With Ozempic generating mass media attention in recent months, University of Minnesota researchers discussed the drug’s original purpose and disclosed potential risks for disordered eating. 

Researchers from different areas of study, including pediatrics, psychiatry, endocrinology and diabetes, addressed misinformation about the drug and described how it works in the body. 

Ozempic and Wegovy: the same, but different 

So what do people call it? Is it Ozempic, Wegovy or Semaglutide? The first step in addressing the title is determining what the “it” is, and if they are speaking about weight loss, diabetes or both. 

Aaron Kelly, co-director for the Center for Pediatric Obesity Medicine, the leading group in the world for helping develop obesity medicines for children and adolescents, said he noticed the names used interchangeably across social media. 

Most drugs have a generic name accompanied by a treatment, Kelly said. Ozempic is generically known as Semaglutide, and the dosage of two milligrams once weekly was approved in 2017 by the Food and Drug Administration for adults diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. 

The same drug containing the same molecules at a slightly raised dose of 2.4 milligrams is now approved for the treatment of obesity in adults and adolescents, and that is referred to as Wegovy, Kelly added. 

“It’s very confusing,” Kelly said. “It was not the wisest move. Really, they should have just chosen one name.”

Drug companies should have indicated the drug is approved for type 2 diabetes at this dose, and it is approved for a treatment for obesity at a slightly higher dose, Kelly added. 

How it works and potential side effects 

The primary cause of obesity from a biological perspective is a dysregulated metabolism, Kelly said. The body works to maintain a homeostatic set point for the regulation of energy. 

“Obesity is not a behavioral problem. It’s not a behavioral disease. It’s, we believe, primarily biologically driven, interacting with an obesogenic environment,” Kelly said. 

Medications like Wegovy and Ozempic help address these biological factors, Kelly added. These drugs work in the hypothalamus with GLP-1 receptors, which are the eating thermostat in the brain, to reduce hunger and appetite. 

These drugs also work to enhance satiety in the hindbrain, making users not only get fuller faster but stay fuller for longer, Kelly said. 

In GLP-1 agonists, the most common side effects in trials have been gastrointestinal, according to Kelly. Although about a third of patients taking these medications experience nausea and vomiting, these symptoms usually improve over time.

“My professional opinion is that the potential benefits in a medically eligible patient greatly outweigh the potential risks, and so it’s been a really positive change,” Kelly said. 

Who qualifies for Ozempic and the pitfalls in BMI

For adults, medical eligibility for Ozempic is based on body mass index (BMI), Kelly said. A BMI of 30 or higher in adults meets the criteria, and if an adult has a slightly lower BMI of 27.5 with weight-related complications (sleep apnea, high blood pressure and high cholesterol), they could also meet the criteria. 

“BMI has recently been under some pretty heavy criticism, ” Kelly said. “It actually is, I think, a much better measure than many people get to give it credit for, but clinical care providers use it as a starting point. It’s not the end-all be-all.”

Tasma Harindhanavudhi, an associate professor of medicine in the Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism, said although BMI is easy to measure using height and weight, it leaves out other important health indicators. 

“I usually try not to use weight loss medications as the first option,” Harindhanavudhi said. “I try to help them to modify their diet or have a healthier lifestyle first, before giving or prescribing any weight loss medications for patients.”

Since BMI cannot measure visceral fat, which is stored within the abdomen, it fails to assess the risk of unhealthy amounts of fat in the blood and cholesterol levels, Harindhanavudhi said. 

In the Diabetes and Endocrinology Clinic at the University, clinicians use waist circumference, BMI and body composition scales that can measure body fat percentage and muscle mass, Harindhanavudhi added. 

Lisa Anderson, co-director for the Minnesota Center for Eating Disorder Research, said BMI is an imperfect measurement used widely by medical professionals because it is an easy metric to communicate. 

“It doesn’t capture what is truly going on in an individual,” Anderson said. 

Many people live in larger bodies doing everything a registered dietitian would recommend when it comes to eating habits and exercise, Anderson said. Their labs look fine if a nutritional and metabolic panel is run, and their results indicate they are healthier than the person next to them in a thinner body.

“In my opinion, when it comes to drugs like Ozempic or Wegovy, to have a threshold decision-making point about if ‘this person is at BMI of this or above’ qualifies, goes against what I think we would do for anything else,” Anderson said. 

For any other medication, if appearance or another physical factor were used without running labs or requiring a documented medical need, it would be considered highly unusual, Anderson added. 

