News

MSI PI Pinar Karaca-Mandic, an associate professor in the Division of Health Policy and Management in the School of Public Health published an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association last year that investigated prescription practices of opioids to Medicare patients. Professor Karaca-Mandic is interested in understanding the current opioid-abuse epidemic and trying to figure out ways to fight it.

The research of graduate student Pajau Vangay, who is in the group of Assistant Professor Dan Knights, an assistant professor at the Biotechnology Institute and Department of Computer Science and Engineering), was featured on the website Quartz. Ms. Vangay is studying how the microbiomes of Hmong and Karen immigrants in Minneapolis and St. Paul change after they come to the U.S.

MSI PI Jaime Modiano, a professor in the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, is a co-author on a study that showed that a new UMN-developed drug significantly lengthened the life of dogs with a fast-spreading and incurable cancer called hemangiosarcoma. The researchers are excited about this result and hope that it can eventually be extended to treatment for human cancers.

Six MSI PIs are among the nine faculty members who have been named 2017-2019 McKnight Land-Grant Professors. The goal of this program is to advance the careers of new assistant professors and includes a research grant of $25,000 in each of the two years of the award. The MSI PIs who have received this award are:

Professor Bin He, an MSI PI from the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Director of the Institute for Engineering in Medicine is featured in Minneapolis’s City Pages. The special issue is called “People Issue 2017: 18 Who Make Minnesota a Better Place to Live.”

The Bell Museum of Natural History has launched a citizen-science project through Zooniverse.org to help build the Minnesota Biodiversity Atlas. Participants can transcribe data from handwritten specimen labels, and they will be added to the digital Atlas. Visit the zooniverse.org website to participate.

Tumeric has recently received attention as a “miracle spice,” capable of curing many medical woes. The spice has long been used in traditional medicine in some parts of the world. However, a research study published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry indicates that tumeric has no medicinal benefits. MSI PI Michael Walters (Institute for Therapeutics Discovery and Development (ITDD)) is the lead author on this study.

MSI PI Bill Arnold (Civil, Environmental, and Geo- Engineering) has spent years studying the effects of triclosan, an anti-bacterial chemical used in household products. He showed that the chemical, which is a hormone disruptor, was building up in Minnesota lakes. His research contributed to a decision by state lawmakers to ban the use of the substance in Minnesota; that ban takes effect in 2017. Minnesota was the first state to take this step, and other government agencies followed suit. 

Three MSI PIs are part of the creation of a new drug that extends the period of time known as the “golden hour” – the short window after a traumatic accident when medical treatment is most effective. The PIs are Professor Greg Beilman (Surgery), Professor Matthew Andrews (Duluth – Biology), and Professor Lester Drewes (Duluth – Biomedical Sciences).