Medical Research Foundation of Oregon Awards
The Medical Research Foundation of Oregon celebrates 2025's outstanding scientists
The Medical Research Foundation of Oregon has distinguished four Oregon scientists as recipients of its 2025 Mentor, Discovery and New Investigator awards.
The MRF Committee recognizes Marian Hettiaratchi, Ph.D., with the 2025 Richard T. Jones New Investigator Award.
Hettiaratchi, the Lary Simpson Associate Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Oregon at the Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact, is a full member of the Materials Science Institute, and is an associate member of the Institute of Molecular Biology and Institute of Neuroscience. Hettiaratchi’s research draws on bioengineering, materials science, molecular biology and neuroscience. Her lab at the UO focuses on developing hydrogel-based controlled release systems, leveraging peptides with protein-binding affinities. This innovative technology addresses significant challenges in therapeutic delivery for a wide range of biomedical applications, from spinal cord injury treatments to bone regeneration. These findings are transforming regenerative medicine by offering highly controlled delivery systems that improve the effectiveness of protein-based therapies.
As an educator, Hettiaratchi said she enjoys bridging the gap between fundamental and translational knowledge to develop innovative healthcare technologies and educating the next generation of engineers and scientists to do the same. She is committed to developing initiatives to make science, engineering and math more accessible to students from underrepresented groups, by fostering inclusivity in the classroom and diversity in research.
Find out more about Hettiaratchi's research.
The MRF Committee recognizes Nabil Alkayed, M.D., Ph.D., with the 2025 Mentor Award
Alkayed is professor of anesthesiology and perioperative medicine and director of research in the Knight Cardiovascular Institute at OHSU. He is also the James Metcalf Chair in Cardiovascular Research. He is the director of the T32 Training Program in Translational Science and Cardiovascular Research. He is a member of the Association of University Anesthesiologists and an elected Fellow of the American Heart Association Stroke Council. He has published more than 120 scientific papers related to his work on experimental stroke and vascular cognitive impairment. His research program is funded by 2 R01 grants from the NIH, a small business grant and a T32 training grant. He is an active member of grant review panels at the National Institute of Health and the American Heart Association.
Alkayed is a strong advocate of physician-scientist career development and bench-to-bedside clinical translation. He has been highly effective in mentoring physicians and in building bridges between physicians and scientists to promote collaborations and clinical translation. He structured the T32 to require projects and fellows to have both scientific and clinical mentors, and to encourage busy physicians to partner with scientists in mentoring fellows, which has been enriching to mentors and fellows.
Find out more about Alkayed's work.
The MRF Committee recognizes John Seeley, Ph.D., with the 2025 Discovery Award.
Seeley is the Castle-McIntosh-Knight Professor of Education and executive director of the HEDCO Institute for Evidence-Based Educational Practice in the College of Education at the University of Oregon. He is also a scientist emeritus at the Oregon Research Institute and a senior scientist at the Oregon Research Behavioral Intervention Strategies. Seeley is an internationally recognized expert in developmental psychopathology whose scholarship has focused on the epidemiology, prevention and treatment of mental health conditions, including substance misuse and suicidality among youth and young adults. His team’s groundbreaking work has focused on developing, testing and scaling up effective school and community-based behavioral health interventions. His paradigm-changing work on behavioral interventions has helped to improve the behavioral health of youth and young adults not only here in Oregon, but also across the world.
Seeley is especially interested in school-based screening, prevention, and treatment for internalizing and externalizing psychopathology. In addition to his teaching and mentoring of graduate students and early career scholars, he serves as a senior advisor to the executive director of the Ballmer Institute for Children’s Behavioral Health. Seeley is the recipient of the University of Oregon’s 2025 Outstanding Research Senior-Career Award.
Find out more about Seeley's work.
The MRF Committee recognizes David Lewinsohn, M.D., Ph.D., with the Mentor Award
Lewinsohn is professor of medicine in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine at the OHSU School of Medicine and at the Portland Veteran’s Administration. In addition to mentoring the students and early-career researchers in his own laboratory, Lewinsohn is the principal investigator for the T32 Training grant in his division, where the team works to promote pulmonary medicine across the OHSU and sponsored both pre-and postdoctoral scholars. These are roles in which he has shown outstanding dedication to creating the best possible environment for training future physicians and scientists. Lewinsohn is also the director of the Center for Global Child Health Research, which is focused on collaborative research in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of childhood infection.