“It’s a little bit counterintuitive that some folks simply say, ‘Yes, you can take this drug and use it for off-label uses for weight loss,’ simply based on your BMI,” Anderson said.

Risk for disordered eating behaviors and food noise

Drugs like Ozempic are referred to as GLP-1 agonists, which is a broad class name for medications used in the treatment of obesity and type 2 diabetes, Anderson said. These drugs are promoted by people who have significant influence on social media. 

The research suggests this exposure and culture has a major impact on eating disorder risk and onset, especially among teens and young adults, Anderson added. 

The side effect of weight loss essentially crept in, instilling the idea that this drug can successfully reduce cravings and the reward value of food and contribute to the increased success of calorie restriction, Anderson said.

“I think that feeds into and is probably fueled by the anti-fat attitudes and weight stigma that is pretty prevalent in our society right now,” Anderson said. 

On the other hand, Kelly said he believes Ozempic can ultimately do the opposite and destigmatize obesity and body size because it breaks the barriers of internal bias. 

It is not that people living in larger bodies lack willpower, Kelly said. What drugs like Ozempic do is release the blame on the individual and help mentally reduce what he refers to as “food noise,” a hallmark of energy dysregulation where the brain tells the body it should always be hungry. 

The concerns of disordered eating should not be dismissed but followed very closely, Kelly said. When teens engage in “do it yourself” weight loss because they are fighting their environment and biology, there is the risk of developing unhealthy weight-related behaviors. 

“What the literature tells us about medically supervised obesity management is that it actually does not lead to an increased incidence of eating disorders,” Kelly said. “If anything it tends to reduce eating disorders and in the adult and adolescent clinical trials of these medicines.” 

University of Minnesota researchers and Period Kits Minnesota highlight the inequities in women’s health care and explore the different period-tracking apps available. 

Menstruation is often a stigmatized topic that is not openly discussed, creating gaps in women’s health care and limited resources. Research and organizations are actively addressing these gaps. 

Menstruation in sports: Often left out of the playbook

Anna Goorevich, a research assistant in the School of Kinesiology, was playing soccer during her freshman year at Franklin & Marshall College when her season abruptly ended after an impending stress fracture. 

It was a life-changing injury, Goorevich said, one that is now recognized as the onset of relative energy deficiency syndrome.

During that time, Goorevich said she lost her period for months due to overtraining and undereating in her new world of collegiate sports, which led to poor mental health and bone density. 

After the incident, Goorevich wrote her master’s thesis, entitled, “They seem to only know about bleeding and cramps,” which researched period stigmatization in sports, specifically the role coaches play. 

Goorevich was granted the opportunity to present her thesis at the Society for Menstrual Cycle research in 2023 and said she hopes to continue to share her research. 

“It all starts with education and learning the language and deconstructing the myths and taboos that surround menstruation as really the first step into creating better environments for athletes,” Goorevich said.

Several male coaches praise their female athletes for losing their periods because most male bodies do not menstruate, according to Goorevich. It is viewed as the ideal. 

However, it is important not to blame male coaches for their lack of information because they rarely are offered a seat at the table, Goorevich said.

To fight the harmful stigmas in sports, coaches should ensure teams have nutritionists and period kits available, Goorevich added. Making sure uniforms are not white can also help lessen the anxiety around bleeding through and enhance performance.

Through her research, Goorevich said she has found that athletes feel more comfortable talking to women-identifying coaches because they can relate. Just because athletes talk to a woman coach about their period, it does not mean that the outcome is better than talking to a male coach.

Women coaches are also equally misinformed about how to manage periods in a sports setting, Goorevich said. Many times less sympathetic reactions came from women coaches because they have lived through it while male coaches reacted awkwardly. 

Menstruation modules that help teach coaches who talk to athletes about menstruation are being worked on at The Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport, according to Goorevich. 

“Nobody should have to choose, period.”

Period Kits MN is an organization working to address barriers to accessing feminine hygiene products like pads, tampons and now diva cups, said Brandon Biernat, the executive director of Period Kits MN.

The organization started in December 2020 and has been growing ever since, Biernat said. It all started when Geoff Davis, founder of Period Kits Denver, went to lunch with a friend who told him a story about when she had to choose between bread and tampons.

“Nobody else is really doing this in Minnesota,” Biernat said. “We decided we have to, we just don’t want people to have to choose between food and tampons.”

Kits can vary based on an organization’s or community’s specific needs, Biernat said. The standard kit includes ten tampons, ten pads and a pack of flushable sanitary wipes. 

Period Kits MN works with food shelves, organizations that support sex trafficking victims and more, Biernat said.

