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New website details Linus Pauling’s breakthroughs in protein structure
The Oregon State University Libraries Special Collections & Archives Research Center has added to its series of documentary history websites on the life of Linus Pauling
CORVALLIS, Ore. – The Oregon State University Libraries Special Collections & Archives Research Center has added to its series of documentary history websites on the life of Linus Pauling with its newest addition, “Linus Pauling and the Structure of Proteins: A Documentary History.”
The website (http://scarc.library.oregonstate.edu/coll/pauling/proteins/index.html) is filled with rarely-seen photographs and letters and behind-the-scenes tales of controversy and collaboration.
This is the sixth website in the Special Collections & Archives Research Center’s series focusing on specific aspects of Pauling’s remarkable life and career. The proteins site is organized around a narrative written by Pauling biographer Thomas Hager and incorporates more than 400 letters, manuscripts, published papers, photographs and audio-visual snippets in telling its story.
Pauling (1901-1994) remains the only individual to have been awarded two unshared Nobel prizes, and his research in molecular biology is now the stuff of legend. Prompted during the Great Depression by a lack funding, Pauling shifted gears from his successful investigations into the structure of minerals and crystal structures in favor of a new program of research on biological topics. His relationship with the Rockefeller Foundation, which funded most of this new line of inquiry, is a major theme of the proteins website.
So, too, is the long running competition between Pauling’s laboratory and an array of British proteins researchers that helped inspire Pauling’s alpha helix, a fundamental component of many protein structures. The alpha helix lay at the center of seven remarkable papers published by Pauling and his Caltech collaborators in the spring of 1951 that helped define the modern scientific understanding of protein structure and function. It was with these papers that Pauling came to be known as one of the founders of molecular biology.
The proteins story was not without its drama, and readers will learn of Pauling’s sometimes caustic confrontations with Dorothy Wrinch, whose cyclol theory of protein structure was a source of intense objection for Pauling and his colleague, Carl Niemann. The website also delves into the fruitful collaboration enjoyed between Pauling and his Caltech co-worker, Robert Corey and explores the controversy surrounding his interactions with another associate, Herman Branson.
Many more discoveries lie in waiting for those interested in the history of molecular biology: the invention of the ultracentrifuge by Theodor Svedberg; Pauling’s long dalliance with a theory of antibodies; his critical concept of biological specificity; and the contested notion of coiled-coils, an episode that pit Pauling against Francis Crick.
Linus Pauling and the Structure of Proteins constitutes a major addition to the Pauling-related resources available online. It will be of interest to students, educators and researchers from a wide variety of backgrounds. For much more on Pauling and his legacy, see the Linus Pauling Online portal at http://pauling.library.oregonstate.edu
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Boiler Plate: Valley Library Media Contact: Theresa Hogue Media Contact:Source: Chris Petersen, 541-737-2810
Promote to OSU home page: Not Promote to the OSU home pageMobile LIDAR technology expanding rapidly
The rapidly expanding technology of mobile LIDAR could change the way we see, study and record the land forms around us, with multiple applications in science and industry.
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Imagine driving down a road a few times and obtaining in an hour more data about the surrounding landscape than a crew of surveyors could obtain in months.
Such is the potential of mobile LIDAR, a powerful technology that’s only a few years old and promises to change the way we see, study and record the world around us. It will be applied in transportation, hydrology, forestry, virtual tourism and construction – and almost no one knows anything about it.
That may change with a new report on the uses and current technology of mobile LIDAR, which has just been completed and presented to the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. It will help more managers and experts understand, use and take advantage of this science.
The full exploitation of this remarkable technology, however, faces constraints. Too few experts are trained to use it, too few educational programs exist to teach it, mountains of data are produced that can swamp the computer capabilities of even large agencies, and lack of a consistent data management protocol clogs the sharing of information between systems.
“A lot of people and professionals still don’t even know what mobile LIDAR is or what it can do,” said Michael Olsen, an assistant professor of civil engineering at Oregon State University, and lead author of the new report. “And the technology is changing so fast it’s hard for anyone, even the experts, to keep up.
“When we get more people using mobile LIDAR and we work through some of the obstacles, it’s going to reduce costs, improve efficiency, change many professions and even help save lives,” Olsen said.
LIDAR, which stands for light detecting and ranging, has been used for 20 years, primarily in aerial mapping. Pulses of light up to one million times a second bounce back from whatever they hit, forming a highly detailed and precise map of the landscape. But mobile LIDAR used on the ground, with even more powerful computer systems, is still in its infancy and has only been commercially available for five years.
Mobile LIDAR, compared to its aerial counterpart, can provide 10 to 100 times more data points that hugely improve the resolution of an image. Moving even at highway speeds, a technician can obtain a remarkable, three-dimensional view of the nearby terrain.
Such technology could be used repeatedly in one area and give engineers a virtual picture of an unstable, slow-moving hillside. It could provide a detailed image of a forest, or an urban setting, or a near-perfect recording of surrounding geology. An image of a tangle of utility lines in a ditch, made just before they were backfilled and covered, would give construction workers 30 years later a 3-D map to guide them as they repaired a leaking pipe.
Mobile LIDAR may someday be a key to driverless automobiles, or used to create amazing visual images that will enhance “virtual tourism” and let anyone, anywhere, actually see what an area looks like as if they were standing there. The applications in surveying and for transportation engineering are compelling, and may change entire professions.
Just recently, mobile LIDAR was used to help the space shuttle Endeavour maneuver through city streets to reach its final home in Los Angeles.
Some of the newest applications, Olsen said, will have to wait until there are enough experts to exploit them. OSU operates one of the few programs in the nation to train students in both civil engineering and this evolving field of “geomatics,” and more jobs are available than there are people to fill them. Due to a partnership with Leica Geosystems and David Evans and Associates, OSU has sufficient hardware and software to maintain a variety of geomatics courses. But more educational programs are needed, Olsen said, and fully-trained and licensed professionals can make $100,000 or more annually.
Other nations, he said, including Canada, have made a much more aggressive commitment to using mobile LIDAR and training students in geomatics. It is critical for the U.S. to follow suit, Olsen said.
Collaborators on the new report included researchers from the University of Houston, Lidarnews.com, David Evans and Associates, Persi Consulting, and Innovative Data, Inc.
Boiler Plate: About the OSU College of Engineering: The OSU College of Engineering is among the nation’s largest and most productive engineering programs. In the past six years, the College has more than doubled its research expenditures to $27.5 million by emphasizing highly collaborative research that solves global problems, spins out new companies, and produces opportunity for students through hands-on learning. Media Contact: David Stauth Source:Michael Olsen, 541-737-9327
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Promote to OSU home page: Not Promote to the OSU home pageFormer CDC director Julie Gerberding to speak at OSU on April 3
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Julie Gerberding, the first woman to direct the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will speak at Oregon State University on Wednesday, April 3, on “Becoming the Healthiest Nation.”
