“All in the Timing” consists of six humorous acts that are each an independent play.
According to the School of Theatre and Dance brochure, playwright David Ives uses wordplay in his one-act plays “to support the notion that people have a better chance of connecting with each other if they never speak.”
One plot, titled “Sure Thing,” revolves around the first meeting between a man and a woman that is continually reset by an alarm each time one of them says the wrong thing. Another act, “Words, Words, Words,” centers on three chimpanzees trying to write their own version of Hamlet.
“The Universal Language” follows a developing romance spoken entirely in an invented language. “Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread” is a musical parody of composer Philip Glass. “The Philadelphia” contains a man in a restaurant who must ask for the opposite of what he wants. “Variations on the Death of Trotsky” is self-explanatory.
Troy Peckham and Michael K. Lewis
The play is a remount of a production performed by current and former NIU students in June in the Chicago area. Josh Anderson, a performer from the summer production, is directing this fall’s remount with a different cast.
Anderson commented that the productions will differ based on what each actor brings to the roles. He believes that his role as the director is to guide each actor in finding his/her own take on the role.
While it was a challenge to direct a production consisting of six smaller plays, Anderson also had a great deal of fun. He cites the unique voice of David Ives in providing an engaging and cohesive whole to the play.
“Ives’ voice is at the heart and soul of each piece,” Anderson says, “so (directing ‘All in the Timing’) is not as challenging as if each act were written by a different person.”
Ives’ comedies of words will be performed in the O’Connell Theatre from Thursday, Sept. 23, through Sunday, Sept. 26, and from Wednesady, Sept. 29, through Sunday, Oct. 3.
Ticket prices are $15 for adults, $12 for seniors and $8 for students, and can be purchased from the Stevens Building box office in the lobby of the Stevens Building on the DeKalb campus or by calling (815) 753-1600. It is open from noon to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday, from noon to 2 p.m. Friday and one hour before show times.
Date posted: September 9, 2010 | Author: Mark McGowan | Comments Off on School of Theatre and Dance prepares to remount June production of David Ives’ ‘All in the Timing’
The NIU School of Music will present a series of organ concerts beginning at 3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 19. The concerts will be presented on the Martin Ott Pipe Organ, located in the Boutell Memorial Concert Hall.
Sept. 19’s kick-off concert will be an alumni recital that features six former students — NIU graduates in organ from 1975 to 2009 — performing music by Bach, Buxtehude, Dumage, Lemmens, Mendelssohn, Reger and Schumann.
Performers include Allison Boccia, Rosalie Cassiday, David Hiett, Mark Kline, John Linker and Connie Withhart. They were students of NIU organ faculty Robert Reeves, Richard Barrick Hoskins and James Russell Brown.
The Fall Organ Series will continue at 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 10, with a faculty recital by Brown. He will perform music by Bach, Böhm, deGrigny, Widor, Messiaen and Dupré.
Renowned Chicago organist David Schrader will be featured in a special organ master class for students at 10 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 16, and then in a major recital at 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 7. Schrader will perform music by Bach, Alain, Nielsen and Correa.
They will play Puccini’s “Crisantemi for String Quartet,” “Three Divertimenti” by Britten, “String Quartet in e minor” by Verdi and finish the concert with Mozart’s beautiful “String Quintet in C Major, K. 515.”
Members of the Avalon Quartet are Blaise Magniere – first violin, Richard O. Ryan Endowed Chair in Violin; Marie Wang – second violin; Anthony Devroye – viola; and Cheng-Hou Lee – cello. The members of the Avalon Quartet teach applied lessons and coach chamber music, and are active in their performance career bringing attention to the NIU School of Music from the concert stage and in other outreach activities. They annually perform a number of concerts on campus and on a concert series produced by NIU at Symphony Center in Chicago.
Founded in 1995, the Avalon Quartet held residencies at NIU and the Hartt School, and prior to their appointment at NIU School of Music in 2007 was the faculty quartet-in-residence at the Indiana University-South Bend Raclin School of the Arts for four years.
The quartet garnered attention as prize winners in major competitions including the grand prize at the 1998 Fischoff Competition, first prize in the 1999 Concert Artist Guild competition, and the highest prize awarded at the 2000 ARD Munich Competition. The quartet also received awards at the 1998 Banff and 1999 Melbourne competitions. Their debut CD, “Dawn to Dusk,” was awarded the 2002 Chamber Music America/WQXR Record Award. The Avalon Quartet has performed in numerous major venues including Carnegie-Weill Recital Hall, New York’s Merkin Hall, the Gilmore Keyboard Festival, the Auditorium du Louvre in Paris, the Music Alp Festival in Seoul, Korea, London’s Wigmore Hall, Herculessal in Munich, and the Ravinia Festival.
