the Internet.

Brown will work for one year with four to five students from around the country to help them achieve a better understanding of the scientific process. She also is helping three student teams whose research focuses on plant sciences.

Natural Selection Linked to Metabolism
Why are some species of plants and animals favored by natural selection? And why does natural selection not favor other species similarly?

According to a research team led by Bai-Lian Li, a professor of ecology, the answer lies in the rate of metabolism of a species – how fast a species consumes energy, per unit mass, per unit time.

The researchers studied more than 3,000 species, and found that the mean metabolic rate of the species at rest fell on a very narrow range of values, in dramatic contrast to the 20 orders of magnitude difference in the body mass of the species. Study results appear in the Nov. 4 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Li was joined in the study by co-leaders Anastassia M. Makarieva and Victor G. Gorshkov of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg. Their co-authors on the research paper are Steven L. Chown of Stellenbosch University, South Africa; Peter B. Reich of the University of Minnesota, St. Paul; and Valery M. Gavrilov of Moscow State University, Russia.

Weber Discusses Migration
Devra Weber, associate professor of history, participated in a discussion of “Metropolitan Migrants: The Migration of Urban Mexicans to the United States” by UCLA sociology professor Rubén Hernández-León at UCLA on Nov. 7.

Weber and Roger Waldinger, UCLA professor of sociology, discussed the book with Hernández-León in a session co-sponsored by UCLA’s Chicano Studies Research Center, Migration Study Group and International Institute.

Researchers Combine Efforts
Chemical and Environmental Engineering Distinguished Professor Robert Haddon and Electrical Engineering Associate Professor Sakhrat Khizroev were named senior investigators as part of the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) team at Georgia Tech, funded by the National Science Foundation. To date, $1.35 million has been awarded to the six-year project.

UCR joins UC Berkeley and Alabama A&M as senior academic partners. Several national labs, international partners and corporations, including Intel and IBM, will participate in the work.

The center addresses the need for innovation in microelectronics, optics and sensors. Haddon’s Center for Nanoscale Science and Engineering brings expertise in carbon nanotube and graphene chemistry to the efforts. Khizroev’s work includes expertise in patterning, prototype devices and integration.

Joining Forces Preserves Semiconductors’ Competitiveness
Electrical Engineering Professor Alexander Balandin has joined a multiuniversity Interconnect Focus Center (IFC), one of five national research centers founded by the semiconductor industry and the federal government in order to maintain the nation’s competitiveness in semiconductor technology.

Each center addresses one of the major technology focus areas of the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS). Researchers from the Bourns College of Engineering will focus on thermal dissipation and power management, on a team led by Georgia Institute of Technology. The Balandin group has expertise in nanofabrication of graphene for use in heat removal.

Graphene, which is a single atomic plane of carbon atoms, exhibits superior thermal conductivity and may be used to replace copper in the manufacturing process.

Ozkans Cooperate on NSF Project
The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass) has selected UCR as a collaborating institution in its Center for Polymers, a Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) funded by the National Science Foundation.
Electrical Engineering Associate Professor Mihri Ozkan and Mechanical Engineering Associate Professor Cengiz S. Ozkan were named senior investigators as part of the MRSEC team at UMass.

Mihri Ozkan’s group will focus on fabrication and testing of photovoltaic devices. Cengiz Ozkan’s group will focus on the creation and use of nanoparticles.