Summer 2021

A team of Oregon State University scientists has discovered a new class of anti-cancer compounds that effectively kill liver and breast cancer cells.

Investments by private industry coupled with university funding will propel OSU’s College of Agricultural Sciences to build a $20 million state-of-the-art dairy processing facility that will further advance the university and Oregon’s dairy industry as national leaders in dairy quality, innovation and sustainability.

We are grateful that the state legislature recognizes the vital role our college plays in advancing the future of all Oregonians.  When we invest in the vision to make tomorrow better, we can improve the health of our treasured natural ecosystems and provide opportunities for more Oregonians to thrive.

Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists and their Oregon State University (OSU) collaborators have developed a highly detailed genetic way to trace the spread of Agrobacterium, one of the world's most important bacterial plant pathogens.

"Unless it can find its way out of the Mediterranean, it will probably starve," says Leigh G Torres, a marine biologist the the Oregon State University.

"Microplastics have been found in all corners of the world, as well as in us—in every ocean, Antarctic sea ice, deep-sea trenches, the air we breathe, agricultural soils, and even in human placentas," said Susanne Brander, Oregon State University ecotoxicologist and co-chair of the working group.

A crew of researchers from Oregon State University will be cruising up and down the Willamette on an electrofishing boat this summer conducting fisheries research as part of a collaborative study between OSU and the US Forest Service (USFS) led by Research Fisheries Biologist Dr. Brooke Penaluna.

Researchers at Oregon State University have found a key new piece of the puzzle in the quest to use gene therapy to enable people born deaf to hear.

"The discovery, which was made after eight years of photographing and naming individual sharks in the population, is a valuable indication of the general health of the aquatic ecosystem in which the sharks breed," said Taylor Chapple, a co-author of the report and a researcher at OSU's Hatfield Marine Science Center.

“These are not things that are going to get better if climate change continues to give us more uncertainty and less reliable supplies of water,” William Jaeger, an economics professor at Oregon State University who specializes in environmental, resource and agricultural policy issues, told the New York Times.

Bat researchers say a project in Central Oregon shows citizen science’s strong potential for helping ecologists learn more about one of the least understood groups of mammals.

A recent study published in Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems details the effects of combining solar panels and lamb grazing on overall land productivity. New research carried out by Oregon State University scientists in 2019 and 2020 is believed to be the first study of its kind. The team compared the differences between lamb growth in traditional open pastures, with that of pastures that also contained solar panels.

Oregon State University has been selected to host a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration institute focused on collaborative study of the rapidly changing ocean and expanded demands on its use.

While it’s early days for data that is still being analyzed, Jennifer Fisher, a plankton ecologist with Oregon State University, reported seeing an abundance of plankton associated with cold water upwelling, and good fat levels and size in zooplankton, the tiny animals that feed the food web.

The study authors note that because of technological limitations, they did not analyze plastic particles smaller than 250 microns. They also did not identify the exact chemical composition of the particles, which Susanne Brander, an ecotoxicologist at OSU who was not involved in the research, says could lead to the misidentification of non-plastic fibers as microplastic fibers. 

Oregon State University research has identified the oldest known specimen of a fungus parasitizing an ant, and the fossil also represents a new fungal genus and species.

Research by Oregon State University suggests a pair of compounds originating from hops can help thwart a dangerous buildup of fat in the liver known as hepatic steatosis.

“It’s been an enigma this whole time,” says Selena Heppell, head of the Department of Fisheries Wildlife and Conservation Sciences at Oregon State University, who wasn’t involved in the study. “So [now] it makes a lot more sense.

Calvanese is the Oregon State University Port Orford field station manager. He worked as a commercial urchin diver when he was a student, and is now a fishery scientist.

The Oregon State University Global Hemp Innovation Center has hired Govinda Shrestha as the statewide hemp Extension specialist starting June 1.

Professor Samuel Chan is an associate professor at OSU and a stateside watershed health and aquatic invasive species specialist. Chan said unlike beneficial earthworms and nightcrawlers that burrow deep tunnels in the soil and release nutrients as they go, these jumping worms stay in the debris on top and eat two to three times the amount of leaf litter as other worms.

