UCLA assistant professor of nursing heads program to increase physical activity among Los Angeles youth.

Kynna Wright-Volel, UCLA

Funded by a $1.2 million grant, Kynna Wright-Volel, Ph.D., R.N., F.A.A.N., assistant professor and Robert Wood Johnson Nurse Faculty Scholar at the UCLA School of Nursing, and the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) are launching Project SHAPE LA, a coordinated school-health program to increase physical activity among youth in Los Angeles County schools.

Project SHAPE LA targets 24 middle schools in underserved areas of Los Angeles and will touch nearly 12,000 students.

“As a pediatric nurse practitioner, I see the health consequences when children are overweight or obese; however, the clinic visit is but one part of the solution,” said Wright-Volel. “Research shows that school-based programs that are supported by collaborations among universities, schools, businesses and parents can decrease obesity and obesity-related behavior. We believe that Project SHAPE LA will do just that!”

According to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, one in five children in the LAUSD are considered obese. Obesity during childhood has immediate consequences, including hypertension, high cholesterol and the development of metabolic syndrome, as well as psychosocial problems such as low self-esteem and poor body image. Childhood obesity, if left unchecked into adulthood, can lead to a variety of chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease and certain types of cancer, including breast and colon.

“This is an important component of an overall strategy for improving the health and well-being of our community, which includes physical activity, improved nutrition and nutrition education, and health education,” said Rene Gonzalez, assistant superintendent of student health and human services for the LAUSD.

Engaging in regular physical activity is widely accepted as an effective preventative measure. Project SHAPE LA (Shaping Health for Adolescents through Physical/Nutrition Education Los Angeles) uses three components: SPARK PE, an evidence-based physical education program; educational training of PE teachers in the areas of nutrition, physical education, curriculum development and professional development; and up to $2,000 per year of PE equipment per school.

Anticipated outcomes from this program include:

• Increased moderate to vigorous physical activity.
• Increased scores on the California State Board of Education’s FitnessGram Test in the areas of aerobic fitness, body composition and muscular strength/endurance.
• Increased academic achievement, as evidenced by higher scores on California standardized tests.

“Support for our PE teachers is imperative at this crucial time in our state’s budgetary crisis,” said Chad Fenwick, LAUSD physical activity adviser.

The five-year grant will give approximately 85 PE teachers a monetary stipend and intense, evidence-based training in physical activity, nutrition and physical education curriculum.

The grant is jointly funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Nursing Research and Office of Behavioral Social Science Research, both of which are committed to preventing disease and promoting the health of individuals, families and communities.

Another component of the grant supports the recruitment of 100 minority high school students a year. These students will be provided education and mentoring in the areas of obesity prevention, leadership and careers in health and allied health professions. This leadership program will be piloted at Belmont High School.

According to Los Angeles City Councilman Eric Garcetti (District 13), “This partnership with Belmont High School shows a strong commitment by Dr. Wright-Volel and the UCLA School of Nursing to the investment in our youth as they learn to be the next leaders of our city.”

“With this grant, we want PE teachers to ignite a passion for physical activity — to teach kids that by being active they can be healthy and achieve their dreams,” added Wright-Volel.

The UCLA School of Nursing is redefining nursing through the pursuit of uncompromised excellence in research, education, practice, policy and patient advocacy. Rated among the nation’s top nursing schools by U.S. News & World Report, the school also is ranked No. 4 in nursing research funded by the National Institutes of Health and No. 1 in NIH stimulus funding. In 2009-10, the school received $18 million in total research grant funding and was awarded 26 faculty research grants. The school offers programs for undergraduate (B.S.), postgraduate (M.S.N. and M.E.C.N.) and doctoral (Ph.D.) students.

UC San Diego program has shown success in training health care, law enforcement.

Linda Hill, UC San Diego

The University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine TREDS (Training, Research and Education for Driving Safety) program has been awarded a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety to continue its work on driving safety in older adults. This team of experts, part of UC San Diego’s Injury Epidemiology, Prevention and Research Center, has been working to keep San Diego County’s highways and senior drivers safe since 2007.