Her free public lecture, which is part of OSU’s Discovery Lecture Series, begins at 7 p.m. in LaSells Stewart Center.
In her talk, Gerberding will outline how the United States, while spending more on health care than any other nation, is far from being the healthiest country in the world. She advocates for private-public partnerships to improve health care and lower costs.
In 2005, she was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world for her leadership of CDC during the growing threats of bioterrorism and SARS. Forbes magazine listed her among the 100 most powerful women in the world for four consecutive years.
Gerberding is now president of the vaccine division of pharmaceutical company, MERCK. During her tenure as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from July of 2002 to January of 2009, CDC expanded its efforts in disaster preparedness, response to bioterrorism, preventing pandemics and addressing SARS and other emerging global health threats.
Her earlier career focused on preventing occupational HIV transmission. Gerberding has a medical degree from Case Western Reserve University and is on the faculty of the University of California at San Francisco.
More information is available at: http://oregonstate.edu/urm/events/discovery
Boiler Plate: Generic OSU Boiler Plate Media Contact: Mark Floyd Promote to OSU home page: Not Promote to the OSU home pageNew study questions the role of kinship in mass strandings of pilot whales
A new study published in the Journal of Heredity has found that pilot whales do not beach themselves because of family ties - a hypothesis that has grown in popularity in recent years.
NEWPORT, Ore. – Pilot whales that have died in mass strandings in New Zealand and Australia included many unrelated individuals at each event, a new study concludes, challenging a popular assumption that whales follow each other onto the beach and to almost certain death because of familial ties.
Using genetic samples from individuals in large strandings, scientists have determined that both related and unrelated individuals were scattered along the beaches – and that the bodies of mothers and young calves were often separated by large distances.
Results of the study are being published this week in the Journal of Heredity.
Scott Baker, associate director of the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University, said genetic identification showed that, in many cases, the mothers of calves were missing entirely from groups of whales that died in the stranding. This separation of mothers and calves suggests that strong kinship bonds are being disrupted prior to the actual stranding – potentially playing a role in causing the event.
“Observations of unusual social behavior by groups of whales prior to stranding support this explanation,” said Baker, who frequently advises the International Whaling Commission and is co-author of the Journal of Heredity article. The OSU cetacean expert is a professor in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at the university’s Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, Ore.
The mass stranding of pilot whales is common in New Zealand and Australia, involving several thousand deaths over the last few decades, according to Marc Oremus of the University of Auckland, who is lead author on the study. The researchers say their genetic analysis of 490 individual pilot whales from 12 different stranding events showed multiple maternal lineages among the victims in each stranding, and thus no correlation between kinship and the grouping of whales on the beach.
This challenges another popular hypothesis – that “care-giving behavior” directed at close maternal relatives may be responsible for the stranding of otherwise healthy whales, Oremus said.
“If kinship-based behavior was playing a causal role in strandings, we would expect that whales in a stranding event would be related to one another through descent from a common maternal ancestor, such as a grandmother or great-grandmother – and that close kin would be clustered on the beach,” Oremus said. “Neither of these was the case.”
Because of the separation of mothers and calves, or in some cases, the outright absence of mothers among the victims, the study has important implications for agencies and volunteers who work to save the stranded whales, Baker said.
“Rescue efforts aimed at ‘refloating’ stranded whales often focus on placing stranded calves with the nearest mature females, on the assumption that the closest adult female is the mother,” Baker pointed out. “Our results suggest that rescuers should be cautious when making difficult welfare decisions – such as the choice to rescue or euthanize a calf – based on this assumption alone.”
Long-finned pilot whales are the most common species to strand en masse worldwide, the researchers noted, and most of their beaching events are thought to be unrelated to human activity – unlike strandings of some other species. Both naval sonar and the noise of seismic exploration have been linked to the stranding of other species.
The phenomenon is not new. In fact, mass strandings of whales or dolphins were described by Aristotle more than 2,000 years ago and were thought to have some kind of natural cause, Baker said, although it is unclear what that may be.
“It is usually assumed that environmental factors, such as weather or the pursuit of prey, brings pilot whales into shallow water where they become disoriented,” Baker said. “Our results suggest that some form of social disruption also contributes to the tendency to strand.”
“It could be mating interaction or competition with other pods of whales,” Baker said. “We just don’t know. But it is certainly something that warrants further investigation.”
The researchers hope their study will lead to better genetic sampling of more pilot whales and other stranded whale species, as well as the use of satellite tags to monitor the survival and behavior of whales that are helped back into the ocean.
“The causal mechanisms of these strandings remain an enigma,” Oremus said, “so the more avenues of research we can pursue before and after the whales beach themselves, the more likely we are to discover why it happens.”
The study was funded by the Marsden Fund of the Royal Society of New Zealand and the Australian Marine Mammal Centre, with support from the New Zealand Department of Conservation and the Australian Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment. Baker’s work is supported by a Pew Marine Conservation Fellowship for the study of dolphins around islands of the South Pacific.
Boiler Plate: Hatfield Marine Science Center Media Contact: Mark Floyd Source:Scott Baker, 541-272-0560
Marc Oremus, New Caledonia +649-83-74-81
Multimedia: Promote to OSU home page: Promote to the OSU home pageOSU Alumni Association to honor three at April gala on campus
CORVALLIS, Ore. – The Oregon State University Alumni Association will present three of its highest honors this April 26 during its spring awards celebration.
The E.B. Lemon Distinguished Alumni Award will go to Hal Schudel of Corvallis, from the class of 1953. Schudel is a former faculty member and founder of what many consider to be the largest Christmas tree operation in the world. He is a pioneer in that industry, which is crucial to Oregon's economic health, and a supporter of OSU’s College of Agricultural Sciences.
The Lemon award is the association's most prestigious honor, given to OSU alumni who make significant contributions to society and whose accomplishments and careers bring acclaim to the university.
The Jean and C.H. “Scram” Graham Leadership Award will go to Bill Perry of Canby, a 1989 graduate. Perry is past president of the association’s board of directors and a supporter of the association and the university. He is vice president of government relations for the Oregon Restaurant and Lodging Association.
The Graham award honors individuals who promote the alumni association and have demonstrated extraordinary volunteer service to the university.
The Honorary Alumni Award will go to Mark McCambridge of Corvallis, OSU's vice president for Finance and Administration since 2001. The award is the highest honor the association can bestow upon those who are not alumni of OSU. A member of the university's financial team since 1994, McCambridge has played a key role in reorganizing the university to make the best possible use of its resources, and he has championed the cause of fiscal transparency.
