Synapse (11.20.14)

IN THIS ISSUE

Events » PAGE 2 Diversity » PAGE 4 Puzzles » PAGE 6 Career » PAGE 6

COLUMN

CONTEST

Two UCSF programs offer fun incentives to avoid overindulgence. » PAGE 8

We kick off our brand new caption contest and welcome you to submit entries via social media: » BACK PAGE

Fitness challenge for Thanksgiving

Name that Wookie!

SynapseNewspaper

The UCSF Student

synapse.ucsf.edu | Thursday, November 20, 2014 | Volume 59, Number 4

Campus honors veterans’s service

UCSF celebrated the dedication

and service of our nation’s veteran and military service members with musical performances by the Chamber Music Society and the Vocal Chords.

The program ended with a presentation on military medical advancements over the past century by retired Navy Reserve Capt.

Kristine Warner, MEPN director and assistant dean of nursing.

Breakthrough Prize symposium celebrates scientists as celebrities

By Hanna Starobinets Staff Writer

Actors like Jon Hamm and Cameron Diaz are no strangers to extravagant events such as the Oscars or Emmys, but at a recent gala they attended in Silicon Valley something was different: Scientists were the stars.

The 2015 Breakthrough Prize winners were announced Nov. 9 at a ceremony at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley. The event was catered by esteemed restaurant The French Laundry. Hosted

by Seth MacFarlane, it included celebrity award presenters such as Hamm, Diaz, Benedict Cumberbatch and Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX. Several news sites have referred to the prize as the “Oscars of Science.”

“This year’s Breakthrough Prize winners have made discoveries that will help cure disease and move the world forward.

They deserve to be recognized as heroes,” said Mark Zuckerberg, who co-founded the prize in 2013 with Priscilla Chan, Sergey Brin, Anne Wojcicki, and Yuri and Julia Milner.

The day after the gala, the laureates participated in panel discussions at the three Breakthrough Prize Symposia held

Hanna Starobinets/Synapse

Science Oscars: Winners of the 2015 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences take questions during

a panel discussion at Stanford University. The preceding day’s award ceremony included celebrity presenters.

at Stanford University: Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, Mathematics. At the second annual Life Sciences Symposium (the first was held at UCSF in December 2013), a group of students and postdoctoral scholars from UCSF, Berkeley and Stanford asked the new winners about their careers, mentors, the role of collaboration, future directions, and of course the burning question: What will they do with the $3 million in prize money? The common answer: They want to invest in younger scientists.

The winners of the 2015 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences are: Dr. C. David Allis (Rockefeller University), for the discovery and work on histone modifications in gene regulation and chromatin organization Dr. Alim–Louis Benabid (Joseph Fourier University), for the discovery and work on deep-brain stimulation in treatment of Parkinson’s disease Dr. Emmanuelle Charpentier (Helmholtz Center for Infection Research

A not-so-sweet outcome for soda tax proposition Photos by Sam Lee/Synapse

By Sean Treacy–Abarca Staff Writer

required a two-thirds majority since revenue from the soda tax would be earmarked for youth health programs.

This may have been a reason former In the aftermath of the Nov. 4 elections, San Francisco became the 31st city to reject New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a high-profile supporter of soda taxes, gave a soda tax, while Berkeley became the first in the country to levy a 1-cent-per-ounce tax $85,000 to the Berkeley campaign but not the one in San Francisco. on sugary drinks.

Berkeley’s Measure D, which did More than $9 million, largely from the not require a two-thirds American Beverage This past election “really majority since funds were Association, was was not about the health not earmarked for any funneled into defeating aspects of sugar, but more particular cause, passed by the San Francisco measure, known about the financial effects,” a 3-to-1 margin.

This past election as Proposition E. “really was not about the health Support for the proposition, led pro-bono aspects of sugar, but more about the by a major political firm, tallied some financial effects,” said Cristin Kearns, $255,000. a postdoctoral scholar UCSF who has Despite the monetary imbalance, studied the impact of the cane and beet UCSF MPH candidate Lon Ogunduyile industry on public policy. expressed surprise at the measure’s defeat. “If the most progressive city in the A March 2010 study published in the country can’t pass a soda tax, what chance Archives of Internal Medicine said a 10 percent tax on soft drinks led to a 7 do smaller, less progressive cities have?” percent reduction of calories. Similarly, Although 54.5 percent of voters the authors said an 18 percent tax would supported Proposition E, its passage

BREAKTHROUGH » PAGE 7

result in a weight loss of 5 pounds per person per year.

Despite these figures, the measure failed to gain traction in low-income and minoritypopulated neighborhoods, while higherincome neighborhoods, such as Castro, Haight and Potrero Hill, supported it.

Research by Georgetown University Professor Lawrence Gostin found that opposition to the soda tax often stems from low-income neighborhoods, where people tend to drink more soda and cannot afford the price hikes. Such neighborhoods are also disproportionately affected by the negative health effects of sugary drinks and a lack of availability of low-cost, healthy food options.

“Making healthier choices more attractive often requires making unhealthy options less attractive,” said first-year medical student Berkadesh Geberkristos.

“Minority communities lack the public health awareness to make healthier choices, and this is one the most important

SODA » PAGE 10

Public Domain/Pixabay.com

2 | November 20, 2014

Events »

| synapse.ucsf.edu

SACNAS Monthly Meeting

Thursday, November 20, 6-7 p.m., Genentech Hall, S204 At this month’s meeting, SACNAS at UCSF will discuss some of the upcoming events planned for the Fall and Winter.

Food and drinks will be provided.

family. The fun culminates at 6 p.m. each night as PIER 39’s majestic 60-foot tree, adorned with glistening ornaments, bows and twinkling lights, will be illuminated against a stunning backdrop of the San Francisco City skyline.

Parenting and a Science Career

Thursday, November 20, 5-9 p.m., Stanyan and Waller Streets Off the Grid is a roaming mobile food extravaganza that travels to different locations daily to serve delicious food, with a free side of amazing music, craft and soul. http://bit.ly/offthegridinfo

Monday, November 24, noon-1:30 p.m., Genentech Hall, N114 Please join WILS at a panel discussion on combining the roles of parent and scientist. Faculty, postdocs, and grad students will share their experiences and advice from having children at different stages of their careers. Bring your questions. We’ll also hear from Family Services about UCSF resources to help parents. Lunch provided.

Muslim Friday Prayer Services

Carry the One Radio

Off the Grid: Upper Haight

Friday, November 21 1-1:30 p.m., Nursing, 527, Parnassus 1:30-2 p.m., Helen Diller, 160, Mission Bay The Muslim Community at UCSF holds regular Friday prayer services (Jum’a) every week. Come join your fellow brothers and sisters for prayer and socializing. All are welcome.

Mission Bay RIPS

Friday, November 21, 4-5 p.m., Genentech Hall Auditorium RIPS is a seminar series wherein one student and one postdoc present their current research. Talks are 15 minutes in length and are preceded by a 20-minute social. Snacks and beverages are provided.

Embarcadero Center Building Lighting Ceremony and Carnival Friday, November 21, 4-7 p.m., Embarcadero Center Embarcadero Center is brightening the holidays this year with a host of fun activities for the kids, including carnival games, face painting, a visit from Santa & Mrs. Claus, cookie decorating, interactive arts and crafts booths, balloon twisters, musical performances, a very special appearance by Mickey Mouse, and more!

At 6 p.m., gather around the Holiday Ice Rink at Embarcadero Center for live ice skating and musical performances, followed by a sneak peek performance from Disney on Ice presents “Let’s Celebrate!” Then tilt your head to the sky for a dazzling fireworks spectacular.

Friday Nights at the de Young

Friday, November 21, 5-8:45 p.m., de Young Museum, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Dr., Golden Gate Park Friday Nights at the de Young offers a variety of interdisciplinary arts programs, including live music, dance performances, film screenings, panel discussions, lectures, artist demonstrations, special performances, hands-on art activities and more. Programs are free and open to the public, but do not include admission to the museum’s galleries. deyoung.famsf.org/programs.

‘Frozen’ Sing-Along

Friday, November 21, 6 p.m., Cole Hall Enjoy a free screening of the sing-along version of Disney’s “Frozen.” There will be a free drawing for children 14 and under before the start of the film, so come early.

Free popcorn for the first 100 people.

Campus Evangelistic Fellowship Friday, November 21, 7-10:30 p.m., Nursing, 517, Parnassus Join the Campus Evangelistic Fellowship for their weekly meeting with Bible study, hymn singing, and fellowship.

Tuesday, November 25, 5-7 p.m., Student Resource Center, Mission Bay Carry the One Radio is a biweekly science podcast produced entirely by UCSF students. The show has featured some of the country’s top scientists and it covers a myriad of science topics. If you are interested in community outreach or science communication come to a weekly meeting. No radio experience necessary.

Visit our site to learn more: www.ctoradio. org or find us on twitter: @ctoradio

UCSF Farmers’ MarketS

Wednesday, November 26, 10 a.m.-3 p.m., ACC, 400 Parnassus Ave. 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Gene Friend Way Plaza, Mission Bay Shop healthy, shop fresh, shop Californiagrown at the UCSF Farmers’ Market, every Wednesday (rain or shine).

Sponsor: Pacific Coast Farmers’ Market Association. On break 12/7-1/3.

UCSF Run Club

Wednesday, November 26, 5-6:15 p.m., Millberry Union Central Desk, Parnassus Please drop by and join UCSF Fit & Rec for a run. Each Wednesday night the Run Club runs various distances (3-6 miles) at a 9-11 minute per mile.

IMN Midweek Meditation Hour

Wednesday, November 26, 5:30-6:30 p.m., Library, CL221, Parnassus The Integrative Medicine Network invites everyone in the UCSF community to experience a weekly guided meditation.

All are welcome, whether you are looking to combat day-to-day stress using meditation or you’d like to uncover subtle layers of your self by diving deep! No experience in meditation is necessary.

