OSU Research Matters 2021

Research, scholarship and creative activity at Oklahoma State University

FROM THE GROUND UP

OSU RESEARCH CAN BE FOUND ANYWHERE, FROM THE GRASS AT THE U.S. CAPITOL TO DRONES PATROLLING THE SKIES

From the Desk of the Vice President for Research

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o many things seem new at OSU right now — our new president, a new school year that we hope will be unaltered by the coronavirus, new students and new faculty filled with excitement, and new opportunities to serve our state and the entire OSU family … the list goes on and on.

It was tempting to make the theme of this edition of OSU Research Matters something like “new beginnings.”

But when it comes to the research efforts at OSU, this year is not really a new beginning at all; rather, our researchers and their impressive accomplishments have persevered in impressive fashion even during this most strange of years.

Of course, some research did suffer setbacks during the pandemic — and we are working together to accelerate those programs so the faculty and student researchers can get back on track with their educational and career plans. But most researchers at OSU found innovative ways to continue discovering and creating new knowledge, tools and solutions to society’s problems. Indeed, many researchers turned their energies to solving various challenges presented by SARS-CoV-2. (We even published a special booklet to highlight the hundreds of OSU research publications and presentations addressing the problem.)

To broaden the impact of their work, an increasing number of our researchers are translating their work into articles for the general public and publishing in The Conversation, an online lay science magazine.

Once published in The Conversation, articles are often picked up on the national news wires resulting in newspaper articles, television/radio interviews and other media reprints … all bringing additional attention to OSU research expertise. We have included a few OSU articles from The Conversation in this issue.

So instead of focusing on new beginnings, this issue will highlight the ways that OSU research has direct impact on the lives of individuals throughout Oklahoma and the nation.

Whether it is the turf that adorns our nation’s Capitol, novel materials that protect our rivers and streams from fertilizer runoff, or powerful brain imaging tools that will help us unlock the mysteries of addiction, OSU research reaches deep into the communities we serve and ultimately benefits living, breathing human beings.

I am certainly excited to begin President Shrum’s era at OSU. But mostly, I am proud and honored to be a part of the OSU research community and to share that story with you and the rest of the Cowboy family.

Go Pokes!

Kenneth W. Sewell, Ph.D. Vice President for Research

Dr. Kayse Shrum President Kenneth W. Sewell, Ph.D. Vice President for Research OSU Research Matters is published annually by Oklahoma State University and is produced by the Office of the Vice President for Research.

Editor Harrison Hill Copy Editor Dorothy L. Pugh Art Director/Designer Valerie Kisling Contributing Writers Jordan Bishop, Brittany Bowman, Gail Ellis, Roberto Gallardo, Elizabeth Gosney, Harrison Hill, Jeff Joiner, Jill Joyce, Audrey King, Christy Lang, Colette Marie Joyner Martinez, Kaitlyn Mires, Hyejune Park, Craig W. Stevens, Donald Stotts, Jared D. Taylor, Brian Whitacre Photographers Adam Bronson, Robert Emerson, Diana Haslett, Jamey Jacob, Todd Johnson, Gary Lawson, Nicholas Materer, Phil Shockley, Jason Wallace, Matt York/AP For details about research highlighted in this magazine or reproduction permission, contact: Office of the Vice President for Research 405.744.6501; vpr@okstate.edu research.okstate.edu

Oklahoma State University, in compliance with Title VI and VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Executive Order 11246 as amended, and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Higher Education Act), the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, and other federal and state laws and regulations, does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, genetic information, sex, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, disability, or status as a veteran, in any of its policies, practices or procedures. This provision includes, but is not limited to admissions, employment, financial aid, and educational services. The Director of Equal Opportunity, 408 Whitehurst, OSU, Stillwater, OK 74078-1035; Phone 405744-5371; email: eeo@okstate.edu has been designated to handle inquiries regarding nondiscrimination policies. Any person (student, faculty, or staff) who believes that discriminatory practices have been engaged in based on gender may discuss his or her concerns and file informal or formal complaints of possible violations of Title IX with OSU’s Title IX Coordinator 405-744-9154. This publication, issued by Oklahoma State University as authorized by Office of the Vice President for Research, was printed by Modern Litho at a cost of $5,950 3.5M /Sept/21. #8769

PHOTO GARY LAWSON

On the Cover

TABLE OF CONTENTS

OSU’s bermudagrass can be found at some of the most famous venues in the world, including on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol. Page 16

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2

Starving algae

4

Rural digital access

12

Expanding STEM lessons

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Tracking Human Traffickers

16

Where the green grass grows

20

Helping honey bees

22

Curbing the opioid epidemic

26

Technology transfer explained

30

Closer collaborations

36

Protecting birds

Improving Rural Health Care

38

Mission to Mars

44

Fashionable recycling

Through one of OSU’S Tier 1 Research initiatives, access to rural health care in Oklahoma is improving.

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Making students’ thinking visible

52

Sensing stress

54

Adding anti-nutrients to a healthy diet

58

University partnerships

60

Defining an epidemiologist

62

Awards and recognition

Looking Forward A conversation with OSU President Dr. Kayse Shrum

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Safe Crossings Researchers at OSU are partnering with ODOT to make sure Oklahoma’s bridges are safe.

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40 74

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Defending the Sky With new lab space comes the opportunity for OSU’s Unmanned Systems Research Institute to grow even further upward.

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Starving Algae

Researchers aim to prevent harmful algae blooms using novel materials

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armful algal blooms are a growing problem in water across the nation, but OSU researchers may have one piece of the solution thanks to groundbreaking research and new funding.

A pair of researchers are focusing on developing novel materials that could prevent the growth of algae blooms and recycle the nutrients, creating an environmentally friendly cycle.

“The objective of the research is to develop a novel technology for sustainably and economically preventing harmful algal blooms in farm watering ponds,” said Dr. Allen Apblett, a professor in the OSU department of chemistry. The research is focused on algae in waterways affected by fertilizer runoff.

Some fertilizers wash off fields and into farm ponds and waterways, which then feeds algae, creating harmful algal blooms. Algal blooms can create dangerous toxins.

“People don’t really understand what causes them to actually start producing the toxins,” Apblett said. “But the easiest thing is, if you don’t let them bloom, then they don’t grow, then they don’t produce the toxin.

“We already know what causes algae, and that is food. So, the goal is to have a practical solution [to prevent feeding the algae].”

For plants, food comes mainly in the form of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Too little nitrogen and phosphorus will limit the growth of plants.

The solution, the team hopes, will come in the form of a granular substance, designed to absorb nitrogen and phosphorus.

“As we identify ponds that are prone to overgrowth of algae, what we plan to do is remove the nutrients that algae need to grow and load them into a material that essentially then becomes fertilizer,” Apblett said. “So rather than fertilizing algae, we’re going to fertilize crops for people and animals to eat and leave our water pristine.”

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STORY HARRISON HILL | PHOTOS NICHOLAS MATERER AND GARY LAWSON

“The objective of the research is to develop a novel technology for sustainably and economically preventing harmful algal blooms in farm watering ponds.”

DR. ALLEN APBLETT

Reclaiming those lost nutrients from fertilizer runoff also means less fertilizer will need to be produced.

“If we can capture lost nutrients and … recycle them, then we can cut down on the deleterious impact that we’re having on the environment just to procure fertilizer,” Apblett said. “Without [fertilizer enhancing crop yields], we’d have to look around and figure out what small percentage of humans is going to survive because, without fertilizer to produce food, we can’t maintain our population.”

The material is essentially porous granules that bind with nutrients. Once the material is loaded with nutrients, it can be dried and applied to lawns and crops.

“The way to treat a pond would be to run water through columns [containing these materials], although we have a trough-based system that was designed by a local company in collaboration with OSU,” Apblett said.

Once the water has run through these systems, purified water would go back in the pond and all the nutrients would remain in the columns or troughs, where they can be used again to grow crops, Apblett said.

“We’ve also recently demonstrated that the presence of these [materials on a field], even after they delivered the nitrate and phosphorus will prevent fertilizer runoff,” Apblett said. “So, if somebody applies a soluble fertilizer, they’ll capture those nutrients again and release them slowly.”

This project is being funded by a 2020 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to research how to prevent and control algal blooms.

As one of seven awarded this grant, the team’s research is unique.

“A lot of people take different approaches [to treating algae blooms],” said Nicholas Materer, a professor and chemistry chair in the OSU department of chemistry. “And that’s one thing

good about science — everybody can take different approaches, and we figure out which one works the best.”

No matter what, the research is still engaging.

“It’s really exciting to do something new,” Materer said. “You don’t want to do the same reaction, the same chemistry over and over again.

So we like to find problems. And once you work on these new problems, you get to understand the problem and get to meet the people involved, so there’s also a human side to it.”

Hopefully, this new technology will be a solution to improve water and fertilizing methods across Oklahoma and the nation. Once the team finishes its tests, the next step is applying this material to larger projects.

“I think that Nick and I would be happy to work with others,” Apblett said. “We want to look specifically at getting this optimized for farms and do a pilot test.”

Allen Apblett

Nicholas Materer

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FACULT Y AUTHORED STORY FROM THE CONVERSATION

COVID-19 lockdowns expose the digital have-nots in rural areas – here’s which policies can get them connected

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he current public health emergency has shown just how critical adequate and affordable broadband infrastructure is for communities and individuals trying to work, access health care and attempt to teach kids from home.

Yet over one-fifth of rural Americans lack access to broadband, while some estimates suggest that figure could be much higher.

The problem has spurred many state governments to take an active role in trying to connect more rural communities to high-speed internet, whether it’s by incentivizing providers to serve rural areas or creating dedicated offices aimed at helping more people get online.

As part of our ongoing research on how broadband access affects economic development, we conducted a study that examined which of these state policies are actually working.

WHY BROADBAND MATTERS The pandemic has brought home the importance of high-speed internet access in all manner of everyday life.

Recent studies have found that broadband matters for jobs, income, business relocation, civic engagement and health.

While availability has generally increased over the past decade, there is still a significant “digital divide” in terms of who has access to broadband.

The latest data available shows that in some states, less than 50% of rural residents have a broadband connection available where they live.

POLICIES MEANT TO INCREASE ACCESS Many state governments have adopted one or more of three approaches that can affect broadband availability: establishing broadband offices, increasing funding and restricting municipal networks.

In 2018, 25 states, including Minnesota, Tennessee and North Carolina, had offices with full-time employees devoted to getting more residents connected to high-speed internet. In general, they work with providers and communities

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to find ways to connect those without high-speed connections and to improve adoption rates where broadband already exists.

A total of 18 states, such as Colorado and California, had special funding programs that help subsidize broadband deployment in rural areas. These programs offer financial incentives to providers to install broadband infrastructure in lower-density areas where obtaining a profit is more difficult.

Utah, Wisconsin and 18 other states have adopted policies that restrict the ability of cities, utilities and other public entities to build their own broadband networks. Supporters of these restrictions, which aren’t intended to increase access, argue that municipal networks represent unfair competition to private providers.

We wanted to know how these policies affected the share of rural Americans connected to either standard broadband — with download speeds of at least 25 megabits per second — ­ or a fiber-optic network. We also considered how the policies affected competition, defined as access to two or more providers. We analyzed data from 2012 to 2018 on all 3,143 U.S. counties and focused on the changes in the rural portions of each county since a policy was put in place. We performed a regression analysis to tease out the impact of each individual policy in states that implemented more than one.

We controlled for a variety of characteristics that might also affect broadband availability, such as population density, income and education.

We also factored in political ideology, under the assumption that more conservative residents and legislatures are less likely to support a broadband office or funding and more likely to impose municipal broadband restrictions.

ASSESSING THE IMPACT Overall, rural areas saw an average increase in broadband availability of 47 percentage points, rising from 24% in 2012 — around when many states began implementing policies — to 71% in 2018. Access to faster fiber climbed 16.5 points to 23%.

STORY BRIAN WHITACRE AND ROBERTO GALLARDO | PHOTOS TODD JOHNSON

Dr. Brian Whitacre is advocating for internet access for rural Oklahoma residents. The use of Wi-Fi hot spots via no- or low-cost options is one of the ways he suggests increasing rural broadband internet access.

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“Over one-fifth of rural Americans lack access to broadband, while some estimates suggest that figure could be much higher. ” DR. BRIAN WHITACRE

But these figures varied widely depending on which state a rural American lived in — and what policies were in place.

Having a dedicated funding program turned out to have the greatest positive impact on getting more people in rural areas connected to broadband and fiber. Our analysis found that the policy increased broadband access by an average of 1.8 percentage points compared with states without the policy in place. Gains for fiber were even higher at 2.1 percentage points. The share of counties with access to more than one broadband provider climbed 1.4 points above what would otherwise be expected.

Imposing restrictions on municipal broadband, on the other hand, had a significant dampening effect on internet access. Counties whose states imposed such restrictions experienced broadband access gains 3.7 percentage points less than what they would have enjoyed without the policies in place. Fiber access was 1.6 points less, while the policy had a negligible impact on competition.

We found that state broadband offices had little impact on the availability of broadband or on the number of competitors, though they did lead to higher fiber availability, raising access by 1.5 percentage points more than in states without the policy. Recent research has emphasized the importance of the faster speeds that fiber provides for economic growth and employment.

But since broadband offices are relatively new, we believe the jury is still out on how effective they are. Other research has found benefits to broadband offices, such as better planning and outreach. It may just take more time for more of their benefits to show up in the data.

MOVING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION Putting it all together, we would estimate that a state like Louisiana — with restrictions on municipal broadband and no dedicated funding program — could improve rural access to broadband by 5 percentage points above their normal rates of growth over the next six to seven years by changing those two policies.

And it seems like some states may already be aware of the advantages of doing so. In 2019, seven more states put in place funding programs to encourage broadband, and five softened their restrictions on municipal networks. Tennessee is currently considering removing its restrictions entirely.

On the whole, states have made significant gains in narrowing the rural-urban digital divide.

Hopefully, states that have seen less improvement will learn from their neighbors. But access is only part of the equation. Another important factor is affordability, which is why it’s important for states to pursue policies that can increase competition and reduce prices, too.

