Alumnus produces video shown at national ball
Michael Kaneff ’13 contributed a self-produced video to the Muscular Dystrophy Association’s annual Black-N-Blue Ball, which raised more money this year than ever before for MDA summer camps and research.
Shown at the ball in Reading, Pa., the documentary was produced during Kaneff’s senior year at Ithaca College and features two boys with muscular dystrophy from the Syracuse area.
MD is a genetic condition, characterized by the degeneration and death of muscle tissues. It also affects other body systems, such as the heart and pancreas. Patients experience symptoms such as delayed development of motor skills, mental disability and sometimes death. Currently, there is no cure for the disease.
After his mother was diagnosed with MD in 2004, Kaneff began producing videos for the national MDA in 2006.
His 2006 documentary, which was also his first, focuses on the lives of several young Americans affected by MD.
Kaneff’s local MDA chapter helps him in his search for MD patients for his videos. He then interviews them and picks out the segments that best convey the message of the MDA, which funds more than 300 research grants across the world, where researchers work to find treatments for the 43 different types of MD.
Cornell lab fights cancer with new protein method
A Cornell University biomedical research team published cancer research in which nanoparticles are used to prevent metastasis, the spreading of cancer cells to distant organs, in the bloodstream.
The surface of each particle has two proteins, E-selectin and tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand.
The technique introduces the proteins into the bloodstream to stick to all of the white blood cells. If a cancer cell travels through the bloodstream and bumps into one of these modified white blood cells, the cancer cell will die from the collision.
Michael King, professor of biomedical engineering at Cornell, leads the team, which published its findings in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
When King’s team tested the technique in the laboratory, the success rate of destroying cancerous cells was nearly 100 percent.
The research may lead to the elimination of 90 percent of cancer deaths in the future. Currently, the treatment methods of radiation and surgery have difficulty killing metastic cancer cells.
The team’s procedure has been successful in human blood samples as well as in live mice, targeting colon and prostate cancer cells. They are conducting long-term animal experiments, but King said human clinical trials could be several years away.
Students perform concert for abuse victims in India
Members of the Dillingham Class of 2014 will perform the third annual Wheels4Women Cabaret at 4 p.m. Jan. 26 in Dillingham Center. This year, the senior class will perform a variety of musical numbers and spoken-word pieces with one common theme — hope.
Wheels4Women is an Ithaca College student organization dedicated to providing vehicles and training for residents of the SAKHI shelter of India, a crisis intervention center and shelter for victims of domestic violence, so that they may become licensed rickshaw drivers. The goal is to help the residents achieve financial independence for themselves and their children. For more information,
see www.wheels4women.org.
Concert benefits children affected by war in Syria
The IC Greens are sponsoring a benefit concert called Songs for Syria from 7–10 p.m. Jan. 24 in Emerson Suites. Admission is $5, and all proceeds will be donated to the United Nations Children’s Fund’s Syrian Refugee fund to help children in the war-torn region.
Additional donations are accepted.
Performing groups such as Ithacappella, VoiceStream, Premium Blend, the Mighty Jets, the Amani Gospel Singers and more will perform.
Guest to discuss respect at annual cultural lunch
The fifth annual Engaging Communities Luncheon event will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Feb. 20 in Emerson Suites. The topic of discussion is the notion of a respectful community in the work area.
This year’s guest speaker is Craig B. Clayton Sr., director and diversity strategist with the University of Houston’s International Institute for Diversity and Cross Cultural Management. Clayton provides expertise to a variety of global companies on building respectful organizational cultures and becoming a culturally competent organization.
During this event, Clayton will share the many forms of workplace bullying and derailing behaviors, and discuss specific ways that higher education institutions can begin to drive these behaviors out of their environment. He will also provide resources and techniques for working with derailing behaviors.
RSVP is required by Feb. 4 at www.ithaca.edu/hr/engagingcommunities/.
Local ceremony to honor Holocaust remembrance
Kol Haverim, the Finger Lakes Community for Humanistic Judaism, will hold a ceremony in honor of the U.N.’s International Holocaust Remembrance Day, at 2 p.m. Jan. 25 at the Lifelong Center.
The event will include a short ceremony and a guest presentation by David Kay, senior extension associate at Cornell University. Kay will discuss the trips he took with his father, a Holocaust survivor, to Heidelberg, Germany.
Kay and his father have traveled to Heidelberg three times since 2001. The two go to attend remembrence events, in which former
jewish residents who fled the Nazis are invited back. The event is free and open to the Ithaca community.
Green party candidate for Senate to visit Ithaca
LeAlan Jones, an award-winning journalist, inspirational speaker and Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate, will speak at 7 p.m. Feb. 6 at the Ithaca Youth Bureau.
Jones is a co-author of “Our America: Life and Death on the Southside of Chicago.” He was 13 when he began working on the book with his best friend and co-author Lloyd Newman.
The book tells Jones’ life story set in Chicago’s Ida B. Wells housing project. Jones and Newman also spent time recording their stories and stories of others. These recordings were also turned into the award-winning NPR series titled “Ghetto Life 101.”
