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ASET News, Spring 05/06
Computer science professor reviews proposals to the NIH
March 1, 2006:
Bruce MacLeod, associate
professor of computer science, has been invited to review
proposals at the National Institute of Health Conference in
Washington, DC in March, 2006 under the Small Business
Innovation Research (SBIR) Program. The SBIR is a set-aside
program for domestic small business concerns to engage in
Research/Research and Development R/R&D) that has the
potential for commercialization.
Dr. MacLeod has been instrumental in
developing the HRS (Household Registration System) software
system that allows health researchers and demographers to
construct data monitoring systems for longitudinal studies
of populations. His research has included intensive work
with overseas organizations including the British Medical
Research Council, the Farafenni research site in Gambia, and
the Hanoi School of Public Health in Vietnam. The latest
overseas site that Dr. MacLeod has been working with is the
School of Public Health at the University of Kampala,
Uganda.
Having developed an international
reputation in the field, Dr. MacLeod's work includes
projects involving computer science research and
development, contributing to important health research
problems in the developing world. He primarily reviews
proposals that cross the boundaries between computer science
and health, and has done this for the NIH several times for
the past two years.
News from Wise Laboratory of Environmental and Genetic
Toxicology:
In September, 2005, Dr. John Wise traveled to Patagonia
on the Atlantic coast of southern Argentina to meet
colleagues from Ocean Alliance, who are conducting a
long-term study of the Southern Right Whale. The Southern
population of Right Whales is much larger and enjoying
greater reproductive success than the Northern Right Whales,
which are considered endangered because of environmental
hazards that include entanglement in fishing gear.
Dr. Wise consulted with colleagues from several
international whale advocacy groups and carried supplies for
the field station to use in collecting tissue samples from
whales. He was able to visit the whales by boat as they
nursed their young and witness the harmless collection of
biopsies from the whales. This resulted in valuable samples
of whale skin and blubber returning to the Wise Laboratory
at USM, where they are cultured to develop a resource of
cells for testing, and where they can be evaluated for the
presence of a number of environmental pollutants.
Patagonia is a wild and remote place where a diversity of
wildlife is protected and appreciated. Large populations of
Elephant Seals, Southern Right Whales, penguins and sea
birds populate the area. Dr. Wise hopes that these
connections will continue to be useful to his program and
that he will be able to make another trip. Visit the
Wise
Laboratory on the Web.
Advanced Seminar Series in Biomedical Science
This week's Advanced
Seminar in Biomedical Science (AMS 691) is Thursday, 1/26/06 at 2:00 PM
in Rm 7 in the Science Building on the Portland
campus. The speaker will be Joseph Lynch, Doctoral
Student in Wise Laboratory. The title of her his will be
"Soluble Depleted Uranium Induced Neoplastic Transformation
of Human Lung Epithelial Cells" For more
information about this seminar, or about the series, contact
Deborah Schock in the the Department of Applied Medical
Sciences, 207-780-8250 or
dschock@usm.maine.edu.
NEWSFLASH!
Mechanical
Engineering at USM
Jan 23, 2006: The University of Maine System Board
of Trustees has approved the new USM Bachelor of Science
in Mechanical Engineering degree program. Students
currently enrolled and who are interested in the new program
may change majors to Mechanical Engineering immediately.
Applications for admission into the new program for the Fall
2006 semester are being accepted.
More information...
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