His laboratory is run jointly with Dr. Deborah Lewinsohn, who is the Division Head of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, and whose interest has been in the immunology of pediatric TB, and the mechanisms underlying the susceptibility of young children to TB. As a result, the laboratory provides a rich environment spanning basic immune mechanisms underlying the cellular immunology and cellular biology of human infection with Mtb, to translation of these observations in TB endemic regions of the world.
Find out more about Lewinsohn's work.
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The Discovery Award recognizes an Oregon investigator who has made significant, original contributions to health-related research while working in Oregon. This research can be in the basic, clinical or behavioral sciences, or it can be research in health care delivery, health informatics or health outcomes. Past recipients represent a broad spectrum of disciplines from many Oregon research institutions. (See the bottom of this page for information on how to nominate individuals for all MRF awards, including the Discovery Awards.)
- Nominations are sought from Oregon research, educational and health care institutions, individual researchers, educators and practitioners.
- Nominations must include a summary of original achievements of the nominee and a current curriculum vitae. The significance of original contributions to new knowledge and professional excellence will be primary considerations.
- The MRF Committee will review, evaluate and select the winner of the Discovery Award.
- Current members of the MRF Committee are not eligible to be nominated for the Discovery Award.
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The Mentor Award is presented to an Oregonian who has provided outstanding mentorship and leadership in the support of health research, education or the advancement of health care. (See the bottom of this page for information on how to nominate individuals for all MRF awards, including the Mentor Award.)
- Nominations are sought from Oregon research, educational and health care institutions, individual researchers, educators and practitioners.
- Nominations must include a summary of the leadership and support accomplishments of the nominee and a current curriculum vitae.
- The MRF Committee will review, evaluate and select the winners of the Mentor Award.
- Current members of the MRF Committee are not eligible to be nominated for the Mentor Award.
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The Richard T. Jones New Investigator Award recognizes a new investigator who shows exceptional promise early in a career in biomedical research. This individual must be within seven years or fewer of completing clinical and/or post-doctoral training and will be judged on the basis of independence, quality of science, national funding and first or senior authored publications in peer-reviewed biomedical research journals. The culmination of the research must have been performed in Oregon. (See the bottom of this page for information on how to nominate individuals for all MRF awards, including the Richard T. Jones New Investigator Award.)
Follow these guidelines when submitting a nomination for the Richard T. Jones New Investigator Award:
- Nominations are sought from Oregon research, educational and health care institutions, individual researchers, educators and practitioners.
- Nominations must include a summary of original achievements of the nominee and a current curriculum vitae.
- The MRF Committee will review, evaluate and select the winner of the Richard T. Jones New Investigator Award.
- Current members of the MRF Committee are not eligible to be nominated for the Richard T. Jones New Investigator Award.
How do I nominate?
All nominations should include:
- A nomination letter clearly specifying the award for which the individual is being nominated and addressing how the individual meets the guidelines for that award.
- The nominee's curriculum vitae.
- No more than five letters of support. Letters of support signed by more than one person are discouraged.
- All documents should be submitted at one time, as one pdf by the nominator.
- Competitive nominations will include letters from outside your institution.
Award winners will be selected by the members of the MRF Committee.
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2019-2024
2019-2024
2024
Jane Zhu, M.D., M.P.P., MSHP
Richard T. Jones New Investigator Award
Leslie Leve, Ph.D.
Mentor Award
Karen Guillemin, Ph.D.
Discovery AwardMarie Harvey, Dr.PH., M.P.H.
Discovery Award.2023
Andrew McHill, Ph.D., OHSU
Richard T. Jones New Investigator AwardK. John McConnell, Ph.D., OHSU
Mentor AwardCindy T. McEvoy, M.D, MCR, OHSU
Discovery Award2022
Ashley Walker, Ph.D., University of Oregon
Richard T. Jones New Investigator AwardAndrey Ryabinin, Ph.D., OHSU
Mentor AwardLaurence Trussell, Ph.D., OHSu
Discovery Award2021
Steven Shea, Ph.D., OHSU
Mentor AwardMaret Traber, Ph.D., Oregon State University
Discovery AwardSteve Reichow, Ph.D., Portland State University
Richard T. Jones New Investigator Award2020
Aaron Caughey, M.D., M.P.P., M.P.H., Ph.D., OHSU
Mentor AwardCary Harding, M.D., OHSU
Discovery AwardLuiz Bertassoni, D.D.S., Ph.D., OHSU
Richard T. Jones New Investigator Award2019
Jonathan R. Lindner, M.D., OHSU
Mentor AwardPeter G. Barr-Gillespie, Ph.D., OHSU
Discovery AwardBo Sun, Ph.D., Oregon State University
Richard T. Jones New Investigator Award