Thursday Jambalaya
In this Issue:
- Summer Storage options
- Walk with Wente with Jay Curley of art history
- Will ‘Michael’ be the biopic to save the box office?
- For regrowing human limbs, this salamander gene could hold the key
It has been hot the last couple of days, and it will be hot for another day or two and then we’ll get a bit of relief. See our 5 day forecast:
91 is a little too warm for my taste for April! Speaking of warmer days with summer almost here, thought it would be a great time to talk about summer storage. Let’s get right to it!
Summer Storage options
A parent recently emailed me asking about what options are available for students to store their things over the summer. Know this might be helpful to other families, so watned to share today.
Storage Scholars is a company that was started by WF students in 2017 (and was seen on Shark Tank). One of the reasons people like Storage Scholars is for the benefit of not having to tote your boxes anywhere – students pack them in their room, Storage Scholars collects and stores them for the summer. Then when August comes, your student’s boxes are delivered to their room. That could be a good a solution for some folks. (Also, for incoming P’30 families, Storage Scholars can send you boxes and you can mail your ’30s belongings and they get delivered to your room).
We do not have on-campus storage over the summer, but there are a number of very close off-campus storage facilities. Students can rent local storage units (either on their own, or go in with a group and split the cost). There are a number of places in town, and I honestly cannot recommend a specific one since I have a house and don’t need storage. But – it can be a really great exercise for your students to do the research and see which storage facility looks good/meets their family’s need. Students can do some searching and make a recommendation to their family. This helps build their skills in researching vendors and is excellent prep for Lie After Wake.
Renting a storage unit is what I did myself as a Wake student, and what we did for my ’27 another school. It turned out to be a great solution for us – and – as I often say, there are no rights or wrongs, just what is right for your family.
Walk with Wente with Jay Curley of art history
In the newest episode of Walk with Wente, President Wente walks and talks with art history professor Jay Curley about how the study of art is at the center of many different disciplines.
From how the brain makes meaning of art to sustained looking to visual literacy skills to art analysis, his students learn how art is integrated into the human experience. You can see their conversation here.
Will ‘Michael’ be the biopic to save the box office?
Here’s a faculty story that might hit our Gen X parents right in the feels – or maybe that is just me 🙂
As the highly anticipated release of “Michael” approaches on April 24, the film industry is watching closely to see if the new movie about Michael Jackson can do what recent biopics of Whitney Houston and Aretha Franklin could not: dominate the global box office long-term. Media studies faculty member Phillip Cunningham offers three challenges to an extended run in theatres.
For regrowing human limbs, this salamander gene could hold the key
Here is another faculty research story that blows my mind:
“Each year, around the world, more than 1 million limb amputations occur because of vascular diseases such as diabetes, traumatic injuries, cancer or infections….The number is expected to rise with the aging population and the increase in diabetes diagnoses.”
That statistic inspired three scientists (including Wake Forest’s own Josh Currie, assistant professor of biology), to search for a treatment beyond prosthetics, for something that could replace the complex senses and motor skills of an actual limb.
Investigating a common gene in three very different species – salamanders, mice and zebrafish – scientists have discovered the potential for a novel gene therapy aimed at eventually regrowing limbs in humans…
[Wake Forest’s] Josh Currie…studies the Mexican axolotl, a salamander. He called this collaborative study foundational in the search for therapies to regrow limbs after injury or disease:
“Although it will require much more research to take the findings from mouse digits to human limbs, Currie called this study foundational in the search for therapies to regrow limbs after injury or disease.
‘Scientists are pursuing many solutions for replacing limbs, including bioengineered scaffolds and stem cell therapies,’ Currie explained. ‘The gene-therapy approach in this study is a new avenue that can complement and potentially augment what will surely be a multi-disciplinary solution to one day regenerate human limbs.’”
Read the full story. This is a great example of faculty research in the spirit of Pro Humanitate!