The University of Oregon continued its multiyear streak of increasing grant funding in fiscal year 2021-22 (FY22). Numerous faculty members received recognition for their contributions to research, as well as the number of research awards with direct positive effects on local and regional communities.

BIOLOGY - Almost a decade ago, UO graduate student Jennifer Hampton Hill made a fortuitous find: A protein made by gut bacteria that triggered insulin-producing cells to replicate. The protein was an important clue to the biological basis for Type 1 diabetes.

BIOLOGY - It’s 6 a.m. on a summer morning on the Oregon coast, and a dozen undergraduate students wearing tall rubber boots are piling into vans. They’re juggling granola bars and notebooks, texting friends who are running late.

BIOLOGY - A new IMAX film spearheaded by researchers at the UO’s Oregon Institute of Marine Biology will shine a light on the importance of this unique ecosystem and the larval forms that maintain it.

BIOLOGY - Using newly developed and culturally informed methods, a UO team was able to more than triple the number of Latinx people getting tested for COVID-19, according to a recently published research paper.

BIOLOGY, ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES - When the Holiday Farm Fire tore through the McKenzie River Valley in 2020, burning 70,000 acres, it created a blank canvas of sorts. Amid the fire’s blackened landscape, UO ecologist Lauren Ponisio saw an opportunity to establish pollinators, specifically bees, in the burned forest.

BIOLOGY - A landscape architecture professor is using a riverside meadow as a testing ground with multiple goals in mind.

DATA SCIENCE, BIOLOGY, ECONOMICS - The Data Science Initiative graduated their first group of undergraduates. Seven undergraduate data science students walked the stage this spring to collect their diplomas, an exciting moment for the university’s new data science degree program.

BIOLOGY - Climate change might be behind an unusual disease outbreak among Antarctic fish. For about a decade, UO biologists John Postlethwait and Thomas Desvignes have been visiting the West Antarctic Peninsula. They study a unique group of fish that has adapted to the harsh polar environment. The researchers worked with UO undergraduate Chloe DaMommio to create a short graphic novel about their research.

BIOLOGY - By sequencing the genomes of two species of sea dragons, UO researchers have found genetic clues to the sea dragons' distinctive features: They’re missing a key group of genes found in other vertebrates. Those genes help direct the development of the face, teeth and appendages, as well as parts of the nervous system.