“Both health care and law enforcement can play an important role in the identification and referral of drivers who may be at risk for a collision,” said Linda Hill, M.D., M.P.H., clinical professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine. “Physicians have knowledge of a patient’s medical history and the medications that can impact driving, while law enforcement witnesses and responds to unsafe driving first hand.”

Family members of older drivers often seek guidance from these professionals in an effort to keep their loved ones safe behind the wheel. TREDS educates health care providers on the American Medical Association’s screening guidelines that assess for vision, strength and cognitive impairment in adults over age 70. The focus of the law enforcement training is to increase recognition of medical conditions that can impact driving and referral resources.

“We have trained more than 1,000 health professionals and more than 700 law enforcement officers in Southern California counties. Now, these successful programs will benefit the most traffic-congested areas in the state, Los Angeles and Orange counties,” said Hill. “And soon health professionals throughout California will have the opportunity to receive the training online.”

Early identification of conditions is paramount to the continuation of safe driving. Treatment may be as simple as a new pair of glasses, some adaptive equipment for the car or physical therapy to improve range of motion. Training health care practitioners and law enforcement officials will better equip them to help older drivers maintain mobility for as long as safely possible.

“Older adults have positive driving attributes like experience, being more likely to follow laws and less likely to take risks; however, as a group, their rates of death per distance driven and per population is as high as that of teenage boys,” Raul Coimbra, M.D., Ph.D., FACS, chief of the Division of Trauma at UC San Diego Health System and founder of the UC San Diego Injury Epidemiology, Prevention and Research Center. “In addition, elderly drivers and their passengers are four times more likely to die than their 20-year-old counterparts in crashes of similar intensity.”

“The California Highway Patrol appreciates the training provided by the University of California, San Diego. This training has enabled our officers to better serve our older drivers by recognizing driving impairment and make referrals to community resources. We are grateful for the contributions senior drivers have made to our communities over the past decades and want to best serve them while they continue to enjoy their driving experiences,” said Chief Jim Abele of the California Highway Patrol.

“The goal of these programs is to improve driving safety in older adults by increasing awareness, education and management of the health-related impairments which result from the aging process,” explained Richard Kohr, senior driver ombudsman for the California Department of Motor Vehicles – Southern Region.

Funding for this program is provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS), through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The DMV Senior Ombudsman Program and the San Diego Driver Safety Office collaborated with and support UC San Diego’s efforts to engage health professionals and law enforcement in this endeavor.

The grant team, led by Hill, includes Coimbra; Jill Rybar, M.P.H, project manager; and Tara Styer, M.P.H., training coordinator. For additional information or to schedule trainings, email TREDS@ucsd.edu or call (858) 534-9330.

Background
The AARP states that beginning in 2011, 8,000 baby boomers will be turning 65 each day and these projections are expected to continue for the next 18 years. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that by the year 2020, there will be more than 40 million licensed drivers over the age of 65, and 6 million drivers over 65 in California by the year 2030.

Older adults often experience a decline in cognition, vision and motor skills required to complete many tasks associated with driving. AAA reports that nearly 70 percent of older adults surveyed were using one or more prescription medications that could impair driving ability.

According to San Diego County, 1,408 individuals over 65 were involved in traffic crashes, accounting for 10 percent of all people injured and 16 percent of all traffic fatalities in 2008.

The Injury Epidemiology, Prevention and Research Center
The UC San Diego Injury Epidemiology, Prevention and Research Center is a combined effort of the Division of Trauma, Surgical Critical Care, and Burns with its Level-1 Trauma Center and the Regional Burn Center and the UC San Diego Department of Preventive Medicine to make our communities safer and to decrease the burden of injuries to our society.

Partnership will cover telehealth, scientific and technical development, and neurodevelopmental disorders.

Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola, UC Davis

UC Davis Health System has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the state of Sinaloa, Mexico, to partner to improve the health and well-being of its residents through the exchange of ideas, data and research on telehealth, scientific and technical development, and neurodevelopmental disorders.

