By: Kia Farhang

A team of University of Minnesota doctors will attempt a groundbreaking transplant Tuesday to cure a boy of HIV and leukemia.

The procedure is the first of its kind to use umbilical cord blood, which is left in the placenta after a baby is born. A similar transplant, conducted in Germany in 2007, successfully used bone marrow to achieve the same results.

“Cord blood doesn’t have to be as perfectly matched as marrow does,” said Dr. John Wagner, one of three doctors who will be performing the transplant.

That makes it easier to find a sample containing a rare HIV-resistant genetic mutation that is crucial to the transplant.

“We’ve been waiting for this event to occur,” Wagner said. “Once we show the safety of it and its effectiveness, then we may broaden this.”

More than a million Americans had HIV in 2008, according to the National Institutes of Health. Of those, more than 20 percent were unaware of the infection, which suppresses the immune system and causes AIDS.

AIDS first appeared in the U.S. in 1981 and has since become a worldwide epidemic. Curing the disease used to be seen as “an unachievable task,” according to a March article in Nature Reviews Immunology. The first and only known person cured of the infection was Timothy Ray Brown — “the Berlin Patient” — who received the bone-marrow transplant in 2007.

The University team will keep the patient under close watch for the next 100 days to see if the transplant was successful, according to a news release. If it is, the cord blood procedure could be viable for other HIV patients as well.

“If we’re able to show, in a number of patients, that this approach works,” Wagner said, “then I think this is going to compel the field forward.”

He said he hopes the transplant will increase interest in cord-blood banking, which has only been in place since the 1990s.

If the transplant is successful, Wagner said, the patient won’t have to continue taking the antiretroviral drugs necessary to keep HIV at bay.

Those drugs can make patients more vulnerable to other infections and diseases because they suppress the immune system, said Melissa Pavek, a second-year medical student.

“We encounter so many infectious organisms all the time that our immune systems just take care of,” Pavek said. “Patients that are immunosuppressed are more vulnerable to things … that healthy people are able to fight off.”

She said a transplant like this could move science closer to an HIV cure.

“It’s exciting to know that my institution is at the forefront of that kind of research.”

By: Hailey Colwell

Growing up on a dairy farm in southeast Minnesota, agricultural education sophomore Lauren Servick would get up at 4 a.m. to milk cows.

But some University of Minnesota students don’t even know where their food comes from.

“Being in the heart of the cities, there aren’t a lot of students here who grew up on farms and understand agriculture,” agricultural education junior Kelsey Gunderson said. “A lot of people think that their food still comes from the grocery store.”

The University Agricultural Education Club’s fourth Annual Agriculture Awareness Day, held Tuesday on the East Bank, was an effort to get students in touch with their foods’ origins and teach them about what students do on the St. Paul campus.

“There are a few students on Minneapolis who don’t even know that we have a St. Paul campus,” said agricultural education freshman Sarah Marketon, who taught students about pork production at the event. “That’s why we’re over here today.”

More than 100 students flooded the cobblestones of Church Street on Tuesday afternoon to pet llamas, pigs, sheep, cows and goats while learning about the roles the animals play in the agriculture industry.

They browsed tables staffed by representatives of different parts of the business, learning about biofuel production and the health benefits of dairy. They tested their farm knowledge with trivia games and munched on protein-filled bars while being filled in on soybean farming.

“They really brought the part of campus that we never really get to see as a [College of Science and Engineering] student over here,” chemical engineering freshman Rena Wang said.

Though she doesn’t normally think about where her food comes from, she said seeing the animals and talking to food producers made her more interested in the process.

Materials science junior Rochelle Zordich said every year after Agriculture Awareness Day, she becomes a bit more driven to look into different food options and learn how it’s produced.

“I think that [interest] lasts longer every year,” she said.

Computer engineering junior Taylor Trimble said he’s come to the event for the past three years, and he now calls it “touch-a-pig day.”

Though he considers himself a city kid and spends most of his time on the Minneapolis campus, Trimble said he worked on his grandparents’ farm for a few summers growing up.

“A lot of people’s opinion of farming is that it’s older [and] it’s not really high-tech,” he said. “There’s definitely a science to it.”

Trimble said he appreciates the event because it gives students a more realistic look at what farming is.

“It’s not just Mom and Pop living on the land and having a few cows and chickens,” he said. “It’s an industry.”

By: Drew Claussen

he Gophers softball team fell back to earth Tuesday after flying high to start the Big Ten season.

Minnesota (26-15, 9-5 Big Ten) was swept by Nebraska in a doubleheader Tuesday in Lincoln, Neb. The Huskers beat the Gophers 3-2 in the first game and 4-0 in the second.