English Corner

Wednesday, November 26, 6-8:30 p.m., Medical Sciences, 159, Parnassus English Corner is an informal Conversational English Class given as a free community service and provided on a voluntary basis by both people born and raised in the United States as well as many people who have, at one time in their lives, experienced life as a new immigrant to the U.S.

California Academy of Sciences: NightLife

Thursday, November 27, 6-10 p.m., Cal Academy, Golden Gate Park http://bit.ly/NightLifeTickets

Upcoming »

Research Talk Clinic: Improve Your Presentation Skills Monday, December 1, 9 a.m.-noon,

Pier 39 Tree Lighting Celebration Byers Hall, 313 Saturday, November 22-Sunday, November 23, noon-6 p.m., Pier 39 Experience the magic and welcome the holiday season with two days of hollyjolly magic and merriment for the whole

Practice the skills needed to give an effective research talk. Present the first 10 minutes of your talk in a small group. Get structured feedback from your peers and facilitator. Cost: $5. Sponsors: OCPD

Graduate & Professional Student Association Monthly Meeting

Monday, December 1, 5:30 p.m., Library, 220, Parnassus Meet your assembly members at the monthly GPSA meeting and be a part of the discussion on topics relating to student priorities. The agenda will include student representation on committees, the annual formal, the sweetened beverages tax, upcoming events and officer reports.

Dinner provided with RSVP.

Research Talk Clinic: Improve Your Presentation Skills

Monday, December 1, 9 a.m.-noon, Byers Hall, 313 Practice the skills needed to give an effective research talk. Present the first 10 minutes of your talk in a small group. Get structured feedback from your peers and facilitator. Cost: $5 Sponsors: OCPD. ocpd-talkclinic.eventbrite.com

Graduate & Professional Student Association Monthly Meeting Monday, December 1, 5:30 p.m., Library, 220, Parnassus Meet your assembly members at the monthly GPSA meeting and be a part of the discussion on topics relating to student priorities. The agenda will include student representation on committees, the annual formal, the sweeten beverages tax, upcoming events and officer reports.

Dinner provided with RSVP.

Where Do I Fit? Being First Generation College at UCSF

Wednesday, December 3, noon-1 p.m., RSVP for location, Parnassus Join First Generation Support Services for a discussion group for first generation college students to meet, share experiences and learn to survive and thrive at UCSF. RSVP deadline: Dec 2.

RSVP: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ where-do-i-fit-discussion-group-115tickets-12759894187

Synapse Meeting

Wednesday, December 3, noon-1 p.m., Multicultural Resource Center, MU123W Gain valuable experience while improving your writing skills! Synapse is looking for student writers, bloggers, photographers, and designers. Come to a meeting and share your story ideas and meet students from other schools. No experience needed! Minimal time commitment.

Food Truck Thursdays at Mission Bay

Thursday, December 4, 11 a.m.-2 p.m., 4th Street & Nelson Rising Lane Join the food truck lunch party every Thursday at Mission Bay and explore the tasty culinary options to break up your routine. Each week will feature two different vendors, so there will always be something new. Grab some friends, get some food, and take your lunch experience up a notch.

Karl F. Meyer: California’s Forgotten Microbe Hunter

Friday, December 5, noon-1:15 p.m., Lange Reading Room All but forgotten today, Karl F. Meyer was once a nationwide figure renowned for his feats of disease detection. Drawing on Meyer’s papers at the UCSF and Bancroft libraries, this talk reviews Meyer’s feats of microbial detection and his pioneering investigations of disease ecology.This lecture is free and open to the public.

Light refreshments provided.

Bank of America Free Museum Weekend

Saturday, December 6-Sunday, December 7, Various locations,

Holders of Bank of America credit cards and debit cards get free admission to several Bay Area museums for one weekend each month. bit.ly/ BofAmuseums

synapse.ucsf.edu

Interview with Indre Viskontas:

Who says you can’t mix neuroscience and opera?

UC Oracles Toastmasters

undergraduate degree in psychology, and then a Ph.D. in neuroscience, but at the same time I was training my voice and working hard to become a professional musician.

When I finished my Ph.D., I felt there were holes in my musical education, so I went and got a Master of Music. During that program, I started to realize how much of a disconnect there is between the way that musicians practice music and the things neuroscientists know about how we learn. I felt that finally I could bring both of my interests and make a real contribution.

At the same time, I was also working at UCSF with patients who had neurodegenerative dementia. Sometimes those patients lose their ability to communicate using language. They find other ways to communicate, and some become very creative. That got me thinking about how our life experiences and the things that happen to us shape our creativity. That’s what I’ve been working on recently in my scientific life: How does creativity work—what’s behind the brain of people who are being creative and being creative as musicians?

Thursday, December 10, noon-1 p.m., Nursing, 721, Parnassus Toastmasters empowers people to achieve their full potential. Through the Toastmasters’ members, people throughout the world can improve their communication and leadership skills, and find the courage to change. Be the speaker and leader you want to be! Attend one of the Toastmasters’ meetings to learn more. Meetings are open to UCSF students, faculty, staff & volunteers. ucoraclesucsfedu.weebly.com/

Chancellor’s Concert Series

Thursday, December 11, noon-12:45 p.m., Cole Hall Looking for a place to study or relax between classes? CLS Arts & Events has got just what you need. The Chancellor’s Concert Series on Thursdays is a great place to set up your laptop and study or just take a break from classes while listening to classical music. Seating begins at noon. http://campuslifeservices.ucsf. edu/artsevents.

Bagel Tuesday

Tuesday, February 3, 9 a.m., Student Lounge, Genentech Hall 2nd Floor Come enjoy some free bagels and coffee each month and learn about campus services and events.

Have an event that you would like to submit?

Please email to synapse@ucsf.edu.

Announcements » Are You a First Generation to College Student (FG2C)?

Register with the First Generation Support Services Office to give you access to all of the First Generation Support Services and help the office advocate for you.

Register before April 15 to be entered to win one of three giveaways! http://bit.ly/ firstgenregister.

Apply to be the 2016-17 UC Student Regent!

The student Regent is a voting member of The Regents of the University of California, attends all meetings of the Board and its Committees and serves for two years (one year as a designate and one year as a voting member) commencing July 1. All mandatory University fees and tuition are waived for the student Regent during the academic years in which he or she serves as a Regent-designate and as a member of the Board. Submit applications

by Feb. 22 at 5 p.m.

UCSF Big Give For Kids

What if you could help UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, San Francisco, open their new hospital with nothing more than a few clicks? Now you can!

SurveyMonkey Contribute will donate $0.50 to UCSF BCH for every opinion survey you answer and give you a chance to win $100. All it takes is a few minutes of your time. Together we’ll raise thousands of dollars!

Kurios: Cabinet of Curiosities

Sunday, Jan. 11, 5-7 p.m.

Grand Chateau at AT&T Park Due to popular demand, discounted tickets are on sale for “Kurios: Cabinet of Curiosities,” the newest Cirque Du Soleil show Tickets range from $70-$90.

All proceeds go to support third- and fouth year students at the UCSF School of Pharmacy. www.freewebs.com/ ucsfsopmusicals.

| November 20, 2014 | 3

Courtesy of Adam Isaak

Pod Pals: Indre Viskontas, a neuroscientist, opera singer and host of the “Inquiring Minds” podcast, interviews “MythBusters” host Adam Savage.

By Hanna Starobinets Staff Writer

T HE Bay Area Science Festival ran for 10 days this October, and Dr. Indre Viskontas was heavily involved. A neuroscientist, science communicator and operatic soprano, Viskontas has a unique perspective to share with young scientists. (This interview has been edited and condensed.)

Synapse: I’ve been covering the BASF, and noticed that you were heavily involved. Can you tell me how you became so active with the festival?

I.V.: Two years ago, I found out about the festival through a friend of mine, Kirsten Sanford, who goes by the name Dr. Kiki (and has a massive Twitter following). We’re friends in the science communication world, and she invited me to do a couple of events with her.

Then [BASF director] Kishore Hari was looking for someone who speaks Italian to do a joint event with a museum in Bologna, where I acted as an interpreter.

That was my introduction to the BASF a couple of years ago.

It seems like you became exponentially involved, because this year I saw you in almost everything.

The kinds of events that the BASF hosts are what I do as a science communicator.

I have a podcast, I tell stories, and I’m interested in bringing science to the general public. As a woman in science, we’re under-represented, even as science communicators. I tend to get put on things more often, but we can use more women represented on each of these panels.

That’s one thing that Kishore and many of the other organizers feel strongly about.

BASF is about providing role-models for all kinds of people that are interested in science, including girls.

How did the “Inquiring Minds” podcast start?

I was a host on the “Point of Inquiry” podcast for about a year and a half. Then I left with the producer and the co-host Chris Mooney to start “Inquiring Minds.”

We created it just over a year ago. We

Synapse

Jenny Qi | EDITOR IN CHIEF Angela Castanieto | ASSOCIATE EDITOR Sam Lee | ASSOCIATE EDITOR Yi Lu | ASSOCIATE EDITOR Taylor LaFlam | SCIENCE EDITOR Akshay Govind | STAFF WRITER Bryne Ulmschneider | STAFF WRITER Chris Foo | STAFF WRITER Hannah Patzke | STAFF WRITER Ilka Fensen | STAFF WRITER Theresa Poulos | STAFF WRITER Yarrow Madrona | STAFF WRITER Hanna Starobinets | WEB EDITOR

Who has been your favorite guest?

Adam Savage [co-host of the Discovery Channel’s “MythBusters”] was really fun, and two days later he invited us to his cave in the Mission, where he does a lot of tinkering.

Because I also have an interest in music— I’m a musician and I have a faculty position at the Conservatory of Music—I really enjoyed interviewing Dan Levitin, another neuroscientist who does great work on music and wrote the bestselling book “Your Brain on Music.”

How did your involvement in both science and music come about, and how did they fit into one equation for you?

That was a long work in progress.

My mom’s a musician and my dad’s an engineer, so there was always that mix in our family life. I was always very involved in music growing up, but I was also really interested in science. I did my

Are you still involved at UCSF? I’m the editor of a journal called Neurocase, and the editor-in-chief is Bruce Miller, who’s at the Memory and Aging Center at UCSF.