Sinaloa has partnered with UC Davis because of the health system’s internationally recognized leadership in telehealth technology and neurodevelopmental research, said Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola, who directs the UC Davis Center for Reducing Health Disparities and community engagement for the UC Davis Clinical and Translational Science Center.

Approximately 27 percent of Sinaloa’s population lives in rural settings. The government and secretariat of health of Sinaloa have pledged to strengthen the state’s health infrastructure and to increase access to quality health care using telehealth technology, particularly for populations residing in remote rural areas.

“The government of Sinaloa is interested in creating the infrastructure to support telemedicine and telehealth services to significantly improve access to primary-care services for its nearly 3 million residents,” said Aguilar-Gaxiola, a professor of clinical internal medicine.

“They also would like UC Davis to share its expertise in autism and fragile X syndrome with Mexican health professionals and families to improve early identification, diagnosis and treatment,” Aguilar-Gaxiola said. “A third goal is to foster scientific and technical development to support health education primarily aimed at primary-care settings.”

UC Davis is a national leader in extending access to health-care services to rural and underserved areas through telehealth. The UC Davis Center for Health and Technology uses high-speed data lines linked to video units to connect large, urban medical centers with community hospitals and clinics. The technology allows specialists and subspecialists to consult with community physicians and their patients via live, interactive videoconferencing.

Similarly, the UC Davis MIND Institute is internationally known for its leading-edge research into neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism spectrum disorders and fragile X syndrome. The institute’s world renowned scientists engage in research to find improved treatments, as well as  causes and cures, for autism, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), fragile X syndrome, Tourette syndrome and other neurodevelopmental conditions.

The MOU with Sinaloa is the most recent affiliation between UC Davis Health System and a Mexican entity.

Earlier this year, health system leaders traveled to Mexico City to forge a similar MOU with the Instituto Carlos Slim de la Salud (the Carlos Slim Health Institute), A.C. That agreement is focused on raising awareness of mental-health issues and sharing useful and innovative information to enable the early identification of autism and fragile X syndrome. Founded in 2007, the institute promotes research, develops initiatives and funds projects to address health challenges that affect Mexico and the broader Latin American region.

And in 2010, UC Davis Health System partnered with Shriners Hospital for Children — Northern California and the Mexican Health Ministry to establish a burn fellowship program for physicians from Mexico. The 12-month fellowship program trains two physicians each year in resuscitation and burn-care management, reconstructive surgery and clinical research.

UC Davis Health System is improving lives and transforming health care by providing excellent patient care, conducting groundbreaking research, fostering innovative, interprofessional education, and creating dynamic, productive partnerships with the community. The academic health system includes one of the country’s best medical schools, a 631-bed acute-care teaching hospital, an 800-member physician’s practice group and the new Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing. It is home to a National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center, an international neurodevelopmental institute, a stem cell institute and a comprehensive children’s hospital. Other nationally prominent centers focus on advancing telemedicine, improving vascular care, eliminating health disparities and translating research findings into new treatments for patients. Together, they make UC Davis a hub of innovation that is transforming health for all. For more information, visit healthsystem.ucdavis.edu.

New facility lets researchers from five institutions work under one roof.

Stem cells are tiny things, microscopic in fact. It’s the power of their pluripotency, their ability to become any kind of cell in the human body (and thus potentially fix almost any kind of human ailment) that makes them huge in the future of medicine.

By contrast, the new four-story Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine building – dubbed a “collaboratory” – which celebrated its grand opening Nov. 29 – is indisputably massive: a $127 million, 150,000-square-foot modern edifice of glass and concrete perched above the Pacific Ocean and entirely dedicated to advancing and fulfilling the therapeutic promise of stem cells.

The consortium opened its doors with a ribbon-cutting ceremony involving dozens of local officials, scientists, and patient advocates. But more than just a celebration of the opening of a building, the event exalted the driving idea behind it: Stem cell researchers from five distinct local institutions – UC San Diego, the Sanford/Burnham Medical Research Institute, The Scripps Research Institute, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology – working together under one roof.

“Being side-by-side, our laboratories steps apart, means advances can happen more quickly, and we can translate discoveries faster,” said Dr. Catriona Jamieson, director of stem cell research at UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, who spoke as a representative of the principal investigators who will have research labs in the new facility.

