Bike trail hub planned
■ The proposed bike trail
will connect Lincoln’s
network of trails.
ByCaraPesek
Staff writer
Bike trails abound in Lincoln.
The MoPac, Billy Wolff, Rock
Island and John Dietrich trails, among
others, run from the center of Lincoln
outward, like spokes on a bicycle.
However, there is something miss
ing from the network of trails in
Lincoln - a hub to link the spokes
together.
But within two or three years, the
Great Plains Trails Netwoik anticipates
that a new trail will become that link.
The Husker Link Trail will run
from 19th to 30th streets, joining four
existing trails, said Nancy Loftis, co
chair of the Husker Link Trail project
In addition, Loftis said, the pro
posed trail will link the existing trails to
downtown Lincoln and to the UNL city
campus.
Loftis said the dream to link Ihe
trails together is not a new one.
“It has always kind of been there as
an idea,” she said.
There was simply no place to build
the link.
But then, Loftis said, the Network
found that a stretch of Union Pacific
railroad track will come up for sale this
summer.
The Network is planning to buy the
stretch of land as soon as possible,
Loftis said.
Before the land can be purchased or
any construction can begin, the
Network needs money.
Loftis said the Network estimates it
will cost about $2 million to build the
trail.
Of that figure, $ 1 million is estimat
ed to go toward building a bridge over
27th Street.
Although much of the money need
ed for the project will come from grants
and other public sources, the Network
needs to raise $400,000 through dona
tions and fund-raisers.
So far, about $50,000 has been
raised.
But Loftis would like to see that fig
ure double before the land for the new
trail is purchased this summer.
“We want to be in a position to say
there is strong support for the project,”
Loftis said.
In order to raise the ipyney, Loftis
and other members of the Husker Link
Trail committee have been mailing out
letters and talking to different commu
nity groups about the trail.
She said she has met with support
nearly everywhere she has gone.
“Everyone that we approach likes
this project,” Loftis said.
Among the organizations and insti
tutions supporting die trail is UNL.
Andy Schuerman, president of the
Association of Students at the
University of Nebraska, said ASUN
has voiced its support for the trail.
Schuerman said the ASUN
Campus Safety and Advisory Council
is planning an event near the end of die
semester to increase campus awareness
of the project.
Tom Cosenza, president of the
Campus Safety and Advisory Council,
said the council also will be active in
lobbying for City Council support of
die trail.
Loftis said she is pleased with the
university’s support and said students
will benefit from the new trail.
Right now, she said, there are “bits
and pieces” of the Billy Wolff trail near
the Beadle Center and east of Sandoz
and Abel residence halls.
“It’s not real well-connected, and
it’s kind of hard to find,” Loftis said.
“Husker Link Trail will be better
connected.”
UNMC publishes liver cell study
■ Cultured cells may help
those waiting for a liver
transplant.
By John Hejkal
Staff writer
The University of Nebraska
Medical Center is continuing to be
prominent in the field of transplant
research.
Ira Fox, associate professor of
surgery and liver transplant surgeon at
UNMC, has helped develop a way to
culture liver cells in the lab.
The research may help develop
techniques for the transplantation of
cultured cells into the livers of people
who are in danger of suffering liver
failure.
“I’ve gotten phone calls and e
mails from people all over the world
who want to use these cells,” Fox said.
If successful, the transplanted
cells could prevent liver failure so
patients could survive long enough to
obtain a suitable organ for transplanta
tion.
“One of the problems for organ
transplantation is that there have not
been enough donors,” Fox said.
The research uses techniques to
manipulate genetically the hepato
cytes, or liver cells, in cultures. The
cells have oncogenes inserted into
them, which make the cells grow like
cancerous cells. The “immortalized”
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cells are then able to grow well outside
the body. Fox said the oncogene
makes a temperature-sensitive muta
tion occur in the cells. The gene “is
turned on” at 33 degrees Celsius, and
it “turns off” at 37 to 39 degrees
Celsius. Normal human body temper
ature is in the 37 to 39-degree range,
he said.
Even though a person’s body heat
would prevent the cancerous effect
from occurring inside the body, it still
was not considered a viable option to
transplant such cells into people, Fox
said.
Along with colleagues from
Brigham Women’s Hospital and the
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Fox found a way to
remove the cancerous gene from the
cells in a process called Reversible
Immortalization.
Genetic sites, known as lox P sites,
act as markers on the ends <?f the onco
gene. Using an enzyme taken from
bacteria, the researchers were able to
cut the genes at the lox P sites, splicing
out the cancer gene, Fox said.
Without the oncogene, the cells
may be safe for transplantation, he
said.
Being able to cut out the cancerous
gene was what made the study impor
tant enough to get published'in the
Feb. 18 issue of Science.
The eventual uses of the findings
are not determined, Fox said.
“It’s probably going to be a fair
amount pf time before we know how
effective this is going to be,” he said.
He said it may be 10 to 15 years
before the FDA approves transplanta
tion of such cells as a way to hold off
liver failure.
Dr. Dan Schafer, associate profes
sor of internal medicine and hepatolo
gist at UNMC, said Fox’s work will
have benefits for both in-lab research
and patient care.
“It is very impressive the way you
as a person can grow adult, function
ing hcpatocytes,” Schafer said. “You
can’t grow adult hepatocytes in cul
ture.”
