Promising initial research could lead to more effective seasonal flu shots and ward against future pandemics
Dry cough. Runny nose. Sore throat. Muscle aches. These symptoms are all familiar to anyone who’s contracted the common flu, a respiratory illness that affects one billion people each year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend most people receive yearly flu shots because the seasonal influenza virus mutates constantly, creating new strains that circulate from person-to-person leading to seasonal flu epidemics. These yearly vaccines are formulated to protect against the specific virus strains expected to spread and cause illness during that flu season, typically October through May.
New genetic testing available through ADDL will help dog breeders eliminate specific diseases
Research findings by genetic scientists in the Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine have the power to eradicate specific genetic diseases within certain dog breeds. Testing for the genetic mutations will be offered by the Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (ADDL) at Purdue. As the first such tests offered to the general public for three new canine genetic diseases, these screenings will enable breeders to identify which dogs are carriers for a disease and could possibly pass it on to offspring. By ensuring two carriers are not bred together, the disease can be halted before it spreads throughout the breed.
Treatment in development by Adipo Therapeutics holds promise for millions who struggle with weight loss and blood glucose control
Eat less. Exercise more. It sounds so simple. But if it were that simple, America wouldn’t be facing the dual epidemics of obesity and diabetes.
Adipo Therapeutics, a Purdue Research Foundation-backed startup, is developing a unique treatment approach that turns bad fat into good fat. This disruptive nanotherapeutic delivery could provide a safe and effective way to treat obesity and Type 2 diabetes.
Enhancing Well-being and Boosting Productivity in Dairy Cows
Indiana is home to more than 800 dairy farms, generating an average of nearly $700 million in direct farm income annually, according to the Indiana State Department of Agriculture. The average dairy cow produces around 2,320 gallons of milk per year, but metabolic disorders can affect that output as well as animal well-being.
Purdue University Cytometry Laboratories Aim to Develop Portable Toxin and Pathogen Detection Device
An estimated 48 million people in the United States experience foodborne illness each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of those, 128,000 cases require hospitalization and 3,000 result in death. A 2010 report published by the Produce Safety Project estimated that foodborne illnesses cost $152 billion in medical expenses, lost productivity and business, lawsuits and compromised branding.
Donation of House Honors Al Altschaeffl, who Contributed to Many Iconic Campus Structures
What do Mackey Arena, Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering, the Bell Tower and the Gateway to the Future arch have in common? They are among the more than 170 building projects across campus with soil foundations designed by Al Altschaeffl (BSCE 1952, MSCE 1955 PhD 1960), a professor of civil engineer-ing with expertise in geotechnical engineering who continued to consult on projects following his retirement from the University in 2000.
First-of-its-kind Vector-borne Disease Panel Screens for 22 Different Pathogens in a Single Test
A diagnostic panel developed by researchers in the Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine will enable its Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (ADDL) to screen for 22 different vector-borne pathogens in a single test. The panel, designed to be used on cats and dogs, is the only test of its kind and now is available to clients of the ADDL.
New methodology may one day map forests around the world
What if we could map every tree on the planet?
It’s a question that drives the work of Joshua Carpenter (MS’20), a PhD student and researcher in the Geospatial Data Science Lab supervised by Jinha Jung, Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering.
Just as the field of precision agriculture uses high technology sensor and analysis tools to measure the growth and health of fields of crops, Carpenter is developing methodologies that could one day be similarly applied to forests around the globe.
Mopping produces pollutants similar to vehicle emissions
The fresh-scented products used to clean our homes and offices come with risks to our respira-tory health. The chemicals used to create scents such as lemon and pine pollute indoor air with nano-sized particles in similar ways that motor emissions affect the air we breathe outdoors, according to a new study published in the journal Science Advances.
Mediavine co-founders credit collaboration and transparency for company’s rise to internet giant.
When Matt Richenthal ’02 resigned from his role as a writer for a Boston start-up to launch his own content company called iScribe — “a terrible, awful name” — in 2004, he had no idea the business would one day grow into Mediavine, one of “The 20 Internet Giants That Rule the Web” as declared by Visual Capitalist in January. He only knew he wanted Steve Marsi ’01 along for the ride.
Could Hydrogen Hold the Solution to Sustainable Jet Fuel?
