tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53722373113582249612024-03-13T23:58:25.882-07:00cnsi blogUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5372237311358224961.post-54158575090512250652013-09-09T11:28:00.001-07:002013-09-09T11:57:26.304-07:00CSST Celebrates Another Successful Summer<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>By Erin Reyes</b></div>
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They sing, they dance, they play instruments – no, I’m not
talking about the latest group of triple threats to audition on <i>America’s Got Talent; </i>they’re the newest
crop of CSST students! <o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vQg3ypD0fXw/Uiox5K7KuaI/AAAAAAAAABg/VXdRyyWSOcA/s1600/hey+jude.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vQg3ypD0fXw/Uiox5K7KuaI/AAAAAAAAABg/VXdRyyWSOcA/s400/hey+jude.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
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Students belt out the Beatles’ hit song “Hey Jude” for their
fellow CSST scholars. <span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>Photo Credit: Andrew Jesena</i></span></div>
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CSST, the Cross-disciplinary Scholars in Science and
Technology, is a ten-week program that brings together students from all over
the globe to carry out their scientific research under the advisement of UCLA’s
world-class faculty. Since it was established in 2008 by Dr. Ren Sun, a
professor in the Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology and CNSI member, with support
from UCLA’s Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Scott Waugh, the program has
hosted 432 of the brightest minds from Asia and across the globe, with an
additional 89 students this year.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rKwJvpGQhyU/Uiox6ER2uoI/AAAAAAAAAB4/ECIJHv6gO4k/s1600/ren+sun.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rKwJvpGQhyU/Uiox6ER2uoI/AAAAAAAAAB4/ECIJHv6gO4k/s400/ren+sun.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
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Dr. Ren Sun, founder and director of CSST, gives a
presentation in the CNSI auditorium. <span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>Photo Credit: Andrew Jesena</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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The new campus setting can be a little overwhelming for the
students – especially for those who are visiting the United States for the
first time – so each morning for the first few weeks of the program, the students
gather in the CNSI lobby to showcase their talents and get to know one another
in a fun, relaxed setting.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-faobzuI9PSU/Uiox4p3qgHI/AAAAAAAAABI/SqsBw-NUGbU/s1600/Practice.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-faobzuI9PSU/Uiox4p3qgHI/AAAAAAAAABI/SqsBw-NUGbU/s400/Practice.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
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A group of CSST students practice their dance routine for
the morning talent show.<i> <span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo Credit: Andrew Jesena</span></i><o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-K20ZYD4Rl8M/Uiox4q5AA9I/AAAAAAAAABM/SIkbqJRr7to/s1600/Gangnam+Style.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-K20ZYD4Rl8M/Uiox4q5AA9I/AAAAAAAAABM/SIkbqJRr7to/s400/Gangnam+Style.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
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Energetic students perform the ubiquitous Gangnam Style
dance for their peers during one of the morning talent shows. <span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>Photo Credit:
Andrew Jesena</i></span><o:p></o:p></div>
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The frivolity is a welcome break away from the
research-intensive work the students carry out during their time at UCLA. That
doesn’t mean the students don’t enjoy working hard in the lab, though; indeed,
the program’s scientific focus is particularly appealing for students from
abroad who want to come to the U.S. to study a topic besides language. <o:p></o:p></div>
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“I joined the CSST program because it is a research program,
not a program aiming for English study,” said Karen Shih, a first-year grad
student at Waseda University in Tokyo. “As a student majoring in science and
engineering, language is just a tool and research content is much more
important.” <o:p></o:p></div>
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Since its inception in 2008, CSST has made quite a name for
itself, and its good reputation helps attract prospective students. “CSST is a
well-known program in my university and many previous students introduced [it]
to me,” said Xinkai Fu, a senior at Nanjing University in China. “I learned
that the program focuses on improving our interdisciplinary research ability,
which I think is very important for my future career.” <o:p></o:p></div>
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However, Dr. Sun, the program’s faculty director, stresses
that CSST is about more than the interdisciplinary research training the
students receive throughout the ten weeks that lead up to a final poster
presentation, taking place on September 10th. “This program bridges cultures together and promotes goodwill
between our university and the top universities in China, Japan, and beyond,”
Dr. Sun said. <o:p></o:p><br />
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CSST students unite to boldly take the stage during one the program’s
morning talent shows. <span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>Photo Credit: Andrew Jesena</i></span><o:p></o:p></div>
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In addition to spending time in the lab, students are
offered a variety of other activities to supplement their research.</div>
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“The students are exposed to cross-disciplinary research
through a series of lectures given by world-renowned scientists who have
expertise across multiple fields,” said Jiaying Feng, CSST’s administrative
director. “There are also seminars teaching the students presentation skills,
interview skills for graduate school, ethics in academia, and other information
sessions that help the students academically.” <o:p></o:p><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-b6y6hUgK9HA/Uiox6DBkHCI/AAAAAAAAAB8/Egad548l-og/s1600/presenter.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-b6y6hUgK9HA/Uiox6DBkHCI/AAAAAAAAAB8/Egad548l-og/s400/presenter.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
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Lynn Talton Yamamoto, the Postdoctoral Affairs Officer for
the Dean’s Office at the David Geffen School of Medicine, teaches the students
about proper citation formatting for their research. <span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>Photo Credit: Andrew
Jesena</i></span><o:p></o:p></div>
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The well-rounded nature of the program ensures that students
get the most out of their time in LA, and many students enjoy the experience so
much that they opt to continue their studies at the university. To date, 125
CSST students have made the decision to further their education in various UCLA
PhD programs.</div>
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This year’s students are not immune to the UCLA bug – many
are hoping to return to UCLA for their graduate studies or to get a Ph.D. For
instance, Junyuan Feng, a junior from Fudan University in Shanghai, is hoping
to return as a grad student to the department of physics. This summer he’s been
working with Professor Huan Huang and Dr. Gang Wang to search for a new
particle called pentaquark. <i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
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Yu Shi, a senior from the University of Science and
Technology in Hefei, China, is also considering pursuing an advanced degree in
the United States. UCLA is one of his top choices after working with Professor
Wei Wang in the computer sciences department this summer. <o:p></o:p><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HFcEUPFBxvQ/Uiox47pXs-I/AAAAAAAAABY/WHqSEcG4l8U/s1600/USTC.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HFcEUPFBxvQ/Uiox47pXs-I/AAAAAAAAABY/WHqSEcG4l8U/s400/USTC.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
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Students from the University of Science and Technology of
China (USTC) show their school pride during CSST’s trip to Santa Monica
State Beach. <span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>Photo Credit: Yu Shi</i></span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Xiangzhi Meng, a second-year grad student at Nankai
University in Tianjin, China, added: “After the great experience of this summer
here, I definitely want to continue a Ph.D. program at UCLA.”</div>
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It’s no surprise that Meng wants to return; she has grown to
particularly enjoy the academic offerings of UCLA. <o:p></o:p></div>
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“I think the best academic experience is the lab meeting we
have every Tuesday,” Meng explained. “People get together to discuss everyone’s
research, and there are a lot of inspiring ideas and practical suggestions
coming out.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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Discussions aren’t the only stimulating parts of the
students’ time in LA. They have plenty of fun outside of the classroom,
exploring all that the city has to offer and taking advantage of the beautiful
California weather. Some of the students’ favorite non-academic activities include
visiting the Getty Villa, hiking Mt. Baldy, and camping in Malibu. <o:p></o:p><br />
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Jing Liu shows off the stunning scenery during the students’
Mt. Baldy hike. <span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>Photo Credit: Jing Liu</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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“CSST is one of the most unforgettable experiences I had in
college,” said Fu. “It’s more than just research training. We get to know new
people from different fields and different backgrounds, make friends with
students from universities across China and Japan and discover a whole new life
in LA. I am sure everyone will benefit from this unique experience.” <o:p></o:p></div>
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Likewise, Jia Guo, a senior at Zhejiang University in
Hangzhou, China, joined the CSST program to gain more life experience, and he
has greatly appreciated getting the chance to meet students from all over China.