The actual structure, built with the latest “green” construction materials and technologies, is purposefully designed to encourage mingling of people and ideas. The auditorium is limited to 150 seats to promote engagement. Each floor features four laboratory “neighborhoods,” one in each corner of the building, to further a sense of community and shared mission. The labs, however, are connected by large, open spaces that encourage passing scientists to stop, talk and share. Whiteboard walls are there to jot down details and inspirations. There are special meeting rooms for formal conferences and for simply reading or writing. The administrative space is pooled: “No hierarchies, no silos,” in the words of Louis R. Coffman, the consortium’s vice president and chief operating officer.

Located on the UC San Diego campus on Torrey Pines Scenic Drive, adjacent to the Salk Institute, the consortium building is the ninth facility erected under the auspices of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), a state agency established in 2004 with the passage of Proposition 71 and charged with overseeing $3 billion in tax-supported funding for stem cell research at California universities and research institutions. UC San Diego research alone has received more than $100 million in CIRM funding since 2005.

[Related: Stem cell research heads to the clinic, UCTV programs on stem cell research]

Jonathan Thomas, chair of CIRM’s Independent Citizens Oversight Committee, said the new consortium “is exactly what the people envisioned when they made that unprecedented commitment to science.”

Consortium president Dr. Edward W. Holmes went further, describing the new collaboratory as the first of its kind in the world, though perhaps a somewhat familiar notion locally. He and others praised the vision and leadership of UC San Diego Chancellor Marye Anne Fox, who was instrumental in the consortium obtaining a long-term lease of UC land on which to build.  Eighteen of the 24 principal investigators who will be moving their research labs to the consortium building in coming weeks are from UC San Diego.

“The consortium carries forward the vision of early pioneers like Jonas Salk and Roger Revelle, who had a big idea about creating a collaborative research environment supported by a city,” said Richard Atkinson, president emeritus of the University of California and former chancellor of UC San Diego. “And that has happened, with numerous first-rate research institutions making their home here. I think I can safely, if boldly, say that science over the last 50 years has flourished in San Diego more than anywhere else in the world.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders when he spoke at the consortium opening celebration: “No other city has this formula for success down better.”

Ultimately, though, it’s the limitless potential of stem cell research that really excites people, offering hope to patients and their families who are suffering from degenerative diseases such as cancer, spinal cord injury and type 1 diabetes.

“We don’t just give money away,” said T. Denny Sanford, the South Dakota businessman and philanthropist who pledged $30 million to the consortium that now bears his name. “People like Malin Burnham, Irwin Jacobs, John Moores and myself invest in projects that improve lives and make the world a better place. We expect a return on that investment. And there’s no better way to do that than to invest in basic health research and the goals of this consortium.”

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“Working together is more powerful than working alone.”

Estela Garcia delivers keynote at celebration of UCSF University Community Partnerships program

Projects involving UC San Francisco and community partners that encourage children to learn about medical careers, maintain proper dental hygiene and lose weight by learning to swim were recently celebrated for improving the health and well-being of San Franciscans.

“Working together is much more powerful than working alone,” said Estela Garcia, executive director of Instituto Familiar de la Raza. “… I’m certainly one of those people who believes this is the direction to go.”

Garcia delivered the keynote address at the Third Annual Partnerships Celebration of UCSF’s University Community Partnerships (UCP) at Genentech Hall, where other participants at the event echoed her sentiments about the importance of collaborating on projects that strengthen the community.

Garcia was born in the Central Valley and is the daughter of farm workers. She said her grandfather was a community organizer in the 1920s and she was raised with the concept of community empowerment.

She talked about the collision of two very different cultures – the university and nonprofits – and how to develop and sustain healthy and successful working relationships that result in “making a difference out in the street.”

“We can’t be satisfied with where we’re at,” she said. “We have to continue to strive because we’re not at health equity yet.”

University officials agree. John Stobo, M.D., senior vice president in Health Sciences and Services in the University of California Office of the President, said academic health centers are very special institutions that have to put society’s best interests ahead of their own.