Brian Whitacre, professor and Neustadt chair in agricultural economics at Oklahoma State University, and Roberto Gallardo, director of the Purdue Center for Regional Development at Purdue University, wrote this story. The Conversation is a nonprofit news outlet dedicated to sharing research from experts like those on our faculty. Read more from our faculty by going to okla.st/theconversation

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Oklahoma’s Frontline Defense in the Heart of Rural Oklahoma An initiative of the State of Oklahoma, the OPCIE will be the first of its kind — a collaborative center that encompasses all areas of public health. The OPCIE will build partnerships between public and private entities to bridge the gap between laboratory and clinical practices and create improved public health responses incorporating the unique needs of rural, urban and tribal communities. Through this ONE HEALTH approach, the OPCIE will become a global leader in promoting and preserving public health.

One Health An approach that recognizes that the health of people is closely connected to the health of animals and of our environment.

HUMAN HEALTH ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH Soil Quality and Health Air Quality Water Quality Plant Health

Individual Health Family Health Community Health

ANIMAL HEALTH Livestock Health Wildlife Population Health Food Safety and Security

Learn More About Innovation and Growth in Oklahoma at oklahoma.gov/opcie

LOOKING FORWARD 8 O S U R E S E A R C H M AT T E R S

PHOTOS PHIL SHOCKLEY, GARY LAWSON, AND TODD JOHNSON

Dr. Kayse Shrum and Dr. Kenneth Sewell discuss the future of OSU Research

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For Dr. Kayse Shrum, public-impact research is a core focus in her new role as president of Oklahoma State University.

To learn more, Dr. Kenneth Sewell, vice president for research at OSU, sat down with Shrum to discuss her life, research and vision for the future.

Given the land-grant mission of Oklahoma State — which includes teaching, research and extension — how do you see research contributing to the overall value that OSU brings to our students and to the state of Oklahoma?

As a first-generation college student yourself, did you have any personal experience with university research or science training that particularly inspired or motivated you to pursue a STEM field and ultimately a medical career?

I believe research is so important to the university and to society. I think many times people don’t really understand how it impacts our lives. I can look at the start of the pandemic as an example, where we were able to take the animal diagnostic lab, which was doing virology testing, and convert that for human testing.

And we had all these researchers come in and start actually sequencing the virus.

When we were dissecting frogs in high school, I was really interested in it. It just fascinated me, so I knew I wanted to go into science.

We were doing lots of things. I think that might’ve been the first glimpse for many to understand the importance of university research.

It’s a great way for us to enrich the experience of our students, but we’re solving society’s most pressing needs, whether it’s a bench researcher or someone who’s studying public health or aerospace.

That’s an impact that only a research university can have. And as a landgrant, that’s a part of our mission. So I think we’re very well equipped and prepared to be able to advance our research in a way that makes a huge difference, not only to the state, but to the world.

When I was in college, I had the opportunity to visit the medical school, and we went into the neuroanatomy lab. Of course, in neuroanatomy, there are brains and all sorts of things. And I just found that so fascinating that there in the lab was a human brain and to me … that was a person.

I mean, their memories, their thoughts, this brain controlled everything about them and that was fascinating to understand how that happens. In that moment, I knew I wanted to dig in and learn more about physiology, about how the human body works and that’s really kind of what got me into the STEM fields.

I think for most people, that is not something that is so fascinating to them. It’s probably off-putting, but I think that’s why it’s important that we expose students to a broad education because you never know what’s going to ignite that passion.

When you come here, you may not know what you want, but you just have so many opportunities to find that thing that sparks that interest for you.

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The economic impact of a comprehensive research university such as OSU is quite extensive and comes largely by preparing the workforce for the jobs of both today and tomorrow. But beyond workforce development, do you see a significant role for OSU to play in creating economic development through our research and technology development and through corporate R&D partnerships?

Research and a comprehensive university play a huge role in the economy.

I had the honor of serving the governor as his secretary of science and innovation. And in that role, it was about how our research universities — through not only university research, but through corporate partnerships and industrydriven research — can really grow and expand Oklahoma’s economy.

In addition, how does what we do at the university attract new industry to the state? When we’re bringing in new companies, they need a qualified workforce, but they also want to continue to grow and expand and develop into the future. And so being able to have partnerships with the university is very attractive.

Think about the synergy of that for our students. As we continue to grow research, industry partnerships and the economy, we are bringing corporate partners to Oklahoma.

And through that research, students have the opportunity to have real life experience during their education.

“I believe research is so important to the university and to society. I think many times people don’t really understand how it impacts our lives.”

DR. KAYSE SHRUM, PRESIDENT, OKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY

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Involving Native American Communities NASA-OSU program aims to open minds to earth and space science by adding cultural elements to curriculum

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ative American communities, storytelling and earth and space curriculum are coming together in one ambitious project made possible through a $3.3 million NASA cooperative agreement with Oklahoma State University’s College of Education and Human Sciences.

Funding from NASA’s Science Activation program is uniting three of Oklahoma’s Native American communities with OSU professors to develop a new curriculum on earth and space science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) lessons.

Dr. Kat Gardner-Vandy, assistant professor of aviation and space, is the principal investigator of the program. While many such programs exist, Gardner-Vandy believes this is one of the first formal earth-sky programs to highlight Oklahoma’s diverse Native American culture that will result in a curriculum that meets state standards.

“Our goal is to work with individual nations and collaborate with them,” said Gardner-Vandy, who is a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. “In Native American culture, it’s important to include elders, the community as a whole, culture and language into education efforts.”

The program, titled “STEM Pathways for Native Americans: Bridging Native Knowledge of Earth and Sky with Traditional STEM Programming through the ‘Native Earth-Native Sky’ Program,” will incorporate Native American stories related to earth and space science into middle school STEM curriculum. The curriculum will first be tested in a summer camp format and then become available online as an open educational resource.

“In a traditional curriculum, there is often a very Westernized way of looking at science,” GardnerVandy said. “It might include the scientific method and an experiment, but it won’t incorporate storytelling and language. Our Native EarthNative Sky curriculum will incorporate all these things. It will look like STEM, language arts and social studies together.”

Dr. Kat Gardner-Vandy

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STORY BRITTANY BOWMAN AND CHRISTY LANG | PHOTOS MITCH HARRISON AND PHIL SHOCKLEY

OSU hopes its new parnership with NASA will bring more Native American students into STEM fields.

This is the first time Oklahoma has been home to one of NASA’s Science Activation programs.

Gardner-Vandy is working alongside three OSU co-investigators: Dr. Kalianne Neumann, assistant professor of educational technology; Dr. Toni Ivey, associate professor of science education; and Dr. Juliana Utley, professor of mathematics education. Neumann brings expertise in educational technology, especially in managing Google classrooms, while Ivey specializes in creating curriculum and mentoring teachers in teaching STEM. Utley has led many professional development programs at OSU for teachers, and Gardner-Vandy is an earth and planetary scientist.

The program will also collaborate with OSU’s Center for Sovereign Nations as well as with researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the Smithsonian Institution.

OSU has had a strong history of working with NASA and currently leads NSPACE (NASA STEM Pathway Activities – Consortium for Education).

Distinct from the Science Activation program, this series of 16 innovative NSPACE activities is designed to serve students ranging from kindergarten to graduate school.

Dr. Susan Stansberry, an OSU professor of educational technology, estimates NSPACE activities reach more than 337,000 students and 82,000 educators across the country. GardnerVandy plans to expand on that legacy.

“One of the main reasons Native Americans are so underrepresented in science and engineering fields has a lot to do with culture and community,” Gardner-Vandy said. “By adding that Native American culture and language into our curriculum, we’re including Native American communities in the conversation.”

Gardner-Vandy hopes to use her passion for planetary science as a catalyst to capture Native American students’ curiosity and expand possibilities and frontiers in science and engineering fields while building on OSU’s landgrant mission.

“When you start talking about what’s happening, say, on Mars or the moon, everyone gets excited to learn more,” Gardner-Vandy said. “As a landgrant institution, we are here to serve Oklahoma’s communities, and what better way to do that than by collaborating with Oklahoma’s Native American nations in celebration of the earth and space.”

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On the Trail of Human Traffickers

Spears Business researcher targets illegal trade with data analytics

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klahoma State University’s Dr. Miriam McGaugh is an expert in analyzing large amounts of data and recognizing patterns within it.

While an epidemiologist for the Oklahoma State Department of Health, she used health care data to create community public health initiatives. Now, the assistant professor of professional practice in business analytics in the Spears School of Business is taking on the scourge of human trafficking in the United States.

For the last five years, McGaugh has explored ways to use internet data to trace the traffickers of victims forced into prostitution. Her research, conducted with colleagues from Louisiana State University and the University of Alabama, has developed ways to identify patterns in the use of phone numbers and images in online ads for sexual services that may indicate human trafficking.

“Everywhere we go and almost everything we do leaves digital footprints, especially on the internet,” McGaugh said. “We’re using data analytics to examine human trafficking patterns found in millions of publicly available online ads.”

In the U.S., human trafficking is often viewed as an international problem that occasionally makes headlines with the discovery of domestic workers or manual laborers in other countries forced to work against their will. But the global trade in humans also harms millions of people coerced into sex work and is a major issue in the U.S., where a flourishing trade exists in people, including minors, forced to work as prostitutes.

According to the U.S. State Department’s 2019 Trafficking in Persons Report, “Victims originate from almost every region of the world; the top three countries of origin of federally identified victims in [fiscal year] 2018 were the United States, Mexico and the Philippines.”

The U.S. Department of Justice reported that law enforcement agencies identified nearly 4,000 confirmed victims of sex and labor trafficking in the U.S. during investigations from fiscal year 2017-2018, and that 76 percent of those victims

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were U.S. citizens and 42 percent were under the age of 18. According to the United Nations, an estimated 4.8 million people worldwide were forced to work in the sex trade in 2016.

McGaugh joined a research project started at LSU in 2016 to see if contact phone numbers in online ads for adult services could provide clues about the people placing the ads. McGaugh, LSU’s Dr. James Van Scotter and Alabama’s Dr. Denise McManus used “web-scraping” software to capture text from nearly 700,000 classified ads on the website Backpage.com. The site was one of the largest sources for sex trade ads in the country until 2018, when the FBI shut it down.

Data from the ads, including phone numbers and categories such as escort services, adult entertainment, massage parlors and recruiting, were added to a huge database for analysis. The researchers theorize contact numbers in ads provide clues to whether the ad is for legal adult businesses like strip clubs or illegal activity like prostitution. Traffickers often hide their ads from police internet searches using code words, slang, misspellings and abbreviations to foil the use of search terms. Though sex ads are easy enough to find online, investigating their sources is difficult.

McGaugh’s research has shown that the lifespan and movement of phone numbers across ads can indicate the solicitation of customers for prostitution. A number tied to illegal activity is rarely used for more than a month or two before what is probably a “burner” phone is tossed. And phone numbers that appear in multiple ads associated with multiple escorts and in different regions of the country suggest a trafficking network.

The research team’s initial work in 2016 to collect online ad data was limited to 28 cities in Louisiana and the southeastern United States. In 2017, the study was expanded when data was pulled from 3 million Backpage.com ads covering 570 locations in 44 states and the District of Columbia.

Phone number lifespan and category data were available for 7,275 numbers, 90 percent of which were for escorts.

STORY JEFF JOINER | PHOTO SPEARS BUSINESS

Dr. Miriam McGaugh

Along with phone numbers, McGaugh and her colleagues also focused on photos and images in ads such as sexually suggestive emojis and emoticons, which can identify traffickers’ behavioral characteristics.

In 2019, McGaugh created a future tool for law enforcement when she worked with OSU student computer programmers to develop a mobile app called Break the Chain. While it’s still under development, the app will allow investigators to search through the database for phone numbers and geographic location to narrow the scope of investigations. She added that app will be linked to a similar project in the United Kingdom that developed the STOP APP. “We will be working with a group in the U.K. called Stop the Traffik because they have a community reporting component that we want to incorporate into our app, and they would like more U.S.-based data,” McGaugh said.

LEARN MORE More information is available about Dr. Miriam McGaugh’s research and Break the Chain app development through the new Center for Social and Business Impact at Spears Business at scsbi@okstate.edu or by contacting McGaugh at Miriam.mcgaugh@okstate.edu.

Information about human trafficking, including the warning signs of trafficking, is available at humantraffickinghotline.org or stopthetraffik.org/spotthe-signs. Suspected trafficking can be reported to the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888.

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COVER STORY

Where the Green Grass Grows From Qatar to Kansas City, OSU’s Bermudagrass has an impact on champions

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STORY JORDAN BISHOP | PHOTOS SOD SOLUTIONS AND AMANDA HILL

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he Kentucky Derby, World Cup, Olympics, PGA Championship and the U.S. Capitol don’t seem to have much in common on the surface — or do they?

Some of the ground surfaces at these locations have used or will use a bermudagrass created at Oklahoma State University.

On a plot of land just off of Virginia Avenue in Stillwater, turfgrass researchers are constantly looking to improve varieties of bermudagrass that are used globally because of their excellent qualities.

A warm season grass, Bermuda has adapted well to climate change, its lush green color withstanding heat that other grasses can’t. Its hardiness and durability make it a popular choice for turfgrass managers anywhere, with OSU’s researchers working to expand the regions where it can be grown so it can endure the colder weather which has historically been a bane of its existence.

“Our breeding objective is and has been to improve cold hardiness,” said Dr. Yanqi Wu, professor of grass breeding and genetics at OSU. “That means previous varieties use a region below 34 degrees latitude. Now we have developed these new grasses like Latitude 36, NorthBridge and Tahoma 31. They can be used at (latitudes) 38 and 39, even up to Pennsylvania. That is close to 40 degrees latitude, so you can see the improvement.”

OSU started working on modern turfgrass breeding and improvement research in earnest immediately following World War II, with the first Oklahoma Turfgrass Conference being held in 1946. The baby boom was in full effect, and more and more houses were being built that needed genuine lawns.

Almost 20 years later, the Oklahoma Turfgrass Conference had grown enough that the Oklahoma Turfgrass Research Foundation was founded as a nonprofit organization in 1963.

Dr. Wayne Huffine is credited as the father of the OSU turf organization, releasing Oklawn centipedegrass in the 1970s, the first genuine turfgrass from the school.

By 1986, a few years after Huffine retired, the United States Golf Association provided universities with grants to develop high-quality playing surfaces.

