Encouraging results investigating natural treatments for cancer continue to generate support for the work of biochemistry professor Siyaram Pandey and his research team.

Dr. Pandey presented a report on his lab’s progress Tuesday, as part of an annual observance of the birthday of Kevin Couvillon, who lost his battle against cancer in 2010, inspiring his family to support the search for non-toxic cancer treatments.

Pandey has widened his search to include experiments with extracts derived from tropical lilies, dandelion roots, lemongrass, white tea, long pepper, rosemary, and paradise tree. In the past year, his team has produced eight publications.

“We continue to be encouraged and impressed by the promise this research holds for a more humane and enlightened treatment of cancer,” Kevin Couvillon’s mother, Donna Couvillon, said Tuesday. “Our family is proud to be associated with this project.”

Pandey received a donation of $50,000 from UWindsor alumnus Loknath Chawla (BSc 1994, BA 1996) to establish the Loknath Chawla Fund in Natural Extracts Research. The first installment of a $100,000 pledge, the monies will support laboratory supplies and equipment, salaries to support undergraduate and graduate researchers, and other costs.

“I came to Canada 45 years ago and earned two degrees from the University of Windsor while working the night shift full-time at a local manufacturer,” Chawla recalled. “I was only five credits away from my third degree when my mother was diagnosed with cancer.”

He put his studies on hold to care for her until her death in 2004. Now he hopes that his fund will serve as her legacy.

Pandey also announced that he has received a $140,000 grant from the Mitacs Accelerate International fund to investigate the interaction of these extracts with drugs used in chemotherapy. Interns will conduct this research in partnership with Synthite Industries, which hopes to market resulting treatments.

A new book by University of Windsor musicology professor Sally Bick takes a fascinating look at the work of two 20th century film composers, both of whom treated film scores as means of expressing political ideas on society, capitalism, and the human condition.

In Unsettled Scores: Politics, Hollywood, and the Film Music of Aaron Copland and Hanns Eisler, Dr. Bick delves into both composers’ often conflicted attempts to adapt their music to fit Hollywood’s commercial demands — an enterprise that took place even as they wrote hostile critiques of the film industry.

Unsettled Scores, published by University of Illinois Press, brings the Hollywood careers of Aaron Copland and Hanns Eisler into direct conflict with the movie industry, the premier producer of America’s potent mass culture. Drawn by its potential to reach and edify the public, Bick says, Copland and Eisler challenged the industry by expertly weaving sophisticated musical and political ideas into their film scores.

Bick writes that Copland’s emblematic Appalachian Spring, Fanfare for the Common Man, and the ballet score for Rodeo, remain central to his popular sound of the American spirit and became the musical model for other Hollywood composers. 

She says Eisler’s musical notoriety and investments within communist circles distinguished him during the 1930s and ’40s as an important artistic political musical figure. He became a vital part of New York’s modernist community until 1942, when he left to work in Hollywood.  As a communist working in the most capitalist of enterprises, he wrote sophisticated scores coded with political messages, including two Oscar-nominated films, Hangmen Also Die (1944) and None but the Lonely Heart (1945).

Find more information on Unsettled Scores on the publisher’s website.

Lancer women’s basketball, ranked sixth in the country heading into the post-season, will continue its playoff run after a 96-42 first-round victory over the Lakehead Thunderwolves in the St. Denis Centre on Wednesday. Kayah Clarke’s 21 points led all scorers

The Lancers move on to take on the Brock Badgers in the Ontario University Athletics quarter-finals in St. Catharine’s on Saturday, Feb. 22, at 7:30 p.m. on www.OUA.tv. Fans looking to make the trip to the game can purchase tickets in advance at https://brocku.universitytickets.com/w/default.aspx.

The men’s team fell in the first round with a 94-66 loss to the Laurentian Voyageurs in Sudbury. Get the details at goLancers.ca.

In the weekend’s other varsity sports action:

Track and field will compete in the Ontario University Athletics championship tournament at the Toronto Track and Field Centre on the campus of York University, Friday and Saturday, Feb. 21 and 22.

Volleyball will close out the regular season at home, hosting Brock on Friday and McMaster on Saturday in the Dennis Fairall Fieldhouse. Both nights the women play at 6 p.m. and the men at 8 p.m.

All these contests will be livestreamed on OUA.tv.

The first cohort of companies in its VentureWomen program has the Entrepreneurship Practice and Innovation Centre (EPICentre) excited.

Over six weeks, founders will attend workshops, receive one-on-one mentoring, and learn a collaborative, hands-on approach to business model validation. EPIC VentureWomen is designed to identify and break down systemic barriers for females in technology and entrepreneurship.

It provides participants with more than $2,000 worth of programming, as well as access to customer discovery and prototype development grants up to $2,500.

The inaugural startups all count women among their founders:

• Ground Culture, an edible landscaping and gardening education business that aims to empower people with the skills and resources to grow their own food;
• Beaux, a smartphone app where beauty and barbershop clients can easily find, book, and pay for local artists in one unified eco-system;
• Vectorgaze, a company that uses innovative real-time rendering to provide animations and motion graphics with live and immediate feedback; and
• Xpress Career LMS, a one-stop career development hub providing personalized coaching with defined learning paths, mentorship, and performance management tools for any job seeker.

Members of the group will present their progress on the Final Pitch Day, March 30, when the top team will have the opportunity to win a $3,000 cash prize. Read more on the EPICentre website.

Staff and faculty are encouraged to put their UWindsor pride on display this Wednesday, Feb. 26, in the #UWinProud Door Decorating contest. The office with the best decorated door will win a catered coffee break sponsored by the Office of Student Experience.

Interested in participating? Email Sarah.Racinsky@uwindsor.ca no later than Tuesday, Feb. 25, at 4:30 p.m. to provide your name and office location.

Bangladeshi students of the University of Windsor will mark International Mother Language Day on Friday, Feb. 21, by gathering for a flag raising in Charles Clark Square, outside Windsor city hall.

The day celebrates linguistic and cultural diversity. It was approved at the 1999 UNESCO General Conference and has been observed throughout the world since 2000.

When the Bangladeshi community gathers at 8:30 a.m. for the ceremony, it will have extra reason to celebrate, reports Tara Das, president of the Bangladesh-Windsor Student Association.

The group has raised $17,000 and $48,000 in pledges toward a permanent structure commemorating the day, to be located in a riverfront park.

Das expects about 40 students from many countries to attend the ceremony, which is open to the community.