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“Some friends I met here said it was crazy of us to fly all
the way here just to volunteer to do research in the lab, but I think it was
worth it!” explained Jing Liu, Guo’s classmate at Zhejiang University. “CSST really
provides us with a wonderful opportunity to get in touch with the world’s most
advanced technology and great minds.” <o:p></o:p><br />
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Meanwhile, Junyuan’s sentiments about CSST can be summed up in one sentence: “The program is perfect.”<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DQgDQy3WoEQ/Uiox4iufiGI/AAAAAAAAABo/zW9niwlaiyw/s1600/Greeting.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DQgDQy3WoEQ/Uiox4iufiGI/AAAAAAAAABo/zW9niwlaiyw/s400/Greeting.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
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A group of students happily pose for the camera. <span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>Photo
Credit: Andrew Jesena</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Erin Reyeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04629340406791431755noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5372237311358224961.post-56157341552907636952013-08-15T10:39:00.000-07:002013-08-15T10:41:27.305-07:00Science as art: beautiful world under the microscope<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">By Mike Fricano</span></b><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ExZcQpDm1ms/Ug0PoRSaWpI/AAAAAAAAAAs/YYkuQyFZpEs/s1600/yue+wang+art.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ExZcQpDm1ms/Ug0PoRSaWpI/AAAAAAAAAAs/YYkuQyFZpEs/s320/yue+wang+art.jpg" width="320" /></span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">This beautiful image is not an artsy photo of a pink flower.
It’s a picture of an electrically conductive molecule captured with a scanning
electron microscope.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This image, titled "Tetraaniline in Full Bloom,"
won first place in the Materials Research Society’s "<a href="http://www.mrs.org/spring-2013-science-as-art-winners/" target="_blank"><b>Science as Art</b></a>"
competition this spring for Yue Wang, a member of Ric Kaner's lab and former IGERT
fellow.
In addition to being beautiful, this molecule has potential for sensors and
organic supercapacitors because of its shape and electrical conductivity. The
"flower" in the upper right is actually aggregated sheets of doped
aniline oligomers and the black and white leaves are flexible sheets.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Who knew the microscopic world could be so spectacular?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Source: <a href="http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/science-as-art-beautiful-world-246918.aspx" target="_blank">UCLA Newsroom</a></span></div>
Erin Reyeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04629340406791431755noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5372237311358224961.post-80222260705430663642013-08-14T12:03:00.000-07:002013-08-14T12:03:12.533-07:00Octopus Mandala Glow set to light up famous Pacific Wheel<b style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Victoria Vesna’s artwork will premiere at Santa Monica’s Glow Festival on September 28th</b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Victoria Vesna, a professor in UCLA’s department of Design|Media Arts and director of the Art|Sci center at the California NanoSystems Institute, is a world-renowned artist who frequently collaborates with nanoscientists to unite the worlds of art and science. Her latest project, Octopus Mandala Glow (OMG), is part of a worldwide movement to encourage people to occupy their Ferris wheels, with a vision of creating a global chorus and spreading joy. For more info about OMG, please check out the project’s website: </span><a href="http://octopusmandala.com/" style="background-color: white; color: #336699; font-family: arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" target="_blank">http://octopusmandala.com</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Join the OMG movement now by donating the symbolic minimum of $8! Then pass it on to 8 friends. Your help will not only make this global project possible, but will also have you directly participating in the creation of the Octopus Mandala. We want to collect “Om’s” from the peaks of wheels all over the world—people of all religions, languages, and with different “views.” To donate, go to: </span><a href="http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/octopus-mandala-glow-omg" style="background-color: white; color: #336699; font-family: arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" target="_blank">http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/octopus-mandala-glow-omg</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span>Erin Reyeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04629340406791431755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5372237311358224961.post-28341687456911136792013-08-05T15:08:00.000-07:002013-08-05T15:08:01.432-07:00Nanoscientists work with orthopaedic surgeons to advance studies of knee injuriesThis was an invitation we couldn't pass up.<br />
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Dr. Keith Markolf and Dr. Dan Boguszewski from the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at UCLA invited us to their laboratory to learn about their studies of knee injury mechanisms. An enormous robot--typically used for spot welding in car manufacturing plants--had been repurposed to grasp the bones connected to a cadaver knee and apply pressures on them, mimicking what would happen during a fall on the basketball court or during a gymnastics performance.<br />
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The bright orange robot applied 200 Newtons of force (45 lbs.) to the tibia (one of the shin bones) while shifting the bone forward and backward 250 times to look at how the joint was dislocated as a result of a torn ACL. These studies are helpful, but the doctors want to understand better how the bones are grinding together and pressing down on one another. To do this, they asked CNSI nanoscientists if they knew of coatings that could be applied onto the bones like paint before the mechanical forces were applied. Then, looking at how the paint material wore away or responded to the pressure, the doctors could pinpoint exactly where the pressure and grinding was being applied. This would help inform surgeons about how to improve the success of surgical knee procedures to prevent orthopaedic arthritis and the need for full knee replacements.<br />
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The work is still in the early planning stages, but some of the materials being investigated include alginate or hyaluronic coatings, lyposomes embedded with fluorescent dyes, or nanodiamond coatings. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5372237311358224961.post-40893944295952416252013-07-18T14:57:00.000-07:002013-07-18T16:06:18.095-07:00UCLA Scientists and Engineers Focus on EntrepreneurshipRecently, a group of UCLA scientists and engineers presented
their business plans for commercializing technologies developed at the
university to colleagues and a panel of expert reviewers. The presentations
were the culmination of a partnership between UCLA’s California NanoSystems
Institute (CNSI) and UCLA Anderson’s Harold and Pauline Price Center for
Entrepreneurial Studies, created to educate participants about entrepreneurship
and to prepare them to enter the business world.<br />
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The joint effort between CNSI and the Price Center began more than six months ago, when the groups launched
an 8-week class focused on technological entrepreneurship. Faculty members,
postdoctoral researchers, and graduate students from engineering and the
physical and life sciences met once a week to learn about topics, such as opportunity
recognition, market analysis, entrepreneurial finance, operations, and human
resource issues. These courses came as part of the campus’ effort to enhance
its entrepreneurial ecosystem.<o:p></o:p>
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This entrepreneurship course prompted a second 7-week course
supporting the same cohort of students and focusing on business plan development.
Both were taught by George Abe, a lecturer in entrepreneurship at UCLA Anderson
School of Management.
<br />
<br />
“The success of the courses was due to the commitment that the
students brought to the classroom every day,” said Abe. “They came hungry with
questions and scenarios that they wanted to discuss. Plus, they came with great
ideas and new technology that deserves to be made available to the world.”
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
“There was a lot that we got out of the classes, but I think the
biggest thing is that they helped us to develop a business mindset, which is
fairly different from a science mindset,” said Garrett Mosley, a graduate
student in the department of bioengineering.
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ENEus39rktM/Uehp4izadDI/AAAAAAAAAk8/chD5UGG25wA/s1600/JianGarrett.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="136" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ENEus39rktM/Uehp4izadDI/AAAAAAAAAk8/chD5UGG25wA/s320/JianGarrett.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jian Yang (left) and Garrett Mosley answer questions after their business plan presentations.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
He and fellow graduate student Ricky Chiu presented a business
plan for the commercialization of the “A-PEN,” a tool based on lateral flow
analysis that can quickly and easily identify the presence of allergens in
food.
<br />
<br />
Students who attended both courses had the opportunity to
present elevator pitches, written summaries, and business plan presentations to
panels of faculty, entrepreneurs and representatives from the UCLA Office of
Intellectual Property & Industry Sponsored Research (OIP-ISR), whose
mission is to support UCLA’s efforts to commercialize intellectual property
rights and advance entrepreneurship, for critical feedback.
<br />
<br />
Ideas and applications evolved, sometimes dramatically, over the
two courses. After their second presentation, one of the judges asked Mosley,
“Where do I send my check?”
<br />
<br />
“We knew we had a good technology, and for the first
presentation we went with one of the first applications that we brainstormed,”
said Mosley. “We kept focusing on how/why everything would be successful, but
not thinking about how/why it wouldn't be successful. We took the constructive
criticism from the first quarter and rethought our angle. We needed to look at
our product and make sure that it was going to work at every step along the
process and for everyone involved in the process, which I think we did a better
job at the second time around.”
