University City hopes to break ground on a new firehouse in early 2012, nearly three years after receiving a federal stimulus grant to replace its current facilities.

The University is leasing the land to University City for one dollar per year for 75 years. The city applied for a grant to cover the cost of the construction of the firehouse.

While the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which was passed in February of that year, granted $2.6 million for the firehouse, the City Council of University City did not officially approve construction on the firehouse until Nov. 14 of this year.

“We had a complaint filed by a citizen to FEMA about the grant application,” said Don Miner, the fire chief of the University City Fire Department. “We went through an investigation for a year and a half.”

The facility will be located at the intersection of Vernon Avenue and Westgate Avenue.

Since the fire department needed a total of $3.4 million to finish the facility, the national funding proved insufficient. The previous city council approved an additional $200,000 of funding.

Replacing the current firehouse has become important in recent years, as the current firehouse— located on Delmar Boulevard near City Hall—has become outdated and inadequate for the current fire department.

“The original firehouse was over 100 years old,” Miner said. “Our electrical and plumbing were outdated, and there were questions about the structure itself.”

While much of University City supported building a new firehouse, some citizens did not. According to Miner, their reasons ranged from the high cost to worries about flooding at the new location, despite the 500-year flood protection included in the lease.

Washington University made crucial contributions to the negotiations between the fire department and the city over the land needed to build the firehouse.

“We had to maintain a distance between the engine houses to meet certain regulations, which limited us on going west with the engine house,” Miner said. “There is not a lot of open property in the city. There was dialogue between Wash. U. and city administration.”

Cheryl Adelstein, the director of community relations and local government affairs at Washington University, said that it was easier for the city to receive the stimulus grant because it had a piece of land secured.

“We looked at the property and decided that a fire station would be an appropriate use on that parcel,” Adelstein said. “The University offered a long-term lease on the property for a nominal fee and the University City Council approved the lease agreement.”

The University remained neutral throughout the University City debate over funding the firehouse.

“That was a local decision and the University would respect whatever they decided to do,” Adelstein said.

Both Miner and Adelstein emphasized the importance of the University City Fire Department in the daily life of Washington University students, especially the large number who live in University City.

“Washington University owns academic buildings and student housing in University City,” Adelstein said. “The University counts on the University City Fire Department to respond to emergency situations at these properties.”

Miner said the fire department appreciates the support of the University, with whom the department has collaborated numerous times in the past, such as in reacting to fire alarms in the University’s buildings in University City.

“We value our partnership with Wash. U.,” Miner said. “They are as much a part of the community as we are.”

James Harrang | Student Life

Washington University students Kevin Bischoff and Eloise McEniry are currently working to promote Bonfyre, a new social networking app.

The Bonfyre smartphone application, which launched this September, currently has over 600 users on campus, with more at Saint Louis University and the University of Missouri.

Bonfyre displays the number of students who have “checked in” at a particular event or party, showing which events are “hot” and where friends using the app are. It is only open to students with a “.edu” e-mail address.

The app is Off Campus Media’s latest venture. The company, which 2007 graduate Mark Sawyier started with a few friends during his senior year, has other ventures including MovingOffCampus.com, which was designed to help graduating seniors find off-campus housing.

“The idea came from the opportunity to help college students by answering questions that they ask all the time, such as who is at an event, or if it is fun,” Sawyier said.

The application launched at Washington University on Sept. 23 and at SLU and Mizzou a week and a half later. It has since gained popularity on all three campuses.

According to junior Rosa Heyman, a campus ambassador for Bonfyre, the app’s main purpose is different from Foursquare, another check-in app in that it is geared more specifically toward college students.

“The incentive for checking in is different than Foursquare,” Heyman said. “For Foursquare, it is more of a personal competition. For here, it is more about enhancing your social life and figuring out where is a fun place to go on a certain night.”

Heyman is one of eight Bonfyre ambassadors who work to promote the app around campus and increase its user base.

“We listen to feedback from the student body to make sure that [Bonfyre] caters to Wash. U. students,” she said.

According to Heyman, the app has partnered with events including Dance Marathon and The Linus Foundation, and will partner with Diwali this weekend.

