Global Health Day

Keynote Lecture. Challenges with Post COVID-19 condition: WHO Perspectives

Janet Diaz, MD, Team lead, Clinical Management, WHO Health Emergencies Programme

Dr. Janet Diaz, MD, is the head of clinical care, WHO Health Emergencies Programme. Since 2018, she has worked as the lead for the Clinical Management Team that is responsible for readiness and response to emerging infectious diseases, such as COVID-19 and Ebola. Her unit is responsible for developing the COVID-19 Living guidelines on Therapeutics and Clinical Management, spearheading the oxygen access scale up initiative and advancing clinical research agenda around emerging infectious diseases.

Dr. Diaz is an accomplished specialist in pulmonary and critical care medicine with expertise in clinical medicine and global health. She is committed to working with medical and public health professionals to deliver quality, safe, and cost-efficient care to critically ill patients in resource-limited regions.

Previously, she worked at the California Pacific Medical Center, a tertiary referral center in San Francisco. She received her post-graduate training in Internal, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). From 2006-2010, she served as the Medical Director of the MICU at San Francisco General Hospital and as an Assistant Clinical Professor at UCSF where she was recognized for her leadership in hospital quality, patient safety and clinical teaching.

Keynote Lecture. Neurological complications of COVID-19 infection

Avindra Nath, MD, Clinical Director, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), National Institutes of Health (NIH); Director, NINDS Translational Neuroscience Center, NIH

Dr. Nath is the clinical director of NINDS, the director of the Translational Neuroscience Center and chief of the section of infections of the nervous system, positions he has held since 2011.

Dr. Nath focuses his research on retroviral infections of the nervous system and their link to neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases, and he works to develop new ways to diagnose and treat these diseases. The illnesses he studies are varied, and include HIV, ALS and MS, as well as (re)emerging infectious diseases. Dr. Nath’s expertise is in managing patients with CNS infections or with immune disorders where an infectious etiology may be suspected. He has led several national and international efforts to study outbreaks or neurological illnesses where an infectious or immune component is suspected, such as Ebola, Zika, Nodding syndrome, HHV-6 encephalitis and SARS-CoV-2, and he serves on various WHO, CDC, NIH, FDA and HHS committees related to these topics.

Since the emergence of SARS-CoV-2, Dr. Nath has played a leadership role in categorizing and drawing attention to the neurological complications of the infection. He has organized multi-institutional efforts, workshops and seminars, given keynote addresses, and given nearly 100 interviews in all major news media about COVID-19. Dr. Nath has also testified at the Congressional Neuroscience committee and the National Academy of Medicine to draw attention to the long-term complications of the illness.

Prior to his work at the NIH, Dr. Nath held faculty positions at the University of Manitoba, the University of Kentucky, and Johns Hopkins University. He received his MD from Christian Medical College in India. 

COVID updates

Thomas A. Russo, MD, Professor and Chief, Infectious Disease, Department of Medicine,
Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University at Buffalo

Thomas Russo, MD, is a SUNY Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. His clinical and research focus is on infectious diseases. As a practicing physician, he cares for hospitalized patients at the Buffalo VA Medical Center (Buffalo VAMC).

Russo’s research focus is on pathogenesis, and drug and vaccine development against extraintestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli, Acinetobacter baumannii and a new pathotype of Klebsiella pneumoniae. His work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Veterans Administration. 

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Russo has educated and informed the university, health care providers, the public and businesses about how best to manage this evolving crisis. He has become such a familiar source for local, national and international media reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic that The Buffalo News deemed him “Buffalo’s Dr. Fauci.”

Russo teaches medical students in lecture settings and small-group sessions and teaches clinical patient care to medical students, residents and fellows at the VAMC. In addition, he mentors students, residents and fellows in his laboratory.

Russo has been honored with numerous awards. These include the SUNY Inventor Award, recognition as one of UB’s Top 100 Principal Investigators, and the Stockton Kimball Award for consistent academic accomplishment, significant research discoveries and contributions to the progress of UB and the Jacobs School.

