LINUS
PAULINGINSTITUTE
OREGON STATE UNIVERSITYRESEARCH NEWSLETTERSPRING 2023

A RETURN TO LINUS PAULING DAY CELEBRATIONS IN CORVALLIS LOOK INSIDELADY OF THE FLIESIN THIS ISSUE

An Interview with Dr. Alysia Vrailas-Mortimer
We are pleased to introduce Dr. Alysia Vrailas-Mortimer, the newest principal investigatorat the Institute. An associate professor in Oregon State University’s Department ofBiochemistry and Biophysics, Dr. Vrailas-Mortimer received her Ph.D. in Genetics andMolecular Biology from Emory University. Before coming to OSU, she was an assistantprofessor at the University of Denver and an associate professor at Illinois State
University.
Dr. Vrailas-Mortimer utilizes the fruit fly model in her research, and with it comes a wide
range of genetic tools at her disposal. For nearly two decades, she has used these flies
to elucidate cellular responses to stress.
We sat down with Dr. Vrailas-Mortimer to discuss her work using fruit flies as a modelfor human disease, what can be accomplished with them, and how her research
connects with that of other investigators at the Institute to advance optimal health.

Why should we study fruit flies?
That’s a great question. We work with the common fruit fly: Drosophila melanogaster.
Researchers have been studying this species for more than a century. Work in thismodel has helped us to better understand the role of genetics in human disease.

Continued on page 4

Lady of the Flies.....1
From the Director....2
Dam Proud Day
2023.......................3
Coming Changes to
the Newsletter.........5
Vitamin C for
Immune Health........6
Linus Pauling Day
Celebration.............7
Visions ofLinus Pauling .........7

FROM THE DIRECTOR
The year has only just begun, but 2023
is off to a great start.

Photo credit: Karl Maadsam

First, the Linus Pauling Institutewelcomed two new faculty members:
Dr. Alysia Vrailas-Mortimer and
Dr. Nathan Mortimer joined us after
accepting positions in the Departmentof Biochemistry and Biophysics at
Oregon State University.

Emily Ho, PhD
Endowed Chair and Director,
Linus Pauling Institute

Dr. Vrailas-Mortimer is our newest
principal investigator at the Institute,and Dr. Mortimer is now an affiliate
faculty member. Both of their labs
use fruit flies as an experimental
model, and their research expands thecapabilities of the Institute in uniqueways (see cover article).
We held our annual Linus Pauling Day
event featuring a webinar and open
house (see pages 6 and 7). It was great
seeing everyone face-to-face again,
and we hope to host more in-person
activities soon.
Chris Petersen from the Oregon State
University Libraries has edited a new
book based on his popular Pauling

Blog. Called Visions of Linus Pauling, it is
the subject of our most recent webinar(see page 7).
The annual day of giving at the University– known as Dam Proud Day – is on
April 26. On that day we will be seeking
support for a new initiative to support
students at the Institute (see page 3).
And, in case you are interested,registration is now open for our biennial‘Diet and Optimum Health’ conference.
This year’s theme is Precision Health:
How to Live Better, Longer (see backcover). The next issue of this newsletter
will include summaries of some of theconference presentations.
This is only the start of our plans for2023 – more will be coming. We aremaking some important changes to the
publication schedule of this newsletter,
and we will soon be expanding ourcommunication formats (see page 5).
Our goal is to bring you more ways toconnect with the Institute.
Hope to hearfrom you soon!

Emily Ho Named OSU Distinguished Professor

Photo credit: Karl Maadsam

Oregon State University has named Drs. Emily Ho and Yanyun Zhao as
its 2023 University Distinguished Professor recipients, the highest
academic honor the university bestows upon faculty. Dr. Ho is the
director of the Linus Pauling Institute and a professor in OSU’s Collegeof Public Health and Human Sciences, and Dr. Zhao is a professor offood science in the College of Agricultural Sciences.
Both Ho and Zhao will deliver lectures about their research on May 24
at the Memorial Union on the OSU Corvallis campus. The lectures will
also be livestreamed.
Emily Ho, PhD

Yanyun Zhao

Dr. Ho’s presentation, entitled From B to Z: Food & Nutrients to Help
You Live Better Longer, will focus on her work with broccoli and zinc. Dr. Zhao’s presentation, A Challenging
Yet Rewarding Journey in Search of Sustainable Food Packaging Solutions, will focus on the impact of foodpackaging waste on the ecosystem and the quest to develop sustainable solutions.
Additional details can be found at lpi.pub/Distinguished2023

2

DAM PROUD DAY 2023
Dam Proud Day is the annual day of giving at Oregon State University.
For 24 hours, starting at midnight on April 26, the Linus Pauling
Institute requests your help.
On April 26, gifts to the Institute will
benefit our research programs, theMicronutrient Information Center, anda new initiative called the Hagen-Butler
Student Legacy Fund.
Honoring one of our most venerable
principal investigators, Dr. Tory Hagen
and his longtime laboratory manager
Judy Butler, the Student Legacy Fund
will provide additional support for
graduate students – from laboratory
supplies to travel funds – to advancetheir scientific careers.
Dam Proud Day is an especially
important day to give because
Oregon State University and generous
benefactors of the Institute havechallenged us to garner extra gifts
on April 26. If we can meet theirfundraising goals, we will receive
additional funding for our programs.