Nebraska pitcher Tatum Edwards helped her own cause in the bottom of the sixth inning of the second game when she launched a game-winning grand slam to left field.

Edwards also threw seven innings and had a three-hit shutout.

“We struggled a little bit offensively,” Gophers head coach Jessica Allister said. “We had some good at-bats, but we had some bad at-bats with runners in scoring position.”

Minnesota had a golden opportunity in the top of the fourth inning when it loaded the bases with one out, but Edwards struck out senior Alex Davis and sophomore Erika Smyth to end the inning.

In the first game, freshman Kayla Wenner and sophomore Kaitlyn Richardson both hit solo home runs in the top of the third inning to give the Gophers a 2-0 lead.

But Nebraska clawed back with one run in the bottom of the third and two in the bottom of the fifth.

The Huskers chased the winning run across the plate thanks to a great two-out at-bat by Hailey Decker. After working a full count, Decker drew a walk and eventually scored when Gophers junior Sara Moulton hit a batter with the bases full.

“They had a couple infield singles, just unlucky hits,” Allister said. “We were a little snake bit.”

Moulton, the Gophers’ ace, pitched five innings and gave up three earned runs on eight hits.

Nebraska pitcher Emily Lockman threw all seven innings and gave up two earned runs on four hits.

Minnesota did not record a hit in the first game after its two-run third

inning.

By: Samuel Gordon

Sophomore utility player Mark Tatera is used to doing all the little things.

So when the Gophers called on him to pinch-hit with the game on the line, he was quite comfortable.

Tatera’s pinch-hit, two-run-single in the seventh inning broke a 1-1 tie and helped the Gophers beat Augsburg 4-1 on Tuesday at Siebert Field.

“My freshman year, that’s pretty much the role I was in as a bench player,” Tatera said. “As time goes on, you get more and more comfortable with the chances you get.”

Minnesota (23-13) has won four games in a row and seven of its past eight.

The game was Minnesota’s first midweek tilt since March 27. Poor weather had led to the cancellation of two other scheduled games.

Tatera’s game-winning single came off Auggies pitcher Tanner Oakes, son of Gophers pitching coach Todd Oakes.

Todd Oakes said it was bittersweet coaching against Tanner.

“Did I want to see him give up [four runs]? Probably not,” Todd Oakes said. “Did I want the Gophers to win? Yeah. That’s who I coach for.”

The elder Oakes said he had a feeling Tanner was going to pitch Tuesday. The two shared an embrace after the game.

“I was proud how he stood out there after giving up four runs and kept pitching,” Todd Oakes said. “He’s a great competitor.”

Though the Gophers won, they didn’t look as crisp as they had in weeks past.

Minnesota committed three errors, and its base runners were picked off twice.

“We didn’t play well, really,” head coach John Anderson said. “Sometimes that happens. You play a lot of games, you have some success, you lose that edge just a tad.”

With the team riding a hot streak, Anderson said he thought the stumble was a good wakeup call entering the weekend.

Augsburg took a 1-0 lead in the sixth inning and threatened to extend it in the seventh when an errant pickoff attempt by junior catcher Matt Halloran helped Auggies runners advance into scoring position.

But the Gophers averted the jam when freshman reliever Dalton Sawyer replaced junior Alex Tukey and struck out Augsburg catcher Zach Pavlisick.

“I tend to pitch pretty good in jams, whether self-induced or other peoples’,” Sawyer said. “I kept fastballs down. I knew that would get guys out.”

Sawyer pitched a scoreless eighth inning as well and picked up the first win of his college career.

Senior closer Billy Soule slammed the door in the ninth inning for his seventh save of the season.

By: Branden Largent

Administrators, students and state legislators are looking to the future of Fairview Health Services and the University of Minnesota Medical Center after two merger proposals fell through last week.

The potential acquisition of Fairview by South Dakota-based Sanford Health caused a stir among Minnesotans last month; a similar proposal from the University came to light a week later.

Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson held a public hearing to investigate the Sanford merger’s effects on the state and the UMMC on April 7. Sanford CEO Kelby Krabbenhoft  pulled out of talks three days later, and Fairview announced it would not consider a merger with the University.

Rep. Phyllis Kahn, DFL-Minneapolis, attended the hearing last Sunday and said she thinks the announcement was a reaction to Swanson’s heavy interrogation of the Sanford executives.

“They saw the public process in Minnesota as opposed to South Dakota, and I think they just decided they didn’t need to get into this,” Kahn said.

