Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina people and programs cited recently in the media:
International Coverage
Bath salts crackdown as 90 arrested and 5million packets of synthetic narcotics seized after wave of drug-fueled attacks
The Daily Mail (United Kingdom)
… Dr Carl Malanga, of the University of North Carolina, explained: 'One of the unique features of ICSS is that all drugs of abuse, regardless of how they work pharmacologically, do very similar things to ICSS: they make ICSS more rewarding.' Results of the Behavioural Brain Research study showed cocaine increased the ability of mice to be rewarded by self-stimulation and mephedrone did the same.
UNC Release: http://news.unchealthcare.org/news/2012/july/bath-salts
Small breakthroughs offer big hope of AIDS 'cure'
The Daily Star (Lebanon)
… A third study on how a cancer drug helped purge HIV from the cells of patients was described by lead researcher David Margolis of the University of North Carolina. Researchers used the chemotherapy drug vorinostat to revive and so unmask latent HIV in the CD4+ T cells of eight trial patients who were also taking antiretroviral drugs to stop the virus from multiplying.
UNC Release: http://globalhealth.unc.edu/2012/07/pioneering-study-shows-drug-can-purge-dormant-hiv/
Related Link: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/science/Now-a-cancer-drug-to-flush-out-dormant-HIV/articleshow/15179196.cms
National Coverage
AIDS research renews hope for a ‘functional cure’
The Washington Post
…The researchers steered clear of using the word “cure.” “We are very careful about what we say,” said David Margolis of the University of North Carolina. “But you cannot argue about the value of the goal.”
UNC Release: http://globalhealth.unc.edu/2012/07/pioneering-study-shows-drug-can-purge-dormant-hiv/
Related Links: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/07/26/157444649/two-more-nearing-aids-cure-after-bone-marrow-transplants-doctors-say
http://www.forbes.com/sites/robwaters/2012/07/26/possible-cure-in-two-more-aids-patients-as-research-momentum-grows/
Looking into the future
The Economist
…Once such group, led by David Margolis of the University of North Carolina, uses an established anticancer drug called vorinostat as the wake-up call. This drug activates quiescent cells by tweaking the proteins that wrap their DNA. Dr Margolis’s latest results, announced to the conference and published simultaneously in Nature, suggest vorinostat does indeed awaken dormant memory cells, though the experiment did not ask whether that can in turn lead to the elimination of the virus.
Chapel Hill Faculty Panel Calls for Outside Review of Athletics and Academic Issues
The Chronicle of Higher Education
A special faculty committee that looked into an academic-fraud scandal at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is calling for an independent commission of outside experts to review the relationship between athletics and education at the university, The News & Observer reported.
Related Links: http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2012/07/27/chapel-hill-faculty-report-seeks-review-athletics
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/story/2012-07-26/North-Carolina-faculty-review-athletics-academics/56518718/1
Regional Coverage
Researchers report hopeful HIV treatment
The Boston Globe
…Dr. David Margolis, an HIV researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said the Boston cases could drive new interest in research for a cure, much like Brown’s case did. “You want to see it happen more than once and at least begin to understand how it happened,” Margolis said.
UNC Release: http://globalhealth.unc.edu/2012/07/pioneering-study-shows-drug-can-purge-dormant-hiv/
State and Local Coverage
UNC-CH to invest in Northside study
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
UNC-Chapel Hill will spend $210,000 to help protect a historically black community from too many students moving in. The university announced Thursday that it will seek ways to promote affordable, single-family housing and save the history of the Northside neighborhood, which stretches along West Rosemary Street downtown to Carrboro.
UNC Release: http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/5458/68/
Related Link: http://heraldsun.com/bookmark/19590398
UNC’s Kenan Institute to launch $1.6M economic development initiative
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
The Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will launch a $1.6 million center to promote business growth and job creation in eastern North Carolina.
UNC Release: http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/5452/107/
Report asks for outside experts to review UNC scandal
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
As was expected, a report by a three-member subcommittee of the UNC Faculty Executive Committee recommends that the university ask an outside panel of higher education experts to look into the academic fraud charges in the African and Afro-American Studies Department.
Related Links: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/07/26/2223477/unc-chapel-hill-faculty-calls.html
http://www.wral.com/news/education/story/11359190/
Was Nyang'oro in Africa during last summer's no-show class at UNC?
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The first clue of no-show classes at UNC-Chapel Hill came when rival N.C. State fans in early July 2011 found plagiarism in a Swahili paper by a former football player. The paper listed Julius Nyang'oro as the professor.
Related Links: http://chapelboro.com/pages/13822696.php?
http://www2.nbc17.com/news/2012/jul/26/unc-study-finds-lack-communication-between-athleti-ar-2466879/
UNC ranks 4th when it comes to Olympic tradition
NBC-17
The University of North Carolina is considered one of the top universities in the country when it comes to the Olympics. According to Olympic U, UNC ranks 4th on the list of top ten schools. UNC has produced two of the greatest Olympic athletes of all time, Michael Jordan and Mia Hamm.
Ackland store reopens today
The Chapel Hill Herald
Monday, June 18 was a bad day at the Ackland Museum Store. Alice Southwick, who manages the store, was in a meeting when one of the employees interrupted to say that water was gushing up out of the kitchen sink and through the drinking fountain drain. … The store is now set to reopen Friday, July 27, and the two exhibitions, Earthly Delights featuring pottery by Joseph Sand, and textiles by Sondra Dorn, will be on view again. The dates of those exhibitions have been extended to Aug. 10.
UNC Release: http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/5454/66/
Issues and Trends
Questions about how presidents rank institutions are raising eyebrows
Inside Higher Ed
In the bottom left corner of envelopes that have been arriving at university presidents' offices this week are the words, in bold: "U.S. News and World Report Peer Assessment Survey Participant."
Nelms’ retirement announcement stuns NCCU
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Charlie Nelms stunned the N.C. Central University community Thursday by announcing that he was stepping down as chancellor after five years of leading the school. “It came as a real surprise,” said Dwight Perry, chairman of the NCCU Board of Trustees, who said he learned about Nelms’ decision about a week ago.
From $171M, Raleigh fund crashes at zero
The Triangle Business Journal
Belltower Advisors, a home-grown hedge fund that borrows its name from the iconic clock structure on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus, has shuttered its doors. Co-founder Mark Corigliano, who now teaches graduate courses at UNC-CH’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, confirmed the closure. “We had one large client that decided to reallocate,” says Corigliano, declining to identify the client.