UMBC HHMI Lab Student Researchers (left to right: Chun Tang; Isaac Kinde; and Erin Loeliger;)Not pictured: Samson Kyere.

A New Target in the Fight Against HIV
  

A team of researchers from academia and industry led by Dr. Michael Summers, UMBC professor of chemistry/biochemistry and Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Investigator, have discovered a new target on the HIV molecule that could potentially lead to a new class of drugs to fight the virus that causes AIDS. The discovery is the cover article of the April 11, 2003 Journal of Molecular Biology.

Summers and his team of undergraduate and graduate student researchers in his UMBC HHMI lab collaborated with Achillion Pharmaceuticals, a privately held drug firm based in New Haven, CT, and a group of researchers from Oregon Health and Science University on the discovery.

“The greatest challenge in treating HIV today is drug resistance brought on when the virus mutates and renders existing drugs ineffective at stopping viral replication,” said Summers. “Our research has led to the identification of a new class of compounds that inhibit a novel target in HIV. These compounds disrupt the assembly of the HIV-1 capsid protein, which is a vital step in changing immature, non-infectious HIV into its mature, infectious form.”

The discovery is all the more remarkable considering its origin – a group of two graduate and two undergraduate students working with Summers. The team includes biochemistry graduate student Chun Tang; sixteen-year-old college sophomore and Presidential Fellow Erin Loeliger; Meyerhoff Scholar and HHMI Undergraduate Scholar Isaac Kinde; and former Meyerhoff Scholar Samson Kyere, now an MD/PhD student at the University of Maryland, Baltimore.

According to Summers, “Investigators around the world have been looking at the HIV-1 capsid protein as a potential anti-viral drug target for more than a decade, and we are therefore particularly pleased to finally have solid leads to guide these efforts. While we are encouraged by the laboratory tests of the compounds we’ve identified so far, additional testing needs to be undertaken before this approach can be tested in humans.”

“This work is yet another pivotal achievement for Dr. Summers and his students,” says Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). “The fact that undergraduate students played pivotal roles in this research makes it even more impressive.”

The UMBC team’s research is funded in part by NIAID, a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), along with the National Institute of General Medical Sciences and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

 
Don Norris, UMBC’s resident expert on Maryland politics, is director of the Maryland Institute for Policy Analysis and Research (MIPAR).

A Passion for Maryland Politics

In an election year that featured one of the most spirited gubernatorial races in state history, Don Norris, UMBC�s resident expert on Maryland politics, was in high demand by regional and national media.

As director of the Maryland Institute for Policy Analysis and Research (MIPAR), Norris leads one of the region�s foremost centers for applied social science and public policy research. He also has become more well-known to Baltimore/Washington political observers by lending his expertise to The New York Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Post, The Marc Steiner Show, Maryland Public Television and other media.

Norris has been a �political junkie� almost his entire life. �As a child and teenager I was fascinated by politics and government, which were regular items of discussion among my family,� Norris says. Norris studied both history and political science as an undergrad, and went on to receive both a master�s and Ph. D. in government from the University of Virginia. He began following Maryland politics after moving here in 1986 and started looking closer at state elections when he came to UMBC in 1989.

According to Norris, Maryland has a unique political landscape that makes it intriguing to study. �The governor has incredible power,� he says. �Plus both houses of the legislature have four year terms, and are elected at the same time as the governor. Maryland has also traditionally been a one-party, liberal state, although that may change in the wake of this year�s gubernatorial election.�

On November 7, Norris moderated a post-election panel discussion at UMBC analyzing the 2002 Maryland General Election. The panel members were all political writers for Maryland newspapers and included The Baltimore Sun�s Howard Libit, The Washington Post�s Lori Montgomery, and The Baltimore Times� Associate Publisher Anthony McCarthy.

