An expert on child and adolescent development and an expert on host-microbe interactions have each been recognized by the Medical Research Foundation of Oregon of the Oregon Health and Science University.
Discovery Award
Karen Guillemin, professor and Philip H. Knight Chair in biology in the College of Arts and Sciences, is recognized for her significant contributions to health-related research. Guillemin was instrumental in establishing gnotobiotic (free of microbes) zebrafish as a model organism to understand mechanisms underlying interactions between host animals and their resident microbes—including intestinal tract function and immune response. She has made significant discoveries using this model that reveal mechanisms underlying human health and serve as the basis for designing microbial therapeutics for human disease.
Her nominator for the award wrote, “Dr. Guillemin is a true Oregon pioneer who has established a new understanding of microbial and animal biology and how they are intertwined. Her findings are having, and will continue to have, a revolutionary effect that will have long-range implications for understanding human health and disease.”
Mentor Award
Leslie Leve, professor and the Lorry Lokey Chair in education in the College of Education, is recognized for her efforts to provide exceptional mentorship in support of education, health research, and advancing health care. Leve’s work includes preventive intervention studies with youth in foster care or juvenile justice system, adoption studies that examine the interplay between biological and social influences on development, and health intervention outreach programs for communities. She co-directs a center on parenting in the context of opioid use. Throughout her time at the UO, Leve has helped to foster the careers of dozens students, postdoctoral scholars, and junior colleagues.
Her nominator for the award wrote, “Dr. Leve not only has achieved a quantity of mentoring that is extraordinary (considering her many professional and scientific responsibilities), but a quality of mentoring that can be seen in the results of her mentees.”