Skip to main content
Oregon State University OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY Open search box
College of Agricultural Sciences &  College of Science »

Department of Microbiology

Toggle menu Go to search page
    • ABOUT
      • Who We Are
      • Mission and Goals
    • Undergraduates
    • Graduates
    • People
      • Faculty Directory
      • Research Associates, Postdocs, Research Assistants
        • Recent Res Assoc, Res Assist, and Postdocs
      • Graduate Students
        • Current Graduate Students
        • Recently Graduated
      • Visiting Scientists
      • Professional Faculty and Staff
      • ODFW
        • STAFF DIRECTORY ODFW
    • Research
    • CORE VALUES
    • OSU Student Resources
    • Calendar
    • Library
    • Maps
    • Online Services
    • Make a Gift
  • ABOUT
    • Who We Are
    • Mission and Goals
  • Undergraduates
    • Graduates
    • People
      • Faculty Directory
      • Research Associates, Postdocs, Research Assistants
        • Recent Res Assoc, Res Assist, and Postdocs
      • Graduate Students
        • Current Graduate Students
        • Recently Graduated
      • Visiting Scientists
      • Professional Faculty and Staff
      • ODFW
        • STAFF DIRECTORY ODFW
    • Research
    • CORE VALUES
    • OSU Student Resources

    Archives

    Dr. R. Thurber Receives Distingished Award

    January 2021: Congratulations to Dr. Rebecca Vega Thurber, Microbiology, on being selected as a recipient of the 2020-21 James and Mildred Oldfield/E.R. Jackman Team Award along with other members of the The COVID Wastewater Team. This award recognizes superior and distinguished interdisciplinary team achievements through teaching, research, international, or extended[...]

    Study Hints at Microbiome Differences in Children with Autism

    Research by Dr. Maude David, OSU Microbiology, indicates that children with autism may have a subtly different set of bacteria in their gut than their non-autistic siblings, according to unpublished data presented virtually on Tuesday at the 2021 Society for Neuroscience Global Connectome .

    Outstanding OSU Microbiologist has died at 97

    In Memoriam: Dr. Richard Morita, A Stellar Career. On November 22, 2020 the family of Richard Yukio Morita reached out to tell us that Dick had died at 97 in Corvallis. All of us reacted to the news with great sadness. He was an outstanding scientist who[...]

    Opening Doors for Underrepresented Scholars

    Although almost a quarter of Oregon’s high school graduates were Latinx in 2020 (originating from Mexico, Central and South America, and Hispanic-culture Caribbean), only around 9% of students graduating from OSU with a bachelor’s degree were Latinx in the same year. Similar statistics hold for Black, Native American, and other[...]

    Gut Bacteria and Heart Disease

    Gut bacteria associated with animal-based diet may mitigate risk of cardiovascular disease: “The connection between TMAO and cardiovascular disease has tended to focus the conversation on how animal-based diets cause negative health consequences,” said Dr. Veronika Kivenson, the study’s lead author and a postdoctoral fellow in the College of Science[...]

    Viral Infection and Coral Damage

    Dr. Rebecca Vega Thurber, Microbiology and other scientists at Oregon State University have shown that viral infection is involved in coral bleaching -- the breakdown of the symbiotic relationship between corals and the algae they rely on for energy.

    How Worms and a Parasite Harm Salmon on the Klamath River — and How a New Data Portal May Help

    Research by OSU scientists, including Dr. Jerri Bartholomew, on the C. shasta parasite’s role in the Klamath Basin began in the early 1980s in the Williamson and Lower Sprague Rivers, where high populations of worms were detected on the riverbed and high densities of parasite spores in the water. But[...]

    Dr. Rebecca Vega-Thurber Named Pernot Distinguished Professor

    Marine ecologist and associate professor Rebecca Vega Thurber has been appointed the Emile F. Pernot Distinguished Professor in Microbiology by the Colleges of Science and Agricultural Science at Oregon State University. The endowed professorship recognizes Vega Thurber’s distinguished contributions to several fields of microbiology that encompass coral reef ecology, virology,[...]

    Microbiology Grad awarded ORISE Fellowship at CDC

    Recent Microbiology Master’s degree recipient, Elizanette ‘Nette’ Lopez, has been awarded a fellowship from the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) to learn at the CDC biorepository in Lawrenceville, Georgia. Nette successfully defended her thesis, “Effects of elevated temperature on Mycobacterium chelonae growth and[...]