VISKONTAS » PAGE 10

500 Parnassus Avenue, Millberry Union 108W, San Francisco, CA 94143 tel: 476-2211 | fax: 502-4537 synapse@ucsf.edu | synapse.ucsf.edu

The UCSF Student Newspaper Staff

pitched it to Mother Jones, because we felt that its audience was interested in science but wasn’t getting a lot of science content.

We grew very quickly; now the podcast has 25,000 to 30,000 subscribers every week.

You’re involved with the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Are you doing something there where you combine neuroscience with music education?

I’m on the faculty of the Humanities and Sciences Department, where I teach a course called “Training the Musical Brain.” The course is about applying neuroscience to help musicians to develop more effective practice strategies. It has a lecture component in which I teach about the brain—what’s happening in the brain when we’re training as musicians and how different brain circuits are involved. We also experiment with different practice strategies and evaluate them. Ultimately we want to create a body of work where we can start to ask some real questions in a scientific way about what is more or less effective in how we develop these skills.

Right now, the project is still in its infancy, but first we’re trying to figure out what it means to be a musician. In the neuroscience of music world, that’s still a big thing, oddly enough: How do you actually test musical ability?

About

Synapse is the UCSF student-run biweekly newspaper which runs on Thursdays during the academic year and publishes online in between print issues. Synapse seeks to serve as a forum for the campus community.

Articles and columns represent the views of the authors and not necessarily those of the Board of Publications or the University of California.

Advertising

Paid advertisements do not necessarily reflect the views of Synapse. Synapse and its editorial board reserve the right to decline advertisements promoting false or misleading claims, known health risks, or content deemed by the editors to be antithetical to the interests of UCSF students or the UCSF community.

Synapse does not accept advertisements from tobacco or alcohol manufacturers, or sexually oriented personal ads. Synapse reserves the right to run any ad Submissions Announcements and letters should be submitted with a disclaimer. seven days before publication. All submissions must be emailed to synapse@ucsf.edu. All material is Visit synapse.ucsf.edu to view the publication schedule and to submit an ad. subjected to editing.

4 | November 20, 2014

| synapse.ucsf.edu

Many Career Paths for PhDs Editorial Noushin Nabavi, Ph.D. Contributing Writer

A LL major scientific journals are now covering the shortage of academic

positions and funding for trained scientists, and many key university decision-makers acknowledge that we are in a period of funding stagnation. As such, I find it necessary to engage in the ever-evolving and active discussion about career possibilities and opportunities for Ph.D. graduates. The dire researchfunding situation may take decades, according to a UCSF panel discussion on “Thinking Creatively about Postdocs.”

At this panel discussion, administrators emphasized educating graduate students and postdocs about the possibilities of careers outside of academia early enough during their training so that graduate students do not default into the postdoc path but instead make a well-thought-out and informed choice. So, what happens to those of us who have already passed through the pipeline and are now at the intersection of making more serious career decisions?

Where do we go from here?

In the search for alternatives to academia as a third-year postdoc, I have embarked on a mission to find out what is really out there for a Ph.D. graduate. To do this, I am lucky to have my affiliation with UCSF, where we have organizations that bring in speakers who have pursued a variety of other paths. One of the most engaging events I’ve attended was held by Curium, an organization aimed at helping bridge the gap for grad students and postdocs.

The event focused on startups and highlighted a panel of entrepreneurs who had successfully transitioned from academia into entrepreneurship and had started their own science-based companies. The panel of entrepreneurs shared their stories about building lifescience startups and making the transition.

Of course, building a biotech startup as part of the founding team is not simple, but the challenges are not too dissimilar to designing, carrying out and fine tuning experiments in academia—concentration, hard work, patience and resilience are all definitely transferable skills on this path.

The most important lesson I learned is that it is very important to deeply consider your own strengths and weaknesses, to think long and hard about not just what you can do, but what you are passionate about. By that, I mean the kind of work that infuses you with energy, excitement and inspiration—the sort that you’d gladly give up nights and weekends for.

To this end, I made a chart (see sidebar), considering all the possibilities I’ve come across and I hope it can be useful to you and others in a similar position.

Each box represents a major/general career field one might consider and the various interpretations of it across different sectors. My goal was not to forsake my training, but to find a new use for my existing skill set, to paint a wide landscape and allow me to then self-select based on my passions. I’m sure there are other paths I’ve not considered, so please suggest other opportunities for Ph.D.s on the Synapse Facebook page (www. facebook.com/UCSFsynapse) or on its Twitter page (@UCSF_Synapse).

Ultimately, I feel that everything we’ve been told about following our passions is true. Happiness comes from following your heart, and the notion that academia is the only worthwhile path for Ph.D.s is foolish. There are so many skills that Ph.D.s can easily pick up to enhance their marketability, in academia and beyond.

If you are in a similar situation, there are a variety of great resources in Biotech/ Pharma job-market trends from Ernst and Young’s “Global Biotechnology Reports” The book on “Careers in Biotechnology and Drug Development” (Freedman) is also good, and I’d recommend the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council (www.massbioed.com) and Biospace.com as well.

Noushin Nabavi is a postdoctoral scholar.

Diversity and Outreach News » Synapse’s Diversity and Outreach column highlights the efforts of UCSF organizations and individuals in community and educational outreach, and in promoting diversity on campus.

Alpha Eta hosts its fall outreach event

By Nhat Bui Contributing Writer

I

KNEW that someday I would return to the UC Berkeley’s Health Sciences Post-Baccalaureate program. It was only a few years ago that I participated in it, and at the time I had felt somewhat isolated as the only student pursuing a career in nursing, with questions about what type of opportunities nursing had to offer.

On Sept. 3, I returned to the program as an Alpha Eta (AE) representative. As cochair of the Sigma Theta Tau International (STTI) Honor Society of Nursing UCSF Alpha Eta Outreach Committee, I had the opportunity to speak to current students in the program. My goal was to provide information and support in understanding the many roles and career choices available in nursing—in particular, the importance of leadership in nursing and how nursing organizations like STTI can provide and promote such opportunities.

The small group of pre-nursing students discussed the different roles in nursing, such as nurse practitioners (NP), clinical nurse specialists (CNS), leaders and

researchers. Many of these students were unsure of which direction to take and appreciated having the space to ask their questions, which ranged from straightforward questions such as “What are the differences between an NP and a CNS?” to more complex questions like “What does being a leader in nursing mean?” It was also a great opportunity for them to meet each other and connect. “I thought I was the only nursing student,” said one student. “I found my people,” said another.

STTI is dedicated to encouraging learning, increasing knowledge, and supporting career and leadership development for nurses around the world.

Most nursing schools are associated with an STTI chapter and that information can be easily found on the organization’s website. The students showed interest in the organization, and while they are not yet eligible for membership, they have all been leaders in their own respective fields and would like to continue this by becoming members in the future.

I hope that this will be the beginning of a future collaboration between AE and UC Berkeley with their pre-nursing students.

While the Outreach Committee is also geared toward membership retention and recruiting new members, I think it is still important to encourage those out in the community to get interested in nursing and to learn more about the great opportunities that STTI can offer.

Nhat Bui, is an Adult-Gerontology Nurse Practitioner student

Possibilities outside of an academic research position for Ph.D. scientists

GPSA November meeting: Housing update and committees seeking students Polina Pulyanina GPSA VP Diversity Affairs

On Nov. 3, the Graduate and Professional Student Association met in Genentech Hall at the Mission Bay campus to discuss the current and upcoming events surrounding student affairs. This article provides a short summary of items discussed.

Sylvia Mendez and the desegregation of California schools

By Angela Castanieto Associate Editor

“N OBODY knows about this case— how five Latino families fought for the

integration of schools in California, and how we won,” said Sylvia Mendez, recalling the words of her mother.

These words were the inspiration for Mendez’s ongoing journey to educate Californians about Mendez vs.

Westminster, a 1946 federal court case that ruled that segregation of Mexican students into separate schools was unconstitutional.

On Wednesday, Nov. 12, in an event organized by Voces Latinas in coordination with the Office of Diversity and Outreach, Mendez spoke to UCSF students and staff about how five Mexican−American families, including her own, challenged the segregation of 5,000 children into “Mexican schools” after she was turned away from her local Westminster school.

The audience, many of whom were under-represented minorities and could recall their own stories of segregation and racism, listened with rapt attention as Mendez told in a frank, conversational tone her recollections of witnessing the struggle as a child.

“I still remember being turned away from that school,” recalled Mendez, “but Mendez vs. Westminster allowed me to be proud of who I am … because we all deserve the same treatment.”

Mendez also shared stories about her chosen profession, given that many in the audience were in healthcare.

“Nursing will always be my first love. I love to compare Mendez [vs.

Westminster] to nursing, because everyone in health care knows that it is all about treating everyone equally, with care, kindness and respect, and assuring that we all receive the same quality treatment— never judging by race or gender. My favorite word I learned as a nurse was empathy, and that I will never forget,” she said, prompting smiles and nods in agreement from the audience.

There is still much to be done to educate people in this landmark case.

While its profile has been slowly rising due to the admirable work that Mendez has done, culminating in her receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the case being nearly integrated as part of the California curriculum (the bill, unfortunately, was vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger), most people still do not know about Mendez vs. Westminster.

To learn more about Sylvia Mendez and how to help raise the awareness of this historical case, visit sylviamendezinthemendezvswestminster. com.

Angela Castanieto is a sixth-year Tetrad student.

‘Dreamers to Doctors’ recounts educational challenges for undocumented immigrants

• One of the topics discussed at the meeting was the UCSF campus housing shortage, which affects the incoming students. It has been brought to attention that students accepted into UCSF programs turn down matriculation due to lack of guaranteed housing and high cost of living in San Francisco.

The Housing Advisory Committee reviewed 934 applications for UCSF housing this year, but only 294 of the students were accommodated with 157 remaining on the waitlist.

