A discovery by University at Buffalo biologists that may explain the evolution of a lethal toxin is providing new information that could lead to more effective treatments for humans who fall victim to it.

The University at Buffalo Music Library has received a grant from the J. Warren Perry and Charles Donald Perry Memorial Trust of the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo to begin reformatting to CD a portion of its invaluable holdings of reel-to-reel tape recordings dating to the 1960s.

Landscape architect Lynda Schneekloth, professor of architecture in the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning, is delighted that "The Power Trail: History of Hydroelectricity at Niagara," which she wrote with three of her former students, has received the Merit Award of Achievement from the New York State Upstate Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

In the spring of 2006, a paper published in a scientific journal by researchers at the University at Buffalo and two scientific institutions in Italy reported that approximately 4,000 years ago during the Bronze Age, Vesuvius produced an eruption that devastated the area now occupied by metropolitan Naples.

Three University at Buffalo faculty members and a former dean have been named SUNY Distinguished Professors -- the highest faculty rank in the SUNY system -- by the SUNY Board of Trustees. Of the eight Distinguished Professors appointed by the trustees at their meeting last week, four have ties to UB.

Orchard Park resident Susanne Kelley has been named "Protege of the Year" by the Allstate Minority and Women Emerging Entrepreneurs Program, a joint venture by the University at Buffalo School of Management's Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership (CEL) and the UB Center for Urban Studies.

Police officers hold the second most stressful job (inner-city high school teacher is first), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This comes as no surprise to the University at Buffalo's John Violanti, a former member of the New York State Police and principal investigator on a pilot study of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in police officers.

Inspired by the work of internationally known pioneering neurosurgeon L. Nelson "Nick" Hopkins III, M.D., the chairman emeritus of Merrill Lynch and Co. has made a gift of $1.5 million to the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences to establish an endowed fund to name a neurosurgery chair in honor of the distinguished physician.

The region's population is driving more and using public transit less compared to 2001, trends facilitated by relatively low congestion on roadways, the continued growth of a suburban-based service economy and changing household dynamics, according to the University at Buffalo Regional Institute's latest Policy Brief, "Getting There."

Makau W. Mutua, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the University at Buffalo Law School, has been named interim dean of the Law School, effective Dec. 17.

Economic analysis suggests that healthy young donors in economies like that in the U.S. that place them at low-risk for post-surgical death would sell a kidney or a portion of a liver at prices that would drastically increase the number of those organs available for transplant and increase transplant cost by only 12 percent.

Research carried out with a paintbrush bristle, a metronome, smelly chemicals and thousands of microscopic worms called nematodes may reveal important information about human aging diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

The Center for the Arts at the University at Buffalo has been awarded a $287,182 grant by the John R. Oishei Foundation to establish a program that will bring the performing arts and artists into health-care settings to enhance the healing environment for patients and caregivers in Western New York.

Chris S. Renschler, Ph.D., associate professor of geography at the University at Buffalo has been awarded the 2007 Young Scholar Award from the Soil and Water Management and Conservation Division of the Soil Science Society of America.

David A. Kofke, Ph.D., University at Buffalo Distinguished Professor and chair of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering in the UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, has received the 2007 Jacob F. Schoellkopf Award.

Underscoring its commitment to help improve educational outcomes for students in the Buffalo Public Schools, the University at Buffalo has established a new scholarship fund to benefit graduates of the city's schools.

A $690,500 grant from the John R. Oishei Foundation will support the research of two professors in the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences focusing on Staphylococcus aureus Bacteremia.

Endocrinologists at the University at Buffalo have shown that eating a high-fat, high-carbohydrate meal increases the already high heart-attack risk for individuals who are obese.

New research by neurologists at the University at Buffalo has shown that a technique called optical coherence tomography, a simple and inexpensive measure employed currently to assess glaucoma, also could be used as a surrogate marker of disease status in multiple sclerosis (MS) and to assess the effectiveness of new and current MS treatments.

A $500,000 gift from Greatbatch, Inc. to the University at Buffalo School of Engineering and Applied Sciences will support scientific work through the Greatbatch Professorship in Power Sources Research in the departments of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Electrical Engineering.

Five individuals have been named to serve three-year terms ending June 30, 2010, on the board of the University at Buffalo Foundation, Inc.

How prepared is New York for another terrorist attack or major disaster? That's the question a group of researchers and disaster-response experts will discuss at a two-day conference addressing ways to protect New York City and New York State.

The Center for the Arts at the University at Buffalo will present The Producers, a Mel Brooks musical, at 8 p.m. on Jan. 25 and 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 26 in the Mainstage Theatre in the Center for the Arts on the UB North (Amherst) Campus.

The Center for the Arts at the University at Buffalo will present The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards and the Band of the Coldstream Guards at 8 p.m. on Jan. 24 in the Mainstage Theatre in the Center for the Arts on the UB North (Amherst) Campus.

The Center for the Arts at the University at Buffalo will present Blue Suede Shoes -- The Ultimate Elvis Bash at 8 p.m. on Jan. 18 in the Mainstage Theatre in the Center for the Arts on the UB North (Amherst) Campus.