From left, Birgeneau, Tauscher, and Chu

Tauscher, Birgeneau
Make Visit to the Lab

Yesterday, U.S. Representative Ellen Tauscher (California's 10th Congressional District), visited Berkeley Lab to provide the keynote address to the biennial Laboratory Women's Forum. While at the Lab, she attended a brief meeting with Director Chu and new UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau. According to Chu, they discussed plans for greater collaboration between the campus and the Lab, the detrimental effect of current U.S. visa policies on science, and the need to ensure federal support for multidisciplinary research institutions.

Coming Next Week:
Berkeley Lab SHARES

Berkeley Lab's annual charitable campaign, "SHARES," begins its 2004 drive next week when donor packets are delivered to all employees. The program gives staff the opportunity to share a portion of their income with organizations and individuals in the local community who depend upon such support for their outreach efforts. Hundreds of potential recipient programs, including 13 science-oriented groups comprising the "SHARES" list, will be available for selection. Other qualified non-profits can be identified by the donor. E-mail giving will also be available. Go here to ask questions about the campaign. More information about the SHARES program will be available in Friday's edition of The View .

Simon

According to NASA, its new supercomputer, Columbia, is now the fastest in the world. Columbia has achieved a speed of 42.7 teraflops in a standard benchmark test, say scientists. NASA's achievement is the third claim to supercomputing superiority to be announced since Sept. 29, as manufacturers and researchers race to hone their machines before the official update of the Top 500 supercomputer list on Nov. 8. "It's a little like a poker game," says Berkeley Lab's Horst Simon, director of the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center. "Everyone is gradually showing some cards, but the actual winner won't be announced until November." Full story.

Potential Cancer
Marker Found

Gray

A research team led by the University of Texas, including researchers from Berkeley Lab, has found a potential new protein marker for the prognosis of breast and ovarian cancer. In the journal Nature Medicine, the researchers report tumor cells that "overexpress" the protein Rab25 are more aggressive and associated with poorer outcome. Thus, Rab25 could represent a novel marker of tumor behavior. Berkeley Lab researchers include Wen-lin Kuo, Anna Lapuk, Kyosuke Yamada and Joe Gray, all with the Life Sciences Division. Go here to read a University of Texas press release on the discovery.