The process of selection for student housing is lottery-based. During the HAC committee it was proposed to add a tenancy term limit of one year, give preference to students in financial need and consider giving preference to students with families. The issue of student housing remains an ongoing discussion.

• Joey Convento representing UCSF Arts & Events spoke of the success of the Halloween Celebration held in collaboration with the Multicultural Resource Center. Joey invites UCSF students to purchase discounted tickets for Golden State Warriors games and a

Diversity events

T

HE UCSF community was invited to a screening of “Dreamers to Doctors,” a short film focused on four undocumented youth who are aspiring to become health professionals.

The film was followed by a panel discussion with current and prospective UCSF students on the challenges they have faced navigating

Courtesy of Paul Day

• The GPSA assembly welcomes students interested in developing leadership skills. Currently, GPSA is seeking student representation for the following committees: Student Services Fee Advisory Committee. SFFAC is an annual committee composed of diverse UCSF students, faculty and staff. The committee evaluates budget proposals given by services funded by student fees, and provides recommendations on how to best meet students’ needs through budget allocation to services.

Public Safety and Emergency Management Advisory Groups. This is a new group started by UCPD that plans emergency responses on campus and at UCSF-associated medical centers.

Sexual Violence Task Force is seeking 1-2 students to attend a UC-wide committee. Students can be compensated

by GPSA for travel expenses. Those who are unable to attend may participate via phone conference.

Libraries and Scholarly Communication committee is also looking for students to help manage the library budget and policy.

For more information on GPSA-sponsored events and monthly meetings, please visit gpsa.ucsf.edu. If you would like to get involved in student government or sit on a committee, email us at gpsa@ucsf.edu.

Polina Pulyanina is a third-year Pharmacy student.

By Tina Novero Contributing Writer Transgender Day of Remembrance

Thursday, Nov. 20, noon-1 p.m.

Lange Reading Room Transgender Day of Remembrance will include a panel discussion as well as a reading of names memorializing lives we have lost as a result of transphobia.

We invite friends, family members, and allies of transgender people who have experienced loss and/or violence. This event is sponsored by the LGBT Resource Center and the Office of Diversity and Outreach. www.lgbt.ucsf.edu.

Multicultural Resource Center Cultural Heritage Film Series

Sunday, Nov. 23, 5:15 p.m.

MU 123W MRC and the UCSF Native American Health Alliance (NAHA) present the The Cherokee Word For Water, a featurelength motion picture inspired by the true story of the first female chief of the Cherokee Nation, Wilma Pearl Mankiller.

It highlights her leadership in the struggle for and ultimate success of a rural Cherokee community to bring running water to their families by using the traditional concept of “gadugi,” working together to solve a problem. RSVP: Griselda.Velasquez@ucsf.edu

Tina Novero is program coordinator of the Multicultural Resource Center and LGBT Resource Center. the U.S. education system based on their own immigration status.

Left to right: LaMisha Hill (MRC director), Angel Ku (second-year PSPG student), Ana Cruz (first-year pharmacy student), J. Renee Navarro (vice chancellor of diversity and outreach), Denisse Rojas, Jirayut New (first-year medical student), Laura Aguilar, Jose Carrasco

special training event at the office of Arts & Events.

If you are part of a UCSF organization that does outreach or diversity-focused events, you can showcase past events or announce upcoming events in this column.

Please email a write-up (200 words or fewer per event) to synapse@ucsf.edu with the subject line Diversity & Outreach by Jan. 15 to be featured in the Jan. 22 issue.

Courtesy of Diana Teng

Social Skills: ASSN students and staff excitedly select a raffle winner during the social.

ASSN Fall Social is great fun and success

By Diana Teng Contributing Writer The Associated Students of the School of Nursing kicked off the 2014-2015 school year with delicious food, drinks, and prizes as more than 90 UCSF students, old and new, gathered at the Nursing Mezzanine on Wednesday, Oct. 15 for the 2014 ASSN Fall Social.

Joining in the mingling and merrymaking were students from the MEPN program, first- and second-year nursing students, a Ph.D. student, Social and Behavioral Health students, and even those taking time off this year.

The event was catered by local Indian/ Pakistani restaurant Tikka Masala. The menu of the night included yummy samosa appetizers, succulent chicken tikka masala, naan and dal, with vegetarian options. The beer and wine menu included Angry Orchard’s hard apple cider, Blue Moon, crisp grüner veltliner, and bold cabernet sauvignon.

An array of Amazon, Starbucks and Jamba Juice gift-card prizes were raffled off—and, best of all, students had a chance to relax and take a breather before the school year plunges our cortisol levels into never-ending overdrive.

A special thanks is well deserved to Ashley King, ASSN social chair, for organizing and making the event possible.

Diana Teng is a first-year nursing student.

synapse.ucsf.edu

| November 20, 2014 | 5

RCO of the Week: Chamber Music Society to hold Winter Concert

Kathy Peng

Chamber Masters: Founder Sherman Jia and members of the Chamber Music Society

perform the Schubert Trout Quintet at a community outreach concert for residents at San Francisco Towers.

By Angela Castanieto Associate Editor

A UCSF trainee has many responsibilities, so it is difficult to find time to pursue one’s passions outside of science and health care.

This is especially true for musicians, who often find it difficult to integrate music into their lives at UCSF. Enter the Chamber Music Society at UCSF, which creates opportunities for UCSF trainees to participate in chamber musical performance and community outreach.

Founded by Sherman Jia, a resident physician in neurology who, as a medical student, started a similar society at Harvard, the group includes students from a number of professional and graduate schools, as well as residents, fellows, staff and friends of UCSF. This creates ample opportunity for participants to connect with other musicians.

“I joined CMS mainly for the opportunity to meet other musicians,” said Rebecca Kim, a third-year Tetrad student.

“There’s a large amateur-musician community in San Francisco, and it was nice to have a group where most of the musicians had related career interests and backgrounds.”

There are many chances for members to perform, as well. CMS has accomplished a lot since it was started in 2013, including a spring concert, an outreach concert at SF Towers, and multiple performances at events such as the UCSF Veterans Day Celebration and Classical Revolution.

There are also sight-reading sessions to give musicians the time to reacquaint themselves with performing with others.

“CMS is a great way for musicians to sight read music together in a relaxed atmosphere,” said Lay Kodama, a firstyear MSTP student. “I especially love these monthly sessions because they give me an excuse to try out new pieces with people I would have otherwise never met.”

The group will hold its next bi-annual concert on Friday, Dec. 5 at 7p.m. in Cole Hall (see sidebar for details). The concert is free and open to the public. “There’s no reason not to go,” said Jia. Given all that CMS has accomplished this past year, I sat down with Shernab Jia to learn more about the society and its plans.

Synapse: What types of activities do musicians in CMS take part in?

S.J. The CMS holds monthly reading sessions for musicians to meet one another and form chamber music ensembles.

Groups then rehearse on their own to prepare for concerts. We hold bi-annual concerts at UCSF in the winter and in

the summer, outreach concerts (so far at UCSF Family House and SF Towers), and play at UCSF- sponsored events such as the Veterans Day Celebration and the Chancellor’s Concert Series. In addition, musicians from CMS bring their music to other venues such as the Classical Revolution, GroupMuse and house concerts. Some groups have also received coaching from the Alexander String Quartet, a quartet in residence at San Francisco State University.

What types of performances would you like to do next year?

We are preparing for the UCSF Chancellor’s Concert Series, which is a huge honor because this is usually limited to professional musicians. We would like to do more outreach concerts, for example at Laguna Honda Hospice unit, as well as at other nursing and assisted-living facilities.

We are also open to collaborative performances, for example with Vocal Cords at UCSF, as well as with a new dance group at UCSF. Additional ideas include hosting a symposium on the intersection of music and medicine, which would include talks as well as performances.

Are there any major goals you have for CMS? What is your vision for it?

The CMS’s primary goal is to bring together musicians at UCSF, to provide trainees with reading and performance opportunities so they can keep music an integral part of their lives while they are pursuing their professional careers.

Once we establish a community of musicians (which we have), we can then bring music to those who don’t easily have access to live music. This is the dual healing nature of music—to make a healthy and well-balanced physician/ scientist, and to heal patients or those in recovery. At the end of the day, music is fun, and if that’s all that folks get out of it, I’m satisfied.

Can you elaborate on how music is healing for both the physician and the patient?

When I was in Boston, I was concertmaster of the Longwood Symphony Orchestra, a semiprofessional group composed primarily of medical professionals, including medical students, residents, attendings, scientists, physical therapists, engineers and the occasional professional musician.

Each of our concerts involved a partnership with a local health care

JIA » PAGE 12

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6 | November 20, 2014

| synapse.ucsf.edu

Journal Club » Taylor LaFlam Science Editor

MICROBIOLOGY: The Pseudomonas aeruginosa type III translocon is required for biofilm formation at the epithelial barrier. Tran, C.S., et al. (Engel). PLoS Pathog. 2014.

10(11):e1004479.

Bacterial infections become harder to treat when the bacteria form biofilms— dense aggregates of bacteria and extracellular matrix. The bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a potentially fatal opportunistic pathogen that often forms biofilms in the course of its infection.

Previous studies of Pseudomonas biofilms have focused on examining how it forms on plastic and other artificial surfaces. In this paper, the authors studied biofilms made in vitro on layers of epithelial cells.

They found that a molecular apparatus for secreting toxins was required to form biofilms on epithelial cells but not artificial surfaces. The toxins typically secreted through this apparatus, however, were not required. Intriguingly, the researchers demonstrated that an as-yetunidentified factor released from the epithelial cells after pore formation was induced by the bacteria contributed to biofilm formation.

STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY: Subnanometre-resolution electron cryomicroscopy structure of a heterodimeric ABC exporter. Kim, J., et al. (Cheng). Nature. 2014 Nov. 2. Epub ahead of print.

ABC transporters are a family of proteins that move a range of molecules across cell membranes in organisms from bacteria to humans. Certain ABC transporters can export drugs from the cell, which can contribute to cancers and bacteria resisting treatment.