Oregon State University scientists are beginning to unravel the key microorganisms that contribute to the fermentation of kombucha, research that is already aiding large-scale kombucha producers in the fast-growing industry

“My colleagues in the East, Midwest, Canada, and elsewhere in the Pacific Northwest report red blotch, but it seems to be more prevalent in Oregon and California, and less so in Washington,” said Patricia Skinkis, viticulture extension specialist at Oregon State University.

So scientists at Oregon State University (OSU) arranged an experiment to test whether black-capped chickadees relied more on a guaranteed food supply in the winter when an injury made it harder for them to flit about in search of sustenance. They set out a string of 21 bird feeders stocked with sunflower seeds along a wooded creek. The feeders were equipped with an electronic counter that marked each time one of 67 chickadees banded with a special tag visited the feeder. Because these birds pick

A new grant will allow Oregon State University researchers to study the nutritional value of more than 100 bee-pollinated crops, native plants and commonly used ornamental plants, a project that could help scientists better understand the global decline of bee populations.

Susanne Brander, an Oregon State University professor who also worked on the recent report, acknowledges these shortcomings. “More studies are needed on environmentally relevant plastic types before we can say with full confidence that the plastics you’re exposed to every day could harm you in these ways,” Brander said. “But I think it’s safe to say that it’s a concern, and if we’re seeing responses in mouse models, it’s likely that humans are also being affected.”

“This study is a promising example of successful removal and suppression of an invasive and increasingly abundant competitor, with a positive demographic response from a threatened native species,” said David Wiens, the lead author of the paper who is a wildlife biologist with the USGS Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center in Corvallis and a courtesy faculty member with Oregon State’s Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Sciences.

Gravem, a postdoctoral scholar and marine ecologist from Oregon State University, is one of six researchers from Santa Cruz and Oregon working to understand the recent decline of Pacific kelp forests. She walks through the lab, exposing tiny underwater worlds.

Oregon State University researchers concluded that cats really do actually love their humans — or at the very least, see them as parents or caregivers — after conducting a study on kittens, modelled after previous research on dogs and babies.

“What I see is that there are still a lot of pretty good places; but there are still a lot of places where, regardless of laws and regulations and mitigation actions, there’s still some work that remains,” said lead author Robert Hughes, who holds a courtesy appointment as an associate professor in the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Sciences. “We can do better. We already know how.”

"What our strategies have focused on is really moving the water around," said Desiree Tullos, a professor of river engineering at Oregon State University. Tullos said using pumps to bring cold water from the bottom of the lagoon up to the surface could be a short-term solution.

USDA renewed funding for the Western Regional Center to Enhance Food Safety: Fostering Collaboration through Continued Food Safety Education and Stakeholder Support of FSMA Implementation. This project is a continuation of our food safety outreach work, in collaboration with colleagues from nine Land Grant universities and three non-governmental organizations from California and Washington.

Dr. Jovana Kovacevic, is the director of this important project and runs the program from the Food Innovation Center in Portland.

In early 2019, the Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles and OSU Marine Mammal Institute launched a new license plate featuring a gray whale mother-and-calf pair and the phrase, “Coastal Playground.” Each sale and renewal of this special plate directly benefits research, education, and outreach at the Marine Mammal Institute based at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport. Proceeds from the whale plate are making several projects possible, including a gray whale research and student engagement project in Port Orford, attendance at scientific conferences for graduate students, and an upcoming research cruise to find a cryptic beaked whale in the North Pacific Gyre.

You can be one of more than 18,000 Oregonians who are already supporting Oregon marine mammal research by purchasing and renewing a Coastal Playground license plate. The plate is available at all Oregon DMV branches. Everyone at MMI extends their deep thanks to all Oregonian gray whale license plate holders. Learn more at whaleplate.com.

Free from human disturbance for a century, an inland island in Central America has nevertheless lost more than 25% of its native bird species since its creation as part of the Panama Canal’s construction, and scientists say the losses continue.

Researchers at Oregon State University spent nearly a decade working to get regulatory approval for the site, called PacWave South, which will be located about seven miles off the coast of Newport, Oregon.

Oregon State University continues their research into how the coronavirus is impacting Oregon communities.

As part of a national consortium focused on increasing the number of low-income college graduates, Oregon State University graduated 45% more students in 2020 than in 2013, with low-income graduates increasing 17% during those years and the number of students of color graduating increasing 117%.

Dr. Ivory W. Lyles has been appointed as Oregon State University’s vice provost for extension and engagement and director of the OSU Extension Service, effective on Sept. 30.