The recipients will be honored at an April 26 event; reservations are required for the gala, which will follow the theme of "In Honored Footsteps." It begins with a social hour at 6 p.m. at the CH2M HILL Alumni Center.
For more information, visit osualum.com/springawards, send an email to osualum@oregonstate.edu, or call 877-OSTATER (877-678-2837).
Boiler Plate: Alumni Association Media Contact: Kevin Miller Source:Julie Schwartz, 541-737-7916
Promote to OSU home page: Not Promote to the OSU home pageOSU turns winemaking waste into food supplements and flowerpots
Researchers at Oregon State University have discovered how to turn the pulp from crushed wine grapes into a natural food preservative, biodegradable packaging materials and a nutritional enhancement for baked goods.
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Researchers at Oregon State University have discovered how to turn the pulp from crushed wine grapes into a natural food preservative, biodegradable packaging materials and a nutritional enhancement for baked goods.
The United States wine industry creates a tremendous amount of waste from processing more than 4 million tons of grapes each year, mostly in the Pacific Northwest and California, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Wineries typically pay for the pulp to be hauled away, but a small percentage is used in low-value products such as fertilizer and cow feed.
"We now know pomace can be a sustainable source of material for a wide range of goods," said researcher Yanyun Zhao, a professor and value-added food products specialist with the OSU Extension Service. "We foresee wineries selling their pomace rather than paying others to dispose of it. One industry's trash can become another industry's treasure."
The pulp, which consists of stems, skins and seeds, is known as pomace and is packed with dietary fiber and phenolics, which have antioxidant effects. OSU researchers have dried and ground it to create edible and non-edible products.
For example, they extracted dietary fiber from pomace and turned it into powders that can be added to foods. Because the phenolics in pomace also control microbial growth and keep fats from deteriorating, OSU researchers also added the powdery fiber to yogurts and salad dressings to extend their shelf life by up to a week without changing taste and texture.
The researchers also used pomace to make colorful, edible coatings and films that can be stretched over fruits, vegetables and other food products. They contain antioxidants, seal in moisture and control the growth of some bacteria.
Additionally, the scientists added pomace powders, which are gluten-free, to muffins and brownies. They replaced up to 15 percent of the flour in the recipes with it and thus increased the fiber and antioxidants in the baked goods. The research continues as scientists are also adding pomace to yeast breads.
"Adding fiber-rich ingredients can change a dough's absorption qualities and stiffness," said OSU cereal chemist Andrew Ross. "We're trying to find the right balance of pomace in dough while measuring the bread for its density, volume, color and taste. Commercial bakeries need this information before using pomace flour for large-scale production."
OSU has also made pomace into biodegradable boards, which can further be molded into containers, serving trays and flowerpots. After burial in soil for 30 days, the products degraded by 50 percent to 80 percent.
Researchers found that the methods for making products from pomace vary depending on if the pulp is from red or white grapes. That's because winemaking processes differ for each varietal and they produce pulp with different levels of sugar, nitrogen, phenolics and other compounds. In their experiments, researchers used pomace from grapes that included Pinot Noir, Merlot, Morio Muscat and Müller Thurgau.
Now, OSU is seeking to establish partnerships with companies interested in marketing the products it developed.
The research has been published in various journals, including the Journal of Applied Polymer Science, Food Chemistry, and the Journal of Food Science.
Boiler Plate: Generic OSU Boiler Plate Media Contact: Daniel Robison Source:Yanyun Zhao, 541-737-9151
Andrew Ross, 541-737-9149
Multimedia:
Yanyun Zhao, a food scientist at Oregon State University, holds a muffin made with grape pomace. (Photo by Lynn Ketchum.)
Oregon State University made this biodegradable fiberboard from grape pomace, which consists of the skins, stems and seeds left over from winemaking. (Photo by Lynn Ketchum.)
Series of Austrian films will show in Corvallis starting April 9
CORVALLIS, Ore. – A series of films from Austria, including the recent Oscar winner “Amour,” will be shown in Corvallis starting the week of April 9.
Organized by the German program of Oregon State University’s School of Language, Culture, and Society, this series of four recent Austrian films is free and open to the public.
All films are subtitled and will play at the Darkside Cinema, 215 S.W. 4th St., Corvallis. The schedule is:
Tuesday, April 9, 4 p.m.: “Landscapes of Memory – The Life of Ruth Kluger,” a biopic about high-profile author Ruth Klüger, a famous scholar of German literature. Her autobiography, “Still Alive: A Holocaust Girlhood Remembered,” is an international bestseller. The director Renata Schmidtkunz and Holocaust survivor Klüger will be present for the screening.
Tuesday, April 23, 4 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.: “Breathing,” tells the story of a 19-year-old man who finds a new lease on life when he takes a job at a funeral home.
Tuesday, May 14, 4 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.: “Kuma,” a drama about the intertwining lives of two women, Fatma, a housewife with six children, and Ayse, a 19-year-old who is about to become the second wife of Fatma’s husband.
Tuesday, June 4, 4 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.: “Amour,” the Oscar-winning drama portrays the lives of a retired Parisian couple whose love is tested when the wife becomes severely ill.
The series is sponsored by the Austrian Consulate General in Los Angeles.
Boiler Plate: College of Liberal Arts Media Contact: Angela Yeager Source:Sebastian Heiduschke, 541-737-3957
Multimedia: Promote to OSU home page: Not Promote to the OSU home pageNew “moon” app a hit
A new app created by Chris Vanderschuere, an OSU student, to describe current facts about the moon has been downloaded by more than a million people around the world.
CORVALLIS, Ore. - Chris Vanderschuere was just doing a little programming task to help a Beaverton, Ore., school teach facts about the moon. But his Moon application became much more than that.
Vanderschuere, a student at Oregon State University, got about a million more downloads than he expected, from 150 countries.
The app can run on any iOS device like an iPad or iPhone, but was designed primarily for devices with location ability, such as cellular triangulation or GPS. It calculates information to answer many questions. What did the moon look like on July 4, 1776? Where in the sky will the moon be tomorrow? How far is the moon from Earth right now?
It uses the current time and location, or those that the user enters, and displays details of the moon such as the phase, location in the sky and moonrise and moonset times. A lunar surface image from NASA creates a three-dimensional center graphic that changes second-by-second as the shadow travels across the moon. A smaller picture of a moon spins around a compass to show where the moon is located in the sky, and another displays the angle above the horizon.
Vanderschuere said his mother suggested the app, for use in the K-8 school where she works. But a Portland, Ore., kayaking company is now using it to schedule their full-moon kayaking trips. And a photographer on safari in Africa used the app to get the perfect moon picture.
The project, Vanderschuere said, has also been a great learning experience – about programming, entrepreneurial skills, and more about the moon than he ever thought he’d know.