Under the leadership of Dr. Charles Taliaferro, OSU started laying down the groundwork for what would become one of the top-tier sports turfgrass producers in the nation.

Dr. Dennis Martin, professor and turfgrass extension/research specialist, arrived in Stillwater in 1990, right as OSU started looking into African Bermudas. Martin’s predecessor, Dr. Mike Kenna, had convinced Taliaferro to look into the grass as a playing surface.

African bermudagrasses didn’t end up working out for release directly to the market, but it did provide excellent parent materials for grasses in the future. The varieties OSU creates now are interspecific hybrids of those elite African Bermudas and the best common Bermudas.

“So you have your breeding lines there that you have used over the decades and have excellent performance characteristics and high fertility, but you also have to have the trait be inheritable,” Martin said.

“You pick good parents, so to speak. Let’s say Dr. Wu has 10,000 crosses made with those elite parents — only a very small percentage of them will ever turn out to be the super elite stuff, so he may store that parent somewhere, and you have to keep it clean and alive so you can use it later.”

It is a complex procedure when researchers are looking toward a new variety, as 10,000 progenies are narrowed down to around 800 to 1,000 plants, which are then planted in a field nursery to grow for an average of three years before the best 10 to 20 plants are picked.

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Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma is one of the many golf courses across the nation that uses grass developed at OSU.

OSU’s grasses are a product of intense natural selection, making those 10 to 20 plants selected the absolute best of the best.

For sports, they must withstand the constant bombardment of players’ cleats or divots from golf clubs, as well as hold up throughout the year’s weather fronts.

Dr. Justin Quetone Moss, head of OSU’s Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, said choosing the best grasses is a painstaking process of trial and error. To test traits such as drought resistance, low mowing height and cold hardiness, researchers will put those grasses through that stress to see which plants survive.

“There is no secret to this: We will basically plant those things in a greenhouse and get a pair of scissors and keep mowing them with scissors and cutting them as low as you possibly can,” Moss said. “You quickly find out that some of them immediately die, and some of them survive. Of the ones that survive, you put them in bigger pods and keep mowing them, and (the best) continue to survive and thrive.”

Those few plants that are chosen are then tested nationally in a five-year study called the National Turfgrass Evaluation Program (NTEP).

“We will get data on them across five years and have a nice data package to look at,” Moss said.

“Then we have more in the pipeline for the next five-year test.”

Martin is a tester in the NTEP trials as OSU hosts grass from a mix of about two dozen

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universities and private firms across the country to see how they fare in the Oklahoma climate. Other schools, like the University of Georgia, Texas A&M and the University of Florida, among others, test OSU’s grass in their climates as well.

Martin said it is revealing to see what issues arise from a grass being grown outside its normal use environment. One of several things OSU researchers learned about from various studies is a problem with nematodes. While Oklahoma has its share of these parasites, the sandy soils of the Gulf Coastal Plain and very high nematode numbers like those faced in Florida can cause problems with the grass.

With that data, OSU researchers like Dr. Nathan Walker, an entomology and plant pathology professor, can work on making the bermudagrass sturdier against nematodes, as well as other parasites and diseases.

From those NTEP trials, OSU has seen its grasses continue to come out as standards in the turfgrass industry.

The release of Yukon, Riviera and Patriot in the early 2000s saw courses and stadiums around the country — and world — clamor for the grass.

The 2008 Olympics in Beijing featured Riviera on several of its fields.

Patriot was used on the practice field of the Peyton Manning-led Indianapolis Colts during their Super Bowl-winning season in 2006. Fittingly, practicing on a grass named Patriot allowed Manning to get past his rival: Tom Brady and the New England Patriots.

In 2011, OSU released two more popular varieties in NorthBridge and Latitude 36.

NorthBridge is used all over the country, including at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa — home of the 2022 PGA Championship — and a number of NFL stadiums like Arrowhead Stadium ­— home of the Kansas City Chiefs.

Latitude 36 is also widely used, from Petco Park in San Diego to Bryant-Denny Stadium — home of the University of Alabama football team.

Wu said it is being used on the practice fields in Qatar, home to the 2022 World Cup. Even the football, soccer and softball fields at the University of Oklahoma use it.

Latitude 36 was the national standard for bermudagrass, the yardstick by which all other Bermudas are measured.

Martin said the reason why it is so popular, especially in golf, is its resistance to heat, high water use efficiency, tolerance of traffic and recuperative ability. When considering OSU Bermuda varieties, they are known for improved winter hardiness as well.

Putting greens are the next target for the OSU bermudagrass development team. The team hopes to release a variety for golf course putting greens in the not too distant future. For decades, the majority of golf courses have used creeping bentgrass, but with climate change making temperatures climb higher and higher, Bermuda has proven to be a better option on many golf courses in Oklahoma.

“That is why Bermuda is a superior putting surfaces for most of the year,” Martin said.

“Even the club managers tell us for where their rounds are played, most of them are played from Memorial Day through Labor Day, and Bermuda is a much more natural fit. Sure, there are golfing days after Labor Day and before Memorial Day, but overall in the business of running a club in Oklahoma, Bermuda is frequently a better grass for when your traffic occurs, thus an improved putting surface Bermuda is the team’s next target.”

OSU is constantly looking to improve on its grasses. Tahoma 31, released in the past few years, has improved on what Latitude 36 and NorthBridge had to offer.

Tahoma 31 has been sodded in a number of places, including the USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City, as well as the U.S. Capitol Lawn in Washington, D.C. In June, Churchill Downs announced it will be sodding Tahoma 31 at its facility, which hosts the Kentucky Derby every year.

Even with all of the program’s success, Wu said he and the team of Moss, Martin, Walker, Dr. Charles Fontanier and Dr. Eric Rebek are always attempting to improve on what they have done.

“There is a lot of team effort, I will stress that.

We have a team that has different expertise so we can work together in the same way so we can get there,” Wu said.

“Our grass is pretty good, believe it.”

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Helping Honey Bees NIFA grant funds OSU molecular genetics research into vital pollinators

A

bustling laboratory at Oklahoma State University is trying to develop resources and genetic tools to assist scientists who are trying to understand why pollinators are in decline — especially honey bees.

Honey bees and the beekeeping industry are responsible for more than $15 billion in annual agricultural productivity. They deliver indispensable pollination services that benefit more than 90 crops. Their increased death rates have been called one of the greatest threats to food production by industry analysts, scientists and environmental activists alike.

Darren Hagen of OSU’s Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources

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received a grant from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) in January to study the molecular genetics of honey bees.

Molecular genetics focuses on the flow and regulation of genetic information between DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), RNA (ribonucleic acid) and proteins. Think of Hagen’s charge as developing the building blocks that will make future scientific inquiries possible.

Collaborators at the U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service Bee Laboratory in Maryland have been busy collecting biological material that will be used this fall to begin the genetic sequencing, he said.

STORY DONALD STOTTS | PHOTOS SHUTTERSTOCK

Researchers worldwide have been studying the molecular and genetic bases for honey bee responses to living and non-living physical and chemical environmental stressors. However, new sequencing technologies have rarely been applied in honey bee gene sequencing and prediction, so genomic studies are limited by sometimes incomplete or inaccurate data. Furthermore, there is a lack of reference information on epigenetic modifications in honey bee RNA that play important roles in gene regulation.

Hagen’s team is studying the gene profiles from diverse tissues of Apis mellifera, the western honey bee, using new RNA-sequencing technologies, he said.

“Our primary goal is to expand and enhance the catalog of functional elements — which determine when a gene should be expressed and by how much — in the known honey bee genome as a way to promote improved honey bee health,” Hagen said.

The OSU grant is one of 11 Pollinator Health Research grants awarded by NIFA as part of the USDA Agriculture and Food Research Initiative.

NIFA was created through the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008.

Research undertaken by OSU that will eventually promote bee health and better bee genetics is good news, said Rick Schantz, a Lincoln County beekeeper who has about 150 hives. That number dropped from 250 a couple years ago because of the coronavirus pandemic — Schantz had fewer places to sell the honey as farmers markets and other venues shut down. He has

long been active in renting out pollinators, and he provides seedstock to help new beekeepers get started.

“Genetics has always played a major role in my operation,” he said. “Bee genetics can change more quickly than many other species. It’s like raising cattle: You want to get rid of the poor performers in terms of production and health, but also keep those that do best in Oklahoma conditions.”

Dane Strickland, president of the Northeast Oklahoma Beekeepers Association, likewise was excited to learn about OSU’s research involving bees.

“Bees are trying to survive under what has increasingly become adverse conditions,” Strickland said. “It’s not just pesticides. Somebody exiting a convenience store spills a sugary drink on the pavement. In turn, bees may slurp it up, but they are also getting who-knows-what from the pavement. There are a great many things for science to study when it comes to bee health. It is great to hear OSU is playing a role in that process.”

Hagen, the NIFA grant’s principal investigator and an assistant professor with OSU’s Department of Animal and Food Sciences, is part of scientific teams associated with nine NIFA grants, including serving as principal investigator on another NIFA grant studying the genomics of beef cattle.

OSU ag research such as Hagen’s various studies supported by NIFA grants accounts for about a third of all research conducted at OSU and about 85% of research royalties that flow back into the university.

R E S E A R C H .O K S TAT E . E D U 21

FACULT Y AUTHORED STORY FROM THE CONVERSATION

How gene editing a person’s brain cells could be used to curb the opioid epidemic

E

ven as the COVID-19 pandemic cripples the economy and kills hundreds of people each day, there is another epidemic that continues to kill tens of thousands of people each year through opioid drug overdose.

Opioid analgesic drugs, like morphine and oxycodone, are the classic double-edged swords.

They are the very best drugs to stop severe pain but also the class of drugs most likely to kill the person taking them. In a recent journal article, I outlined how a combination of state-of-the-art molecular techniques, such as CRISPR gene editing and brain microinjection methods, could be used to blunt one edge of the sword and make opioid drugs safer.

I am a pharmacologist interested in the way opioid drugs such as morphine and fentanyl can blunt pain. I became fascinated in biology at the time when endorphins — natural opioids made by our bodies — were discovered. I have been intrigued by the way opioid drugs work and their targets in the brain, the opioid receptors, for the last 30 years. In my paper, I propose a way to prevent opioid overdoses by modifying an opioid user’s brain cells using advanced technology.

OPIOID RECEPTORS STOP BREATHING Opioids kill by stopping a person from breathing (respiratory depression). They do so by acting on a specific set of respiratory nerves, or neurons, found in the lower part of the brain that contain opioid receptors. Opioid receptors are proteins that bind morphine, heroin and other opioid drugs.

The binding of an opioid to its receptor triggers a reaction in neurons that reduces their activity.

Opioid receptors on pain neurons mediate the pain-killing, or analgesic, effects of opioids. When opioids bind to opioid receptors on respiratory neurons, they slow breathing or, in the case of an opioid overdose, stop it entirely.

Respiratory neurons are located in the brainstem, the tail-end part of the brain that continues into the spine as the spinal cord. Animal studies show that opioid receptors on respiratory neurons are responsible for opioid-induced respiratory depression — the cause of opioid overdose. Genetically altered mice born without

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opioid receptors do not die from large doses of morphine unlike mice with these receptors present.

Unlike laboratory mice, humans cannot be altered when embryos to remove all opioid receptors from the brain and elsewhere. Nor would it be a good idea. Humans need opioid receptors to serve as the targets for our natural opioid substances, the endorphins, which are released into the brain during times of high stress and pain.

Also, a total opioid receptor knockout in humans would leave that person unresponsive to the beneficial pain-killing effects of opioids. In my journal article, I argue that what is needed is a selective receptor removal of the opioid receptors on respiratory neurons. Having reviewed the available technology, I believe this can be done by combining CRISPR gene editing and a new neurosurgical microinjection technique.

CRISPR TO THE RESCUE: DESTROYING OPIOID RECEPTORS CRISPR, which is an acronym for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats, is a gene editing method that was discovered in the genome of bacteria. Bacteria get infected by viruses too, and CRISPR is a strategy that bacteria evolved to cut up the viral genes and kill invading pathogens.

The CRISPR method allows researchers to target specific genes expressed in cell lines, tissues, or whole organisms, to be cut-up and removed — knocked out — or otherwise altered. There is a commercially available CRISPR kit which knocks out human opioid receptors produced in cells grown in cell cultures in the lab. While this CRISPR kit is formulated for in-vitro use, similar conditional opioid receptor knockout techniques have been demonstrated in live mice.

To knockout opioid receptors in human respiratory neurons, a sterile solution containing CRISPR gene-editing molecules would be prepared in the laboratory. Besides the gene-editing components, the solution contains chemical reagents that allow the gene-editing machinery to enter the respiratory neurons and make their way into the nucleus and into the neuron’s genome.

STORY CRAIG W. STEVENS | PHOTO iSTOCK PHOTOS

How does one get the CRISPR opioid receptor knockout solution into a person’s respiratory neurons?

Enter the intracranial microinjection instrument (IMI) developed by Miles Cunningham and his colleagues at Harvard. The IMI allows for computer-controlled delivery of small volumes of solution at specific places in the brain by using an extremely thin tube – about twice the diameter of a human hair – that can enter the brain at the base of the skull and thread through brain tissue without damage.

The computer can direct the robotic placement of the tube as it is fed images of the brain taken before the procedure using MRI. But even better, the IMI also has a recording wire embedded in the

tube that allows measurement of neuronal activity to identify the right group of nerve cells.

Because the brain itself feels no pain, the procedure could be done in a conscious patient using only local anesthetics to numb the skin.

Respiratory neurons drive the breathing muscles by firing action potentials which are measured by the recording wire in the tube. When the activity of the respiratory neurons matches the breathing movements by the patients, the proper location of the tube is confirmed, and the CRISPR solution injected.

THE CALL FOR DRASTIC ACTION Opioid receptors on neurons in the brain have a half-life of about 45 minutes. Over a period of

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several hours, the opioid receptors on respiratory neurons would degrade and the CRISPR geneediting machinery embedded in the genome would prevent new opioid receptors from appearing. If this works, the patient would be protected from opioid overdose within 24 hours. Because the respiratory neurons do not replenish, the CRISPR opioid receptor knockout should last for life.

