Loma Linda University News November 4, 1999 Del E. Webb Memorial Library suffers damage from Hector Mine earthquake New tennis coach to head Drayson Center's tennis program Faculty Notes RAMP students work with LLU researchers LLU Board and faculty members participate in National Thinktank Conference Loma Linda University Board Report released Del E. Webb Memorial Library suffers damage from Hector Mine earthquake Plastic sheets are placed across library shelves to protect books from water damage as a result from the Hector Mine earthquake. Early Saturday morning, October 16, 1999, was certainly a day to remember for most Loma Linda and surrounding area residents. Just mention the Hector Mine earthquake and each person has a story to tell about the biggest earthquake to hit California since the Landers earthquake in 1992. The epicenter was located in the area of Joshua Tree, in a remote, sparsely populated part of the Mojave Desert but the effects were felt even in Loma Linda. At the Del E. Webb Memorial Library, thousands of books fell from the top shelves, particularly on the library's fourth floor. Some books were torn from their bindings, the contents landing several feet away from the books' covers. According to Dave Fabruada, assistant supervisor of circulation for the library, some pipes on the third floor just outside the interlibrary loan office were cracked as a result of the earthquake and began to leak. The leak destroyed some issues of current journals, which will be re-ordered from the publishers. Dave Fabruada, assistant supervisor of circulation at Del E. Webb Memorial Library, surveys the damage caused by the earthquake and attempts to reshelve fallen library books. Mr. Fabruada estimates that more than a thousand books fell from their place during the 7.1 Hector Mine earthquake. A large majority of fallen books were those located on the top shelves in the library. Library workers came in Saturday evening to help clean up the damage. Some books were damaged from a burst water pipe. "If the library had been open, I'm sure somebody would have been injured. We were really lucky to have this happen when nobody was around," says Mr. Fabruada. Other leaks occurred in the book stacks, and some 450 books were boxed and taken to the freezer (freezing prevents mold) at the Loma Linda Market for two days, and then later air dried. About half of these books were too damaged to be kept but, ironically, many were older books on library automation. Library staff, as well as Donald G. Pursley, DBA, vice president for financial affairs and chief financial officer, LLU, and Jerry Daly, MA, MSLS, director, media services, were at the library in the early morning hours shortly following the earthquake. Other library staff were at the library Saturday evening and Sunday morning to reshelve books and prepare the library to open on time Sunday morning. "The administration at the Del E. Webb Memorial Library is extremely thankful to those who put in their time to restore the library back to working order," says Carlene M. Bogle, MSLS, chair of public services at the library. The Hector Mine earthquake occurred at 2:46 a.m. local time and was responsible for brief power losses in more than 80,000 Southern California homes. Aside from a few items thrown to the floor, there were no serious injuries. Several homes in the Loma Linda area and surrounding towns experienced a loss of power following the earthquake. New tennis coach to head Drayson Center's tennis program Brooks Davis, USPTR, tennis pro and owner of Redlands Racquet, Golf and Ski Shop, has agreed to head up the tennis program at Loma Linda University Drayson Center. Brooks Davis, USPTR, owner of Redlands Racquet, Golf and Ski Shop, will oversee the tennis program at Drayson Center. In the photo above, Mr. Davis strings a racquet at his Redlands shop. Mr. Davis will be teaching individual lessons, holding group clinics and junior development programs, and organizing tournaments, team tennis, and senior tennis activities. "We're excited to welcome Mr. Davis to Drayson Center," says Donald Sease, marketing and events director. "His expertise as a coach and event organizer will be a great addition." Mr. Davis also plans to organize instruction, tournaments, and other activities for those interested in racquetball. A lifelong resident of Redlands, Mr. Davis began tennis lessons at the age of six. He played on the Redlands Racquet Club Junior Netters tennis team, as well as on the Redlands High School tennis team. He took tennis lessons from University of Redlands coach Jim Verdeick, considered by some to be "the most winningest small college tennis coach in history." Mr. Davis worked as a tennis buyer and manager at Pratt's Sporting Goods for many years, an establishment founded and owned by his uncle, Overton Pratt. The store had a tennis court on the roof where Mr. Davis taught lessons. More recently, he directed the junior tennis program at Redlands Swim & Tennis Club. Mr. Davis is a member of the United States Professional Tennis Registry (USPTR) and hopes to bring United States Tennis Association (USTA) league play and other USTA-sanctioned events to Loma Linda. The Pro Shop at Drayson Center will offer a number of added services through Mr. Davis. Tennis equipment and services will be available, providing Drayson Center members with an added