“What people see are some pretty graphics of the moon phases, but in order to do that I had to learn a lot of engineering principles behind the scenes,” Vanderschuere said.
Boiler Plate: About the OSU College of Engineering: The OSU College of Engineering is among the nation’s largest and most productive engineering programs. In the past six years, the College has more than doubled its research expenditures to $27.5 million by emphasizing highly collaborative research that solves global problems, spins out new companies, and produces opportunity for students through hands-on learning. Media Contact:Rachel Robertson, 541-737-7098
Source: Multimedia: Promote to OSU home page: Not Promote to the OSU home pageReconstruction of temperature history shows significance of recent warming
By the year 2100, Earth will be warmer under all greenhouse gas emission scenarios that at any time in the last 11,300 years, according to a newly published study in Science.
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Using data from 73 sites around the world, scientists have been able to reconstruct Earth’s temperature history back to the end of the last Ice Age, revealing that the planet today is warmer than it has been during 70 to 80 percent of the time over the last 11,300 years.
Of even more concern are projections of global temperature for the year 2100, when virtually every climate model evaluated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) shows that temperatures will exceed the warmest temperatures during that 11,300-year period known as the Holocene – under all plausible greenhouse gas emission scenarios.
Results of the study, by researchers at Oregon State University and Harvard University, were published this week in the journal Science. It was funded by the National Science Foundation’s Paleoclimate Program.
Lead author Shaun Marcott, a post-doctoral researcher in Oregon State’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, noted that previous research on past global temperature change has largely focused on the last 2,000 years. Extending the reconstruction of global temperatures back to the end of the last Ice Age puts today’s climate into a larger context.
“We already knew that on a global scale, Earth is warmer today than it was over much of the past 2,000 years,” Marcott said. “Now we know that it is warmer than most of the past 11,300 years. This is of particular interest because the Holocene spans the entire period of human civilization.”
Peter Clark, an OSU paleoclimatologist and co-author on the Science article, said many previous temperature reconstructions were regional in nature and were not placed in a global context. Marcott led the effort to combine data from 73 sites around the world, providing a much broader perspective.
“When you just look at one part of the world, the temperature history can be affected by regional climate processes like El Niño or monsoon variations,” noted Clark. “But when you combine the data from sites all around the world, you can average out those regional anomalies and get a clear sense of the Earth’s global temperature history.”
What that history shows, the researchers say, is that over the past 5,000 years, the Earth on average cooled about 1.3 degrees (Fahrenheit) – until the past 100 years, when it warmed ̴ 1.3 degrees (F). The largest changes were in the northern hemisphere, where there are more land masses and greater human populations.
Climate models project that global temperature will rise another 2.0 to 11.5 degrees (F) by the end of this century, largely dependent on the magnitude of carbon emissions. “What is most troubling,” Clark said, “is that this warming will be significantly greater than at any time during the past 11,300 years.”
Marcott said that one of the natural factors affecting global temperatures over the past 11,300 years is gradual change in the distribution of solar insolation associated with Earth’s position relative to the sun.
“During the warmest period of the Holocene, the Earth was positioned such that Northern Hemisphere summers warmed more,” Marcott said. “As the Earth’s orientation changed, Northern Hemisphere summers became cooler, and we should now be near the bottom of this long-term cooling trend – but obviously, we are not.”
Clark said that other studies, including those outlined in past IPCC reports, have attributed the warming of the planet over the past 50 years to anthropogenic, or human-caused activities – and not solar variability or other natural causes.
“The last century stands out as the anomaly in this record of global temperature since the end of the last ice age,” said Candace Major, program director in the National Science Foundation’s Division of Ocean Sciences, which co-funded the research with NSF’s Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences. “This research shows that we’ve experienced almost the same range of temperature change since the beginning of the industrial revolution as over the previous 11,000 years of Earth history – but this change happened a lot more quickly.”
The research team, which included Jeremy Shakun of Harvard University and Alan Mix of Oregon State, primarily used fossils from ocean sediment cores and terrestrial archives to reconstruct the temperature history. The chemical and physical characteristics of the fossils – including the species as well as their chemical composition and isotopic ratios – provide reliable proxy records for past temperatures by calibrating them to modern temperature records.
Using data from 73 sites around the world allows a global picture of the Earth’s history and provides new context for climate change analysis.
“The Earth’s climate is complex and responds to multiple forcings, including CO2 and solar insolation,” Marcott said. “Both of those changed very slowly over the past 11,000 years. But in the last 100 years, the increase in CO2 through increased emissions from human activities has been significant. It is the only variable that can best explain the rapid increase in global temperatures.”
Marcott received his Ph.D. in geology in 2011 from OSU.
Boiler Plate: College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences Media Contact: Mark Floyd Source:Shaun Marcott, 541-737-1209
Peter Clark, 541-737-1247
Multimedia: Promote to OSU home page: Promote to the OSU home pageOSU makes oysters safer to eat with improved purification method
Oregon State University researchers have improved an old method of making oysters safer to eat so that more bacteria are removed without sacrificing taste and texture.
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Oregon State University has improved an old method of making oysters safer to eat so that more bacteria are removed without sacrificing taste and texture.
The improved process nearly clears their digestive tracts of the bacteria Vibrio parahaemolyticus, which can cause gastroenteritis, an infection marked by severe abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhea. Each year in the United States, more than 40,000 cases of Vibrio parahaemolyticus infection are linked to the consumption of seafood, particularly raw oysters, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"This bacteria is a huge safety concern," said Yi-Cheng Su, an OSU professor of seafood microbiology and safety. “Cooking oysters easily kills it, but many consumers want to eat raw shellfish without worrying about foodborne illness. Oysters are also worth more to the seafood industry when alive.”
To make oysters safer, processors freeze, heat up or pressurize the mollusks. They also place them in tanks of clean seawater at room temperature. In the latter case, which is known as depuration, the shellfish filter clean water through their system and excrete most bacteria from their digestive tracts into the water. The dirty water is then filtered and sterilized with UV light.
But depuration at ambient temperature is not fully effective, researchers say. More than 10 percent of the Vibrio bacteria still remain after two days of depuration.
Pressurization, freezing and heat treatment kill all the Vibrio bacteria but they also kill the shellfish. Additionally, freezing and heat treatment negatively affect their taste, texture, shelf life and value.
Seeking a better alternative, Su and his colleagues tweaked the depuration method. They chilled the water to between 45 and 55 degrees and sterilized it with ultraviolet light. Their method eliminated 99.9 percent of the bacteria after four to five days. The oysters stayed alive during the purification, and their texture and taste were not altered. The new depuration process is also more cost-effective, Su said.