“Not a lot of people like to talk about it, and we’re okay starting that conversation,” Biernat said. “We also understand if you don’t like to talk about it, that’s why we make the kits discrete.”

Period-tracking apps

Danielle Becker-Rosenbaum, an associate librarian in applied economics at the University, conducted research on menstruation apps for period tracking and wellness. 

Period-tracking apps do more than just track menstrual cycles, they provide educational material on the life cycle of reproductive health and help people understand their own bodies in an empowering way, Becker-Rosenbaum said.

“In healthcare women’s health is treated as a sidebar, a side note when it comes to money funding,” Becker-Rosenbaum said. “I think if we normalize the use of apps in general for healthcare, but importantly, for women’s reproductive and OBGYN needs they can only benefit.”

Throughout her research, Becker-Rosenbaum analyzed several period-tracking apps and found that a few of her favorites were Eve and Flo. 

The tracking app Eve blends periods with sex life and relationships, includes daily articles on tracking, educational resources on fertility and birth control, Becker-Rosenbaum said. The downside to the app is it has a paywall of $59.99 for an annual premium membership. 

On the other hand, Flo places an emphasis on understanding a person’s period cycle, and it tracks the person’s mood and gives alerts for late periods, Becker-Rosenbaum said. The app is also free.

“We live in a capitalist society, which I don’t appreciate,” Becker-Rosenbaum said. “I feel like they all should be affordable, and at best free.”

Menstruation is stigmatized and silenced in both sports and society as a whole, Goorevich said. There should be more period-friendly environments that give people spaces to openly talk about their cycles. 

“Women, of course, have many different barriers to full equality, access and enjoyment in sport, and the lack of period education adds to these factors,” Goorevich said. 

Researchers from the School of Social Work, the College of Human Education and Development and the Center for Practice Transformation developed a virtual curriculum with colleagues in Malaysia using narrative exposure therapy for refugees experiencing trauma. 

Partnering with Malaysian providers and the Center for Practice Transformation, the University of Minnesota researchers developed a 33-hour virtual curriculum that spans 10 weeks for practitioners to help refugees experiencing trauma, according to School of Social Work associate professor Patricia Shannon.

Shannon came up with the idea after she finished teaching a course on Zoom. She realized the video platform’s potential for combating the shortage of practitioners trained in trauma therapy. 

Jillian Wright, the associate director for community engagement at the Center for Practice Transformation, worked on enrolling people from Malaysia. She used her expertise as a psychotherapist to moderate the sessions and develop a treatment for her practice as a therapist. 

The fee for enrolling in the curriculum was around $98 and was subsidized through grant funding, as accessibility was a core feature of the curriculum, Wright said. 

The curriculum teaches narrative exposure therapy, which differs from general therapy in its approach, Wright added.

“Narrative exposure therapy is going into the most painful experiences trauma survivors have with intention, rather than learning skills to adapt,” Wright said. “Just by virtue of being able to tell their story, they have a corrective experience by seeing someone responding with care and validating that what they went through was really, truly awful.”

Narrative exposure therapy challenges the notion that events, like sexual abuse or torture, should not be spoken about because people were told so, according to Wright. 

“When people have these experiences in therapy, where they get to systematically and safely describe what’s happened to them, they begin to see themselves as someone who is powerful and has agency,” Wright said. 

The School of Social Work has a Center for Practice Transformation which provides continuing education to advanced licensed clinicians, Shannon said. 

According to Shannon, the idea of a virtual curriculum was discussed among departments for a year before starting 18 months later.

“This is a really exciting time for students who want to work in global health,” Shannon said. “The opportunities that this type of technology offers will help people around the globe gain access to vital education.”

Since the curriculum was made in collaboration with the Center for Practice Transformation, all of its continuing education programs include a certificate of completion for students and clinicians taking the course, said Will Carlson, a graduate student in the School of Social Work.

Students in Malaysia said they found it important to receive a paper certificate after completion because having professional-level continuing education credits from an American university is valuable, said Carlson, a doctoral researcher on the project. 

“We anticipated a higher hurdle than it ended up being in terms of technology,” Carlson said. “However, one challenge was the cost and negotiation of exchange rates, so we wrote grants to pay for the platform to discount the price because we wanted to reach nonprofits.” 

The course starts with talking about the impact of trauma on clinicians and how to sustain themselves in mentally taxing work, Carlson said. 

Looking out for the well-being of the therapist and making sure they have support is important because they have also potentially been exposed to trauma through their work, Wright said. 