Many medical students were glad the merger between Sanford and Fairview didn’t go through, said University Medical Student Council president Amin Alishahi. But, he added, they hope a deal between Fairview and the University is still viable.

Several schools throughout the country have bought back their medical centers from private institutions in recent years, Alishahi said.

Although Fairview does a good job of training medical students, he said, some think the University could benefit from buying UMMC from Fairview.

Physicians who are considering working at the University might view Fairview’s control over the medical center negatively if they want to focus on academia, Alishahi said.

“I think from a training perspective, and to recruit the top talent around the country, it might be better to have the Medical School own its own hospital,” he said.

University of Minnesota Physicians CEO Bobbi Daniels  said she is confident Fairview will continue working with the University to meet their respective missions.

“I don’t think we’re back at square one. The relationship has evolved and improved significantly over time,” she said.

Fairview will also rekindle its search for a new CEO, said University Medical School Dean Aaron Friedman, who’s on Fairview’s board of directors.

Rep. Jim Abeler, R-Anoka, who introduced a bill last week that would force Fairview to return any public funding if it merges with an out-of-state company, said he thinks the merger talks have benefited the University’s relationship with Fairview.

“I think that the U and Fairview need each other,” he said. “I think at the end of this, Fairview and the U have been closer than ever, and I think eventually they’ll evolve.”

Abeler will continue to push the bill, which will be heard in the House’s Commerce and Consumer Protection Finance and Policy Committee on Wednesday afternoon — along with two bills that would prevent out-of-state companies from acquiring Fairview.

Although he’s unsure of the bills’ chances, Abeler said the merger talks and the ensuing bills have created a “very good discussion” about the University’s future.

Since the end of 2011, leaders from the Academic Health Center, Fairview and UMPhysicians have started a process to move the UMMC and the Amplatz Children’s Hospital  into the top 10 academic medical centers in the country, Daniels said.

“The work that we’ve been proceeding on is designed to do that,” she said. “We intend to continue and accelerate that moving forward.”

By: Brian Arola

University of Minnesota students overwhelmingly supported Jacob Frey to be their next city councilman Tuesday night at the DFL precinct caucuses near campus.

Minneapolis City Councilwoman Diane Hofstede and her challenger Frey were looking to grab delegates and support Tuesday in hopes of securing their party’s endorsement in early May.

Hofstede and Frey are contending for the City Council spot representing parts of the University area. Each spoke throughout the ward in hopes of securing residents that will ultimately vote on which candidate should receive the party’s coveted endorsement.

The two are the only candidates for the council seat and are both Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party members, so a party endorsement could determine who wins the election in November.

While University students in Dinkytown and Marcy-Holmes largely supported Frey, different precincts offered glimpses of where support lies for each candidate.

Student Frey supporters made up the majority of the delegates at the 1st Precinct’s caucus at St. Lawrence Catholic Church and Newman Center in Dinkytown.

At a pre-caucus event held at Burrito Loco, Frey made an appearance, shaking hands and expressing confidence in his chances.

Many of the students at the event went down the street to the church to serve as delegates.

Biomechanical engineering senior Karl LaFleur said he came to support Frey because he has a fresh perspective on issues affecting students, including housing.

“He’s younger, and he’s got new views on things in the city,” he said.

Frey is a lot more in touch with student concerns, said Minnesota Student Association President Taylor Williams. He showed up in Dinkytown to pledge support for Frey.

“He’s very enthusiastic — you can tell he legitimately cares about student issues,” Williams said.

Williams said he has grown frustrated with an inability to reach Hofstede with concerns.

Some students said Tuesday was their first experience caucusing. For them, it was the first taste of the early stages of democracy

Global studies junior Brenna Eschweiler said she had never gotten involved in politics until Frey came and spoke at her apartment, The Chateau. She and 50 others were able to become delegates for the 1st Precinct, while 12 volunteered to be alternates.

In the Marcy-Holmes neighborhood, student supporters were again mostly for Frey but made up a smaller portion of potential delegates. Support from neighborhood residents varied.

Across the ward in the 5th Precinct caucus, held at the Catholic Eldercare center, the crowd was decidedly older. The turnout was also much larger than in the Dinkytown and Marcy-Holmes neighborhoods.

More than 90 people showed up in hopes of becoming delegates, with only about 48 spots up for grabs. Unofficially, 48 attendees were Hofstede supporters, 37 supported Frey and nine were undecided.

While the University area seemed to favor Frey, the 5th Precinct leaned toward Hofstede. With an initial advantage in delegates, Hofstede’s support looked strong among the middle-aged and senior citizen attendees.