Sawyier believes that the partnership between Bonfyre and these events will be mutually beneficial, raising awareness of both.

“These partnerships help those groups raise money for a very good cause and helps create buzz and awareness for these events,” Sawyier said.

Jake Bernstein, a 2010 graduate and the current business development associate and account manager for Off Campus Media, is enthusiastic about the growth of the app.

“We’re very excited about the progress we’ve made so far at Wash. U.,” Bernstein said. “With over 10 percent of undergraduates with an active account in just six weeks we’re looking forward to continued growth. I feel Bonfyre is relatively well-known at Wash. U.”

According to both Sawyier and Bernstein, long-term goals for the app include its continued spread at Washington University and increased recognition and use at other universities.

“We are trying to find the best ways to raise awareness and adoption at Wash. U., but we are trying to use these ways to figure out how to develop it on other campuses,” Bernstein said.

Sawyier acknowledged that while the company plans to expand Bonfyre to other campuses, setting up the app at those campuses would take time.

“We need to have data in that market, so we cannot turn up a local campus community overnight,” he said. “We must make sure that we take the feedback that we received here and continue improving the app.”

One of the new features recently added to Bonfyre is the “specials” tab, where students can see locations in the area surrounding the University offering special deals in coordination with the app. Check-ins at these locations can allow students using Bonfyre to receive discounts when they stop by.

According to Heyman, there are deals at Katie’s Pizzeria and Blueberry Hill, while future deals are expected at Pinup Bowl, Three Kings, Chill and other locations.

Sophomores Eloise McEniry and Kevin Bischoff cited the “specials” tab as one of their favorite features of the app, while both have used Bonfyre to see what is going on around campus as well.

“It has helped my knowledge of where my friends are and where people are, but the more people use it, the more it will help,” McEniry said.

Both McEniry and Bischoff acknowledged that the app’s function will be enhanced as more people start to use it.

“Not many people who are friends with me check in daily, which takes away from what the app is used for,” Bischoff said.

According to Bernstein, the average Bonfyre user checks in twice per week.

Sawyier emphasized the need for more student feedback during the nascent stages of the app. Students can e-mail feedback at www.bonfyreapp.com.

“We understand that we will have many great ideas, but so will our ambassadors,” Sawyier said. “Ultimately this is for college students.”

The app is free and currently available for iPhone and Android phones. Sawyier hopes for the app to be available on BlackBerry in the near future.

The Bank’s initial decision announced on Oct. 1 sparked considerable backlash among its customers; an online petition against the fees at change.org received more than 300,000 signatures before Bank of America announced the retraction of the fee. The planned monthly $5 charge was set to go into effect in January.

Bank of America has a branch at Washington University, as well as multiple ATM machines on all of University campuses; as a result, it is by far the most convenient and most often-used bank by students, faculty and administrators.

Even if the fees had gone into effect, some students believed that they nevertheless would have continued using Bank of America out of convenience.

“Bank of America is very convenient for us and there is a high switching cost, and if I had another card, I’d have to take the ATM fees into account anyways,” junior Peter Birke said.

Still, Birke is pleased about the removal of the fees.

“As someone who has a Bank of America account, I am happy that they changed their mind,” Birke said.

Freshman Jason Silberman agreed it would not be financially beneficial to switch to a different bank.

“The fees that you would have to pay with a different card trying to withdraw money from an ATM would probably even out with the $5 fee for using it,” he said.

Freshman Nathaniel Simon was skeptical of the motives behind Bank of America’s retraction of the fees. Prior to Bank of America’s announcement, Wells Fargo and Chase announced plans to retract their similar $3 fees due to the large consumer backlash, which was preceded Bank of America’s announcement.

Unlike Bank of America, both Wells Fargo and Chase had already put a pilot program in place to test the efficacy of the monthly fee.

“The fact that they all had these plans at the same time made me curious about whether they were trying to appease the people by saying that they were going to do this and then not doing it,” Simon said. “I am a little bit skeptical about how great it is in the grand scheme of things.”

The movement originated in New York City last month as a protest of corporate greed and the nation’s current economic policies.