With no opioid receptors on respiratory neurons, the opioid user cannot die from opioid overdose. After proper backing from National Institute on Drug Abuse and leading research and health care institutions, I believe CRISPR treatment could enter clinical trials in between five to 10 years. The total cost of opioid-involved overdose deaths is about $430 billion per year.

CRISPR treatment of only 10 percent of high-risk opioid users in one year would save thousands of lives and $43 billion.

Intracranial microinjection of CRISPR solutions might seem drastic. But drastic actions that are needed to save human lives from opioid

24 O S U R E S E A R C H M AT T E R S

overdoses. A large segment of the opioid overdose victims are chronic pain patients. It may be possible that chronic pain patients in a terminal phase of their lives and in hospice care would volunteer in phase I clinical trials for the CRISPR opioid receptor knockout treatment I propose here.

Making the opioid user impervious to death by opioids is a permanent solution to a horrendous problem that has resisted efforts by prevention, treatment and pharmacological means. Steady and well-funded work to prove the CRISPR method, first with preclinical animal models then in clinical trials, is a moonshot for the present generation of biomedical scientists.

This story was originally published through a partnership with The Conversation and was authored by Craig W. Stevens, professor of pharmacology. The Conversation is a nonprofit news outlet dedicated to sharing research from experts like those on our faculty. Read more from our faculty by going to okla.st/theconversation

A NEW FACE FOR INNOVATION I N D U S T RY E N G AG E M E N T AT O K L A H O M A S TAT E U N I V E R S IT Y

Innovation at OSU is constantly … well, innovating.

And Cowboy Innovations can connect you with our industry engagement team. Housed under the OSU Research Foundation, Cowboy Innovations is the bridge between OSU and the world.

COWBOY INNOVATIONS tdc.okstate.edu

Explaining Technology Transfer Process gives life to new ideas developed at OSU What is technology transfer?

Central to the land-grant mission of Oklahoma State University is providing knowledge and resources that improve lives. Technology transfer is one way OSU accomplishes that.

“Tech transfer is the interface between academics and industry to advance new ideas to lifechanging products and services,” said Zach Miles, senior associate vice president for OSU Technology and Economic Development. “And then the second part of it is utilizing the resources we have on campus and making those available to industry to generate mutually beneficial research and development collaborations and allow those to spur economic development and diversification within the state.”

When you think of the great ideas that can happen at a high-level research university,

technology transfer means being able to see them to fruition into something that betters consumers’ lives, Miles said.

“Tech transfer is a push-and-pull mechanism to commercialize new ideas,” he said. “The impacts that are being felt are broader than that, though: students having real-world experiences; economies are diversified; revenue is generated for the university to increase its infrastructure and research capabilities; or mutually beneficial collaborations are formed with Industry that advance each entity’s goals and missions.”

Where do the ideas that end up as startups or new technologies originate?

At OSU, engagement can come from many different avenues, especially since OSU has a broad approach to technology transfer — an approach focused on adding value instead of a pure transaction model.

The Venture One building at OSU’s Research Park is one of the university’s technology innovation centers, a place where new ideas can be developed.

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STORY HARRISON HILL | PHOTOS TODD JOHNSON, GARY LAWSON AND PHIL SHOCKLEY

“If you’re a researcher and you have a great idea, that ‘aha’ moment, you disclose to the office through an invention disclosure form,” Miles said. “That form provides details to us to be able to make some decisions on whether we can or should protect the idea — usually via a patent, trade secret, copyright or another type of intellectual property protection — and then we either engage with existing companies that license the technology or we work with interested parties to form a startup company and provide them with support to ensure they are foundationally sound to advance the technology to an actual product or service.”

Those researchers and their ideas are not alone along the way.

“We engage students in the process, and we work closely with the different colleges,” Miles said. “If the students get involved, they can develop business plans or work up a prototype, or maybe they’re involved in some of the research activities, we can engage them through the process, and it provides them with realworld educational opportunities — applying their academic learning to an actual real-life situation.

“And then we really try to bring in other groups and organizations: mentors, subject matter experts, others within the ecosystem that can help either move that technology along or provide guidance, support or direction to a

researcher or student. We are working hard to establish different programs and processes to engage with the greater community to advance these life-changing ideas or attract company engagement, and we are excited to introduce these to the community.”

Technology transfer is important to more than just OSU researchers, though.

“We try to get as many players as we possibly can have at the table,” Miles said. “The old adage of ‘It takes a village to raise a child’ is also true with technologies; it takes expertise, money, champions, contacts, resources and connections. Interested companies or individuals help us determine the commercial viability of a given idea, or they could introduce us to companies that may be interested in licensing our ideas, sponsoring research, utilizing facilities on campus, engaging with students or providing mentorship or executive expertise to a researcher or startup company to provide guidance along the commercialization path.

“We try to create a virtuous cycle — a researcher has a good idea, we work on that to try to get it to a company, and then that company turns around and provides some additional research dollars in the university. There are many other value-add engagement points in that example, but we believe strong relationships between the university and the greater industry community

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Dr. Jamey Jacob (second from left) shows off one of OSU’s drones at the USRI.

will have significant impacts on the outcomes of each of those entities.”

How do companies find out about technologies at OSU? “We conduct active and passive marketing,” Miles said. “So, for any given technology, we seek out companies that may be interested in the technology. We then provide those companies with materials not only on the technology but about resources on campus that may align with the company’s product or service offering, such as researchers conducting research in that field, facilities on campus that may be available for use by the company, or helping to direct to other services on campus that may be of benefit, like career services.”

For companies looking at what OSU offers, the list is long. It could be technology for licensing or students with expertise in their area, or researchers in an area that they could tap into and even core facilities that they could access

28 O S U R E S E A R C H M AT T E R S

and utilize equipment they didn’t know that OSU had.

Marketing and promoting OSU technologies extends past corporations.

“We post the technologies online mainly to attract companies to license technologies or engage in research and development collaborations, but we also develop materials to send to state or federal agencies to make them aware of the vast research and economic development activities at OSU. For example, we work with the state to attract companies looking to relocate or expand into the area. These companies normally have questions about the workforce, research and development facilities, and collaboration opportunities. OSU can present itself in all of these categories and is an important piece of the overall attraction to the state,” Miles said.

How does OSU licensing and developing technology help Oklahomans?

Most new innovations have found a start, in one way or another, at a university.

“The seatbelt, the internet, the periodic table, rocket fuel, chemotherapy drugs, flu shots, Gatorade, a CAT scan, solar power, ultrasounds, insulin and on and on all came from universities,” Miles said. “Hundreds upon hundreds of technologies. And to a certain extent, most of the novel innovations that take place may have had or probably had some type of university engaged in its creation and/or development.”

Broadly, technology transfer as a whole contributes significantly to the overall gross domestic product by creating jobs, starting companies and generating revenue. The reports from AUTM (okla.st/autm) show how this industry has affected the entire country, and Oklahoma State University is looking to become an even larger component of these efforts.

“This broad research and development scope means technologies are generated that can be vastly different from one another. From new autonomous vehicles to modified seeds, these technologies create a robust and diversified economy.”

A few of OSU’s technologies may have already crossed your path, Miles said.

“The bread you’ve eaten may have been made with a wheat variety that we’ve come up with,” Miles said. “Or Bermuda grasses that are in your yard, or that you play golf on, may have crossed paths with Oklahoma State University.”

Agriculture isn’t the only strong area for OSU though, from UAVs to medicine, tech transfer encompasses the whole university.

“We’re currently working on new technologies that range from quick virus diagnostic detection devices to plastic cleanup and targeted cancer therapies,” Miles said.

OSU, like many other universities, has a broad range of research and development activities.

R E S E A R C H .O K S TAT E . E D U 29

Dr. Julie Croff and Dr. Kyle Simmons

Under One Roof

Hardesty Center will allow OSU researchers to collaborate more efficiently

T

he opioid epidemic has had a devastating impact across the country, especially in Oklahoma.

Until now, there hasn’t been an advanced institution in Oklahoma with state-of-the-art research infrastructure.

The new Hardesty Center for Clinical Research and Neuroscience in Tulsa has started inviting research participants in for trials and data collection. The staff has moved into the 49,000-square-foot facility overlooking the Arkansas River. The center officially opened July 14.

30 O S U R E S E A R C H M AT T E R S

The new building has the capacity to hold an assortment of new and previously separated departments, including the clinical trials unit of the National Center for Wellness and Recovery and the Oklahoma State University Biomedical Imaging Center.

Dr. Julie Croff, executive director of clinical and population research at NCWR, said COVID-19 pandemic isolation created more opportunities to innovate the research OSU was doing on opioid and other substance use.

STORY JORDAN BISHOP | PHOTOS OSU CENTER FOR HEALTH SCIENCES

With her lab back open to the public and in a state-of-the-art facility, Croff is excited to start helping Oklahomans once again.

“Isolation is a real stressor for people,” said Croff, a professor in the Department of Rural Health.

“We have seen an increase in substance uses and overdoses. Some of these behaviors are new, being driven by a variety of stressors including job losses, closure of childcare facilities, or remote operations for schools. We are also concerned about these same social and economic stressors driving changes in use patterns among those still living in their addiction, and among those who have had slip-ups or relapses.”

Croff’s main projects in OSU’s Tier I Opioid Initiative are the HEALthy Brain and Child Development (HBCD) study, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and increasing the number of studies conducted as part of the National Institutes of Drug Abuse Clinical Trials Network.

The Hardesty Center’s research infrastructure includes clinical research exam rooms, behavioral and psychological exam spaces, neuroimaging exam spaces, a blood collection area and a biosample processing and storage lab, as well as faculty, staff, and administrative offices.

“We are making plans for the first randomized clinical trials in our new space and are currently exploring opportunities for both behavioral and pharmacological trials. This space will be used to address prevention for substance use disorders and treatment for substance use,” Croff said.

“The beauty of all of this is that we have nice overlap for the translation of science: our clinical programs are connected with the clinical research and neuroimaging. We are also connected to our outreach programs in rural communities, ensuring that we are bringing recent knowledge to Oklahoma communities.”

Dr. Kyle Simmons, director of biomedical imaging, said he is optimistic about the possibilities the Hardesty Center offers. He said that OSU’s involvement in the HBCD study required having a state-of-the-art brain imaging facility — and now it does.

“We have some fantastic scientists at OSU already that have been spread out across CHS, OSU-Tulsa, and Stillwater,” Simmons said. “Many of the scientists who are doing research that is relevant to the NCWR’s mission will be moving

into this space and bringing their tools and expertise. We are augmenting their expertise by building the Hardesty Center; a clinical neuroscience platform for them to do their work, which OSU didn’t have before.”

A highlight of OSU’s biomedical imaging center is its Prisma 3 Tesla MRI that Simmons said is producing some of the most beautiful brain scans he has ever seen.

“One of the really special things about what is developing here at Hardesty is that under one roof, you have the ability to do so many different types of research,” Simmons said. “Everything from measuring genetics and epigenetics up to the level of brain systems, behavior, and population health.

All under one roof. There are very few places where you can do all of that in one place. That allows you to do different types of research that are more integrative.

“Having this in Oklahoma allows OSU to step into that top tier of clinical neuroscience research institutions in the country.”

It is crucial for Oklahoma to be in that top tier as the state — and especially rural areas — continues its battle against opioid addiction.

“Most of the places that can do what we do here are clustered along the coasts, places like Yale, Harvard or NIH, or in L.A. or San Diego or Seattle,” Simmons said. “There are not a lot of places that can do what we do that are in the middle of the country, or that are positioned well to recruit from both urban and rural communities, that can do research with underserved communities like minority and Native American communities that are often overlooked. We are very excited about it and think it is a special place that is developing.”

Croff said that although research at Hardesty is still in early stages, she is hoping that the systems and expertise in place at the Hardesty Center will optimize the translation of science and reduce the time it takes for Oklahoma communities to experience the direct benefits of this research.

“It also means that if you are a research participant, what you are doing is more likely to impact your family and your community on a much shorter time scale,” Croff said. “We are not just doing this to publish it and have it go into a scientific paper that no one ever reads again. We want to be driving change, to improve the health of our communities, with all of our studies.”

R E S E A R C H .O K S TAT E . E D U 31

Safe Crossings RESEARCHERS AT OSU ARE PARTNERING WITH ODOT TO MAKE SURE OKLAHOMA’S BRIDGES ARE SAFE

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STORY HARRISON HILL | PHOTOS GARY LAWSON,ROBERT EMERSON AND ODOT

D

uring rush hour on a Wednesday in 2007 in Minneapolis, hundreds of drivers were headed home across the I-35W Mississippi River bridge when the pavement below them suddenly gave way.

The aftermath of this collapse was the catalyst for stricter regulations on bridge maintenance and a federal mandate — all major bridges needed to be inspected. National Bridge Inspection Standards requires all bridges to be inspected once every two years.

One such bridge is the I-235 bridge in Oklahoma City, where issues recently arose because of a construction fault in the 1980s.

After repairing the bridge, the Oklahoma Department of Transportation reached out to researchers at Oklahoma State University to inspect and monitor the bridge repair.

“ODOT engineers contacted us directly to help with this particular project,” said Dr. Robert Emerson, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering. “They knew we had the expertise for this project

because of the experiences it had working with OSU over several years.”

In the early 2000s, Emerson and his team worked with ODOT to develop a repair method for timber pile bridges in Oklahoma and to monitor other bridges.

“We’ve load-tested bridges before by equipping them with strain transducers and monitoring the response under load to use it as a predictor of condition,” Emerson said.

Although the I-235 bridge is safe to drive on, the issues arose from its original construction, with it having a flaw from the very beginning.

“It is a post-tensioned concrete structure,” Emerson said. “This means there are ducts that go through the concrete. And prestressing strands are passed through those ducts, and then

R E S E A R C H .O K S TAT E . E D U 33

“The best outcome for this project and the state is we find out everything is going well. But if it’s not, we’ll come up with repair strategies to strengthen it.”

DR. ROBERT EMERSON

stretched — pulled under tension — then a grout is injected to flow through those ducts to fill all the void spaces.”

Once this is done, the strands are cut at the ends, anchored to the rest of the bridge because they are bonded with the grout, which is bonded to the duct, which is bonded to the concrete.

“It’s all supposed to work together,” Emerson said. “But if it’s not, issues can arise.”

According to Emerson, an inspection by ODOT and its partners of the I-235 bridge found a point of concern. The grout used in the 1980s was not filling all the void spaces.