Because the immortalized cells
can grow in culture, there will be
many applications for them, he said.
“There are a lot of uses for these,
not just in in-vitro studies but in peo
ple,” Schafer said.
The findings in the study may be
used in other areas, Fox said.
“The technology is applicable to
lots of other forms of cell transplants,”
he said.
Inserting oncogenes into insulin
producing cells and nerve cells may
one day bring about help for people
with diseases such as diabetes and
Parkinson’s, Fox said.
Schafer said he was pleased the
research was at a level that could be
published in a journal as prestigious as
Science.
“I think it’s good for science
worldwide because progress is being
made, and it’s good for the university
because it’s being made here,” he said.
A-Team’s Schafer:
‘Shake things up’
SCHAFER from page 1
When Schafer began college at
Creighton, he arrived on campus a
few days before classes started and
was placed in a group of 10 people
led by two upper-class students.
Schafer started at Creighton in
a program where students earn
both an undergraduate and a law
degree in six years, rather than the
traditional seven.
When Schafer realized this
offered him little flexibility in
choosing his courses, he trans
ferred to UNL.
It was a difficult decision for
him because he said he had many
friends at Creighton because of its
orientation program.
During orientation, students'
need to learn their way around
campus and fill out forms and,
more importantly, to build the
sense of community they need to
get to know each other, Schafer
said.
“When students feel like they
are part of a community, they will
be more inclined to help out with
that community,” Schafer said.
Schafer said he wants to change
ASUN from being “a dynasty ...
dominated by a small group of peo
ple who come up through organiza
tions like the Chancellor’s
Leadership Class ... who have lost
touch with normal students.”
As students who have not been
involved with ASUN, members of
A-Team offer “fresh ideas and
fresh motivation,” Schafer said.
Schafer wants to stop ASUN’s
low voter turnout, low visibility
and low interest among students,
he said.
To increase voter turnout, A
Team proposes to implement an
online voting system to make it
easier for off-campus students to
vote.
Andy Schuerman, ASUN pres
ident, said he was advised by Neal
Erickson, election commissioner
in the Secretary of State’s Office,
against an online voting system in
part because of security issues.
In response to this, Schafer said
he would stress the differences
between an ASUN election and
other elections regulated by the
commission.
Schafer said he understands the
security.concems. Under A-Team’s
r; proposal, students voting online
" would enter their names; student
ID numbers and N-Roll pin num
bers.
“If you can pay your taxes
online, you should be able to vote
in a student election online,” he
said.
Schafer also spoke of A-Team’s
If you can pay
your taxes
online, you
should be able
to vote in a
student election
online.”
Joel Schafer
A-Team presidential candidate
shadow senator program that
would better involve international
students with ASUN.
An international student,
appointed by UNL’s International
Students Organization, would
serve as a “shadow senator” with
all the rights of a senator but with
out a vote, Schafer said.
Other parties “pay lip-service”
to involving international students,
but A-Team has specific ideas,
Schafer said.
The A-Team election group
was borne out of conversations
among friends’, said Riley Peterson,
A-Team’s first vice presidential
candidate and a junior political sci
ence major.
The candidates, along with
their campaign manager, Hal
Hansen, would share stories their
parents told them about activism in
college.
Social movements should orig
inate in universities, Peterson said.
“We should be on the cutting
edge ot what’s happening in the
world,” he said.
Members of the A-Team are
disgusted that the opposite is hap
pening on UNUs campus.
The university sells students
out to “traveling bands of commer
cialism,” Peterson said. He referred
to the credit-card solicitors and
advertising promotions in the
greenspace.
“I have full faith in (Schafer’s)
ability to run ASUN as a president,
otherwise I wouldn’t be here,”
Peterson said.
In previous years, ASUN elec
tion groups have made empty state
ments that do not inspire students,
Schafer said.
A-Team thought a third elec
tion group would “shake things '
up,” Schafer said.
Webber commented on the
increase in choices students have in ;
this year’s elections.
“I don’t think ASUN elections
will be the same for a while.”
‘Wheels in motion’for a
third honors residence hall
HONORS from page 1
cems with the construction of a new
honors hall.
“The new hall will probably bring
the same amount of controversy,” he
said. “But it’s something that if it’s
going to be built, it should be privately
funded.”
The hall would be the second built
for honors students. The Esther L.
Kauffman Academic Residence
Center, currently under construction, is
being built to house students in the J.D.
Edwards Honors Program in
Computer Science.
Butterfield said the growing size of
the honors program necessitates more
housing.
Griesen said the addition of a ntw
residence hall will help all students.
With more rooms on campus, more
requests for single rooms will be filled.
But steps exist before the con
struction of a new hall will become a
reality, said Howard Parker, director of
Facilities, Planning and Construction.
The first step in the project was to
draft a program initiation request. The
request has been passed on to Griesen
and will have to receive approval by the
Academic Planning Committee,
Parker said.
If it passes the committee and the
other channels of authority, the univer
sity must get donations to fund it.
Even if everything goes on sched
ule, construction is not slated to begin
until April 2002. It would be complete
in January 2004, Parker said.
“It’s a ways off,” Parker said. “The
wheels are in motion.”
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