The Linus Pauling Institute is a research institute located at the

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering c ...

with a focus on health maintenance. The mission statement of the institute is to determine the functional roles of

micronutrients Micronutrients are essential dietary elements required by organisms in varying quantities throughout life to orchestrate a range of physiological functions to maintain health. Micronutrient requirements differ between organisms; for example, huma ...

and

phytochemicals Phytochemicals are chemical compounds produced by plants, generally to help them resist fungi, bacteria and plant virus infections, and also consumption by insects and other animals. The name comes . Some phytochemicals have been used as poison ...

in promoting optimal health and to treat or prevent human disease, and to determine the role of

oxidative stress Oxidative stress reflects an imbalance between the systemic manifestation of reactive oxygen species and a biological system's ability to readily detoxify the reactive intermediates or to repair the resulting damage. Disturbances in the normal ...

and

inflammation Inflammation (from la, inflammatio) is part of the complex biological response of body tissues to harmful stimuli, such as pathogens, damaged cells, or irritants, and is a protective response involving immune cells, blood vessels, and molec ...

in health and disease. There are several major areas of research occurring at the institute, focused on many vitamins, minerals and other compounds found in the diet. The Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine was founded in 1973 in

Menlo Park, California Menlo Park is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County within the San Francisco Bay Area of California in the United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the south ...

by Linus Pauling and several colleagues under the name Institute of Orthomolecular Medicine. After Linus Pauling's death, it relocated to

in 1996, and was renamed the Linus Pauling Institute. Several researchers from the original institute, including the assistant director of research, went on to form the Genetic Information Research Institute in nearby

Mountain View, CA Mountain View is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States. Named for its views of the Santa Cruz Mountains, it has a population of 82,376. Mountain View was integral to the early history and growth of Silicon Valley, and is the ...

. At Oregon State University, the institute operates under the Research Centers and Institutes under the university's Research Office. Since July 2020, the director of the Linus Pauling Institute is Emily Ho, a

nutritionist A nutritionist is a person who advises others on matters of food and nutrition and their impacts on health. Some people specialize in particular areas, such as sports nutrition, public health, or animal nutrition, among other disciplines. In many ...

. The institute is housed in the Linus Pauling Science Center, which opened in October 2011. It is the largest-ever academic building on the Oregon State University campus. The Linus Pauling Institute receives a significant amount of research funding from private and public organizations, such as the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

. The Linus Pauling Institute web site is home to the Micronutrient Information Center, an online database for vitamin, mineral, phytochemical and nutrition information. The institute also produces a free biannual newsletter with information on micronutrient research, sponsors several research awards, and promotes several outreach programs.

References

External links

Linus Pauling Institute
* ttp://scarc.library.oregonstate.edu/oh150/lpi/index.html Interview with Steve Lawson, Administrative Officer of the Linus Pauling Institute {{authority control Oregon State University Medical research institutes in the United States 1973 establishments in Oregon Medical and health organizations based in Oregon Research institutes in Oregon