Plans are progressing nicely for IACCBT's second annual fall conference
to be held September 27-28, 1996, at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar
Rapids. Two excellent speakers have agreed to participate, several field
trips are being scheduled along with a campus tour, and a number of workshops
and presentations will be offered. Add to that plenty of good food, time
to network with colleagues and make new acquaintances, plenty of learning
opportunities, and we think that this will be a great conference.
Mary J. R. Gilchrist, PhD, Director of the Hygienic Laboratory at the University
of Iowa, will kick off the conference on Friday morning with her presentation
on "The Impact of Emerging Antibiotic Resistant Microorganisms on Public
Health." Dr. Gilchrist is a well-known epidemiologist and has presented
at scientific meetings all over the country. Her topic is both timely and
important.
On Friday afternoon conference participants may choose to follow one of
two tracks: 1) go on a field trip, or, 2) attend concurrent learning sessions.
You may choose from one of these three field trip locations: the MacBride
Raptor Center and Raptor Hospital, the recently uncovered fossils at the
Coralville Reservoir, or the University Hygienic Laboratory in Iowa City.
The concurrent learning sessions will feature a workshop on using the Internet,
demonstration of A.D.A.M. software for A & P, and several lab sessions.
You may also choose to go on a tour of Kirkwood's campus during the afternoon.
Prior to our Friday evening banquet, we hope you'll plan to meet for wine
and cheese and then have a look at some of the poster presentations that
will be displayed. Following the banquet, Jeffrey C. Murray, MD, will be
the featured evening speaker. His topic will be "The Ethics of Human
Genome Research." Dr. Murray is professor of pediatrics at the U of
I and is principal investigator of the Cooperative Human Linkage Center.
He is affiliated with the Human Genome Project and has done extensive field
work in the Philippines as part of a volunteer medical group that performs
surgery on children born with facial and other malformations. We think his
presentation will be one of the highlights of our conference.
Saturday morning will offer a number of workshops and presentations by our
members on a variety of topics.
If you would like to present a lab session or other workshop, or present
material via poster session, please contact the chairperson of the fall
conference, Gary Donnermeyer, at 319-398-5450. There are still a number
of presentation spots open -- we'd like your input!
Please mark your calendars -- registration information will be sent to you
in late April. We think this second annual conference will be a great one!
This past year Project BIO at Iowa State University has continued to
assist community college biology instructors in communicating with each
other and has also served as a resource for teaching excellence and innovation.
Tom Ingebritsen reminds us that if you're not yet connected to the internet
at your community college but you do have a computer, Project BIO can help
pay for your connection to an on-line service such as America Online and
may also be able to help you with obtaining a modem. Any faculty member
who would like some assistance in connecting to the internet for e-mail
and world wide web access should contact Tom at 515-294-9432 (e-mail address
is tsingebr@iastate.edu).
In February the Project BIO homepage was launched (http://biotech.zool.iastate.edu/Project_BIO/Homepage.html).
If you haven't yet visited this site, please do so and check out all of
the accessible information, including the names of biology faculty at ISU
and at the community colleges, and catalogue and syllabus information about
our biology courses. If there are additions or corrections to be made to
the information given for your community college, please contact Tom.
The Project BIO seminar series is continuing this semester, and the seminars
are now available at the Project BIO web site, where slides used in the
presentations can be downloaded along with an audio explanation of each.
The seminar series includes presentations on advancements in biology research
as well as in biology education. Bernie White is organizing the series and
would like community college biology faculty interested in presenting a
seminar to contact him (e-mail address is bjwhite@iastate.edu
or by phone at 515-294-7713).
Project BIO is also beginning an exciting program that will offer biology
courses via the internet with connection sites at each of our community
colleges. Watch for more news about this and other Project BIO accomplishments
in further issues of our newsletter.
Here's a short list of upcoming dates for biology-related conferences
and meetings. If you know of any others coming up in 1996 or in 1997, please
send the pertinent info to Mary Lou Lauer, IACCBT NEWS Editor (e-mail address
is mllauer@aol.com), for publication
in the next issue.
