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OSU researchers are providing new insights into biomedicine, understanding biological processes, toxicology, aging and nutrition.

• A focus of biomedical research at OSU is the Linus Pauling Institute, named after the university’s famous alumnus who is considered one of the great chemists in world history, a crusader for peace and the father of orthomolecular medicine. Pauling, the only person to ever win two unshared Nobel Prizes, received the first for his pioneering work on the nature of the chemical bond, and the second for his leadership to ban nuclear weapons testing in the 1950s and 60s. Later in life he became involved in the role of vitamins and micronutrients in optimal health, a mission still carried on today at OSU by the Linus Pauling Institute.
• At LPI, biochemistry Professor Tory Hagen has established mechanisms by which two simple compounds minimize effects of aging caused by decline in mitochondrial function. His group has discovered that mitochondria, the so-called powerhouses of cells, contain an unequal distribution of DNA building-blocks, or nucleotides, a finding that may help explain the high rate of mutation of mitochondrial genes, and ultimately shed light on the cause of some diseases and even the aging process.
• The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine has given a $6-million grant to LPI to work on lipoic acid supplements. The supplements may be able to reduce risk factors for certain diseases in humans. LPI researchers will try to determine whether the supplements can improve resistance to toxins caused by aging, and explore their role in Lou Gehrig's Disease.
• Other advances are being made in the Linus Pauling Institute on the underlying basis for several disease and life processes, including atherosclerosis, cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases. They are learning how certain phytochemicals or foods may help protect against cancer; how vitamin D is critical to immune function; the role vitamins C and E may play in preventing atherosclerosis; and are leaders in the emerging science of epigenetics.
• Chemistry professor Jim White has helped develop a drug that might shrink cancerous tumors and inhibit their growth. It’s a product based on a synthetic derivative of taxol (a naturally occurring compound), has been through four years of testing and is heading into the second phase of clinical trials.
• Chemistry Professor Staci Simonich has been to Beijing and the summit of Mt. Bachelor to trace the origins of airborne pollutants that can contribute to health problems an ocean away. She and her graduate students are looking for things like pesticides and PCBs, an industrial chemical outlawed in this country that causes cancer.
• SIGA Technologies, Inc., a research and development company, established by OSU microbiology professor Dennis Hruby, is developing novel anti-infectives for biological warfare defense and emerging infectious diseases.
• Microbiologist Janine Trempy developed a new technology to detect illness-causing bacteria – an advance that could revolutionize the food industry, improving the actual protection to consumers while avoiding the costly waste and massive recalls of products that are suspected of bacterial contamination but are perfectly safe.
• Zoologist Jadwiga Giebultowicz is a leader in the study of circadian rhythms, or the “biological clock” that operates in both plants and animals – and have made key discoveries in how some of these genes influence everything from oxidative stress to the growth of plants, reproduction, sleep cycles, drug sensitivities and even learning abilities.
• Chemists at OSU have discovered a less costly, more efficient way to make “biaryl” compounds used in liquid crystal displays, computer monitors and even therapeutic drugs. Using the method, the researchers have already produced siamenol, an agent being studied as a possible AIDS drug.

OSU scientists are creating new materials that will allow technological innovation and economic opportunity in energy, communications, and drug development.

• Physicist Viktor Podolskiy has developed a new type of composite material that can bend light the “wrong way,” and could have a wide range of optical and electronic applications.
• OSU and the University of Oregon have combined forces through a $1.5-million, three-year federal grant to create a new Center for Green Materials Chemistry. The National Science Foundation grant will support work to develop advanced electronics with a reduced environmental footprint, higher performance and lower costs.
• OSU scientists including John Wager, a computer engineer, Janet Tate in physics, and Doug Keszler in chemistry have developed a transparent semi-conductor that will open new avenues for the expanding field of transparent electronics.

OSU researchers are documenting the consequences of climate change and providing tools and predictions to adapt to a changing planet.

• OSU researcher Ed Brook and his colleagues have completed an analysis of the global carbon cycle and climate for a 70,000 year period in the most recent Ice Age, showing a remarkable correlation between carbon dioxide levels and surprisingly abrupt changes in climate. The findings appear to confirm the validity of the types of computer models that are used to project a warmer climate in the future.
• OSU’s Dawn Wright was named Oregon's professor of the year for her work in mapping the ocean floors, as well as bringing her research to life in the classroom. This work will be essential to understanding the behavior of tsunamis, protecting marine ecosystems and other issues.
• In a dramatic demonstration of the importance of thinning of the atmospheric ozone layer, John Hays and Andrew Blaustein collaborated in a study of population losses of frogs in Oregon’s Cascade Mountains that are related to increased UV radiation, as well as other causes.
• OSU has developed collections of the natural world that serve as libraries and reference collections for biodiversity and species change, such as ancient ice cores, the OSU Herbarium and the OSU Arthropod Collection. These are invaluable for the assessment of environmental impact and change.
• Microbiologist Steve Giovannoni discovered and has pioneered research on SAR 11, an obscure marine bacteria that has the smallest genetic structure of any independent cell and yet dominates microbial life in the oceans and plays and plays a major role in the cycling of carbon on Earth.

OSU has led a new approach to the study of coastal ecosystems that is yielding insight into ecosystem dynamics, fisheries sustainability, and climate change impacts that can shape policy and help manage ocean resources.

• In 2002, PISCO-OSU researchers, who are leaders in the conservation biology of coastal ecosystems, discovered a new and worrying phenomenon, seasonally recurring hypoxia, or lack of oxygen in shallow coastal waters. This kills or displaces marine organisms such as crabs, fish and invertebrates with as yet uncertain but likely negative effects on the sustainability of these commercially and scientifically important environments.
• Mark Hixon, OSU Zoology professor, recently chaired a federal advisory committee for the U.S. departments of Interior and Commerce to create a framework for the National System of Marine Protected Areas of the United States. Recently adopted, the multi-year effort provides a comprehensive approach to the protection of the nation’s natural and cultural marine treasures.
• Zoologist Michael Blouin is leading efforts to understand the impact of fish hatcheries on the genetic fitness of wild salmon, and has found that fish bred in captivity are genetically inferior to wild fish.

OSU is creating new insights into the physical behavior of water in the environment and new strategies for managing conflict and competition over this essential resource.

• Anne Nolin and her students are examining the changing dynamics of snow and ice in the Cascades and their impact on water supplies in the Northwest, and have reported significant new findings in the rate at which snowpack and water are being lost.
• Aaron Wolf has established the Transboundary Waters Program which is examining the relationship between water and conflict. His research shows that the world's 263 trans-boundary rivers (whose basins cover nearly half the land surface of the world) generate more cooperation than conflict.
• Scientists from the U.S. Forest Service and OSU have in recent years realized that the high Cascades in Oregon and far Northern California contain an immense subterranean reservoir about as large as the biggest man-made reservoirs in the country.

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