"Temperature-controlled depuration uses less electricity than other methods that rely on freezers, heat, pressurization and even radiation," he said. "Depuration systems are also relatively cheap to build – just a few shellfish holding tanks each equipped with a water pump, a UV sterilizer and a temperature control device."
The oysters still need to be placed in cold storage after the depuration process because warm environments allow any remaining bacteria to multiply quickly, nullifying the depuration process.
OSU researchers are also exploring ways to speed up the low-temperature depuration process by adding antimicrobial agents to the seawater in the tanks.
Oregon producers sold $3 million of farmed oysters in 2011, according to a report by the OSU Extension Service.
Boiler Plate: Generic OSU Boiler Plate Media Contact: Daniel Robison Source:Yi-Cheng Su, 503-325-4531
Multimedia:
Researcher Yi-Cheng Su pulls an oyster from a depuration tank at Oregon State University's Seafood Laboratory in Astoria. As the oysters filter the water, they excrete harmful bacteria from their digestive tracts and become safe to eat. (Photo by Lynn Ketchum.)
OSU signs memorandum confirming partnership to help veterans
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Oregon State University has signed the Department of Defense’s Memorandum of Understanding – known as DoD-MOU – which will offer military veterans and service members more streamlined admission, better access to services, and continued access to federal Tuition Assistance (TA) benefits at OSU.
The memorandum is a partnership between the Department of Defense and participating colleges and universities. The new MOU provides participating schools with more detailed guidelines on how to deal with students utilizing TA benefits. OSU already has 115 Tuition Assistance recipients through the program, one of the highest numbers in the state.
This student population is likely to continue to grow over the next 3-5 years, according to Gus L. Bedwell, OSU’s veterans resources coordinator.
Additionally, during the past four years, the number of military veterans or their dependents has doubled at OSU, prompting the university to expand its Veterans Services team by hiring Bedwell to work with students, along with two veterans certifying officials in the Registrar’s Office.
The university has roughly 900 students receiving Veterans Administration benefits, and the number of students on campus who may qualify for assistance may be even higher.
“We’re really happy to sign the MOU with the Department of Defense,” Bedwell said. “In doing so, it confirms our longstanding commitment to veterans, service members – and their service to our country. Additionally, it opens the door for future students to take advantage of programs like natural resources at are offered online only at Oregon State University.”
Bedwell suggests that veterans or their dependents interested in OSU first go to the university’s website for veterans at: http://oregonstate.edu/veterans/home/, which lists different resources and activities on campus. Any veteran, or family member, needing assistance may also contact him directly at gus.bedwell@oregonstate.edu, or call his office at 541-737-7662.
Boiler Plate: Generic OSU Boiler Plate Media Contact: Mark Floyd Source:
Gus Bedwell, 541-737-7662
Promote to OSU home page: Not Promote to the OSU home pageStudy finds sexual health services for rural Latino men could be improved
A new study based on interviews of rural Latino men in Oregon found these men need sexual health services designed for them, including more male health providers, convenient clinic hours, and Spanish-speaking doctors.
CORVALLIS, Ore. – A new study based on in-depth interviews of rural Latino men in western Oregon finds that these men need sexual health services designed for their needs, including more male health providers, more convenient clinic hours, and Spanish-speaking doctors.
Researchers at Oregon State University conducted interviews with young Latino men from rural backgrounds and asked them questions related to sexual health and use of sexual health services. The results are published in the March issue of the American Journal of Men’s Health.
Marie Harvey, the study’s lead author, and associate dean of research in OSU’s College of Public Health and Human Sciences, has studied women’s reproductive health issues for more than 25 years. Recently, she has focused on the role of partners in sexual and reproductive health, or what she likes to call the “it takes two to tango” angle.
“We put women in the awkward position of trying to convince their partners to be active participants in pregnancy prevention and contraceptive planning,” Harvey said. “Increasingly, I think it’s crucial to talk to men and engage them on these issues.”
Latinos in the United State experience disproportionately high rates of unintended pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV/AIDS. These sexual health disparities have the potential to grow as Latinos continue to be the largest and fastest growing minority in the United States.
Harvey’s research team interviewed 49 Latino men who have immigrated to the United States within the last 10 years. The average age was 24. The majority of the men came from rural areas of Mexico. More than half had never seen a health care provider, and 88 percent had never seen a provider specifically for sexual and reproductive health services.
Harvey said this research is important because the men not only gave reasons why they did, or did not, utilize sexual health services, but they gave context linked to their cultural background, beliefs, and experiences. Almost half of the men reported they never discussed sexual and reproductive health topics with their parents. As one man explained, “Unfortunately, we come from a country that, I don’t know, they never want to talk about that. They keep it quiet and one grows up ignorant about that subject.”
“Almost every man we talked with stated they didn’t have enough information or knowledge about how to prevent unintended pregnancies and STIs,” Harvey said. “But they very clearly stated that they wanted this information and would like to be better informed.”
Many of the men suggested making informational pamphlets about sexual health services and clinics available in places they frequent, such as local laundromats or Latino grocery stores, as well as airing public service announcements on Latino radio or television stations. Men also emphasized the importance of providing information in Spanish.
In addition, terminology sometimes was confusing. In the United States, the term “family planning” is often used, but many of these single men said they had no need for such a service since they weren’t planning to have a family right now.
“It's important to define terminology because we have cultural assumptions around ‘family planning’ that not everyone shares,” Harvey said. “When we used terms like birth control, or HIV testing, it became much clearer.”
Harvey said that “confianza,” a Spanish word that means trust, confidence and respect, came up frequently as a need for all the men in the study.
“Privacy was very important to them, but it goes beyond that,” she said. “This ability to trust their provider, and know that their information won’t be shared and they would not be judged when they talk openly about their sexual behavior, all of this was crucial.”
In addition, the men expressed a preference for male providers and a need for bilingual providers. Language can be a barrier. At many community clinics, the study participants said the providers did not speak Spanish and translators were sometimes offered.
“Having a third party in the room can be a barrier to trust and honesty,” Harvey said. “In addition, the translators were often women, making it even more difficult to discuss sexual topics. And because these are smaller communities, the translators could even be someone they knew. ”
Clinic-related factors also affected access to services. Men reported that having convenient clinic hours, reduced waiting time and living or working in close proximity to a clinic would make it easier to receive services.
Harvey said as the Latino population grows in places like Oregon, understanding factors that affect their use of the health care system will become even more critical. It is essential to begin overcoming these cultural and structural barriers, Harvey said. Communities need to come together to help prevent STIs and HIV, as well as have a better informed public.
OSU research assistants Meredith Branch and Deanne Hudson, and OSU alumnus Antonio Torres, assisted on this study, which was funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Population Affairs.