<br />
<br />
“The opportunity for our research scientists and engineers to learn
directly from someone like George at this early stage in their careers is
wonderful,” said Jia Ming Chen, Education Director at CNSI. “The courses filled
an important gap in our traditional training programs, and we look forward to
developing more programs to support our community.”
<br />
<br />
Other innovations advanced during the courses included novel infrared
camera systems, reagents to help crystalize cellular membrane proteins, biologics
to fight acne, and microcentrifuge tube racks that enhance the brand recognition
of distributors. Many of the ideas are patented, and some groups are already
working with companies that are trying out their products.
<br />
<br />
This year’s courses were underwritten by generous donors to the
Price Center as part of its curriculum development efforts and Technology and
Innovation Partners Program. The donors included Jean and Ed Wedbush, the
Heshmatpour Family Foundation, the Knapp Foundation, the Louis and Harold Price
Foundation and members of the Price Center Board of Advisors. Both CNSI and the
Price Center are currently exploring ways to fund future courses.
<br />
<br />
“We will offer these courses again,” says Elaine Hagan, executive
director of the Price Center. “The partnership between the Price Center and
CNSI holds great potential for students and other researchers at UCLA, and for
the university in general.”
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-S0CEdS5JkvM/Uehpgm6jFeI/AAAAAAAAAk4/C1OavWcy6mA/s1600/L1080419.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-S0CEdS5JkvM/Uehpgm6jFeI/AAAAAAAAAk4/C1OavWcy6mA/s320/L1080419.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yPmo7YnKEtY/UehnLNMdAYI/AAAAAAAAAkY/mi-dlJeLUHo/s1600/StudentsAfterAbeClass.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="233" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yPmo7YnKEtY/UehnLNMdAYI/AAAAAAAAAkY/mi-dlJeLUHo/s320/StudentsAfterAbeClass.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Top and bottom panels) Graduate students and postdoctoral researchers attend a reception after the final presentations.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nnuclvMzRC8/Uehn2-tfzVI/AAAAAAAAAkk/Pvj9x2jCYJs/s1600/Abe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="249" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nnuclvMzRC8/Uehn2-tfzVI/AAAAAAAAAkk/Pvj9x2jCYJs/s320/Abe.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lecturer George Abe (right) chats with Dr. Farhad Parhami, one of the business plan judges.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JJUBb1sCJu0/UehqjD6nZBI/AAAAAAAAAlI/J1MhOV39t18/s1600/L1080416.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JJUBb1sCJu0/UehqjD6nZBI/AAAAAAAAAlI/J1MhOV39t18/s320/L1080416.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Director of Development Fred Wells (left) and business plan judge Winn Hong. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0dNGYbQ3lFU/UehrPbeQqrI/AAAAAAAAAlQ/1wqmhipEOP4/s1600/ElaineHelena.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="197" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0dNGYbQ3lFU/UehrPbeQqrI/AAAAAAAAAlQ/1wqmhipEOP4/s320/ElaineHelena.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Price Center Executive Director Elaine Hagan (right) and graduate student Helena Chia.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>About the California
NanoSystems Institute</i>
<br />
The California
NanoSystems Institute is an integrated research facility located at
UCLA and UC Santa Barbara. Its mission is to foster interdisciplinary
collaborations in nanoscience and nanotechnology, to generate partnerships with
industry, and to contribute to the economic development and the social
well-being of California, the United States and the world. <br />
<br />
<i>About
the Harold and Pauline Price Center for Entrepreneurial Studies</i>
Celebrating its 25<sup>th</sup>
year, the Harold and Pauline Price Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at UCLA
Anderson School of Management is an internationally recognized leader in
entrepreneurial education and research. With a distinguished faculty as its
cornerstone, the Center works closely with UCLA Anderson’s outstanding MBA
students, alumni and the entrepreneurial community, overseeing activities that
advance the theory and practice of entrepreneurship as well as the related
fields of technology and innovation, venture capital and private equity, and
social enterprise. Well known for the impact of its outreach programs, the
Price Center fosters a spirit of innovation in individuals, enhances the
managerial capacity of organizations, and prepares entrepreneurial leaders who
will provide significant, sustainable and economic value to society.</div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5372237311358224961.post-42125875842741648842013-07-12T10:16:00.002-07:002013-07-12T10:16:34.638-07:00Napolitano to be the next president of the University of CaliforniaU.S. secretary of Homeland Security and former governor of Arizona Janet Napolitano has been nominated to be the next president of the University of California after Mark Yudof steps down in September. Read more <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-uc-president-20130712,0,83979.story">here</a>. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5372237311358224961.post-1824225917434427912013-07-08T10:07:00.003-07:002013-07-08T10:07:36.421-07:00The National Institutes of Health retires the majority of its chimpanzeesLast week the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that it was retiring most of its 360 chimpanzees that have been available for research. According to an article published in the July 5, 2013 issue of <i>Science</i>, only 50 chimpanzees will be supported, and those animals will be used mainly for behavioral or genomic research as opposed to invasive procedures.<br />
<br />
A new rule proposed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on June 11 may also change the status of captive chimpanzees from "threatened" to "endangered," thereby affecting privately funded research on chimpanzees.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5372237311358224961.post-31273301364615243472013-06-19T17:41:00.005-07:002013-06-19T17:42:15.468-07:00Congratulations to our Workstudy graduates!Congratulations to our five graduating Workstudy students! We hope your futures will be bright!<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uu88DUfFrPc/UcJPaqB7V2I/AAAAAAAAAjU/-f1U9YRDPNw/s1600/IMG_4720.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uu88DUfFrPc/UcJPaqB7V2I/AAAAAAAAAjU/-f1U9YRDPNw/s400/IMG_4720.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From left to right: Fernando Lopez, Michael Dickerson, Ada Chan, Miguel Guzman, and Erin Reyes</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5372237311358224961.post-36788605919743071612013-06-04T09:25:00.002-07:002013-06-04T10:02:25.075-07:00Mood Rhythm Team Wins Heritage Open mHealth Challenge<style>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6SD2Zp-WY54/Ua4U6LPCnQI/AAAAAAAAAiw/h41dcbv4i1E/s1600/HeritageOpenmHealthWinner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="250" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6SD2Zp-WY54/Ua4U6LPCnQI/AAAAAAAAAiw/h41dcbv4i1E/s400/HeritageOpenmHealthWinner.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pictured (from left to right): Fred Wells, Mark Matthews, Deborah Estrin, Mark Wagar, Stephen Voida, Saeed Abdullah, Ellen Frank, Tanzeem Choudhury</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Washington, D.C. – The winner
of the Heritage Open mHealth Challenge was announced today at Health
DataPalooza IV. Co-sponsored by Heritage Provider Network, Open mHealth, and
the University of California, Los Angeles, the challenge was created to
catalyze the development of mobile applications using an open architecture to
help them communicate with one another and function on multiple devices. The
winning team and recipient of the $100,000 prize created Mood Rhythm, a mobile
application (which runs on iOS and Android) developed to help patients with
bipolar disorder better monitor and analyze their daily rhythms and stay in
balance. </span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Launched in January of this
year, the Heritage Open mHealth Challenge encouraged the use of the Open
mHealth architecture to overcome limitations that typically arise when
dissimilar mobile health applications cannot communicate with one another.
