USC flexes muscle
Men’s tennis advanced to the national championship with a 4-3 victory against Tennessee Volunteers /12
SINCE 1912
SUMMER TROJM
Student newspaper bf the University of Southern California
WEDNESDAY
May 22, 2002
Of interest...
A Class Act' isn’t without its flaws, but Edward Kleban would be proud / 5
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vol. CXLVI, no. 2
www.dailytrojan.com
Students victims of armed attacks in neighborhood
Crime: Three robberies, two at Cardinal Gardens and one on 29th Street are under investigation
By BETH COOMBS
Contributing Writer
Two USC students were held at gunpoint at Cardinal Gardens, while a third was held at knifepoint in three separate incidents the week before graduation, according to the Department of Public Safety Web site.
None of the students were injured during the armed robberies, which occurred on May 5,6, and 7.
The robberies are still under investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department, said Chief of Public Safety Steven Ward.
The first robbery occurred at Cardinal Garden Apartments when a suspect holding a handgun approached a'student from behind and demanded her purse. The suspect grabbed the purse then ran away.
The next day, a student a student returned to his apartment at Cardinal Gardens to find a suspect robbing it, according to the DPS Web site. The student saw the suspect picking up his stereo and confronted the suspect. The suspect dropped the stereo and left. The student followed the suspect until he pointed a handgun at the student. The suspect then got into a nearby vehicle with another suspect and they drove away.
On May 7, a student was walking down 29th Street when two suspects
jumped out of a parked van, according to the DPS Web site. One held a knife and demanded the student’s property while the second suspect took money and keys from the student’s pants pockets. The suspects told the student to walk away and then they returned to the van and drove off.
DPS does not believe the incidents were related, despite the short time frame in which the occurred and similarities in the descriptions of suspects, Ward said.
"This is the time of year when students are most vulnerable. Students need to be as careful as they are during the school year"
ED HALL sergeant Department of Public Safety
“There is no reason to think they are related," Ward said. “It’s possible but there’s not enough information.” DPS issued a special crime alert bulletin about the robberies to make students aware of the incidents.
“We have to try to get the information out," Ward said, “particularly when they are serious, as these were.” The three robberies represent a large part of the total number of robberies that take place around campus. In 2000 there were eight robberies on campus, three on non-campus area and 11 on public property, according the DPS Web site.
Mason Poole I Summer Trojan
Renovation nation. Two construction workers assess the progress as the Annenberg School for Communication undergoes much-needed expansion to create a media room, a graduate lounge and a patio reception area.
75 sites under construction
Improvements: Over $100
million in renovations are underway this summer
By ADINA DIAMOND
Staff Writer
Seventy-five renovation and construction projects worth more than $100 million are under way this summer on the University Park and Health Sciences campuses, Facilities Management officials said.
The largest project is the addition of the $60-million Neurogenetics Research Center, according to Jon Soffa, executive director of planning, design and construction management services. The 125,000-square-foot center should be completed by spring 2003.
The construction of new buildings and large-scale additions is
unusual during the summer because such projects require more than three months to complete, Soffa said.
The Annenberg School for Communication began a $6.3-million renovation the week after commencement to add 10,500 square feet of office and academic space on the north side of the building, Soffa said.
The project will be finished during the spring 2003 semester and is being funded by Annenberg and USC, said Geoffrey Baum, Public Affairs director of the Annenberg School.
On the ground level, the building will be expanded and a new media room will be added. The Online Journalism Review, an electronic publication, will be housed on the ground level in addition to areas for student use, Baum said.
Annenberg Student Services, which is responsible for advisement, recruitment and career assistance,
will move from the ground floor to the first “to really expand our services for students,” Baum said. The ground level will be transformed into office space and a lounge for graduate students and teaching assistants, he said.
“Our No. 1 priority is students,” said Journalism School Associate Dean Joe Saltzman. “The whole first floor is for students.”
On the second floor, a seminar classroom and an outdoor patio reception area will be added, Baum said.
Saltzman said the patio will make Annenberg more sociable and will be a great place for students to gather.
Builders are also adding pathways from the east to west wings to make it easier for students to navigate the notoriously complicated building, Baum said.
The construction will not affect
I	see Renovations, page 31
Drugs to combat Alzheimer’s, dementia identified
Disease
Data
Dementia is caused mainly by Alzheimer’s disease, a disorder that results in the loss of brain cells.
People afflicted with dementia have an unusually high concentration of Amyloid beta-Peptide, a protein. This protein causes the disease.
Research: USCfaculty finds two drugs that may lead to cure for degenerative diseases
By GUNJAN SHARMAN
Staff Writer
Researchers at USC have recently identified two drugs that may be the first step toward a cure for dementia, which is caused mainly by Alzheimer’s disease, a disorder that results in the loss of brain cells.
Valter Longo, the Paul Glenn Chair of Biogerontology, and Caleb Finch, the ARCO/William F. Kieschnick Chair in the Neurobiology of Aging at the gerontology school, along with two graduate students, have identified the culprit chemical molecule, that destroys brain cells and two drugs that combat the molecule thus preventing loss of brain cells, the researchers said.
A two-year four-person research
initiative sponsored by the National Institutes of Health-National Institute of Aging, the John Douglas French Foundation and The Alzheimer’s Association have helped find the cure for dementia.
Currently, practitioners can barely do anything to prevent or arrest the progress of the disease.
“If we delay it by five to 10 years, we probably decrease it by 50 percent,” Longo said.
Longo and Finch will study animal models of Alzheimer’s disease in mice that are genetically modified to carry human forms of Alzheimer’s. Later they will work with companies that conduct clinical trials and if successful, the drugs will be commercially available, the researchers said.
“In a year and a half, we will know if it has the potential in human models Alzheimer's” Longo said.
People afflicted by dementia have an unusually high concentra-
SCIENCE & TECH
-------♦ —-
tion of a certain protein, Amyloid beta-Peptide (beta-Amyloid) which is a cause of dementia.
Beta-Amyloid kills neurons or brain cells by stimulating the brain cells to create a chemical that is toxic to neurons, Finch said.
Most of the toxicity is related to Peroxy-Nitrite (a chemical molecule) Finch added.
The Amyloid beta-Peptide activates Microglia, a type of brain cell involved in an immune-like response, to produce Peroxy-Nitrite, Longo said. Peroxy Nitrite kills brain cells.
The researchers-approached the problem by doing a series of experi-
ments to identify the killer molecule. They were then able to develop a drug that inhibited the enzyme that produces the Peroxy-Nitrite.
The drug is not .commercially available yet, but because current research barely understands the human brain, the number of steps to get to a commercially available cure is difficult to identify, the researchers said.
“The question of how long is an impossible question to answer...” Finch said. "It takes 10 years and roughly $200 million of investment.”
While efforts at USC and elsewhere continue to make progress, and we wait for the results.
“There is as much a chance of success as there is of failure,” Longo said.
The results of their experiments have been published in the May issue of The Journal of Neuro-Science.
“ The question of how long is an impossible question to answer...”
It takes 10 years and roughly 200 million dollars of investment" —♦— CALEB FINCH ARCO/ William F. Kieschnick chair neurobiology of aging