Norris thinks it�s too early to gauge the effect of Republican Robert Ehrlich�s historic election as Maryland governor. �It all depends on whom he installs, what his agenda is, how well he and the legislature work together, and the economy, among other factors,” Norris says. �I’m betting it will be pretty different; a more conservative policy and a more open operating style.�

Now that the election has passed, Norris, who is also a professor in UMBC�s Policy Sciences Graduate Program, can focus his attention on leading MIPAR, which continues to bring together UMBC faculty from a variety of social science fields to analyze important national and regional issues. Current MIPAR projects are examining issues like grassroots digital government, electric deregulation, child poverty, land preservation, the economic impact of community colleges, and public school financing.

MIPAR receives over $5 million in external funding annually and has been supported by a variety of organizations, including the National Science Foundation, the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the U. S. Social Security Administration, the A. S. Abell Foundation, the Morris Goldseker Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the American Library Association and various Maryland state government agencies, just to name a few.

One of Norris� favorite parts of his job takes place each spring. MIPAR conducts an annual, all-day seminar on Maryland state government for members of the U.S. Congressional Fellows program. The seminar connects the leaders of tomorrow with those of today, bringing 20 to 30 Fellows to the Maryland State House for presentations by state senators, delegates and secretaries of state.

�Giving the Fellows a chance to see how one model of state government operates is an important part of their education,� says Norris. �There’s nothing better for a political scientist than showing future leaders how the structure and processes of government and politics impact their daily lives.�

 
Claudia Lennoff ’91 recently received a Robert Wood Johnson Community Health Leadership Award.

An Advocate for the Uninsured

When community activist and 1991 UMBC graduate Claudia Lennhoff took the stage recently to receive a $120,000 award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for her work fighting for affordable healthcare for the uninsured, it was the culmination of a personal struggle.

Lennhoff was diagnosed with cancer fourteen years ago while she was an undergraduate psychology major and women’s studies minor at UMBC. She was between semesters that summer, and thus had no health insurance.

While doctors urged her to seek immediate treatment, she was unable to find a physician in Baltimore willing to treat her without insurance. Fortunately, her parents found a doctor in her hometown of San Antonio, Texas, who agreed to accept Lennhoff as his patient and she was able to make a full recovery.

�While (beating cancer) is not the motivation behind my work, it allowed me to see that the failures of the health care system have a lasting psychological impact as well as posing a threat to physical health,� Lennhoff says. �Being denied medical care leaves a real sense that one�s life is not considered important.� 

Lennhoff first became involved with the advocacy organization Champaign County Health Care Consumers (CCHCC) in 1995 while a graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Lennhoff became a full time community organizer at CCHCC in 1997 and was later named executive director in 1999.

She and her staff of four have led their 600 active volunteers in reinstating a popular Medicare program that eliminated out-of-pocket medical costs for low-income seniors and disabled citizens. CCHCC also worked to force the University of Illinois to provide contraceptive coverage for its employees.

In September, Lennhoff came to Washington, D.C. to receive one of 10 Robert Wood Johnson Community Health Leadership Program awards. Winners were chosen from 463 nominees across the country. Lennhoff believes that, in large part, her time at UMBC enabled her to move on to bigger and better things.

�Of all my academic experiences, my education at UMBC was, by far, of the highest quality,� she says, �It was the most challenging, had the most integrity, and allowed me to do the most growing, both personally and intellectually.�

Policy Sciences PhD graduate Keith Elder’s studies how race impacts America’s health care system.

Inquiries and Inequities in managed Care
  

In a time when health care is one of the most urgent issues in the U.S. political spectrum, Keith Elder, Ph.D. graduate from the UMBC Policy Sciences (POSI) Graduate Program, is examining the tough questions surrounding our nation’s health care system.

Elder’s dissertation examines the racial disparities in managed care between majority and minority physicians. Specifically, it looks at health care contracts between physicians and organizations (such as HMOs) and attempts to determine if there is any connection between termination or denial of contracts and ethnicity.