“Increasingly, the success of academic health centers will not simply be judged or based on what they do in research, education and clinical care, but by the value they add to their communities,” Stobo said. “And their leaders will also be judged (that way), and not only by where their center sits in U.S. News & World Report or the amount of [National Institutes of Health] money that’s generated.”

He was interrupted by applause from the audience.

Stobo said he recently asked UC’s five medical centers and medical schools to start cataloging their community partnership programs, partly to “raise the flag” in terms of their importance at UC.

For its part, UCSF has historically had a strong but uncoordinated presence of community outreach activities in San Francisco and beyond. UCSF established the University Community Partnerships Office in 2005 in part to coordinate more productive partnerships between philanthropy, local government, community-based nonprofits and UCSF. These activities are overseen by the UCP Council, which includes representatives from both the university and community.

Jeffrey Bluestone, Ph.D., executive vice chancellor and provost at UCSF, said the work being done by the UCP is as innovative as anything being done at the university, if not more so. “We in the leadership of UCSF feel incredibly committed to this program,” he said.

This year, the program included 12 grant recipients and five partnership grants involving UCSF, along with the three major award recipients honored at the UCP celebration.

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SF HIP aims to connect UCSF’s research capital with community partners to improve health.

UCSF's Kevin Grumbach (left) and Laura Schmidt (right) at SF HIP coordinating council meeting

UC San Francisco and an array of community, academic and civic collaborators are wrapping up the first year of an ambitious effort to build partnerships to enhance the well-being of San Francisco residents and eliminate health disparities.

San Francisco Health Improvement Partnerships (SF HIP), a cross-cutting initiative of the UCSF Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI), aims to connect the university’s research capital with the expertise and needs of community partners. The goal is to implement strategies to measurably impact health in San Francisco — and to promote health equity along the way.

“In the past, research has often been seen as unilaterally serving the needs of the researchers rather than the community,” said Kevin Grumbach, M.D., co-director of CTSI’s Community Engagement and Health Policy (CEHP) Program. “SF HIP is an effort to do it differently; to have the outcome not be theoretical, but rather a discrete and sustainable change in community health.”

SF HIP is conducted in a spirit of participatory research with oversight by its Coordinating Council. Community partners include representatives from CTSI, the San Francisco Department of Public Health, San Francisco Unified School District, San Francisco Hospital Council, Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development, and health equity coalitions representing the African American, Latino and Asian/Pacific Islander communities. CTSI’s CEHP program serves as the administrative core of the initiative and provides planning funds.

“SF HIP brings UCSF and its resources closer to the community, and all the important stakeholders together to improve community health,” said Amor Santiago, DPM, MPH, executive director of APA Family Support Services, and representative of the Asian/Pacific Islander Health Parity Coalition on the SF HIP Coordinating Council. “This effort has the potential to lead and coordinate public health efforts across the spectrum of providers in medical, mental and social health emphasizing prevention.”

So far, SF HIP working groups have been launched to focus on four pressing needs: physical activity and nutrition, hepatitis B, alcohol abuse and dental caries in children.

“Part of this effort involves laying a foundation for long-term collaboration,” said Ellen Goldstein, M.A., program manager of the CEHP program. “That includes developing an ongoing framework for UCSF to productively engage with a wide range of community partners to tackle our city’s most compelling health problems.”

[Related: View more about UCSF's commitment to the community]

SF HIP is part of UCSF’s expansive community service efforts that span outreach in local, regional and global communities.

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UCSF prepares to launch Participant Recruitment Service.

Bill Balke, UC San Francisco

Although the vast majority of Americans (94 percent) understand the importance of taking part in clinical research to advance medical science, according to the online resource CenterWatch, three in four adults have little to no knowledge about how clinical research works or how to participate.

Looking to bridge that information gap, UC San Francisco’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) supported and coordinated AWARE for All Clinical Research Education Day on Nov. 5. The event, which happens in major cities across the U.S., was held in San Francisco for the first time. It attracted hundreds of attendees and brought together more than a dozen community partners who provided health-related information and free health screenings, such as glucose and blood pressure checks, chiropractic evaluations and flu shots, among other services.