Born in London, Chase studied at the Royal College of Music with Bernard Shore and in Canada with Steven Staryk. He also worked for a short time with the legendary Lionel Tertis, whose famed Montagnana viola he now plays.
He made his debut with the English Chamber Orchestra in 1979, and in 1987 appeared as a soloist at a Promenade Concert at The Royal Albert Hall in London. He has since played as a soloist or chamber musician in major cities throughout the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, the Middle East, India, most of Eastern and all of Western Europe and Scandinavia.
Chase has been a member of many ensembles including the Nash Ensemble, the London Sinfonietta, the Esterhazy Baryton Trio, the Quartet of London, Hausmusik of London, and the London Chamber Orchestra. He has been invited to play as principal violist with every major British orchestra and many others in North America and Europe, including the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Mr. Chase has performed and taught at numerous festivals in the USA (Tuscon Festival, Weekend of Chamber Music in the Catskills and the Colorado College Summer Music Festival), in Japan, in Italy (Casalmaggiore International Festival), France (Festival Consonances in St. Nazaire) and the Netherlands (Schiermonnikoog International Festival of Chamber Music).
He has taught at the Royal College of Music, the Guildhall School, the Royal Northern College of Music and Oberlin College. He currently teaches at Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University in Chicago.
For more information, contact Lynn Slater at (815) 753-1546 or lslater@niu.edu.
Date posted: September 9, 2010 | Author: Mark McGowan | Comments Off on Avalon Quartet, guest Roger Chase will begin 2010-11 season with ‘Opening Night at the Opera’
NIU’s Jack Olson Gallery, housed in the School of Art’s Visual Arts Building, is hosting “Writ Deep,” an exploration of the relationship between craft and text as a unique affinity between forms.
Stratton is a writer and curator based in Chicago, where she founded and is current executive and creative director of threewalls, a not-for-profit visual arts residency and exhibition project space. She teaches at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in fiber and material studies, art history, theory and criticism and arts administration.
Meanwhile, one of the Writ Deep artists – Michael Genovese – is serving as an artist-in-residence in the School of Art. Genovese is creating “Public Scribing,” a series of on-campus interactive drawing and writing workshops that explore narrative.
A closing reception for the exhibition is scheduled from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 23. All four artists and Stratton will attend the reception and talk about their work.
“Writ Deep” – excerpted from Stratton’s description
Rather than looking to the history of language art, “Writ Deep” is an exploration of the relationship between craft and text as a unique affinity between forms. Where the use of text in art has historically been to push the boundaries of the field – including operating as an anti-art form or advocating for an anti-aesthetic – text and craft share a longer history where text is anything but anti-craft.
Craft that employs text lends language a physicality: a tangible, as opposed to metaphorical, body. Craft and text is an obliging re-unification of body and mind as the abstract is made manifest both materially and methodologically.
In Writ Deep, the idea of an embedded text connects the work of Michael Dinges, Michael Genovese, Carol Jackson and Rebecca Ringquist whose processes of scrimshaw, engraving, leather-tooling, and embroidery and appliqué (respectively) are rooted in craft traditions. Each of these artists is invested in these forms as their chosen medium, as opposed to utilizing them strictly for a singular metaphor, and each employs text as a major mark in their work.
To embed something means to plant it firmly and deeply in surrounding mass. In the case of text and craft, the word is surrounded by material that supports, informs and contextualizes it in a way that the page alone cannot.
In a craft/text relationship, the material substrate becomes a body for the text to inhabit, not just a supporting surface. Through methodologies like engraving, etching and embroidery, text impregnates the material, creating a resolute bond that literally alters or changes the substrate through a kind of scoring or scarring of the surface – actions that call to mind a body as it might be scratched and scarred through use or through decoration. Scars are telling reminders of a body’s history; in the case of text, materiality and craft, the connection between method of incision and the substrate itself becomes one that is partially dependent on the material’s narrative and partially dependent on the narrative inherent to the process.
The artists in “Writ Deep” all work with a stylus so, in addition to their shared use of text and textual markings, their work could be described as drawing.
