Florida International University running back Kendall Berry was stabbed to death on the school’s campus in Miami-Dade County March 25. Nearly 1,400 people gathered at a memorial service March 29 to mourn his death. Police say that Berry was stabbed outside the university’s recreation center by another student, Quentin Rashad Wyche. The two were engaged in a fight over an insult to the victim’s girlfriend. Wyche has been charged with second-degree murder with a deadly weapon.
A recent study at Ohio State University revealed that the deficiency of a protein in the brain of Down’s Syndrome patients might be the cause for the syndrome’s cognitive impairment and congenital heart defects. Scientists are manually manipulating pieces of RNA, which regulates protein synthesis, to increase levels in human cell lines and mouse brains. Currently, experimental drugs have shown a return in protein levels to that of normal levels in mice with the syndrome.
Dartmouth College is hosting two displaced Haitian students for the spring semester while Université Quisqueya in Haiti is repaired. Ronel Lefranc and Daphnee Charles are studying at Dartmouth through a scholarship organization called the Haitian Education and Leadership Program. Both students experienced the 7.0-magnitude earthquake. During their time in the U.S., the students will pursue studies in water supplies and the protection of birds in Haiti.
Tulane University’s School of Medicine has been accused of violating federal law for its treatment of pigs in a trauma training course. Dr. Leslie Brown filed a complaint March 24 with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Western Animal Care Office, claiming that the school is violating the Animal Welfare Act. Participants work on anesthetized pigs. The pigs are killed after the procedures are completed. Tulane’s medical school is one of nine that still uses live animals for medical training.