Gene Block

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Gene Block
6th Chancellor of the University of California, Los Angeles
Assumed office
August 1, 2007
Preceded byAlbert Carnesale
Norman Abrams (Acting)
Personal details
Born (1948-08-17) August 17, 1948 (age 75)[citation needed]
Monticello, New York, U.S.
EducationStanford University (BA)
University of Oregon (MS, PhD)
Scientific career
FieldsNeurobiology
Institutions
ThesisEfferent control of the circadian oscillator in the eye of Aplysia (1975)
Doctoral advisorMarvin Gordon-Lickey
Other academic advisorsDonald Kennedy
Colin Pittendrigh
Doctoral studentsDouglas G. McMahon
Other notable studentsAndrew Millar
Nancy L. Wayne

Gene David Block (born 17 August 1948)[1] is an American biologist and academic administrator who has been serving as the current and 6th chancellor of the University of California, Los Angeles since August 2007. Previously at the University of Virginia, Block served as executive vice president and provost from 2001 to 2007, vice president for research and public service from 1998 to 2001, and vice provost for research from 1993 to 1998.

On 3 August 2023, Block announced his intention to step down as chancellor of UCLA, effective on July 31, 2024.[2]

Early life and education[edit]

Block was born in Monticello, New York, the grandson of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe.[3] His father and uncle owned Mountain Dairies, a retail/wholesale distributor that served many of the hotels and camps that populated Catskill region of New York. During summers, he worked at the dairy as a truck driver. He played varsity tennis at Monticello High School.

Block received a Bachelor of Arts with a major in psychology from Stanford University in 1970. He received a Master of Science in 1972 and a Doctor of Philosophy in 1975 in psychology from the University of Oregon.[4][5]

From 1975 to 1978, he returned to Stanford for postdoctoral work with Donald Kennedy (who later became the 8th president of Stanford) and Colin Pittendrigh (who is known as the “father of biological timing"). During his postdoctoral research years, Block studied how voluntary movements inhibit sensory feedback in the crayfish working in the Kennedy lab while studying issues of circadian biology with Colin Pittendrigh.

Career[edit]

Academic administration[edit]

University of California, Los Angeles[edit]

Block was appointed Chancellor of UCLA in 2007. His selection was announced on 21 December 2006, succeeding interim office holder Norman Abrams on 1 August 2007.[6]

On February 24, 2014, Block published an open letter to the campus community, expressing his opposition to Proposition 209, stating that the proposed merit-based selection system would damage diversity on campus.[7]

He has been widely criticized for the 2022 suspension of highly-awarded professor of ecology Priyanga Amarasekare without documentation, viewed as retaliation for her calls for reform of a culture of discrimination at UCLA.[8]

In his inaugural address at UCLA, Block shared that his top priorities are to advance academic excellence, financial stability, diversity and civic engagement.[9] He has called for UCLA to deepen its engagement with Los Angeles and to increase access for students from underrepresented populations.[10] Under Block's leadership, UCLA has seen an increase in student diversity on campus thanks to innovative efforts to recruit in diverse communities, and in 2015, UCLA reached pre-California Proposition 209 levels, enrolling 279 African American freshmen, on par with the African American share of California public high school graduates.[11] UCLA has also increased the number of low- to middle-income students enrolled.[12]

In 2019 UCLA was named the number one public university in the nation for the third consecutive year[13] and is consistently the most applied-to university, with more than 113,000 freshman applications for fall 2018.[14]

Block's push for entrepreneurship on campus has fostered innovation and resulted in UCLA as the top university for creating startups based on campus research.[15] Additionally, to foster a deeper commitment to Los Angeles among UCLA students, Block oversaw the formation of the annual Volunteer Day event, in which thousands of students volunteer in schools, parks, food banks, veterans’ clinics and elsewhere at the beginning of each academic year.[16] Block also implemented UCLA's two Grand Challenges, which are aimed at understanding, treating and preventing depression worldwide,[17] and moving Los Angeles toward 100 percent renewable energy, 100 percent locally sourced water and enhanced ecosystem health by 2050.[18]

