The University at Buffalo’s Emergency Response Team is closely monitoring reports of human cases of Influenza A (H1N1) throughout the world and will continue to work with federal and local public health agencies to ensure the campus is as proactive as possible in addressing this public health issue. There have been no confirmed cases of H1N1 (formerly referred to as swine flu) among UB students, faculty or staff. Updates will be posted, when necessary, on UB’s emergency Web site, www.emergency.buffalo.edu. Read more about the virus and tips for staying healthy here.

The University at Buffalo School of Management was ranked as one of the country’s best Undergraduate Business Programs in the 2010 edition of “America’s Best Colleges” by U.S News and World Report.

The UB School of Management was tied for No. 57 out of 158 spots in the ranking, up from No. 78 last year and higher than any other business school in the State University of New York system.

U.S. News ranked UB in the top tier of best national universities, ranking the university 60th among public universities and 121st overall among 265 universities reviewed in the annual ranking. Learn more.

Are Americans gambling more and developing more gambling problems? Do gambling problems tend to concentrate in disadvantaged neighborhoods? What has been the impact of increased Internet gambling, NCAA pools, Fantasy Football and poker tournaments?

These are some of the questions John W. Welte, Ph.D., a senior research scientist at the University at Buffalo Research Institute on Addictions, intends to answer in a new research study called “Problem Gambling — A Decade of Change.” Welte previously conducted the groundbreaking 1999-2000 investigation of problem and pathological gambling that provided answers about U.S. adult gambling frequency, locations and consequences.

With the award this month of a $3 million grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Welte will conduct a second national telephone survey of adults to learn about gambling trends during the past decade. Additionally, the new survey will include the relationship between respondent gambling and neighborhood characteristics, the distance traveled to gambling facilities and the permissiveness of state gambling laws. It will also gather information about growing forms of gambling such as Internet gambling, fantasy football and Texas Hold’em poker. Read more.

An article in the Orlando Sentinel reports the 1958 UB football team was honored in Orlando 51 years after they turned down a bowl bid because of racial discrimination.

UB chemists have used rational drug design to synthesize small, cell-permeable molecules that are effective in vitro against two common types of myotonic muscular dystrophy, a result that has implications for potentially curing muscular dystrophy, as well as other diseases.

The UB research was reported in two papers published in the May and July issues of ACS Chemical Biology and Journal of the American Chemical Society, respectively.

Together, the papers demonstrate that rational drug design—where information about a target’s molecular structure is used to “custom-design” potential drugs—can greatly expedite the drug-discovery process in the fight against RNA-mediated diseases, including myotonic dystrophy type 1 and type 2. There currently is no cure for these diseases, which attack muscle tissue. Read more.

Forbes magazine has once again ranked the UB School of Management as one of the best business schools in the world based on the “return on investment” it provides MBA graduates.

The ranking of No. 48, up two spots from the last ranking in 2007, puts the school solidly in the top 10 percent of the more than 525 graduate business programs accredited by AACSB International — The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.

Read more.

The effort to transform Buffalo into a world-class health care destination and expand the University at Buffalo’s campus in downtown Buffalo took a major step forward today as Kaleida Health and UB broke ground for a new 10-story global vascular institute and research building. The $291-million combined facility, to be located next to Buffalo General Hospital at Goodrich and Ellicott streets, will bring together Kaleida Health physicians and UB researchers in a collaborative effort to deliver state-of-the-art clinical care, produce major breakthroughs on the causes and treatment of vascular disease and spin-off new biotechnology businesses and jobs. Read more.