“We can just say ‘self-care’ your way out of burnout because it’s a systemic problem that systems have to be able to restructure expectations to get people what they need, such as better supervision, better work environments and more autonomy in their role,” Wright said. 

Being trained in narrative exposure therapy, Wright said he noticed the positive effects of using it in practice. 

“It’s a 180 to see someone come in, they’re quiet, they’re small, they’re gray, and then they just become this, blossom of a person in the span of a few months,” Wright said. “We just don’t have a lot of treatments that are that reliable and that predictable in therapy.”

Narrative exposure therapy was originally developed for refugees and people with a long history of trauma, Wright said. 

“One of the more generally motivating pieces for me is the reality that psychological trauma is so debilitating and so treatable,” Carlson said. “Practical ways to help, like this curriculum, are what is really going to make an impact.”

According to Wright, narrative exposure therapy was used in children as young as seven and has applicability beyond the refugee population, especially those experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder. 

“It’s certainly difficult work, but it’s the most profound and moving and privileged work that I’ll ever be able to do,” Wright said.

The Minnesota Chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) hosts events to share stories and advocate for progressive change in mental health legislation.

The goal of the AFSP is to save lives and bring hope to those affected by suicide through advocacy efforts, support for survivors of suicide loss, research, and prevention and education programming. 

On average there are 132 suicides per day in the United States, making it the 11th leading cause of death in the country, according to the AFSP website.

The AFSP is the largest private funder of suicide prevention research with 34 new studies funded in the last fiscal year, said Amanda Leininger, the Minnesota area director for the AFSP. Last year, the AFSP had six in-person events and one virtual event.

The AFSP virtual event was in American Sign Language for survivors who are part of the Deaf and hard-of-hearing communities, Leininger said. The event was held on Nov. 18, which is International Survivors of Suicide Loss Day, for attendees to find connection and understanding through shared experiences.

“It’s well attended, which I hate to say that an event is well attended and that we’re grateful because we don’t want anyone to be to be a suicide loss survivor, but we’re so grateful that for those who have experienced that loss, [we] can provide opportunities for connection like that,” Leininger said.

April 9 is State Capitol Day for the AFSP, which brings together advocates from the AFSP and other organizations to meet with state and local public officials to advocate for bills related to suicide prevention and mental health, Leininger said. 

“We talk a little bit about how to share your story safely, how to speak about suicide and then we have a volunteer team of an advocacy committee that will be working ahead of time to set up legislative appointments with our advocates and their legislators,” Leininger said.

Juan Del Toro, an applied psychologist in the Department of Psychology at the University of Minnesota, said he became interested in the paradox between mental and physical health because of his own identity as a person of color. Other researchers at the University are examining mental health inequities among BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities who are disproportionately affected by suicide.

People of color report higher levels of happiness, greater self-esteem and fewer cases of depression than white people, Toro said. However, people of color experience worse physical health outcomes, such as higher rates of diabetes and dysregulated cortisol rates — a side effect of chronic stress. 

The environment contributes to this paradox, Toro added. As a result of redlining and segregation, Black American neighborhoods have more McDonald’s and liquor stores and fewer gyms, while more white Americans live in neighborhoods with more salad chains and gyms, according to Toro. 

“The two racial groups have different opportunities and different resources to cope with adversity and stressful experiences in their day-to-day lives,” Toro said. 

Toro said people of color have strong capabilities of instilling resilience in their children. However, many school teachers and faculty are predominately white, so encouraging conversations around race and racism in the classroom is important for students’ identities and well-being. 

“Rather than thinking about families needing intervention, think about schools as a potential cost-effective setting for intervention,” Toro said. “Adolescents are currently interacting with different ethnic racial groups in schools and our youth of color are the model majority in schools.”

Bonnie Klimes-Dougan, a researcher in The Research in Adolescent Depression Lab, said she has been researching adolescents with depression and self-harm because their brains are still developing, leaving a window of opportunity to intervene.

“The million dollar question is, ‘What policies can help marginalized communities with elevated risk for suicide?’” Klimes-Dougan said. 

Native American youth have some amazing strategies for coping tied to their culture and identity, Klimes-Dougan said. However, the stressors within these communities are often severe.

Native Americans and LGBTQ+ populations experience the highest rates for suicide, Klimes-Dougan said. Rather than viewing governmental policies as a definite solution for these elevated rates, building off cultural traditions and identity is helpful.

