The University Record, September 18, 2000

Applause

Mulé named to NCI board

James Mulé, the Maude T. Lane Professor of Surgical Immunology, director of the graduate program in immunology and director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Tumor Immunology Program, has been named by the director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to serve on its 16-member Board of Scientific Counselors. As a board member, Mulé will be responsible for the review of the NCI intramural clinical research program and will serve as an adviser to the NCI director.

Regent White appointed to USPTO advisory panel

Regent Katherine E. White has been appointed by Acting Secretary of Commerce Robert L. Mallett to serve on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) Patent Public Advisory Committee. The committee was created by the 1999 American Inventors Protection Act to advise the USPTO director on the agency’s operations, including its goals, performance, budget and user fees. The committee has nine voting members and three non-voting positions for the agency’s unions. It is composed of independent inventors, lawyers, corporate executives, small entrepreneurs and academics with significant experience in management, finance, science, technology, labor relations and intellectual property issues.

White, assistant professor of law at Wayne State University, teaches patent law and enforcement. She was the 1999 recipient of a Fulbright Senior Scholarship Award to the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Patent, Copyright and Competition Law in Munich, Germany.

MEBTC awards grants to five U faculty

The Midwest Eye-Banks and Transplantation Center (MEBTC) has awarded research grants to five U-M faculty members. Grant recipients and proposed research topics are listed below.

  • Victor M. Elner, professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences, and associate professor of pathology, “A Murine Model of Graft vs. Host Disease Lacrimal Gland Inflammation and Destruction: Histopathology, Immunopathology and Intervention.”

  • Peter F. Hitchcock, associate professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences, and of anatomy and cell biology, “The Molecular Genetics and Biology of a Murine Model of Retinal Coloboma.”

  • Donald G. Puro, professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences, and of physiology, “Early Effects of Diabetes on Muller Cell Physiology.”

  • Frank W. Rozsa, research investigator, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, “Differential Gene Expression in Glucocorticosteroid-Induced Human Trabecular Meshwork Cells.”

  • Debra A. Thompson, associate professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences, and of biological chemistry, “Protein Interactions and Activities in Vitamin A Metabolism in the Retinal Pigment Eipthelium.”

    MEBTC focuses on corneal transplantation and supports preliminary research into the causes of blinding eye diseases.

    Waite, Comfort recognized at AUID conference

    Mary Waite and Kelly Comfort, interior designers, Plant Extension, were recognized at the Association of University Interior Designers (AUID) annual conference. Each designer won awards for projects submitted to the conference’s design competition.

    Waite received first place in the “Renovations $50,000–$150,000” category for her project, the Yuri Kochiyama Lounge.

    Comfort received second place in the “Renovations $50,000–$150,000” category for designing the Lawyers Club Main Lounge. She also received second place in “Renovations over $150,000” for her Housing Administration offices project.