Here are just some of the challenge gifts
we can earn on April 26:
Director’s Challenge: When 10 gifts arereceived, $1,000 will be awarded to theMicronutrient Information Center.

For more about theactivities of Dam
Proud Day see:
lpi.pub/DamProud

Director’s Circle Challenge: When 50
gifts are received, $10,000 will be awarded
to the Research Innovation Fund.
The 20k Challenge: When 75 gifts arereceived, $20,000 will be awarded to
the Hagen-Butler Student Legacy Fund.
Hagen-Butler Legacy Challenge: When
100 gifts are received, an additional$20,000 will be awarded to theHagen-Butler Student Legacy Fund.
More can be found on the Dam Proud
Day website – and it is your support
that will allow us to reach these goals.

3

Even if you are not able
to support us online on
April 26, any gift madeto the website, call-in
gift, or check noted
for Dam Proud Day
will help us achieve
our goals!

Continued from Cover

Alysia Vrailas-Mortimer,
PhD
Principal Investigator,
Linus Pauling Institute

While it might sound odd, we know thatflies are quite similar to humans – at leastat the cellular level. About 70% of all genes
involved in human disease have counterpart
genes in fruit flies. For example, we havedeveloped flies with Parkinson’s disease
and Alzheimer’s disease through genetic
manipulation.

We can easily raise large numbers offlies to conduct expansive screening
experiments in experimental drug or
nutrition studies. Using large numbers ofanimals is advantageous when trying todetermine a therapeutic dose range, as
well as defining ineffective or potentially
toxic doses.

Through these disease models, we can study
how a disease progresses at a molecularlevel. They also allow us to evaluate theefficacy of potential disease therapies.

How are flies used for
nutrition research?

My lab is particularly interested in CharcotMarie-Tooth disease or CMT. This disease
is characterized by defects in motor andsensory neurons. A person who has CMT
often faces problems with movement andmuscle wasting.
Since we are able to reproduce CMT infruit flies, it allows us to look at the affected
cells and tissues, study how the diseaseprogresses, and explore the efficacy of genetherapy. Many of these approaches are
impossible to conduct with patients.

What other advantages dofruit flies offer?
Dr. Vrailas-Mortimer
recently received
funding from OSU’s
College of Science
Disease Mechanism
and Prevention Fundfor a project titled
Why is a fly a goodmodel to study
my grandmother’s
tremors?

Another advantage of using Drosophila isthat they do not live very long. They growfrom an embryo to an adult in about 10 days,
and they only live for about two months.
Because of this, we can set up experiments
to ask if a drug, a dietary compound, ora specific eating pattern can increaseor decrease their lifespan. This gives us
evidence that specific changes cause theflies to live longer or shorter lives – studies
we simply cannot accomplish in humans.
This also means that we can reproduce theeffects of old age in a very short period oftime – much shorter than most other modelorganisms. Mice and rats, for instance, live
for two years or more. And, in these animals,
some disease symptoms may not appear
for several months.

For more about theactivities of the
Vrailas-Mortimer lab,see: lpi.pub/VMLab

Additionally, we can raise flies quickly andeasily. They do not require extensive careor special animal facilities like rodents andother mammals. We have now establisheda fly lab in the Linus Pauling Science Center
where we can breed and raise flies for our
experiments.
4

Fruit flies can be given dietary supplements,
just like other animals or humans. One
interesting story from our lab involved thetesting of supplements made from fruits
that we purchased from a local healthfood store.
Marketed as an antioxidant blend, this
supplement contained resveratrol, several
anthocyanins, and a few vitamins. We
tested it in flies carrying a mutation that
resulted in accelerated aging. When theseflies were fed supplements that contained
Açai berry, they improved. The Açai
supplements appeared to delay somesigns of aging and helped restore lost
motor functions.
We also found that some of the othersupplements tested protected against
the effects of paraquat, an herbicidecommonly used in agricultural settings.
Environmental exposure to this chemicalhas been linked to oxidative stress andParkinson’s disease in humans.
In flies, the oxidative stress fromparaquat causes Parkinson’s disease anddisruptions in circadian rhythms. We foundthat feeding flies supplements containing
Açai berries partially protected them fromthe effects of paraquat exposure.
In some preliminary experiments we fed
flies vitamin E, but we encountered someproblems. Vitamin E is fat-soluble, and fruit
flies do not eat a lot of fat – unfortunately,
you cannot just feed them oil.
Now that we are at the Institute, Dr. Maret
Traber is helping us find better ways tofeed vitamin E to our flies. Together,Dr. Traber and I are hoping to explore therole of vitamin E in our disease models.

