Alik Widge is a psychiatrist, biomedical engineer, and neuroscientist. He develops treatments that change brain activity to reverse the symptoms of mental illnesses such as depression, addiction, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder. He uses electrical stimulation to change how brain regions communicate with each other, directly targeting the causes of mental illness. His lab spans the translational spectrum from prototyping in animals, to pilot tests in neurosurgical volunteers, to clinical trials and biomarker studies.

Substance abuse and depression are common forms of mental illness that affect millions of people and families each year. Sylia Wilson uses twin, adoption, and family studies to understand the developmental processes that lead to mental illness and transmission through families. She integrates developmental, clinical, and neuroscience approaches to identify neurobiological and environmental risk for substance abuse and depression. By elucidating causal mechanisms, this research guides preventive-intervention efforts for children, adolescents, adults, and their families.

Type 2 diabetes is the most common chronic disease, but the search for causes and preventative treatment has largely failed. To prevent diabetes, Emilyn Alejandro’s team combines integrative approaches to study the novel role of nutrient-sensor proteins in the placenta and pancreas, to ultimately predict individuals who are at risk for diabetes and improve clinical interventions for existing patients. The team is shedding new light on the fetal origins of pancreatic- β-cell dysfunction, obesity and diabetes.

How a particular disease develops and why people have different outcomes depend on the relationships among many factors, including molecular and environmental conditions in and outside the body. Dr. Safo’s group develops methods that rigorously combine information from multiple sources or views to investigate which factors are most important and how they interact. Her innovative methods can identify heterogeneous subgroups of the population, requiring different treatment approaches, and provide greater insight regarding disease etiology.

Over 60% of emerging infectious diseases in humans have originated from animals, the majority being from wildlife. Yet the health and well-being of humans is intricately connected to biodiversity, which is also in crises globally. As a wildlife epidemiologist, Tiffany Wolf works across disciplines to merge social science, ecology, and epidemiology to find solutions to these complex One Health challenges, particularly in situations where people derive food security and fundamental cultural benefits from wildlife.

Qi Zhang’s lab develops computational, data-driven methods for systems-level analysis and optimization that inform decision making in sustainable engineering applications. The proposed models and algorithms address various complex problems ranging from the effective operation of electrified chemical processes to the design of sustainable energy supply chains.

This project contextualizes current Black activism in the Twin Cities by tracing the historical linkages between today’s Black political actors and institutions and the last century of political activity in Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Drawing on interviews and a variety of archives, Adam Bledsoe charts out how the experiences and outcomes of previous generations of Black activism lay the groundwork for subsequent generations of activists and the current political landscape of the Twin Cities.

Martina Cardone develops technologies for privacy and security of Big Data. Her research focuses on secure data transmission over wireless networks, and privatization of sensitive data prior to sharing data with external analyzers. Her work leverages rigorous mathematical analysis to obtain provably optimal solutions that also offer suitable engineering guidelines for practical design and implementation over current and next-generation communication networks and computing frameworks, such as wireless cellular networks and recommender systems.

Water controls how plants and microbes use carbon to grow. As climate change shifts the timing and amount of precipitation, the hydrological processes that make water accessible to plants will determine how ecosystems will respond under new environmental and societal pressures. Combining theoretical, computational, and field-based approaches. Dr. Feng investigates the interactions between water and plants in forests, wetlands, and cities, to better understand their responses and feedbacks to the climate.

Agriculture is dominated by annual crops that leak nutrients and emit greenhouse gases. Dr. Jacob Jungers is developing the world’s first perennial grain crop, which has potential to drastically improve agricultural efficiency. His research focuses on how to grow this new crop alongside others to minimize fertilizer and pesticide inputs. Outcomes of his research result in improving farmer profitability while minimizing environmental damages such as soil loss, water pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions.