Project Grant 2553534

The National Science Foundation Division of Environmental Biology awarded Oregon State University $963,118 on September 1, 2026, under the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) to conduct collaborative research on oxygenase enzymes and microbial metabolic limitation by hypoxia.

The project examines how oxygen consumption during organic matter degradation creates low-oxygen environments that exclude most animal life—a phenomenon with documented economic impact on marine fisheries through ocean deoxygenation. The research follows discovery that biochemical oxygen-consuming processes contain two rate-limiting steps; degradation of some organic matter requires both steps and higher oxygen concentrations, while other matter degrades efficiently at lower concentrations. Experiments will determine how oxygen loss depends on organic matter type and how microbial life has evolved to adapt to stepwise metabolic inhibition during oxygen declines. The work applies artificial intelligence to predict general relationships between oxygen and organic matter for optimization of biotechnology in low-oxygen systems, using controlled laboratory experiments with cultured cells and specific organic compounds to validate hypotheses from natural ecosystems. Results will enable more accurate prediction of oxygen loss and molecular stability (including drugs and pollutants) at low oxygen concentrations, improve capacity to predict and control oxygen declines in natural ecosystems and industrial processes such as wastewater treatment, and prepare graduate and undergraduate students for STEM careers. While focused on marine systems where the initial discovery occurred, the conceptual framework applies broadly to cellular metabolism across environments where oxygen availability fluctuates, including coastal upwelling zones, sediments, biofilms, and host-associated systems.

Performance occurs in Corvallis, Oregon, with a period of performance through August 31, 2029.