News Scrapbook 1980

SAN DIEGO UNION

JAN 7 1980

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S.D. Rese r h Pr jects · ExpaDd Growth In- Developmental Work Bucks U.S. Trend

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By YVONNE BASKL Staff Writer, The San Diego Unl011

for which light provides energy. The work could -lead eventually to new kinds of solar power cells and devices to manufacture food from carbon dioxide and water. Biologi~t S~ephen ~owell is trying to develop a vehicle for brmgmg mstruct1ons into a plant to tell it to do things 1t never has done before. He is looking at certain viruses that transport genetic materia·1 (DNA) irito plant cells where 1t directs the formation of proteins. Howell wants to tailor the viruses to carry DNA for manufacturing proteins the plant has never made such as drugs like insolin and antibiotics. · ' At UCSD's School of Medicine, the National Cancer Institute approved a grant for construction of a new research and experimental treatment facility to house the Theodore Gildred Cancer Center. A cent r to study human reproduction was established \\'.1th funds from the National Institutes of Health. Reproductive biologist Dr. Samuel S. C. Yen will direct the. work o_r five research teams investigating how the br- m, p1tu1tary gland and ovaries interact to regulate reproduction. Their findings could lead to better contra- .ceptives, treatment for infertility problems and relief for menopausal conditions. B.esearch aimed at better understanding and treat- ~ent o~ severe depression and manic-depressive illness 1s contmumg ~t the medical center and VA Hospital und~r Dr._Lewis L. Judd and Dr. David S. Janowsky. B1omed1cal research also is the forte of the Salk Institute, one of the world's largest independent centers of biological research. Out of the total institute staff of 400, 120 are Ph.D.s and M.D.s and four are Nobel Prize winners. The in_stitute had a budget of $15 million during th~ 1!178-79 fiscal rea: and, continuing its history of steady growth, 1s proJectmg a budget of $17 million to $18 million d tring fiscal 1979-80. Scientific and medical problems being investigated at Salk mc(ude cancer, diabetes, growth and development defects, immunology and brain function. During the past decade, Sal~ has beeh actively building a strong effort in the neurosc1ences, the study of brain function, and half the work of the institute now is in that field. · Major ev.ents at Salk this past year included some significant additions to its neuroscience research Iacili- U"$. The Weing_art..Foun(lati.on QfJ,.Qs.Angeles award ct SI million to Salk to set up a new laboratory for develop- mental neurob10logy. Dr. W. Maxwell Cowan, chairman of anatomy and neurobiology at Washington University in St. Louis, has been named director of the new facility. . Research topics will mclude such subjects as how cells m the bram develop into connected networks and the cellular processes involved in the aging of the brain. The institute received another major grant, this one from_ the Kresge Foundation of Troy, Mich., to extend the fac11It1es of its behavioral neurobiology center directed by Dr. Floyd Bloom. This center performs basic re- search on such subJects as the effect of undernutrition on the brain, the real nature of the aging process in the brain and the effects of alcohol on the central nervous system. Other Salk laboratories devoted to the neurosciences are the neuroendocrinology laboratory, the peptide biolo- gy laboratory, the neurobiology laboratory and the neuropsychology laboratory T~e ?ldest research facility in San Diego, Scripps Inst1tut10n .of Oceanography, had a budget of $49.8 million dunng fiscal 1978-79. Scripps kicked off the year with dedication ceremonies for a new 170-foot research vessel, the New Horizon, which officially joined the Scripps·"navy" in January. . The ship, the_ first acquired bY. Scripps since 1969, mcreases the size of the fleet to five ships and two platforms. In October another dedication ceremony was held for the S_cripps Satellite-Oceanography Facility, the first satellite tracking-station in the United States dedicated to ean studies. The satellite information will allow re- searchers to. analyze data such as ocean temperatures, wave nond1t10ns, water vapor and winds, as well as (Continued on X-51, Col. 1)