Applications conforming to the open architecture increase the diversity and
utility of personalized health information available to improve chronic disease
management, both through better patient self-monitoring and better clinical
decision-making. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Teams were required to submit
a demo of their application, along with video footage of the app in action. To
ensure that applications would be developed with the end user in mind, each
team entering the challenge had to include at least one member with clinical
expertise and at least one participating user serving as a patient or a patient
surrogate. Teams were also encouraged to include development, design, and data
analysis experts. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">“The Challenge was a great opportunity to
encourage the development of shared platforms and the integration of different
tools. These are critical steps if we’re going to realize the potential of
mobile health technologies to improve health. Among several promising
applications, Mood Rhythm stood out because of its elegant approach to
collecting data in a way that can truly improve [the] ability of patients and
their doctors to make better decisions about treating bipolar disorder,” </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">said Dr. Brian Quinn, team director of the Pioneer
Portfolio and one of the Challenge judges. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Mood Rhythm takes advantage
of smartphones to track a patient’s daily routine and provides feedback to help
patients maintain a regular daily rhythm while incorporating this information
into clinical decision making. The application also uses sensors in the phone
to track sleep and social activity patterns, providing more information for
both patients and clinicians. The team is contributing a routine, sleep, and
sensing module to Open mHealth. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">“</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">Rhythms guide our lives,” said Dr. Tanzeem Choudhury, team leader
and Professor of Information Science at Cornell University. “Our biological
clocks tell us when we need to sleep, eat and wake. When these rhythms
are interrupted or obstructed, it can be difficult for our bodies to get what
they need to stay healthy and balanced.”</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">When asked what the impact of
Mood Rhythm might have on the community, Choudhury said, “</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">It is one of the greatest challenges in healthcare to develop
cutting edge technology that not only meets clinical needs but that can be
incorporated with ease into patients’ lives. The combination of automatic
sensing and self-tracking aims to provide long-term low-maintenance support for
people with bipolar disorder. The clinicians and patients who have used
MoodRhythm to date have found it to be an enormously valuable tool for
monitoring social rhythms and mood and for seeing the relationship between the
two. We feel this is due in large part to a balanced collaboration with
patients and clinicians acting as co-designers. The ongoing and close
involvement of this community will be essential—having their voices steering
the future development of MoodRhythm.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Along with Mood Rhythm, four
Challenge finalists were selected. ACEScreening provides hearing screening
technology for smartphones and other devices. IMPACT strives to improve
physical function, pain, and mobility in older obese adults with hip and/or
knee arthritis. Psychologist in a Pocket supports the treatment of
psychological disorders. Spiro Sano is an infrastructure for managing multiple
respiratory disease states, such as asthma and COPD and for supporting
beneficial behavioral changes such as smoking cessation and physical activity.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Common features of submitted
projects included the ability to record information in real time instead of
having to rely on memory at the end of the day, control over when and how much
information is provided to the doctor, and using sensing tools such as global
position systems and accelerometers to track social activity and other
behaviors.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">The judging panel for the
challenge included Deborah Estrin, Computer Science Professor and Co-Founder of
Open mHealth; Dr. Richard Merkin, CEO and Founder of the Heritage Provider
Network; Dr. David Feinberg, President of the UCLA Health System; former U.S.
Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra; Dr. Mark Smith, President and CEO of California
HealthCare Foundation; Anne Wojcicki, Co-Founder of 23andMe; Dr. Mark
McClellan, former administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid
Services and former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration; Karen
Ignagni, President and CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans; and Brian
Quinn, Team Director of Pioneer Portfolio.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">About HPN: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Heritage
Provider Network, Inc. (HPN) is on the cutting edge of the accountable care
model of healthcare delivery: coordinated, patient-doctor centric, integrated
health care systems that represent the future of health care in the United
States. HPN is dedicated to quality, affordable health care and putting
patients' wellness first. The collaborative mobile aps prize is one of a number
of competitions HPN is sponsoring in its ongoing efforts to spur innovations in
healthcare, including the $3million Heritage Health Prize Competition, and the
Institute of Medicine’s Go Viral for Health Prize. HPN is also in the process
of launching a number of other health related prizes. </span><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: ES-MX;">(</span><a href="http://www.heritageprovidernetwork.com/"><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: ES-MX;">www.heritageprovidernetwork.com</span></a><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: ES-MX;">) </span><br />
<br />
<span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: ES-MX;">Media Contact HPN: DC Media Group LA, Inc<br />
Janet Janjigian, </span><a href="mailto:janet@dcmediagroupla.com"><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: ES-MX;">janet@dcmediagroupla.com</span></a><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: ES-MX;"></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">About Open
mHealth:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Open mHealth is
non-profit startup building open software architecture to break down the
barriers in mobile health to integration among mHealth solutions and unlock the
potential for mHealth. Through a shared set of open APIs, both open and
proprietary software modules, applications and data can be ‘mixed and matched’,
and more meaningful insights derived through reusable data processing and
visualization modules. Enhanced integration at both module and application
levels allows products to be more nimbly adapted and customized to maximize
potential impact. Through an open community, we are working together to build
more effective mhealth solutions, drive innovation in healthcare evaluation,
and transform healthcare for all. Open mHealth is funded in part by the Robert
Wood Johnson Foundation. (</span><a href="http://openmhealth.org/"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">http://openmhealth.org/</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Media Contact
Open mHealth: Anna de Paula Hanika, </span><a href="mailto:anna@openmhealth.org"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">anna@openmhealth.org</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">About UCLA:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">UCLA is
California's largest university, with an enrollment of more than 40,000
undergraduate and graduate students. The UCLA College of Letters and Science
and the university's 11 professional schools feature renowned faculty and offer
337 degree programs and majors. UCLA is a national and international leader in
the breadth and quality of its academic, research, health care, cultural,
continuing education and athletic programs. Six alumni and six faculty have
been awarded the Nobel Prize. (</span><a href="http://www.ucla.edu/"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">http://www.ucla.edu/</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Media Contact
UCLA: Davin Malasarn, </span><a href="mailto:dmalasarn@cnsi.ucla.edu"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">dmalasarn@cnsi.ucla.edu</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5372237311358224961.post-716394769703913812013-04-16T18:16:00.000-07:002013-04-16T18:16:36.571-07:00Art|Sci Exhibition :: "Duality" by James K. Gimzewski<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #221e1f;"><span style="color: #221e1f; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">"Duality" is an Art|Sci manifestation of complexity emerging from a tiny network of billions of tiny self-assembled, self-organized, non-linear connections that materialize in time and space through holistic processes and which are a kinesthetic visualization of wandering in and out of the fuzzy borders of chaos and order. We use real networks, where the creator has given permission to its expanding and collapsing spatio-temporal morphogenic and often catastrophic dynamics. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #221e1f;"><span style="color: #221e1f; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">This project represents the transition in science and art from giving up on the clock to embrace a cloud in terms of Karl Popper’s important statement, "We live in a universe not of clocks but of clouds". In the laboatory, we build electro-ionic clouds. In the gallery, we let them self-create images, songs, and dance for this Art|Sci exhibit entitled "Duality". </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #221e1f;"><span style="color: #221e1f; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">It is the duality of the dark space between the known and unknown, determinism and surprise, mathematical form and fuzziness from which the atoms, electrons, and ions speak to the visitors without censorship. