From the Director
Balz Frei, Ph.D.
Professor of Biochemistry & Biophysics
Director and Endowed Chair
Linus Pauling Institute
The popular media, limited by space and short attention span, often focus on and oversimplify the latest findings from a single study. These latest findings may or may not be consistent with earlier results, or may or may not be confirmed by future research. When this information becomes contradicted by a newer study, also oversimplified by the mass media, the consumer ends up confused and frustrated. When “even the experts can’t agree”, consumers may decide not to heed any dietary advice. This is tragic because diet and lifestyle are keys to good health and disease prevention. To solve the health care crisis in this country, we must focus on disease prevention, and that means focusing on improving and optimizing everyone’s diet and lifestyle. This complex subject, like others in science, is full of nuance and distinctions that can be better understood only when we look beneath the surface. And that’s the reason why we want to provide you with balanced, evidence-based information, even if it sometimes takes a little work to understand. We hope that the Linus Pauling Institute Research Report will allow you to make your own informed decisions on what’s best for you and your loved ones. And, of course, we try our best to respond to questions about the information we provide.
It
is also my pleasure to introduce three new faculty in the Institute. 
Dr.
Emily Ho recently was appointed Assistant Professor in Oregon State University’s
Department of Nutrition and Food Management and holds an affiliate “Scientist”
appointment in the Institute. Dr. Ho, like LPI Principal Investigator
Dr. Tory Hagen and myself, received post-doctoral training in Dr. Bruce
Ames’ laboratory at the University of California-Berkeley. Before
that, she earned a Ph.D. degree in Nutrition from The Ohio State University
under the guidance of now-LPI “Senior Scientist” and Dean
of OSU’s College of Health and Human Sciences, Dr. Tammy Bray (see
article). Dr. Ho’s research focuses on understanding the mechanisms
by which antioxidant nutrients inhibit the initiation and progression
of chronic disease. She is particularly interested in the link between
low zinc intake and increased oxidative DNA damage, which may increase
the risk of certain types of cancer, such as prostate cancer. Amazingly,
ten percent of the US population consumes less than half of the recommended
dietary allowance for zinc (8 and 11 mg/day for adult females and males,
respectively). Therefore, Dr. Ho’s research has important public
health implications.
The
second recent faculty to join LPI is Dr. Fred Stevens, who is a Research
Assistant Professor in the Institute and also has an appointment in OSU’s
Department of Chemistry. Dr. Stevens earned his Ph.D. degree in Pharmaceutical
Chemistry from Groningen University in the Netherlands. His research interest
is in the chemistry and biochemistry of flavonoids and other natural products.
Dr. Stevens did extensive work on the antioxidant and anti-cancer activities
of hop flavonoids. He is now investigating novel antioxidant functions
of vitamin C and uric acid, a natural breakdown product of DNA.
Finally,
Dr. George Bailey recently joined LPI as a full member and Principal Investigator.
Dr. Bailey has been an affiliate member of the Institute for many years
and has made very significant contributions to cancer research at OSU
and LPI (see lead article in the Fall/Winter
2002 Newsletter). Dr. Bailey is a Distinguished Professor at OSU and
served for over 10 years as Director of its Marine Freshwater/Biomedical
Sciences Center, which is now headed by LPI Principal Investigator Dr.
David Williams (see article). Dr. Bailey
was instrumental in establishing LPI at OSU in 1996, and it is an honor
to have him formally join the Institute. Drs. Bailey and Williams, together
with LPI Principal Investigator Dr. Rod Dashwood, were recently awarded
a very large grant from the National Cancer Institute. This grant will
help support Dr. Bailey’s research program on the relationship between
diet and cancer, specifically the chemoprevention of cancer by chlorophyll
and other dietary components. I am very pleased and excited to have Drs.
Ho, Stevens, and Bailey join the Institute to further advance our research
into the role of diet in health promotion and disease prevention.
Last updated May, 2003