“One bright spot is that continuing to identify with those traditions of your community seems to be strength building,” Klimes-Dougan said. “Powwows can have restorative effects, so maybe it’s even more powerful than the government saying, ‘We’re going to do something for you.’”

In February, L.E.T.S. Save Lives, an introduction to suicide prevention for Black communities, was launched by the AFSP, Leininger said. The acronym stands for Listening, Empathy, Trust and Support. The program is aimed to reduce cultural stigmas and help participants understand systemic factors that impact suicide rates according to Leininger.

Safe Reporting Saves Lives is another program offered by the AFSP and is a presentation-based learning opportunity for newsrooms to learn how to write about suicide safely, Leininger said.

“I get emotional just thinking about how every single person who you meet has a story,” Leininger said. “Whether that’s a story related to mental health or suicide prevention, I think it’s really beautiful that [the AFSP] allows people to share their stories about what they’ve experienced.” 

Call or text 988 or chat at 988Lifeline.org or  contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741.

A texting progam co-developed by a University of Minnesota School of Public Health professer aims to help Native American communities quit commercialized tabacco and smoking through a texting program. 

Dana Carroll, the University professor and co-developer of the project, said the project stemmed from a Wisconsin conference four years ago. An enthusiastic tribal councilman wanted to develop a program to stop smoking, but did not have the resources within the tribal clinic. 

Right now, Carroll’s research involves a trial of an enrollment program over text message. The team’s tailored program is six to eight weeks long and is expected to be available for free to the public starting this Winter.

One of the most important things Carroll learned is that tobacco has a cultural significance and the colonization of the plant blurred the connection between native communities and the plant. 

The cultural aspect of tobacco embedded in the text-based program

In itself tobacco is good; it is the industry that has taken the plant and colonized it, Carroll said. It can be used to carry prayers to the creator, as a sign of respect by giving it to others, to bless prayers and as a sign of respect at funerals. 

It is vastly different from the tobacco taken to be transformed into cigarettes for commercial use, Carroll said. Making the texting program to help Native communities was an effort for them to reclaim their cultural practices through decolonization, she added. 

Antony Stately (Ojibwe Oneida), president of the Native American Community Clinic in South Minneapolis and co-contributor, said it was important the engagement material was not full of scare tactics but rather of positive language that highlights the cultural uses. 

One of the first texts that a user will get reads: “Hi my relative, how are you doing today?” to create a sense of belonging and comfort in being vulnerable, Carroll said. 

The app (SmokefreeTXT) prioritizes the value, strength and resilience in Native communities, Stately said. 

“We are a culture of people who prioritize our relationships,” Stately said. 

The importance of community and building genuine relationships

Wyatt Pickner (Hunpati Dakota), research manager at the American Indian Cancer Foundation and co-contributor, said it is important to recognize the long history of outsiders and non-Native folks coming into Native communities, collecting data and intercepting without the community’s consent. 

In order to do good research in Native communities, developing a genuine partnership at entry level is important, Pickner said. 

“Most importantly we need to work with those communities to identify their research interests and data needs so that the work we’re doing actually is benefiting the community and not just an outside researcher’s agenda or interests,” Pickner said. 

Native communities have so much resilience, strength and wisdom and oftentimes are looking for funding and resources to make these innovations or ideas a reality, Pickner added.

Hopes for the future of the healthcare industry: being more supportive and inclusive

Healthcare organizations as a whole should start working together to create better resources and programs for Native people across Minnesota, Stately said. Minnesota has one of the worse health outcomes for Native people than any other state, according to Stately. 

Native folks are five times more likely to die from overdose, three times more likely to die from liver disease and four times more likely to die from suicide than any other racial group, Stately said. 

“We have a lot of work to do for this community, and that is why I am doing this study,” Stately said. 

The projects researchers are doing have to be sustainable and on a continuous basis, Pickner said. The projects are not brought to a community, worked on for a year and then removed with something new. According to Pickner, it is best to build off projects and talk to communities and get feedback throughout the collaborative process.

Native communities should have more seats at the table, instead of being left behind in the conversation, Carroll said. 

“As a white researcher, there is this legacy of what academia and researchers have done to communities, and I have to live with that,” Carroll said. “I have to hopefully pave a new path at how we should be doing this.”

This article has been updated.

A University of Minnesota researcher teamed up to work with a researcher from the Chicago Botanic Gardens to understand how the use of controlled fires affects prairie landscapes and its effects on pollination with the Echinacea plant. 

Amy Waananen, a postdoctoral research scientist at the University, partnered with Stuart Wagenius, who is a conservation scientist at the botanic gardens. Wagenius started the Echinacea project in 1995 to focus on the Echinacea plant in Western Minnesota agricultural landscapes. 