St. Louis residents have claimed Kiener Plaza, in downtown St. Louis at 7th Street and Market Street, as the center of their own Occupy movement. Locals have stationed themselves in the plaza since Oct. 1, with some members staying overnight in tents.

Last Friday, more than 500 people, including students, union leaders and other citizens, marched from Kiener Plaza to the Bank of America headquarters downtown.

Some students at the University have been closely following the progress of both the national and local Occupy movements. Senior Molly Gott has followed the protests since this summer, when she worked in the financial district of Manhattan and heard people discussing the effort.

Gott, who saw the media ignore stirrings of discontent for weeks, saw the parade on Friday as a sign of how much progress the movement has made.

“The original organizers had essentially no organizing experience,” Gott said. “They met on Facebook and met in person for the first time only a couple of nights before the first day of Occupy St. Louis. It’s incredible to see how a lot of people who have been involved with Occupy St. Louis have really stepped up and found power in having their opinions heard.”

Senior Arielle Klagsbrun echoed Gott’s sentiments.

“This started in all cities as a slow, haphazard group, but people committed to it and brought in the media attention,” Klagsbrun said. “If you’re able to have staying power, the media will come around and cover it.”

Others more distantly related to the University have taken active roles in the protests.

Former Adjunct lecturer at the University, Jerome Bauer, who now works with the American Federation of Teachers, has been down at Kiener Plaza every day.

Bauer has been involved with Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment after nearly losing his home to foreclosure a few years ago. While Bauer does not believe that an immediate revolution is feasible, he emphasized the importance of long-term reform.

“I hope to see more people from Wash. U. and from St. Louis turn up to show the world that we can do this right, because it is very important to set an example for the generations to come,” Bauer said. “This is about the future and I think that change does take time. That is why I think it is worthwhile for people to come out and support this.”

Bauer praised the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department’s response to the protests, which he believes has been much more receptive and less aggressive than the New York and Boston police departments.

“We have all realized that it’s in everyone’s best interest to keep the protest civil and nonviolent,” he said.

Various on-campus supporters of Occupy St. Louis have different priorities in backing the movement. While Gott and Bauer are concerned about unfair foreclosures, Klagsbrun worries about corporate America’s influence on environmental issues.

Gott and Klagsbrun agree that media criticism over the movement’s lack of a unified message misses the point of Occupy Wall Street.

“The media seems to be treating it as if there should have been a unified message from day one, where part of the importance of this movement is a commitment to the process of coming up with messages together and hearing all people’s voices before deciding on demands,” Gott said.

Chris Singer, a graduate student in the engineering school, agreed that the movement makes an important statement.

“The economic system we live within is the reason why we constantly have to fight these battles around environmental issues,” Singer said. “It is the root cause and Wall Street is the place to make that message clear.”

He emphasized the importance of the movement for future generations, specifically the generation currently enrolled in college that will be competing for jobs in the future.

“Students have a large vested interest in coming to Occupy St. Louis,” Singer said. “This is about shaping what the future of the U.S. and the world is about. This is incredibly unique in that there has been widespread, open outrage against the most harmful economic system in the entire world.”

Courtesy of MO.GOV

Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, D-Mo., has announced that she will not be running for re-election in 2012.

Carnahan, sister of Rep. Russ Carnahan, and daughter of former senators Mel and Jean Carnahan, was elected to the post in 2004 and re-elected in 2008. She ran for the United States Senate in 2010 but lost to republican Roy Blunt by 14 points.

Although the Secretary of State position does not have term limits, Carnahan decided to return to working in the private sector. In a statement released on her website, she cited her father’s work outside of state politics as an inspiration for her stepping down.

“I watched as my father…served on church boards, the local school board and helped the Red Cross and countless other causes—every day committed to helping a neighbor and making the community better. Dad always thought his experience as a private citizen helped make him a more effective public servant and a better governor,” she said in the statement.

Carnahan said that while she has chosen not to run for re-election, she is proud of her accomplishments—which, she noted, include digitizing Missouri’s historical resources, protecting voter rights, helping victims recover $10 billion in consumer fraud and reducing red tape for small businesses.

Junior Sherveen Mashayekhi, president of the College Democrats, said he had hoped Carnahan would run again, given her political history.