Todd Roeder, 55, who lives in the St. Anthony West neighborhood in the 5th Precinct, said he has supported Hofstede since she first ran in 2005.

“I’ve recognized her activism on a number of causes that are pertinent to the neighborhood,” he said.

Roeder said Hofstede’s work on libraries and on the Mississippi River waterfront also drew his support.

After Tuesday, 3rd Ward delegates will go on their May 4 Ward Convention to vote on which candidate should receive the DFL nomination.

Delegates were also chosen for mayoral and park board endorsements Tuesday. Several people spoke at the caucuses in favor of different mayoral candidates.

At the First Congregational Church in the Marcy-Holmes neighborhood, Rep. Phyllis Kahn, DFL-Minneapolis, spoke in favor of mayoral candidate Mark Andrew.

At the Catholic Eldercare center, candidates Don Samuels and Jackie Cherryhomes spoke.

The mayoral convention will  be held June 15.

By: Alexi Gusso

After running 26.2 miles in four hours on little food and water, University of Minnesota alumna Brittany Pentek needed Gatorade and a change of clothes.

Jennifer Bhalla, a lecturer in the University’s School of Kinesiology, had just returned to her hotel room after finishing her second Boston Marathon.

Then the bombs went off.

The women were blocks from where two bombs exploded Monday at the finish line of the Boston Marathon — an attack that killed three people and wounded more than 170.

“I just said ‘What was that?’ That was not a normal noise for a marathon finish,” Pentek said.

FBI investigators found the bombs consisted of explosives placed in 1.6 gallon household pressure cookers inside black duffel bags. One bomb was packed with nails and the other contained shards of metal and ball bearings.

President Barack Obama deemed the attack an act of terrorism Tuesday.

He said in a statement that “America is strong and resilient … and won’t let cowardly acts get in the way of our lives.” He also promised the full force of the law in trying to “uncover whoever was responsible.”

It’s not known if the bombing was the work of a single person or a group.

Sen. Scott Dibble, DFL-Minneapolis, also competed in the marathon and finished before the explosion but didn’t see or hear anything, Minnesota Public Radio reported.

‘Anxiousness in the air’

Pentek boarded a bus at 4 a.m. on Monday to take her to the site where she’d begin the Boston Marathon seven hours later.

Pentek qualified to compete in Boston last year at the Eau Claire Marathon after taking the University’s marathon training class.

While on the bus, Pentek was struck by the wide variety of people the marathon attracted.

About 23,300 people competed in the Boston Marathon this year — 452 from Minnesota, according to the Boston Athletic Association.

“You feel like you’re in a different world at that point, like you’re in a global community,” Pentek said.

She started the race feeling good but said the last stretch was tough. She decided to stop at a medical tent in order to subdue the cramping in her legs before finishing the marathon.

After completing the race fueled by crowd support and a handful of jellybeans, Pentek said all she wanted to do was find food, water and warm clothes, but she felt she had conquered something.

Pentek was changing clothes in a tent about four blocks from the finish line, she said, when she heard a muffled boom. As she walked toward the site of the explosion, she felt “anxiousness in the air.”

“People were embracing,” she said. “But not embracing because ‘Hey, you finished the race!’ they were embracing because, ‘Hey, you’re alive.’”

A good start

Bhalla, who’s been running marathons for nearly 15 years, said the Boston Marathon is one that most runners strive to compete in and that this year’s was off to a good start.

“It was an awesome day,” Bhalla said. “It was beautiful weather and everything was perfect.”

She said she finished the race satisfied with her time and then walked to her hotel near the finish line.

Soon after, she said a friend told her a bomb had gone off near the finish line.

Bhalla figured she missed the explosion by about 20 minutes.

“At first I was in disbelief, and then I just felt a deep sadness,” she said.

Cellphone service at the time was disconnected, so Bhalla updated her Facebook status to let her friends and family know she was OK.

“I don’t have any idea why someone would do something like this,” she said, “but I don’t think it will stop me from running again in Boston.”

—The Associated Press contributed to this report.

By: Drew Claussen

Awful weather has forced the Gophers softball team to be flexible early in the Big Ten season.

Minnesota will play Nebraska on Tuesday in a doubleheader that was scheduled to take place last week before an ominous weather forecast caused a postponement.

The doubleheader will come two days after Minnesota was forced to play a home series more than 500 miles from Jane Sage Cowles Stadium.

The Gophers took that schedule change — a result of bad weather in Minnesota — in stride and swept Illinois in its own stadium. The team left Illinois on Sunday night and traveled directly to Lincoln, Neb.

