January 15, 2015

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Blue Devils Hope to Regain Footing Against Hokies Having recently fallen out of the top 15 for the first time this season, No. 16 Duke will take on Virginia Tech Thursday | Page 2

The Chronicle T H E I N D E P E N D E N T D A I LY AT D U K E U N I V E R S I T Y

THURSDAY, JANUARY 15, 2015

WWW.DUKECHRONICLE.COM

ONE HUNDRED AND TENTH YEAR, ISSUE 64

Duke athletes rally for campaign

Report adds newdimension toPottiscandal

Report alleges that Duke faculty attempted to quiet a whistleblower on Potti’s research Emma Baccellieri News Editor More than four years after former Duke researcher Anil Potti resigned in a scandal that made national headlines, the case has resurfaced—this time for the manner in which Duke handled concerns about Potti’s research from a medical student. A report published Anil Potti earlier this week in The Cancer Letter, a weekly national newsletter on cancer research, alleges that Duke professors and deans tried to quiet a whistleblower on Potti’s research in 2008, two years before formal investigations into Potti’s work led to his resignation. Bradford Perez, a third-year medical student working in Potti’s lab at the time, raised concerns about possible misconduct and falsification of data in Potti’s research. When he tried to pursue the matter, however, he was told that pressing forward would result in a loss of funding for his own research and an internal investigation at Duke. He was also discouraged from taking further action, according to The Cancer Letter’s report. The new information comes from emails and depositions given in a Durham County Superior Court case brought by patients involved in Potti’s clincial trials. Filed in October 2011—with defendants See Potti on Page 3

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Photo Courtesy of Shayan Asadi You Don’t Say?, a campaign that aims to raise awareness of the offensive nature of phrases and slurs used in everyday conversation through photographs, has now rolled out its second online push featuring 41 Duke student-athletes. (See story on Page 8.)

Faculty fight drug resistance with software Gautam Hathi Health & Science Editor A computer program developed at Duke has become the latest weapon in the war on drug-resistant bacteria. Researchers at Duke and the University of Connecticut have published findings that open source software can predict how bacteria will become resistant to new drugs. The software analyzes the structure of the bacteria and determines how bacteria will change and adapt to new drugs. In lab tests, the software was able to predict how Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria would develop Bruce Donald resistance to new drugs developed at the University of Connecticut. The software may now be used to improve the drug resistance of antibiotics before they

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INSIDE — News 2 Recess 4 Sports 8 Classified 9 Puzzles 9 Opinion 10

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undergo clinical trials. new drugs, those predictions were tested at “It gives us a little window into evolution,” the University of Connecticut by Amy Ansaid Bruce Donald, James B. Duke professor derson, professor of medicinal chemistry. of computer science and chemistry and co- She is currently working on developing new author of the paper. “We can see what moves antibiotics to fight drug-resistant MRSA bacthe bacterium could make—or will make— teria. Anderson exposed bacteria to her new against new drugs that are drugs and saw how the in the pipeline.” bacteria changed to dee can see what Donald’s open source velop resistance. “We grew resistant software—OSPREY—has moves the bactebacteria and we sebeen used previously to rium could make—or will determine the structure quenced the gene to of proteins and design make—against new drugs find out which mutations new proteins. For this that are in the pipeline. it had. We found some experiment, the software of the same mutations — Bruce Donald which [the software] had was used to determine predicted,” Anderson how bacteria could modify their proteins in ways that would make said. “The prediction was actually validated them resistant to new drugs. in the bacteria.” “The hypothesis is that in order to select Once researchers know how bacteria will resistance mutations, essentially the patho- adapt to a new drug, they can modify the gen has to, on its own, solve a rather tricky drug to fight those adaptations. This saves protein design problem,” Donald said. a large amount of time, effort and money Once the software predicted the possible See Donald on Page 3 ways in which bacteria might change to fight

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