During his tenure, Block has faced the challenge of steering UCLA through a severe budget crisis and tuition increases.[19] To address reductions in state funding and advance his priorities, Block is leading the largest fundraising campaign by a public university, aiming to raise $4.2 billion to support student scholarships and fellowships, research projects and new construction on campus in honor of UCLA's centennial in 2019.[20]

Block holds UCLA faculty appointments in psychiatry and bio-behavioral sciences in the David Geffen School of Medicine and in integrative biology and physiology in the College of Letters and Science.[21]

On April 25, 2024, a pro-Palestinian occupation protest began at UCLA to protest the administration's investments in Israel amid the Israel–Hamas war.[22] On May 1, violent clashes were reported on the UCLA campus in which groups of counter-demonstrators supporting Israel attacked pro-Palestinian protesters. The clashes began shortly after Block declared that the pro-Palestinian encampment was "unlawful" and students who remained would face disciplinary action.[23] In the days after the incident, senate faculty members from the departments of History,[24] English, Comparative Literature, and Writing Programs,[25] Asian American Studies,[26] World Arts and Cultures/Dance,[27] Disability Studies,[28] Gender Studies,[29], Information Studies,[30] Chicano/a and Central American Studies,[31] Art History,[32] Philosophy, [33] African American Studies,[34] Anthropology,[35] Sociology,[36] Anthropology,[37] and Society & Genetics,[38] in addition to subsets of faculty from the department of Epidemiology,[39] Social Welfare,[40] Design Media Arts,[41] and the school of Theater, Film, and Television,[42] faculty and staff from the broader UC system,[43] alumni groups,[44] and a joint statement by the California Federation of Teachers and the University Council-AFT[45] (which respectively represent educators and classified professionals, and UC librarians and non-Senate faculty), along with an individual statement from UC-AFT Local 1474,[46] issued calls for votes of no confidence and/or the immediate resignation of Block due to his handling of the conflict.

University of Virginia[edit]

In 1978, Block became a member of the faculty in the Department of Biology of University of Virginia. Here, Block served as the vice provost for research from 1993 to 1998, vice president for research and public service from 1998 to 2001, and then in 2001 he was appointed as executive vice president and provost. Furthermore, during this time from 1991 to 2002, Block also served as the founding director of the National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center in Biological Timing.[47]

According to Block, “The center raised the national visibility of the University in biological and medical research, and gave us reputational leverage in the U.S. as well as in Europe and Japan... Most importantly, the center’s scientific accomplishments have been spectacular. We’ve done some high-risk research that has paid off greatly; some of it has fundamentally changed our understanding of biological processes.”[48]

One of the center's biggest advances, largely by Joseph Takahashi, was the development of a mutant mouse that allowed for the identification and cloning of the “Clock” gene for the biological clock in a mouse in 1997. This was the first such gene to be identified at the molecular level in a mammal. This groundbreaking discovery was a result of the Clock Genome Project, which uses "forward genetics" to discover the genes regulating circadian clocks in mice, fruit flies, and plants. In addition, this work also led to the discovery of many other genes that regulate the biological clock.[49]

In 1997 and 1998, the reputable journal Science ranked the findings of the NSF Center in Biological Timings among the top 10 in biological research breakthroughs.[49]

Three of the NSF Center investigators, Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young,[clarification needed] received the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine “for their discoveries of molecular mechanisms controlling the circadian rhythm.”[50]

Academic research[edit]

Cell-autonomous circadian pacemakers[edit]