    Former Micro Faculty Dennis Hruby Honored

    Congratulations to former Department of Microbiology faculty member Dennis Hruby, who is being honored for his pioneering discovery of a treatment for pox viruses. This is an exceptional achievement and we are all very proud of Dennis. Please check link to website for further information about this achievement and TPOXX,[...]

    Postdoctoral Excellence Award

    August 1, 2020: Dr. James Fox, was awarded the 2020 Postdoctoral Excellence Award. In the two years since James joined the Halsey lab he has made significant research contributions, injected new ideas into OSU's postdoctoral association (PDA), and led creative outreach and service activities. James is a member of the[...]

    Microbiology Student Featured on Science Friday

    July 6, 2020: Sarah Olson Michel, a microbiology junior recommended science books for summer reading to a national audience on the Science Friday show. READ FULL ARTICLE AND LISTEN HERE.

    CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR GRADUATES!

    June 2020: This year we graduated 57 Microbiology majors and 143 BioHealth Sciences majors with Baccalaureate degrees, 3 Microbiology majors with Masters degrees and 1 with a Doctoral degree. In a first ever experience, we are congratulating our graduates remotely, by video . We encourage our graduates to share their[...]

    BHS Senior's Race to the Medical School Finish Line

    June 12, 2020: Jacob Maynes , a senior in BioHealth Sciences will start medical school at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine in Erie, Pennsylvania. Working with is advisor, Alex Beck, they devised a plan where he could complete his degree after only 3 years of college.

    Saving Atlantis

    May 21, 2020: Saving Atlantis , a feature documentary produced by OSU filmmakers tracks coral microbiologist Rebecca Vega Thurber and other OSU researchers, uncovering the causes and seeking solutions for the global decline of coral reef ecosystems, is now streaming on Hulu and Amazon Prime . Saving Atlantis .[...]

    Mikayla Pivec Awarded Oregon State Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year

    May 20, 2020: BHS student Mikayla Pivec led the Oregon State Women's basketball team to another phenomenol season while holding the highest GPA on the team and completing her degree in BioHealth Science. She has received many athletic awards as well as being a SURE Science recipient. Congratulations Mikayla! Read Full Article

    Radar O'Reilly Cindy Fisher

    Nash’s ‘Radar O’Reilly’: Longtime building manager keeps watch over labs during campus shutdown Cindy Fisher, building manager at Nash Hall -- Years at OSU: 39 --City of residence: Corvallis: In Nash Hall, the Department of Microbiology has 30 labs spread over three floors. Decades’ worth of samples and specimens are[...]

    Carbon Cycle Game

    As part of the Earth Day celebrations Dr. James Fox, Microbiology, teamed up with Ivona Cetinić (NASA Goddard) to discuss the marine carbon cycle, phytoplankton, satellites and more. Dr. Fox introduced an outreach activity developed as part of his OMSI Science Communication Fellowship.

    OSU-PNNL Fellowship Awarded to OSU Microbiology Grad

    Sebastian Singleton, a first-year Ph.D. student in the Microbiology Department, has been awarded a fellowship in the OSU-PNNL Distinguished Graduate Research Program. Seb’s project, titled " Dining on plastic refuse: Uncovering mechanisms behind microbial degradation of plastics in municipal solid waste environments" aims to culture and identify plastic colonizing[...]

    Microbiology Donates Masks, Gloves, Gowns

    April 1, 2020: The Department of Microbiology has donated masks, gloves, and gowns to local hospitals in need of PPE for COVID-19 protection for health care workers.

    Smaller than expected phytoplankton may mean less carbon sequestered at sea bottom

    April 2, 2020: A study that included the first-ever winter sampling of phytoplankton in the North Atlantic revealed cells smaller than what scientists expected, meaning commonly used carbon sequestration models may be over-optimistic. The OSU research into the microscopic algae, part of NASA’s North Atlantic Aerosols and Marine Ecosystems Study,[...]

    A Deep-Sea Methane Seep from Off Shore Oregon

    April 1 2020: Dr. Andrew Thurber: An exhibit that was presented at the Hatfield Marine Science Center, "Deep Sea and Me" communicated the diversity of habitats (such as this methane seep) and societal benefits that Oregonians get from the Deep Sea. Photo courtesy of Ocean Exploraton Trust. The Deep Sea[...]

    NSF Graduate Research Fellowship

    April 1, 2020: Grace Deitzler was awarded the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and will investigate host-environment-microbiota interactions in honey bees. She has been working with Dr. David and Dr. Sagili of the Honey Bee Lab characterizing the honey bee microbiome. She will continue that work as well as the gut-brain[...]