convenience. For information regarding tennis instruction and activities, call Drayson Center staff at (909) 558-4975. Faculty Notes * Robert D. Orr, MD, professor of family medicine, School of Medicine, is the 1999 recipient of the American Medical Association Isaac Hays, MD, & John Bell, MD, Award for Leadership in Medical Ethics & Professionalism. This award promotes the AMA's continuing dedication to the principles of medical ethics and the highest standards of medical practice. The award recognizes Dr. Orr's contributions to the profession's effectiveness in upholding its ethical standards through advocacy of policies, provision and organization of services, and by scholarship writings that demonstrate leadership in ethics. The award will be presented in San Diego on December 5, 1999. * InterVarsity Press recently announced that its publication, The Openness of God, is now in its seventh printing, bringing the total number of copies in print to nearly 16,000. The book is co-authored by Richard T. Rice, PhD, professor of religion, Faculty of Religion, and four other scholars. The book presents the view that God enters into dynamic, give-and-take relationships with the beings He created as an alternative to the traditional concept that God is essentially unaffected by the creaturely world. * Paul Haerich, PhD, associate professor of psychology, Graduate School, just returned from a trip where he presented a paper at the 39th annual meeting of the Society for Psychophysiological Research in Granada, Spain. The title of the paper is "Making Speeded and Nonspeeded Valence Decisions About Emotional Stimuli." It was co-authored by Steve Nitch and Amy Clegg. RAMP students work with LLU researchers The Research Apprenticeships for Minorities Program (RAMP), which is sponsored by Loma Linda University and Bank of America, brings local high school students to the LLU campus for a six-week intensive program where they work in close cooperation with Loma Linda University faculty and top-level researchers on various research projects. The following are summaries of research results that each student presented at the completion ceremony: Department of microbiology and molecular genetics Student researcher: Melanie Hendricks School: Eisenhower High School LLU researcher: Carlos Casiano, PhD, assistant professor, microbiology and molecular genetics, School of Medicine Autoantigen cleavage during tumor necrosis factor (TNF) induced necrotic cell death in L929 murine fibrosarcoma cells For the past five weeks, I have been working in the laboratory of Dr. Carlos Casiano in the department of microbiology and molecular genetics and in the Center for Molecular Biology and Gene Therapy. Melanie Hendricks, a student at Eisenhower High School, participated in the RAMP program studying protease activities in the two modes of cell death, apoptosis and necrosis. The primary focus of the lab is to study protease activities in the two modes of cell death, namely, apoptosis and necrosis. Simply, apoptosis is programmed natural cell death, whereas necrosis occurs in response to a severe injury. My project was to analyze autoantigen (Topo I, PARP, and Lamin B) cleavage during nec-rotic death induced by tumor necrosis factor (TNF). TNF is an important mediator in many inflammatory and immunological responses. In vitro, TNF has been shown to induce cell death (both apoptotic and non-apoptotic), to activate transcription factors, and to induce proliferation. Studying the mechanisms by which TNF induces cell death is essential in understanding the role of TNF in inflammation. Recently, a study showed that TNF induced necrosis of L929 cells via a mechanism independent of caspase activation. I wanted to compare the pattern of autoantigen cleavage in this caspase-independent cell death model with the cleavage patterns obtained in other systems of chemical-induced necrosis and caspase-independent cell death. The purpose was to determine whether a common protease-dependent mechanism is associated with non-apoptotic pathways of cell death. My first task was to determine the concentration of TNF needed to induce necrosis in L929 murine fibrosarcoma cells, an adherent cell line. L929 cells were grown in a 12 well culture dish for 24 hours at 37°C. After 24 hours, the medium in each well was replaced with fresh medium and different concentrations of TNF were added to the cells. Each concentration of the TNF was tested in triplicate. The cells were allowed to grow in the presence of TNF for another 24 hours. The cells were then trypsinized and a trypan blue exclusion test was performed on each cell sample. From this experiment, I chose 5 ng/ml TNF to induce necrosis in subsequent experiments. The next step in my project was to confirm that TNF-induced cell death in L929 cells is caspase independent. L929 cells were grown in a 12-well culture dish as described above. After 24 hours, the medium in each well was replaced with fresh medium and the cells were treated with 5 ng/ml TNF, or pre-treated with 100 µM Z-VAD for 30 minutes before inducing death with TNF, or the cells were left untreated. Each experiment was done in triplicate. At given time intervals of 0, 24, and 48 hours, the cells were trypsinized and a trypan blue exclusion test was performed on each cell sample. Since Z-VAD, a caspase inhibitor, did not block cell death but increased