“We are disappointed with her decision not to run, because she is a candidate we have supported in the past,” Mashayekhi said. “We are sure that she will throw her hat back into public office eventually.”

Mashayekhi added that holding onto all state democrat seats is especially important in light of the Republican Party’s national gains in the 2010 midterm elections. He said that the College Democrats plan on supporting every democrat who runs in 2012—especially Carnahan’s brother Russ, who narrowly won re-election over Ed Martin 2010.

“We have supported Russ Carnahan in the past and really like his stance on a lot of issues,” Mashayekhi said. “We are looking to see what he does, especially after the gerrymandering of the district.”

Mashayekhi offered his opinion on which candidate the College Democrats would support.

“We will be supporting the democratic candidates that end up running, and we will support any candidate that reaches out to us for support,” he said.

While Robin Carnahan may not be on the 2012 ballot, she ended her statement by saying that she plans to continue being involved.

“I plan to stay engaged and involved,” Carnahan said in the statement. “For me, that could include running for elected office again, but it will certainly mean speaking out and working hard for the values we share and the candidates who stand up for them.”

The Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies reaches 709 undergraduate students and 220 graduate students. It hosts events such as the Olin Cup Competition and the YouthBridge Social Enterprise & Innovation Competition (SEIC), which invest thousands of dollars in startup and mission-based businesses every year.

According to Ken Harrington, managing director of the Skandalaris Center, the center is different from many programs across the nation, as it is not part of the University’s business school.

“We can pull students together from all areas of the University,” Harrington said. “That results in a lot of good ideas and learning.”

Harrington attributed the center’s recent ascent in rankings to its multidisciplinary focus. Only 35 percent of students participating in the Skandalaris Center’s programs are from the business school.

“We focus more on the spawning of ideas and providing the curriculum to develop their entrepreneurial skills,” Harrington said. “A lot of schools focus on the venture and business, but what we do is focus on the ideas and people. It is really surprising to see how many come from other schools.”

In addition to its events during the academic year, the Skandalaris Center funds summer internships at startup ventures for 25 students.

The center also holds “Coffee with the Experts” to allow current students to have one-on-one meetings with experts in the entrepreneurial field. Another program offered through the center is IdeaBounce, through which anyone can submit ideas for businesses or inventions and pitch them to a panel consisting of community partners, including venture capital firms, incubators and other local entrepreneurs, according to the Skandalaris Center’s website.

“We have really focused on entrepreneurship as something that relates to all the schools and all the disciplines,” Harrington said.

Harrington said he believes that the Skandalaris Center’s lack of affiliation with the business school, as well as its encouragement of students’ ideas and passions—rather than just the business aspect of entrepreneurship—has provided students with a forum to express what they want to see improved in the world.

Each school in the University serves as a base for a different type of entrepreneurship; most notably, the George Warren Brown School of Social Work specializes in social ventures, while the John M. Olin School of Business specializes in commercial ventures.

“It suits the University’s mission of putting the faculty and students first at Wash. U.,” Harrington said.

Courtesy of Urbancents.com

UrbanCents is a new student business that allows students to purchase deals for businesses close to campus. Founders Julia Pockros and Clara Jaques, both juniors, launched the business two weeks ago and will offer a new deal each week.

The start-up, which follows a format similar to Groupon, offers students discount deals to businesses near campus, and donates a portion of its profits to charity.

Juniors Julia Pockros and Clara Jaques launched UrbanCents two weeks ago.

They began creating their business model last year and presented their ideas to the StEP Advisory Board. According to Pockros, she and Jaques have not seen this model at other universities.

“I was thinking of taking the model that was nationwide and making it for a smaller population,” Pockros said. “I had not heard of one that existed at colleges, so we decided to try to implement it at colleges.”

Generally, the business will offer a weekly deal of a 30- to 50-percent discount at a local business.

UrbanCents’ first deal was $10 for a dozen cookies and two glasses of milk at Dough to Door. The current deal offered is two large pizzas from Mike Duffy’s Pub & Grill for $17—50 percent off of the normal price. Future deals are planned for FroYo, spinning classes and Three Kings.

