Digest -- U.Va. Top News Daily

Photo by Matt Kelly

University’s Energy Conservation No Light Matter
Paul Crumpler (left), the University’s energy conservation officer, goes over a map of Grounds with student volunteers who conducted a survey of lights left on in buildings at night. Crumpler will use the data to make conservation recommendations for reducing the University’s electrical usage. Second-year student Jieun Kim (center) was one of the student volunteers. (Oct. 27)

Curry School Conference Takes Look at Past and Present Education Policies
How harmful or beneficial are education policies of the past and how will they affect education in the future? A group of education experts met to take a look at public education over the last 100 years, particularly in Virginia, and focus on four themes — school accountability and testing, desegregation, children with special needs and school choice — that hold implications for preparing tomorrow’s teachers, during the U.Va. Curry School of Education’s national centennial conference, “At the Crossroads of Hope and Habit,” held on Grounds Oct. 24. The experts urged better use of research to pinpoint policies that prove harmful, and either change or discontinue them.(Oct.28)

Renewal of $6.2 million NIH Grant Will Boost Health System’s Research of Crohn’s Disease
A $6.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health has been renewed for the next five years, allowing U.Va.’s Digestive Health Center of Excellence to continue groundbreaking work to study the cause of Crohn’s disease using a mouse model, which closely resembles Crohn’s disease in humans. Crohn’s is a chronic, often debilitating, disease characterized by ulcerations and inflammatory lesions throughout the gastrointestinal tract. “Our goal is to discover the cause of spontaneous intestinal inflammation in animals and apply this information to patients with the final goal of developing a cure for at least a subgroup of patients with Crohn’s disease,” said Dr. Fabio Cominelli, chief of gastroenterology at U.Va.’s Health System and a leading Crohn’s expert. (Oct. 25)