The structures of several ABC exporters have already been determined using x-ray crystallography, but the manner in which these proteins move in the course of exporting a molecule remains debated.

Now, Kim and colleagues have used a complementary method for examining tiny structures, cryo-electron microscopy, to examine an ABC exporter.

Their results show that the base state is open toward the interior of the cell. They

further suggested how particular sliding motions of parts of the protein would allow it to then transition to outwardly open as it exported its target molecule.

CELL BIOLOGY: Spatial encoding of cyclic AMP signaling specificity by GPCR endocytosis. Tsvetanova, N.G. & von Zastrom, M. Nat Chem Biol. 2014 Nov. 2. Epub ahead of print.

Epinephrine acts on cells by binding to its receptor, leading to production of the intracellular signaling molecule cAMP. Ligand binding to many other members of the same protein family as this receptor also causes cAMP production.

After binding, the receptors are taken up into the cell, where recent work has shown that additional cAMP can be produced—now near endosomes instead of near the plasma membrane. In this paper, the authors found that location matters: cAMP produced in different locations has different effects.

They found that preventing receptor endocytosis prevented certain downstream events, even when the amount of cAMP in the cell was the same. Conversely, they selectively induced cAMP production at endosomes and found it had different effects than cAMP production at the plasma membrane.

DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY: Ezh2mediated repression of a transcriptional pathway upstream of MMP9 maintains integrity of the developing vasculature.

Delgado-Olguin, P. et al. (Bruneau).

Development. 2014 Oct. 30. Epub ahead of print.

Sometimes it’s normal to have a leaky blood vessel—at the site of an infection, for example—but too much leakiness, not surprisingly, can cause problems.

Blood vessel cells rely on the extracellular matrix, a network of collagen and other fibers, to stabilize them.

This paper from the Bruneau group opens with the observation that disabling Ezh2, which tends to repress genes, in blood vessels leads to death before birth.

A genome-wide assay reveals that Ezh2 represses activators of MMP9, a protein that digests extracellular matrix, leading to decreased vascular integrity.

The authors hypothesize that perhaps this pathway that control MMP9 is implicated in certain diseases with defects in vascular integrity.

Career and Professional »

Six ways to skillfully navigate family discussions about your career Naledi Saul Director, Office of Career and Professional Development, Student Academic Affairs

G

OING home over the holidays can feel stressful when you aren’t certain about your career path or job prospects.

There are two reasons your career plans or progress can cause holiday stress, and they are both skill-based.

First, our friends and families aren’t always skilled at offering useful, judgment-free support when discussing career-related issues. Conversations about your career path, specialty choice, or job search progress can be weighed down by their own hopes, expectations, anxieties or limited understanding of your field.

Second, you might not know how to skillfully discuss the complex process of navigating your own career. As a result, even a simple dinner-table conversation

that begins with, “How is school?” or “How is your job search going?” can feel like loaded or trick questions.

How do you handle inquiries and conversations about your academics or career when you aren’t sure how it’s all going to turn out? Here are six strategies: 1. Decide how much you want to share before talking to people.

We all need to consciously set healthy conversational boundaries with the different people in our lives. It is wise to limit the length and depth of your careerrelated discussions with those who only gaslight, criticize, project their anxieties or offer unhelpful advice.

Consider a postdoc asked a somewhat abrasive question, such as, “Why can’t you afford a car if you’re a scientist?”

With supportive family members, he might choose to explain how postdoc salaries set by the NIH limit his income.

He might be candid about his own concerns regarding his future financial stability. But with an insensitive relative,

Breakthrough

Puzzles »

» From FRONT Page

The Crossword ACROSS 1 Sty youngster 6 Assembly-line worker 11 Hot spot 14 Divide in two 15 Give the slip 16 Something to lend 17 Visitor from afar 18 Laundry room item 20 Hillbilly brew 22 Uses a stopwatch 23 Clock part 24 Speaker's spot 26 Firefighting aid 29 Mooch 31 Widely esteemed 34 Mantel piece?

35 Winter coat 36 Play friskily 38 Colony member 39 Downright 41 Lab eggs 42 Eyeball tissue 44 Mermaid's milieu 45 Sail support 46 Varnish ingredient 47 Devour 48 Took a turn 49 Auction units 51 You bet!

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19 Doohickey DOWN 21 Early French Week of 11/17/14 - 11/23/14 settler in Canada 1 Pillow cover 2 Ring of light 25 Cicero's 3 Hodgepodge inspiration 4 Dodge model 26 Catch wind of 5 All wound up 27 Title holder 6 Prosecutor's 28 Skirmish option 30 Honking flock 7 Bakery fixture 32 Wed in secret 33 Place to lounge Ward (off) Mine output Burn soother Hair-raising Most important Jacket fabric Dwarf of folklore

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Difficulty : Easy

                           Copyright 2014 by The Puzzle Syndicate

HOW TO SOLVE:         (Answer appears elsewhere in this issue)

Solutions » PAGE 10

he may side-step the question and redirect the conversation altogether. His response might be, “Oh, I’m actually looking to buy a car at some point. I see you drive a Mazda—do you like it?”

the “How’s school?” question honestly as well: “Well, the usual time to degree completion is six years. Right now, I still plan to finish within that time frame. I’m working on my third of five chapters.”

2. When you do speak, stand as close to your truth as possible.

Solution to Sudoku When you do decide to talk about your  issues,  try  tobe   as  career as honest you can within  yourboundaries.   Forexample,  one first-year   professional    student   who  was having a particularly hard fall quarter somewhat      felt lost  and  was questioning herdecision to continue her studies.        While she planned to talk to her parents over          Thanksgiving, for more distant relatives developed     responses   that she honest that omitted her current      concerns.   For  example, when asked, “How’s school?”     “It’s  challenging   questions, she  replied, this quarter, but I am learning a great deal.”

Similarly, a Ph.D. candidate not wanting to invite a host of questions about his struggles with writer’s block, can answer

3. Speak confidently about your career development process.

Frankly, it’s not always clear what career path or specialty you should choose or how a job hunt is going to turn out. But even when your career outcome is uncertain, you can refocus the discussion on your thinking, strategy and actions. For example, a sociology student uncertain about her plans after graduation might respond to job search questions by explaining the steps she’s taken.

“For the past month, I’ve been using LinkedIn to identify health outcomes research consulting firms I’d like to work somewhere similar to Endpoint Outcomes in Boston. I’m also updating my résumé” or “I’m currently talking with

OCPD » PAGE 7

and Umea University) and Dr. Jennifer Doudna (UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, HHMI), for the development of the CRISPR/Cas system for genome editing Dr. Victor Ambors (University of Massachusetts Medical School) and Dr. Gary Ruvkun (MGH and Harvard Medical School), for discovering microRNA and its mechanism of gene regulation The winners were candid and lighthearted in discussing their science careers: “When I was at your stage, in every experiment I did, something went wrong,” said Allis.

In fact, as a young professor, when he saw a Cell publication claiming that chromatin was dispensable to cells, he went home thinking his career was over.

Benabid said that the secret to his success was “luck, and luck, and luck.”

He also thanked his patients: “When you ask a patient if you can put your finger in their brain, they say okay!”

Ruvkun admitted, “I’m not much of a mentor. I’m not good at controls.”

Jokes aside, all the scientists credited the great mentors, collaborators and trainees they had worked with throughout their careers.

Another common thread was their inspiration to ask questions at an early age. Speaking of the future of science, they underlined the power of collaboration between laboratories, institutions and disciplines.

Hanna Starobinets is a fourth-year BMS student.

OCPD

» From Page 6

my adviser about my options, and plan to schedule an appointment in the Office of Career & Professional Development this month.”

4. Speak in generalities.

Just because people ask a question specifically about you doesn’t mean you can’t respond with information generally true for others like you. For example, a medical student repeatedly asked about specialty choices can talk about medical students in general. “You know, the school is actually encouraging all students to remain pretty open about our specialty choice until about third or fourth year.

There are a number of great choices for physicians interested in working with complex clinical cases, such as orthopedics, cardiology and rheumatology.

I haven’t ruled any of those out yet. Also, I was pleased to see that the residency match success rate for UCSF students is quite high.”

5. Don’t get sucked in.

When you are asked questions such as “You still haven’t finished your dissertation?” or “You still haven’t found a job?” it can be hard not to question the person’s motivations. But as Andrew Green, the UC Berkeley career counselor for Ph.D.s noted, whether people are well-intentioned or not, a key professional development goal for students and postdocs is to be able to answer awkward questions in a way that maintains social peace but is protective of your privacy and feelings. The key step to responding skillfully is to consciously acknowledge if a conversation makes you feel angry, embarrassed or defensive.

If you do feel that someone’s approach is insensitive or inappropriate, do not try to explain your perspective. Instead, move

synapse.ucsf.edu

| November 20, 2014 | 7

Sidebar »

Last year’s laureates make return

The daylong Breakthrough Prize symposium also featured short lectures from last year’s Life Sciences laureates: • Dr. James P. Allison (MD Anderson Cancer Center), for the discovery and work on T cell checkpoint blockade in cancer therapy • Dr. Mahlon R. DeLong (Emory University), for defining the brain circuits implicated in Parkinson’s disease • Dr. Michael N. Hall (University of Basel), for the discovery and work on TOR in cell growth • Dr. Robert Langer (MIT), for the development of controled drug delivery and release systems • Dr. Richard P. Lifton (Yale University and HHMI), for the discovery of the genetics and biochemistry of hypertension • Dr. Alexander Varshavsky (Caltech), for the discovery of the molecular and cell biology of protein degradation The 2014 laureates shared the history of their groundbreaking discoveries, future research directions, views on the future of science and, above all, their passion for the intricacies and beauty of biology.

Varshavsky described his ideas of engineering novel protein degradation systems with a barely-contained excitement: “Is it feasible? On paper: for sure. In reality: I think so. Has it been done? No.” to end the topic. A response like “Yep. Still engaged in a job search. How is it going with you?” can begin to redirect the conversation. Also, don’t get baited, even if they persist with follow up responses that feel inflammatory, such as “It’s taking forever, isn’t it?” A diplomatic response would be, “Not an unexpected amount of time for my field, no.”

