December 2003: Vol. 83, No. 1December 2003: Vol. 83, No. 1 |
UGA in the news |
 HISTORY PROF EARNS "GENIUS AWARD" In its Oct. 5 issue, The New York Times listed this year's 24 recipients of $500,000 "genius awards," given by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. UGA history professor Eve Troutt Powell was among those honored with this most coveted award, becoming UGA's first MacArthur recipient and the only one from the southeastern U.S. this year. The award, which originated in 1981, is considered "an investment in recipients' originality, insight, and potential" for future growth and accomplishments. (Look for a feature on Powell in the March '04 issue of GM.)
|
The National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), a component of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded a five-year grant of $6.7 million to a team headed by UGA scientists for research that could eventually help in the treatment of certain kinds of cancer and Parkinson's Disease.
The grant is co-sponsored by the National Cancer Institute and it represents an important step for the Georgia Cancer Coalition, in which UGA is collaborating with the Medical College of Georgia to form the Georgia Cancer Research Center.
 Principal investigator Pierce says the grant will help researchers isolate nerve cells involved in the treatment of cancer, Parkinson's. |
The large-scale cooperative project will include researchers from UGA, Yale, Georgia Tech, the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, Bresagen, Inc., as well as scientists from Japan.
The research funded by the grant will focus on technologies to map the "glycome" of stem cell lines established by Bresagen, a private research company with offices and laboratories in Athens. "Glycome" describes all the complex carbohydrates attached to proteins and lipids that are made by a cell, as well as the enzymes responsible for their metabolism. It also describes the carbohydrate binding proteins that function by recognizing these complex carbohydrates.
This technology will allow the glycomic analysis of small numbers of cells and the means to isolate or kill those cells. The expected outcome will be directly applicable to the isolation of certain types of nerve cells for treatment of such diseases as Parkinson's, as well as new ways to diagnose and treat cancer.
"We are delighted that our work is increasingly drawing this kind of support," says Michael Pierce, principal investigator for the grant and a UGA faculty member at the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center, as well as in the department of biochemistry and molecular biology. "It demonstrates the high quality of our faculty and staff at the CCRC and at UGA."
Bus driver's odometer: 35 years, 1 million miles, 7 million passengers
The last mile
On Dec. 16, John "Buster" Kittle will park University bus 94279 in the transit system lot, switch off the ignition, and walk away from 35 years of ferrying passengers around the UGA campus.
 Kittle is always on time, and riders swear they can tell if he's at the wheel because his bus never lurches, sways, or speeds. |
Kittle's retirement will close an era. He is the last active driver of the small group that started the UGA bus system in 1967. Having driven 1 million miles and tallied some 7 million passenger trips, Kittle has also set a standard for dependability. He has never had a serious accident and never injured a passenger. That's a legacy that will be hard to beat.
"He's as dependable as they come," says transit director Ron Hamlin. "He's an institution."
Kittle turned 65 on Oct. 25, and will actually complete 40 years of overall service to the University when he retires. He is by far the most senior transit system employee (the person with the next-longest tenure started work in '83), and he is a mentor and father figure to his colleagues, who this year honored him by putting his photo on the cover of the system's rider's guide.
Born and raised in Jackson County, Kittle quit school and was helping on the family farm when his father, who worked in the UGA air conditioning shop, urged him to come to work for the University.
Kittle went to work for UGA the week President Kennedy was shot, and has never had a serious accident behind the wheel.
Kittle started at UGA on Nov. 18, 1963, the week President Kennedy was assassinated. In the beginning, he drove trucks and tractors for the physical plant. When UGA began its bus system four years later, he was hired to drive one of the seven buses that made up the first fleet.
Those first buses were 1949-50 Army surplus clunkers that had a front door the driver had to swing open with a handle, and a rear-end emergency door that Kittle often had to close himself after students jumped out. The manual gearshift was so stiff "you wore your leg out changing from first to second," Kittle recalls. Students had to drop a nickle in a money box to ride.
Back then, there were only two routes: one north-south and the other east-west. More were added as the system grew, and over the years Kittle has driven most of the six routes that the current fleet of 43 buses follow. But he's most familiar to riders of the north-south route, which he's driven for the last two decades.
"I just love driving," says Kittle when asked about his longevity. "I like meeting people. I enjoy seeing the students."
