Tagged: University of Michigan

The stem cell research lab at the University of Michigan has reached a significant milestone.

A stem cell line developed from a 5 day old human embryo donated to U of M’s stem cell program has been certified by the National Institutes of Health. That’s significant, because there are only 147 embryonic stem cell lines approved by the NIH. Many of them are old lines with certain drawbacks for researchers.

Gary Smith is the co-director of the stem cell program.    He says U of M is just one of a handful of universities in the United States making new human embryonic stem cell lines for research.    

“Any investigator across the United States...or really across the world can utilize those embryonic stem cells," says Smith, "And in fact (the researchers) can use those embryonic stem cells to submit research….or for funds from the National Institutes of Health to do research on those lines.”   

Smith says U of M plans to submit another 10 stem cell lines for certification.

The University of Michigan has released its internal review on the allegations of child pornography possession by Stephen Jensen - a medical resident of the Pediatric Emergency Department at the UM Hospital.

University officials have been accused of waiting too long to report the incident to officials.

The review found that the initial investigation into the allegations "was insufficient and improper." 

A resident reported the potential crime to a lead university attorney who caused the resident "distress and a feeling that she should not have come forward with the report."

The report found that others in the UM Health System assumed that lead attorney took control of the investigation and awaited direction from that office, and that a "review of the computer by Health System personnel was insufficient and would have been enhanced if law enforcement had been involved to lead the investigation."

The attorney is no longer at the University of Michigan.

The review states:

University management accepts responsibility for the delay in reporting the crime, an unacceptable handling of the reporting and necessary investigation of the concern regarding child pornography. We conclude that the assertion of improper control of the investigation by the attorney and reliance on her conclusions by others were the root cause for the delay and improper handling of the initial report. The case should have been forwarded to the Department of Public Safety in May.

UM President, Mary Sue Coleman just released this statement:

Statement from President Mary Sue Coleman Feb. 10, 2012

    The Michigan Supreme Court today rejected requests by the state attorney general and a g roup supported by a conservative think tank to intervene in effort to unionize graduate student research assistants at the University of Michigan.    

Michigan’s Attorney General Bill Schuette filed a request with the state Supreme Court to stop a hearing about whether certain graduate students at the University of Michigan can unionize.

Attorney General spokesman John Selleck says they "respect the decision of the Supreme Court."

"I'm happy that the Supreme Court denied the Attorney General's motion to intervene in our hearing," says Irene Yeh, a graduate student research assistant (GSRA) at the University of Michigan. "I'm glad it looks like GSRAs will have the right to decide whether we want to unionize."

The most important day of the year for a college football coach is not the home opener, the big rivalry game or even a bowl game.  It’s national signing day, which falls on the first Wednesday in February.

On signing day, the end zone is not grass or Astroturf, but a fax machine tray.  Only when a signed National Letter of Intent breaks the plane of that tray does it count.

A couple years ago I got a chance to see the sausage get made – and it’s not pretty.