Unlike Groupon, none of the UrbanCents deals have “tipping points.” This means that each deal is guaranteed regardless of how many people buy it. Furthermore, UrbanCents’ deals are more targeted to the Washington University student body than those on St. Louis’ Groupon page.

“It is our goal to find vendors that we love, that we know Wash. U. students will love, that have been around for a while, that might not get the publicity that they deserve, and we try to seek those people out,” Pockros said.

Five percent of the proceeds from each offer will be used to support a local non-profit organization. The current charity is the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, whose long-term goal is to conduct scientific research that will increase the amount of sustainable food available.

“[Having the specific charities] makes it more tangible for our consumers than just supporting a blind charity,” Jaques said.

According to Pockros, UrbanCents plans on donating between $100 to $200 to the first charity before changing to a new non-profit to support.

“It was important for us to build a business that worked with the Wash. U. community as well as with the greater St. Louis community,” Pockros said. “The idea is that we are fulfilling the needs of the Wash. U. students while giving back to greater St. Louis.”

According to Jaques, the business differs from Bear Discounts because it offers larger discounts to help students try new things in the St. Louis area, whereas Bear Discounts offers smaller discounts to more vendors. Pockros and Jaques both hope to work with Bear Discounts in the future.

“Being students here, we know what the students want and we can look for deals that apply to all groups of students,” Jaques said. “We are open to suggestions from the Wash. U. community.”

UrbanCents is one of ten businesses in StEP. Others include Bear Discounts and Wydown Water.

According to Mary Zabriskie—the assistant director of campus life, StEP advisor, and the administrator in charge of meeting with students to discuss their business models—students from all different academic schools own StEP businesses.

“We are always looking for new businesses,” Zabriskie said. “It is always good to have this business experience, regardless of what you are studying.”

Now that UrbanCents has launched, Pockros and Jaques are focused on increasing the word of mouth on campus.

“Our biggest goal right now is to work on advertisement, since it’s just the two of us,” Pockros said. “We are having some trouble reaching out to undergraduates, graduates, faculty and staff, because this business is supposed to be accessible to anyone in the Wash. U. community.”

According to Zabriskie, it is typical for a new StEP business to be relatively unknown.

“It’s like starting a new business in any community,” Zabriskie said. “It takes time to get the name out and get the business to grow.”

Zabriskie is confident in the future of UrbanCents, especially once the word gets out about the deals.

“I think it’s a very exciting business proposition,” Zabriskie said. “It’s interesting that they have tied a popular concept to a student population.”

While the short-term goal is to build though word of mouth, Pockros and Jaques eventually want to expand the model to other universities around the country.

“I think if people could just try us, they’d love us,” Pockros said.

Students can buy discounts at www.urbancents.com and can follow UrbanCents on www.facebook.com/urbancents and www.twitter.com/urbancents.

Junior Joseph Marcus and senior Jake Novick, both Student Union senators, have been working on posting syllabi online during registration so that students can have more information about available courses.

Marcus and Novick created Syllabi Central, a private website hosted by Google, in spring 2009. They were forced to take down the website when the provost’s office informed them that posting Washington University’s copyrighted material onto a third-party website was illegal.

They have since worked with the eSyllabi task force, a group consisting of students, administrators and faculty, to try to put course syllabi online.

After failing to get the administration entirely on board intially, Marcus and Novick decided to work on their goal independently of the administration.

When it’s ready, the guide will be available through the SU website.

“This is the first time it’s on the Wash. U. server, and it’s 100 percent in our hands. It will be students working on it and students maintaining it,” Marcus said. “We want to have it up by spring registration time.”

According to Marcus, he and Novick got the idea of centralizing the syllabi online during Marcus’s freshman year.

“During registration freshman year, there are many intro-level classes with huge waiting lists that many people are interested in,” Marcus said. “We were hoping first to decrease the wait list and [second to] give students more information when they register for classes. Rather than relying on my friends, I can get something more objective to build a more ideal schedule for my interests.”

While some syllabi are online, many of them are scattered across various sites, such as departments’ websites or professors’ personal websites. Still others are unavailable until the course begins.

As chair of the Academic Affairs Committee, Marcus hopes to make the online centralization of syllabi a priority during the next semester. He and other senators are currently working on both contacting professors and finding a more efficient way to collect the syllabi in the future.