Human Anatomy & Physiology Society Regional Meeting
Date: April 12-13, 1996
Site: Hawkeye Community College,
Waterloo, IA
More info? Call: 319-296-2320,
Extension 1468
Date: Friday, April 26, 1996
Site: Kirkwood Community College, CR
More info? Call: 319-398-5693
Date: May 19-23, 1996
Site: New Orleans, LA
More info? (http://www.asmusa.org)
Date: September 27-28, 1996
Site: Kirkwood Community College
in Cedar Rapids, Iowa
More info? Call: 319-398-5450, registration info will be out in April
Date: October 20-23, 1996
Site: Iowa State University, Ames, IA
More info? Call: 515-294-8417
In this new section of our newsletter we'll call attention to our members
who have recently been "in the news" for their accomplishments.
If you know of any IACCBT member who should be noted in this column please
send the information to the newsletter editor for publication in the next
edition.
Terry Brase, Animal Science Instructor at Hawkeye Community College
in Waterloo, was recently funded for an NSF grant. Terry's grant is entitled,
"Development of a Two-Year Associate Degree in Agricultural Technology."
Terry will be planning and testing an innovative curriculum linking agriculture,
business, and technology.
Johanna Kruckeberg, our IACCBT Secretary and Associate Professor
of Anatomy and Physiology at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids,
won an Exxon Education Award for her paper entitled, "An Interdisciplinary
Honors Course Explores the Scientific, Ethical, and Historial Aspects of
Genetics." Johanna presented her paper at the Genetics Revolution Conference
in Dallas this past March.
Terri Rogers, Instructor at Hawkeye Community College in Waterloo,
was recently selected as HCC's Outstanding Part-time Employee. Terri is
a part-time faculty member of Academic Support and the Agriculture and Natural
Resources department.
In this issue of our newsletter we'll take a closer look at some of the
newest and most helpful web sites for community college biology instructors.
If there are sites that you have found helpful to you in your teaching,
please let us know and we'll print them in the next edition of our newsletter.
Have you ever tried to look up information about the community colleges
in the United
States and found that you didn't know where to begin? Two very helpful web
sites to find community college information are:
1) The League for Innovation in the Community College (http://www.league.org)
2) American Association of Community Colleges (http:www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/cc/)
Despite significant advances in diagnostics, surgical procedures, chemotherapy,
radiation, and biological therapeutics, cancer looms as the number one killer
of the future.
An increasingly important alternative is the delivery of therapeutic molecules
via smaller, regional doses to a tumor site. With the Accell gene gun, Agracetus,
Inc., has developed a technology that can provide such delivery.
Gene guns work by a unique combination of physics and biology. Developed
first for use in plants where sturdy cell walls prevented conventional gene
transfer, the gene gun has now been modified to gently catapult DNA-laden
micron-sized gold particles into mammalian target cells.
Key advantages for gene guns in biological cancer treatments emanate from
three product attributes. First is the ability to point and deliver localized,
intracellular therapy. A common downside to many current treatments is that
they affect both tumor cells and normal cells. The gene gun can, however,
deliver the gene therapy only to tumor cells or other cells nearby.
Second, as millions of particles are delivered per treatment, a multivalent
approach to therapy can be used. Studies have shown that gene gun delivery
of both interleukin-2 and gamma interferon genes cured 25 percent of the
mice that had been infected with lethal tumors.
Third, the Accell device has a user-friendly design for outpatient, surgical,
or cell therapy applications. The gun can administer the thera- peutic compound
within seconds into any cell type in any tissue at any depth and at any
potency.
As more immune enhancement genes are discovered, Agracetus, using the Accell
gene gun, expects to play an instrumental role in advancing them to clinical
utility.
(This copyrighted article first appeared in the Jan-Feb '96 issue of
Wisconsin BioIssues and is reprinted here with permission from U of WI Biotechnology
Center.)