CURVE Welcomes Georgia’s Congressional Staff
We are now less than two weeks away from the official opening of CURVE and the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony scheduled for September 10, 2014, at 2:00. Please mark your calendars!
Assoc. Professor of Biology Susanna Greer shares some of her lab’s early findings on the CURVE interactWall
While gearing up for our grand opening, CURVE personnel welcomed our home state’s congressional staffers from Washington, D.C., who were with us on August 28 learning about some of the exciting research and innovations happening at Georgia State. Visitors to CURVE included staff from the offices of Senators Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson and Congressmen Sanford Bishop, Phil Gingery, Tom Graves, Jack Kingston, John Lewis, Tom Price, Austin Scott, and David Scott.
Highlights of their CURVE visit included a presentation from Susanna Greer, Associate Professor of Biology, on “Turning Immune Cells on to Cancer.” According to Dr. Greer, both breast and colon cancer have a significant impact on the world’s population, and standard therapies are often unsuccessful in treating advanced stages of the disease. Cancer immunotherapies, which use parts of the immune system to fight disease, represent a promising treatment for advanced breast and colorectal cancers. Dr. Greer’s lab, along with her collaborator Dr. Charlie Benson, have shown that combining radiation therapy with proteasome inhibitors can enhance immune responses to cancer. Very promising research.
Next up, Rich Muller, Georgia State’s Senior BioSafety Officer discussed lab security on campus, a serious topic, by injecting a bit of practical know-how and humor into the day’s events. At one point, Arthur Tripp from the Office of Congressman David Scott, volunteered to try on a hazardous materials suit similar to what our first responders on campus would wear when dealing with an unfortunate cleanup in one our research labs or other facilities.
The visit concluded with an engaging multimedia presentation from John McMillian, Assistant Professor of History and author of the recent book, Beatles vs. Stones, about rock ‘n’ roll’s ultimate debate. McMillian discussed the phenomenon of “Beatlemania” in the U.S. and revealed how music managers helped to construct the Beatles vs. Stones rivalry as a way of boosting record sales and popularity for both musical groups back in England. According to his book, “The Beatles were marketed as cute and amiable, when in fact they came from hardscrabble backgrounds in Liverpool. By contrast, the Stones were cast as an edgy, dangerous group, even though they mostly hailed from the London suburbs.”