6. Finally, allow people their anxiety; it’s not yours.

Your friends and family may project their own agendas or anxieties about your career path onto you. A few years ago, a nurse practitioner was feeling stickershock at the cost of her graduate training combined with the loss of her RN income.

Her partner felt the financial strain much more acutely, and was increasingly critical about what had initially been a joint decision. A key strategy for her was to seek out support to manage her own anxiety, rather than try to control her partner’s.

Remember that counseling is available at Student Health and Counseling Services (476-1281) for all students, the Medical Student Wellbeing Program for Medical students (476-0468), and the Faculty Staff Assistance Program for Postdocs (4768279).

Want more help? Read “Hand Me Down Dreams: How Families Influence Our Careers And How To Reclaim Them”

by Jacobson or “Dealing With Difficult People You Can’t Stand” by Brinkman and Kirshner. Both are in the Office of Career and Professional Development resource library. Have a career or professional topic or question you’d like us to cover in Synapse? Email us at ocpd@ucsf.edu.

The Office of Career and Professional Development staff will be writing a series of articles monthly on career and professional development topics for students in the biomedical sciences.

synapse.ucsf.edu

Pain Relievers: From left: SiteOne Director of Chemistry, Dr. Hassan Pajouhesh, VP of Research,

Startup uses natural snail toxin to ease chronic pain Dr. John Mulcahy, and co-founder George Miljanich are pioneering new therapeutic techniques.

By Yarrow Madrona Staff Writer

Chronic pain afflicts more than 100 million people in the United States, which makes pain alleviation one of the greatest unmet medical challenges.

SiteOne Therapeutics, located in the UCSF QB3 incubator, thinks it has a solution. SiteOne believes that the best way to treat chronic pain is to block pain signals before they reach the brain. It is developing a highly modified natural marine toxin found in snail venom to block these signals.

“At SiteOne we are trying to make new and better sodium channel blockers for pain relief and diagnosing pain,” said cofounder George Miljanich.

As a postdoctoral fellow under UCSF emeritus professor Reg Kelly, Miljanich worked on developing a model system to understand calcium-dependent neurotransmitter release. Along the way, he realized that the same snail venom he used to block voltage-gated calcium channels could be developed into a potent analgesic.

Not long after Miljanich took on a neurobiology professorship at USC, this discovery kindled his first startup, Nurex, where he led the development of Prialt, the first non-opioid and non-NSAID pain therapy on the market.

After Nurex was acquired by Elan Pharmaceuticals in 1998, Miljanich began focusing on sodium channels. Two key studies linking sensory pain to genetic mutations in the gene encoding the Nav1.7 sodium channel established this channel’s importance in the pain-sensing pathway.

In 2004, the Journal of Medical Genetics published a study detailing individuals with mutated channels who experienced intense pain with very mild stimuli such as mildly warm water.

A few years later, a study out of the University of Cambridge identified two Pakistani families with loss-of-function

mutations that had the opposite effect, resulting in very little pain perception regardless of the stimuli.

Stanford researchers and SiteOne co-founders Justin Du Bois and John Mulcahy synthesized the first selective sodium channel inhibitors based on the marine neurotoxin, saxitoxin.

Miljanich conceded that one of their biggest challenges in developing therapeutics from saxitoxins is that these neurotoxins are not specific. They shut down all voltage-gated sodium channels indiscriminately. However, Milanich said they have identified a two amino acid variant in the mouth of the channel that allows them to develop very potent and specific Nav1.7 blockers.

Du Bois also teamed up with Stanford radiologists Sandip Biswal and Frederic Chin to develop radioactively labeled saxitoxin for PET (positron emission tomography) imaging with the hopes of developing the first diagnostic tool to visualize pain.

“If we can localize neurons causing the pain, we can intelligently guide pain physicians in terms of treatment, pharmacology, surgery, physical therapy and electric stimulation,” said Miljanich.

With more than 24 patents, 50 publications and a numerous industry awards, Miljanich certainly has deep experience in commercializing ion channel biology.

Still, he credits his work with all three partners of the QB3 family—UCB, UCSC and UCSF—for laying the foundation of his current work at SiteOne and providing a collegial space that meets startup needs.

“The UCSF QB3 incubator has been key in our success thus far. [Before QB3], we were in this traditional building, and we were paying for space we didn’t use.”

Miljanich held his arms out wide and quickly swung them close together as he said, “Here, we can expand or contract as we need.”

Yarrow Madrona is a postdoctoral fellow.

Student Inside Guide events & programs health & wellness finances learning resources campus clubs

news, reviews & deals neighborhood guides transportation community outreach & more!

Get there with one website insideguide.ucsf.edu

8 | November 20, 2014

| synapse.ucsf.edu

Let’s Get Physical ... Therapy »

Six things your knees will thank you for

Ilka Felsen Staff Writer

KNEE pain is extremely common and annoying! Approximately 25 percent of adults have knee pain, and even scarier, the rate of knee replacements in the U.S. has surged to 87 per 10,000 adults older than age 65.

It may not seem like many of us at UCSF are in that age range and anticipating a knee replacement anytime soon. However, if you: • Sit for long periods of time (often the case for students!)

• Run frequently • Bike • Do lots of squats • Walk up and down lots of hills (everyone should answer yes to this!) then you may find yourself in the unpleasant situation of having knee pain.

Knee pain basically results from an imbalance between a high demand on the knee and a decreased ability of the body to meet this demand.

Why can’t the body meet the demand (aka What’s wrong with my knees)?

Without getting too technical, there are several reasons: 1) Muscular imbalances, particularly decreased medial quadriceps strength and tight quadriceps, hamstrings, calves and iliotibial band 2) A kneecap that moves too much 3) Fallen arches 4) Knees that point inwards (also known as genu valgum or Q-angle) 5) Poor gluteal strength (a weak butt) 6) One leg that is longer than the other 7) Impaired functional strength (in other words, poor knee control during running, squatting and jumping) Medical jargon Some of the terms that medical professionals use to classify knee pain range from patellofemoral pain syndrome (pretty benign and broad), to chondromalacia patella, to the more permanent diagnosis of knee osteoarthritis. Knee pain can be muscular in nature, which may be termed quadriceps or patellar tendinopathy or IT band syndrome, or can result from trauma to one of the internal support structures, such as the menisci or ligaments. There can be a lot of causes of knee pain!

What’s the good news?

Even if you can’t change your alignment or a structural deformity, you can change muscular imbalances and improve function. Rehab for anterior knee pain in athletes with chondromalacia patella, for example, has a success rate of 82 percent.

Yes! The following suggestions are not meant to help you differentially diagnose your knee pain. Rather, if you have knee pain, there are a few general things that you can do that will probably make you feel a little better. So keep reading.

front of a mirror, and take a good look at how you’re doing your squat. You want to maintain a neutral spine, stable trunk (no leaning!) and level pelvis throughout the movement.

In addition, you want your knee tracking straight ahead and between your first and second toes (absolutely no movement side to side!) and minimal movement of your ankle. Also note the depth of your squat— only bend your knee as much as you can while maintaining ideal form without pain.

Stretch it out Stretch your quadriceps, hamstrings and calves. Go to town on the foam rolling and massages for these contributing muscles!

Make a few daily changes Sitting for long periods of time allows the knee to stiffen and also places continuous stress at the patellofemoral joint. Three easy fixes: try not to sit for more than thirty minutes at a time, bend and straighten your knee a few times every 10 minutes and increase the height of your seat (so your knee is in less flexion).

Take a good look at your activities In addition to your squat form, turn a critical eye to contributing activities.

Many cyclists, for example, ride with their seats too low—your knees should be nearly extended at the end of a stroke.

Watch your jump landing—you should be able to stick landings without any sway or wobble. Are you running downhill a lot? This too places increased stress on the knees. Finally, did you ramp up training too steeply?

Consider orthotics If you have a leg length discrepancy or fallen arches, think about placing an orthotic in the shoe of the shorter leg or foot that needs more support.

Add some quadriceps strengthening The quadriceps are kind of the holy grail for knee pain, so make yours really strong with straight leg raises (lie on your back, straighten your knee and lift your leg up towards the ceiling), single leg and double leg squats and steps ups (stepping up on a stair). Just make sure all of these are pain free.

Final note: This article is not meant to be a substitute for medical intervention. If you need some professional help, by all means get some!

Healthy holidays at UCSF: Two fitness challenges to help stay in shape

website and at the front desk of each facility. To increase class participation, members will be offered a free upgrade from standard to premier membership during this promotion, which will allow everyone to participate in group fitness classes. Members who choose not to take advantage of the upgrade offer can buy a 10-pass class pack.

Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain

Theresa Poulos Staff Writer

P UMPKIN pie, turkey with gravy, holiday cocktail parties and family

gatherings: This time of year is fraught with challenges that make it difficult to maintain healthy habits during the holiday season. Here are two new programs at UCSF to help you stay in shape during the holiday season:

‘Maintain, Don’t Gain!’

UCSF Fitness & Recreation is hosting a five-week “Maintain, Don’t Gain!” challenge to help fitness center members control their weight during the holidays.

This activity is open to all UCSF students and community members who are members at the Bakar or Millberry fitness facilities.

To participate, members simply add their name to the challenge list on the main fitness floor at either location. Five mini-challenges will be posted per week, and participants will need to complete three of the five mini-challenges in order to earn an entry for the drawing that week.

Entries will accumulate throughout the five-week challenge and a drawing will be held at the end (participants are limited to one entry per week).

The grand prize includes a $100 gift certificate to Sports Basement and three personal training sessions. Eight runnerup prizes will be awarded as well.

As part of the promotion, UCSF Fitness & Recreation will be spicing up the Group Fitness calendars at both facilities to include new and innovative classes that are not currently offered on the regular schedule. There will be a focus on shorter, 30-minute classes that allow participants to get in, work out and get on with their day, in addition to special 90-minute Spin classes and a two-hour Zumbathon to be held in the Parnassus gym on Saturday, Nov. 22.