Text functions as both the written word as well as sign, a subject for a drawing that resides between the second and third dimension. Drawing text ties these practices to graffiti, diaries/sketchbooks and marginal notations, subjective forms of writing and reflection that are linked to craft because of its subjective and amateur associations. The melding of amateur craft forms, common materials and writing in each of these practices’ underlying political essence results in work that manages to avoid irony while still maintaining sharp wit.
“Public Scribing”
Genovese’s project invites audience participation to record the thoughts, perspectives and intuition of the American public – collecting, documenting and comparing data from different regions and cultures within the country.
The choice of medium is drawing where text, form and material fuse unresolved compositions onto black aluminum plates through a graffito process. Through workshops and designated areas for mark-making, the surfaces collect social commentary, names and drawings that are then described in plain text and documented.
The documentation process includes invited local participants to transcribe the information on the plates in their native tongues. The text then is translated into various languages and scribed by the artist onto historically referenced plates that are mirror-polished.
For this project, Genovese performs as a modern-day scribe. The social commentary, handwriting analysis and descriptions of drawings allow him to attain a deeper understanding of the world around him.
“Public Scribbling” at NIU will include a number of blank aluminum plates with styluses throughout different common grounds on campus.
The integration of the students’ interests, points of view and expressions would be gathered onto surfaces that would then be re-introduced through artists’ workshops. Those workshops would include conversations and descriptions of the discovered markings that can become poetic reinterpretations, free-form drawings on the plates or voice recordings.
Final documentation will be added to the archive and collection of the project that will come to an end in 2012 and result in a traveling exhibition and catalogue.
Date posted: September 8, 2010 | Author: Mark McGowan | Comments Off on Jack Olson Gallery hosts ‘Writ Deep’ exhibition, artist-in-residence creates ‘Public Scribing’
With a 3-0 win over Illinois Chicago to take first place Saturday night at the UIC Invitational at UIC Pavilion, the Northern Illinois volleyball team has boldly gone where no team in program history has been before — 8-0 to start a season.
“To be 8-0 at this point is a very positive thing for our group,” said ninth-year head coach Ray Gooden. “It helps us put our name in a special place in a program that has a lot of history and pride.”
Since becoming a Division I program in 1970, no Huskie volleyball team has been off to such a beginning to a campaign. In the 27 sets so far, 24 have gone in favor of NIU, including the last 13 and all nine in the UIC Invitational. During the winning streak over the first two weekends, the Huskies have won two tournaments and have been better than every opponent in kills (397-270), hitting percentage (.320-.166), digs (390-309), and aces (70-17).
Lauren Wicinski
In achieving the longest winning streak since 2001 (18 matches), freshman outside hitter Lauren Wicinski (Geneva, Ill./Geneva) fronted the Huskies with her second double-double of the day, and fourth of the season, with a team-high four aces and 21 kills on 36 swings for a .472 hitting percentage along with 10 digs.
After winning Mid-American Conference West Division Offensive Player of the Week in her first weekend, Wicinski garnered the tournament MVP honor this weekend. In the three matches, she hit .464 with 49 kills on 84 attacks, while also totaling 10 aces and 30 digs. She led the team in each of those categories, except hitting percentage, which was claimed by freshman Sarah Angelos (Waukegan, Ill./Waukegan), who hit .556 with 22 kills on 36 attempts.
“I thought Lauren had a real nice and complete weekend,” Gooden said. “She made some improvements with her passing and defense over the weekend.”
Joining Wicinski on the all-tournament team was senior libero Maddie Hughes (St. Charles, Ill./North). The 2009 MAC Defensive Player of the Year gathered a team second-best 25 digs and seven aces in the three victories.
“Maddie had a second solid weekend of anchoring our team’s defense,” Gooden said. “She’s getting better at not only playing well herself, but continuing to find ways to make others better.”
After a 3-0 win over Memphis to start the day, the Huskies seemed to be a little slow in the early goings of the first two sets against the Flames (2-3). NIU took the opening set 25-22 and the second 25-23, but then found their mojo once again in the third set for an easy 25-14 decision. For the match, the Huskies held a 51-41 edge in kills, .362-.257 advantage in hitting percentage, and 48-38 lead in digs. They also blocked (5-2) and served (7-3) better than UIC.
