Veritas, Vol. 47, No. 04, January 2005

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"S The School of Communication w breaks ground on a new high-tech center that will bolster its reputation.
4 A mechanical man with a pulse for
the job is helping medical students learn about heart and lung disease.
5 With coral reefs in decline, undergraduate marine science students are helping to save these rainforests of the sea.
Volume 47 ■ Number 4 ■ January 2005
For the Faculty and Staff of the University of Miami
www.miami.edu/veritas
UM CONCERT JAZZ BAND NOMINATED FOR MUSIC INDUSTRY’S TOP PRIZE
The University of Miami Concert Jazz Band will soon be rubbing elbows with Grammy-nominated artists Alicia Keys, Usher, Norah Jones, Prince, and others. The award-winning ensemble has been nominated for a 2004 Grammy Award in the “Best Instrumental Composition” category for its Three Romances score, composed by Maria Schneider.
The UM Concert Jazz Band, which is directed and produced by Whit Sidener, professor and chair of the Department of Studio Music and Jazz in the Phillip and Patricia Frost School of Music, is one of the premier jazz bands in education today. Over the past 30 years the group has won numerous awards, recorded several CDs, and performed around the world.
The 47th Annual Grammy Awards will be held Sunday, February 13, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles and will be broadcast by CBS at 8 p.m.
UM WINS AWARD FROM CORAL GABLES CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
There is a lot more than teaching, learning, and research going on at the University of Miami. With everything from an information technology department to purchasing, materials management, budget, and facilities administration offices, UM also is a big business that is involved with its community.
Recently, the institution was honored with the Coral Gables Chamber of Commerce’s 7th Annual Diamond Award in the “Large
Business” category. The awards recognize small, medium, large, and new businesses in Coral Gables that are members of the city’s chamber of commerce.
UM also won the “Overall” Diamond Award as the No. 1 business in The City Beautiful.
Diamond recognition: UM’s Sarah Artecona and David A. Lieberman with Diamond awards.

Preemptive strike: UM’s Louis J. Elsas says Miami GeneCure will allow scientists to conduct predictive testing for a variety of diseases, with the goal of preventing illnesses before they strike.
$5 million gift from the Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation creates Miami GeneCure
Medical school's genetic testing lab is state's first
Life-threatening diseases such as breast cancer, diabetes, cystic fibrosis, and hypertension could all one day be prevented, thanks to a new genetics diagnostic laboratory being established at the Leonard M.
Miller School of Medicine.
Miami GeneCure Diagnostics, created by a $5 million grant from the Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation, will enable scientists to conduct predictive testing for cancer, neurological conditions, metabolic disorders, early aging, cardiovascular disorders, and diabetes, with the goal of preventing such illnesses in patients before they strike.
It will be the first genetic diagnostictesting laboratory in Florida with a comprehensive menu of tests. It will also help create biotech companies in the community that will be able to transfer intellectual property research from UM’s faculty and bring it to market.
“A golden age of biomedical research,” is the way UM President Donna E. Shalala describes GeneCure.
“We will not only lead the way in the United States, but GeneCure will also enable the University to help Latin American and Caribbean countries develop skills in genetic diagnostics and national expertise in this dynamic and evolving field.”
Research into the role genes play in various diseases and disorders is growing at a rapid pace now that the Human Genome Project has unlocked the human body’s entire genetic code.
“The success of the project has already led to important diagnostic breakthroughs and will in the near future result in entirely new approaches to prevent many devastating diseases,” says Louis J. Elsas, director of the Dr.
John T. Macdonald Foundation Center for Medical Genetics at the Miller School of Medicine.
The concept of genetic diagnostics is based on predictive testing of DNA, its protein products, and body chemicals produced by protein functions.
Given these diagnostic tools, prevention is possible through individualized medications, avoidance of environmental toxins, nutritional adjustment, and implementation of replacement therapy for insufficient gene products.
“There are many diseases that already fit into this,” says Elsas, noting Florida’s newborn screening program as an example. Under that program, all newborns have their blood sent to a centralized state public health laboratory. “Their blood is analyzed for
inheritable components before the infant becomes sick. Those newborns who have a positive screening test are at risk to develop mental retardation or death from a group of diseases that require immediate treatment.”
Florida recently announced that it would expand screenings for newborns from five tests to more than 30.
To accomplish the goal of disease prevention, GeneCure will provide
follow-up, diagnosis, and treatment following screenings. “Genetics will change the attitude of medicine from a catch-up kind of thing after you become sick to let’s predict who is not going to be well and help them maintain optimum health,” Elsas says.
The Miami GeneCure Diagnostic Laboratory will be divided into three interactive labs. A cytogenetics
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University booming with construction
With dozens of construction projects on its campuses already under way and many more in the planning and design phase, the University of Miami is currently in one of the busiest building periods of its 79-year history.
From a new nursing school facility, lecture and gallery spaces at the School of Architecture, a music library and technology center, and student center for the School of Communication on its Coral Gables campus to a 13-story Clinical Research Institute and Wellness Center at its medical school, construction is booming on all of UM’s campuses, where bulldozers, cranes, cement mixers, and dump trucks are busy at work amid the academic bustle of university life.
Nearing completion on the Coral Gables campus and scheduled for a late January 2003 dedication is the Marta and Austin Weeks Music Library and
Technology Center at the Phillip and Patricia Frost School of Music. When completed, the library will house the
Building boom: Hoisted high into the air, construction workers put the finishing touches on the Frost School of Music’s new library and technology center.
music school’s extensive collections of books, reference works, videos, DVDs, periodicals, scores, and recordings that are currently housed in two separate locations. It will also have reading, seminar, and music listening rooms.
The advanced technology center will feature high-tech, computer-based laboratories. Music engineering, electronic
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