“Volunteers are really the engine of clinical research, and without them there is no research,” said Bill Balke, M.D., director of CTSI’s Clinical Research Services (CRS) program, which is preparing to launch the UCSF Participant Recruitment Service (PRS). The PRS, which was responsible for the event, provides services to support UCSF and affiliate researchers in recruiting study participants.

Balke led off the event with the presentation, “What Clinical Research Means to You,” and was one of several physicians, nurses and other health professionals on hand to address topics ranging from cancer supportive care to maintaining memory. More than 12 UCSF programs and departments joined in the event providing speakers, free health screenings or recruiting for studies.

Attendees had a wide range of experience with and understanding about clinical studies, and expressed varying reasons for attending the event:

• “I don’t know anything about [clinical research], but my friends and I are here to learn.”
• “I’m interested in learning more about studies. It’s the ‘clinical’ I don’t understand.”
• “There is some valuable information and it is good to hear from the experts.”
• “I would volunteer for a study, but I’ve never been asked.”

“This was a great opportunity to connect researchers and clinicians with potential research volunteers, and to hopefully dispel some myths about clinical research,” said Nariman Nasser, director of the UCSF Participant Recruitment Service. “And considering that more than 80 percent of clinical trials are delayed due to recruitment problems, we as a scientific community have a lot to learn by hearing directly from the community in order to gain a better understanding of the barriers to study recruitment.”

Other co-sponsors included the Stanford Cancer Institute, the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, BreastCancerTrials.org, Biogen Idec and EMD Serono. AWARE for All, which provides clinical research education events nationwide, is a project of the Center for Information & Study of Clinical Research Participation (CISCRP).

CTSI at UCSF, a member of the national, National Institutes of Health-funded Clinical and Translational Science Awards network focusing on accelerating research to improve health, provides services for researchers at every stage through its Accelerate, and promotes online collaboration and networking through UCSF Profiles.

$1.75M grant will allow UCSF faculty, students to provide integrated model for delivering primary health, dental care to children at five Oakland middle schools.

The Havenscourt Health Center recently opened in an Oakland middle school to serve youth and families as part of the Elev8 project.

UC San Francisco, the Oakland Unified School District and an array of community-based partners are embarking on a quest to improve the lives of disadvantaged middle-school students, thanks to a $1.75 million grant from The Atlantic Philanthropies.

The three-year award to UCSF’s Elev8 Healthy Students and Families project will allow faculty and students from UCSF’s schools of nursing and dentistry to provide a new, integrated model for delivering primary health and dental care to children at five Oakland middle schools. The project also will increase health education and expose middle school youth and their families to health careers.

“Good health is fundamental to children reaching their full potential in school and in life and so our UCSF Elev8 Healthy Students and Families project dovetails perfectly with the work of our partners,” said lead applicant, Linda Franck, R.N., Ph.D., chair of the Department of Family Health Care Nursing at UCSF.

The program also offers UCSF nursing and dental students important learning opportunities, says co-leader Bill Bird, D.D.S., M.P.H., Dr.P.H., a professor in the Department of Preventive and Restorative Dental Sciences.

“This project gives us the opportunity to establish a new model for interdisciplinary education of advanced practice nursing and dental students in community-based health care,” Bird said, “and builds a health workforce for the future that is better equipped to work for and meet the health needs of disadvantaged communities.”

Elev8 is a national initiative funded by The Atlantic Philanthropies that brings together schools, families and the community in underserved neighborhoods to help students succeed in school and in life. Work is underway in Chicago, Baltimore and New Mexico. In Oakland, the new grant will augment a previous Elev8 grant that will:

• Provide coordinated health, mental health and dental services,
• Engage families to support and advocate for their youth, and
• Offer academic and mentoring support in extended day, Saturday and summer programs.

Alameda County has supported school-based health centers for more than 15 years. Through the UCSF Elev8 project, faculty, nurse practitioner and dental students will enhance and expand primary care services at these existing Federally Qualified Health Center partners and increase preventative services, particularly in the areas of dental care and healthy lifestyles, as well as treat children with chronic health conditions.