The Echinacea project works towards what Waananen’s research is centralized around: the study of habitat fragmentation with the goal of understanding the biological aspect of the plant and how they can conserve the prairies and plants that live among them.

Periodic fires and the importance of pollination

Periodic fires in prairies help plants flower and reduce the amount of weeds that grow, benefiting the prairies, Wagenius said. The Echinacea plant doesn’t produce a large amount of heads, as the largest she has seen in her research is 20, Waananen said. 

The plant itself has defined heads that are easy to count and usually starts with a singular head and sometimes grows more after a fire, Waananen said. This trait makes it easy to survey and cover large areas of prairie, along with its purple color.

A prairie is a habitat dominated by grasses and herbaceous plants. 

The research team only uses periodic burns that call for calmer winds, not too hot of weather, sewer beds not being too dry and conducting a thorough mowing of the plot of land prior to starting a fire, Waananen said. 

In the last 20 years, the rural landscape of Minnesota has changed, and this research aims to help bees and other pollinators as other species are starting to disappear, Wagenius said. Prescribed burns are one aspect that can help pollinators find good places to live and nectar to feed from. 

“Even though it’s rare, prairies are still out there,” Waananen said. “So maybe slow down and try and take a look and understand what’s around you, because you might find more than you expect.”

The Echinacea project from a student perspective

Third-year student Emma Reineke, who got involved in the Echinacea project in the summer of 2021, said the project helped her understand the scientific process, how to design experiments, how to move forward after adversity and accept that there will be bumps along the road. 

Reineke’s most recent co-project looked at the way dust impacts the health and fitness of the plant by placing dust on the heads of the flowers. At the end of the season, she cut the flowers and counted how many seeds were present as a sign of being able to reproduce, Reineke said.

Many of the plants were stolen by ground squirrels, resulting in a loss of nearly 25% of the plants, Reineke said. Coming back for a second year, she was able to collect over 60 heads to analyze, using vaseline on a paper filter to see the dust better. 

Reineke said all of her data was lost in transit as it was being mailed. She hopes to get the seeds back to continue to observe and analyze the Echinacea because it is a model species that can be applied to multiple things.

The project has members from all over the nation. Reineke said the first day of research, the group toured the prairie and learned about how an ecosystem can change over time.

“I really just can’t highlight how amazing the experience was for me,” Reineke said.

A University of Minnesota researcher teamed up to work with a researcher from the Chicago Botanic Gardens to understand how the use of controlled fires affects prairie landscapes and its effects on pollination with the Echinacea plant. 

Amy Waananen, a postdoctoral research scientist at the University, partnered with Stuart Wagenius, who is a conservation scientist at the botanic gardens. Wagenius started the Echinacea project in 1995 to focus on the Echinacea plant in Western Minnesota agricultural landscapes. 

The Echinacea project works towards what Waananen’s research is centralized around: the study of habitat fragmentation with the goal of understanding the biological aspect of the plant and how they can conserve the prairies and plants that live among them.

Periodic fires and the importance of pollination

Periodic fires in prairies help plants flower and reduce the amount of weeds that grow, benefiting the prairies, Wagenius said. The Echinacea plant doesn’t produce a large amount of heads, as the largest she has seen in her research is 20, Waananen said. 

The plant itself has defined heads that are easy to count and usually starts with a singular head and sometimes grows more after a fire, Waananen said. This trait makes it easy to survey and cover large areas of prairie, along with its purple color.

A prairie is a habitat dominated by grasses and herbaceous plants. 

The research team only uses periodic burns that call for calmer winds, not too hot of weather, sewer beds not being too dry and conducting a thorough mowing of the plot of land prior to starting a fire, Waananen said. 

In the last 20 years, the rural landscape of Minnesota has changed, and this research aims to help bees and other pollinators as other species are starting to disappear, Wagenius said. Prescribed burns are one aspect that can help pollinators find good places to live and nectar to feed from. 

“Even though it’s rare, prairies are still out there,” Waananen said. “So maybe slow down and try and take a look and understand what’s around you, because you might find more than you expect.”

The Echinacea project from a student perspective

Third-year student Emma Reineke, who got involved in the Echinacea project in the summer of 2021, said the project helped her understand the scientific process, how to design experiments, how to move forward after adversity and accept that there will be bumps along the road. 

Reineke’s most recent co-project looked at the way dust impacts the health and fitness of the plant by placing dust on the heads of the flowers. At the end of the season, she cut the flowers and counted how many seeds were present as a sign of being able to reproduce, Reineke said.

