Light spectra by artist Stephen Knapp illuminate a wall in the new Linus Pauling Science Center. In their research, scientists use spectra to detect and measure the abundance of chemical elements. (Photo: Theresa Hogue)

In 2011, the first Baby Boomer turned 65 — the leading edge of a wave that is going to change the country. By 2030 one in every five Americans will be older than that. People are already living longer, taking time to travel and to enjoy their families. Think gourmet cooking classes, fishing trips and art museums.

But they will increasingly face the diseases that now kill most people in the developed world: heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

They want answers and solutions. And in the future, many of those answers will come from a new research facility at Oregon State University, the Linus Pauling Science Center.

This new $62.5 million, 105,000-square-foot research and educational structure, just completed this fall, has arrived at an opportune time in American history. But its foundations were laid 94 years ago, in the fall of 1917, when a young student arrived at Oregon Agricultural College and enrolled in a chemistry course. Linus Pauling, OSU’s most accomplished alumnus, went on to win two Nobel Prizes.

“Linus Pauling revolutionized the fields of chemistry and molecular medicine, and this facility will be a working memorial to him, a great tribute,” says Balz Frei, director of the Linus Pauling Institute. “It will help further establish LPI as a national leader in the study of diet, optimal nutrition and micronutrients.

“Chronic disease prevention through diet and lifestyle is the future of medicine,” Frei adds. “And it’s for everyone, not just the elderly.”

Advances in health will come from better understanding of phytochemicals such as sulforaphane, a cancer-fighting compound in broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables. Other research focuses on vitamin D in enhancing immune function and fish oil in preventing fatty liver disease. New types of antioxidants and “anti-inflammatories” are also being investigated, such as lipoic acid, which may be key to getting the most out of life as we age.

Chemical Collaboration

The institute will share the new facility with the OSU Department of Chemistry. Specialists in analytical, materials and organic chemistry will work in close proximity to their peers in the health sciences and develop new strategies for disease diagnosis and treatment. “These new facilities house approximately $10 million in state-of-the-art transmission- and scanning-electron microscopes and nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometers that will serve the entire campus,” says Vince Remcho, chemist and associate dean in the College of Science.

The new instruments were made possible by grants from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and partnerships between several of OSU’s colleges, the OSU Research Office and the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute (ONAMI).

Chemists in the new facility bring with them “an astonishing research track record, as measured by publication count, impact, external funding and intellectual property development,” Remcho adds.

Primary support for the center, which was designed to the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED silver standards, came from the Wayne and Gladys Valley Foundation – a $20 million gift – and another $10.6 million from Pat and Al Reser. Most of the research in the facility will be supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health and NSF.

Anneke Tucker has demonstrated the power of natural plant products to reduce glucose levels in people with Type 2 diabetes. (Photo: Frank Miller)

Last winter, judges in a national competition, The Journal of Young Investigators’ Second Annual Virtual Poster Session, recognized her sklls and ambition when they awarded her first place for a video presentation on research with scientists in OSU’s Linus Pauling Institute (LPI). It was Tucker’s second presentation to a scientific audience.

The University Honors College student grew up in a ranching community and, inspired by her participation in Future Farmers of America, came to Oregon State University to study animal science. But instead of healthy cows, it was healthy people that drew her attention, so she switched her focus in the College of Agricultural Sciences to BioResource Research. Intent on getting into a lab to satisfy the required 400 to 600 hours of laboratory experience, she searched for a mentor and applied for undergraduate research funding from OSU’s Howard Hughes Medical Institute program and from the OSU Office of Research.

Natural Remedies

Then she met Balz Frei and Meltem Musa. The LPI scientists were planning to test plant extracts — grapeseed, Japanese knotweed and white and green tea, among others — for their ability to treat Type 2 diabetes. In addition to laboratory studies, they planned to do human trials. Tucker was hooked. “Since I was the only student working with Dr. Musa and Dr. Frei on that particular project, it allowed me to have a greater understanding of the overall goal of the research,” says Tucker. She followed the project from the start, asking questions along the way. “It seemed like a perfect match,” she adds, because she was taking classes in biochemistry and nutrition at the same time.

Tucker focused on two enzymes — alpha amylase and alpha glucosidase — that play a key role in diabetes by breaking carbohydrates down into glucose molecules. Glucose is vital since it powers our cells, and most people keep blood glucose levels within a healthy range.

But in those with Type 2 diabetes, blood glucose can rise to harmful levels. The disease has an unknown cause, and its symptoms are devastating: increased risk of Alzheimer’s Disease, stroke, heart attack and high blood pressure; damage to nerves, kidneys, eyes, skin and mouth; osteoporosis. In the United States alone, 23.6 million people have been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, and another 54 million are thought to be pre-diabetic. The price tag: $218 billion annually, according to the American Diabetes Association.

Results Were Mixed

Working closely with Musa, Tucker compared the effectiveness of plant extracts to a prescription medication that carries a high price tag and has serious side effects. Her results were mixed. She found that several of the plant extracts are more effective than the drug in reducing the activity one of the enzymes, alpha glucosidase. For the other enzyme, alpha amylase, the drug was more effective.

Tucker is applying to medical school and intends to specialize in women’s health and nutrition. “Ultimately,” she says, “I would love to open a clinic in a rural and under-served community (which is where my fiancé and I come from) and offer medical services and education regarding women’s health and life-long nutrition and health.”

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Learn more about undergraduate research opportunities at OSU.