As more countries around the world commit to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, industry groups are following suit. Among them, the members of the International Air Transport Association who announced a commitment to take action to cut emissions among global airlines in October.
Caesars Entertainment Equine Specialty Hospital Second Facility in the Country to Install Large Gantry CT Machine
The Caesars Entertainment Equine Specialty Hospital, a satellite facility of the Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine, is among the first veterinary hospitals in the nation to install a specialized large gantry helical CT scanning machine. The device, manufactured by Qalibra, is adapted to the anatomy and behavior of equine patients and provides more advanced diagnostic capabilities for medical staff treating equine athletes by covering more anatomy with greater accuracy.
Mighty backpack captures millions of topographical data points in minutes
Surveyors have been measuring and documenting the topography of the Earth for thousands of years. Though the instruments have evolved from the early days of rope stretchers to modern total stations, it’s been challenging to collect accurate data efficiently when surveying heavily wooded areas, until now. A team of Purdue researchers is revolutionizing traditional ground surveying methods with a new technology that maps millions of elevation points in mere minutes simply by walking around the area wearing a backpack.
Could Hydrogen Hold the Solution to Sustainable Jet Fuel?
As more countries around the world commit to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, industry groups are following suit. Among them, the members of the International Air Transport Association who announced a commitment to take action to cut emissions among global airlines in October.
NASA-funded project aims to develop guidance system for manned mission to the Red Planet
After the Perseverance rover successfully touched down on Mars in February 2021 following a landing sequence scientists refer to as “seven minutes of terror,” the NASA mission was widely celebrated. It wasn’t just that Perseverance is the largest, most advanced rover NASA has ever sent to another world. It’s that landing on Mars is extremely difficult.
Computational prototyping of rotor blades speeds design of more agile, efficient ‘flying cars’
Flying cars have long been popularized as the transportation mode of the future. Thanks to technology licensed in part through Purdue University, the future of flying cars may be closer than we think.
A U-M connection led to an altruistic organ donation, despite COVID-19 and a cancer scare.
For years, Ed Silberman lived a relatively normal life during the day. But every night, the 63-year-old financial adviser from Cherry Hill, New Jersey, went through two rounds of peritoneal dialysis, which uses the abdominal lining to filter blood inside the body. At his age, a normal kidney functions at 85% or higher. By fall 2019, Silberman’s kidneys were functioning at 7%.
As one of 100,000 people waiting for a kidney transplant, his best hope was to match with a living donor. So Silberman’s family, including son-in-law Jeremy Garson, JD’14, launched a social media campaign to find a stranger to save Silberman’s life.
High capacity batteries key to evolving autonomous systems
Cloud computing supports a vast array of information and systems every day. Whether it’s Google, social media or file storage, billions of people rely on the internet to stay connected. When that connection is interrupted, it causes inconvenience for the average user. However, if autonomous systems were to rely solely on cloud computing, maintaining a connection could mean the difference between safe operation and disaster. Imagine a self-driving car that required a stable cellular connection to avoid collision.
Remains of soldier killed in Vietnam return to Indiana after 51 years
Ann (Bardach) Vollmar (LA’67) will never forget the cold January day in 1968 when an army captain from Fort Harrison knocked on the door of her family’s Westfield, Indiana, home. Her father was away in New York City for business, and her mother was still at work in downtown Indianapolis. Vollmar was home alone with her younger brother, and the two of them knew the captain’s visit must be related to their oldest brother, 1st Lt. Alan Bardach (M’66), who was fighting in Vietnam.
Alumnae share their roads to success at KAR
Robin Leslie (T’84) doesn’t think of herself as a trailblazer. But when she enrolled in computer information technology at Purdue, the department was in its infancy. She was one of few women in the major — and one of few students of color.
“It was a new field,” Leslie says. “Not very many people looked like me. I just focused on my work and what I needed to learn. I knew I wanted to work in information technology (IT) for the rest of my life.”
Houston Boilers rally to aid family recovering from Hurricane Harvey
Steve and Cathy Gurnell were prepared to wait it out. They’d lived in their home in Katy, Texas, a western suburb of Houston, for 19 years. No strangers to bad storms, they’d stayed through Rita (2005), Ike (2008), and other smaller hurricanes and tropical storms. As rain from Hurricane Harvey pummeled Texas, friends and family called and texted the Gurnells to check on their safety. Among those concerned were the couple’s middle child, Carrie (LA’10), an assistant volleyball coach at Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs, North Carolina.
