Month: February 2019

KCKCC invites community to participate in strategic plan development

by Kelly Rogge, KCKCC

Kansas City Kansas Community College is holding a series of public forums this month as the college continues its strategic plan development process.

Strategic planning is a process higher education institutions and other businesses use to set long-term goals and priorities. It is a way to focus on where resources and funding should be used to ensure long term success for the college. Many times, the mission and vision statements are also included in this process so that they align with the strategic plan as well. Strategic plans are revisited every few years to ensure goals and objectives are current.

Community forums will be held on Feb. 7 in the nursing auditorium (Flint Building) at the KCKCC Main Campus, 7250 State Ave., Kansas City, Kansas. These will be at 7:30 a.m., 1 p.m. and 6 p.m.

Additional sessions will be held Feb. 14 at the Dr. Thomas R. Burke Technical Education Center, 6565 State Ave., Kansas City, Kansas, and in the commons area of the Pioneer Career Center, 1901 Spruce St. in Leavenworth. These sessions are at 7:30 a.m., noon and 6 p.m. Each of these sessions is open to everyone in the campus community as well as in Wyandotte and Leavenworth counties. The purpose of these forums is to get input on the college’s goals and future initiatives, according to a spokesman.

Throughout the 2018-2019 academic year, there will be additional forums as KCKCC continues through with the strategic development plan process. For more information, contact Michael Beach, KCKCC’s chief financial officer at 913-288-7645 or by email at [email protected].

UG committees to meet tonight

The Unified Government Neighborhood and Community Development Committee will consider an amendment to the weed and mowing ordinance at tonight’s meeting.

The NCD Committee will meet at 5 p.m. Monday, Feb. 4, at the fifth floor meeting room, City Hall, 701 N. 7th St., Kansas City, Kansas.

On the agenda are amendments codifying the UG’s ability to send a one-time yearly written notification to people who have received a weed or mowing violation in the previous year, allowing abatement and assessment of any resulting costs without prior notice.

Also on the NCD agenda are several Land Bank requests, including:

Applications
• 813 Minnesota Ave. – Casa Aleman, LLC, new construction
• 1522 Pacific Ave. – Emma Pacheco, property acquisition
• 1524 Pacific Ave. – Emma Pacheco, property acquisition

Donations to Land Bank (vacant lots)
• 1640 S. Valley – Michael N. Jenkins
• 1643 S. 13th – Michael N. Jenkins
• 1645 S. 13th – Michael N. Jenkins

Also scheduled is an update on the Land Bank rehab program.

After the NCD Committee meeting, the UG Economic Development and Finance Committee will meet.


On the agenda for the EDF Committee meeting:

• The fourth quarter 2018 cash and investment report.
• A presentation on PayIt property tax collection process performance for the 2018 tax season.
• A discussion and vote on a resolution adopting debt policy revisions.
• A resolution to set a public hearing date of March 28 to consider a redevelopment project plan in the downtown grocery redevelopment district.

For an agenda, visit www.wycokck.org.

Study identifies two proteins that suppress tumor growth in fruit flies; suggests similar effect on human cancers

The concept sounds simple, but understanding the process has been elusive: Cut off the nutrient supply to suppress the growth of tumors.

Now researchers in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Kansas State University are unveiling promising results for this concept by studying the behaviors of specific proteins in fruit flies. The proteins have known counterparts in humans.

“In our latest study, we identified ‘Headcase,’ or Hdc, and ‘Unkempt,’ or Unk, as two nutrient-restriction-specific tumor suppressor proteins that form a complex that acts to restrict cell-cycle progression and tissue growth in response to nutrient stress in Drosophila or fruit flies,” said Jianzhong Yu, assistant professor and cancer biologist in the college’s anatomy and physiology department.

Yu is collaborating with Naren Li, postdoctoral fellow in anatomy and physiology; Yulan Xiong, assistant professor of anatomy and physiology; and Qinfang Liu, doctoral student in physiology.

The four of them recently published an article on their latest research, “Headcase and Unkempt Regulate Tissue Growth and Cell Cycle Progression in Response to Nutrient Restriction,” in the journal Cell Reports.

Their study was supported in part by a grant from the National Institutes of Health’s Kansas INBRE program, a startup fund and SUCCESS-FYI Intramural Grant from the College of Veterinary Medicine. The work is also supported by the Johnson Cancer Research Center at Kansas State University.

“Given the role of the human counterparts of these proteins, our results suggest that Hdc and Unk may function as tumor suppressors in mammals,” Yu said. “Although the human ortholog of Unk has not been studied in the context of cell proliferation, we showed that both Hdc and Unk are able to inhibit tissue growth in vivo in the Drosophila model. Thus, it is worthwhile in the future to investigate the growth control function of these two proteins, especially in regard to the formation of cancer tumors.”