Research and development at San Diego's institutions and_ industries continued to grow-last year, bucking the national trend toward a decline in R&D spending and new facilities. "Th~ national outlook for both higller education and &D 1s one of decline," said Prof Tore TJersland, chamnan of economics at National University. "The results of declining funding nationally are outdated eqwpment, a shift from basic to applied research, less certamt, of Jong-term funding and fewer young scientists be~g trained · the natural_sciences," Tjersland says. But this is not the case rn San Diego." The value of research grants and contracts at local institutions, new facilities construction and local manu- factur11g employmmen all surged ahead dunng 1979 as t ey h:i.v hr ghout the decade. Jack Nowell, local labor market analyst for the state Employment Development Department,.says total man- ufacturmg employment - a reflection of the technologi- cal and R&D base of the community - rose more than 10 percent over the past year from 88,500 to about 100,000. Figures over the last 10 years indicate that the growth came m newer high technology fields and not in San Diego's traditional areas of strength such as aerospace, Now~ll sald for example, employment in aircraft and m1ss1le manufacturing declined 45 percent during the decade while electronics employment showed a 102 percent increase. Growth in industrial R&D rose 50 percent during the . past 10 years, from 6,000 to 9,000. "It's the driving force behmd !he rest of manufacturing although it's a small proport10n of the employment," Tjersland says The foundation for the whole commercial R&D base and the lure t.!Jat brought most of the high technology mdustry to the area are the strong institutional centers for basic research. By far the most important institution in San Diego's growth as a naliunal center for research and develop- ment is UCSD. The total staff and faculty employment of 10,758 makes UCSD one of the largest employers in the county. In total budget, UCSD rose from $247 million in 1978-79 ~o $278 million for the 9i9-80 yearJ..lli£..~s mrre s t e research budget trom $90.4 million in the last fis al year to $100 million in the present fiscal year. Tile more than 2,000 research projects range from space exploration to unraveling the workings of tl human mind. Cosmo~liemist_James Arnold and his colleagues have found, eVldence m moon rocks clarifying the origins of earth s ice ages. The team used new radioisotope techniques it created to extract a record of the sun's cosmic rays wh!ch struck lunar samples. They concluded that solar act1v1ty has hardly changed over the last two million y~ars..This .means the earth's ice ages, which occurred m this penod seem not to have been triggered by fluctuating solar temperatures. Astronomers Margaret Burbidge and Harding Smith are usmg some of the worWs largest telescopes to study quasars, or quasi-stellar radio sources, possibly the most dist.ant but powerful objects in the known universe. Another astronomer, Steven Willner, uses infrared spectroscopy_ to look at the birth and death of stars in the earth's Milky Way galaxy. Physicists Carl Mc!lwain and Walker Fillius have used nearly a dozen spacecraft to probe the magnetosphere& around earth, Jupiter and Saturn. At the Ce_nter fo_r_ Human Information Processing, re~earchers m cogmt1ve psychology are developing new ways to study the mind and the forces shaping it. The research focuses on how knowledge is stored and used and may eventually lead to ways to improve learning and performance. In another mtri uing field, CCSD scientists are work- mg to karo ow certain lJVing things harnvss light througli photos) nthesis. Biophysicist George Feher has spen~ 10 years studying the events triggered by light stnkmg phot synthetic bacteria, rhe simplest organism

JAMES MORIARTY ... studies application of tree-ring dating

Research Proiects Expand In County (Continued from X-50) certain aspects of sea life. · - Scientific applications of satellite oceanography in- clude long-range weather forecasting, better marine forecasts of wind and wave conditions, enhanced fisher- ies information and improved monitoring of shore pro- cesses and ocean pollution. Chief scientist for the facility is Dr. Robert L. Bernstein. Scripps scientists Dr. Robert R. Hessler and D_r. Kenneth L. Smitl), took part this year in an investigation of the recenUr afscovered deep-sea hot springs along the Galapagos 'Rift in the Pacific Ocean 400 miles west of Ecuador. Colorful marine communities thrive in the pitch black depths of the hot sprtngs with clams up to three feet across, huge mussels, white and yellow crabs snake-size worms, shrimp, starfish and many other organisms. San J;iiego State University is expected to secure a record $12.5 million in grants and contracts during 1979· 80, about $3.5 million of that in the College of Sciences. The scientific studies range from the ecology of tundra regions and the effects o' power plant discharges on kelp beds to earthquake research. At a more fundamental level, Dr. Herbert Lebherz is attempting to uncover the mechanisms which regulate the biochemical expressions of animal cells and the mechanisms responsible for establishing these biochemi- cal expressions during cellular differentiation. Lebherz says he wants to find which of these mechanisms break down in disease states such as diabetes and muscular dystrophy. In the physical and earth sciences, Dr. C. Monte Marshall is stu(lying evidence for a possible San Andreas-type fault zone in western Arizona. He says the results of his study of the magnetic directions in volcanic •rocks in Sol!thern and Baja California and western Mexico suggest that in the last 10 to 20 million years, Southern and Baja California have moved approximately 500 miles northward relative to mainland North Ameri- ca. Since the San Andreas fault is known to account for onl;r about 200 miles of- this displacement, the other 300 miles of movement may well have occurred on similar faults located further east,.Marshall theorizes. Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation, in addition to providing clinical medical services, maintains a highly :i. number of studies making use of newly developed methods for producing highly pure or "monoclonal" antibodies. Anti- bodies are the body's first line of defense against bacteria, viruses and other microbial invaders. Tiny man-created biologic factories called hybridomas can produce large amounts of these highly pure antibodies. At Scripps, scientists are working on ways to put these cellular factories to use in fighting cancer, improving the success of organ transplants and producing antibodies for various diagnostic tests. For the eighth consecutive year, Scripps Clinic has been named by the National Institutes of Health as one of the nation's 12 National Asthma and Allergic Disease Centers. The clinic receives funding for research aimed at identifying the biologic and immunologic mechanisms underlying allergies and asthma and developing better approaches to treatment of these disorders. The U.u,iyersity of San Qieeo also supports some notable research efforts although the primary emphasis for its faculty is teaching. Dr. James Moriarty m is studying the application of tree-ring dating to historic and prehistoric archeological sites in the county. Sister Patricia Shaffer is researching the effects of a class of enzymes (dioxygenases) which play important roles in the biosynthesis, transformation and degradation of es~ential amino acids, sugars, nucleic acids, vitamins and hormones. The lL§I_)· Envirnmental Studies Lab is directing a sewage reclamation project at the San Elijo Water Treatment Facility in Cardiff. The project converts raw sewage into clean water for recreational uses, irrigation, growth of cattle feed and the breeding of shrimp and small fish. · respected medical research program. Scripps researchers are involved in