“Patient demographics impact the rate of contract denials and terminations,” says Elder. “The greater the percentage of Latino and African American patients a physician serves, the higher the probability that physician will have a contract denied. The larger the percentage of Asian patients a physician sees, the higher the probability the physician will have a contract terminated.”

“After examining certain economic market level variables, the differences still exist. Some may look to other explanations for these differences in rate of contract denial and termination – namely, discrimination,” Elder says. Nancy Miller, assistant professor of policy sciences, corroborates Elder’s results, stating that they “offer evidence that requires serious reflection and action on the part of policy makers.”

Elder’s research draws data from the Maryland Physician Survey developed and conducted by the Center for Health Program Development and Management at UMBC. He drew from a sample size of about 1200 people. Elder will present his research at a symposium the center is holding March 26, The Effect of Managed Care on Minority Physicians and Socially Vulnerable Populations in Maryland: Data Findings and Policy Alternatives.

Unfortunately, the inequity that Elder identified in his research is not a new pattern in health care. “Minority physicians have reported inequities for years,” says Elder. In a 1994 survey of minority physicians, Elder says that “over 90 percent believed that they had experienced some form of discrimination. The same physicians believed that any health care reform would place them at a disadvantage in the managed care selection process.”

In addition to the Policy Sciences faculty, UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski has also been of great help to Elder: “He’s always given me support,” says Elder. “He gave me direction in how to plan for my dissertation defense, personal insights, told me what research opportunities I should be involved in. He wanted to make sure when I left here that I was ready for every opportunity that crossed my radar.”

Elder graduated from UMBC last fall and is currently doing research analysis for the POSI program. Next semester, he will begin a position as assistant professor in the School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina. While he will teach a university course, he also plans to spend a lot of time pursuing his research interests: “I definitely hope to further examine aspects of managed care and racial disparity,” states Elder.

As program coordinator for The Commons, Norma Green developed an intercultural center that plays an important role at UMBC.

“Building a Future”
  

For the past 10 years, UMBC students from the University�s Habitat for Humanity  chapter and their advisor, Norma Green, have spent their spring break vacation working alongside hundreds of students in high-need areas across the country in a Habitat for Humanity International program called Collegiate Challenge. This year, from March 22 through 30, Green and 20 UMBC students will build houses in Florida.

In addition, on weekends throughout the semester, groups of UMBC students renovate houses in the West Baltimore community of Sandtown. To date, more than 200 UMBC students have helped build or rebuild over 50 houses in 12 communities along the East Coast.

Habitat got its start at UMBC 11 years ago as part of the �Into the Streets� program, a one-day service project meant to introduce students to community service opportunities on campus. Students helped out at Sandtown and come back each year, restoring houses sponsored by groups from Johns Hopkins, Towson and Goucher, among others.

The UMBC chapter began participating in Collegiate Challenge when Green was lobbied by then-Community Outreach Director Ramona Arthur and some students to head to Miami for Spring Break. �I had other plans, but Spring Break in Miami sounded alright,� said Green. �When they told me to bring my sleeping bag and flashlight I wondered what I had gotten myself into.�

Yet giving up her vacation time was not a stretch for Green, who has served without fanfare as a goodwill ambassador and role model both on and off campus, reflecting the community service values the University seeks to instill in its students. By nature, Green is always concerned about the welfare of others, asking insightful questions about the needs of her communities, how those needs can be addressed, and how her energies can best be channeled to improve the lives of others. She seeks always to promote and underscore the value of education, cross-cultural understanding, self-reliance and people�s hope.

As program coordinator for The Commons, Green developed an intercultural center that plays an important role on campus. Members of UMBC�s diverse student body come together to reaffirm their own cultural values by engaging in familiar cultural activities and to interact with and learn from others about different cultures.