Tracking SARS-CoV-2 variants in municipal wastewater

Yinyin Ye, PhD, Assistant Professor, Environmental Engineering, Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, University at Buffalo

Dr. Yinyin Ye is currently an Assistant Professor of Environmental Engineering in the Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering at the University at Buffalo (UB). Her research focuses on the fate of viral pathogens and disease-causing biomolecules in natural and engineered systems. Specifically, her team leverages biomolecular techniques and analytical tools to monitor infectious diseases through wastewater-based epidemiology, to understand the mechanisms by which viruses are resistant to disinfection, and to predict sunlight photolysis of antibiotic resistance genes in the environment. Prior to joining UB, Dr. Ye completed her post-doctoral training at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. She received her Ph.D. degree in Environmental Engineering from University of Michigan in 2018, and her B.S. degree in Environmental Engineering from Tongji University in 2012. 
 

Clean air and COVID pandemic: an opportunity for radical change

Meng Wang, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health, School of Public Health and Health Professions, University at Buffalo

Dr. Meng Wang, joined the Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health in the Division of Environmental Health Sciences as an assistant professor in June 2018. His research focuses on environmental exposure monitoring, air pollution modeling, and health impacts of environmental exposures. Specifically, he is interested in producing the most accurate human exposure estimates for health studies using advanced exposure technologies (e.g. fixed and mobile monitoring, remote sensing and low-cost sensors) and analytic approaches based on complex big data resources (e.g. a GIS-based environmental model). His research also involves investigating whether exposure to air pollution and other environmental contaminants are associated with respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Furthermore, he does research to understand the mechanistic pathways underlying these associations, including genetic and environmental interactions.

COVID pandemic and impacts on mental health

Lina Mu, PhD, MD, Associate Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health, Director, Office of Global Health Initiatives, School of Public Health and Health Professions
 

Welcome.  

Jean Wactawski-Wende, PhD, SUNY Distinguished Professor and dean, School of Public Health and Health Professions (SPHHP)

Keynote Lecture. The Early Life Exposome—from Concept to Implementation​. 

Martine Vrijheid, PhD, Research professor, Barcelona Institute for ISGlobal Health (ISGlobal), Spain

Martine Vrijheid, Research Professor and Head of the Childhood and Environment Programme of ISGlobal, received her doctorate degree from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) in 2000. She worked as lecturer at LSHTM and then as staff scientist at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC, Lyon), specialising in environmental epidemiology.

Since joining ISGlobal, she has focused her research activities on the topic of environmental (chemical, physical, social) exposures and child health. She is PI of the INMA-Sabadell birth cohort study. Under several national and international grants, she has studied exposure to obesogenic chemical pollutants and to the urban environment (bisphenol A, phthalates, PFASs, persistent organic pollutants, tobacco smoke, air pollutants, green spaces) in relation to childhood obesity and cardiometabolic / cardiovascular health, work that she is now expanding to other European cohorts.

In recent years she has spearheaded the push to collect more accurate and complete data on many exposures during early life periods as PI of the HELIX (Human Early Life Exposome) project, a large collaborative European project involving birth cohorts in 6 European countries and implementing, for the first time, the exposome concept. HELIX constructed a “deep” exposome database with completely comparable biomonitoring data, geospatial data, child health outcome data, and multiple omics signatures, in mothers and children, building the methodological basis for analysing many exposures, describing various aspects of the early life exposome (temporal, geographical, social inequalities), linking the exposome to molecular omics markers, and linking the exposome to child health (e.g. lung function: Agier, Lancet Plan Health 2018; blood pressure: Warembourg, JACC 2019; obesity: Vrijheid, EHP 2020). In 2020, she obtained the ATHLETE project (Advancing Tools for Human Early Life-course Exposome Research and Translation (EC H2020), which aims to advance important challenges in exposome research through improved tools, data, and translation.

Finally, as PI of two previous EC FP7 grants, ENRIECO (Environmental Health Risks in European Birth Cohorts) and CHICOS (Developing a Child Cohort Strategy in Europe) she has been instrumental in the building of a network of birth cohorts in Europe, resulting in a framework for data sharing and harmonization across more than 30 European birth cohorts. She continues this work as WP leader in H2020 project LifeCycle that aims to build the EU Child Cohort Network by implementing a FAIR data sharing and analysis platform.