While at the University of Virginia, Block worked extensively with his graduate student, Dr. Douglas G. McMahon, the 1986 winner of the Society for Neuroscience's Donald B. Lindsley Prize in Behavioral Neuroscience, on the functioning of the circadian pacemaker system at the cellular level in Bulla gouldiana. In 1984, Block's students conducted a continuous 74-hour intracellular recording in constant darkness that demonstrated that basal retinal neurons (BRN) in the Bulla eye exhibit clear circadian rhythms. These rhythms were also shown to be correlated one-for-one with compound action potentials produced by the optic nerve.[51] The change in membrane potential of the BRNs, which are electrically coupled, were shown to precede or occur simultaneously with the increased compound action potential frequency. An increase in firing frequency, and depolarization of the BRNs, was seen during the day, and the reverse at night. These results demonstrated that the BRNs were at minimum an output for the pacemaker pathway and provided evidence that they were good candidates for being circadian pacemaker neurons.

This research was expanded several years later by a breakthrough study published in Science in which Dr. Stephan Michel, and others working in Block's laboratory, demonstrated that circadian rhythms in BRN membrane conductance could persist spontaneously in isolated BRNs.[52] These spontaneous circadian rhythms were shown for BRNs in isolation from other retinal cells and in isolation from each other. They showed that these circadian rhythms in membrane conductance were caused primarily by a potassium ion current. BRNs in isolation demonstrated the same patterns shown in Block's previous work in which membrane conductance decreased at dawn and increased at dusk. That similar patterns were seen in isolated cells as in previous multiple cell cultures provided the first strong evidence that individual neurons possessed the capacity to generate circadian rhythms. This research definitively concluded that BRNs are both necessary and sufficient for photoentrainment in Bulla.

Necessity of calcium flux for rhythmicity[edit]

Block and colleagues hypothesized that ion movement across cell membranes plays a role in the generation of circadian rhythms. In 2005, his lab measured rhythms in rat suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) in various concentrations of calcium ions. Block found that as calcium concentration decreased, thus lowering the transmembrane ion movement, the amplitude of circadian rhythmicity also decreased.[53] With no calcium added, there was no circadian rhythm at all. Block's lab repeated the experiment with rat liver tissue and mouse SCN tissue and found the same results in each case. This demonstrated that across species and tissues, transmembrane calcium flux is necessary for the generation of circadian rhythms. However, there are still some questions about the function of calcium flux. In this experiment, Block also tried adding calcium channel Blockers to the tissues. Rhythmicity did disappear, but it took several cycles, and it is unknown why rhythmicity was not immediately abolished. In addition, Block suspects that calcium flux plays a role in the entrainment of the mammalian clock to the environment, similar to its role in mollusk entrainment.

Effects of aging on the circadian clock[edit]

Block has also studied the effect that aging has on the circadian system, collaborating with other leading chronobiologists including Michael Menaker. In 2002, he studied rhythmicity in rats of various ages and found that aging affected rhythmicity differently in different tissues. In the SCN, the intrinsic period shortened with age, while lung tissue often became arrhythmic (showing sporadic activity) and pineal and kidney tissues became phase advanced.[54] In 2008, Block exposed rats of various ages to different light cycles, and found that phase advances took longer in the SCN in old rats than in young rats, but pineal tissues advanced faster in older rats. Liver tissues did not phase shift at all when the light cycle was advanced.[55] These studies together have shown how complex the aging process is in the circadian system. Block notes that some, though not all, of these changes are likely influenced by diminishing synchronizing signals from the SCN. In 2006, Block observed that jetlag significantly increased the death rate in older mice, which highlights the medical importance of understanding the aging process of the circadian system.[56]

Honors and awards[edit]

Personal life[edit]