In addition to Green�s efforts over her 20-year career at UMBC, her work with the �Gardens of Hope� project in Baltimore City yields produce not only for people living in local shelters but also for the communities that tend the gardens and grow in self-reliance. She is also president of her community association, secretary for the Pennsylvania Avenue Redevelopment Collaborative and a member of its umbrella organization. Green�s dedication has earned her many honors, including a 2001 USM Board of Regents Staff Award, a Governor�s Citation for her work with the Maryland Charity Campaign and a citation from her state delegate for her commitment to Habitat for Humanity.

Although the Habitat for Humanity Collegiate Challenge accommodations are usually sleeping bags on the floor of a church or community center, Green says the results are worth it. �My work with Habitat for Humanity is one of the most rewarding things that I do,� she says. �I see how much we can accomplish to help others, and watch our students develop leadership skills. It�s an incredible experience.�

Current and past participants are invited to contact Norma Green regarding an upcoming UMBC Habitat for Humanity reunion.

/b> to address the longstanding issues surrounding the gender gap in IT.

CWIT Advisory Board Member Anne Spence, a lecturer in the Department of Mechanical Engineering with a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering, understands the challenges of being a woman in a technical field. �One of my college professors told me that women should not be engineers, so I got the highest grade in the class to prove him wrong,� she says. �When I graduated with my degree I had six job offers. I did encounter initial resistance as an engineer at Bell Helicopter, but I was always able to get rid of the resistance by proving myself.�

�Motivating girls to get involved in IT requires that we offer opportunities for them to work with computers in non-threatening environments,� Spence adds. �Computer Mania is one of those environments. It also gives the girls an opportunity to meet role models � from college age women to business leaders and college faculty.�

Spence believes that Computer Mania will help diminish the �geek� stereotype that discourages young girls from IT and will provide resources to help them understand the importance of technology in every aspect of their lives. �Most girls start to lose interest in math and science during middle school. It is crucial that we keep them engaged during those years to make sure that they are taking upper level math, science, computer and engineering courses when they reach high school,� she says.

As a child, Spence says that both she and her brother were �raised to do anything we wanted to do. My father was an engineering professor and my mother an elementary school teacher. Often, we would go to a field near our house to launch the model rockets we had built � I thought that was normal! So it never really occurred to me that I could not succeed.�

Because not every young girl is so lucky, Spence set out to provide mentors for her female students at UMBC. She is advisor for the University�s chapter of Mentor Net, a national program that provides mentors for women studying engineering and computer science. �Some of the young women in my classes are not only the first member of their family to major in engineering but they are often the first member of their family to attend a university,� she explains. �This is a very difficult position since, often, they have very little support from home. That’s where my own role as mentor comes in to play. I can encourage them and show them that women can succeed in the field.�

Spence hopes to continue inspiring both girls and boys alike to learn more about engineering at an earlier age. She recently received a grant from the National Science Foundation to develop a program that will introduce engineering in middle and high school algebra classes across Maryland. �The students will see how algebra is used to solve engineering problems, not just how many apples and oranges you can buy for one dollar,� she says. When she�s not at UMBC, Spence is incorporating practical hands-on projects and engineering challenges at Oak Hill Elementary in her hometown of Severna Park, Maryland.

Diane Bell-McKoy has been named UMBC’s Distinguished Alumna for 2003.

Empowering Baltimore  

Diane L. Bell-McKoy, who graduated from UMBC in 1973 with a B.A. in Sociology/Social Work, has been named UMBC�s Distinguished Alumna for 2003.

After almost 20 years working with drug treatment programs and poverty issues, and as an advocate for children, Diane Bell-McKoy took the reins as president and CEO of the Empower Baltimore Management Corporation in 1994. She has faced the challenge of bringing together people from different backgrounds with varying experiences and beliefs to put together and carry out a collective vision.

Under her leadership, Baltimore�s Empowerment Zone has had unparalleled success and has become a national and international model. Bell-McKoy and her staff, in partnership with others in the business community, have seen the creation of 5,000 new jobs and helped 8,000 unemployed city residents find work. Empower Baltimore has also created new initiatives, such as a Hospital Hopkins and University Hospital program, which has trained hospital workers and upgraded them to work as surgical technicians.