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: #221e1f;"><span style="color: #221e1f;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><em>James K. Gimzewski is a Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UCLA. His accomplishments include the first STM-manipulation of molecules at room temperature, the realization of molecular abacus using bucky balls, the discovery of single molecule rotors and the development of nanomechanical sensors based on nanotechnology, which explore the ultimate limits of sensitivity and measurement. His current interests within CNSI are in the nanoarchitectonics of molecular systems and molecular and biomolecular machines, in particular those with quantum mechanical possibilities for information processing. </em></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><strong>In Collaboration With:</strong> Henry Sillin, Audrius Avizienis & Huanqi "Franky" Zhu</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/artsci_ucla/8629244815/" title="IMG_2169 by ART SCI CENTER - UCLA, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_2169" height="375" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8119/8629244815_1a6c455610.jpg" width="500" /></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/artsci_ucla/8629245069/" title="IMG_2174 by ART SCI CENTER - UCLA, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_2174" height="375" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8546/8629245069_ac208f14da.jpg" width="500" /></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/artsci_ucla/8635828702/" title="DSC_3743 by ART SCI CENTER - UCLA, on Flickr"><img alt="DSC_3743" height="331" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8379/8635828702_ab79d8678f.jpg" width="500" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/artsci_ucla/8635809376/" title="P1200356 by ART SCI CENTER - UCLA, on Flickr"><img alt="P1200356" height="281" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8538/8635809376_beb0e661ec.jpg" width="500" /></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/artsci_ucla/8635809184/" title="P1200357 by ART SCI CENTER - UCLA, on Flickr"><img alt="P1200357" height="281" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8099/8635809184_6fb6e4955a.jpg" width="500" /></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/artsci_ucla/8635808940/" title="P1200358 by ART SCI CENTER - UCLA, on Flickr"><img alt="P1200358" height="281" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8262/8635808940_b42aafe53f.jpg" width="500" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/artsci_ucla/8635814148/" title="P1200301 by ART SCI CENTER - UCLA, on Flickr"><img alt="P1200301" height="281" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8546/8635814148_7f9ab08c04.jpg" width="500" /></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/artsci_ucla/8635811310/" title="P1200339 by ART SCI CENTER - UCLA, on Flickr"><img alt="P1200339" height="281" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8120/8635811310_b57353ffb7.jpg" width="500" /></a></div>
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<em><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>Photos by:</strong> Blanka Buic for the Art|Sci Center + Lab at UCLA</span></em></div>
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<em><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>Exhibition Date:</strong> April 4, 2013</span></em></div>
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Nikki Linhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02655879902654442853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5372237311358224961.post-6212073796439002342013-04-04T12:35:00.003-07:002013-04-04T12:42:38.906-07:00UCLA Researchers Collaborate in BRAIN Initiative<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">On April 2, 2013, President Obama announced the launch of the Brain Research through Advancing
Innovative Neurotechnologies project or BRAIN and his intent to help “get this
project off the ground” by proposing significant investment on this project by
the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation (NSF),
and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in the budget he will
send to Congress next week. The new initiative will focus on developing and
improving new technologies to better understand the human brain at both a basic
level and at an applied level. The project builds on an early proposal
published in<i> <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/339/6125/1284">Science</a></i> and co-authored by UCLA’s Paul Weiss, Director of
the California NanoSystems Institute, Fred Kavli Chair in NanoSystems Sciences,
and a distinguished professor in the departments of chemistry and biochemistry
and materials science and engineering, in which the program was called the
Brain Activity Map (BAM) project. </span>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"Top nanoscientists and
neuroscientists have come together to see how the substantial investment and
advances in nanoscience and nanotechnology can be used to measure the dynamic
chemical and voltage signals in neural circuits." Weiss says. "This project
will enable us to develop and to test new models to understand processes such
as learning and memory. We may also be able to shed light on what causes
neurological disorders when brains malfunction.</span>" </div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The
brain is made up of an estimated 85 billion neurons connected at 100 trillion
junctures called synapses that dynamically transmit signals in response to
external or internal stimulation. Neurons communicate using both electrical signals,
such as the movement of ions to create voltage gradients across cell membranes,
and chemical signals, such as the release of neurotransmitters like serotonin
that diffuse across synapses between neurons. Moreover, sets of neurons work
together in networks or neural circuits to carry out different brain processes
and to provide signaling feedback.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Understanding
how these signals interact will likely depend on understanding neurons, not at
the individual level, but at the circuit level. These circuits can involve as
many as millions of individual neurons, making them extremely challenging to
study. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This
challenge is where the BRAIN Project comes in. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">An
interdisciplinary group of nanoscience and neuroscience researchers from around
the country including Weiss; Anne Andrews, the Richard Metzner Endowed Chair in
Clinical Neuropharmacology, a Professor in the departments of psychiatry and
biobehavioral sciences and chemistry and biochemistry and member of CNSI and
the Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior; and Sotiris
Masmanidis, Assistant Professor in the department of neurobiology and CNSI
member, have been designing methods to create maps of brain activity that measure
and probe the chemical and electrical signals involved in brain circuits. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"This
work is what I came to UCLA to do,” says Masmanidis, an expert in the
development of microscale neural probes, “to develop nanoscale tools to probe
the network-level dynamics of the brain at small scales and high speeds. In
order to do this, we have to make many simultaneous measurements beyond what is
currently possible."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Unlike
other attempts to map the static architectures of the brain—the framework of
neurons and their connections—this effort will build on previous knowledge to focus
on the dynamic signals that navigate through that framework. In an interview by
<a href="http://io9.com/heres-how-obamas-brain-mapping-project-will-actually-5986161"><span style="color: windowtext;">io9</span></a>, George Church, a professor in the
department of genetics and the Wyss Institute at Harvard Medical School and co-author
of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Science</i> perspective, compared
the difference to studying the distribution of a city’s telephone wires versus studying
“where, when, and how those wires are transmitting messages.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"The
brain is a dynamic organ, a transducer between the body and the environment,
and as such it is constantly changing. To measure and to understand the dynamics
of the brain at a critical scale—looking simultaneously at the chemical,
physical and neurophysiological interaction among many thousands of neurons—is
a technically formidable challenge, for any perturbing analysis itself brings
further dynamic change. But we are beginning to assemble the tools that can
make such investigation possible and ultimately lead to better understanding of
disease and its treatment," says Peter Whybrow, Director of the Semel Institute
for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, Judson Braun Distinguished Professor and
Executive Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, and
Physician-in-Chief of the Stewart and Lynda Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital
at UCLA. "[BRAIN] is the compelling project for the science of our time."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The
project aims to provide valuable information that explains how actions,
thoughts, and emotions are controlled by the brain and seeks to shed light on
disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, depression, and schizophrenia. Chemical and
voltage activity maps could also enable scientists to develop new therapeutic
drugs for such disorders.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"Understanding
the interacting, dynamic chemistry of the brain is the key to understanding,
and eventually treating, diseases such as anxiety and depression," says
Andrews. "My group teamed up with nanoscientist Paul Weiss a decade ago in
order to see how we might develop new tools to reach the smaller and faster
time scales at which the action happens." </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The
timeliness of the initiative is based on the availability and coalescence of new
technology that will have a critical impact on the field. As the name of the
initiative implies, technology development will be a major driving force behind
the research. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">An
article describing the current and possible future technologies for the project
and how they will enable this endeavor was recently published in <a href="http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/nn4012847"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ACS Nano</i></a> by over two dozen co-authors including Andrews,
Masmanidis, Church, and Weiss, who is also the journal’s Editor-in-Chief.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"The
idea is to accelerate, by decades, the development and application of
technology to study the brain by bringing to bear the advances generated by the
major U.S. and international investments in nanotechnology over the last
decade," Weiss says.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Current
technology is capable of measuring either the electrical activity of a small number
of neurons at high resolution or of imaging the whole brain at relatively low-resolution,
but tools capable of working between those two extremes—focused on neural circuits—are
still in the early stages of development. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">As
described above, tiny probes are being designed that are capable of recording
electrical signals over three-dimensional space within the brain. Novel optical
tools are being combined with computational approaches to improve the precision
of neural imaging while also increasing the numbers of neurons that can be
visualized simultaneously. Wireless electronic circuits can be introduced into
neuronal networks to measure activity and to affect signaling without requiring
invasive surgery. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Additionally,
the work of Weiss and Andrews has been focused on uncovering the relationships
between neurotransmitters and their receptors, chemical interactions that have
required the development of novel strategies that take advantage of cutting
edge chemical patterning technology, which enables the researchers to precisely
position receptors in a way that is optimized to identify their binding partners.
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Experiments
will depend on the ability to work at micrometer and nanometer scales that will
enable the study of individual neural circuits, synapses between neurons, and
neurotransmitter receptors. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Comparisons
between the BRAIN project and the Human Genome Project have been drawn. The
Human Genome Project, formally begun in 1990 and coordinated by the U.S.
Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), energized researchers
and catalyzed discussion leading to new areas of investigation. The main goals
of the project were to identify all of the genes in human DNA and to determine
the sequences of the 3 billion chemical base pairs that make up human DNA. Approximately
$300 million per year was provided for the effort. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Likewise,
BRAIN offers a new opportunity for collaboration among the NIH, the NSF, and DARPA,
with room for participation from industry and foundations. If all goes well,
the return from the BRAIN project will rival the return—estimated by some to be
$140 for every $1 spent—coming from the Human Genome Project. The project will
also create additional jobs for individuals trained in multiple fields and
provide educational enrichment, both from a scientific standpoint and from a technology
training standpoint. Ethical implications of the research will also be
required, according to the White House.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"We
have a chance to improve the lives of, not just millions, but billions of
people on this planet through the research that’s done in this BRAIN initiative
alone,” Obama said in his announcement. “But it’s going to require a serious
effort, a sustained effort, and it’s going to require us as a country to embody
and embrace that spirit of discovery that is what made America <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">America</i>."</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Reprinted from the <a href="http://www1.cnsi.ucla.edu/news/item?item_id=2127564">CNSI website</a>.</span></i></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5372237311358224961.post-16856718075197665562013-03-14T12:57:00.003-07:002013-03-14T13:13:25.927-07:00Presentation Day for the Entrepreneurship for Science, Medicine, and Technology classThe <a href="http://cnsiblog.blogspot.com/2013/02/entrepreneurship-for-science-medicine.html">Entrepreneurship for Science, Medicine, and Technology class </a>comes to an end today with five student groups presenting their business ideas to colleagues and some distinguished guests.<br />
<br />
The new class was offered with support from the <a href="http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/centers/price">Price Center for Entrepreneurial Studies</a> in the UCLA Anderson School of Management and <a href="http://www1.cnsi.ucla.edu/index">CNSI</a>. For the last eight weeks, enthusiastic participants have learned about what it means to be an entrepreneur, including such topics as opportunity recognition, incorporation, calculating the total available market, risk, legal considerations, fundraising, and other topics. Almost all of the classes lasted longer than expected as questions about different scenarios were thrown to Professor George Abe, who has been doing a remarkable job of introducing a new world to our clinicians, scientists, and engineers. The students' hard work culminates with group presentations describing business plans based on their own technology.<br />
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We're expecting a good show!<br />
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Also, today in history, the Higgs boson shares the stage with Pope Francis on the front page of <a href="http://www.cnn.com/">CNN</a>:<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ub5VMzxRrks/UUItSdQI3jI/AAAAAAAAAgc/s8ouPH4rfLM/s1600/TodayInHistory.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="181" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ub5VMzxRrks/UUItSdQI3jI/AAAAAAAAAgc/s8ouPH4rfLM/s400/TodayInHistory.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5372237311358224961.post-7706982432637334652013-03-07T14:39:00.003-08:002013-03-07T14:39:41.133-08:00Ome Sweet OmeIn 1990, the Human Genome Project was launched, seeking to identifying the more than 20,000 genes in human DNA. But that was just the beginning of the new era of the "omes" in science.<br />
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Modern mass spectrometers are able to identify all of the proteins in a given sample of cells. This approach has been termed the "proteome."<br />
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And the analysis of all of a cell's metabolites has been fittingly termed the "metabolome." <br />
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The "-ome" suffix in modern molecular biology science means "all constituents considered collectively," and it has become more and more popular as new technology has enabled the pursuit of BIG science.<br />
<br />
Whereas molecular biological thesis projects used to be completed after the identification of a single gene, now the identification of tens of thousands of genes may only make up a single thesis chapter. Genomic studies can lead to transcriptomic studies (the identification of all transcribed genes) to proteomic studies, and so on. Researchers have moved beyond technical proficiency at the bench to also be able to understand the basics of computational biology and the field of bioinformatics.<br />
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In some recent published articles proposing the creation of brain activity maps as part of an initiative supported by the White House Office of Science and Technology, researchers focused on the brain will attempt to create "connectomes" the identification of all the neural connections in a given brain circuit.<br />
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Other "omes" are likely being collected in laboratories all around the world.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5372237311358224961.post-54573178552783086342013-02-15T09:54:00.001-08:002013-02-15T10:02:44.216-08:00Science Games OnlineHappy Friday, everyone!<br />
<br />
In case you haven't seen them, here are a few science games you can play online. The first few are part of a movement called "citizen science," where researchers are taking advantage of clever brains around the world to help answer scientific questions.<br />
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<a href="http://fold.it/portal/">Foldit</a>, asks players to help figure out optimal ways to fold proteins, a question that could help researchers predict how new proteins will fold, and thus how to create new enzymes. <br />
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<a href="http://fold.it/portal/"><img border="0" height="164" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0u2ljA7ytXQ/UR5xcr920dI/AAAAAAAAAfI/kEt-DKvCEGY/s320/FolditExample.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Interested in helping to diagnose malaria? Both <a href="http://www.malariaspot.org/">MalariaSpot</a> and <a href="http://biogames.ee.ucla.edu/">MOLT</a> (the latter developed by our very own Prof. Aydogan Ozcan) ask players to help identify malaria or malaria infected cells from images of blood samples. Researchers are hoping to leverage this talent and pool the results to help real patients who may not have access to adequate health care.<br />
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<a href="http://biogames.ee.ucla.edu/"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RTNKsMxib1c/UR50S7ajQAI/AAAAAAAAAfQ/e32njtz2s8E/s320/OzcanMOLT.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Lastly, <a href="http://www.nanooze.org/english/games.html">Nanocure</a>, is a game offered by <a href="http://www.nanooze.org/main/Nanooze/English.html">Nanooze</a>, a magazine to get kids excited about science. It involves setting up an immune system to defend against viral attacks. It's not as educational or as helpful as the others--unless you take the time to read the real virus information available on the site--but it's a lot of fun to play!<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com35tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5372237311358224961.post-90819705149011920392013-02-12T17:58:00.000-08:002013-02-13T14:42:17.435-08:00Summer 2013 :: CNSI's Nanoscience Lab for High School Students<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Registration has just begun for this year's <a href="http://www.summer.ucla.edu/institutes/Nanoscience/overview.htm" target="_blank">CNSI Nanoscience Lab</a>! This exciting summer workshop is geared towards high school students who have an interest in the sciences and provides a unique opportunity to explore questions similar to those currently investigated by the scientific community. This five day program teaches students the key concepts of nanoscale research with the use of fun and engaging scientific experiments, instrumentation trainings, and science and career mentorship. This program also carries 2 quarter units of UCLA course credit, and a limited number of full and partial scholarships are made available.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Due to a larger number of applicants than expected from last year's program, there will be two course sessions this year: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Session A:</strong> July 8-12</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The activities in the NanoScience Lab require a strong science foundation in chemistry, physics, and biology. The program is designed for students going into the 10th grade level or higher next school year, but 9th graders with exceptional scientific knowledge and the ability to work productively in teams are considered on a case by case basis. </span></div>
Nikki Linhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02655879902654442853noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5372237311358224961.post-78788043690491655952013-02-07T13:39:00.002-08:002013-02-07T13:39:37.930-08:00Entrepreneurship for Science, Medicine, and TechnologyRecently, CNSI started a new experiment. In partnership with the Price Center for Entrepreneurial Studies in the UCLA Anderson School of Management, the Institute offered the "Entrepreneurship for Science, Medicine, and Technology" course geared toward research scientists, medical practitioners, and engineers who want to learn more about the business side of technology transfer and entrepreneurship. <br />
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One of CNSI's most important goals is to encourage university collaborations with industry and enable the rapid commercialization of discoveries. To help meet this goal, the Institute is developing a multi-prong approach that will support its community regardless of where its members are in their career or their past experience with industry. The class, taught by Anderson Lecturer George Abe, strives to educate people with little or no experience with the entrepreneurial space, and, judging from the enthusiastic participation in the first two classes, people definitely want this information. The last class focused on issues such as incorporating your business and benefit packages, and Abe's 2-hour lecture was constantly interrupted with interesting questions and scenarios (many of them surrounding a hypothetical lemonade stand founded by the students in the front row). The group also happily skipped the midway break in the hopes of covering all of the week's material in time.<br />
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An important component of the course will be group work to develop product pitches for the class and possible guests. Already, students have offered up their own technology, and teams are forming for the first elevator pitch session happening next week.<br />
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If successful, the class may be offered again in the future. <br />