The schedule of classes is available online via the UCSF Fitness & Recreation

Fix your squat Often a faulty squat is the culprit for knee pain during squats and activities with repeated knee flexion. Stand on one leg in

Photo credit: Kevin Hartman

Squatting Right: The author demos her best single leg squat on one of SF’S many hills.

» From Page 8

| November 20, 2014 | 9

[Exit, Pursued by Science] »

Philae probe’s comet landing rekindles youthful flights of fancy

STEP IT UP!’

‘

Coinciding with the “Maintain, Don’t Gain!” Challenge is Living Well at UCSF’s program, the “Step It Up!” challenge. This challenge is open only to UCSF faculty and staff. To participate, individuals can sign up online at stepitup. ucsf.edu. Participants earn points for walking, exercising, eating well and enjoying treats in moderation. As points tally up, participants become eligible to win giveaways and prizes, including airline gift cards for up to $500 for an individual or $2,000 for a group.

The “Step It Up!” challenge officially started on Nov. 17 and lasts for four weeks, until Dec. 15. Participants log physical activity and daily steps on the Step It Up! challenge website, with bonus points for maintaining their weight over those four weeks.

There will also be secret bonus activities revealed throughout the challenge, including points earned for trying new, healthy habits, mindfully enjoying indulgences and participating in online or in-person learning activities. A detailed breakdown of points and goals is available on the challenge website at livingwellevents.ucsf.edu/he-challenge.

While those holiday cookies might be difficult to dodge, UCSF is hoping to make it a bit easier by offering enticing rewards to incentivize healthy decisionmaking among its community members.

Join one of these challenges and make a promise to keep your health a priority this holiday season.

Theresa Poulos is a fourth-year medical student.

UCaSeFiles »

Aching joints?: Make rheum for treatment Theresa Poulos and Jenny Cohen Staff Writers

W ELCOME to UCaSeFiles, a column presenting short case vignettes based on

the stories of real patients seen on the wards, followed by a brief discussion of salient learning points. Some cases are rare diagnoses; others are common ailments that might have had a unique or puzzling presentation. All are welcome to submit cases to Theresa Poulos (Theresa.poulos@ ucsf.edu) for consideration.

Strengthen your butt (and abdominals) Weak gluteals allow the leg to rotate inwards during movement, which places increased stress on the patella. Strong gluteals and abdominals also support the pelvis and upper body, resulting in less loading on the knees. Do lots of clamshells, donkey kicks, monster walks and planks.

UCase

synapse.ucsf.edu

Case Submitted by Theresa Poulos The Patient: A 27-year-old male presented to the ED with more than a year of progressive polyarthralgia and a photosensitive rash. He reported joint pain that was worse in the morning and improved with movement throughout the day.

His arthritis was most notable in his proximal joints, was present in both upper and lower extremities bilaterally and was so remarkable that he could not make a fist or flex his knees beyond 90 degrees.

He also had excoriations on his forearms and shins secondary to a pruritic rash that

UCASE » PAGE 9

Ouch:

Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain

A misdiagnosed case of rheumatoid arthritis can lead to a lot of frustration ... and pain!

he noted was worse when he was in the sun.

He stated that he would get the same rash on his face unless he wore a brimmed hat.

He lived in a rural area and had limited access to primary care; only when his pain got to the point where he was unable to maintain employment and care for his son did he present to the nearest city to seek medical care.

On admission, his erythrocyte sedimentation rate, C-reactive protein, rheumatoid factor and anti-cyclic citrullinated protein (anti-CCP) antibody were elevated. HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C tests were negative. Antinuclear antibody (ANA), creatinine, urinalysis, serum uric acid and creatine kinase were within normal limits.

The Diagnosis: Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic, progressive, inflammatory condition that often presents with a symmetric polyarthralgia. Other common non-articular manifestations of rheumatoid arthritis include cutaneous disease, osteopenia and vasculitis; a wide variety of rarer systemic manifestations is seen as well.

This patient’s presentation was initially perplexing given his photosensitive rash—the team was most suspicious of a diagnosis of systemic lupus erythematosus.

We were therefore surprised when his ANA came back negative.

With his history, physical exam and lab studies, he did not meet sufficient criteria for the diagnosis of systemic lupus erythematosus based on clinical guidelines. At that point, we began to suspect rheumatoid arthritis (almost twothirds of rheumatoid arthritis patients have a negative ANA). When his anti-CCP came back elevated, we were confidently able to make a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis, as anti-CCP has a specificity of 95-98 percent for rheumatoid arthritis.

This patient’s symptoms had gone untreated for a long period of time, leading to functional loss of joint motility and joint deformity noted on exam.

Early recognition and intervention with disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs is important in preventing irreversible joint damage. In the inpatient setting, we were able to manage our patient’s pain and treated him with a steroid burst; he was discharged with a plan for close follow-up with a rheumatologist.

Theresa Poulos is a fourth-year medical student.

Write for Synapse We’re looking for Mission Bay and Parnassus student writers, photographers, designers and web producers. Already have your own blog? Share it with us.

Credit: European Space Agency

On Comet: The Philae probe recently landed on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Its 10-year drilling expedition was hailed as a success. epidemics. The term “quarantine,” approximately a kilometer from its target

By Hanna Starobinets landing site. Unfortunately, this meant the isolation of people with potential Staff Writer little sunlight for its solar panels, and thus exposure to a disease, dates back to

O

N Nov. 12, the European Space Agency landed a spacecraft on a comet.

Watching the live streaming video and following the world’s excited Twitter updates, I wondered—not for the first time—if any kind of science or medicine event would ever draw this kind of hype.

Is biology inherently less flashy than space exploration? Certainly both probe the depths of the unknown, though space carries with it a romance that our inner anatomy typically does not.

I’ve known that I wanted to be a biologist since before I knew how to pronounce it, but even so, when I stepped foot into the SpaceX facility at age 23, I felt a desire (fleeting, I promise) to be an aerospace engineer. Perhaps no one will ever glue themselves to the TV or Twitter feed waiting for updates on my tumor biology experiments. But then again, there is always the possibility of sending an experiment to space.

The Philae probe was released earlier on Nov. 12 from the Rosetta spacecraft that had carried it during the 10-year journey to comet 67P/ChuryumovGerasimenko. Currently, the comet is located between Mars and Jupiter, closer to the latter.

In a rather rocky landing, Philae bounced three times in the low gravity of the comet—the first bounce was a kilometer in height—before coming to rest in the comet’s frigid shadows

only two days of battery life.

The good news is that the ESA had contact with the lander during this period, allowing the Rosetta mission team to receive data and send commands.

Failing to fire its harpoon anchors, Philae is at risk of floating off the comet.

This added risk to the planned drilling procedures aimed at analyzing the comet’s composition in search of clues of the primordial universe (did Earth’s oceans form from melted comets?). With the batteries running low, however, the probe gave it a try.

The drilling was a success, and data from chemical analysis of the drilled sample was sent shortly before the probe went quiet.

In spite of the mishaps, this mission has already taught us a lot about the comet—for example, that it stinks of ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, formaldehyde and methanol—and provided the firstever close-up images. And there is plenty of additional transmitted data awaiting analysis.

Scientists and engineers are celebrating the mission as a success.

History of Science of the Black Death

The current Ebola crisis in West Africa, like other modern disease outbreaks, is turning eyes back to the history of

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Medieval Italy, referring to “quaranta” or “forty”—the number of days that incoming ships had to remain in port before crew could come ashore during the Black Death pandemic.

One of the most devastating pandemics in history, the Black Death wiped out a third of Europe’s population in the mid-1300’s. While it is attributed to Yersinia pestis, the bacterium responsible for bubonic, septicemic and pneumonic plagues, the attribution relies on medical anthropology and paleomicrobiology, rather than the sophisticated and definitive methods of modern medicine.

My mother recently lent me her copy of “The Biology of Plagues: Evidence from Historical Populations,” in which the authors Susan Scott and Christopher Duncan argue that the discrepancies between the Black Death’s epidemiology and modern outbreaks of bubonic plague indicate that the Black Death was rather an Ebola-like hemorrhagic virus.

For instance, written records of the Black Death indicate swift person-to-person transmission, whereas Y. pestis infection depends on a cycle of rodent, flea and human hosts.

Furthermore, several Black Death outbreaks occurred in the winter, when rodents and fleas are less prevalent.

Indeed, it is difficult to imagine any disease traveling 10 miles a day, particularly in the 14th century.

PLAGUE » PAGE 12

10 | November 20, 2014

Copyright 2014 by The Puzzle Syndicate

| synapse.ucsf.edu

synapse.ucsf.edu

| November 20, 2014 | 11

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Soda

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» From FRONT Page

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How did you move from laboratory science to being a science communicator?

That happened right after I finished my Master of Music. I was at UCSF at the time, and I got this email from a production company in L.A., who said they were looking for someone to play a role in “Mystery Detectives” on the Oprah Winfrey Network. It was through my work on the show that I realized that this was something I loved to do. It allowed me to bring my performance persona into science.

That was in 2010, and I think that was a time when science communication was starting to be more of a thing. Before that, it was kind of a dirty word among scientists—if you did too much media stuff, you weren’t a “real scientist.” I feel like there’s still sometimes that attitude, but the tide is turning. Scientists are realizing that they’re funded by the public, so it’s actually part of their job to inform the public and tell the public why it’s important to keep funding scientists.

It’s great that you were able to stay connected to all of your interests.

What I’ve learned is that there are times when you have to focus on one thing. For the last few months of my dissertation, I put in 20-hour days, and everything else had to go on the back-burner. But then things changed again. There are times in my life when I spent more time doing other things, and times when I had to focus on science.

Whatever you choose to do with your time, do it well. And then, once it’s done, you’ll have more opportunities. If you’re really busy doing a lot of things and do none of them well, then opportunities will dry up quickly. When I look back, it looks

reasons why diseases such as obesity and Type 2 diabetes often affect minority populations more severely.”