In order to gauge interest for Syllabi Central, SU distributed a survey in November asking students whether they wanted syllabi available during registration and whether having a syllabus two weeks before the beginning of the semester would be helpful. Of the 544 students polled, 97 percent responded “yes” to the first question, while 94 percent responded “yes” to the second one. On the question about how big of a priority syllabus availability should be to SU on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being a major priority, 73 percent rated the level of priority at 4 or 5.

“[Having the syllabi available] would give you a better idea about what the class is really like, because the descriptions of them online usually don’t do the class justice,” sophomore Elena Gittleman said.

Gittleman also echoed Marcus’s hopes about decreasing the amount of “shopping” for classes during the first few weeks of the semester.

“It would be easier for students and professors if there were fewer students adding and dropping the classes during the add/drop period,” she said.

Marcus is optimistic that the site will eventually get off the ground.

“[Novick] and I started off as renegade senators who decided we wanted to make a big impact quickly,” Marcus said. “We now see the big picture and where this fits in. We have more clearly defined goals and know that we need to build a strong base before we can move forward.”

Christina Kelley

Ben and Jerry’s on the Loop often partners with campus organizations for charity. This partnership has been called into question after Dance Marathon heard that they would not receive money for their October 12 fundraiser.

Jacob Lenard, the co-fundraising chair for Dance Marathon, had originally scheduled a benefit night at Ben & Jerry’s for Oct. 7, but Ben & Jerry’s moved the event to Oct. 12. After the benefit happened, Lenard said that he did not receive money for either night.

“We called the manager a couple times to get the money. He finally called us back three weeks later and basically told us that he wasn’t writing us a check,” Lenard said. “He told us that we didn’t publicize correctly and that we didn’t know how to do a benefit night.”

The event would have benefited the Children’s Miracle Network, the charity supported by Dance Marathon.

According to Lenard, Max Bierman, the owner of Ben & Jerry’s, told him that the event hadn’t been publicized sufficiently. Lenard also said that Bierman claimed that not enough people had mentioned Dance Marathon while purchasing ice cream.

Lenard said, however, that Ben & Jerry’s management told him that customers did not need to mention Dance Marathon in order for the money to be sent to charity.

Many other student groups have partnered with the franchise for philanthropic events in which the store donated a portion of ice cream sales from an agreed-upon night to charity.

According to Lenard, some of these groups,—such as Delta Gamma, Sigma Nu and Alpha Phi—have experienced similar problems with Ben & Jerry’s management when trying to organize fundraisers.

Following Lenard’s dispute with Ben & Jerry’s, Mike Hayes, executive director of campus life and director of Greek life sent a letter to Bierman expressing concerns about the incidents.

Hayes said that there appeared to be miscommunication on both sides.

“When I talked with Max, I got the impression that it didn’t go down the way it was supposed to,” Hayes said. “They are very philanthropically involved, and they still want to be.”

According to Bierman, the management involved with the fundraiser no longer works at Ben & Jerry’s.

“We want to partner with all facets of the University for a mutually beneficial experience,” Bierman said. “Since 2004, we have given back over $50,000 to charities, non-profit organizations and student groups and have had the opportunity to help raise money for families that are in need of funds related to medical care.”

In order to prevent future miscommunications, Bierman said that Ben & Jerry’s is working on a protocol for both Ben & Jerry’s and student organizations that he will send to Hayes to review.

“We are in the process of developing a ‘Benefit Night Guideline’ document for Washington University,” Bierman said. “I will be sending the document to Mr. Hayes. All groups wishing to host a fundraising event will be required to review the guidelines and discuss expectations and other information required.”

Hayes stressed the need for responsibility on both sides involved in fundraisers.

“There’s a responsibility on Ben & Jerry’s’ side and on the student organizations’ side,” Hayes said. “Students used to stand outside Ben & Jerry’s and tried to draw people in, but this doesn’t happen anymore. My understanding from Ben & Jerry’s is that they only had three customers come in that night.”

Despite the franchise’s attempts to facilitate collaboration with University students, Lenard has no plans to work with Ben & Jerry’s in the future.