the sensitivity of L929 cells to necrosis, my results confirmed that TNF-induced cell death in L929 cells is caspase independent. The last stage of my project was to compare the autoantigen cleavage patterns obtained in TNF-induced necrosis, HgCl2-induced necrosis and staurosporine-induced apoptosis in L929 cells. L929 cells were grown in petri dishes for 24 hours at 37°C. After 24 hours, the medium in each dish was replaced with fresh medium and the cells were treated with the appropriate concentration of the designated inducing agent as described above, and the controls were left untreated. The incubation times used for inducing apoptosis or necrosis were based on previous experiments with other adherent cell lines. After incubation, total cell lysates were prepared and the proteins were subjected to electrophoresis and immunoblotting. Human autoantibodies to specific well characterized protein auto-antigens (Topo I and PARP), as well as a commercial antibody to Lamin B were used as reagents to detect the cleavage products generated during apoptosis and necrosis. As a control, I used the total lysates from untreated cells. My results indicated that Topo I, PARP, and Lamin B did not cleave in TNF-treated L929 cells. This is probably because I did not optimize the incubation time for inducing apoptosis in L929 cells as Topo I, PARP, and Lamin B are known to cleave during apoptosis. After the RAMP program is over, Dr. Casiano's lab will continue this study and will first optimize the conditions for inducing apoptosis in L929 cells. I have had an interest in biomedical technology for a long time, and this experience has provided a wonderful exposure to science. I hope to participate in the RAMP program again next year. Department of microbiology and molecular genetics Student researcher: Ahn Pham School: Rialto High School LLU researcher: Istvan Fodor, PhD, professor, microbiology and molecular genetics, School of Medicine Construction of recombinant plasmid DNA A new hope for treating cancer now revolves around the success of gene therapy. Gene therapy is the delivery of vectors that carry therapeutic genes to cells by viral and nonviral strategies. The therapeutic genes that are inserted into the vectors can code for the production of cytokines (proteins that activate the immune system's response to the tumor sites) or tumor suppressor proteins like p53 and pRB. The process of constructing the recombinant Vaccinia virus involves a series of complicated steps. Anh Pham (right), a student at Rialto High School, studies the construction of recombinant plasmid DNA in the department of molecular biology and gene therapy. However, the first and most important step in the project is the construction of the recombinant plasmid that has a gene cloned under the Vaccinia virus promoters and flanked by the virus's DNA. The essential components of the recombinant plasmid consist of a vector that contains some of the virus's DNA sequences, two Vaccinia virus promoters required to express the desired gene, a gene of interest, and a reporter gene that distinguishes the recombinant virus with a blue plaque through dot blot hybridization. For the project, the plasmid pNT8 was used as the vector and the pSC65 plasmid was chosen for the isolation of the lac-z gene (a reporter gene) and the one early and one late Vaccinia virus promoters. The protocols for creating the recombinant plasmid include inoculation, purification, digestion, ligation, and transformation. After the propagation of pNT8 and pSC65, the qiagen maxi prep was used to purify large amounts of plasmids, and electrophoresis was ran to check the purity of the plasmids. The pNT8 plasmid was then digested with unique cutting enzymes Bgl II and Kpn I to linearize the plasmid and separate the nonessential gene from the band. The plasmid pSC65 had unique cutting sites for Kpn I, BamH I, and Pst I which divide the plasmid into three bands, with the largest band being the gene of interest. When the digestion was complete, the DNA was transferred into the agarose gel wells, electrophoresed, and observed under UV light to cut the desired bands for ligation. Ligation of the fragment and vector was easily achieved since the unique cutting sites of pNT8 have sticky ends that usually attach to the sticky ends of Kpn I and BamH I in pSC65. Finally, the ligase mixture was introduced to E. coli bacteria cells (XL-blue strain) and incubated for 12 to 16 hours. Preparation for the mini-prep was then conducted by inoculating a single colony in LB-medium. The mini-prep was used to isolate small samples of DNA to check if the fragment (the lac-z gene and the two promoters) were inserted into the vector. The DNA bands that travel slower than the controlled vectors (plasmid without an insertion) are the ones that carry the insertion since they are bigger. This recombinant plasmid can be used for the construction of the Vaccinia virus and for various treatments of cancer if a therapeutic gene was inserted into the empty promoter. * * See the next issue of TODAY for the conclusion of the research result summaries by RAMP participants. LLU Board and faculty members participate in National Thinktank Conference Members of the Loma Linda University faculty and Board of Trustees participated in the Sixth Annual National Thinktank Conference sponsored by Operation Reachback, Inc. (ORB), an Association of Black Seventh-day Adventists. The conference, held in Atlanta, Georgia, from October 21 to 23, focused on the health status of the Black community. During the conference LLU was presented with a check from Operation Reachback, Inc., for $5,000 to use for minority scholarships. These monies were funded by Ray and Madlyn Hamblin, owners of the Hamblin Company in Tecumseh, Michigan.   