Coming Changes
to the Newsletter
What is changing?

Can you talk about yourresearch on minerals in flies?
We are interested in a neurodegenerative
disease called Menkes disease, whichis caused by mutations in a gene called
ATP7A that encodes a copper transport
protein. People with this disease do nottransport copper into cells correctly, sothey show symptoms of copper deficiency
in the brain.
It might seem logical to just give patients
more copper, but this approach can cause
problems. To find out why, we reproduced
the approach in flies. We found that theextra copper accumulated outside ofneurons – not inside the cell where wewant it to be – and that resulted in moreoxidative stress and damage.
Thanks to work with our collaborators
at Emory University, we identified someparallels between Menkes disease
and Parkinson’s disease. We now are
wondering if some genes related to coppertransport or handling could be importantin the development of Parkinson’s disease.
My lab also recently published a paper on
manganese toxicity. Excessive manganese
exposure – through environmental or
occupational exposures – can cause
neurodegeneration. We found that highlevels of manganese in cells activate
stress responses in mitochondria that
do not turn off properly.
Stress responses are usually turned on
to protect the cell. But when we stopped
this stress response from activating, cells
became much more resistant to highamounts of manganese.

We are also currently exploring if thisphenomenon has any connections withthe development of Parkinson’s disease.

Where do you see your work
going at the Institute?
I’m really interested in a process called
protein homeostasis, particularly
how proteins are destroyed andremoved when they have outlived theirusefulness. We know that this process
declines as we age, causing widespread
dysfunction.
A number of diseases of aging, suchas Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s
disease, and several muscular
dystrophies, can be characterized byclumps of protein called aggregatesthat affect neurons and muscles. We
are studying a protein called p38, which
controls both protein aggregation andoxidative stress resistance.
For example, when we force flies to
produce more p38, protein aggregation
decreases, and lifespan is extended.
How does p38 do this? Are there anytreatments that can also increase p38
activity? Finding ways to either increase
the activity or production of p38 could
potentially help combat certain agerelated diseases.
One of the reasons I am very excited tobe part of the Institute is that I can tap
into the expertise in natural products
held by Dr. Fred Stevens and Dr. Richard
van Breemen. Dr. Tory Hagen has somevery exciting compounds that target the
mitochondria, and it makes me wonder
if they can also influence p38 activity.

5

Moving forward, the Linus
Pauling Institute ResearchNewsletter will return to two
issues annually, arriving inthe spring and fall of eachyear. Instead of a newsletterin the summer and winter,
we will send out a summaryof our recently publisheddigital materials.
Why?
Our online offerings, such as
our webinar series, special
online videos, and additions
to the Micronutrient
Information Center, havegreatly expanded in thepast few years. A digitalformat allows us to provide
timely announcements andperspectives on the latest
nutrition research occurringat the Institute and aroundthe world.
We recognize that many ofyou prefer to receive printcommunications from us,
rather than online digitalcontent. Thus, biannual
summaries of our digitalofferings can be provided.
What do you need to do?
If you are subscribed to theemail list for the Institute,
there is nothing you needto do today. Just keep
reading our emails forthe newsletter and otherupdates from the Institute.
If you are not currently
subscribed to our emails,
we suggest you sign up
today at lpi.pub/signup.

VITAMIN C FOR IMMUNE HEALTHOn February 28, Dr. Anitra Carr presented our Linus Pauling Day webinar:
Optimizing Immune Health: How Much Vitamin C Do You Need?
She reviewed the roles of vitamin C in the immune system, what we know
about vitamin C requirements, and situations when taking extra vitamin C
is warranted. Some key take-home messages from Dr. Carr are
summarized below.

Many people do not get enough vitamin C.

Anita Carr, PhD
Director,
Nutrition in Medicine Group,
University of Otago, Christchurch

The goal is to maximize the amount of vitamin C in your bloodstream by consuming
a variety of fruits and vegetables or taking a dietary supplement each day. Many
scientists who work with vitamin C advise getting a minimum of 200 mg of vitamin Cfrom foods and/or supplements every day to reduce the risk of cardiovasculardisease and type 2 diabetes. At the moment, however, many people fall short of thismodest goal: one-third of all US adults have daily vitamin C intakes lower than what
can be found in a single orange (60 mg).