He's up every morning at 4:30 a.m. and at the transit lot by 6:30. After checking over his bus, he drives to the Human Resources building where his route begins. For the next seven hours, with a break for lunch, he deftly guides the lumbering, 40-foot-long, 13-ton vehicle through campus streets clogged with traffic and pedestrians. Every two to three minutes he stops to take on and let off passengers, following a precise schedule that enables him to complete the nearly two-mile loop from human resources to family housing in about 36 minutes. By the end of his day's shift, he's logged 56 miles.
Kittle is known for sticking to his schedule while giving his passengers a smooth, calm ride. Some long-time riders swear they know he's driving the moment they see his bus coming because it doesn't lurch, sway, or speed.
Behind the steering wheel, he is deceptively relaxed, seemingly oblivious to the din of chatter and laughter echoing through the bus, which often is filled to nearly twice its 43-passenger capacity. But his eyes constantly dart from crowded streets to clogged sidewalks, always alert for careless drivers and pedestrians.
"It's scary every day," he says. "Students don't pay attention. They'll walk out in front of you, then look at you like you're crazy."
Kittle likes students and they like him. Many give him a friendly greeting when they board, and thank him when they get off. Several have asked him to autograph the rider's guide. Former students who return to campus are delighted to see him, and some have sent him cards and notes.
He says some of his best memories harken back to when he used to drive the glee clubs and Redcoat Band on charter trips to Savannah, Panama City, and Disneyland. His status as senior driver also gives him the privilege of driving one of the buses that carries the football team to and from Sanford Stadium, and he's become friends with many players.
When asked how he will feel when he walks away from his bus for the last time, a pensive look crosses Kittle's face. He hesitates a moment, then says softly: "I'm pretty tender-hearted. I might cry."
Genetically engineered cottonwoods tackle toxic mercury contamination
Trees that clean
Can genetically engineered cottonwood trees clean up a site contaminated with toxic mercury? A team of UGA researchers—in the first such field test ever done with trees—is about to find out.
 A pioneer in phytoremediation, Meagher was the first to demonstrate that a gene called merA can be inserted into plants and used to detoxify mercury in the environment. |
|
"We hope to see a significant difference in the levels of mercury in the soil within 18 months, perhaps as much as a twofold reduction," says UGA genetics professor Richard Meagher.
The field test is a collaboration between UGA, Western Connecticut State, Applied PhytoGenetics of Athens, and the City of Danbury.
While the technology now being used in Danbury does not apply to all sites, mercury pollution is a pervasive problem in Georgia, as it is elsewhere. The site of a former chemical factory near Brunswick, for example, is polluted with mercury and other toxic chemicals. Mercury contamination has been reported around the sites of former gold mines in north Georgia, and advisories have been issued during the past decade for mercury-contaminated fish in more than 80 streams, lakes, and creeks in the state.
Meagher's team did the first-ever field trial of a genetically engineered plant to sequester mercury when it grew transgenic tobacco in a New Jersey field trial in 2001. But this is the first such trial using trees, whose larger root systems and year-round life cycle make them better candidates for long-term cleaning of polluted soil.
Phytoremediation is a relatively new field and one gaining international interest. A team of photographers working for National Geographic, for instance, spent considerable time with Meagher capturing his work on film as part of a four-part documentary that is expected to air some time this winter.
Meagher is a pioneer in phytore-mediation; he was the first to demonstrate that a gene called merA can be inserted into plants and used to detoxify mercury in the environment. While no plant can break mercury down, since it is an element, less toxic forms can be created, and that has been the goal of Meagher's lab: to find ways to let plants or trees grow on polluted sites, draw such heavy metals as mercury into the plants themselves, and then either transpire the much less toxic forms of the metal into the air where they are quickly diffused or trap the metal above ground for later harvest.
Danbury got an EPA grant of more than $55,000 to explore use of the technology.
"This is a field test, not a cleanup," says Meagher. "We will be measuring mercury in both the soil and the trees to see just how much success we have in reducing levels in the soil. We are very optimistic that this technology will work."
While the trees at the site will have to be watered, the costs pale in comparison to traditional clean-up methods—digging up the polluted soil and hauling it off for storage at another site, possibly greater than $1 million. The field test is expected to run through the 2004 growing season, and if results are positive, genetically engineered cottonwood trees will be used to clean the whole site.