In the bridge’s construction, the ducts follow the location of tensile stresses in the bridge as vehicles move across it, Emerson said. At the midspan, that duct is near the bottom to carry tension. But whenever you have a continuous beam that goes over a support, it flips, creating a high spot where tension is at the top and compression is at the bottom for bending moments, he said.

“Through the inspection, ODOT found that in those high spots over the supports, the grout didn’t actually flow through,” Emerson said. “There was an air pocket, which over time would create a much bigger issue.”

Large, loaded trucks drive over the I-235 bridge during weight tests.

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Concrete is a permeable material, so water would gradually seep through it and fill up that space, causing corrosion of those prestressing strands, Emerson said.

“The fear was that this would be true for all of [the high spots] across the width of that bridge at that location,” Emerson said.

ODOT and another partner identified and repaired the bridge, then contacted OSU. “ODOT wanted our team to come up with a project to monitor the bridge and its repairs over a period of time to see if it was stable,” Emerson said. “We installed gauges and have been monitoring the bridge ever since.”

The team is currently in its fifth year of testing and plans to add another year onto the project.

The load tests — the third one being done in August — provide an immense amount of data for the team.

“The load tests were conducted the first year, the third year, and the third one will be the fifth year of this project,” Emerson said.

Usually working late at night or early in the morning, the team has ODOT drive large, heavy trucks over the bridge.

“We break it up into five lanes and pass the trucks in increasing weight — a single truck then two trucks together and then four trucks, over the bridge,” Emerson said. “This is the best way for us to get an increase in loading and see the bridge’s response to the weight increase.”

The trucks are driven slowly across the bridge while the team is recording the readings from strain gauges, monitoring deformations.

“If we know the strain that’s occurring due to that loading, we can calculate stress and then compare that to the expected/known material strengths,” Emerson said. “Eventually, we compare the results of these load tests [over the years] to see if the behavior or reaction by the materials is relatively constant.”

Besides the load tests, the team also conducts visual inspections, yearly crack mapping and

monitoring, as well as continuous monitoring of the bridge during normal use.

“We’ve been monitoring the repair that they put in place because they want to have a warning if something becomes abnormal and potentially dangerous,” Emerson said. “The best outcome for this project and the state is we find out everything is going well. But if it’s not, we’ll come up with repair strategies to strengthen it.”

Although the monitoring isn’t complete, according to Emerson, the current situation is looking good.

“We haven’t seen any lengthening of the cracks already present and based on the first two load tests, we haven’t seen any real changes in behavior, either, ” Emerson said. “So that tells me that things are currently stable.”

While this project is helping to ensure the safety of drivers across this bridge — and others like it — it is also having an impact on students and faculty at OSU. “This partnership has been very productive,” Emerson said. “It has helped ODOT and created

opportunities for many faculty members. It continues to be a very symbiotic relationship.”

OSU currently houses an ODOT roadways division on campus, where six to 10 students receive support from and work for ODOT while getting their degrees.

“It’s a fantastic experience for students,” Emerson said.

Some students join Emerson when he collects data and conducts the load tests.

“As faculty, we’re here to do research, we’re here to teach students, and we can bring all the work out in the field back in the classroom. We extend and expand our knowledge through these type of partnerships,” Emerson said.

“This project is an example of what should be at the heart of all research at a public institution, solving problems that directly impacts people.”

Because of this long-standing partnership, ODOT can be confident OSU is a resource it can tap into to help improve Oklahoma’s infrastructure and enhance the safety of its roads and bridges.

R E S E A R C H .O K S TAT E . E D U 35

As populations of native birds decline, many bird conservationists are searching for ways to prevent these fatalities.

Predicting More Than Storms

NEXRAD radar can follow — and perhaps end up preventing — bird collisions

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ew research conducted by Oklahoma State University scientists and published in the Journal of Applied Ecology indicates weather radars can predict more than the next storm: They are effective tools for predicting bird collisions.

As many as 1 billion birds die each year from colliding with windows or buildings. The victims are native species — a diverse array of birds in the North American avifauna, such as warblers, thrushes, hummingbirds, sparrows and orioles, that fly into structures during spring or fall migrations. Declining populations of native birds

36 O S U R E S E A R C H M AT T E R S

are alarming many bird conservationists, who are searching for ways to prevent these fatalities.

“A lot of the birds that collide are nocturnal migrants that fly primarily at night because they’re so small and have such a high metabolism that they’d overheat in the daytime,” said Scott Loss, an OSU associate professor of natural resource ecology and management. “The effects of light pollution in cities and around tall buildings can attract and confuse these migrating birds, causing them to collide.”

Many birds travel overnight, using the stars and other orientation cues, such as sensing

STORY GAIL ELLIS | PHOTOS TODD JOHNSON AND SHUTTERSTOCK

As many as 1 billion birds die each year from colliding with windows or buildings.

Earth’s magnetic field, but buildings and other tall structures can be difficult to identify. This is especially true for the disorienting power of light pollution coupled with the deadly effects of window glass. Loss has studied bird collisions extensively for the past several years, and this new investigation, supported by OSU Ag Research, is the first to involve a weather radar system. Birds fly high enough in the atmosphere and in large enough flocks that their activity is detected by radar beams intended for tracking aircraft, precipitation and storms.

“Radars have been used to study bird migration for more than 50 years,” Loss said. “Migrating birds look different than rain and storms. Most meteorologists have a way to turn off that ‘clutter’ and filter it out to focus on precipitation, but biologists have learned they can do the opposite.”

When precipitation and weather are filtered out, scientists can use radar technology to monitor dust, insects and birds. As a doctoral student in the Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management from 2016 to 2020, Jared Elmore monitored bird activity on NEXRAD radar available to the public from the National Weather Service.

Now a research associate at Mississippi State University, Elmore’s dissertation focused on several bird conservation issues. As a participant in the Knopf Doctoral Fellowship Program in Avian Ecology and Conservation, he targeted Stillwater by collecting data from radar sites near Enid, Tulsa and Oklahoma City.

“I downloaded the radar files through Amazon Cloud Services and learned how to code to identify the bird signatures on screen,” he said.

Elmore’s radar data was aligned with bird carcass counts documented by doctoral student Corey Riding and associate professor Tim O’Connell. For two years, April through October, Riding conducted daily surveys at 16 designated buildings on the OSU campus and in Stillwater.

“Studying collisions is important because it’s such a large mortality source for these birds,” Riding said.

Other co-authors outside OSU included Kyle Horton of Colorado State University and Andrew Farnsworth of Cornell University. Both are international leaders in using radar images to study and predict bird migration patterns.

“The analytical approaches developed by our collaborators, such as the method to filter out objects that were unlikely to be birds, were crucial to the research,” Loss said.

The birds detected on night radar scans directly correlated with collision fatalities Riding observed in Stillwater the next morning.

“We can calculate the migration traffic rate by estimating the number of birds that are crossing an imaginary line over the course of a night,” Loss said. “The nights with heavy migration traffic on radar resulted in more bird collision victims found at daybreak.”

The weather radar marvel of bird collision research was featured in the March issue of Discover magazine, and the group plans to share its findings with conservationists nationwide. Loss and Farnsworth also are working together on a bird-window collision project known as Lights Out Texas.

The coalition of conservation nonprofits, universities and governmental organizations partners with homeowners, building managers and municipal leaders to reduce light pollution and bird collisions in the downtown districts of major Texas cities.

The overnight migration activity of native bird species, such as the brown thrasher, is visible on weather radar and correlates with bird deaths that occur from building and window collisions.

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USRI team members (from left): Ben Loh, Meghana Fathepure, Daniel Tikalsky, Nicco Wang, Omar Abouzahr and Alex Booker

Mission to Mars USRI students design flyer for NASA mission

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ive college students at Oklahoma State University’s Unmanned Systems Research Institute (USRI) are giving NASA the ability to reach new heights and create new technologies for the future.

The students, part of the Drone Scholars Program, are continuing their high school internship program, which was started over three years ago. The Drone Scholar Program is funded by Boeing.

The project the students have completed is being used as a technology demonstrator for the Mars flyer concept. OSU’s design, the TIE Flyer, or Twin Inflatable Electric Flyer, is based on the

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Mars Electric Flyer concept developed by NASA scientists at Langley Research Center.

“Seeing our first concept fly was very surreal to me,” said Alex Booker, a mechanical and aerospace engineering major at OSU. “That was a huge milestone for us.”

“Last summer, we all worked on the Mars flyer together,” said Omar Abouzahr, a mechanical and aerospace engineering major at OSU. “It was a really good experience. However, this summer, we are working on different projects.”

Currently, the students are working on solar balloon-type projects. Some of the students will also be working with graduate students to complete their research.

STORY KAITLYN MIRES | PHOTOS JAMEY JACOB

MEET THE TEAM: Omar Abouzahr, a mechanical and aerospace engineering major at OSU Alex Booker, a mechanical and aerospace engineering major at OSU Daniel Tikalsky, a mechanical engineering major at Georgia Institute of Technology Nicco Wang, a mechanical engineering major at Columbia University Meghana Fathepure, an aerospace engineering major at the University of Oklahoma Ben Loh is the assistant professor for the program

The Drone Scholars program offers the students the ability to gain experience in different research fields during high school and college, as well as the ability to work with NASA and other companies on different projects and research.

“Being able to get hands-on experience in an engineering environment has been the best thing that I have done through this program,” Wang said.

“It was very fun to get to meet new people and work together with them to reach a goal.”

“When we are in class, we are learning about things like math and science,” Fathepure said.

“However, when we come into the internship, we not only get to apply what we have learned in class but also gain the hands-on experience we need to be successful. We get to see the things we have done come to life. It’s very cool to be able to put the puzzle pieces together between school and here.”

Drone Scholar program students work on the TIE Flyer.

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RURAL RENEWAL INITIATIVE PROJECT IS HELPING TILLMAN COUNTY PARAMEDICS AND RESIDENTS LINK UP WITH TULSA DOCTORS

IMPROVING RURAL HEALTH CARE 40 O S U R E S E A R C H M AT T E R S

STORY AUDREY KING | PHOTOS TODD JOHNSON

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ince the Tillman County Memorial Hospital closed more than five years ago, area residents have faced significant challenges and long distances to find health care.

This puts the Tillman County Emergency Medical Services team, located in the county seat of Frederick, in a less-than-desirable situation.

Overworked and underfunded, the paramedics and first responders are stretched thin with routine health maintenance or minor illnesses in addition to the trauma or other emergency calls. Unable to reach a hospital for at least an hour in some cases, medics often must treat patients who need advanced medical care — and every second counts.

Recognizing the increased reliance on rural paramedics following a hospital closure, the Rural Renewal Initiative of Oklahoma State University launched a research program in the summer of 2021 to help Frederick and similar communities cope with these challenges. Research teams began a series of projects with first responders to

implement and evaluate telehealth connections between ambulances and the OSU Medical Center emergency room in Tulsa. These efforts help EMTs and paramedics collaborate with ER doctors and residents in Tulsa who can advise on time-sensitive cases.

“The medical center is a teaching hospital. This platform offers learning opportunities for EMS staff and medical students alike,” said Dr. Mark Woodring, AT&T Professor of Telemedicine and assistant dean for rural health at the OSU Center for Health Sciences. Woodring also serves as co-director of the Rural Renewal Initiative.

The Rural Renewal Initiative is part of the Tier 1 initiative from OSU’s Office of Research that’s intended to engage with society and help collaborate with local communities to solve vexing challenges and create practical and scalable solutions.

“The Rural Renewal Initiative as a whole is a great example of our land-grant mission in action. The Tier 1 Research Initiatives have allowed

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us to closely examine a community’s needs through interdisciplinary, collaborative research,” Woodring said. “And the impact of this research reaches far beyond Tillman County. While this is a problem that affects many rural communities, this work shines a light on significant disparities within our state.

“We are currently testing the connectivity capability of telemedicine in the area. This in many ways is related to the rural broadband research project also associated with the Rural Renewal Initiative. We’ve been piloting FirstNet equipment for about six months, and it appears that likelihood of positive connectivity is high in most places.

Thanks to a recent grant award from Telligen, our team will have further opportunity to strengthen broadband adoption with the project.”

Those in the field appreciate this program.

“These doctors have a lot of knowledge and education we don’t have. We can work together to give patients the best care possible,” said Ralph Washburn, director of Tillman County Emergency Medical Services. “This project has been a benefit to us as EMS and to patients.

“This program would be hugely beneficial for any rural EMS in any community, in any state.”

This project has just begun. The next steps for researchers include learning about patient preferences regarding telemedicine post-COVID. “We recently conducted focus groups to help us understand the perceptions that community members have about the use of this technology

by EMS,” Woodring said. “We also hope to better understand the utilization of rural EMS services by different demographics and to provide additional support to the EMS team and patients through broadband and technology. Our preliminary assessment suggests other disparities to emergency care exist here.”

The Telligen Community Initiative (TCI) grant is extending the project, which was selected as one of only 15 grants for TCI’s 2021 Iowaand Oklahoma-based funding cycle. A total of $676,430 in grants were awarded to nonprofit organizations in these states. TCI supports projects in health innovation, health care workforce development and access to care for the underserved. Since 2014, TCI has awarded more than $11.75 million to 286 organizations and projects in Iowa, Illinois, Oklahoma and Colorado.

STUDENT EXPERIENCES AND IMPACTS The emergency telemedicine research project in Tillman County is benefiting local communities as well as OSU students. One of the primary goals of the Rural Renewal Initiative is to engage students in its interdisciplinary work. Through student research and the Rural Scholars program,

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in less than two years more than 20 students have been engaged in research intended to improve rural communities.

Hunter Meyers, a 2020 Rural Scholar, spent 10 weeks in Frederick to gain experience in telemedicine and EMS and conduct research with the community.

“I think the most important aspect of doing any kind of research in a community, especially from a public health standpoint, is stakeholder investment and involvement,” Meyers said. “By living in the communities, you show that you are invested. We show physically that we’re here to work and we’re not just some distant folks.

By living in the communities and engaging with community members you have the opportunity to have conversations with stakeholders and those are just as valuable as the research itself.

“Living and working in this community was so impactful for my education. It familiarized me with emergency medicine and solidified my desire to become a physician in a rural community in the future.”