The youth who will benefit from the new funds are sixth-to-eighth-graders at five Oakland campuses: Roosevelt, Havenscourt, Madison, West Oakland and United for Success. In fall 2010, these schools enrolled 1,639 students, of whom 763 were Latino, 480 were African American, 247 were Asian and 1,259 were economically disadvantaged. In fact, more than 85 percent of students at Elev8 Oakland schools are living in poverty.

These students face a variety of other challenges: violence, safety concerns, drugs, health problems, and parents with low levels of education and high levels of unemployment. These factors can negatively affect the health and academic achievement of students, according to Elev8 Oakland. The project targets middle-school students because research shows that children who make the transition to high school smoothly are more likely to graduate and go on to and finish college.

“We’re really excited about the chance to enliven our curriculum and to add a social justice component,” said Naomi Schapiro, R.N., Ph.D., C.P.N.P. “Middle-school students are not on people’s radar. They are at the cusp between being children and adolescents. And they’re going through a lot of physical and developmental changes.”

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IAVA honors Operation Mend spokesman and patient Cpl. Aaron Mankin; veterans group also honors Stephen Colbert.

IAVA honorees Stephen Colbert (left) and Cpl. Aaron Mankin (click image for larger view)

U.S. Marine Cpl. Aaron Mankin, the first patient of UCLA’s Operation Mend, has been honored with the 2011 Veterans Leadership Award by Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), the nation’s first and largest nonprofit, nonpartisan organization for veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mankin received the award Nov. 9 at IAVA’s fifth annual Heroes Gala, hosted by NBC’s Brian Williams at the Cipriani 42nd Street restaurant in New York City. The event was part of the organization’s “Veterans Week 2011.”

Mankin, an Iraq veteran and wounded warrior, is a spokesperson for Operation Mend, a unique partnership among Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, and the Veterans Affairs–Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System established in 2007 to help treat U.S. military personnel wounded during service in Iraq and Afghanistan by providing reconstructive surgery, other surgical services and mental health support.

IAVA also honored Stephen Colbert, host of Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report,” with the 2011 Civilian Service Award.

“Each year, the Heroes Gala reminds us why we do what we do,” said IAVA founder and executive director Paul Rieckhoff. ”It is an inspiring night that pays tribute to the men, women and families who have served our country. IAVA was thrilled to honor Stephen Colbert and Aaron Mankin, who have both made huge impacts on the lives of vets across the country, and we were very happy to have Brian Williams back as master of ceremonies for the third year. His commitment to veterans of all generations is truly inspiring.”

Rieckhoff noted that, through very different approaches, Colbert and Mankin have fought for veterans and their families.

“Aaron is one of our community’s single most powerful advocates,” Rieckhoff said. “His leadership, courage, tenacity and humility have inspired wounded veterans and countless people around the world. Aaron has made the impossible possible; his story is one of hope and perseverance that all Americans must know about.”

Mankin was severely wounded in Iraq when his vehicle rolled over an improvised explosive device, or IED. He suffered intense burns over his body, essentially losing his ears, nose and mouth. He became Operation Mend’s first patient. More than 50 surgeries later, he serves as a spokesperson for the organization and is a constant reminder of the sacrifices American service members have been making over nearly a decade of war.

“I have been blessed in my involvement with UCLA’s Operation Mend,” Mankin said. ”The doctors, staff and families participating in this trailblazing program will forever be my heroes. Operation Mend is devoted to quite literally changing the very face of war. Our warriors, the people we call heroes, deserve nothing less than the best their country has to offer in every sector of commerce.

“I am honored to be recognized by IAVA as this year’s recipient of their Veterans Leadership Award. IAVA is helping shape the futures of our sons and daughters fighting these wars. To educate, employ and empower this great generation of service members is a responsibility we all share and is an obligation we must all uphold. I am proud to be a part of this organization and all that Paul and the IAVA board accomplish on behalf of our newest veterans.”

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UCSF leads science extravaganza.