Richard Hart, MD, DrPH, dean of the School of Public Health (at podium), moderates a panel discussion titled "Blacks and the Impact of Adventist Lifestyle." Panel participants are (from left), Leslie Anderson, DPH, director of community services for the Northern California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, Pleasant Hill, California; Gwendolyn Foster, MPH, health director of the Allegheny East Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, Pine Forge, Pennsylvania, and a member of the LLU Board of Trustees; and Patti Herring, PhD, RN, assistant professor of health promotion and education, School of Public Health.   W. Augustus Cheatham, MSW, vice president for public affairs, Loma Linda University and Medical Center, and an ORB board member (right), visits with Leroy Reese, MD, associate dean, School of Medicine, and a member of the LLU Board of Trustees, at the LLU&MC booth. Dr. Reese moderated a panel discussion titled "The Road Ahead: Where Do We Go From Here?" Loma Linda University Board Report released Campus governance structure model approved, and revised bylaws recommended Some months ago the Board of Loma Linda University Adventist Health Sciences Center (LLUAHSC) appointed a committee composed of Board members, administrators, and faculty of Loma Linda University and Loma Linda University Medical Center to review the entire campus governance structure in order to facilitate cooperation and operational efficiencies. The LLU Board of Trustees received the report of the campus governance structure committee and approved, as pertaining to Loma Linda University only, the proposed governance and management model with revisions to the LLU bylaws necessary to implement the approved model. The Board authorized the formation of a search committee for the position of chancellor of Loma Linda University. Master's degree in occupational therapy approved The School of Allied Health Professions, in keeping with action recently taken by the American Occupational Therapy Association, is moving from a baccalaureate degree to a master's degree for entry into the profession. The new degree will emphasize advanced clinical and critical reasoning skills. The University has had an educational program in occupational therapy since 1959. Academic administrative appointments approved The Board of Trustees approved academic administrative appointments for the following individuals: Benny Hau, MD, medical director, physician assistant program, School of Allied Health Professions; Ron Secor, MBA, associate dean for financial administration, School of Dentistry; and Mel Sundean, MBA, director of marketing and retention, School of Allied Health Professions. Board approves emeritus appointments Emeritus professor of anatomy appointments were approved for Paul C. Engen, DDS, and Daniel A. Mitchell Jr., MD. Dr. Engen has been a faculty member at Loma Linda University since 1960, and Dr. Mitchell has served on the faculty since 1969. Associate vice president for finance appointed Verlon W. Strauss, the current director of LLUAHSC internal auditing, was appointed the associate vice president of financial affairs for the University. Mr. Strauss will work with the vice president for financial affairs, Donald G. Pursley, DBA, in providing financial leadership on the campus. New dual degree programs approved The Board of Trustees approved two new dual degree programs. The dual degree program, master of science–nursing and master of public health, is designed for those nurses who work in the community and who wish to integrate advanced practice nursing with a population-based public health perspective. The dual degree program, master of science–nursing and master of arts–biomedical and clinical ethics, is designed for advanced practice nurses who are often called to provide ethical leadership in the clinical setting. Board approves volunteer services policy Loma Linda University values those individuals who choose to offer their time and talents without compensation for the advancement of Loma Linda University. In order to clarify the role of volunteers within the University, the Board of Trustees approved an administrative policy relating to volunteer services. This policy will be distributed to those possessing Administrative Handbooks. Board receives Year 2000 and other reports The Board of Trustees received a report on the implementation of the University's year 2000 preparation plan. This implementation is proceeding appropriately, and the University should be ready for January 1. In addition, reports on trust agreements and annuities written and on major construction projects of the University were received. University | Medical_Center | LLU&MC_home | Search_&_index | News_&_events | Employment | Contact | Our_mission All contents copyright © 2001 Loma Linda University. All rights reserved. Revised Tuesday, January 30, 2001 11:48 AM Send comments and questions to webmaster@univ.llu.edu URL: /