Kate Miller, a 2020 Rural Scholar, also spent 10 weeks in Frederick. Her research focused on the perspectives of community members regarding health in the wake of the hospital closure. This experience had a significant impact on her and directed the rest of her graduate work, thesis research and current career.

“I started the summer program with a strong desire to listen to voices that aren’t necessarily asked to speak very often, but who had incredible experiential knowledge, creative thoughts, and important ideas that helped me shape the direction of my career now.”

Miller is currently a public affairs specialist at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation and will be defending her master’s thesis in agricultural communications later this summer with Dr. Angel Riggs, Dr. Samantha Blackwell and Dr. Woodring.

Courtney Mapes, a third-year medical student researcher associated with the Rural Renewal Initiative and OSU Center for Rural Health, worked with the data provided by Rural Scholars who served in Tillman County. She assessed the feasibility of the telemedicine technology and its implementation and worked closely with OSU Medicine and the Center for Health Sciences telehealth team on implementing the project in Tulsa.

“The community has been amazing to work with. Their willingness to try out new technology that has the potential to benefit their community as a whole says a lot about them,” Mapes said.

“They want the best for all of rural Oklahoma. And I’ve seen firsthand how our medical school does, too.”

After completing medical school at OSU’s Center for Health, Mapes plan to serve rural Oklahoma as a primary care physician. As both Meyers and Mapes have started their rotations through the OSU College of Osteopathic Medicine’s rural medical track program, two new rural medical student researchers are picking up where they left off — Kynadi Shelby, a 2021 Rural Scholar and first-year medical student from Hollis, and Alma Rios Wilson, an OSU medical student ambassador and second-year medical student from Buffalo.

RURAL RENEWAL INITIATIVE PARTS RURAL SCHOLARS PROGRAM Upper-level undergraduates and graduate students lead community-engaged research in rural communities during the summer. They are trained on approaches for successful communitybased research. Students study ways to develop natural, human and/or technological capital to build resilience and reduce vulnerability in rural communities.

SEED GRANT PROGRAM The initiative leads an annual competitive seed grant program open to all OSU researchers and their collaborators, providing funds to initiate research in, with or for rural communities. This program stimulates participation in research by engaging community members in refining research questions and developing opportunities to build new partnerships between the community and university. The program is designed to attract researchers from all career stages into rural renewal research and to provide excellent training opportunities for students and post-doctoral students.

Kynadi Shelby is working in Tillman County as one of the 2021 Rural Scholars.

RURAL RENEWAL SYMPOSIUM The Rural Renewal Symposium is designed to raise awareness, attract resources and stimulate research toward solving grand challenges facing rural communities. This symposium provides a unique opportunity for faculty, students and rural community members from across the U.S. and around the world to connect with others and learn about the latest discoveries, trends and approaches for rural renewal. The students from the Rural Scholars program and researchers from the Seed Grant program describe their studies and present the findings of their research projects.

R E S E A R C H .O K S TAT E . E D U 43

FACULT Y AUTHORED STORY FROM THE CONVERSATION

Secondhand clothing sales are booming — and may help solve the sustainability crisis in the fashion industry

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massive force is reshaping the fashion industry: secondhand clothing.

According to a new report, the U.S. secondhand clothing market is projected to more than triple in value in the next 10 years — from US$28 billion in 2019 to US$80 billion in 2029 — in a U.S. market currently worth $379 billion. In 2019, secondhand clothing expanded 21 times faster than conventional apparel retail did.

Even more transformative is secondhand clothing’s potential to dramatically alter the prominence of fast fashion — a business model characterized by cheap and disposable clothing that emerged in the early 2000s, epitomized by brands like H&M and Zara. Fast fashion grew exponentially over the next two decades, significantly altering the fashion landscape by producing more clothing, distributing it faster and encouraging consumers to buy in excess with low prices.

While fast fashion is expected to continue to grow 20% in the next 10 years, secondhand fashion is poised to grow 185%.

As researchers who study clothing consumption and sustainability, we think the secondhand clothing trend has the potential to reshape the fashion industry and mitigate the industry’s detrimental environmental impact on the planet.

THE NEXT BIG THING The secondhand clothing market is composed of two major categories, thrift stores and resale platforms. But it’s the latter that has largely fueled the recent boom. Secondhand clothing has long been perceived as worn out and tainted, mainly sought by bargain or treasure hunters.

However, this perception has changed, and now many consumers consider secondhand clothing to be of identical or even superior quality to unworn clothing. A trend of “fashion flipping” — or buying secondhand clothes and reselling them — has also emerged, particularly among young consumers.

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Thanks to growing consumer demand and new digital platforms like Tradesy and Poshmark that facilitate peer-to-peer exchange of everyday clothing, the digital resale market is quickly becoming the next big thing in the fashion industry.

The market for secondhand luxury goods is also substantial. Retailers like The RealReal or the Vestiaire Collective provide a digital marketplace for authenticated luxury consignment, where people buy and sell designer labels such as Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Hermès. The market value of this sector reached $2 billion in 2019.

The secondhand clothing trend also appears to be driven by affordability, especially now, during the COVID-19 economic crisis. Consumers have not only reduced their consumption of nonessential items like clothing, but are buying more quality garments over cheap, disposable attire.

For clothing resellers, the ongoing economic contraction combined with the increased interest in sustainability has proven to be a winning combination.

MORE MINDFUL CONSUMERS? The fashion industry has long been associated with social and environmental problems, ranging from poor treatment of garment workers to pollution and waste generated by clothing production.

Less than 1% of materials used to make clothing are currently recycled to make new clothing, a $500 billion annual loss for the fashion industry. The textile industry produces more carbon emissions than the airline and maritime industries combined. And approximately 20% of water pollution across the globe is the result of wastewater from the production and finishing of textiles.

Consumers have become more aware of the ecological impact of apparel production and are more frequently demanding apparel businesses expand their commitment to sustainability. Buying

STORY HYEJUNE PARK AND COSETTE MARIE JOYNER MARTINEZ | PHOTO MATT YORK/AP

The textile industry produces more carbon emissions than the airline and maritime industries combined. And approximately 20% of water pollution across the globe is the result of wastewater from the production and finishing of textiles. secondhand clothing could provide consumers a way to push back against the fast-fashion system.

Buying secondhand clothing increases the number of owners an item will have, extending its life — something that has been dramatically shortened in the age of fast fashion. (Worldwide, in the past 15 years, the average number of times a garment is worn before it’s trashed has decreased by 36%.)

High-quality clothing traded in the secondhand marketplace also retains its value over time, unlike cheaper fast-fashion products. Thus, buying a highquality secondhand garment instead of a new one is theoretically an environmental win. But some critics argue the secondhand marketplace actually encourages excess consumption by expanding access to cheap clothing.

Our latest research supports this possibility.

We interviewed young American women who regularly use digital platforms like Poshmark.

They saw secondhand clothing as a way to access both cheap goods and ones they ordinarily could not afford. They did not see it as an alternative model of consumption or a way to decrease dependence on new clothing production.

Whatever the consumer motive, increasing the reuse of clothing is a big step toward a new normal in the fashion industry, though its potential to address sustainability woes remains to be seen.

This story was originally published through a partnership with The Conversation and was authored by Hyejune Park, assistant professor of fashion merchandising and Cosette Marie Joyner Martinez, associate professor of fashion merchandising. The Conversation is a nonprofit news outlet dedicated to sharing research from experts like those on our faculty. Read more from our faculty by going to okla.st/theconversation

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Making Students’ Thinking Visible

Innovative after-school program captures Native American students’ interest in STEM through spatial design

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allmarks of the future such as virtual reality, augmented reality and 3D printing are set to help connect Native American students with their cultural past through an innovative $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation.

Students from Chickasaw, Pawnee and Citizen Potawatomi Nation tribes will learn how to apply spatial design concepts through an after-school program led by Oklahoma State University professors, then craft building designs representing stories from their tribe’s culture.

Students will be able to “walk through” and experience their completed buildings using virtual and augmented reality.

“We hope to take what students already know naturally from their culture and use it to expand their understanding of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) concepts,” said Dr. Tilanka Chandrasekera, an associate professor in the Department of Design, Housing and Merchandising.

Inspiration for the project comes from a concept known as genus loci, which Chandrasekera defines as “the spirit of place.” Native American structures, such as round houses, demonstrate unique genus loci.

“We’re looking at architectural and designrelated problems and approaching it through an indigenous way of knowing,” Chandrasekera said.

“We will discuss Native American stories related to people and history, then challenge students to bring those stories to life with their designs.”

Dr. Tutaleni Asino, an OSU associate professor of educational technology, is leading the project with Chandrasekera. He hopes that as students design buildings representing their tribe’s heritage, they will develop a passion for STEM-related careers. According to the Pew Research Institute,

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fewer than 3% of STEM workers are Native American.

“In the next five to 10 years, technologies like virtual reality and 3D printing will be ubiquitous in many professions, from doctors to engineers,” Asino said. “Being exposed to this at a young age can capture students’ interest in STEM.” The three-year grant will enable Chandrasekera and Asino to work with each tribe for one year, conducting professional development workshops for teachers and hosting after-school programs for students.

As students use augmented and virtual reality, as well as 3D printing, topics such as room dimensions and software programming come to life. Details typically challenging to visualize, like the shadows created by a light fixture and the dimensions of a curving staircase, can be seen via augmented and virtual reality, and complex projects like calculating staircase dimensions will be more realistic.

“It makes students’ thinking visible and learning more immersive,” Asino said. “They can visualize buildings that may not be accessible in the physical world.”

Dr. Norma Neely, a fifth-grade teacher at Shawnee Public Schools and elder of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, has worked closely with Asino and Chandrasekera.

“Programs like this are absolutely essential to Native American students who, too often, are among the last to experience the latest technology and STEM opportunities,” Neely said. “Exposure to this type of learning can foster interest and actually change career pathways.”

Neely believes Native American communities have many strengths that can support and augment the program.

STORY BRITTANY BOWMAN AND CHRISTY LANG | PHOTOS DIANA HASLETT

“We hope to take what students already know naturally from their culture and use it to expand their understanding of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) concepts.”

DR. TILANKA CHANDRASEKERA

“The close family kinship circles serve as safe places for students to be encouraged to experiment and follow individual interests,” Neely said. “In turn, the cultural connections like in this project reinforce and institutionalize the importance of students learning and enjoying these new skills in the context of their nation’s cultural beliefs and values.”

The NSF grant builds on previous work Chandrasekera has led for Native American communities. In 2018, a two-week summer camp provided Native middle school students

opportunities to experience STEM concepts firsthand. Asino, Chandrasakera and Nicole Colston — an assistant research professor with the Oklahoma Water Resources Center at OSU — are adapting the summer camp curriculum for an after-school format and sharing what they learned while teaching for teachers.

“The idea is not just to provide a one-time program and then leave,” Asino said. “To make it more sustainable, we are training teachers who can provide these lessons to even more students in their individual classrooms.”

Dr. Tilanka Chandrasekera

Dr. Tutaleni Asino

THIS WORK/PROJECT WAS MADE POSSIBLE BY NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION GRANT NO. 2048987.

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STORY HARRISON HILL | PHOTOS PHIL SHOCKLEY AND GARY LAWSON

Defending the SkY OSU’S UNMANNED SYSTEMS RESEARCH INSTITUTE IS AMONG THE PROGRAMS PLANNING TO USE THE NEW DISCOVERY CENTER IN OKLAHOMA CITY

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he future of engineering innovation now has a name: OSU DISCOVERY. In late July 2020, Oklahoma State University announced a partnership between the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology and Baker Hughes.

As part of that partnership, Baker Hughes donated its research and innovation center in the Oklahoma City Innovation District to the university to develop a research and learning environment to benefit both students and industry professionals.

The center houses offices and labaratories, as well as new hands-on learning opportunities in aerospace, mechanical, electrical, chemical and petroleum engineering that allows students to tackle real-world problems in a state-of-the-art facility. The center will also house classes for CEAT’s master’s degree in petroleum engineering.

The Unmanned Systems Research Institute (USRI) has big plans for the new space.

“We are in the process of finalizing a national counter-Unmanned Aircraft System Center of Excellence,” said Dr. Jamey Jacob, USRI director, John Hendrix Chair and professor of aerospace engineering. “This center is going to be working directly with the Army, particularly Fort Sill, on counter-UAS technology and strategy to develop and evaluate systems to help identify and defeat UAS that are being targeted at

[Department of Defense] and other U.S. personnel.

“In addition to strengthening our aerospace defense ties with the Oklahoma community, this provides a connection with the Oklahoma City Innovation District and companies working directly in that arena. There are a lot of companies that are trying to evaluate the technology and be able to develop these systems.”

The team is excited to have a direct connection with a lot of industry within the Oklahoma City region, Jacob said.

“Things have transformed in this space in a very short period of time — the drone industry as we know it really didn’t exist a decade ago,” he said.

Still, OSU has stayed on top of the drone industry, partially due to partnerships with companies like Baker Hughes.

“We have a long history working with the team there — all the way back before the building was even built — essentially having them give us a problem, and say for example, ‘Hey, we want to be able to detect methane emissions using a drone; how do we do this?’ and letting us be able to solve that problem for them.”

Although the center might be new, counter-UAS is a familiar area for OSU, Jacob said.

“Counter-UAS is about understanding how drones [that are] operated in the airspace may

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Members of OSU USRI at a flight test.

intentionally or unintentionally pose a potential hazard to other aircraft,” Jacob said. “Drones may be non-cooperative, in the sense that you may not be able to communicate with a pilot, and you don’t know what their intentions are.”

Part of the threat and one of OSU’s main goals is understanding and staying ahead of the exponential growth in drone technology, Jacob said. Off-the-shelf UAS technology is developing rapidly — for $200 now, you can have the same technology that 20 years ago would have cost you $100,000, he added.

“So, one of the things that we were asked to do is to think ahead — look a couple of years out and see how some of this developing technology could be used as threats,” Jacob said. “And then evaluate ways that we could identify those threats and help mitigate the potential hazard.”

Counter-UAS situations can be simple everyday occurrences.

“For example, you’re not allowed to fly UAS over NCAA football games because it’s a potential hazard,” Jacob said. “But let’s say you’re at a football game as part of the protective force there, and you have a UAS flyover — 99 percent of the time it’s just someone trying to get some picture, and they don’t know what the rules are.”