Cary A unit friends celebrate 45th annual reunion
Ask any Cary Quad resident circa 1974, “Who was the biggest jerk who walked the halls?” and you were likely to hear the same answer: Chuck Harville (P’76, DP’89). It was a mantle he didn’t mind. It can be fun to be the instigator. In those days, orientation programs were less structured, and as leader of A unit orientation, it fell to Harville to assimilate the frosh.
Telescoping prosthesis enables 10-year-old girl to bow violin
It’s atypical to see a piano as part of a grade school orchestra ensemble, but that’s exactly what Zayra Vincent encountered when she visited the Burgin Elementary School music room this spring. There, in the back of the Arlignton, Texas, classroom, a smiling 10-year-old girl plucked out notes on the keyboard with one finger.
Alumnus renovates his sophomore landscape design 20 years later
The hidden light court encased within the walls of Duncan Hall in downtown Lafayette, Indiana, was neglected and overgrown when Aura Lee Emsweller was hired as the hall’s first executive director in 1996.
The Georgian, colonial-style building opened in 1931 as a meeting place for social, patriotic, charitable, educational, and cultural events. A 1958 addition created the inner courtyard, designed to allow light to pass through the stately ballroom windows. It was in this narrow, unkempt space with a mucky, untended pond and ivy climbing the brick walls that Emsweller’s 6-year-old son, Schuyler, discovered a wonderland for the imagination.
Honors course explores how zines fostered communities of resistance
In the aftermath of World War II, social critics in the United States grew increasingly pessimistic about the roles of mass media, consumerism, and bureaucracy in society, viewing them as instruments of authoritarian control. These counterculture voices frame the curriculum of Underground Networks, a new course offered through the Honors College that examines radical forms of social life that emerge within yet in opposition to oppressive institutions.
Teaching students how to pick up a pencil and communicate their ideas
One of the greatest inventors of all time created a lot of ugly design drawings. Thomas Edison’s sketches may not be pretty, but they communicated his ideas, and that’s essential to collaboration and innovation.
Todd Kelley, associate professor of technology leadership and innovation, is a former secondary school teacher who researches how young students learn design and how design improves STEM education. He uses Edison’s drawings to illustrate that design sketches do not need to be artistic or attractive to serve their purpose — clearly communicating an idea.
All-Purdue crew spent two weeks on mission to Mars habitat simulation
Seven Boilermakers formed the first all-Purdue crew to complete a two-week mission at the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) near Hanksville, Utah, from December 30 to January 14.
“The environment around the station is extremely accurate in its appearance,” says Max Fagin (MS AAE’15), an aerospace engineer at Made in Space and commander of the Boilers2Mars team. “The chemistry of the soil doesn’t mimic the chemistry of Mars, but the lack of vegetation and signs of human life create a landscape that is very Mars-like.”
Freehafer Hall, once lauded as example of early open office plan, demolished
Construction crews quietly demolished Freehafer Hall of Administrative Services over the course of several weeks this winter as part of the State Street redevelopment project slated to plot a new roadway through the site. Although it was razed with little fanfare, when it opened its doors in 1970, the administrative services building (as it was then known) was heralded on the cover of Administrative Management magazine as the “Offices of the Year.”
Hackathon challenges students to develop innovative solutions in 36 hours
By 1:00 a.m. on the second night, the gym is tense with energy. At 27 hours in, a scheduled late-night snack pro-vides enough of a boost to drive participants through the final hours of Boilermake 5. The student-run hackathon attracted more than 2,000 applicants this year for about 500 randomly selected spots. Surveying the room, Boilermake cofounder Brittany Vacchiano (S’14) was amazed at how much the event has grown over the past three years.
Facing graduation in December 1981, John White (T’81) made his Tarkington Hall buddies swear that they weren’t going to be like every other group of yahoos who promise to stay in touch, but never actually reunite. And so it was agreed that no matter how far away from campus they may roam, the members of The Wild Bunch (TWB) would return in five years to gather on Tark’s back dock. Things didn’t go exactly as planned.