collegian.csufresno.edu
IS THE REBOOT OF ‘IT’ WORTH WATCHING? Page 4
Monday, Sept. 11, 2017
CONTRACT
ASI strips The Fresno Bee from campus
Fresno State’s Award-Winning Newspaper
GRANT
TREATING CANCER
By Cresencio Rodriguez-Delgado & Jessica Johnson | @cres_guez & @iamjesslj
Fresno State students will not be picking up a print copy of The Fresno Bee daily newspaper on campus any time soon this fall. The Associated Students Inc. confirmed last Friday that it has decided to discontinue the subscription due to the cost. Last academic year, ASI President Blake Zante said ASI was paying for 1,200 daily newspapers at 9 cents each. Zante said The Bee asked for 38 cents per paper for the same amount this year. ASI then asked for a lower price: 15 cents for 400 papers, Zante said. The paper was provided free to the campus community. “When we presented it to the Senate, they decided that they did not want to proceed with this deal,” Zante said. The Senate voted 8 -7 to discontinue the contract. Last Friday was the last day The Bee was circulated at Fresno State. Zante said negotiations will continue to see if a new deal
See CONTRACT, Page 3
IMMIGRATION
BBB offers DACA recipients legal advice By Jessica Johnson | @iamjesslj The Better Business Bureau, a company that provides the public with ratings on trustworthy businesses, is offering advice to recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program who may be seeking legal advice about immigration and their DACA status. Last week, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced DACA will be phased out in about six months. The Department of Homeland Security has begun the phasing out process. Ending DACA was a campaign promise of President Donald Trump. According to a news release from the BBB, the phasing out of the program will put nearly 800,000 young immigrants at risk of deportation since they were protected by the program in 2012. Halfway through this year, more than 200,000 immigrants have renewed their benefits, according to the news release. Fresno State President Dr. Joseph Castro announced on Tuesday that there are more than 1,000 students at the university who are DACA recipients. The BBB has some words of advice for
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Breast cancer cells seen through a microscope Benjamin Cruz • The Collegian
Fresno State Professor Dr. Jason Bush shows containers that contain breast cancer cells (left) in his labratory in the Science I Building on Sept. 8, 2017
Fresno State professor gets funding for breast cancer research By Cresencio Rodriguez-Delgado @cres_guez
A
biology laboratory tucked away in the Science I Building at Fresno State is home to several cancer diseases. And $300,000 in new research funds from the National Institutes of Health are now available to more closely study one of those diseases in particular – breast cancer. Dr. Jason Bush, a biology professor, works in the laboratory with his undergraduate and graduate research students. He said cancer and cells have been the focus of his research work since about the late 1990s. During his postdoctoral work, he became fascinated with breast cancer research. It’s led him to new discoveries. “Cancer cells like to grow,” Bush said. “They like to divide and proliferate abnormally. And in order to do that, cells need building blocks (like amino acids, carbohydrates and fats) and when cells can’t get that, they have to change their metabolism.” The process is referred to in the science community as “metabolic reprogramming.” And understanding exactly how and why metabolic reprogramming occurs will be the focus of the ongoing breast cancer research. “If we understand the kind of changes that are occurring (in breast cancer), we might be able to then use that as a strategy to specifically target specific types of cancer cells,” Bush said.
The laboratory will utilize the funds from the National Institutes of Health throughout four years to research and discover potential new strategies for treating the deadly cancer disease. “Every year in the U.S., 250,000 women are diagnosed with (breast) cancer (and) every year in the U.S., a little over 40,000 women die of breast cancer,” Bush said. “That’s something really significant and we want to have an impact in that by hopefully discovering some new aspects about breast cancer in biology.” Bush said the research from his laboratory will help guide the larger effort to better understand breast cancer and cancer, in general – a disease that is as old as dinosaurs and includes more than 200 different types. Students in the laboratory learn to isolate cancer cells and test different types of treatment on them, Bush said. Isolating the cancer cells allows researchers to study the genes, DNA and the proteins that turn a normal cell into a cancer cell. “If we know where the differences are, then we might be able to develop strategies to exploit those differences for therapeutic benefits with cancer,” Bush said. In a plastic container, Bush recently placed under a microscope some breast cancer cells that have reproduced. Clearly visible through the microscope lens, the breast cancer cells were among components that make up human blood – like salts, minerals, amino acids and sugars. Bush said the breast cancer cells are often moved around so they don’t overtake the cells in the plastic dish after it starts to divide.
See GRANT, Page 3