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However, in a similar situation, the UAS could be nefarious.

“It could be someone trying to do some intentional harm or damage or even just scare someone,” Jacob said. “They could do something as simple as drop a nonhazardous substance such as flour, for example. And once people see this, you could cause a stampede.”

That means in many situations, all UAS need to be treated as a threat, Jacob said.

“How do you deal with that? Since it’s a remote-controlled aircraft, you can see the aircraft, but you don’t know where the operator is— they could be anywhere within a 5-mile or greater radius of that drone that they’re flying — so how do you mitigate against that particular threat?”

Those are questions that the USRI team is trying to answer.

“It becomes a really difficult problem because since you don’t know where the operator is you can’t just go up and arrest somebody or interrogate them and stop them from doing it,” Jacob said. “And you can’t just go and grab that drone out of the sky.”

To answer the call for a better understanding of counter-UAS or solving problems focused on

health and safety, the USRI team takes a multifaceted approach.

“We’re developing our own technology, but we’re also using off-the-shelf technology,” Jacob said. “We’re very open in terms of what we do to solve a problem.

“If there something out there that’s already been developed — we don’t want to reinvent the wheel. And so if we can take something off the shelf, and either use that or modify that somehow — that’s one of the things that we’re really good at— being able to take things that have already been developed and modify it to fit whatever problem that we’re trying to solve.

“And if those things don’t exist, we create them ourselves or develop an in-house solution that’s going to be focused on trying to solve that particular problem.”

Taking that research and applying it to counterUAS it is much the same thing, Jacob said.

“We’re just thinking about this from the standpoint of ‘OK, you know we’re using this to do something such as fly very fast or fly in a swarm,’ and so these are really trying to solve similar problems that we’re already doing, it’s just looking at it from a different lens,” he said.

Jacob’s team is not alone in tackling this problem. The group is focused on building strong partnerships to push the research further. OSU also has a partnership with the Department of Defense and the Army to help develop and test drone technology.

“It’s not just government contractors and people within the government; it’s a partnership among many different agencies,” Jacob said.

“There’s the end-user, the military, for example, who is going to be operating the systems, and then you have civilian researchers within the Department of Defense that we’re working with, and you have contractors that are developing technology that we’re trying to evaluate and see how well it works.

“Then you have other state agencies that are working to try to apply these technologies to civilian applications as well.

Whether it’s Homeland Security or Highway Patrol, or FEMA or the Federal Aviation Administration, it’s a really large network of different folks that we’re serving.”

Through those partnerships and the expertise of a world-class UAS research team, OSU keeps up with the exponential growth of UAS technology.

“USRI is a large umbrella organization that’s designed with the goal in mind of being able to work with any department across campus, state agency or company that has a problem where they believe drones might be a potential solution,” Jacob said.

LEADING THE WAY OSU’S UNMANNED SYSTEMS RESEARCH INSTITUTE CONTINUES TO BE A LEADER IN ITS FIELD. The institute’s major partnerships with Baker Hughes, Toyota and NASA enable further investment in research infrastructure and students.

As part of OSU’s land-grant mission, research has been identified as a core area of focus to develop technologies focused on public health and safety including disaster preparedness, recovery and relief.

The technologies developed and studied in the pursuit of a better understanding of counterUAS will continue to propel research into drones serving the public’s health and safety needs.

READ MORE at Okla.st/drone1.

R E S E A R C H .O K S TAT E . E D U 51

Sensing Stress

Cabeen’s microbiology research team wins $1.7M NIH grant

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all 2020 brought some happy news for Dr. Matthew Cabeen of OSU’s Department of Microbiolog y and Molecular Genetics.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded his research team $1.7 million over five years to study how a bacterium senses and responds to stress.

“Our model organism, a ubiquitous nonpathogenic species called Bacillus subtilis, has an unusual way of sensing stress in its environment,” Cabeen said. “It uses relatively large multiprotein complexes called ‘stressosomes’ that are inside the cells — each cell contains 10-20 of them — to respond to stresses that are outside the cell in the environment, like ethanol, salt or antibiotics.”

Cabeen explained that because researchers don’t know exactly how this process works, their “research is aimed at a bottom-to-top understanding of environmental stress sensing, from the sensor proteins in these complexes to

Dr. Matthew Cabeen

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the fitness and survival of a whole cell population.”

He added that the idea for this study grew from research he did as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard, where he observed that “stressosomes act as a sort of processor — you give them an input and then they process it to yield a different output.”

“The central question of, ‘How do stressosomes sense and process stress?’ was the basis for all of the ideas in the project.”

Because the research Cabeen and his team are working on is “basic science,” he said the results won’t necessarily affect people directly.

“However, the more we learn about bacterial stress responses, the better equipped we will be to either fight against pathogenic bacteria — for example, the food-borne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes also uses stressosomes to sense environmental stress — or to use microbes to make medicines and other useful products.”

Members of Cabeen’s research team include postdoctoral fellow Dr. Simon Underhill, doctoral students Rabindra Khadka and Chris Hamm, Niblack Scholar Sid Bush and several undergraduate students.

“Rabi, Chris and Sid actually helped generate some of the preliminary data that we used in the proposal,” Cabeen said. “My crew is smart, hardworking and fun-loving, and so going into the lab every day is a delight for me. They’re already making great progress.”

Khadka expressed similar appreciation for Cabeen, explaining that the professor has given his students unique opportunities for learning and growth.

“He is very supportive,” Khadka said. “He provides full, informative feedback about the experiments and results. … It is under his supervision that I got my first opportunity to present my work at an international conference, which helped me grow my confidence.”

As a result of working just one semester in Cabeen’s lab as an undergrad, Hamm actually changed career paths. He had originally planned to apply to medical school, but decided to stay at OSU to work on a doctorate with Cabeen.

STORY ELIZABETH GOSNEY | PHOTOS ADAM BRONSON AND JASON WALLACE

“I thought I would be a genetic technologist, but then I fell in love with research.”

DR. MATTHEW CABEEN

Cabeen (right) in the lab.

“When Dr. Cabeen talks about science, you can feel how much he enjoys it and how excited he gets about new ideas,” Hamm said. “He is very passionate about science and is always up for a discussion about new ideas, how something works — anything really. He makes the lab an enjoyable place to work and a healthy learning environment.”

Like Hamm, Cabeen also altered his career path as he finished up dual bachelor’s degrees from the University of Connecticut in diagnostic genetic sciences and molecular cell biology.

“I thought I would be a genetic technologist, but then I fell in love with research,” Cabeen said. “Immediately after graduation, I enrolled in graduate school at Yale University.”

After earning his Ph.D., he did a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard.

Cabeen added that his goal early on was to become a professor, which has allowed him to

combine his love of teaching and research. With this NIH grant, he can continue those endeavors.

“I’m really pleased to say that this grant is part of a great funding trend for the department,” said Cabeen, who estimated that the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics leads departments in the College of Arts and Sciences in grant dollars per faculty member, bringing in over $2 million in research grants annually.

“Those dollars pay graduate students and postdoctoral researchers and enable us to buy the supplies and equipment we need to get research done. Grants like this also really help OSU improve its research profile in every way — they help us to recruit talented new faculty and students, which in turn helps us to receive more funding down the road. And the end goal of having talented and wellfunded teams of researchers is to make exciting discoveries that advance the frontier of scientific knowledge.”

R E S E A R C H .O K S TAT E . E D U 53

FACULT Y AUTHORED STORY FROM THE CONVERSATION

Anti-nutrients — they’re part of a normal diet and not as scary as they sound

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aybe you’re trying to eat healthier these days, aiming to get enough of the good stuff and limit the less-good stuff. You’re paying attention to things like fiber and fat and vitamins … and anti-nutrients?

What the heck are anti-nutrients, and are they something you need to be concerned about in your diet?

Let me, as a public health nutrition researcher, reassure you that anti-nutrients aren’t the evil nemesis of all the nutritious foods you eat. As long as you’re consuming a balanced and varied diet, anti-nutrients are not a concern. In fact, scientists are realizing they actually have many health benefits.

WHAT ARE ANTI-NUTRIENTS? Anti-nutrients are substances that naturally occur in plant and animal foods.

The name comes from how they function in your body once you eat them. They block or interfere with how your body absorbs other nutrients out of your gut and into your bloodstream so you can then use them. Thus, anti-nutrients may decrease the amount of nutrients you actually get from your food. They most commonly interfere with the absorption of calcium, iron, potassium, magnesium and zinc.

Plants evolved these compounds as a defensive mechanism against insects, parasites, bacteria and fungi. For example, some anti-nutrients can cause a food to taste bitter; animals won’t want to eat it, leaving the seed, for instance, to provide nourishment for future seedlings. Some antinutrients block the digestion of seeds that are eaten.

The seeds disperse when they come out the other end in the animal’s fecal matter and can go on to grow new plants. Both of these survival tactics help the plant species grow and spread.

In terms of foods that people eat, you’ll most commonly find anti-nutrients naturally occurring in whole grains and legumes.

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TIME FOR AN IMAGE MAKEOVER AS HEALTH ENHANCERS Despite sounding scary, studies show that antinutrients are not of concern unless consumed in ultra, unrealistically high amounts — and they have numerous health benefits.

Anti-nutrients are currently undergoing a change in image very similar to the one dietary fiber experienced. At one point, scientists thought dietary fiber was bad for people. Since fiber could bind to nutrients and pull them out of the digestive tract in poop, it seemed like something to avoid. To address this perceived issue, grain processing in the late 1800s removed fiber from foods.

But now scientists know that dietary fiber is incredibly important and encourage its consumption. Eating plenty of fiber lowers the risks of obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, diabetes and some gastrointestinal diseases.

In the same way, rather than something to avoid, many anti-nutrients are now considered healthpromoting nutraceuticals and functional foods due to their numerous benefits. Here’s an introduction to some of the most frequently eaten anti-nutrients that come with benefits: Saponins, common in legumes, can boost the immune system, reduce risk of cancer, lower cholesterol, lower blood sugar response to foods, result in fewer cavities, reduce risk of kidney stones and combat blood clotting seen in heart attacks and strokes.

Lectins, found in cereal grains and legumes, are associated with a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, some cancers and becoming overweight or obese.

Tannins, commonly found in teas, coffees and processed meats and cheeses, are antioxidants that can inhibit growth of bacteria, viruses, fungi and yeast and may decrease cholesterol levels and blood pressure.

STORY JILL JOYCE | PHOTOS TODD JOHNSON

Phytates, found in wheat, barley, rice and corn, are associated with increased immune function and cancer cell death, as well as reduced cancer cell growth and spread. They also have antioxidant properties and can reduce inflammation.

Finally, glucosinates, found in brassica vegetables like cauliflower, inhibit tumor cell growth.

found in lots of common foods, including legumes, beets, berries, cranberries, oranges, chocolate, tofu, wheat bran, soda, coffee, tea, beer, dark green vegetables and sweet potatoes.

The negative impacts of oxalates include binding to calcium in the digestive tract and removing it from the body in bowel movements.

Oxalates can also increase the risk of kidney stones in some people.

Oxalates are one of the few anti-nutrients with mostly negative impacts on the body. They are

R E S E A R C H .O K S TAT E . E D U 55

FITTING ANTI-NUTRIENTS INTO A HEALTHY DIET Overall, comparing the benefits to the drawbacks, anti-nutrient pros actually outweigh the cons. The healthy foods that contain them — mainly fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes — should be encouraged, not avoided.

Anti-nutrients become a concern only if these foods are consumed in ultra-high amounts, which is very unlikely for most adults and children in the U.S. Additionally, a large proportion of antinutrients are removed or lost from foods people eat as they’re processed and cooked, especially if soaking, blanching, boiling or other high-heat processes are involved.

Vegetarians and vegans may be at higher risk of negative effects from anti-nutrients because their diet relies heavily on fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes. But these plant-based diets are still among the healthiest and are associated with reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes and numerous types of cancers.

Vegetarians and vegans can take a few steps to help counteract anti-nutrients’ effects on their absorption of particular nutrients:

56 O S U R E S E A R C H M AT T E R S

Pair high iron and zinc foods with foods high in vitamin C (examples: veggie meatballs with tomato sauce, tomato-based chili with beans).

Soak legumes before cooking.

Time dairy intake such that it is not always paired with high oxalate foods.

Purchase dairy products that are fortified with calcium.

Consider a multivitamin-mineral supplement with about 100% of the daily recommended dose of nutrients (check the nutrition facts panel) as nutrition insurance if you are worried, but be sure to talk to your doctor first.

This story was originally published through a partnership with The Conversation and was authored by Jill Joyce, assistant Professor of Public Health Nutrition. The Conversation is a nonprofit news outlet dedicated to sharing research from experts like those on our faculty. Read more from our faculty by going to okla.st/theconversation

CONNECTING OSU WITH INDUSTRY RESEARCH FOUNDATION Learn more about the OSU Research Foundation at research.okstate.edu/OSURF

OSU Startup and Company Partnerships

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s part of OSU’s mission to serve Oklahoma and the nation, technology innovation in combination with startup and company partnerships help deliver life-changing products and services to the market. Below is a small sample of those partnerships.

Structured Ions LLC

Modified carbon fiber electrodes can provide lighter load-bearing structures for hybrid aerospace or automobiles and increase electrical energy efficiency. Structured Ions LLC, a startup, has optionally licensed the invention and received a NASA Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award to continue developing the technology with OSU.

Syngas Fermentation Technology

OSU has been working on converting biomass to high-value products such as ethanol and butanol.

OSU has developed patent-pending algorithms and methods for controlling the fermentation to produce much more of the desired materials than other processes do, which have been licensed to an engineering company to use in biomass plants in Florida and Louisiana.

Ghost Display Technologies LLC

OSU patent-pending technology will lead to ultra-low cost, high-resolution infrared images that could be used in multiple applications including war fighters, automotive accident-avoidance visibility and consumer smart devices. Startup company Ghost Display Technologies LLC has optionally licensed the invention and received multiple Air Force SBIR grants to further develop the technology with OSU.

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Plasma Bionics LLC

Plasma Bionics LLC is a startup that licensed OSU patented technology to produce a proprietary Air Plasma Sterilization® product for medical equipment. This environmentally friendly and low-operating-cost process requires no chemical consumables, produces no byproducts and can sterilize sensitive instruments without damage.