Minnesota head coach Jessica Allister said Sunday that she planned to get a practice in Monday, which was the silver lining in traveling directly from Illinois to Nebraska.

Minnesota sits in second place in the Big Ten, and Nebraska sits in third, so the doubleheader could be crucial in determining seeds for the Big Ten tournament.

Nebraska has won two of three games against both Iowa and Wisconsin this season. Minnesota won two of three against Wisconsin and swept Iowa. Nebraska is 2-0 against Northwestern, a team that took two of three from Minnesota.

By: Jake Stark

University of Minnesota police responded to two gun crimes in the Southeast Como neighborhood over the weekend, and police suspect the crimes may be related due to their timing, location and suspect descriptions.

Two men were robbed at gunpoint near Talmage Avenue Southeast early Saturday, the report said.

Both victims, who are not associated with the University, were walking together just before 2 a.m. when two men approached them, the report said.

One of the men drew a handgun and demanded the victims’ wallets and electronics, said Minneapolis police Sgt. Steve McCarty, whose department will oversee the investigation. The victims gave up their valuables, and the suspects fled before police arrived.

Shortly before the robbery near Talmage, another University student had been confronted by a man with a handgun.

Chemical engineering senior Kyle Mcdermand was walking to his home near Rollins Avenue Southeast when he saw two groups of men arguing, he said.

“I stopped to watch what was going on,” he said. “Then I saw a guy raise a gun in the air.”

Mcdermand, 23, started walking away from the scene when the gunman noticed him, he said.

“He pointed the gun at me and started saying, ‘Keep walking, keep walking,’” Mcdermand said.

Mcdermand called 911, and a University police officer arrived at the scene. The two groups had already left by the time the officer arrived.

The same officer responded to the robbery call, the report said.

University police emailed a campus-wide crime alert Saturday discussing the crimes.

In addition to the robbery, the suspect can be cited for second-degree assault because he drew a handgun, McCarty said.

Student assaulted in Centennial Hall

A University student was assaulted in Centennial Hall on Sunday afternoon, according to a University police report.

The student, 18, heard yelling outside his dorm room, said University police Deputy Chief Chuck Miner. He saw one man yelling obscenities and racial slurs at two other men.

The student knew one of the men being yelled at, so he joined the other two men and tried to get the man who was yelling to leave the hallway, Miner said.

The man who was yelling suddenly entered a “fighting stance,” punched the student in the face several times and then left the hallway, Miner said.

The student noticed he had a cut on his face and walked to the University Medical Center for treatment, Miner said. He received stiches for his injury.

University police are still investigating the incident, Miner said.

The student declined to comment.

By: Brian Arola

City Council hopefuls in Minneapolis have had Tuesday circled on their calendars for a long time.

That marks caucus night for the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party in Minneapolis. Around 7 p.m., constituents of wards across the city will discuss local policy and nominate delegates for endorsements to city positions.

Delegates then go on to the DFL convention to vote on which candidates should receive the party’s endorsement.

In the city’s 3rd Ward, which includes some of the University of Minnesota area, caucuses will take place in each of the ward’s nine precincts.

The closest caucus

locations to the University are at St. Lawrence Church and Newman Center in Dinkytown and the First Congregational Church in the Marcy-Holmes neighborhood.

Incumbent City Councilwoman Diane Hofstede is challenged by political newcomer Jacob Frey for the city’s 3rd Ward.

The recently redistricted ward now includes parts of Downtown, but the student-heavy areas of Dinkytown and Marcy-Holmes remain.

Both candidates are hoping for a strong showing from students at the caucuses.

Conrad Zbikowski, a University student who works on Frey’s campaign, said he expects many students to come out to support Frey.

“I think we’re really excited to see what happens tomorrow night in Dinkytown and Marcy-Holmes,” he said.

Frey’s campaign will hold pre-caucus events for every precinct. The University area’s pre-caucus event will be held at Burrito Loco at 5:30 p.m.

Hofstede said she hopes students turn out for the caucus because it’s a great opportunity to have their voices heard.

“I just hope students get out and participate because it’s a real grassroots piece of making change,” she said. “Having students engaged is very important.”

Frey said he’s excited for the first step toward a potential party endorsement.

“We’ve got a ton of momentum,” he said. “We hope to show how to run a grassroots organization.”

Frey said the endorsement at the convention will essentially determine the election, so the caucuses will be extremely important.

Both candidates plan to make appearances at various precincts throughout the night.

Check Wednesday’s Minnesota Daily for further coverage of

caucus night.