Boiler Plate: College of Public Health and Human Sciences Media Contact: Angela Yeager Source:Marie Harvey, 541-737-3824
Promote to OSU home page: Promote to the OSU home pageOSU collecting electronics and plastics for recycling competition March 6-13
Oregon State University is competing in the national RecycleMania competition and invites the public to contribute by recycling their electronics and film plastic during March 6-13.
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Oregon State University is competing in the national RecycleMania competition and invites the public to contribute by recycling their electronics and film plastic during March 6-13.
Last year the university garnered a fifth place national ranking in the electronics category. The film plastic category is new this year.
On weekdays from Wednesday, March 6, through the following Wednesday, March 13, Campus Recycling will accept broken and unwanted electronics, as well as film plastics (such as plastic bags and wrap) from the public for free recycling, at their building at 644 S.W. 13th St.
The public is invited to bring items on the first day, Wednesday, March 6, any time between 9 a.m. and 7:30 p.m., or drop by on the following weekdays, Thursday-Wednesday, March 7-8 and 11-13, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Electronics accepted include televisions, computer monitors, computers (laptops, CPUs), computer parts (hard drives, circuit boards, CD-roms, etc.), computer accessories (keyboards, mice, printers, modems, etc.), data/power cords and wire, cell phones and telephones, consumer electronics (radios, VCRs, projectors, MP3 players, speakers, etc.) and small appliances (toasters, microwaves, etc.).
Film plastics accepted include clean grocery bags, retail bags, shrink wrap, and other clean sort plastics coded #2 or #4.
Items not accepted include refrigerators and non-electric hazardous waste such as batteries, light bulbs, paint, chemicals and motor oil. Contact Republic Services of Corvallis regarding proper disposal of these items (http://www.corvallis.disposal.com). Plastics not accepted are rigid plastics, mylar (metallic-like), biodegradable/compostable bags, frozen food bags, prewashed salad bags or any plastic with food contamination.
E-waste items will be responsibly recycled (or wiped and refurnished) in Cornelius, Ore., by Computer Drive Connection, or locally by OSU Surplus Property. Plastics will be processed by Garten in Salem. Full details are available at http://tiny.cc/ewaste2013.
The event is part of RecycleMania, a 10-week national recycling competition between universities, taking place through March 30. OSU is competing nationally and in a civil war competition with the University of Oregon, and hosting various events throughout the competition.
Boiler Plate: Campus Recycling Media Contact: Theresa Hogue Source:Andrea Norris, 541-737-5398
Harvard expert on happiness to speak at OSU on March 14
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Dan Gilbert, a professor of psychology at Harvard University and a best-selling author on the subject of happiness, will speak at Oregon State University on Thursday, March 14.
His free public lecture, “Happiness: What Your Mother Didn’t Tell You,” begins at 4:30 p.m. in Peavy Hall Room 130, located at 3100 Jefferson Way in Corvallis.
Gilbert’s 2007 book, “Stumbling on Happiness,” is based largely on his own research, and deals with the conflict over what people believe will make them happy versus what actually does result in happiness. It spent six months on the New York Times bestseller list, has been translated into 25 languages, and won the 2007 Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books.
Malcolm Gladwell said of the book, “This is a psychological detective story about one of the great mysteries of our lives. If you have even the slightest curiosity about the human condition, you ought to read it. Trust me.”
Gilbert is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has been the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship as well as the American Psychological Association’s Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution to Psychology. His TED talk is one of the most watched, with more than 4.6 million views.
The talk is sponsored by OSU’s School of Psychological Science.
Boiler Plate: College of Liberal Arts Media Contact:Celene Carillo, 541-737-2137
Source:Frank Bernieri, 541-737-1373
Multimedia: Promote to OSU home page: Not Promote to the OSU home pageFukushima cleanup continues, many areas restored
After two years of cleanup, some areas near the damaged nuclear power plants at Fukushima, Japan, have made signficant progress, and OSU researchers say decisions will need to be made about how much more work needs done.
CORVALLIS, Ore. – The Japanese response to the Fukushima nuclear accident was heroic at first and energetic in the two years since then, experts say, and is now reaching a point in many areas where science and social concerns may diverge – the question becomes, how clean is clean enough?
Considerable work still remains to be done at and near the reactor complex where the most serious damage and radioactive contamination took place, following the tsunami and reactor accident that began on March 11, 2011.
But through sustained and well-managed cleanup efforts in many other areas, enormous progress has been made in the past two years, said Kathryn Higley, professor and head of the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Health Physics at Oregon State University.
“I was recently standing on top of one of the heavily damaged reactors at the Dai-ichi nuclear power station, and even there it was surprising how moderate the radiation levels are now,” said Higley, who toured the region last month. She also met with local experts and has been involved in international efforts to assist in the response to the accident since it occurred.
“This incident occurred in the midst of an enormous geological disaster and the response to contain it was heroic from the beginning,” Higley said. “And in the aggressive cleanup efforts afterward, they’ve made tremendous strides and have learned a lot about what decontamination procedures are most effective. Certainly challenges remain, but they are working through them.”
Many of the approaches have been basic, Higley said, like removing grass and vegetation, sometimes a little topsoil, washing buildings, carefully measuring the levels of cesium and other radioactive contaminants to ensure they are at safe levels. Radiation can be monitored by sophisticated instruments at levels that are far below anything that will pose a health threat. It’s considerably higher, for instance, across many areas of the Rocky Mountains than in other parts of North America.
The government is subcontracting cleanup in some of the less-affected areas and handling the most heavily contaminated sections itself. And higher levels of radioactive contaminants have been detected in some nearby fish and other marine species that tend to bioaccumulate the toxins. But the dose implications are modest, Higley said.
A question that local Japanese residents and policy makers are already confronting, Higley said, is at what point to conclude that any remaining contaminants or radiation no longer pose a health threat, what areas still need more work, and how much more expenditure of money and resources is warranted. In many places this gets to a discussion of natural background levels of radiation, and what constitutes safe versus risky levels.
“In science we have a pretty good understanding of when radiation exposure is too high,” Higley said. “It’s much more difficult to say how low is low enough. We live in a world of radiation that comes naturally from the sun, our food, soils, rocks, and the foundations of our homes. We also receive it from industrial activities and medical tests.
“The issue of how low is low enough that people in Japan are facing right now often becomes more of a social and political question than a scientific one,” she said.
Most researchers have already concluded that the health impacts from the Fukushima incident will be modest, with the greatest potential for effects on power plant employees who directly worked to contain the accident. Those workers will have a higher chance of getting cancer, but even that might not be detectable, studies suggest.
There continue to be wide areas near Fukushima with minute levels of contamination and higher radiation levels than they used to have. But at the same time, those levels are less than some other areas of the world with naturally high radiation levels due to local geology, such as Kerala, India, home to millions of people.
