Eddie Daniels, South African anti-apartheid activist and former political prisoner, will speak on Wednesday, Oct. 17 at 4 p.m. in the Bernie Dallas Room of the Goodell Building.
Daniels will be introduced by John Cunningham, interim chief executive officer of UMassOnline in the UMass President’s Office.
Born and raised in the “coloured” district of Cape Town, Daniels worked as a whaler, miner and photographer before he joined the Liberal Party in response to the injustices he saw around him.
Anthropologists Jean and John Comaroff are presenting two lectures this week as the inaugural scholars of the Interdisciplinary Studies Institute’s (ISI) residency, which is focused on the theme of “Theory From the South.”
Neuroscientist Luke Remage-Healey will receive the 2012 Frank A. Beach Award from the Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology for work showing exceptional promise and significant contributions in the field of behavioral neuroendocrinology. Named after a founder of the field, the award will be presented during the society’s annual meeting this week in New Orleans. Remage-Healey will also give a lecture at the society’s annual meeting next year.
A research team, including Scott Garman, associate professor of Biochemistry, and alumnus Nathaniel Clark, experts in revealing molecular structure by X-ray crystallography, has identified two new small “chaperone” molecules that may be useful in treating the inherited metabolic disorder known as Schindler/Kanzaki disease. This offers hope for developing the first ever drug treatment for this very rare disease. Findings are reported in the current issue of Proceedings of the National Academies of Science. 
Gregory Tew, professor of Polymer Science and Engineering and colleagues, including immunologist Lisa Minter, have found a way to get inside naïve T cells and to deliver bio-active cargo such as proteins and synthetic molecules across what had been a long-locked cell membrane. They do this by using a new synthetic protein transduction domain (PTD) that mimics natural ones. Tew and colleagues call their new macromolecules “PTD mimics” (PTDMs). They are able to slip through the T cell’s membrane and deliver a payload of therapeutic small interfering RNA (siRNA).