Catalyst, Fall 2025

Dear alumni and friends,

Welcome to our new digital newsletter format! We hope to bring you closer to the life of our department with quarterly updates that highlight achievements, events and opportunities to stay connected.

This issue summarizes and celebrates our recent progress and success. We welcomed four new professors: BB alum Sarah Clark from OHSU with expertise in cryo-electron microscopy and lipid transport, Dan Liefwalker from OHSU with expertise in epigenetics and transcriptional biology of cancer, and Maria Purice from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center with expertise in neuroscience, glia and aging — all at the assistant professor level. Starting as associate professor, Myriam Cotten has expertise in solid state NMR and antimicrobial peptides. We also hired Kenton Hokanson as Professor of Teaching, Ally Erlendson as an instructor, and Autumn VanderLinden and Tanushri Kumar as professional advisors.

Last year, we proudly graduated 14 BB majors, 76 BMB majors, 2 M.S. students, and 6 Ph.D.s — a testament to the dedication of our faculty and the hard work of our students. Our undergraduates continue to make us proud, earning prestigious honors. Sahana Shah was a 2025-2026 Fulbright recipient and Giulia Wood a 2026 Marshall Scholar, the first in OSU history! This is a reflection of their talent and the strength of our academic community. We also presented the inaugural Ken van Holde Award, honoring excellence in research and scholarship to Hannah Stuwe, whose outstanding work exemplifies the spirit of integrating science, society, and mentoring that Ken championed.

On a personal note, I had the privilege to attend and speak at a retirement celebration for my postdoc mentor, Professor George Barany — a moment that prompted reflection on the legacy we leave through science, teaching, and mentorship. I also had the honor of giving the Gilfillan Public Lecture, sharing my journey in science and the experiences that shaped me. Growing up in a segregated community during Beirut’s civil war, college gave me the chance to break barriers and learn what it means to be part of a diverse, inclusive community.

As I reflect on the values of college life and a career in academia, it becomes clear that what makes this experience special is not just earning a degree or training for a profession — it’s about creating a community, exploring new ideas, and challenging the status quo. We are morally obligated to protect this way of life, which is so dear and increasingly at risk.

Thank you for being part of this journey. I look forward to continuing our productive trend this year working together to make science accessible, impactful and inspiring, taking risks, insisting, and persisting in revealing how life works and creating more just and peaceful solutions for the benefit of all.

Elisar Barbar
Department Head, Biochemistry and Biophysics
Director of the Training Grant in Molecular Biophysics

Elisar Barbar honored with prestigious awards for research and leadership

Dr. Elisar Barbar, head of the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at Oregon State University, has been recognized as an Alumni Association Distinguished Professor and the College of Science 2024 Gilfillan Award winner for exceptional scholarship, innovative teaching, and leadership in diversity and inclusion. A leading expert on intrinsically disordered proteins, her NMR-based biophysics research has advanced fundamental understanding of protein–protein interactions that regulate intracellular transport and cellular organization—highlighted by seminal work on the dynein motor complex and the LC8 hub protein—with broad implications for human health and therapeutic design. As department head, she has strengthened OSU’s biophysical research infrastructure, including securing an 800 MHz NMR spectrometer, while fostering a collaborative and inclusive academic environment.

Want to see her recent public lecture? Check it out on Youtube!

The latest in research

The department has demonstrated strong activity in seeking and securing research funding. Phil McFadden successfully submitted a University Graduate Laurels Block Grant for the 2025-26 academic year, which was selected for funding to cover tuition for a first-year graduate student.

A significant Academic Program Renovation proposal, led by Nathan Mortimer, along with Juan Vanegas, Myriam Cotten, and Kari van Zee, received $92,000 from the Graduate School to revise the graduate program. The proposal was described as deep, innovative, and exemplary.

The Agilent/GCE4All Center joint proposal for building a public repository of annotated mass spectra was approved for $71,011.

Other funded projects include Alysia Vrailas-Mortimer's co-PI roles on grants for "Modeling the Genetic Basis and Evolution of Insecticide Resistance in Spotted-Winged Drosophila" ($75,000 from OSU College of Science SCIRIS) and "Novel Use of SGLT2 Inhibitors to Improve Human Health" ($100,000 from the OSU Foundation).

Myriam Cotten is a Co-PI on a Sci-RIS grant awarded $70,892 for "Unlocking the full potential of seaweed as a sustainable, multi-functional commodity."

Fritz Gombart and his colleagues from the College of Health, Russ Turner and Urszula Iwaniec, received $10,000 from the Disease Mechanism Prevention Fund award for “AMPing up bone health: Revealing cathelicidin’s effect on bone”.

Lead PI, David Hendrix, along with Elisar Barbar and Juan Vanegas, received $100,000 from the OSU Foundation for a proposal titled "Artificial intelligence and art integration for the prediction and visualization of RNA 3D structures". Vanegas also received a new allocation for 2025-26 to use the Anton 3 supercomputer at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center.

Biochemistry for all

Dr. Lauren Dalton has co-led the co-creation of a free, open-access textbook called Fundamentals of Cell Biology.

Recognizing the lack of affordable, high-quality resources for this topic, Lauren partnered with Dr. Robin Young, a colleague at the University of British Columbia Okanagan to write a data-centered, multi-modal textbook. This book fills a huge gap in the open textbook landscape, as it is one of the first comprehensive open cell biology textbooks available. Since its 2024 publication, the textbook has reached over 76,000 unique users globally and has been downloaded more than 10,000 times. As of July 2025, it has been adopted at ~20 institutions in the U.S. and Canada. The feedback from over 250 students at the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and American Society for Cell Biology conferences has been overwhelmingly positive. At OSU alone, the textbook has saved students an estimated $60,000 annually, making a significant contribution to educational equity.

Dalton's book was highly reviewed in independent OER repositories and has won an Oregon OER Champion award in 2025.

Outstanding undergraduates

Third-year biochemistry and molecular biology student, Estifanos Berhe, is making significant strides in understanding autoimmune diseases.

Audrey Bivens, recently had a transformative experience in Spain, gaining invaluable hands-on lab experience in crystallography.

Army ROTC cadet Emily Self turned a backcountry avalanche into a rescue mission, saving four skiers near Whistler. Read her story here:

Honors student AJ Damiana bridges art and science through a year-long PRAx fellowship, creating “The Cell-ebration of Life” - a vivid depiction of cellular aging featured in the ASBMB calendar

From medicine to wine science: Emily Kaneshiro is tackling wildfire smoke taint in wine through innovative yeast research, while gaining global experience from Oregon to France:

Third annual Genetic Code Expansion Conference

The GCE4All Research Center hosted the 3rd GCE Conference to catalyze the expansion of noncanonical amino acid use in biomedical research, and hosted a GCE workshop in Summer 2025 on engineering post translational modifications into proteins using GCE. They also continue to host the International GCE Webinar series.

Did you miss it? Keep up with upcoming Genetic Code Expansion conferences and GCE workshops.

A sneak peek

We look forward to continuing to share our progress and success with a brand-new quarterly newsletter! Our next issue will include the securing of NIH funding for the Predoctoral Training Grant in Molecular Biophysics of Complex Systems — a long-standing dream that became reality through persistence and collaboration — and Sarah Clark's prestigious NIH MIRA grant and gaining international attention on her research!