OSU immunotoxicologist Nancy Kerkvliet and research technician Sam Bradford use a flow cytometer to analyze cell response to chemical exposure. (Photo: Lynn Ketchum)

Dioxin, the chemical pollutant made infamous by Vietnam-era defoliant Agent Orange, has long been known to suppress immune function in humans and other animals. Surprisingly, this dangerous side effect has a scientific silver lining. While studying the toxin’s health effects, researchers discovered the genetic pathway to immune system malfunction. For people who would actually benefit from suppressed immunity — those suffering from autoimmune and allergic diseases — this clue may lead to better therapies.

With $1.8 million in funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, OSU toxicologist Nancy Kerkvliet and colleague Siva Kolluri are investigating a genetic mechanism that turns immunity on and off — the aryl hydrocarbon (AHR) receptor — in search of a non-toxic compound that activates immune-cell regulation. If found, this compound could lead to a new generation of treatment options for victims of lupus, type-1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis and other diseases.

Learn more about OSU’s ARRA-funded research in human health, climate change, the oceans and education here.

Watch OSU electrical engineer Ted Brekken explain the need to modify the electrical grid.

As wind turbines and solar arrays sprout up across the landscape, an urgent challenge arises: How to capture all that alternative energy for the electrical grid. Wind velocity and solar intensity vary wildly as weather changes and as seasons shift — fluctuations that are often out of sync with power demand.

With $399,973 in funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, OSU engineer Ted Brekken is tackling the problem by investigating scaled-up energy storage systems to even out the variability of wind energy generation. Such systems — which he likens to giant batteries — would “buffer the peaks and valleys in wind farm production,” he says. Wind energy thus would become “more predictable, more forecastable.

Learn more about OSU’s ARRA-funded research in human health, climate change, the oceans and education here.