Viewpoints: Saving UC research will save lives
I’m alive to write these words because of the innovation of a UC school, the University of California, Los Angeles. I’m a living example of how a public university can be the difference between life and death.
I survived breast cancer because of the targeted therapy drug Herceptin, which was developed based on laboratory and clinical research conducted by UCLA oncologist Dr. Dennis Slamon, who spent years studying HER-2/neu positive cancer, a rare genetic mutation that makes it grow and spread quickly. In many cases, Herceptin has been proven to prevent the recurrence and the spread of the disease. because of this drug, I have been cancer-free for over a decade.
It took scientific curiosity and passion for pushing the envelope to develop the drug that saved my life, but now that incredible environment is at risk. two decades of budget cuts to higher education funding are making it more and more hard for public universities to attract and retain world-class professors that are so critical to creating these dynamic cultures of innovation.
California’s public universities are at risk of losing some of their best innovators and scientists as other university systems target and actively recruit them. the attraction: higher salaries and more administrative support, not to mention an often lower cost of living.
This decline in the university’s ability to retain top-notch faculty has a domino effect. at UCLA, undergraduates as well as graduate students participate in research. Faculty members don’t just teach what’s in a textbook, but also share with students the discoveries they made just the other night in the labs, knowledge that might not be passed on through a textbook for a few years. World-class faculty and exceptional students work together to make an enterprising, collaborative environment of discovery.
Sure, many private universities provide similar opportunities for their students. but at a public research university, an educational environment that includes contact with world-renowned faculty is available to everyone, regardless of economic background.
With continued budget cuts and the increase in student fees that results, this opportunity to engage in such an environment of innovation becomes restricted, possibly leaving out some of the brightest minds who can no longer afford to attend.
I’m not the only one who has benefited from this environment at UCLA and other public universities. Anyone who has ever accessed the Internet, used a nicotine patch to quit smoking or planned her day or business around modern-day weather forecasting has also reaped the benefits of knowledge uncovered and made at UCLA.
This long list coming out of UCLA and the University of California system includes the discovery of the first durable artificial hip, the invention of the PET scanner that helps identify brain disease safely, research allowing HIV-infected pregnant women to have healthy, HIV-free babies and the creation of the world’s largest kidney transplant registry.
So, how can we afford to compromise this climate of discovery? the National Academy of Sciences in 2009 and 2010 admitted 144 new members, 66 of them from public universities, and more than half of those were from the UC system. In fact, UC was awarded the most U.S. patents of any university last year, and has held the top spot for 17 straight years.
Next month, UCLA is opening a new center for cognitive neuroscience. the center will bring together psychologists, psychiatrists, physicists, neurologists, mathematicians, linguists, electrical engineers and other scientists who study cognitive and emotional processes and how they affect our choice-making and mental health. Findings from a center like this could be used to help us prevent the onset of dementia and schizophrenia after early warning signs are detected.
In 2000, the California NanoSystems Institute was established at UCLA and UC Santa Barbara, bringing together faculty from biology, chemistry, biochemistry, physics, mathematics, computational science, engineering and medicine, and partnering with industry. the institute trains the next generation of scientists, educators and technology leaders, fosters discovery of technological changes that will benefit society and makes jobs in new industries.
Some of these centers are made with private donations, this is true, but many leverage state dollars to raise federal and private funds. Having the best faculty is critical to attracting federal and private dollars for such endeavors.
I am grateful that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed to restore some funding to public universities in this year’s budget. now the Legislature needs to re-prioritize higher education this year, next year and every year that follows.
There are millions of lives in California and around the world that have been saved, improved, enriched and emboldened by the work done here.
Hundreds who see UCLA’s value as a public institution have stepped up to speak about how vital the university has been to their lives, careers and families at the website IOUCLA.org.
My hope is that someone in the halls of government is listening in time to protect this precious public asset, which breeds solutions to the next generations’ diseases and challenges – just as someone listened to my prayers a decade ago, in time to save my life.
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Louise Cooper isan elementaryschool teacher inLos Angeles andspends her freetime competingin extremeadventure racesand climbinghigh peaksaround theworld.