Many of the plants were stolen by ground squirrels, resulting in a loss of nearly 25% of the plants, Reineke said. Coming back for a second year, she was able to collect over 60 heads to analyze, using vaseline on a paper filter to see the dust better. 

Reineke said all of her data was lost in transit as it was being mailed. She hopes to get the seeds back to continue to observe and analyze the Echinacea because it is a model species that can be applied to multiple things.

The project has members from all over the nation. Reineke said the first day of research, the group toured the prairie and learned about how an ecosystem can change over time.

“I really just can’t highlight how amazing the experience was for me,” Reineke said.

A University of Minnesota researcher teamed up to work with a researcher from the Chicago Botanic Gardens to understand how the use of controlled fires affects prairie landscapes and its effects on pollination with the Echinacea plant. 

Amy Waananen, a postdoctoral research scientist at the University, partnered with Stuart Wagenius, who is a conservation scientist at the botanic gardens. Wagenius started the Echinacea project in 1995 to focus on the Echinacea plant in Western Minnesota agricultural landscapes. 

The Echinacea project works towards what Waananen’s research is centralized around: the study of habitat fragmentation with the goal of understanding the biological aspect of the plant and how they can conserve the prairies and plants that live among them.

Periodic fires and the importance of pollination

Periodic fires in prairies help plants flower and reduce the amount of weeds that grow, benefiting the prairies, Wagenius said. The Echinacea plant doesn’t produce a large amount of heads, as the largest she has seen in her research is 20, Waananen said. 

The plant itself has defined heads that are easy to count and usually starts with a singular head and sometimes grows more after a fire, Waananen said. This trait makes it easy to survey and cover large areas of prairie, along with its purple color.

A prairie is a habitat dominated by grasses and herbaceous plants. 

The research team only uses periodic burns that call for calmer winds, not too hot of weather, sewer beds not being too dry and conducting a thorough mowing of the plot of land prior to starting a fire, Waananen said. 

In the last 20 years, the rural landscape of Minnesota has changed, and this research aims to help bees and other pollinators as other species are starting to disappear, Wagenius said. Prescribed burns are one aspect that can help pollinators find good places to live and nectar to feed from. 

“Even though it’s rare, prairies are still out there,” Waananen said. “So maybe slow down and try and take a look and understand what’s around you, because you might find more than you expect.”

The Echinacea project from a student perspective

Third-year student Emma Reineke, who got involved in the Echinacea project in the summer of 2021, said the project helped her understand the scientific process, how to design experiments, how to move forward after adversity and accept that there will be bumps along the road. 

Reineke’s most recent co-project looked at the way dust impacts the health and fitness of the plant by placing dust on the heads of the flowers. At the end of the season, she cut the flowers and counted how many seeds were present as a sign of being able to reproduce, Reineke said.

Many of the plants were stolen by ground squirrels, resulting in a loss of nearly 25% of the plants, Reineke said. Coming back for a second year, she was able to collect over 60 heads to analyze, using vaseline on a paper filter to see the dust better. 

Reineke said all of her data was lost in transit as it was being mailed. She hopes to get the seeds back to continue to observe and analyze the Echinacea because it is a model species that can be applied to multiple things.

The project has members from all over the nation. Reineke said the first day of research, the group toured the prairie and learned about how an ecosystem can change over time.

“I really just can’t highlight how amazing the experience was for me,” Reineke said.

A University of Minnesota researcher teamed up to work with a researcher from the Chicago Botanic Gardens to understand how the use of controlled fires affects prairie landscapes and its effects on pollination with the Echinacea plant. 

Amy Waananen, a postdoctoral research scientist at the University, partnered with Stuart Wagenius, who is a conservation scientist at the botanic gardens. Wagenius started the Echinacea project in 1995 to focus on the Echinacea plant in Western Minnesota agricultural landscapes. 

The Echinacea project works towards what Waananen’s research is centralized around: the study of habitat fragmentation with the goal of understanding the biological aspect of the plant and how they can conserve the prairies and plants that live among them.

Periodic fires and the importance of pollination

Periodic fires in prairies help plants flower and reduce the amount of weeds that grow, benefiting the prairies, Wagenius said. The Echinacea plant doesn’t produce a large amount of heads, as the largest she has seen in her research is 20, Waananen said. 

The plant itself has defined heads that are easy to count and usually starts with a singular head and sometimes grows more after a fire, Waananen said. This trait makes it easy to survey and cover large areas of prairie, along with its purple color.