Higley said it’s also worth noting that in this cleanup effort the Japanese are learning a great deal about how to most effectively decontaminate buildings and urban areas. It’s information that could be of considerable value if any place in the world were ever attacked with a “dirty bomb” by terrorists, she said.
“We’re also going to be learning things for years about the environmental cycling of radioactive contaminants,” Higley said. “Near Fukushima we have an entire landscape that has been affected, and studies of it in the future will help us better understand movement of radioactive materials in the world we live in.”
Boiler Plate: About the OSU College of Engineering: The OSU College of Engineering is among the nation’s largest and most productive engineering programs. In the past six years, the College has more than doubled its research expenditures to $27.5 million by emphasizing highly collaborative research that solves global problems, spins out new companies, and produces opportunity for students through hands-on learning. Media Contact: David Stauth Source:Kathy Higley, 541-737-0675
Multimedia: Promote to OSU home page: Not Promote to the OSU home pageInvasive species danger from tsunami may not be known for years
OSU scientists who have examined more than three dozen pieces of debris from the Japanese tsunami say the potential damage from invasive species may not be known for years.
NEWPORT, Ore. – Scientists from Oregon State University, who have examined more than three dozen pieces of debris from the 2011 Japanese tsunami that have washed ashore on the Northwest coast, say the potential damage from invasive species may not be known for years.
The researchers say some of the pieces of debris they’ve examined have included algae, barnacles, mussels, starfish, snails and other organisms that are found only in Asia. While few species on the floating debris are native exclusively to the West Coast of the United States, several of the species they examined can be found in both locations.
Which of the species originating in Asia, if any, gains a toehold in the Pacific Northwest – and what potential damage there may be ecologically and economically – is nearly impossible to anticipate, they say.
“Ecologists have a terrible track record of predicting what introduced species will survive and where,” acknowledged John Chapman, a marine invasive species specialist at OSU’s Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, Ore. “The real question for scientists who study these species is the big picture view – how do things get introduced into a new location and move around the world?
“The Japanese tsunami was a terrible tragedy and the debris that is arriving is certainly an unintended consequence,” he added. “But it is providing us with an unprecedented experiment on species introduction.”
Chapman and OSU colleague Jessica Miller were among the first scientists to examine the huge dock that washed ashore in June of 2012 near Newport. Ripped from its moorings in Misawa, Japan, it floated across the Pacific Ocean for 15 months, arriving near Agate Beach covered in seaweed, barnacles, mussels and other organisms.
Since then, they have examined another Misawa dock that beached in northwest Washington, as well as numerous boats and other large pieces of debris. Models produced by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration suggest that another peak of debris will arrive on the West Coast between now and June, as favorable winds and currents drive floating objects ashore.
It should subside during the late spring and summer, Miller noted, but some debris is projected to arrive over the next five years.
“We’re observing more ‘settlement’ on these debris items that appears to have occurred soon after the tsunami,” said Miller, an OSU marine ecologist at the Hatfield Marine Science Center. “Recently, we have sampled several boats that were clearly colonized by animals, such as the blue mussel, after the tsunami.
“We are trying to improve our understanding of the mechanisms that allow organisms to disperse across the ocean,” she added.
The researchers say that some of the Asian aquatic species that “hitchhiked” aboard the tsunami debris may have reproduced during their trans-Pacific journey, and it is possible they could have released gametes into local coastal waters. This increases the chance that these non-native organisms may become established and turn into invasive species.
Once established, these species also have the potential to breed with similar local species and create hybrid organisms, the researchers noted. “Certainly there is precedent for that in the invasive species world,” Chapman pointed out. “Just look at kudzu, Himalayan blackberry and English ivy – they’re all hybrids. So the potential exists.”
The OSU scientists and three other researchers have received a grant from the National Science Foundation to quantify the species arriving on tsunami debris, assess their abundance, and characterize the organisms morphologically and genetically. They also are examining the species’ reproductive state and looking for parasites on host organisms.
Other researchers involved in the project include Jim Carlton of Williams College, who is one of the leading experts in the world on marine invasive species; Gregory Ruiz of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center and Portland State University (who studies parasites and pathogens); and Jon Geller of Moss Landing Marine Laboratories (who studies genetics).
As the two-year anniversary of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami approaches, the OSU scientists say the risk of non-native species aboard the debris becoming invasive is still very real.
“From day one, we’ve been asked which species we should be worried about,” Chapman said, “and the answer is just not that simple. We cannot predict which starfish or algae species poses the biggest threat – but we know that invasions in general are bad. We just don’t know which of them, if any, will turn out to be a problem five, 10 or 20 years down the road.
“And we do know that the rate of new, introduced species discoveries has increased exponentially over the last hundred years,” Chapman added. “More are coming.”
Miller concurs, saying the threat from the tsunami debris may not be known for years.
“I think it is safe to say that we are still concerned that some of these non-native species could establish themselves along our West Coast,” she said. “And the potential ecological impacts could be significant.”
Boiler Plate: Hatfield Marine Science Center Media Contact: Mark Floyd Source:John Chapman, 541-867-0235
Jessica Miller, 541-867-0381
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Boat from Japan
at Gleneden Beach
OSU lifts quarantine for equine influenza, cites swift biosecurity as key to halt outbreak
CORVALLIS, Ore. – A horse treated for equine influenza at Oregon State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine earlier this month has fully recovered, and the large animal hospital there is once again accepting equine patients.
The horse, which recently arrived in Oregon from Texas, was quarantined at the hospital for 10 days.
“We chose to temporarily close the hospital to equine patients with non-emergency symptoms for a week as an added precaution because equine influenza can spread rapidly among horses and other equines,” said Keith Poulsen, an internal medicine specialist at the Lois Bate Acheson Veterinary Hospital. “Everything is back to normal now, and the horse has returned to its home in eastern Oregon.”
Equine influenza is the most common contagious respiratory pathogen for horses, though it is not transferable to humans or other animal species. Most animals that contact the disease fully recover.
The Large Animal Internal Medicine and Surgery Services program at OSU’s College of Veterinary Medicine worked closely with the state veterinarian’s office to inform veterinarians and horse owners about the disease. Several horses from the sale in Hermiston, Ore., contracted respiratory disease consistent with equine influenza, Poulsen said, but no hospitalized horses at the OSU Veterinary Hospital developed respiratory disease.
Poulsen and his colleagues suggest that horse owners use caution when traveling with their horses and to contact their veterinarian or the OSU College of Veterinary Medicine with questions about equine influenza or any infectious disease.