“In our first true away match of the year, I thought we battled against a very determined UIC team,” said Gooden. “We were able to withstand their charge at us for two games. It was nice for us to be able to settle down and play some very positive Huskie-style volleyball.”
Like Wicinski, junior outside hitter Allison McGlaughlin (Morton, Ill./Morton) achieved a double-double with 11 digs and 10 kills. Sophomore middle blocker Mary Kurisch (LaCrosse, Wis./West Salem) added nine kills and a team-high four blocks, while Angelos had six kills on 11 swings for a .455 attack percentage. Junior setter Kristin Hoffman (Batavia, Ill./Batavia) paced the offense with 42 assists, and had eight digs. Hughes led the defense with 13 digs.
Narrowly trailing most of the initial set, the Huskies broke a 21-21 tie on a Flames serve that went too long. Sophomore outside hitter Meghan Romo (Valparaiso, Ind./Valparaiso) then arched a crosscourt shot over the defense to the back left corner to give NIU its largest lead of the set. After a UIC point, Wicinski cut a ball sharply across the court off a one foot jump from the left side and a Flames attack error into the net gave the set to the Huskies.
Down by four points two different times, and needing two timeouts to regroup, NIU fought its way to another close win in the second set. Trailing 19-15 after a timeout, kills by McGlaughlin and Romo and an Angelos block brought the score within a point. Out of a UIC timeout, the Flames scored and kept a two-point lead until Kurisch swiped a ball off a block and a UIC attack error off the pin tied the score, 23-23. Kurisch and Wicinski teamed for a block to end the next play. Then, just as the first set did, a Flames attack error into the net gave the Huskies a 2-0 match lead.
After re-energizing in the locker room during the break, the Huskies came out strong in the third set, taking a 5-1 lead after a kill by Kurisch. UIC closed within a point at 6-5, but NIU went on a 4-0 run to force a timeout by the Flames. During the spurt, Wicinski notched three of the points with a kill and consecutive aces, and added a third straight ace on her serve following the timeout. From there, NIU ended the match with a 14-9 run with it ending for a third time on a UIC error, this time a long serve.
With no midweek matches next week, the Huskies play again this weekend in the final invitational of the season for the team. In North Carolina at the Elon Classic, NIU will face Elon at 1 p.m. (Central Standard Time) and Liberty at 4:30 p.m. Friday. On Saturday, to finish the current six-match road trip, in which NIU is 3-0, the Huskies will face Stetson at 11 a.m.
For more information on NIU volleyball and Huskie athletics, visit www.niuhuskies.com.
Date posted: September 8, 2010 | Author: Mark McGowan | Comments Off on Huskie volleyball team reaches best start in program history at 8-0, wins UIC Invitational
NIU music alum Jermaine Stegall’s original score for the made-for-TV movie “Mandrake” will debut at 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 11, on the Syfy channel.
Stegall earned a bachelor’s degree in music from the NIU School of Music in 2000. He is a BMI award-winning composer who has been writing music since the 1990s.
After obtaining formal degrees in music composition, performance, conducting and electronic film music production, he enrolled in the Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television program at the University of Southern California. During this time, he won the scholarship for excellence in music for film.
His music also can be heard in movies such as “An American Carol,” “David,” “30 Days of Night: Blood Trails” and “B.T.K.” Work for television has included the CW’s “Supernatural.”
Date posted: September 8, 2010 | Author: Mark McGowan | Comments Off on School of Music alum Jermaine Stegall’s latest film score to debut Saturday on Syfy channel
NIU’s Student Support Services is celebrating not only the renewal of its federal funding but the addition of a fifth year.
The U.S. Department of Education granted $1.8 million to the program, housed in the Office of the Provost, and extended its financial support because the NIU initiative is among the top 10 percent of similar projects nationwide. These grants typically cover only four years.
“We feel privileged. This year, about 70 programs that didn’t make the cut were defunded,” said Jerry Wright, director of NIU Student Support Services since 1998. “To hear that we have another five years of funding is a great relief.”
Student Support Services empowers clients to take full advantage of higher education by succeeding while on campus and graduating with bachelor’s degrees. The office also fosters a campus climate that champions all races and cultures
Undergraduates who are the first in their families to attend college, come from limited-income households or have documented learning or physical disabilities can receive academic and educational resources, including career counseling.
Three hundred students are served each year.
“In addition to academic and career counseling, our office has a leadership component and a mentoring component,” Wright said. “We also have three student organizations: College Parents’ Group; our MVPs, which is ‘Mentoring Valuable Peers’; and TRiO Scholars, a non-academic programming group.”
