Research News

Latest Research News

January 18, 2023

LSU Health Sciences Physician Lead Investigator on Groundbreaking Sepsis Test: Sepsis is the No. 1 cause of death in hospitals and Louisiana leads the country with the highest rate of sepsis mortality, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Hollis O’Neal, MD, Critical Care Physician at LSU Health Sciences Center and Medical Director of Research at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, was the national principal investigator that led to the creation of an FDA-cleared test for sepsis.

December 11, 2022

AI and Alternative Data Could Help Millions Gain Access to Credit: Less than half of all U.S. adults have access to prime credit because of their credit score. But new LSU and Harvard University research shows a lot more people could become eligible if lenders use artificial intelligence, or AI, and alternative data, such as education and employment history. Smarter underwriting algorithms would especially benefit recent college graduates and young people with short credit histories as well as people with low or no credit scores.

November 17, 2022

Potatoes Can Be Part of a Healthy Diet: When we think of healthy vegetables, we don't think of potatoes, but we should. Potatoes have developed a reputation for causing weight gain and an increased risk for type 2 diabetes, and often find themselves on a list of foods to avoid, especially for individuals with insulin resistance. However, a new study from Pennington Biomedical Research Center, published in the Journal of Medicinal Food, says that potatoes actually did not increase that risk, are filled with key nutrients, and packed with health benefits.

November 14, 2022

LSU Improves Storm Surge and Flood Predictions with AI: The LSU-developed tool to predict storm surge and flooding during severe weather events—the Coastal Emergency Risks Assessment, or CERA, website—has become an essential resource for thousands of emergency managers and first responders in Louisiana and the nation’s coastal states to help protect people and infrastructure. Now, the tool will become even smarter and faster, thanks to artificial intelligence, or AI, and support from the U.S. Department of Energy, which is looking to secure key energy assets, especially along the Gulf Coast, from stronger and more frequent storms.

October 25, 2022

Louisiana Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory Now Performing Monkeypox Virus Testing: Effective Oct. 4, the Louisiana Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory, or LADDL, at the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine began testing for monkeypox virus for the LSU Student Health Center. In 2021, LADDL, an accredited veterinary diagnostic laboratory, acquired CLIA (Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments) certification for the testing of human samples for COVID-19 and now monkeypox virus.

September 26, 2022

The Future Is Bright: What LSU's New, Prestigious Cybersecurity Designation by the NSA Means for Students, Louisiana: LSU announced that it has been designated as a Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Operations, or CAE-CO, by the National Security Agency, or NSA. It's an honor shared among only 22 universities and colleges in the nation. Here, research students and alumni in the LSU cybersecurity program speak to the immediate impacts this recognition will have on them, on LSU and on Louisiana, where they all grew up.

September 23, 2022

Litter Tracker: LSU Professor Works to Find the Source of Baton Rouge Neighborhoods' Litter: LSU’s Mark Benfield, a professor in the Department of Oceanography & Coastal Sciences, pulls up video footage on his computer. It’s of a road in Baton Rouge’s Beauregard Town neighborhood, and you can see sidewalks and yards edged in trees. He points to a small white spot on his screen. “There’s something there.” It’s a piece of trash, one of many Benfield is tracking as part of a preliminary study he’s working on with the Louisiana Stormwater Coalition.

September 12, 2022

LSU Reilly Center to Examine Plantations’ Historical Portrayal of Slavery, Solutions to Shift the Narrative: The Reilly Center for Media & Public Affairs at LSU’s Manship School of Mass Communication will host the season five opener of Racism: Dismantling the System, “Narrative Shifting: Centering the Humanity of the Enslaved on Plantations” on Sept. 13 at 3:30 p.m. CT. The discussion will explore how plantations have historically presented the story of slavery and solutions to change these distorted narratives.

August 17, 2022

$20 Million Federal Grant Will Boost Biomedical Science Collaborations Across Louisiana: The LA CaTS Network, which has built a statewide research infrastructure based on a collaborative partnership involving 11 major Louisiana academic, research and healthcare delivery institutions, has been selected by the National Institutes of Health to receive a $20 million, five-year grant to continue its work to make Louisiana healthier by addressing health disparities and improving health outcomes in the state’s underserved population with chronic diseases.

July 22, 2022

LSU Department of World Languages, Literatures & Cultures Professor Awarded Fellowship at Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study: Mark Wagner, professor of Arabic in the LSU Department of World Languages, Literatures & Cultures, has been awarded a fellowship at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Wagner will undertake the research project titled, “The Rothschilds of Arabia and Africa: The Rise and Fall of a Jewish Mercantile Empire Under the British Raj.”