Emily Beck Receives UO Faculty Research Award
Congratulations to Dr. Emily Beck, assistant research professor in data science, who has received a 2021 Faculty Research Award from the University of Oregon!
Award Recognition
Emily received the award for her project “Threespine Stickleback Fish: A New Model for Mitochondrial Diseases.” This recognition highlights the innovative potential of using stickleback fish to study human disease mechanisms.
Research Focus
The project aims to establish threespine stickleback as a model system for understanding mitochondrial diseases, which affect millions of people worldwide. Key aspects include:
- Leveraging natural genetic variation in stickleback populations
- Developing new assays for mitochondrial function
- Connecting genetic variants to disease-relevant phenotypes
- Building translational research approaches
Why Stickleback?
Stickleback offer unique advantages for this research:
- Natural populations with diverse genetic backgrounds
- Well-characterized genomes and developmental biology
- Tractable laboratory system
- Established genomic resources from the Cresko Lab
- Ability to study population-level variation
Mito-Nuclear Interactions
This work builds on Emily’s research on mito-nuclear interactions, exploring how mitochondrial and nuclear genomes work together and how disruptions in this coordination can lead to disease.
About the Award
The Faculty Research Awards are open to tenure track and full-time non-tenure-track faculty members engaged in substantial research. A committee of UO faculty members provides peer review of proposal merit.
Emily’s Background
Emily joined the Cresko Lab in 2015 and has contributed to research on:
- Host-microbiome interactions
- Population genomics
- Data science approaches to biology
- Mitochondrial biology
Broader Impact
This award supports the development of stickleback as a biomedical model organism, extending the system’s utility beyond evolutionary and ecological research into direct biomedical applications.
Congratulations Emily on this well-deserved recognition!