Long-term consequences of obstetric and neonatal risks associated with air pollution 

Pauline Mendola, PhD, Professor and chair, SPHHP Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health

Dr. Pauline Mendola is currently a Professor and Chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health in the School of Public Health and Health Related Professions here at UB. She came to us in the Fall of 2020 from her position as a Senior Investigator in the Epidemiology Branch in the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Previously, she served as Chief of the Infant, Child and Women’s Health Statistics Branch at the National Center for Health Statistics and Chief of the Epidemiology and Biomarkers Branch of the National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory of the US EPA. Dr. Mendola’s research focuses on environmental factors that impact fertility, pregnancy loss, obstetric complications and birth outcomes; chronic disease in women of reproductive age; and factors underlying variation in asthma control during pregnancy.

Climate change, extreme weather and natural disaster on human health

Shao Lin, MD, MPH, PhD, Professor, departments of Environmental Health Sciences and Epidemiology / Biostatistics; assoc. director of global health research, School of Public Health, University at Albany.

Dr. Shao Lin currently is a Professor of both Department of Environmental Health Sciences and Department of Epidemiology / Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University at Albany and the Associate Director of Global Health Research. She obtained her medical degree from Sun Yat-sen University in China and her both MPH and Ph.D. degree at Epidemiology from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As the Research Director of the Bureau of Environmental and Occupational Epidemiology in the Center for Environmental Health, NYSDOH, she has 30 years of research experience in directing various environmental health studies and has successfully completed more than 50 studies since 1990. As a Principal Investigator, she has directed studies assessing health impacts of various environmental exposures including climate change, extreme weather, air pollution, heavy traffic exposure, residential exposure to urban air toxics from outdoor/indoor sources, health effects among New York City residents living near Ground Zero after the 9/11/01 disaster or after Hurricane Sandy, and a series of school environment-health projects. She has obtained over 18 million grants and has published more than 190 papers in environmental health field. Dr. Lin has been involved in multiple national climate change committees on developing climate change indicators, evaluating current heat-stress definitions, and preparing white papers regarding climate change to the US Congress. She was invited to be an Expert Panelist of the two National meetings regarding Climate Change and Health sponsored by NIH, CDC, and EPA where she provided recommendations of climate-health research to the US Congress and the US President. She has been served as a standing member in the NIH IRAP Study Section and is currently a standing member of NIEHS EHS Study Section.

Strengthening adolescent capabilities: evidence from a Tanzanian social protection program simultaneously addressing economic and health challenges.

Tia Palermo, PhD, associate professor, SPHHP Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health

Tia Palermo is an Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Environmental Health at the University at Buffalo. Prior to joining University at Buffalo, she was a Social Policy Manager for Social Protection at UNICEF, where she led research examining linkages between social policy, poverty, and health, with a focus on children and adolescents. She has substantial expertise conducting mixed method impact evaluations in Sub-Saharan Africa, including studies of large-scale cash transfer programs in collaboration with national governments, and implementation research in Latin America. Tia previously worked for international NGOs, including Ipas and Family Care International. She is co-Principal Investigator on four studies examining impacts of social protection programs for the The Transfer Project and is also a member of the following Research Consortia: SPARKS Network for Health and Social Protection and The Cash Transfer and Intimate Partner Violence Research Collaborative. She holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and completed postdoctoral training in Demography at the CUNY Institute for Demographic Research.

Adolescent health behavior: challenges and opportunities

Jennifer L. Temple, PhD, Professor, SPHHP departments of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, and Community Health and Health Behavior; director of the Nutrition and Health Research Laboratory

Jenn Temple is a Professor in the Departments of Exercise and Nutrition Science and Community Health and Health Behavior and the Director of the Nutrition and Health Research Laboratory. For the past 15 years, her research has focused on factors the influence ingestive behavior in adolescents. Her most recent work has focused on behaviors that promote excess weight gain, but prior work has examined caffeine use and risk taking behavior. Jenn and her partner have five children, two grandchildren, and two COVID puppies. When not homeschooling her younger children during a pandemic, Jenn enjoys running, yoga, cooking and reading. 