Proponents of the San Francisco soda tax say they will try again next November.

Meanwhile, UCSF researchers continued the effort to educate the public about the effects of sugar by launching SugarScience.org.

Bolstered by more than 8,000 individual scientific papers, SugarScience.org has a team of 12 scientists from different disciplines.

Sean Treacy–Abarca is a first year Tetrad student.

This Date In UCSF History »

By Taylor LaFlam Science Editor

From 25 Years Ago: Vol. 34, No. 12, Nov. 16, 1989

To many students at UCSF today, Mount Zion is simply another campus, but until 25 years ago it was wholly separate, with more than 100 years as an independent, Jewish hospital.

In “Mount Zion-UCSF merger discussed at public hearing,” by Charles Piller, we get to see how this thenproposed merger was being viewed at the time: “Most speakers, including those from the Chamber of Commerce, the Westside Community Mental Health Center and the Asian Business League, were highly supportive of the merger, although

AmericanOperaProjects

“More and more, scientists are starting to realize that sugar in the kind of quantities that Americans are consuming it, on average, is making us sick,” said Laura Schmidt, a lead investigator at SugarScience.org and professor in the School of Medicine.

“No one had really surveyed the literature. And nobody for sure had taken that information and tried to share it with the American public,” Schmidt said.

Also from 25 years ago:

representatives of several community groups expressed doubts about aspects of UCSF’s plans to handle growth at the site.”

The article explains, “The arrangement offers great advantages to both institutions. UCSF would gain badly needed clinical space, while Mount Zion, which faces serious financial problems, could remain open and continue to provide its respected, community-oriented services. Mount Zion’s geriatric and cancer research would also be enhanced under the plan.”

After the merger, the Mount Zion site gradually changed to its current state.

It shed some of its services, such as its emergency room, which closed in 1999.

However, it gained others, such as it cancer center.

Taylor LaFlam is a sixth-year MSTP/ fourth-year BMS student.

Saturday and Sunday

Come and see the future of biomedical research at the Free Exhibition

BiOS EXPO

BiOS TECHNICAL CONFERENCE

Saturday and Sunday, 7–8 February 2015 The Moscone Center · San Francisco, California, USA

BiOS EXPO

TECHNICAL CONFERENCE

EXHIBITION IS FREE

2,200 PRESENTATIONS Registration fees vary

The world’s largest biomedical optics and biophotonics exhibition. See the latest devices, components, and instrumentation for diagnostics and therapeutics. Find solutions for your lab or company.

Singing Surgeon: Dr, Viskontas

SATURDAY HOT TOPICS · 7:00 to 9:00 pm

(right) moonlights as an operatic soprano.

Symposium Chairs

as though everything I did was in service of where I am right now, whereas, at the time, people said you need to pick one thing and just do that. I’m happy I didn’t take that advice.

What advice do you have for current Ph.D. students?

I saw the Ph.D. like a 5-year project.

If you’ve committed to the Ph.D.—and I think it’s definitely worth doing—you want to make sure that you are focusing on that. At the same time, you can’t only do research all the time. Be wise with how you spend that downtime. The academic world is challenging, just like any field; if you can keep your eyes open to things that really incite your passion, then I think you’re in a much better place later on.

Hanna Starobinets is a fourth-year BMS student.

The latest information on biomedical optics, diagnostics and therapeutics, biophotonics, molecular imaging, optical microscopy, optical coherence tomography, and optogenetics is presented and discussed.

James Fujimoto

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA)

Part of

SPIE Photonics West 2015 7–12 February 2015 SPIE Photonics West is the most influential conference for biomedical optics, biophotonics, translational research, industrial lasers, 3D printing, optoelectronics, microfabrication, MOEMS-MEMS, displays, and more.

www.spie.org/biosexpo

R. Rox Anderson, M.D. Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard School of Medicine (USA)

· 20,000 attendees · 2 free exhibitions · 1,250 exhibiting companies · 4,700 technical presentations · 20 plenary presentations (Including recent Nobel Prize Winners) · 40 technical and networking events · 65 courses, and more

12 | November 20, 2014

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Dear Mama M » Stressed Ph.D. student seeking PI’s approval

Dear Mama M,

There’s all this talk about how the biomedical workforce is shifting, and there are not enough academic jobs to accommodate all the Ph.D. students currently being trained. PIs, however, are not traditionally supportive of students who want “alternative careers,” partly because they don’t know how to support our career development in these directions, and they don’t want these pursuits to take time away from lab. I don’t even want to do research after I graduate, but I’m afraid to tell my thesis committee.

On the one hand, I want to tell them because I don’t want to waste my time in pursuitof high-profile publications that I don’t need. But what if this changes how they view me, and they don’t want to waste their time guiding a student who doesn’t want to do research?

—Living a Lie

Synapse Caption Contest: Caption this Lab Bench!

Dear Living Liar, I am not sure where to begin sweetie.

My head is a bit tangled up with your inquiry. I tend to see in images, and the image I have is a very big ball of dirty yarn. I see you trying to pull out the knots in that ball of yarn when, perhaps, you need to throw it out altogether.

You don’t need no dirty yarn darlin’!

Even if you do get it untangled, it seems to have been left in the yard too long … it is muddy and wet, and I don’t think it would make a very good sweater.

So put that down for a minute.

Your question states much of what you don’t want, but little of what you do want. I think starting with what you want is fresher and cleaner. That is your first task. What do I want? (Note: ignore the voices that try to argue with you about what you can have.

Here, you are just stating what you want.)

Next, ask yourself: Am I truly “living a lie”? It will be important down the road when you get closer to your true path to be mindful of the words you use.

Per Merriam Webster, a lie is “a false statement made with deliberate intent to deceive; an intentional untruth; a falsehood.” Thus, “Living a Lie” would mean that your existence, your life force, is organized around an intent to deceive, which does not feel true in the reading of your question.

What I hear is confusion and a desire to tell the truth. If the world worked on total honesty you could simply say to your PI, “You know, I am pretty sure I do not want to do research when I graduate. I am fearful that there may not be jobs where I can be creative and engaged. Can you mentor or help me find a way to focus on a direction that is interesting to me?”

You might think that you cannot be this honest with your adviser, for fear of repercussions. But, do you dare be honest with yourself about what you want? What alternative careers are you interested in?

Start there! Tell yourself all the truths you can about what you want to do with your education.

Do you need a Ph.D.? Have you networked with people who are engaged in the career you seek? Can you find a like-minded mentor in your department who is creative and trustworthy and to whom you can confide your dreams and aspirations?

This life is yours. Let your own optimism guide you—there is a place for you to live, work, breathe, be happy and creative. Find your people, sugar!!!

With deep compassion for your struggle for truth,

Mama M

Here at Synapse, we are looking for ways to make you, the UCSF student population, more involved. That could mean contributing stories to this, your student newspaper. It could mean having you come by one of our weeky meetings (see the Events calendar, on page 2, for details) to discuss journalism topics and learn how to be a better communicator. Or it could just mean encouraging you to share your thoughts and feedback on what you would like to see more of (or less of) in the paper.

To kick things off, we’re presenting our new regular caption contest feature. If you have a funny or clever caption to describe the scene above, submit it online on Facebook (www.facebook.com/UCSFSynapse) or Twitter (@UCSF_Synapse) using the hashtag #SynapseCaption. The top three captions will be printed in the next issue!

If you have a funny original photo of life around UCSF that you’d like to share, or any other content or ideas to contribute, feel free to email us at synapse@ucsf.edu.

Plague

» From Page 3

To address this controversy, scientists have since collected samples from known Black Death mass graves, and have successfully isolated Y. pestis DNA from many—but not all—human skeleton teeth. In a 2011 publication in Nature, the groups of H.N. Poinar and J. Krause published a Y. pestis genome assembled from these samples, but surprisingly they could not identify any marked virulence

Jia

» From Page 3

organization, and we helped raised awareness as well as funds for these groups. We held symposiums featuring renowned researchers who were members of the orchestra, and subsequently held performances by the same physicianscientists.

There are others that dedicate their research to the healing power of music in patients, for example using singing to help speech recovery after stroke, or using classical music to relieve pain and anxiety in critically ill patients.

genes that could explain the Black Death’s devastating spread and mortality.

In the September 2014 issue of Immunity, A.L. St. John et al. reported that Y. pestis in mouse models spreads systemically between lymph nodes (where they cause the characteristic “buboes” of the bubonic plague) by infecting dendritic cells and monocytes. Furthermore, they could prevent the disease from spreading by administering a sphingosine-1phosphate receptor (S1PR) inhibitor, which interferes with phagocyte migration.

With all this information, are we certain that Y. pestis was responsible for the Black Death? Was it perhaps a different substrain that has since become extinct? Is it less virulent today because the human population carries immunity selected during the pandemic?

Or was the Black Death really caused by an unidentified pathogen? How many licks to the center of a Tootsie Pop? The world may never know.

Personally, music has helped me grow as a physician and scientist. Playing the violin for years helped me develop patience, problem-solving skills, and analytical skills. Playing orchestral and chamber music helped me develop communication and teamwork skills. But again, at the end of the day, it is simply fun.

How can people get involved in CMS? Email cms@ucsf.edu. We will send info about upcoming events including monthly reading sessions, which are usually the first Sunday of every month in Cole Hall.

CMS Winter Concert

Angela Castanieto is a sixth-year Tetrad student.

Hanna Starobinets is a fourth-year BMS student.

Friday, December 5, 7p.m., Cole Hall The concert will feature six chamber music ensembles and will be the first time that an octet performs. The program will include selections from Dvorak Quartet No. 14, Brahms Double Concerto for Violin and Cello, Schubert Trout Quintet, Beethoven Piano Trio “Ghost,” Tchaikovsky Piano Trio and the Mendelssohn Octet for strings. Vocal Cords A Capella will help open the concert. The concert is free and open to the public, and will also include a postconcert reception with light refreshments.