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Stay tuned!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5372237311358224961.post-57215533744974687392013-02-05T15:17:00.001-08:002013-02-05T15:21:18.080-08:00The EnGen Roadshow :: NSF-IGERT Clean Energy for Green Industry Graduate Fellowship Program<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font: 13px/17px arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><em><strong>The NSF-IGERT CGI graduate fellowship program at UCLA and the California NanoSystems Institute present the EnGen Roadshow, energy education for Los Angeles area high schools:</strong></em></span></div>
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<strong>About:</strong> The Clean Energy for Green Industry IGERT (CGI) at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is designed to train U.S. Ph.D. scientists and engineers for leadership roles in the clean energy sector--university-industry-government. Emphasis is placed on economic expansion through transformational research, new business, highly trained workforce development, equity and inclusion. The Clean Green IGERT addresses the urgent societal challenge of meeting increasing energy needs without further negatively affecting the environment. Meeting this challenge requires a revitalized energy production and delivery infrastructure in which innovative and commercially viable energy harvesting, storage, and conservation solutions are developed in concert. The development of such solutions is only feasible through university-industry-government partnerships with highly-skilled, broadly-educated, globally-minded leadership. Such partnerships have high potential for economic development in urban areas primed for growth in this sector, with a well-trained workforce, a supportive government and visionary industrial foundations.</div>
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The Clean Green IGERT at UCLA will establish new programs, networks and relationships that do not currently exist, and will invoke enduring impact on UCLA campus and local Los Angeles community. The Clean Green IGERT program will support economic development in the Los Angeles basin accomplished by launching new businesses through UCLA spin-offs and transfer innovative technology to existing business. We will also educate a local workforce primed for cleangreen science, policy and business. In the community, we will provide education and awareness to K-12 students on clean-energy issues, science and careers. We have placed significant emphasis on equity and inclusiveness in the Clean Green fellowship ranks and green industry workforce addressed by aggressive, mentoring and retention objectives. These programs will increase minority applicant pool at UCLA, increase participation in underrepresented students in this topical area of clean energy and create new jobs especially in Los Angeles.</div>
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One of the unique strategies of this IGERT program is its specific emphasis on local green industry and workforce development. Their goal is three-fold: first to provide a highly trained, culturally diverse and globally-minded clean-energy workforce, second to introduce new green industry jobs in our local community through new business development and third is to provide existing companies with new solutions generated by close industry-university collaborations. Exposing science and engineering students to the culture of IP generation, business development, energy policy, providing training and support for these endeavors and providing interaction with local business and government, accomplish these goals.</div>
</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font: 13px/17px arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">To learn more, visit: <a href="http://cleanenergy.ucla.edu/">http://cleanenergy.ucla.edu/</a></span>
Nikki Linhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02655879902654442853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5372237311358224961.post-41911840318023228482013-02-01T09:56:00.003-08:002013-02-01T09:56:52.412-08:00Mobilizing medicine through mHealthIn many ways, our mobile phones know more about us than our doctors do. They know who we talk to. They know what we've seen. They know where we are, where we've been, and sometimes where we're going. Now, people involved in the healthcare industry are trying to figure out ways to take advantage of our mobile phone's knowledge of us to improve patient care.<br />
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<b>Mobile Health</b><br />
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The recent movement to use mobile devices to support medical care and public health is called "mobile health" or "mHealth." Developers are figuring out ways to help patients monitor such things as their stress levels, their physical activity, their cigarette cravings, and their adherence to medication routines. Patients no longer need to rely on their memories at the end of the day or at their latest doctor's appointment to report on these experiences. Instead, they can enter reports easily and immediately throughout the day. A few of these tools include: <a href="http://www.bodymedia.com/">BodyMedia FIT</a> or <a href="http://www.fitbit.com/">Fitbit</a> systems, both of which can track your physical activity, sleep, and caloric intake. Glucometers allow people to monitor their blood sugar levels at home. <a href="http://www.fiercemobilehealthcare.com/story/smartphone-app-could-ease-home-monitoring-lung-ailments/2012-09-20">Some smartphone apps and devices</a> can even monitor diseases such as asthma or COPD by relying on built-in microphones or attachments. mHealth strategies are also helping to improve care in low- and
middle-income countries, helping deal with pregnancies or diseases such
as HIV/AIDS. <br />
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<b>Who will see this information?</b><br />
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A concern among potential users is who will see this information. Self-reports can instantly be correlated to a person's location, perhaps revealing more than what was intended.<br />
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Does a person want her doctor to know that she was out drinking at 4 a.m.?<br />
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Does a patient want his therapist to know that he hasn't been taking his anti-depression medication?<br />
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Many developers are keeping privacy matters in mind, assuring that the data is seen only by the user and others the user allows access to. At the same time, they would like to be able to strike a balance in data collection if at all possible. After all, the collected information from millions of people with multiple diseases could provided extremely valuable information for research purposes. <br />
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The field of mHealth has been quickly gaining popularity. The second mHealth Summit, organized by HiMSS media, The Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, mHealth Alliance, and The National Institutes of Health, hosted (tens of) thousands of people in 2012. And, UCLA is co-sponsoring the <a href="http://heritagechallenge.openmhealth.org/heritage/">Heritage Open mHealth Challenge</a> with Heritage Network Provider and Open mHealth. The challenge will award $100,000 to a team proposing the best app to help manage clinical conditions. With so many great minds working on this new face of healthcare, it will be interesting to see how the field develops over the next few years.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5372237311358224961.post-9123229096619442882013-01-30T12:46:00.001-08:002013-01-30T15:04:23.494-08:00Interview :: UCLA's Society of Postdoctoral Scholars (SoPS)<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">CNSI has recently become acquainted with the Society of Postdoctoral Scholars (SoPS) over the past year. Starting out as an endeavour by the Office of Postdoctoral and Visiting Scholar Services in 2004, CNSI researchers Greg Pawin and Shelley Claridge joined forces with the group more recently and our involvement has grown immensely as have their activities and resources. CNSI bloggers spoke with Greg Pawin and current SoPS President Xue Hua to learn more about SoPS and its offerings to the UCLA Campus. This valuable resource is surely an effort we'd like to help spread the word about, so read below and find out more at the <a href="https://www.postdoc.ucla.edu/" target="_blank">SoPs Website</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3e003f; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"><span style="color: black;"><b><i>What kind of resources and/or events does SoPS offer?</i></b></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3e003f; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"><span style="color: black;">In a way, we at SoPS like to think of ourselves as serving as the compass for postdocs who feel lost at sea, which is a common sentiment due to the grey status they have between that of a student/staff/or faculty. It's a time of transition yet academics are spending more and more time in it. In the meantime, postdocs are trying to gain experience running a lab, fortifying their CVs with publications, figuring out their future careers, and possibly have a family. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We hope we can make all of that a little easier and possibly take one step further and prepare postdocs for routes for unexpected career paths outside of academia, which is why we have been pushing for more entrepreneurship related workshops. In addition to our extensive series of career development seminars and workshops, we hold informational events for more mundane yet daunting hurdles for postdocs, like how to pay their taxes or renew their visas. We have also been trying to expand on the number and type of socials that we hold, including hikes, monthly socials, and coffee hours. However, we are lacking in family friendly events, which is why we're trying to bring back the yearly BBQ.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><i><b>What is the relationship of SoPS to the Grad Division, and also the rest of campus?</b></i><br />The SoPS is an advisory committee to the Office of Postdoctoral and Visiting Scholar Services, which is in turn a part of Graduate Division, which supplies us with a yearly budget with which we are able to fund our informational seminars, socials, and other myriad of activities. We have sponsored events with various other organizations on campus, especially on career development oriented seminars and workshops. We probably work with CNSI on a most regular basis due to our alignment of interests and very helpful staff.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><br /><i><b>What discipline does the current group mainly come from, and what diversity in the group do you hope to create?</b></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fortunately, we're comprised of all types of disciplines, including those from the physical sciences, medical school, and humanities. Ideally, it would be nice if we were perfectly representative in every way to the postdoc population; in race, gender, discipline, marital status, and number of offspring. Understandably, we are lacking in members with children and there is a need for someone to represent their needs. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3e003f; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"><i><b>Who are the key players of UCLA SoPS? How is the group organized?</b></i></span><span style="color: #3e003f; font-family: 'MS Mincho';"><i><b> </b></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">SoPS is comprised of the president, who is currently Xue Hua, and various committee chairs, each in charge of: advocacy, career development, treasury, communications, entrepreneurship and business development, social and outreach activities; and each staffed by postdocs who volunteer their time to organize events for the postdoc community. It's a very egalitarian organization, where all positions are vice-president positions aside from the president. Due to the transient nature of the postdocs, we are constantly looking for new members to join the team. If you are interested in helping with one of our many programs currently in place or have ideas you would like to share about helping us grow, please feel free to email <a href="mailto:president@postdoc.ucla.edu" target="_blank">president@postdoc.ucla.edu</a>.</span><br />