The amount of vitamin C you need depends on
multiple factors.
In her presentation, Dr. Carr reviewed the data from the National Health and Nutrition
Examination Survey (called NHANES), a measure of the dietary intake, health, andnutritional status of adults and children in the United States. She and her colleagues
found that people who are male, smokers, overweight, or have type 2 diabetes
tend to have less vitamin C in their bloodstream. This suggests that people who fall
into these categories should consider taking more vitamin C than what is typically
recommended. This is why the Linus Pauling Institute recommends that all adults
get at least 400 mg of vitamin C each day.

You may need more vitamin C if you get sick.
The recording forthis webinar is now
available online at
lpi.pub/VitaminC2023

There is some evidence to suggest that our bodies can absorb more vitamin C
during an illness. As Dr. Carr explained, vitamin C is relatively safe for most people
and taking larger amounts of vitamin C when you have a cold or an infection does
not seem to have many negative consequences. There is some suggestion in thescientific literature that short-term daily doses of 1,000-2,000 mg of vitamin C can
reduce the duration of the common cold, especially in children.

There is no difference between vitamin C from food versus
a tablet.
Ascorbic acid (vitamin C) acts the same way in the body regardless of the source.
Tightly controlled studies by Dr. Carr and colleagues have shown that there are no
advantages to consuming a kiwifruit versus a tablet, at least in terms of maintaining
blood concentration of vitamin C. Fruits and vegetables rich in vitamin C contain avariety of other nutrients, phytochemicals, and fiber. These whole foods offer othernutritional advantages over supplements and should be the foundation of ahealthy diet.

Additional information can be found in our guide 100 Questions
about Vitamin C. See lpi.pub/VitC100Q

6

A LINUS PAULING DAY CELEBRATION
February 28, 2023, marked the 122nd
anniversary of Dr. Linus Pauling’s birth.
Known as Linus Pauling Day in the stateof Oregon, it serves as a day to celebrate
Dr. Pauling’s life and legacy. As is now
tradition, we held a celebration in
Dr. Pauling’s honor, while taking theopportunity to showcase the work of theInstitute that bears his name.
The event consisted of an afternoon ofactivities in the Linus Pauling Science
Center on the Oregon State University
Corvallis campus. This began with a publicwatch party for Dr. Anitra Carr’s webinar(see page 6). Dr. Carr was formerly aresearch associate at the Institute where
she and Dr. Balz Frei wrote several key
reviews that shaped international
vitamin C recommendations.
Afterward, Stephen Lawson gave a tour ofthe building. Lawson, who worked at theInstitute until 2016, is the former CEOof the Linus Pauling Institute of Scienceand Medicine when it was located in
Palo Alto, California.
The event continued with an open house
where the staff, faculty, and students of
the Institute presented their research.
As the evening drew to a close, Dr. Emily
Ho addressed the crowd that gathered andinvited everyone to share in a special cakemade in honor of Dr. Pauling’s birthday.
In all, it was a wonderful return toin-person gatherings at the Institute that
we hope to repeat for years to come.

VISIONS OF LINUS PAULING
Established in 2008, the Pauling Blog has been a repository of information
about the life of Dr. Linus Pauling. It is free to access, but this information
has only been available online – until now.
Chris Petersen, the principal archivist within the Special
Collections & Archives Research Center at the OSU Libraries,
recently assembled a curated collection of the stories fromthe blog into a new book: Visions of Linus Pauling.
This book features different facets of Dr. Pauling’s life, fromhis early career as a scientist until his death in 1994. Including
tales never before published, the stories provide context to his remarkableachievements and insights into his family.
To celebrate this achievement, we recently held a webinar with Chrisabout the book. The recording for this webinar, Visions of Linus Pauling:
Reflections on the Man and His Institute, is now available online on
YouTube at lpi.pub/VisionsWebinar

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Stephen Lawson
Executive Officer, retired,
Linus Pauling InstituteAlexander Michels, Newsletter Editor
Victoria J. Drake, Associate Editor
Sandra Uesugi, Assistant Editor
Oregon State University
307 Linus Pauling Science Center
2900 SW Campus Way
Corvallis, Oregon 97331

Photo credit: Karl Maasdam

LINUS PAULING INSTITUTERESEARCH NEWSLETTER

phone: 541-737-5075
fax: 541-737-5077
email: lpi@oregonstate.edu
website: lpi.oregonstate.edu

GIVE TO THE
INSTITUTE TODAY!
We believe that no matter where you are in life,
your best health is within reach. Support the
Linus Pauling Institute, advance ourresearch and outreach programs,
and find new ways to live better, longer.

Diet and Optimum Health Conference

PRECISION HEALTH:

LIVING BETTER,
LONGER

Sept. 19 — 20, 2023
Now accepting abstracts!

Photo: Ascorbic Acid Crystals by Henri Koskinen

For Registration and
Conference Information:
lpi.pub/DOH2023