    First Known Animal that Doesn't Need Oxygen

    February 2020: A group of researchers, including Dr. Jerri Bartholomew and Dr. Stephen Atkinson from OSU, have discovered that a common salmon parasite in the PNW has lost its mitochondrial genome and cannot use oxygen directly. READ FURTHER

    Olaf Boedtker Award Given to Alex Beck

    February 14, 2020. The COS Awards ceremony presented Alex Beck, BHS Advisor, the 2020 Olaf Boedtker Award for Excellence in Academic Advising. There was a large field of candidates for this award and the nominations come from students so it is quite an honor to be the recipient. Congratulations Alex!

    Dr. Kim Halsey receives SciRIS-II Award

    JANUARY 2020: Congratulations to Kim Halsey, who received support from the College of Sciences under the SciRIS-II program. Her project, titled " Predicting the trajectory of toxic harmful algal blooms using multi-omits data integration", will use innovative statistical approaches to merge aquatic microbiome data with environmental properties and chemical[...]

    Behavioral Disorders in Children Tied to Gut Bacteria

    The study published this week in mBio (Gut Feelings Begin in Childhood: The Gut Metageome Correlates with Early Environment, Caregiving, and Behavior. 2020. J.E. Flannery, K. Stagaman, A. Burns, R. Hickey, L. Roos, R. Giuliana, P. Fisher and T.J. Sharpton; mBio DOI 10.1128.) out of U of O and OSU[...]

    OSU Researchers ID Bacteria That Targets Coral Reefs

    Researchers at Oregon State University have proposed a new genus of bacteria that flourishes when coral reefs become polluted, siphoning energy from the corals and making them more susceptible to disease. The NSF-funded study is published in the ISME Journal (Phylogenetic, genomic, and biogeographic characterization of a novel and ubiquitous[...]

    WIPEOUT RADIO

    In this audio clip, Department of Microbiology grad student Katie McConnell, interviews Distinguished Professor Steve Giovannoni and Research Associate Adam Schneiderhan about a recent problem they encountered while investigating oxygen minimum zones that form on the Oregon Coast. Steve and Adam describe their "wipeout" on Katie's show "Wipeout Radio".

    Grad Scholarship and Fellowship Awards

    Microbiology celebrated our 2019-20 Graduate Student Scholarship and Fellowship Awards on June 5. Congratulations to W.Wang, J. Buser, Q. Washburn, P Singla, H. Delgado, K. McConnell, P. Smith, D. Barrett and J. Joseph!

    Gut Bacteria and Human Health

    Dr. Thomas Sharpton (Microbiology) and Ph.D. Student Courtney Armour are looking at which organisms are in the microbiome and also what functions they are performing. Published in mSystems.

    Grant to study link between microbiome, autism

    OSU microbiologist, Dr. Maude David, is part of a 1.94 million grant to look for possible connections between the human microbiome and autism spectrum disorder, a developmental disorder that affects communication and behavior. The study will include Stanford University School of Medicine and Second Genome. Additional Information

    Presidential Scholar

    Jordyn Hamilton is an Honors BioHealth Sciences student with a focus on pre-medicine. She received the university's most competitive, merit-based scholarship for in-state undergraduates, the Presidential Scholarship. This scholarship covers four years tuition and awards a total of $40,000.

    First Known Animal that Doesn't Need Oxygen

    When the parasitic blob known as Henneguya salminicola sinks its spores into the flesh of a tasty fish, it does not hold its breath. That’s because is the only known animal onEarth that does not breathe. Read Full Story https://www.livescience.com/first-non-breathing-animal.html

    Dr. Sharpton receives Phi Kappa Phi Award

    Dr. Thomas Sharpton has received the Phi Kappa Phi Emerging Scholar Award . This award recognizes early career faculty for outstanding research or creative activity in their field of study.

    Marine Microbial Board Game

    Microbiology graduate student Quinn Washburn developed a board game called Oligotrophic designed to help students understand the microbial ecology of the oceans and movement of biomass. Marine microbes live extraordinary lives of their own, albeit ones fraught with danger and opportunity.

    Welcome New Department Head Dr. Stephen Giovannoni

    The College of Science welcomes Steve Giovannoni as the new head of the Department of Microbiology Head effective July 1, 2020. Giovannoni is an OSU Distinguished Professor in the Department of Microbiology with joint appointments in the College of Science and the College of Agricultural Sciences. He joined the department[...]