Acoustic Megastructures Technology

OSU is developing a patent-pending acoustic liner that has unprecedented low-frequency noise mitigation capability in a lightweight, ultracompact form. The solution could result in difficult to dampen low-frequency noise applications in the aircraft, automotive and HVAC industries. OSU is working closing with a Tulsa-based aerospace company to address its aircraft cabin noisedamping needs.

Rocket-Assisted Take-Off Technology for UAVs

OSU is developing a low-cost, reliable, rocketassisted take-off (RATO) system with the necessary performance to accelerate initially an unmanned aircraft vehicle (UAV) from a small footprint launch rail. OSU is partnering with a California-based UAV company with operations in Oklahoma City, to provide enhanced versatility and portability to its UAV.

Heartland Vaccines LLC

OSU has developed a patented live attenuated M-Null RSV vaccine candidate to help prevent RSV infections in infants and elderly who are most susceptible to the virus. Heartland Vaccines LLC, a startup company, has optionally licensed the invention and received a large, special topic NIH SBIR Phase I grant to further develop the technology in collaboration with OSU and OU Health Sciences Center.

Roll-2-Roll Technologies LLC

Roll-2-Roll Technologies LLC, a startup company, has licensed OSU-patented technology and brought to market next-generation sensors to detect position and measure the width of difficult materials being processed in the web-converting industry. These sensors reduce manufacturing costs and improve efficiency for users.

Weaver Labs LLC

Weaver Labs LLC is a startup contract chemical research organization (CRO) with unique fluorinated synthesis capabilities to produce compounds that can bring new drugs and agrochemicals to market, in addition to helping detect and remove harmful PFAS/PFOA compounds from drinking water. The company has been awarded multiple Air Force and NIH SBIR grants to further develop licensed OSU technologies and other technologies.

MiFi Pathogen Detection Software

MiFi software is a bioinformatics software as a service (SaaS) tool for rapid, low-cost and accurate detection of pathogens in next-generation sequenced data samples from plants or animals.

The service will be used by public and private test labs, in addition to field applications and clinics by veterinarians and medical personnel. MiFi software is being validated by initial defining test labs in California and Florida prior to a full-scale launch through a future startup company.

LEARN MORE Interested in learning more?

Contact Cowboy Innovations at cowboyinnovations@okstate.edu.

R E S E A R C H .O K S TAT E . E D U 59

FACULT Y AUTHORED STORY FROM THE CONVERSATION

What’s an epidemiologist?

I

’m an epidemiologist.

Unlike doctors and veterinarians, who typically focus on treating one patient at a time, epidemiologists focus on big groups of people or animals. We try to prevent the spread of diseases.

That means I study and teach students how to keep communities of people and clusters of animals healthy.

Epidemiologists need to know a lot about health and diseases. They also need to like math and working with numbers. Not all of us are doctors or vets.

LIKE DOMINOES Have you ever seen a big line of dominoes?

When one domino gets knocked down, it knocks down another and another. Eventually, most or all of the dominoes have been knocked down. Now imagine that each domino represents a healthy person. A fallen domino is someone who is sick.

Epidemiologists have the hard job of figuring out how the dominoes could be slightly rearranged to stop as many as possible from falling over.

We try to figure out which domino fell first — creating the problem — and also how to stop the resulting cascade of sickness.

Another way to understand what people like me do for a living is to see epidemiologists like detectives who try to put pieces of a story together to tell a whole tale.

This includes trying to understand why some people get a particular disease, and others don’t.

However, epidemiologists also get involved when a disease starts affecting a large number of people.

When this happens, it may be called an “epidemic.” Or, if the disease affects the whole world, as is the case today with COVID-19, we call it a “pandemic.”

60 O S U R E S E A R C H M AT T E R S

Dr. Jared D. Taylor

MAKING PREDICTIONS When those events happen, epidemiologists study how the disease is spreading among people, and what symptoms it is causing. The ultimate goal is to figure out how to prevent the disease from affecting more people. People like me also try to predict how many people will be affected, and when.

This helps doctors, nurses and hospitals know they need to get ready to care for those sick people.

We do lots of things besides study infectious diseases — illnesses you can catch from someone else, such as measles and the flu. Epidemiologists helped discover things like the fact that smoking causes cancer and that air pollution makes asthma worse.

Of course, many doctors may have independently noted that several of their patients who smoke get cancer. But experts had to look at hundreds or even thousands of records to prove that smoking was the cause.

Epidemiologists work on any kind of puzzle where a disease is afflicting large numbers of people, whether it is the flu, COVID-19 or lung cancer.

This story was originally published through a partnership with The Conversation and was authored by Jared D. Taylor, professor of Veterinary Pathobiology. The Conversation is a nonprofit news outlet dedicated to sharing research from experts like those on our faculty. Read more from our faculty by going to okla.st/theconversation

STORY JARED D. TAYLOR | PHOTOS GARY LAWSON AND PHIL SHOCKLEY

SOARING TO NEW HEIGHTS

With the launch of its Oklahoma Aerospace Institute for Research and Education, Oklahoma State University will be at the forefront of innovation in aerospace.

Learn more about the new institute here: okla.st/soaring

Niblack Research Scholars add 13 to roster

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or 13 students at Oklahoma State University, their careers in research are being jump-started.

These undergraduates have been selected as Niblack Research Scholars for the 2021-22 school year, earning them an $8,000 scholarship and the opportunity to conduct research.

Dr. John Niblack and his wife, Heidi, have funded the Niblack Research Scholars program at OSU for 17 years. The program allows these students to perform cutting-edge research in various fields under the supervision of faculty mentors.

“Science is hard to do. You all are like musicians learning how to play your instrument. Learning how to play a violin at a high skill level is not easy to do,”

Niblack told the 2020 Niblack scholars. “Once you get past that, then you can begin to be more creative.

You can put your own spin on it and write your own music.”

Niblack graduated from OSU in 1960 with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and earned a doctorate in biochemistry from the University of Illinois before becoming vice chairman of Pfizer Inc. As a scientist for the international pharmaceutical giant, he was responsible for Pfizer’s Global Research and Development Division, where he directed research into drugs for viral illnesses, cancer and autoimmune disorders.

Niblack retired in 2002 and founded the Niblack Research Scholarship program in 2004.

THE 2020-21 SCHOLARS, HOMETOWNS AND AREAS OF RESEARCH:

Alex Bias Orlando, Florida Chemical engineering, mathematics, political science

Rio Bonham Tishomingo, Oklahoma Biosystems and agricultural engineering

Jillian Gore Pryor, Oklahoma Zoology (pre-veterinary science option)

Manoj Jagadeesh Stillwater Microbiology/cell and molecular biology

Hunter McConnell Owasso, Oklahoma Animal science (animal biotechnology option)

Seth Robbins Pauls Valley, Oklahoma Mechanical/ aerospace engineering

Carson Raper Stillwater Natural resource ecology and management

Karley White Mannford, Oklahoma Chemical engineering: biochemical/ biomedical sciences, pre-med

Carson Wright Beggs, Oklahoma Biochemistry and molecular biology

NOT PICTURED: Serge Andre Po Abit Stillwater Biochemistry and molecular biology

Andrew Thomas Fairview, Oklahoma Microbiology and molecular genetics

Garrett Thornton Duncan, Oklahoma Physics

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Mejalaa Mega Jayaseelan Stillwater Chemical engineering

Cox Graduate Scholars

Two OSU students win Otto S. Cox Graduate Fellowships

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t Oklahoma State University, the Otto S. Cox Graduate Fellowship for Genetic Research helps students stand out in the field of genetics research.

Students earn the annual fellowship by showcasing proven records of genetic inquiry and the potential to impact the discipline in the future.

This year, two OSU students won the fellowship, which provides a $1,000 stipend and recognition for pursuing challenging work in a rapidly evolving and critical research area.

“This past year and a half has brought a keen societal awareness regarding the importance of cutting-edge genetic and genomic knowledge, techniques, and technologies,” said OSU Vice President for Research Dr. Kenneth Sewell. “Whether they will devote their lives to understanding viruses, genetic diseases, personalized medicine or some other focus within the field, the Cox Fellowship accelerates the careers of the selected students, thus benefiting society with the fruits of their expertise.”

THIS YEAR’S RECIPIENTS Anna Goldkamp, a doctoral student studying molecular genetics in animal science.

Deepali Luthra, a doctoral student studying microbiology and molecular genetics.

Goldkamp, from St. Louis, Missouri, is focused on how the rate of protein translation impacts economically important traits in livestock.

“So far, my work has shown that genetic mutations we thought were insignificant may impact these traits,” she said.

Goldkamp is investigating how tRNA abundance can act as a source of genetic variation. The abundance of each tRNA can dictate the speed of

translation and control protein content in a cell.

“It is deeply rewarding to know that I can contribute to knowledge through my research,” she said.

Goldkamp plans to use this award for travel and registration expenses for scientific conferences.

“One of my greatest opportunities for growth as a researcher is to develop relationships with my peers, exchange ideas and express the importance of my work through conferences,” she said.

Deepali Luthra works on Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a multidrugresistant opportunistic bacterial pathogen that causes life-threatening infections in patients suffering from cystic fibrosis.

“My research focuses on understanding the role of calcium in the pathogenesis of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and investigating how it leads to enhanced virulence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and its infection with epithelial cells at a cellular level,” Luthra said.

Luthra, from Ludhiana, India, says that she has been interested in research since an early age, especially pathogens and disease.

“Being here and researching to unravel the mysteries of host-pathogen interactions stimulates curiosity to understand the intricate pathogenesis of this disease,” she added.

For Luthra, this award means financial stability in her research and provides acknowledgment for the work she is doing.

“This is challenging genetic research and acknowledgement like this strengthens my potential for future post-doctoral job applications in the field of genetics and microbiology,” she said.

Anna Goldkamp

Deepali Luthra

R E S E A R C H .O K S TAT E . E D U 63

President’s Fellows

Four Oklahoma State University professors were named 2021 President’s Fellows Faculty Research Award recipients

Clint P. Aichele, Jason Defreitas, Tom Oomens and Ryan Reuter each received $20,000 as part of the award.

AWARD RECIPIENTS:

CLINT P. AICHELE Dr. Aichele, an associate professor and Lew Ward Faculty Fellow in the School of Chemical Engineering, is planning to use the funding from this award to develop microscale hydrogels for drug delivery with a focus on pulmonary diseases.

This project builds on Aichele’s previous experience working with zwitterionic hydrogels. He plans to hire a graduate student and grow his research group in this emerging area.

The outcomes of this work will serve as the basis for proposals Aichele plans to submit to the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

JASON DEFREITAS Dr. DeFreitas, an associate professor in the School of Kinesiology, Applied Health and Recreation and director of the Applied Neuromuscular Physiology Lab, studies how the brain controls muscles, and how that control system changes with aging, disuse or training.

There are multiple factors that can cause muscles and nerves to degrade.

However, current diagnostic assessments don’t detect muscle atrophy well.

DeFreitas plans to look at a newer technology that may allow for the earlier detection of muscle and nerve degradation.

Studies of this kind are difficult to perform and often difficult to get funding for.

This award will provide the ability to collect preliminary data, demonstrating the feasibility of the study and lab capabilities at OSU to funding agencies.

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TOM OOMENS Dr. Tom Oomens, an associate professor of virology in the College of Veterinary Medicine, is focused on understanding the life cycle of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). More than 100,000 children die worldwide each year due to RSV, and there is no vaccine.

During the last five to 10 years, Oomens’ lab at OSU has begun to translate the accumulated knowledge into vaccine design and testing and has generated novel vaccine prototypes.

This award will help the lab continue to develop and test safe vaccines.

This award will also help expand the lab’s infrastructure and train graduate students who will become the future generation of researchers to fight pandemics.

RYAN REUTER Dr. Reuter, an associate professor and George Chiga Animal Science Endowed Professor in the Department of Animal and Food Science, focuses on the management and nutrition of grazing livestock.

This award will allow his team to implement a project focused on how to effectively incorporate goats into Oklahoma cover cropping systems, which are currently grazed with cattle only. Goats have a unique dietary preference, and not much is known about how they would graze the cover crops, which are used to improve soil health.

It also will allow for graduate students to get training that will help them tackle the challenges of the future.

Regents Distinguished Research Award

Each year, OSU honors seven faculty members with the Regents Distinguished Research Award for their research excellence. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic prevented an in-person ceremony, but winners were still named. They include:

Dr. Ronald B. Cox Jr. (from left), Dr. Susan Little, Dr. Haobo Jiang, Dr. Igor Karača, Dr. Bryan Edwards, Dr. James Stine Jr. Not pictured: Dr. Yingmei Liu.

IGOR KARAČA, DMA, Professor, Michael and Anne Greenwood School of Music in the College of Arts and Sciences HAOBO JIANG, PH.D., Regents Professor, Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology in the Ferguson College of Agriculture

RONALD B. COX JR., PH.D., Professor and Extension Specialist, George Kaiser Family Foundation Endowed Chair in Child and Family Resilience, Associate Director of Community Engagement, Center for Family Resilience in the College of Education and Human Sciences

YINGMEI LIU, PH.D., Professor, Noble Foundation Chair, Department of Physics in the College of Arts and Sciences

BRYAN EDWARDS, PH.D., Associate Professor, Joe Synar Chair, Department of Management in the Spears School of Business

SUSAN LITTLE, PH.D., Regents Professor, Krull-Ewing Professor in Veterinary Parasitology at the Center for Veterinary Health Sciences in the College of Veterinary Medicine

JAMES STINE JR., PH.D., Professor, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology

Oklahoma State University Office of the Vice President for Research 203 Whitehurst Stillwater, Oklahoma 74078-1020

PARTNERING WITH NASA SINCE BEFORE HUMANS SET FOOT ON THE MOON

With over 50 years of programming experience at NASA, Oklahoma State University brings a nationwide approach to improving STEM education. Our programs engage Earthlings of all ages by encouraging students to pursue and complete a four-year degree, inspiring students to choose STEM careers, and connecting students and educators to NASA’s missions, including the International Space Station and the Artemis Program, which will land the first woman and person of color on the moon and prepare for human space flight to Mars.

OSU NASA Education Projects nasaostem.okstate.edu