Arts, Creative Practice and Leadership

In October 2005, seven people met in New York City to explore the central inquiry question, "How can I claim my own power as an artist/cultural worker, and in that, help create more vital and respected space for artists and cultural workers in society in general and in the work for social change in specific?" The participants represent three of the the five cohorts from the Rockefeller Foundation's Next Generation Leadership (NGL) program, which ran from 1997 to 2002

De Novo and Rare Inherited Copy-Number Variations in the Hemiplegic Form of Cerebral Palsy

PurposeHemiplegia is a subtype of cerebral palsy (CP) in which one side of the body is affected. Our earlier study of unselected children with CP demonstrated de novo and clinically relevant rare inherited genomic copy-number variations (CNVs) in 9.6% of participants. Here, we examined the prevalence and types of CNVs specifically in hemiplegic CP.MethodsWe genotyped 97 unrelated probands with hemiplegic CP and their parents. We compared their CNVs to those of 10,851 population controls, in order to identify rare CNVs

Living Race, Living Class, Imagining Justice: Working for Racial and Economic Justice in the Mountains

Through interactive exercises and discussion, this workshop explores the experience of and activism around race and class in Appalachia in the past, present, future. Throughout Appalachian history, wealthy whites have played poor whites and African Americans against each other to maintain their own race and class privilege. Yet, courageous members of both groups have fought against these divisions, and for equality for all. One of today’s alliances is Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ), a group of white people working with other whites on racial justice, and also joining with people of color in the struggle for both class and racial justice. The workshop will be facilitated by two members of SURJ, Meta Mendel-Reyes, Berea College professor and member of the Steering Committee of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth (KFTC), and by Pam McMichael, Director of the HIghlander Research and Education Center. The workshop will begin with an exploration of participants’ own identities, and personal experiences with race and class. Next, we explore the history of racism and anti-racism in the mountains. A discussion of why the history is not known widely will be followed by shared analysis of the structural reasons for the continuing divisions on the basis of class and race. Finally, the participants will examine their own roles in maintaining and opposing racism in Appalachia, and share what they can take back to their own colleges and communities

Anti-viral cytotoxic T cells inhibit the growth of cancer cells with antibody targeted hla class I/peptide complexes in scid mice

A number of experimental antibody mediated cancer therapies aim to redirect cytotoxic T cells (CTLs) of non-tumour specificity to cancer cells. It has been previously demonstrated that cancer cells targeted with recombinant HLA-class I/viral peptide complexes via antibody delivery systems can be killed by virus specific CTLs. This novel therapeutic system has been developed with a simple pre-clinical model using the recombinant anti-CD20 B9E9 scFvSA fusion protein to target HLA–A2/peptide complexes to CD20 +ve Daudi lymphoma cells. In vitro data confirmed that, although binding of the B9E9 scFvSA fusion protein alone to Daudi cells had no effect on their growth, effective CTL mediated killing of Daudi cells could be achieved by targeting with B9E9 sfvScSA and recombinant HLA-A2/MI complexes at dilutions as low as 100 pg/ml. In contrast the free HLA-A2/MI complexes only significantly inhibited CTL activity at concentrations in excess of 100 ng/ml. The in vivo tumour protection assays in SCID mice demonstrated that only 1 of the 4 mice that received anti-HLA-A2/M1 CTLs and Daudi cells targeted with the B9E9 scFvSA fusion protein and HLA-A2/M1 complexes developed a tumour. In contrast in the control mice that received CTL and native Daudi cells all 4 developed tumours, as did all 4 that received targeted Daudi cells but no CTLs. Similar results were obtained in a parallel experiment using Daudi cells targeted with B9E9 scFvSA and HLA-A2/BMLF1 complexes and a CTL line to HLA-A2/BMLF1. The demonstration of in vivo activity for targeted HLA class I/peptide complexes combined with anti-viral T cells, supports the further clinical development of the system where it may be combined with autologous CTLs produced by vaccination or ex vivo expansio