    Honoring the Moments that Changed a Life

    James Winton (Ph.D. ’81) remains grateful for how a single microbiology course changed his life. After serving as an officer in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War, Winton arrived on campus in the winter of 1971-2 to take some pre-med courses. His first microbiology class struck a spark, and[...]

    OSU Works to Make Oysters Healthier

    Scientists at OSU, including Dr. Ryan Mueller, Microbiology, are investigating the effect of probiotics on the health of oyster larvae and their microbiome thanks to a grant from NOAA Sea Grant Program.

    Micro senior undertakes neuroscience research in Spain

    Micro undergrad student Julianna Donohoe, spent 10 weeks in Madrid, Spain at the Cajal Institute , a leading research center in neuroscience, where she assisted with research on Parkinson's Disease.

    Novel Way of Classifying Microbes

    "Gut microbes' role in mammals' evolution starts to become clearer." Postdoctoral researcher Chris Gaulke, graduate students Holly Arnold and Ian Humphreys, and Assistant Professor Thomas Sharpton (OSU Microbiology) led an international collaboration that resolved which of the trillions of gut microbes are linked to the evolution of mammals, including humans.

    A Distinguished Career

    Dr. Michael Kent, Microbiology, received the OSU Alumni Association Distinguished Professor Award and the 2018 Agricultural Research Foundation Distinguished Faculty Award for his superior academic performance, professional renown and service to the University and the public.

    Coral reef documentary at Darkside: "Saving Atlantis"

    " Saving Atlantis ," a feature-length documentary on coral reefs produced by Oregon State University filmmakers, will be shown Aug. 31 through Sept. 6 at Darkside Cinema, 215 S.W. Fourth St., Corvallis. The first screening will be at 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 31. Filmmakers David Baker and Justin Smith of[...]

    The Next Generation of Microbiologists

    The Helen Alford Hays Microbiology Scholarship: "Prepare Your Minds," Dr. Charles Hays, a Canadian science journalist, advised students during the annual scholarship luncheon. He is the son of Helen Alford Hays, a long-time microbiology instructor and advisor from 1955-1981.

    Dr. Bruslind Receives Open Education Award

    Congratulations to Linda Bruslind for winning the 2018 Open Education Award . Dr. Linda Bruslind, Microbiology, senior instructor II and lead advisor in the Department of Microbiology in the College of Science received an award by Extended Campus for development of an online textbook, "Introduction to Microbiology". This online textbook[...]

    Dynamic Duo Join Microbiology

    Dr. Maude David and Dr. Kenton Hokanson have recently joined the Department of Microbiology. Dr. David has a joint appointment in the College of Pharmacy and will focus on developing undergraduate curricula in bioinformatics. Dr. Hokanson is an instructor in Microbiology and BioHealth Sciences and will help develop an electrophysiology[...]

    Statistical Innovations Help Decode the Human Microbiome

    Dr. Yuan Jiang, Dr. Duo Jiang and Dr. Thomas Sharpton (Microbiology/Statistics) were awarded a prestigious four year $770K grant by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences and NIH to study the human microbiome. This project will advance scientific understanding of the functions and operations of microbiomes by developing statistical[...]

    Hanby Middle School Students Get Hands-On Lessons in Microbiology

    Hanby Middle School students get hands on lessons in microbiology. Photos and Story by Christien Laber During a recent visit to OSU, the Hanby Girls STEM group interacted with members of the Department of Microbiology to learn about life at the microscopic level. As part of their two-day tour[...]

    Journalist at Sea

    NASA-NAAMES Mission : Dr. Kim Halsey, OSU Microbiologist, Dr. Cleo Martin-Davies, OSU Postdoc, and Dr. Luis Bolanos, OSU Postdoc are headed for the North Atlantic along with 29 other scientists are onboard the ATLANTIS on a research vessel operated by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The purpose to investigate the ocean[...]

    Can Coral Microbes Protect Reefs from Climate Change?

    Scientists are investigating the role microbiomes play in coral health, trying to identify those microbial traits that make coral reefs resilient as ocean temperatures rise and bleaching events accelerate. One group, the Global Coral Microbiome Project, led by OSU Microbiologist Dr. Rebecca Vega-Thurber is performing a global survey of reefs.[...]

    A Cure for Coral Reefs

    By pretty much any measure, Vega Thurber (Microbiologist, Oregon State University) (Becky, to anyone who's met her at least once) is a badass marine biologist. She weathers bouts of seasickness like an old salt: “Take Bonine twice a day,” she advises, before noting dispassionately that “sometimes you end up barfing[...]

