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Synapse The UCSF Student Newspaper
Thursday, October 3, 2013
synapse.ucsf.edu
Volume 58, Number 4
NEWS
NEWS
NIH Official Warns of Challenging Times Ahead Chancellor Maps Out an Exciting Course for UCSF
By Alexandra Greer Science Editor
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iomedical scientists face a multifaceted crisis of funding that threatens to slow the pace of discovery and discourage talented researchers from entering the biomedical workforce. Despite this bleak outlook, “We cannot let science get ahead of us,” said Dr. Sally Rockey, the Deputy Director for Extramural Research of the National Institutes for Health (NIH), during a seminar for UCSF researchers on September 24. During her presentation, which was part pep talk and part reality check, Rockey outlined both the mounting fiscal difficulties and attempted workarounds at the NIH in supporting biomedical research. Impact of sequestration
By Brian Shaw Staff Writer
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30 percent. For 2012, after a significant slowdown in growth, current award estimates stand at around 18 percent of grant applications. “While the budget has gone up by some, our buying power has gone down, because of the cost of research,” said Rockey. In addition, large purchases for equipment or facilities expansions by laboratories
NEWS
OPINION
By Catherine Chiu Contributing Writer
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he first time I walked into a patient room at Moffitt Hospital was during my first week as a medical student. For those of you who are not familiar with the Medical School curriculum, Foundations of Patient Care (FPC) is a two-year long course that teaches us the etiquette of being a doctor, in addition to how to think like a doctor. In FPC, the first patient interviews we conduct are in a small group of eight, in a small cramped hospital room at Moffitt or Long. We walk into the patient’s room in our white coats, and we hide in our pockets the fear of accidentally doing or saying something uncouth. I have met incredible and inspiring patients whose generosity to teach medical stu-
POWER OF MUSIC » PAGE 4
ROCKEY » PAGE 6
CHANCELLOR » PAGE 7
Photo by Cindy Chew/UCSF Dr. Sally Rockey, Deputy Director for Extramural Research at the National Institutes of Health, delivers a lecture, "NIH: Interesting Times, Challenging Times" at Genentech Hall on Sept 24.
Since last year, sequestration has resulted in the loss of 5 percent of NIH extramural funds, which has translated into a reduction in the number of awards made and also in the size of individual awards. These cuts (largely due to the sequester) come at a time when biomedical research is already reeling from a sharp drop in the success rates of grant awards. In the period 1998-2003, the NIH budget doubled and award rates stood at around
The Healing Power of Music
and institutions during those relative times of wealth have made it more difficult to adjust to a slowdown in new awards. “If we had only grown by 3 percent a year, we would still be near where we are today, and it would have been easier to adjust”, she said. “We prefer steady growth. Flat becomes problematic.” Despite these difficulties, the NIH remains
hancellor Desmond-Hellmann opened her fourth annual State of the University speech with what she called “some good news,” the launch of the Discovery Fellows Program, thanks to a significant donation from Sir Michael Moritz and his wife, Harriet Heyman. This program, funded by a gift of $60 million, will create the largest endowed program for PhD students in the history of the University of California system. It will ensure that UCSF can attract top PhD candidates and allow students the flexibility to work on more risky and innovative projects. UCSF Chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellmann delivered her fourth annual State of the University address on September 24. In a new format, she focused on headlines of the past year as a way to highlight individuals and initiatives at the university. In addition to the latest fund-raising success, Desmond-Hellmenn talked of the achievements of UCSF in the field of precision medicine. Most notably, the Chancel-
The Action Potential: The Ex Factor
aka “Why It’s OK You’re Still Sleeping with Your Ex” Editor's note: Using personal experiences as a guide, this column seeks to advise and entertain its readers on the ever-complicated topics of love and sex. The anonymity of "The Action Potential" provides our writers the freedom to recount completely and honestly even the most sordid tales. If you have any topics you would like to see covered, email synapse@ ucsf.edu. We'll find someone who's done the "dirty" work so you don't have to!
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e’ve all sat in front of our T V or computer screen watching this show or that movie, completely enthralled by the unfolding drama of a relationship gone sour. Suddenly, some incident occurs — a night out at the same club; a run-in at a mutual friend’s party; assigned seats next to each other on the same plane — and the exes find
themselves talking and wind up waking up the next day sharing the same bed. If you are like me, this either made you fist-pump the air a few times in celebration or shake the screen in frustration at the idiocy of it all, while silently telling yourself that you would never fall into that trap. Nowadays, I would be a hypocrite to do the latter. I have become one of those characters I used to criticize. And despite the fact that I mentally berate myself time and again for falling into the trap of his embrace, I am unable (maybe unwilling is the better word) to stop, no matter how much it hurts each morning — after which he leaves me again. Which causes me to ask, “Why?” After discussing my slip-ups with friends, my question is no longer about my lack of willpower, but about why I was so critical of the practice of hooking up with an ex in the
first place. The most common response I receive is a shrug and the super-sympathetic statement, “It happens. Eat some chocolate.” Maybe I am just trying to justify my actions to assuage any lasting feelings of guilt, but I’d like to play devil’s advocate here, and say that, as long as neither of you are tied to someone new, hooking up with an ex is an acceptable source of pleasure and stress relief — if certain things are discussed beforehand. I truly believe communication is the problem and not the act itself. Due to the — ahem — extremely passionate and spontaneous nature of most hook-ups, the pre-coitus discussion is usually zero, or about everything but the one topic that really needs to be hashed out: the aftermath. I know that there is a reason we are not together, I know we are both lonely and horny
EX FACTOR » PAGE 6