Steinmetz is high
on shelter project
FAYETTEVILLE -- University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Chancellor Joe Steinmetz spoke Friday at an event spotlighting efforts by a UA professor and others to build a transitional community for people in need of shelter.
Kevin Fitzpatrick, a UA sociology professor, is a coordinator for the New Beginnings project, which is raising money from private donors to build 20 microshelters on land until recently owned by the university. Project leaders aim to open the shelters before winter.
Last year, UA largely cleared out undeveloped land that it owned in south Fayetteville that had come to be used as several homeless encampments. After ordering occupants to leave, UA began work to clear dense woods and brush. The university in September sold 4.7 acres of its land to nonprofit Serve Northwest Arkansas Inc. for $72,571.
The microshelters "will keep people out of the woods and out of the cold, and give them access to bathrooms and regular meals in a safe and a clean environment," Steinmetz said at the project site. He said he'd "love to see the number of microshelters here increase" should things go as planned.
Another person who has worked on the project, Brock Gearhart -- son of former UA Chancellor G. David Gearhart -- praised university leaders "for helping our team secure this land." He said the property "looked nothing like this just months ago."
Steinmetz told the Democrat-Gazette that adjacent property is still for sale.
"We've been in negotiation with a buyer for some time now, and we're still in that negotiation," Steinmetz said.
$428,285 to help
in cancer research
FAYETTEVILLE -- A $428,285 National Institutes of Health grant will help a University of Arkansas, Fayetteville researcher look for ways to improve an imaging method for detecting cancer and other diseases.
Hassan Beyzavi, a UA assistant professor of chemistry, works to improve the accuracy of what are known as PET scans, which use a radioactive isotope to help identify tumor cells.
The isotope is added to what are known as "tracer" molecules injected into the body so they can bind with tumor cells and thus lead to detection by the PET scan. Beyzavi studies ways to more effectively bind these isotopes to tumor cells.
"The smaller the tumor is, the more difficult it is to identify it using this method. Improving this approach could have an impact on early cancer detection," Beyzavi said in a statement.
Metro on 04/15/2019