Boiler Plate: College of Veterinary Medicine Media Contact: Mark Floyd Source:Keith Poulsen, 541-737-2858
Promote to OSU home page: Not Promote to the OSU home pageOSU alum overcomes poverty to win national student award
An OSU student worked her way past poverty and other obstacles to win recognition as the nation's Outstanding Continuing Education Student. She is a recent graduate from OSU Ecampus.
Body:CORVALLIS, Ore. – Homeless and malnourished as a child, Sarah Price set her sights on the one thing she knew would reverse her fortune – an education.
Pregnancy and more poverty awaited her as a teenager, but Price never abandoned hope, enrolling at Oregon State University in 2005 before earning her degree online through OSU Ecampus last June.
Nine months later, Price is still reaping the rewards of her perseverance and academic success. This month she was named the nation’s Outstanding Continuing Education Student by the University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA), which serves more than 350 institutions in North America.
“I definitely wasn’t expecting them to pick me, so it was a big surprise,” said Price, 27. “It was unexpected, but it was also motivational because it reminded me of what I’ve accomplished and that there are people who recognize me for what I’ve overcome.”
Price’s childhood was beset by poverty and food insecurity, but she always saw a college education as her ticket to a better future. She graduated from West Albany High School in Oregon in 2003, one year ahead of schedule while she was five months pregnant and living on her own at age 17.
She had some difficulties as a campus-based student, but her grades soared at Ecampus. Her determination impressed the OSU community – so much so that she was one of five students who were selected to meet Michelle Obama when the first lady gave OSU’s commencement address last spring.
“Sarah’s story is an inspirational reminder of the obstacles many of our adult learners face on their way to earning their degrees,” said Ecampus executive director Lisa L. Templeton. “Getting to know Sarah has been a very meaningful experience, and it reinforces why we're here and why we do what we do.”
“I don’t think my story will affect a lot of people,” Price said, “but even if one person, one teen mom reads about it and feels inspired, then it’s made a difference. All you need is one example that it can be done. That’s what got me here today.”
Price lives in San Diego with her husband, Andrew, who is a Marine, and their three children. She will travel to Boston in April to receive the award at UPCEA’s annual national conference.
Boiler Plate: Ecampus Media Contact:Tyler Hansen
Source:Lisa L. Templeton, 541-737-1279
Multimedia:Companion video: http://bit.ly/ZqmCvI
Promote to OSU home page: Not Promote to the OSU home pageMoral issues of climate change discussed at Science Pub
Moral issues of climate change discussed at Science Pub
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Climate change to some is more than an environmental science issue. At heart, says Kathleen Dean Moore, Oregon State University distinguished professor of philosophy, it is about ethics, morality and the choices we face.
At the Corvallis Science Pub on March 11, Moore will discuss climate change as a moral crisis. Her presentation begins at 6 p.m. at the Old World Deli, 341 S.W. Second St. in Corvallis. It is free and open to the public.
Moore is co-editor of the award-winning book, “Moral Ground: Ethical Action for a Planet in Peril” (foreword by Desmond Tutu). Among the challenges posed by climate change, she says, are human rights, social justice, reverence for the natural world and love for our descendants.
“These fundamentally moral crises undermine systems that support human lives, liberty and security,” Moore said. “They are a crisis of justice, as the hardships caused by profligate use of fossil fuels come to rest on the shoulders of the poor and voiceless.”
Sponsors of Science Pub include Terra magazine at OSU, the Downtown Corvallis Association and the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry.
Boiler Plate: Generic OSU Boiler Plate Media Contact: Nick Houtman Source:Kathleen Dean Moore, 541-737-5652
Promote to OSU home page: Not Promote to the OSU home pageDiscovery opens door to new drug options for serious diseases
OSU researchers have explained a process that leads to the death of motor neurons, and could provide an avenue to new treatments for a range of degenerative diseases, including heart disease and cancer.
Body:CORVALLIS, Ore. – Researchers have discovered how oxidative stress can turn to the dark side a cellular protein that’s usually benign, and make it become a powerful, unwanted accomplice in neuronal death.
This finding, reported today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could ultimately lead to new therapeutic approaches to many of the world’s debilitating or fatal diseases.
The research explains how one form of oxidative stress called tyrosine nitration can lead to cell death. Through the common link of inflammation, this may relate to health problems ranging from heart disease to chronic pain, spinal injury, cancer, aging, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease.
As part of the work, the scientists also identified a specific “chaperone” protein damaged by oxidants, which is getting activated in this spiral of cellular decline and death. This insight will provide a new approach to design therapeutic drugs.
The findings were published by scientists from the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University; Maria Clara Franco and Alvaro Estevez, now at the University of Central Florida; and researchers from several other institutions. They culminate a decade of work.
“These are very exciting results and could begin a major shift in medicine,” said Joseph Beckman.
Beckman is an LPI principal investigator, distinguished professor of biochemistry, and director of the OSU Environmental Health Sciences Center. He also last year received the Discovery Award from the Medical Research Foundation of Oregon, given to the leading medical scientist in the state.
“Preventing this process of tyrosine nitration may protect against a wide range of degenerative diseases,” Beckman said. “The study shows that drugs could effectively target oxidatively damaged proteins.”
Scientists have known for decades about the general concept of oxidative damage to cells, resulting in neurodegeneration, inflammation and aging. But the latest findings prove that some molecules in a cell are thousands of times more sensitive to attack.
In this case, heat shock protein 90, or HSP90, helps monitor and chaperone as many as 200 necessary cell functions. But it can acquire a toxic function after nitration of a single tyrosine residue.
“It was difficult to believe that adding one nitro group to one protein will make it toxic enough to kill a motor neuron,” Beckman said. “But nitration of HSP90 was shown to activate a pro-inflammatory receptor called P2X7. This begins a dangerous spiral that eventually leads to the death of motor neurons.”
The very specificity of this attack, however, is part of what makes the new findings important. Drugs that could prevent or reduce oxidative attack on these most vulnerable sites in a cell might have value against a wide range of diseases.
“Most people think of things like heart disease, cancer, aging, liver disease, even the damage from spinal injury as completely different medical issues,” Beckman said. “To the extent they can often be traced back to inflammatory processes that are caused by oxidative attack and cellular damage, they can be more similar than different.
“It could be possible to develop therapies with value against many seemingly different health problems,” Beckman added.
Beckman has spent much of his career studying the causes of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and this study suggested the processes outlined in this study might be relevant both to that disease and spinal cord injury.
One key to this research involved new methods that allowed researchers to genetically engineer nitrotyrosine into HSP90. This allowed scientists to pin down the exact areas of damage, which may be important in the identification of drugs that could affect this process, the researchers said.
This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health, Burke Medical Research Institute, Weill Cornell Medical College, the ALS Association and other agencies.
Boiler Plate: Linus Pauling Institute Media Contact: David Stauth Source:Joseph Beckman, 541-737-8867
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