Blood clot risk and the incidence of clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP) and myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) increase with age. Many individuals with CHIP/MPN have the JAK2V617F mutation. The JAK2V617F mutation may change blood vessel health leading to blood clots, but studies are limited. With the goal of identifying needed translational markers and drugs, the Beckman lab creates novel blood flow and biomarker assays to determine how CHIP/MPN mutations alter blood vessel health.

Lian Shen studies turbulent air and water flows, water waves, and their interactions. The research has broad applications in environmental, geophysical, and climate studies and is essential for many engineering problems in the atmosphere, ocean, and lake environments. Professor Shen’s group has developed state-of-the-art computer simulation tools for fluid motions, made major breakthroughs in developing innovative theories for wave-turbulence interaction mechanisms, and significantly contributed to the marine environment and offshore wind energy applications.

Neurodegenerative diseases lead to irreversible nerve cell loss, are incurable and very few have effective therapies to slow relentless progression. Gülin Öz develops, optimizes and rigorously validates innovative MRI technologies to understand and detect pathology in the brain before irreversible cell loss. To enable successful treatment trials, she leads international partnerships and provides access to high-end neuroimaging technologies globally. Her work paves the way for interventions even before symptoms manifest in hereditary neurodegenerative diseases.

Through a series of groundbreaking publications, Alexander Khoruts has pioneered a new frontier in medical therapeutics that targets the gut microbiome to address some of the most pressing clinical challenges, including antibiotic resistance, cancer, autoimmunity, and autism. His group continues to be a leading engine driving academic research in this nascent field, fostering academic inquiry through an extensive network of collaborations at the University of Minnesota and across the United States.

The Gralnick lab uses classic and modern genetic methods to discover the function of genes in environmental microbes that have novel properties, focusing on metal-breathing and metal-eating bacteria. Exploring this living / non-living interface is not only critical in understanding the environmental cycling of metals but is also the foundation for engineering these microbes for applications in bioenergy, bioremediation and biosensing, and for future applications in bioelectronics and biomanufacturing.

Erik Finger, a transplant surgeon and research scientist, leads an interdisciplinary team pioneering cryopreservation technologies. Collaborating with Mechanical Engineering experts, they preserve donor organs in a glass-like, ice-free state and safely rewarm them using nanotechnology. This innovation could revolutionize transplantation by enabling an on-demand organ supply and improving donor-recipient matching, patient preparation, and organ utilization.

Tanisha Fazal investigates change in fundamental features of the international system. Her wide-ranging, award-winning research has challenged conventional wisdoms on why some states disappear from the world map, how the laws of war have evolved, whether war is truly in decline, and how climate change will, and will not, transform global politics. Fazal’s unexpected findings reveal which apparent changes in world politics are real and lasting and which are superficial and ephemeral.

Jed Elison’s program of research seeks to characterize typical and atypical patterns of brain and behavioral development in early childhood. Identifying neurodevelopmental disabilities, and specifically autism spectrum disorder, at the earliest possible age increases the likelihood of benefiting from early interventions. To accomplish these goals, he leverages innovative technological and computational tools and strategies to characterize infant mind, brain, and behavioral development.

Erin Carlson’s research seeks to address the public health emergency of antibiotic resistance. Traditional antibacterial drugs directly kill bacteria, which results in the rapid evolution of resistance. Carlson’s innovative approach is to instead block the ability of bacteria to sense and respond to their surroundings. Her research has dramatically expanded our understanding of how bacteria interact with their environment and how this can be disrupted to weaken a pathogen’s ability to cause disease.

Humans and other animals use vocalizations to convey socially important information to other individuals. Mark Bee’s research on animal communication seeks to discover new knowledge about how vocalizations evolve and the physical and physiological mechanisms underlying how they are produced and perceived. Grounded in basic biological research, Bee’s investigations provide insight into the diversity of evolved solutions to common problems in medicine and engineering related to hearing and communicating in noisy environments.