Work on the application began in the summer of 2009.
Frankie Benson (right) works with a student.
A postponement of the deadline to December allowed Wright and some of his staff – assistant director Frankie Benson, program coordinator Deb Miller and academic counselor Ramona Walton – the opportunity to take time to develop each section of the grant.
“It took some time to write it all. Much of the legislation in the grant competition had been changed, and we had to modify some of our objectives and streamline things,” Wright said.
“We had a 65-page limit, which helped us focus on the specifics in addressing the four different objectives you must accomplish,” he added. “The objectives address the areas of persistence – making sure students are retained from year to year – good academic standing, graduation and administrative performance, where they assess how well we meet program requirements.”
Date posted: September 8, 2010 | Author: Mark McGowan | Comments Off on U.S. Department of Education renews grant for Student Support Services, adds fifth year
Instead of purchasing expensive items on a case-by-case basis as in the past, the Friends has created an Awards Program where members of the NIU community can submit applications to have specific materials purchased for the library.
Proposals will be accepted each year from the first Monday in January through the first Monday in February and from the first Monday in September through the first Monday in October.
These are one-time expenditures that would enhance the collections, operations or services of the NIU Libraries.
Such expenditures include, but are not limited to, special purchase opportunities (a desirable item or collection that has become available on short notice, for example); emergency needs; critical upgrades; and expenditures that the libraries are unlikely to be able to meet within the constraints of their normal operating budget.
Date posted: September 7, 2010 | Author: Mark McGowan | Comments Off on Friends of NIU Libraries introduces new way to support collections, services via timely requests
NIU’s Graduate Student Research Association (GSRA), embarking on its second year as an official student organization, aims to promote a culture of scholarship and fellowship among NIU students — including undergraduates.
Specifically, the group wants to provide opportunities for all NIU students who either are doing research or are interested in learning about research to share their experiences, discuss their research interests and learn from and with fellow students and faculty. The goal is to advance students’ development as budding scholars.
To this end, the GSRA organizes professional as well as social events throughout the year for NIU students.
The annual Graduate Student Research Conference (GSRC) is one such event that continues to garner considerable attention and participation from campus and the surrounding community. Each spring, the GSRC paper and poster sessions provide a professional, collegial forum for NIU students across all colleges, departments and program areas to present their work. In addition, workshops addressing various elements of professional life in academia are given by NIU faculty members. All students are invited to submit proposals for presentations. A call for proposals will be distributed at the end of September.
In the months ahead, the GSRA also hopes to host a couple student social events at local establishments. The purpose is to give NIU students opportunities to network, share experiences and ideas and enjoy fellowship outside the classroom, office and laboratory.
GSRA leaders and members are now planning the 2011 conference; more students are needed to volunteer their talents. Faculty members also are needed to give workshops and serve as discussants for the conference paper presentations.
The GSRA will hold its next meeting at 2 p.m. Monday, Sept. 13, in Graham Hall 236. For more information, contact GSRA President Brett Anderson at banderson14@niu.edu or (815) 252-8482.
Date posted: September 7, 2010 | Author: Mark McGowan | Comments Off on Graduate Student Research Association prepares for second year, planning conference, events
NIU alumna Frances Whitehead — designist, embedded artist, environmentalist, futurist — is ARTLab’s first guest of the fall season.
Whitehead will visit NIU at 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 13, in Room 100 of the Visual Arts Building to present examples of her inspiring site-specific work, projects that exist at the intersection of public policy, environmental reclamation and aesthetic experience.
The “Living Laboratory in DeKalb” will be the subject of an upcoming ARTLab Salon with Whitehead as facilitator.
Meanwhile the Fall Salon Series will meet at 6 p.m. Artists and scholars will present their research for discussion. Upcoming speakers include Melissa Lenczewski and Michael Genovese.
ARTlab is an extension of NIU’s School of Art with a focus on the collaborative: working across disciplines to investigate contemporary currents in — and intersections between — art and culture.
As an active think-tank or incubator, ARTLab builds research, dialogue, programming and pedagogy a round a yearly theme, working toward public presentation of collective research across the NIU campus and in conjunction with partner institutions. By identifying and addressing salient issues collectively, ArtLab works to stimulate new thinking, re-examine convention and circulate fresh ideas.
Call (815) 753-7876 for more information.
Date posted: September 7, 2010 | Author: Mark McGowan | Comments Off on ARTLab presents Frances Whitehead: Designist, embedded artist, environmentalist, futurist
Years of work on two Faraday lecture halls was successfully completed in time for students’ return to class this fall.
When the students took their seats in the large and small classrooms, they had more legroom, brighter walls and state-of-the art electronics to help them learn.
They also have new energy-saving lighting, softer seats, new carpeting and more room to take notes, said Tom Wroblewski, interim director of Architecture and Engineering Services.
“Work was done in phases,” Wroblewski said. “Last summer, the rooms were repainted and the computer equipment to make them smart classrooms was installed. This summer, the old wooden seats were taken out, the rooms were cleaned and carpeting on the stairs was installed. If there were 10 seats in a row, only eight new ones were installed.”
The larger lecture hall has 238 seats and the smaller room has 112 seats. Both are used extensively to teach chemistry, physics and an array of other courses, said Jeff Reynolds, assistant to the dean of College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
The building that houses the lecture halls was constructed in 1963, which might have been the last time they received a makeover, Wroblewski said. They were equipped with televisions, but those stopped working years ago.
Walls covered in the original faded yellow paint were covered with a brighter beige. And shadows cast by 1960-era light bulbs were eliminated with 21st century illumination; lights were installed during winter break.
“We all owe a great deal of gratitude to Tom Wroblewski, Ben Ritter and Ken George of NIU’s Architecture and Engineering Services for the transformation of several Faraday lecture rooms in time for the start of the fall semester,” said Eddie R. Williams, executive vice president and chief of operations for NIU’s Division of Finance and Facilities.
“The results are truly astonishing” Williams added. “With the renovations, the classrooms were not only updated with new seating and lighting, but we also upgraded to ‘smart’ classrooms with all the requisite technological bells and whistles. Thanks to all for a fine job done and a special thank you to Frederick Schwantes for facilitating the project and making sure the rooms were both faculty- and student-friendly.”
by Gerard Dziuba
Date posted: September 7, 2010 | Author: Mark McGowan | Comments Off on Faraday lecture halls get state-of-the art facelift
NIU assistant biochemistry professor James Horn is reaping a windfall of grants that will help him and his students study how proteins interact with other molecules—work that could have far reaching benefits from improving our understanding of biological regulation to detecting and treating disease.
Horn is receiving $294,000 from the American Heart Association over the next four years to study how single-domain antibodies interact with small molecules and peptides.
That grant will be used over the next five years. NSF gives only about 400 CAREER awards throughout the nation each year to junior faculty members who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations.
“This study includes two parts,” Horn said. “The first part involves the research portion. We’ll be studying how proteins recognize other proteins with a focus on generating methods to reversibly control protein binding. It’s analogous to installing a dimmer switch on a light. The ability to engineer new control into existing proteins has great potential to open new opportunities in biotechnology.”
The second component of the CAREER award study will involve integrating his research findings with student education. For instance, a biochemistry lab will be redesigned to incorporate new learning approaches. Also, to help attract student interest in the sciences at NIU, a new course will be developed. Its aim is to introduce undergraduate students to cutting-edge research in biology and chemistry.
In collaboration with NIU STEM Outreach, this course will be adapted to summer workshops for high school students and teachers to help increase scientific literacy. The CAREER project also includes partnerships with NIU’s STEM Outreach and Latino Resource Center to provide opportunities for high school students and undergraduate students to perform research in the laboratory.
While both grants deal with protein research, they fund two separate studies. The American Heart Association grant will involve the study of small domain antibodies that recognize small molecules. Antibodies, which play an important role in strengthening the body’s immune system and fighting disease and infection, can be used in applications including medical diagnostics.
Horn’s lab will develop synthetic antibody libraries to discover antibodies capable of recognizing specific small molecules, including those that could lead to new cardiovascular disease diagnostics. The long-term goals of the project include developing reliable, test tube-based methods to generate single-domain antibodies against any small molecule/biomarker of interest without the use of animals.
by Gerard Dziuba
Date posted: September 6, 2010 | Author: Mark McGowan | Comments Off on Biochemistry professor James Horn awarded grants from American Heart Association, NSF
A dizzying display of wordplay lies at the heart of the NIU School of Theatre and Dance’s first production of the season, opening Thursday, Sept. 23, in the Stevens Building O’Connell Theatre.
