Illinois researchers are making headway in curing respiratory diseases like pneumonia to viral infections like COVID-19 and influenza by investigating them in marine mammals for the Office of Naval Research's Undersea Marine Program grant.
Illinois researchers are making headway in curing respiratory diseases like pneumonia to viral infections like COVID-19 and influenza by investigating them in marine mammals for the Office of Naval Research's Undersea Marine Program grant.
Our graduate students are driven to discover life-altering research. Look no further than Marilyn Porras-Gomez for proof. The doctoral student is working alongside associate professor and Ivan Racheff Faculty Scholar Cecilia Leal to investigate the structure of dolphins’ lung membranes, the materials that line the air sacks in mammals’ lungs, thanks to an Office of Naval Research’s Undersea Medicine Program grant.
These are no ordinary dolphins. Their health and wellbeing are a matter of national security as the mammals have located underwater mines and recovered submerged objects for the U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program for over a century.
“Just as the police have dogs, the Navy has dolphins and sea lions that help report activity underwater,” Leal said.
Read more at University of Illinois Grainger College of Engineering
Image: MatSE grad student Marilyn Porras-Gomez works with a vial of dolphin lung tissue, in her right, and the result lipid sample after organic extracting, in her left, in the Leal Lab at the Materials Science and Engineering Building in Urbana, Ill. on Feb. 28. (Credit: University of Illinois Grainger College of Engineering)