In her previous position as deputy chief of staff to the Honorable Kurt L. Schmoke, former mayor of Baltimore, Bell-McKoy spearheaded the development of an agency dedicated to the delivery of both human services and community capacity building assistance; designed and implemented a new policy structure to guide the mayor in matters related to social capital (The Mayor�s Human Services Sub-Cabinet); designed the City�s rebuilding policies committee; served as the chair of the Sandtown-Winchester Initiative in partnership with the Jim Rouse Enterprise Foundation; and designed the City�s first Youth Leadership Program.

“Diane is a distinguished alumna who is precisely the kind of citizen that UMBC strives to graduate,” says Cynthia M. Hill, assistant vice provost, who nominated Bell-McKoy for the award. “Her strong liberal education is effectively blended with a strong sense of social responsibility. She is in every sense a leader with an extraordinary ability to forge collaborations among government, business, and community entities to increase social capital and improve the quality of life for those who might otherwise remain
disenfranchised.”

At the annual Alumni Awards Reception and Ceremony on April 24, UMBC also             honored:

Outstanding Alumna of the Year

Adrienne A. Jones

B.A., Psychology ’76

Speaker Pro Tem, Maryland House of Delegates

Community Leadership Award

Emma Byrne

B.A., Sociology ’70

Retired Teacher, Baltimore City Schools

Alumni Volunteer of the Year

Robert Baruch

B.S., Computer Science ’89

President, CEO and Founder, Raba Technologies, Inc.

In addition to celebrating the achievements of UMBC alumni, over 40 student scholarship and award recipients were recognized.

 
Frank Reeves ’86 invented the Rage Cage, a portable regulation lacrosse goal.

Inventing the Rage Cage

One might call Frank Reeves� invention � the Rage Cage� the �laptop� of the lacrosse world. That is, he has taken the heavy and cumbersome standard NCAA lacrosse goal and transformed it into a portable regulation version, which teams easily can set up, break down and transport. In three years, Reeves� Severn, Md.-based company, First Goal, has sold 500 Official Rage Cages and has pre-orders for 20 Rage Cage Practice goals, a less expensive spin-off of the official version, which is perfect for the backyard.

This former UMBC lacrosse player�a 1986 information systems management alumnus who worked at NASA-Goddard and several high-tech companies as a systems administrator before becoming an inventor�doesn�t plan to stop with lacrosse goals; he sees soccer, street hockey and water polo in his future. Reeves also hopes to apply his patented joint technology (the mechanism that makes the goals collapsible) to other arenas including road signs and M.A.S.H. tents.

Read more alumni profiles at www.umbc.edu/generations.

 
Taryn Bayles gets freshmen excited about science through competitive, hands-on projects.

Making Engineering Exciting

If you�re strolling across the UMBC campus and happen upon a catapult contraption flinging water balloons across a field or homemade hot air balloons floating high above the Engineering and Computer Science building atrium, be sure to look for Taryn Bayles.

Bayles is an energetic and inspiring lecturer in UMBC�s Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering who specializes in getting freshmen excited about science through competitive, hands-on projects.

Three years ago, Bayles came to UMBC and began teaching ENES 101 � Introduction to Engineering Science. In addition to class lectures, Bayles ends each semester with a competition that puts theoretical principles into some fun, real-life use.

Bayles prides herself with coming up with a new contest each year. To date the competitions have revolved around human-powered water pumps, water balloon catapults and model hot-air balloons. The idea being that formulas and physical laws are easier to understand when students are using them to do something fun —  launching projectiles at a target, or seeing whose mini hot-air balloon stays aloft the longest.

�I like to have my students build things,� Bayles says. �The freshmen are always very creative. They come up with innovative things that a senior may not have thought of.�

Bayles likes to be hands-on as well, even making herself the target for the final stage of the water balloon catapult contest this spring. She also makes sure the materials are inexpensive, use only simple tools and require very little technical background since all the competitors are just starting out in college.