SISTER PATRICIA SHAFFER

,;,.I* relating to enzymes

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EVENING TRIBUNE JAN 7 1980

QUOTABLE: Author James Michener discussed part-time or temporary academic posts here last week with both UCSD and llli.,Q. No decision yet; he's busv until fall finishing a novel about South Africa . Droll Michener ~bservations: "My two goab in life are to raise a pyracantha and drive through Baltimore." Trouble is, . his wife, Mari, explains, rabbits eat his pyra- cantha berries and he gets lost in Baltimore. Michener's written his own epitaph: "Here lies a man who never showed home movies or ordered vin rose. "

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DAILY TRANSCRIPT JAN 7 1980 --.~ .. "Tribune Practice and Chancery Procedure" will be offered by the Canon Law Institute starting today and running through Jan. 17 m Salomon Lecture Hall at t he University of San Diego. The program is designed for tho;e in- volved in diocesan tribunal practice. Tuition will be $150 per person.

EVENING TRIBUNE JAN 7 198

Mrs. James Toill-ion is taking reservations. Dr. Auth~r E. Hughes, president of the \iniversity Qf San D1e~o, and Mrs. Hughes will entertain members of the l.(SD President's Club at a black-tie d1~ner Jan. 26 m the James S. Copley Library of the umve~sity. This is the seventh annual such party honormg maJor donors to the university.

SOUTHERN CROSS JAN 1 0 1980

USQ history competition open to 6th-12th graders Reg ist ration is now social studies teache rs and members of the communi- ty.

LA JOLLA LIGHT JAN 1 O1980

available for students in grades six ·through 12 to compete in the San Diego region's National History Day, set for April 12 at the ld,niversity of San Diegq, The theme for National History Day 1980 is "The Individual in History." Students entering the contest may prepare pap- ers, films, demonstrations, plays or any other form of • presentat ion to ex pla in their theme. The Un iversity ot Sag ~will host the competi- tion , which will be judged by history professors at colleges and universitie~ professional staff member; of historical ·soc ieties,

"For more than a decade, en rollm ent in history courses has been declin- ing," said Dr. Ray Brandes, dean of Graduate School, and coordinator of National Hi story Day. "This program is de- si gned to help revi ve interest in hi story by allowing students to work outsiae the classrooms in an imaginative and creative manner." Teachers and students interested in participating in National His_tory Day 1980 can call the JJ.S.Q. Graduate School at :293~ 4524.

Registration is now available for students in grades six through twelve to compete in the San Diego region's National History Day, set for April 12, 1980, at the "Qniversity of San Diegfi>. The theme for National History Day 1980 is "The Individual In History." Students entering the contest may prepare papers, films, demon- strations , plays or any other form of presentation to explain their theme. . The U,JJiversity of Sao Diego ,will act as the host university for the competition, which will be judged by professors of history at colleges and universities, professional staff members of historical societies, social studies teachers and members of the community. Teachers and students i_nter~ted in par- ticipating in National History Day 1980, can call the ,USD,..Graduate School at 293•452f' •••

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