Oregon State University is taking steps to reduce its water usage in response to serious drought conditions across the state and an executive order issued by Gov. Kate Brown that directs state agencies to curtail nonessential water use and implement water conservation measures.

The Openly Published Environmental Sensing (OPEnS) lab works with researchers and professors at Oregon State and other universities, as well as private companies, to build devices used locally and worldwide by the ecological science and engineering community.

The Road to 60 North: A Cordova-based processor gets fresh life through a local fishing partnership and generations of Alaska fishing history

Aaron Anderson, a graduate research assistant in the department of horticulture, has been selected a 2021 American Association for the Advancement of Science Mass Media fellow, a highly competitive fellowship that draws hundreds of applicants for only 30 slots.

Dr. Skinkis leads the statewide viticulture extension program, teaches undergraduate production courses, hosts an applied research program for graduate students, is a member of the Oregon Wine Research Institute, and has been a mentor in the Leadership Academy for several years.

“Looking back, I had never imagined that I’d return to school for a graduate degree. However, taking the plunge and seizing the opportunity presented by former advisors was the best decision I have ever made.”

• Clara Lang, FST MS student, won first place in the IFT Food Packaging Division poster competition. Note it’s the third time in four years that one of Yanyun’s students win the competition.
• Angelica Iobbi, FST PhD. Student, won 3rd place at the IFT Sensory and Consumer Sciences Division Graduate Student Oral Presentation Competition. Angelica is in Elizabeth Tomasino’s lab.

Lauren LaGrande, EOU Agricultural Communications Instructor, was able to meet an OSU Ecampus student in Indiana at the National FFA New Century Farmer conference!

It has been an exciting summer for the OSU Extension service, as they have been able to host their second cohort of student interns. There are 14 interns across 10 different County Extension Offices, Extension Communications, and Agricultural Research Centers. Five of the students are College of Agricultural Students at Oregon State University and many of them hope to continue working in OSU Extension after they graduate. This summer, student interns are taking the lead of Extension programs and projects in an area of their interest.  Some of the summer projects include: leading Junior Master Gardeners programs, outreach at Farmer’s Markets, helping and leading at Juntos Afueras day-camp, creating and sending e-newsletters, research projects, and creating materials that will be used by the Extension Offices in the fall.

The deep roots of today’s Oregon State University Extension Service reach all the way back to the era of the American Civil War (1861-1865).

Japanese wasps released in Medford to battle orchard pests

Alexander Levin, assistant professor and viticulturist at the Southern Oregon Research and Extension Center, found that wine grape water usage estimated by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s AgriMet network for irrigation was 44% higher than necessary. AgriNet is a free weather station widely used by growers to determine how much water they need to irrigate their crops.

Kiwifruit need some attention to yield the large amount of fruit they’re capable of producing. Proper siting, fertilizing, watering and, most importantly, protecting from cold weather, are necessary to keep your plant in good shape, said Bernadine Strik, berry specialist for the OSU Extension Service.

OSU Extension staff from Clackamas County say this is a great time of year to buy fresh salmon and steelhead from tribal vendors as the fish migrate upriver in the Columbia River Gorge.

"It's very important, from a standpoint of the ecological integrity of your garden, to move away from monoculture and toward a more diverse array of plants in your garden," said Gail Langellotto, statewide director of the Oregon State University Extension Master Gardener program. "It's more visually interesting as well as more ecologically resilient."

“I’ve dug up more hemlock than I can count,” says Scott Duggan, an assistant professor for Oregon State University’s livestock-management extension program. “I know central Oregon -- it’s all over the place here.”

Thanks to the popular Shop at the Dock tour, a program of Oregon Sea Grant and Oregon State University Extension, locals and visitors can learn the ropes, or fishing lines, on a guided tour.

Keeping pH in the right range for certain plants is essential, according to Weston Miller, OSU Extension Service horticulturist. Plants with specific pH requirements include vegetables, blueberries and rhododendrons.

Thanks to zealous breeding and new hybridizing techniques, begonias are booming right along with the renaissance of houseplants.

Collaboration between the College of Agricultural Sciences and College of Public Health Extension have developed a highly useful and applicable High Speed Hand Washing method for the Ag industry.

November 18, 1938 - May 19, 2021

October 16, 1955 - July 15, 2021