A prairie is a habitat dominated by grasses and herbaceous plants. 

The research team only uses periodic burns that call for calmer winds, not too hot of weather, sewer beds not being too dry and conducting a thorough mowing of the plot of land prior to starting a fire, Waananen said. 

In the last 20 years, the rural landscape of Minnesota has changed, and this research aims to help bees and other pollinators as other species are starting to disappear, Wagenius said. Prescribed burns are one aspect that can help pollinators find good places to live and nectar to feed from. 

“Even though it’s rare, prairies are still out there,” Waananen said. “So maybe slow down and try and take a look and understand what’s around you, because you might find more than you expect.”

The Echinacea project from a student perspective

Third-year student Emma Reineke, who got involved in the Echinacea project in the summer of 2021, said the project helped her understand the scientific process, how to design experiments, how to move forward after adversity and accept that there will be bumps along the road. 

Reineke’s most recent co-project looked at the way dust impacts the health and fitness of the plant by placing dust on the heads of the flowers. At the end of the season, she cut the flowers and counted how many seeds were present as a sign of being able to reproduce, Reineke said.

Many of the plants were stolen by ground squirrels, resulting in a loss of nearly 25% of the plants, Reineke said. Coming back for a second year, she was able to collect over 60 heads to analyze, using vaseline on a paper filter to see the dust better. 

Reineke said all of her data was lost in transit as it was being mailed. She hopes to get the seeds back to continue to observe and analyze the Echinacea because it is a model species that can be applied to multiple things.

The project has members from all over the nation. Reineke said the first day of research, the group toured the prairie and learned about how an ecosystem can change over time.

“I really just can’t highlight how amazing the experience was for me,” Reineke said.

A University of Minnesota researcher teamed up to work with a researcher from the Chicago Botanic Gardens to understand how the use of controlled fires affects prairie landscapes and its effects on pollination with the Echinacea plant. 

Amy Waananen, a postdoctoral research scientist at the University, partnered with Stuart Wagenius, who is a conservation scientist at the botanic gardens. Wagenius started the Echinacea project in 1995 to focus on the Echinacea plant in Western Minnesota agricultural landscapes. 

The Echinacea project works towards what Waananen’s research is centralized around: the study of habitat fragmentation with the goal of understanding the biological aspect of the plant and how they can conserve the prairies and plants that live among them.

Periodic fires and the importance of pollination

Periodic fires in prairies help plants flower and reduce the amount of weeds that grow, benefiting the prairies, Wagenius said. The Echinacea plant doesn’t produce a large amount of heads, as the largest she has seen in her research is 20, Waananen said. 

The plant itself has defined heads that are easy to count and usually starts with a singular head and sometimes grows more after a fire, Waananen said. This trait makes it easy to survey and cover large areas of prairie, along with its purple color.

A prairie is a habitat dominated by grasses and herbaceous plants. 

The research team only uses periodic burns that call for calmer winds, not too hot of weather, sewer beds not being too dry and conducting a thorough mowing of the plot of land prior to starting a fire, Waananen said. 

In the last 20 years, the rural landscape of Minnesota has changed, and this research aims to help bees and other pollinators as other species are starting to disappear, Wagenius said. Prescribed burns are one aspect that can help pollinators find good places to live and nectar to feed from. 

“Even though it’s rare, prairies are still out there,” Waananen said. “So maybe slow down and try and take a look and understand what’s around you, because you might find more than you expect.”

The Echinacea project from a student perspective

Third-year student Emma Reineke, who got involved in the Echinacea project in the summer of 2021, said the project helped her understand the scientific process, how to design experiments, how to move forward after adversity and accept that there will be bumps along the road. 

Reineke’s most recent co-project looked at the way dust impacts the health and fitness of the plant by placing dust on the heads of the flowers. At the end of the season, she cut the flowers and counted how many seeds were present as a sign of being able to reproduce, Reineke said.

Many of the plants were stolen by ground squirrels, resulting in a loss of nearly 25% of the plants, Reineke said. Coming back for a second year, she was able to collect over 60 heads to analyze, using vaseline on a paper filter to see the dust better. 

Reineke said all of her data was lost in transit as it was being mailed. She hopes to get the seeds back to continue to observe and analyze the Echinacea because it is a model species that can be applied to multiple things.

The project has members from all over the nation. Reineke said the first day of research, the group toured the prairie and learned about how an ecosystem can change over time.

“I really just can’t highlight how amazing the experience was for me,” Reineke said.