In 1970, Block married Carol Kullback, also from Monticello; they have two grown children.[59]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Gene Gene Block". Marquis Who's Who. Archived from the original on 2019-10-17. Retrieved 2013-04-22.
  2. ^ Watanabe, Teresa (2023-08-03). "UCLA Chancellor Gene Block to step down after boosting enrollment, diversity, rankings". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2023-08-03.
  3. ^ "Yes, Virginia, he's coming to lead UCLA". Los Angeles Times. 24 June 2007. Archived from the original on 2015-04-02. Retrieved 2015-03-04.
  4. ^ Block, Gene David (1975). Efferent control of the circadian oscillator in the eye of Aplysia (Ph.D. thesis). University of Oregon. ProQuest 302729825.
  5. ^ "Gene Block, Ph.D. – UCLA Brain Research Institute (BRI)". Retrieved 2024-01-06.
  6. ^ Stogsdill, Carol. "Gene Block named new UCLA chancellor". UCLA Newsroom. Archived from the original on 2022-09-30. Retrieved 2018-06-19.
  7. ^ "The Impact of Proposition 209 and Our Duty to Our Students". Archived from the original on 2014-03-05. Retrieved 2014-02-28.
  8. ^ Tollefson, Jeff (2023). "Exclusive: Documents raise questions about UCLA's suspension of ecologist". Nature. doi:10.1038/d41586-023-00473-8. PMID 36829063. S2CID 257183409. Retrieved 2023-02-25.
  9. ^ "Inaugural Address - UCLA Chancellor". UCLA Chancellor. Archived from the original on 2018-06-20. Retrieved 2018-06-19.
  10. ^ "Chancellor Gene Block – UCLA Office of the Chancellor". UCLA Chancellor. Archived from the original on 2018-06-20. Retrieved 2018-06-19.
  11. ^ Watanabe, Teresa (23 June 2016). "How UCLA is boosting campus diversity, despite the ban on affirmative action". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2018-06-20. Retrieved 2018-06-19.
  12. ^ "Some Colleges Have More Students From the Top 1 Percent Than the Bottom 60". The New York Times. 18 January 2017. Archived from the original on 2019-04-10. Retrieved 2018-06-19.
  13. ^ "2020 Top Public Colleges". U.S. News & World Report. 2019-09-08. Archived from the original on 2017-11-02. Retrieved 2019-09-10.
  14. ^ Watanabe, Teresa (14 December 2017). "Freshman applicants to UC soar to a new record, with UCLA again leading the way". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2018-06-20. Retrieved 2018-06-19.
  15. ^ White, Ronald D. (7 July 2017). "UCLA grabs the top spot among 225 universities in business creation". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2018-06-20. Retrieved 2018-06-19.
  16. ^ "UCLA Freshmen Tackle Volunteer Projects". NBC Southern California. Archived from the original on 2018-06-20. Retrieved 2018-06-19.
  17. ^ "In a Fight Against Depression, UCLA Relies on Technology". The Chronicle of Higher Education. 2018-03-08. Archived from the original on 2018-06-20. Retrieved 2018-06-19.
  18. ^ "Grand Challenges About". grandchallenges.ucla.edu. Archived from the original on 2018-06-20. Retrieved 2018-06-19.
  19. ^ "Chancellor Block addresses scope of budget crisis, plans and priorities". UCLA Today. Archived from the original on 2010-06-15.
  20. ^ Gordon, Larry Gordon, By Larry (16 May 2014). "UCLA plans $4.2-billion fundraising drive to mark 2019 centennial". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2018-06-20. Retrieved 2018-06-19.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  21. ^ "UCLA Chancellor Gene Block". University of California. Archived from the original on 2008-12-14. Retrieved 2013-04-12.
  22. ^ "UC rejects calls for Israel-related divestment, boycott driving pro-Palestinian protests". Los Angeles Times. April 27, 2024.
  23. ^ "Violence erupts at UCLA campus between rival Gaza protest groups". The Guardian. 1 May 2024.
  24. ^ "Statement of Members of the Department of History in Response to Clearing the Encampment, 2 May 2024". UCLA College of Social Sciences: History. May 2, 2024.