The free science extravaganza billed as Discovery Day showcased the pure fun of science with a non-stop program of more than 170 interactive exhibits, experiments, games and shows.

UC San Francisco‘s Bruce Alberts, Ph.D., professor emeritus, spearheaded the festival in San Francisco, one of four cities in the country to receive a National Science Foundation grant to produce a science festival this year.

As co-founder of the Science & Health Education Partnership (SEP), a 24-year-old collaboration between UCSF and the San Francisco Unified School District to support quality science education for K-12 students, Alberts has devoted his long scientific career to improving science learning and teaching. The former president of the National Academy of Sciences and editor of the journal Science thanked the many volunteers from UCSF and elsewhere who helped make the festival a success.

Among those deserving extra credit for orchestrating the Oct.  29-Nov. 6 Bay Area Science Festival is UCSF’s Kishore Hari, Ph.D., who directed the festival as part of his work at SEP.

“This shows that there is a huge appetite for science and technology education,” he said. “It’s the job of those of us who teach and those who legislate to feed that hunger.”

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee stood near home plate at AT&T Park to declare it “Bay Area Science Festival Day.”

Along with the 50,000 attendees from events earlier this week throughout the Bay Area, including a free series of talks at UCSF, more than 70,000 people participated in what organizers are declaring the largest science festival of its type in the U.S. The Bay Area Science Festival encompassed more than 100 mostly free events involving dozens of organizations and partners in Northern California. Partners included UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and other universities and science centers.

Science-based events scheduled Oct. 29-Nov. 6.

(From left) Sonya Haymaker, Megan Pun, Jessica Rice and Elizabeth Holcombe from UCSF Camps at the kickoff event for the upcoming Bay Area Science Festival.

Led by UC San Francisco, the Bay Area Science Festival, Oct. 29-Nov. 6, unites an unprecedented brain trust of the region’s scientific and educational partners in what is expected to be one of the largest science-based events ever held in the United States.

Partners include UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and other universities and science centers.

For more information, visit the Bay Area Science Festival website, UCSF’s festival Web package or these related stories:

• Bruce Alberts: He has science in his soul
• UCSF to host Bay Area Science Festival lectures at lunchtime
• Leaders hail science as key to nation’s strength, success during festival kickoff
• UCSF to lead first Bay Area Science Festival: Oct. 29-Nov. 6

Partnership with Johnson & Johnson will fund proof-of-concept research that brings innovative science to market.

Regis Kelly

The California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3) has signed an agreement with the Johnson & Johnson Corporate Office of Science and Technology (COSAT) to fund University of California proof-of-concept research that brings innovative science to market.

This agreement, along with the Rogers Family Foundation of Oakland, helps fund QB3’s “Bridging-the-Gap” program, initiated in 2008 to support scientific projects that have high commercial potential led by faculty at UC San Francisco, UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz. These awards are intended to address the critical gap between federal funding for basic research and investments in product development. Each award typically provides $250,000 over two years for research.

Former award-winning projects include a prototype of an artificial kidney developed by Shuvo Roy, UCSF professor of bioengineering and therapeutic sciences, and an automated technique to improve prostate cancer screening, invented by Amy Herr, UC Berkeley associate professor of bioengineering.

The agreement establishes the JJSI-QB3 Awards as a component of the “Bridging-the-Gap” program and calls for annual awards over the next three years. QB3 will provide the awarded projects with services from the QB3 Startup-In-A-Box program, and potentially find space for them in the QB3 incubator.

“This agreement is an innovative academic-industry partnership model specifically focused on startup formation,” said Neena Kadaba, QB3’s director of industry alliances. “These awards are designed to provide a crucial amount of pre-commercial support to help would-be entrepreneurs address potential scientific risks in their technology before launching a company.”

The nine projects funded by QB3’s “Bridging-the-Gap” program to date already have resulted in five new companies and three licenses to existing firms.  The five companies formed in the past two years have raised over $9 million in private and public commercial funding.

”This agreement represents an important initiative for QB3 by providing additional opportunities for innovative researchers at our universities to create companies of value,” said Regis Kelly, director of QB3.

UCSF is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care.