A" -rf Hackerman shrugs off low ratings of grad programs - Rice ...

Heliums given grant to explore platelet response to stress
by Todd Giorgio
The National Institute of Health
recently awarded $324,000 in a
three-year grant to Dr. Jesse D.
Heliums, Dean of the George R.
Brown School of Engineering and
professor of chemical engineering.
The grant will fund the seventh,
eighth and ninth years of a
research program involving the
determination of blood platelet
response to shear stress. Results
from Heliums' research may lead
to more effective treatment of
vascular diseases.
Shear stress is the frictional
force exerted on a fluid as it flows
around an object or through a
conduit. Although platelets, the
cellular components of blood
which play a key role in clotting,
normally begin to aggregate and
release specific biochemical
substances at the site of an injury
through biochemical mechanisms,
shear stress may mimic
biochemical signals in some cases.
Research by Heliums and his
research team in conjunction with
the University of Texas Medical
School and the Baylor College of
Medicine has shown that platelets
can also be activated through the
application of shear stress. Platelet
response is hypothesized by
Heliums as a function of both
shear stress levels and the length of
time stress is applied.
Past studies at Rice, also funded
by NIH grants, have examined the
response of platelets to shear stress
exposure through times ranging
from a few seconds to minutes.
Present research involves platelet
response at approximately .001
seconds in duration.
Recent studies indicate that the
response to shear stress in the
intermediate time range (on the
order of seconds) is of great
importance. A new project is
underway in which an instrument
will be developed which will aid in
the assessment of platelet function
continuously in a controlled shear
field.
Helium's previous research
indicates that at the exposure times
and shear stresses characteristic of
certain devices such as disc-type
artificial heart valves and kidneydialysis
machines, platelet
aggregation can occur. Such
aggregation may lead to internal
blood clotting or decreased
platelet activity. Several types of
Gottlieb advocates nuclear freeze
by Mark Rome
Dr. Sanford Gottlieb, executive
director of United Campuses
Against Nuclear Weapons
(UCAM), discussed the nuclear
arms race in the United States in a
speech last week on campus.
His organization UCAM, a
conglomerate of over 500 studentfaculty
groups from universities
and colleges around the world,
hopes to bring about a freeze in the
nuclear weapons build-up in order
to lessen the likelihood of nuclear
war. UCAM currently focuses its
attention on a bi-lateral agreement
between the U.S. and the Soviet
Union.
Gottlieb began his talk by
noting, "The new peace movement
really began because we had a
wonderful recruiting team named
Reagan, Haig and Weinberger,
who spent the better part of 1981
talking about limited nuclear war,
and survivable nuclear war, and
announcing that over a five-year
period that there would be a $1.6
trillion military budget."
Their success, Gottlieb said,
resulted from convincing most
Americans that either the U.S. or
the U.S.S.R. could trigger a
nuclear war.
He believes the new peace
movement differs from older ones
in that it has attracted many
respected individuals. The nuclear
freeze movement has also
increased its political influence in
several significant areas.
"One (area) is that while Reagan
scared the bejeezus out of
everybody by talking about limited
nuclear war in '81, by '82 he had
disavowed it," said Gottlieb. "He
(Reagan) had admitted publicly
that there could be no limited
nuclear war."
Gottlieb outlines a second area
of influence, "Because of
American pressures, peace
movements' pressures, and
European governments' pressures
on the United States, this
administration started negotiations
with the Soviet Union on two
sets of talks, one on European
missiles, the other on strategic
arms reduction."
According to Gottlieb, this act
marked a change in stance by the
Reagan administration, which
came into office "committed to a
military build-up before even
beginning to think about talking to
the Soviets about arms reduction."
Although Gottlieb admitted
that American policy has not yet
been altered by the peace
movement, he foresees a change. If
President Reagan runs for reelection
in 1984, his only platform
will be arms control. "I suspect
that its entirely feasible, however
bizarre this may seem in January
of 1983, to have us witness in 1984
a Ronald Reagan running as a
peace candidate," Gottlieb
• commented.
For these reasons, Gottlieb
predicts that some kind of peace
agreement will be made during the
Reagan administration, if only due
to a "political necessity pushing
Reagan in that direction."
Gottlieb proposed two other
reasons for being hopeful about
the likelihood of peace
negotiations in the near future.
First, he suggested, "the politics of
the situation are what we shoul^
im—m\
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keep our eyes on.
"I feel that a lot of people have
an unformed notion that somehow
the questions of war and peace are
decided down deep in the bowels of
the Pentagon by the joint Chiefs of
Staff. Not so. The decisions are
made by the political leaders on
both sides."
Gottlieb finds another reason
for hope in the firing of Eugene
Rostow as the head of the Arms
Control and Disarmament
Agency. According to Gottlieb,
Rostow's firing has placed
Secretary of State George Shultz
in the most influential position of
any of the president's aidvisors on
this issue. Gottlieb considers
Shultz to be "a pragmatist, not an
ideologue, and [someone who]
doesn't come to his office with the
same kind of mindset that many of
the more ideological people in the
Reagan administration share."
In addition to providing
information on the nuclear arms
freeze movement, Gottlieb's
speech served as a recruiting effort
to form a UCAM chapter at Rice.
An informal group of people now
Dlan to form an official
organization. Anyone who*, is
interested in joining an
organization dedicated to the
advancement of a nuclear weapons
freeze should contact Duane Pryor
at 526-3603.
P.O. Box C-88127, Seattle. WA 98188
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Dr. Jesse D. Heliums —C. Reining
vascular disease have recently been
attributed at least partially to the
interaction of platelets with the
inside walls qf< blood vessels.
Helium's experimental work is
complicated by factors such as the
complexity of the biochemical
response of platelets, the partial
reversibility of the aggregation
processes, and the requirement ot a
uniform shear field over the entire
sample volume. Such difficulties
have been overcome through the
use of unique equipment especially
designed and built at Rice.
Said Heliums, "At the present
time there are three graduate
students on the project, as well as
some post-doctoral people and
technicians. The major contributions
on the project are
coming from Rice students."
Heliums hopes that the newly
.funded research will yield a better
understanding of the chemical
pathways by which platelets
activate and how those pathways
can be altered to prevent unwanted
activity. Commented Heliums,
"We are delighted to see the NIH
continue to support our program
in these times of constrained
funding."
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The Rice Thresher, February 4, 1983, page 7