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<i><b>What are the short term, and long term goals of the Society?</b></i>Our short term goals are to expand the number and types of events that we offer. We would like to offer more entrepreneurship seminars and business meet-and-greet type events to get postdocs to become more business savvy so they can adapt to the changing job climate. We would also like to expand our social activities and build a stronger postdoc community. These goals are all for the long term vision of a vibrant, self-sustaining postdoc community that helps its members succeed and flourish in all their future endeavors long after their stints as postdocs.<br />
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<i><b>What (if any) is the relationship between CNSI and SoPS?</b><b><br /></b></i>As previously hinted to earlier, SoPS is very fortunate enough to have very similar goals to those in charge of career development and education at CNSI, which has a dedicated and experienced staff for organizing and hosting these events. We work very closely with Jia Ming Chen on a series of career development seminars and workshops and are constantly on the lookout for more speakers and future events. Everyone on the staff who is involved are very committed and supportive of our events, so much so that we also hold our monthly socials there. Also, it doesn't hurt that CNSI is one of the nicer buildings to host events in.<br />
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<i><b>Are there any upcoming events that we can tell our readers about? </b></i></div>
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In addition to our monthly socials, pub nites, hikes, and career development seminars that all can be found on our website: </div>
</span><a href="http://www.postdoc.ucla.edu/" target="_blank"><span style="color: purple; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">www.postdoc.ucla.edu</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, we will be hosting a vendor show at CNSI on February 14th, Valentine's Day.</span>
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Nikki Linhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02655879902654442853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5372237311358224961.post-47066506940385583022013-01-22T16:49:00.000-08:002013-01-22T16:51:18.685-08:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The Third Culture: Science, Art & Ideas: Dr. Adam Stieg at TEDxYouth@Conejo </h3>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A talk from <a href="mailto:TedxYouth@Conejo">TedxYouth@Conejo</a> by Adam Stieg, who </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">currently serves as Scientific Director of the <a href="http://www1.cnsi.ucla.edu/nanopicolab/" target="_blank">Nano and Pico Characterization Core Facility</a> at CNSI and Director of the <a href="http://summer.artscicenter.com/" target="_blank">UCLA Sci|Art NanoLab</a>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">His research focuses on the design and application of physical methods toward development of an integrated understanding of matter at the interfaces of traditionally defined boundaries. Numerous ongoing, collaborative efforts involve the study of molecular machines, nanoparticles for targeted drug delivery, inorganic carbon-based materials, directed stem cell differentiation and the pursuit of physically intelligent systems through neuromorphic computation. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Since 2003, he has collaborated with artists in a variety of projects, installations, and public exhibitions that provide inspiration and motivation for bringing the power of such creative approaches to the forefront of education. </span></div>
Nikki Linhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02655879902654442853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5372237311358224961.post-19968671884102939382013-01-17T11:27:00.001-08:002013-01-29T09:39:07.337-08:00Will "Publish or Perish" become "Tweet or Perish"?The dissemination of research data has transformed dramatically in recent years, thanks to both the ability to collect larger datasets (think transcriptomics, participatory sensing, and high resolution imaging) and multiple online platforms that researchers now have access to (online journals...or blogging and Twitter). In at least <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2010/12/this_paper_should_not_have_been_published.html">one case</a>, the opportunity to get news out fast has even taken priority over the peer review process. Given these different opportunities and outlets, how do researchers decide the best way to share their findings?<br />
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On Monday (Jan. 14, 2013), CNBC reporter Jane Wells came to CNSI to talk about the evolution of business news. Her very entertaining presentation — she's the perfect combination of funny and intelligent — opened with a short video clip showing how her own reports have changed over her 31-year career. Wells then shared a report from 2007, where she covered the beginning of the housing bubble burst, which included footage of a realtor, a buyer, a neighbor, and a former homeowner and compared it to a more recent and shorter report that showed Rick Santelli ranting against the Obama administration's handling of the home mortgage crisis — an example of the type of news that gets more attention these days.<br />
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Wells said she was at CNSI to talk about "how [her] job is changing and how technology is changing it." Reporters have had to evolve, she said. "We have to be shorter, and we have to be louder. Sometimes really loud." And, "[we] have to be on all platforms."<br />
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While the needs of a television station news reporter and a researcher are distinct in many ways, both groups want their work to be visible, relevant, and broadly viewed. Accordingly, scientists have migrated to online platforms to share their work and the work of others as well.<br />
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And, while some forums, such as Twitter, may limit the amount of information that can be shared, the internet also serves as a repository for supplemental information — sometimes <i>a lot</i> of supplemental information — that can accompany and enrich published articles in print journals. This can benefit the global community and integrate goals so that they can be reached much sooner. The value of additional online space is also evident for Wells, who has been able to post full interviews online to complement the much shorter snippets that are allowed on TV.<br />
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"Things that can't get on the air can get out elsewhere," said Wells.<br />
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From the audience's point of view, the challenge arising from these new outlets for information will, of course, be figuring out which news, scientific or otherwise, is believable. Luckily, the world is training itself to sort through massive amounts of information every day. <br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5372237311358224961.post-45973017656906643952013-01-15T15:27:00.000-08:002013-01-15T15:28:15.209-08:00The UCLA NanoSystems Seminar Series Resumes..<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After a bit of a hiatus, the CNSI NanoSystems Seminar Series resumes this week with a lecture by Prof. Ron Naaman from The Weizmann Institute of Science. This lecture is co-sponsored by the Division of Physical Chemistry and acts as a breath of fresh air as the newly revamped series is introduced to our CNSI Members & the UCLA Campus. Those who are familiar with the lecture series might be aware that there have been over a decade of activities surrounding this staple of the CNSI community since 2002. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">In the early days, these lectures were held in La Kretz Hall next door to what would soon become the CNSI Building. At the time, there might have been the beginnings of a large excavated hole in the ground that participants curiously walked by to reach the talks and the question of "What is nano?" could be heard frequently around south campus. Receptions were held in the nearby Life Sciences building, in a somewhat hidden location that gave way to long lines and hours of friendly chatter nonetheless. This was a time when hopes were high, interests in nano research were just peaking, and a small group of faculty was just beginning to form what would become the first generation of CNSI members.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">While the CNSI construction site was in full swing, students and their professors would look through mysterious fencing and scaffolding at the new building's construction, and the talks became more notable with Nobel laureates and well known researchers making frequent appearances. At one point in 2007, the quarterly poster for the series was spotted by the art department for a then little known television series, "The Big Bang Theory" and still appears during each episode today. A few months later, CNSI's doors finally opened and the buzz of research began.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Through many changes over the years and the inevitable growing pains that come with, the Series reflected these evolving courses of direction in research in the way of talk topics. As nano research evolved, so did the institute and, with a faltering state budget in the background, there were unfortunately some tough days on the horizon. In the midst of financial crises, the series fell silent in late 2011 due to a lack of resources and staffing, but with the helpful and constant encouragement of those same CNSI Members who gathered so many years ago, along with several of their newer colleagues - the series starts anew this Winter.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The lectures will take place on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of each month, and will feature external speakers as well as talks from CNSI Members. The intention is to create opportunities for member engagement once again, and to create a collaborative dialogue. As well, we hope to increase awareness of the evolving capabilities of the CNSI Core Labs, and the growing collaborations amongst our members and partners. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span>Nikki Linhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02655879902654442853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5372237311358224961.post-64935265513504124272013-01-07T12:44:00.000-08:002013-01-15T15:19:46.377-08:002013Happy New Year from The California NanoSystems Institute! We hope all you researchers and fellow supporters of science and technology have a wonderful 2013.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0