  25. ^ "Statement of undersigned members of the UCLA Department of English, Comparative Literature, and Writing Programs Faculty in response to the forcible removal of the Student Encampment". Google Docs: Statement of undersigned members of the UCLA Department of English Faculty in response to the forcible removal of the Student Encampment. May 2, 2024.
  26. ^ "Asian American Studies Department Solidarity Statement". UCLA College of Social Sciences: Asian American Studies. May 3, 2024.
  27. ^ "SOLIDARITY STATEMENT IN RESPONSE TO THE VIOLENT REMOVAL OF THE STUDENT ENCAMPMENT". UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture: World Arts and Cultures/Dance. May 4, 2024.
  28. ^ "Statement of Members of the UCLA Disability Studies Program on the Right to Protest Peacefully without Fear of Violence url=https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_cxU1RLAOcAklFPKGcoclcwkavM-Ns7av1IBJEefNdY/edit". Google Docs: Statement of Members of the UCLA Disability Studies Program on the Right to Protest Peacefully without Fear of Violence. May 3, 2024. {{cite news}}: Missing pipe in: |title= (help)
  29. ^ "UCLA Gender Studies Department Statement on Mob and Police Violence against Students and Faculty". Google Docs: Final Gender Studies department strongly condemns the mob attack of April 30 (1). May 2, 2024.
  30. ^ "IS Statement to UCLA Administration". Google Drive: IS%20letter%20to%20UCLA%20Administration.pdf. May 3, 2024.
  31. ^ "CCAS Faculty Statement of Solidarity". UCLA College of Social Sciences: César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o and Central American Studies. May 3, 2024.
  32. ^ "Statement of the Undersigned Members of UCLA Art History Faculty in Response to the Attacks of April 30-May 2, 2024". UCLA College of Humanities: Art History. May 3, 2024.
  33. ^ "Statement re: The university's response to peaceful protest". Google Docs: UCLA Department of Philosophy. May 6, 2024.
  34. ^ "Solidarity Statement of the Department of African American Studies, UCLA". Google Docs: UCLA Department of African American Studies. May 6, 2024.
  35. ^ "Statement of members of the UCLA Department of Anthropology Faculty in response to the forcible removal of the Student Encampment". Google Drive: Anthropology Department Letter. May 5, 2024.
  36. ^ "UCLA Department of Sociology's Response to the Administration's Failures over Gaza Solidarity Encampment url=https://sites.google.com/view/uclasociologyresponse/home". UCLA Sociology Response. May 6, 2024. {{cite news}}: Missing pipe in: |title= (help)
  37. ^ "Statement of members of the UCLA Department of Anthropology Faculty in response to the forcible removal of the Student Encampment". Google Drive: Anthropology Department Letter. May 5, 2024.
  38. ^ "Statement of Faculty of the UCLA Institute for Society and Genetics faculty in response to the attacks on the encampment and ensuing police violence, April 30 to May 2 2024". UCLA College of Life Sciences: Society & Genetics. May 3, 2024.
  39. ^ "Letter* to the UCLA Community in Response to the Encampment Attack on April 30, 2024". Epi Letter UCLA. May 3, 2024.
  40. ^ "Statement from undersigned* Social Welfare faculty members in response to the forcible removal of the Student Encampment". Google Docs: Concerned Faculty of Social Welfare Letter in Response to Forcible Removal of Encampment. May 3, 2024.
  41. ^ "Statement of undersigned members of the UCLA Department of Design Media Arts Faculty in response to the forcible removal of the Student Encampment". Google Docs: UCLA DMA Public Statement re: Gaza Solidarity Encampment. May 4, 2024.
  42. ^ "Statement of the Undersigned Members of the School of Theater, Film, and Television Community in Response to the Attacks of April 30-May 2, 2024". Statement. May 3, 2024.
