IMPACT

Heather Masson-Forsythe, a fifth-year graduate student in the College of Science, is a winner in the 13^th annual Dance Your Ph.D. contest organized by Science Magazine in the newly created COVID-19 category. "I think the arts in general are really, really valuable on their own but also to communicate science, and as someone who really loves dance, I think it’s one of the best ways to communicate," she said.

Research led by Bo Sun, associate professor in the Department of Physics, has revealed a crucial mechanism behind one of humankind’s most deadly physiological processes: the movement of malignant cells from one part of the body to another.

New awards from the College of Science will support research on quantum information applications, better cancer screening and bioimaging technologies.

As a member of the Yakama Nation, Microbiology Ph.D. student Corbin Schuster is interested in the study of human diseases that have a higher incidence among Native peoples, such as toxoplasmosis (a parasitic infection), as well as diseases of salmon, which are central to the food, culture and religion of the Yakama people. He is thankful to not have to separate his culture from his career.

The COVID-19 pandemic is creating a surging interest in science and medicine, attracting a new generation of students to a career in medicine. Enrollment in the College of Science’s pre-med program at Oregon State University has also remained high, with numbers averaging 90-100 pre-med students annually since 2019.

In recognition of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, held on February 11, we acknowledge the women faculty, students and alumnae of the OSU College of Science.

Oregon State University COVID-19 sampling in Redmond on Jan. 29-31 by TRACE Community field workers suggested 32 people per 1,000 in the community carried the coronavirus on those days.

Oregon State University’s groundbreaking project to determine community prevalence of the novel coronavirus is expanding to include three days of TRACE Community sampling this week in Redmond on Jan. 29, 30 and 31.

The College of Science awarded two interdisciplinary teams funding to pursue promising leads in mental health and cancer research. One team will investigate the role of the gut-brain axis on sex differences in anxiety, and another will explore ways to develop an synthetic version of HHT-- a rare plant alkaloid that is showing great promise in the development of new medicines for multiple forms of cancer.

Team-based Rapid Assessment of Community-Level Coronavirus Epidemics, or TRACE-COVID-19, was launched by OSU in April 2020 with door-to-door sampling in Corvallis and expanded to other cities around the state while also adding a wastewater testing component. In December, OSU received a $2 million grant from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation to create a national TRACE Center that will expand the OSU’s COVID-19 public health project to other states.

TRACE OSU, Oregon State University’s weekly COVID-19 prevalence testing of students and employees, is adjusting to serve thousands of OSU students who may travel over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Dozens of community members from the Willamette Valley are stepping up to address COVID-19 as part of 30 teams went door-to-door in Eugene offering free COVID-19 tests to up to 600 residents as part of Oregon State University’s TRACE Community testing project.