News

Advancing Towards a Blood Test for Ovarian Cancer
Research by MSI PI Amy Skubitz (Laboratory Medicine and Pathology; Masonic Cancer Center) is featured in a University Research Brief. A recently published study by Professor Skubitz and her colleagues used a new technology that allows a patient’s blood to be tested for multiple protein biomarkers. Certain biomarkers are indicators of the presence of cancer, but screening for just one of these is not enough to give good results.
MSI PI Develops Science Court to Study Societal Issues
MSI PI Ellad Tadmor (professor, Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics) has developed an honors-level course that allows students to examine hot-button societal issues in detail. The course uses a court model, where the students present the facts they’ve found during the semester and present them to a volunteer jury.
Ebola Has Long-Lasting Effects
MSI PI Cavan Reilly (professor, Biostatistics) is a co-author on a recent study that found that survivors of the African Ebola outbreak of several years ago continue to suffer long-lasting health effects. The researchers studied nearly 1,000 survivors and followed them for a year. The survivor group was more likely than control subjects to suffer from symptoms such as fatigue, headaches, muscle pain, memory loss, and others.
Three MSI PIs Named 2019 Distinguished McKnight University Professors
Three MSI PIs from the College of Science and Engineering are among the seven University faculty members who have been named Distinguished McKnight University Professors. They are:
MSI PI Leading Grant for New Device to Improve Hearing
MSI PI Hubert Lim (associate professor, Biomedical Engineering; Otolaryngology) is the lead researcher on a project to create a new kind of implantable device to help restore hearing in those who are deaf or severely hard of hearing. The grant, $9.7 million over the next five years, was awarded from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) BRAIN Initiative. The project involves an international, multidisciplinary team of universities and medical-device companies.
Biodiversity Atlas at the Bell Museum
Minneapolis/St. Paul television station KARE 11 aired a feature recently that highlighted virtual resources available at the University of Minnesota’s Bell Museum for gardeners and nature enthusiasts. The Bell Museum Biodiversity Atlas is an online web resource that allows anyone to search the museum’s huge collection of Minnesota birds, mammals, fishes, plants, and fungi. MSI built the database and continues to provide support.
MSI PIs Receive Mini-Grants From Institute on the Environment
Seven MSI PIs are among the awardees of mini-grants from the Institute on the Environment (IonE) for Spring 2019. These grants are intended to foster collaborative and innovative environmental work. The MSI PIs who have received mini-grants are:
Racial Gap Between Air Pollution Causation and Exposure
MSI PI Jason Hill (associate professor, Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering; Fellow, Institute on the Environment) and his colleagues have published a study that shows racial inequity in pollution exposure. In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (PNAS), they show that, while whites’ consumption patterns contribute more to air pollution, the effects more seriously affect black and Hispanic Americans.
MSI PIs Receive Distinguished Teaching Awards
Each year, the University of Minnesota presents the Morse-Alumni and Graduate and Professional teaching awards to recognize faculty who are committed to ongoing improvement of teaching and learning. Morse-Alumni awards recognize outstanding contributions to undergraduate education. The Graduate and Professional teaching awards recognize faculty in graduate and/or professional education. Four MSI PIs have received awards for 2018-19. The complete lists of awardees can be found on the Scholars Walk website:
Graphene-Based Device Could Lead to Groundbreaking Biosensors
MSI PIs Sang-Hyun Oh (professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering) and Tony Low (assistant professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering) and their research team recently published a study of a new device that could lead to ultrasensitive biosensors. The device incorporates graphene, a material made of a single layer of carbon atoms, along with nano-sized gold ribbons.
MSI PI Traian Dumitrica Selected as Fulbright US Scholar
MSI PI Traian Dumitrica (associate professor, Mechanical Engineering) was selected as a 2019-20 Fulbright US Scholar. Under this award, he will develop complex scientific software to enable manufacturing of lightweight ultra-strong composites in a computationally guided manner.
MSI PI Maria Gini Featured in CSE Video
MSI PI Maria Gini (Computer Science and Engineering) is featured in a College of Science and Engineering Research Spotlight video. You can see the video on YouTube: CSE Research Spotlight: Maria Gini
March Maintenance
On Wednesday, March 6, 2019, MSI staff will perform scheduled maintenance and upgrades to various MSI systems. Primary Storage, Mesabi, and Itasca will be unavailable throughout much of the day. A global system reservation will start at 5:00 a.m. on March 6. Jobs that cannot be completed before 5:00 a.m. on March 6 will be held until after maintenance and then started once the system returns to production status. March maintenance will include:

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