Bayles� passion for making science education fun goes beyond her own classes. Since coming to UMBC, she has worked with Anne Spence, a lecturer in mechanical engineering and Claudia Morrell, director of planning and grants at the Center for Women and Information Technology, on four National Science Foundation grants for engineering education outreach.

One grant puts UMBC students in area high school science classrooms to give hands-on engineering demonstrations. Another project is developing a CD-ROM of engineering based algebra lessons to help high schools comply with a new Maryland law making algebra a required course. Other grants are funding a video project on women and technology and scholarships for computer science and engineering students.

�These grants work two ways,� Bayles says. �UMBC students get class management skills from teachers while the teachers get engineering knowledge from the students.� Bayles also teaches courses in Chemical Engineering Analysis, Transport Phenomena II and has taught a summer course for high school teachers and guidance counselors to help them better use engineering principles in their classrooms.

Bayles’ commitment to her students doesn�t end when they graduate. She often uses her extensive private sector background to help former students find summer jobs with industry leaders like DuPont. �I encourage all of my students to do research at another university or a summer internship so they can be sure they want to pursue a career in engineering,� Bayles says.

When she�s not working hard as an advocate for science education at UMBC, Bayles� top priority is her two children. But even at home, it�s tough to take the engineer out of the mom. Bayles is proud that, in addition to being very involved in the PTA, she also regularly teaches hands-on science classes at her children�s elementary school.

 
UMBC’s Ram Hosmane is the 2002 Maryland Chemist of the Year

Maryland Chemist of the Year

UMBC chemistry professor Ramachandra “Ram” Hosmane was named the Maryland Chemist of the Year by the Maryland division of the American Chemical Society in a ceremony on December 11 in Towson.

Hosmane, a faculty member at UMBC for 20 years, was honored for his career contributions to biomedical research, including the development of anti-cancer and anti-viral drugs as well as for creation of a powdered, artificial blood mix for use in emergency transfusions.

Hosmane is the third UMBC chemist to be named Chemist of the Year since the Society began giving the award in 1962. “This award is well-deserved recognition for the outstanding contributions that Ram Hosmane has made to synthetic and medicinal chemistry.” says Ralph Pollack, UMBC chemistry department chair and professor.

“I was surprised and shocked to win this honor,” says Hosmane. “I thought had little chance of winning it considering the fact that the nominations come from all over Maryland, including academia, industry and government.”

Hosmane’s recent breakthroughs include development of bulkier and leaner
forms of the natural building blocks of genetic material, nucleosides and nucleotides. The compounds have shown potential to fight against cancers including prostate, breast, lung, leukemia, colon, skin, kidney, brain and ovarian. The compounds also show promise against a dozen different viral infections, the major ones being hepatitis B and C, West Nile and herpes.

Hosmane’s artificial blood invention holds promise as a universal substitute for whole blood during emergency transfusions. The artificial blood requires no typing or cross-matching, is free of bacteria or viruses and is storable as a dry powder for indefinite periods of time. It can be carried to the scene of accident and administered as a buffered salt solution in water without having to transport the patient to the
nearest hospital.

Since joining the UMBC faculty in 1982, Hosmane has contributed well over a hundred original research articles in peer-reviewed, international scholarly journals and he is also the author of a half-dozen patents and disclosures on a variety of themes. He has been continuously funded since 1984 by both federal agencies and industrial partnerships. In addition to his research endeavors, Hosmane has trained
more than 75 scientists from all over the world, including undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, visiting scientists and visiting professors.

Two years ago, Hosmane won the “Outstanding Educator of the Year” award from the Maryland Association for Higher Education (MAHE). He was the UMBC Presidential Research Professor during 1998-2001, and has been the Provost’s Exceptional Sponsored Research Fellow ever since that program was initiated at UMBC.