    Dr. Michael Kent Receives Zebrafish Award

    Dr. Michael Kent was presented with the Outstanding Steward of Zebrafish Award by the Zebrafish Husbandry Association (ZHA) at the annual meeting at Aquaculture America 2018 in Las Vegas in recognition of his many years providing training and research in support of the health and welfare of laboratory zebrafish. The[...]

    Oregon's "Blue Economy" Bolstered by Longstanding Partnership for Fish Health

    Oregon's "Blue Economy" Bolstered by Longstanding Partnership for Fish Health : A longstanding and fruitful collaboration that benefits fish health and sustainable economic growth in Oregon was recently reinforced by a five-year, $404,000 renewal of the Fish Health Graduate Research Fellowship in Microbiology at Oregon State University by the Oregon[...]

    SACNAS National Stem Conference

    With help from the department, undergraduate Aimee Nguyen attended the SACNAS National Stem Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah in October. SACNAS stands for Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science. This professional society's goal is to promote diversity and help minorities advance[...]

    A Grand Unified Theory of Unhealthy Microbiomes

    A microbiological version of the Anna Karenina principle is a new paradigm suggested by Dr. Rebecca Vega-Thurber, Dr. Jesse Zaneveld, and Graduate Student Ryan McMinds--one that has key implications for a more personalized approach to antibiotic therapy, management of chronic disease and other aspects of medical care. The principle gets[...]

    Probiotics for Honeybees

    Microbiology Assistant Professor Maude David and PhD student Grace Deitzler are collaborating with Associate Professor Dr. Ramesh Sagili and postdoctoral fellow Dr. Priyadarshini Chakrabarti-Basu (College of Agricultural Sciences) to test the effects of commercially available probiotics for honeybees. These products have received a lot of attention in the beekeeping community[...]

    Diatoms Have Sex After All

    New research shows a species of diatom, a single-celled algae, thought to be asexual does reproduce sexually, and scientists learned it's a common compound - ammonium - that puts the ubiquitous organism in the mood. The findings, published today in PLOS One , may be a key step toward greater[...]

    Warming Temperatures could Trigger Starvation, Extinctions in Deep Oceans

    Biodiversity in many of these areas is defined by the meager amount of food reaching the seafloor and over the next 80 plus years, in certain parts of the world, that amount of food will be cut in half, said Dr. Andrew Thurber, an OSU marine ecologist and co-author of[...]

    New Phytoplankton Groups Favor Warmer Oceans

    One of the phytoplankton lineages appears to be an entirely new group of phytoplankton. MBARI researchers, working with OSU's Stephen Giovannoni, concluded this single-celled protistan group took a separate evolutionary path from the haptophyte algae, which arose between 1 billion and 637 million years ago. Full Article

    Discovery of first active seep in Antarctica provides new understanding of methane cycle

    Corvallis, Ore. — The discovery of the first active methane seep in Antarctica is providing scientists new understanding of the methane cycle and the role methane found in this region may play in warming the planet. A methane seep is a location where methane gas escapes from an underground reservoir[...]

    Coral Reefs in Crisis

    A PARASITIC BACTERIUM SAPS ENERGY FROM CORALS. The bacterium is the first member of a newly identified genus, and was discovered during a study at the Caribbean staghorn coral microbiome by OSU microbiologist Rebecca Vega Thurber and her colleagues. LOCALIZED EFFORTS TO SAVE CORAL REEFS NOT ENOUGH Findings by researchers[...]

    What's At the Bottom of Your Ocean?

    Rachel Carson wrote, "In nature nothing exists alone." So what's at the bottom of your ocean? Off the coast of California there are hundreds of thousands of barrels of toxic waste from the manufacture of DDT: Full LA Times Article: https://www.latimes.com/projects/la-coast-ddt-dumping-ground/ ; For more of the science behind the[...]

    Sciris Stage II Grant Awarded for Anxiety Research

    Congratulations to Maude, Kenton, and Kathy Magnusson (VetMed) for being awarded a Sciris stage II grant from the College of Science for their proposal “An integrative investigation of the role of the gut-brain axis on sex differences in anxiety”. These highly competitive awards are part of a College of Science[...]

    Contact Info

    Dr. Stephen Giovannoni, Head
    Mary Fulton, Dept. Manager
    Microbiology; Nash Hall 226
    OSU, Corvallis, OR 97331
    Microbiology:  541-737-4441
    BioHealth Science:  541-737-5414

    Contact Us

    Copyright ©2021 Oregon State University
    Disclaimer
    Login