“We aren’t working with Ben & Jerry’s again,” Lenard said. “Even if organizations do get the money, it’s not an easy business to work with. It was sad to see someone in our community denying money for [the Children’s Miracle Network].”

Despite these past problems, Bierman is optimistic for future successful fundraisers with the University once the protocol takes effect and communication is eased. He stressed the need for full student participation in all future events, including active promotion of the event and distribution of materials about the charity in the store while the event is occurring.

“I have several very creative ideas for taking our partnership with WU to the next level,” Bierman wrote in an e-mail to Student Life. “I would be delighted to meet with WU to discuss and to also understand what ideas WU may have for how to best leverage our global brand for their betterment.”

The gel is especially promising for improving sexual health because it caters to women. This differs from condoms, which have been the number-one choice to prevent the spread of HIV but depend heavily on male participation and willingness to use them.

“This gel gives women an opportunity to empower themselves to prevent HIV and pregnancy with a product they can use themselves,” said Bradley Stoner, associate professor of anthropology.

The idea came from Sam Wickline, a professor of medicine, cell biology and physiology at the Washington University School of Medicine. Wickline is one of 65 scientists to participate in the 2010 Grand Challenges Explorations Grant program, a $100 million program sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The Grand Challenges Explorations Grant traditionally rewards projects that result from unorthodox thinking and innovative ideas to aid in the fight against global health problems.

“Sperm and HIV are remarkably similar in their natural mechanism of genetic transmission,” Wickline said in a news release. “Both need to fuse with their target cell in order to deliver their genetic payloads—DNA in the case of sperm, and RNA in the case of HIV.”

And even though the gel is not as familiar to people as are condoms, Stoner thinks that people can be educated easily about its use.

“There have been some recent trials of intravaginal microbicide gels that prevent against HIV and other STDs, and they’ve been found to be well accepted by women, so this is also something that could be implemented probably with great success,” Stoner said.

Though research on the gel is still in early stages, Stoner hopes that the gel will be affordable.

“If researchers are able to prove that this works and that it can be manufactured on a large scale, I hope that price would go down to supportable levels,” Stoner said.

According to Wickline, the gel contains a “Trojan Horse,” a lipid nanoparticle developed by Wickline and Gregory Lanza, a professor of medicine, biomedical engineering, and biology and biomedical sciences at the medical school, that attracts the sperm and HIV before destroying it using the bee toxin.

“The idea is to trick each [agent] to fuse with a synthetic Trojan horse—a nanoparticle that will overwhelm sperm and HIV in numbers and in destructive power,” Wickline said.

The bee toxin, known as melittin, comes from the honeybee Apis mellifera. The method has been shown to be safe for clinical use.

“Cells readily take in melittin,” Wickline said. “But once it gets in, it pokes holes in cell membranes to destroy the cells.”

The Gates Foundation launched the Grand Challenges Explorations Grant program in 2003 as a way to find new solutions to health problems that have not been solved adequately by traditional means. Scientists can apply for the Explorations program online and receive news about whether their idea has been chosen for a $100,000 grant approximately four months after the submission deadline. The foundation gives grants of $100,000 twice a year, while successful projects can receive an additional grant of $1 million and become part of the Grand Challenges project, as Wickline’s project has. According to the Grand Challenges website, the Gates Foundation has given grants to 405 researchers from 34 countries.

Projects this year include another HIV vaginal contraceptive, developed by Nongnuj Tanphaichitr of the Ottawa Health Research Institute, which, according to the Grand Explorations website, will “research whether the antimicrobial peptide LL-37 can be used simultaneously as a contraceptive and an anti-HIV treatment.”

In addition to Tanphaichitr’s and Wickline’s projects, 17 other projects fall under the “Create New Technologies for Contraception” topic. The 65 projects, announced on Nov. 9 as winners of Grand Challenges Explorations grants, fall under 12 categories.

“We believe this can succeed because both sperm and HIV are built to target, fuse and discharge their cargo,” Wickline said in the news release. “Our nanoparticles are similarly built to target, fuse and deliver their cargo. These attributes will enable a process of mutual assured destruction in a sequestered biological environment.”