  43. ^ "University of California Faculty and Staff Demand". University of California Faculty and Staff Demand. May 6, 2024.
  44. ^ @uclablackbruins (May 7, 2024). "In light of this week's recent events at UCLA and beyond and a lack of cohesion within ASU, we, a group of autonomous Concerned Black Bruins and Alumni, have released a statement in solidarity with the Students for Justice in Palestine. We call for 1) the UCLA Administration to" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  45. ^ "CFT Leaders Call on UCLA Chancellor Gene Block to Resign Following Violence on Campus". CFT: A Union of Educators and Certified Professionals. May 1, 2024.
  46. ^ "UCLA Chapter of UC-AFT Local 1474 Condemns Arrests of Contingent Faculty and Librarians for Protecting Students". University Council-AFT: Representing Non-Senate Faculty and Librarians of the University of California. May 6, 2024.
  47. ^ a b "Curriculum Vitae Gene D. Block". University of California. Archived from the original on 2013-04-19.
  48. ^ Samarrai, Fariss (March 29, 2002). "Clock stops on NSF biological timing center, but the momentum carries on". Inside UVA. University of Virginia. Archived from the original on 2008-09-07.
  49. ^ a b "First Circadian Clock Gene Identified and Cloned in Mammals". National Science Foundation. 15 May 1997. Archived from the original on 2018-06-20. Retrieved 2018-04-06.
  50. ^ "The 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine". The Nobel Foundation (Press release). Archived from the original on 2017-10-11. Retrieved 2018-06-19.
  51. ^ McMahon, Douglas G. (1984). "Cellular analysis of the Bulla ocular circadian pacemaker system". J Comp Physiol A. 155 (3): 379–385. doi:10.1007/bf00610591. S2CID 35743849.
  52. ^ Michel, Stephan; et al. (1993). "Circadian Rhythm in Membrane Conductance Expressed in Isolated Neurons". Science. 259 (5092): 239–241. Bibcode:1993Sci...259..239M. doi:10.1126/science.8421785. PMID 8421785. Archived from the original on 2020-07-28. Retrieved 2019-07-04.
  53. ^ Lundkvist, Gabriella; Yongho Kwak; Erin Davis; Hajime Tei; Gene Block (17 August 2005). "A calcium flux is required for circadian rhythm generation in mammalian pacemaker neurons". The Journal of Neuroscience. 25 (33): 7682–7686. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2211-05.2005. PMC 6725395. PMID 16107654.
  54. ^ Yamazaki, Shin; Marty Straume; Hajime Tei; Yoshiyuki Sakaki; Michael Menaker; Gene Block (6 August 2002). "Effects of aging on central and peripheral mammalian clocks". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 99 (16): 10801–10806. Bibcode:2002PNAS...9910801Y. doi:10.1073/pnas.152318499. PMC 125050. PMID 12149444.
  55. ^ Davidson, Alec; Shin Yamazaki; Deanna Arble; Michael Menaker; Gene Block (March 2008). "Resetting of central and peripheral circadian oscillators in aged rats". Neurobiology of Aging. 29 (3): 471–477. doi:10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2006.10.018. PMC 1635489. PMID 17129640.
  56. ^ Davidson, AJ; MT Sellix; J Daniel; S Yamazaki; M Menaker; GD Block (7 November 2006). "Chronic jet-lag increases mortality in aged mice". Curr Biol. 16 (21): R914-6. Bibcode:2006CBio...16.R914D. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2006.09.058. PMC 1635966. PMID 17084685.
  57. ^ Wheeler, Mark. "Great Minds Gala raises more than $1 million for Semel Institute research". UCLA Newsroom. Archived from the original on 2018-03-21. Retrieved 2018-03-20.
  58. ^ "Academy Member Connection". www.amacad.org. Retrieved 2018-03-20.
  59. ^ UCLA Magazine: "Block on Board" by Mary Daily Archived 2017-11-09 at the Wayback Machine July 1, 2007

External links[edit]

Academic offices
Preceded by Chancellor of the University of California, Los Angeles
2007 – present 		Incumbent
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