COVID-19 Impacts on Children

Oscar G. Gómez-Duarte, MD, PhD Chief, Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, associate professor, Department of Pediatrics, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

SYMPOSIUM: Substance Use and Its Impact on Local and Global health 

The SPHHP's Office of Global Health Initiatives welcomed Dr. Paolo Boffetta to UB. Dr. Boffetta is Professor of Medicine, Global Health, Oncological Sciences and Preventive Medicine, and Associate Director for Global Oncology of the Tisch Cancer Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NY.

Global Burden of Cancer from Tobacco and Alcohol
Paolo Boffetta, MD, PhD

Cigarettes and E-cigarettes, Using Methylation as a Biomarker of Effect
Jo Freudenheim, PhD, UB Distinguished Professor, Chair and Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health

Tobacco Control to Improve Maternal and Child Health
Xiaozhong Wen, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics

Policy Approaches to Addressing Provider Barriers to Offering Buprenorphine Treatment
Christopher Barrick, PhD, Senior Research Scientist, Department of Family Medicine

The Intersection of Public Health, Emergency Medicine and the Opioid Crisis
Heather Lindstrom, PhD, Research Director, Research Assistant Professor, UBMD Emergency Medicine

PANEL DISCUSSION: Think Locally. Act Globally

The following UB Faculty discussed their global health experiences from around the world:

Laura Smith, PhD – Zimbabwe
Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health
School of Public Health and Health Professions

Yeeli Mui, PhD – South Asia
Postdoctoral Associate, Community for Global Health Equity and UB Food Systems Planning and Health Communities Lab

Lina Mu, PhD, MD – China
Director, Office of Global Health Initiatives, Associate Professor, Director of Graduate Studies,
MPH Program, Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health
School of Public Health and Health Professions

Jessica Kruger, PhD – Jamaica
Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Community Health and Health Behavior
School of Public Health and Health Professions

Mara Huber, PhD – Tanzania
Associate Dean, Undergraduate Research and Experiential Learning

The 9th Annual Global Health Day was co-sponsored by the School of Public Health and Health Professions' Office of Global Health Initiatives and the University at Buffalo's Community of Excellence in Global Health Equity.

EXPOSOME AND GLOBAL HEALTH BURDEN

EXPOSOME

The exposome is a complementary concept of the human genome. It encompasses life-course exposure from the environment, diet, behavior and endogenous processes, from the prenatal period onward. Exposome research could revolutionize our understanding of the underlying causes of disease and guide the development of preventions and cures for more diseases. The symposium aimed to bring experts in various fields together to advance exposome research at UB.

The New Era of Exposome and Its Implications in Global Health
Rosalind Wright, MD, MPH
Dean for Translational Biomedical Research
Co-Director, Institue for Exposomic Research
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai ​

Welcome
Jean Wactawski-Wende, PhD
Dean, School of Public Health and Health Professions

Keynote: The New Era of Exposome and Its Implications in Global Health
Dr. Rosalind Wright  

Behavioral Contributions to Chronic Diseases
Gary Giovino, PhD, MS
Professor and Chair, Department of Community Health and Health Behavior

Metabolomics in Exposome
Lina Mu, MD, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health

Metal Exposures in Women and Children, what has diet to do with it?
Kasia Kordas, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health

An Introduction to 16S Microbiome Analysis in Bioconductor
Jeff Miecznikowski, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Biostatistics

Environmental Health Perspectives on Global Inequalities: Multi-Generational Impacts of Arsenic Exposure on DNA Methylation and their Implications in Arsenic Toxicity
Xuefeng Ren, PhD, MD
Associate Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health

OGHI Global Helath Day Film Screening: BENDING THE ARC

"Bending the Arc" is an acclaimed documentary on the global health movement. This extraordinary film follows the doctors and activists that founded Partners in Health, on the ground in Haiti, Peru, and Rwanda, in their fight for universal health equity and the right to health for all.

Film event co-sponsored by OGHI and the department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health.

Rebecca Stoltzfus holds a PhD in Human nutrition from Cornell University (1992) and a B.A. in Chemistry from Goshen College (1984). From 1992-2002, she was assistant and then associate professor in the Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She joined the Division of Nutritional Sciences in 2002 as an associate professor and was promoted to professor in 2005. For the 2008-09 academic year, she was a visiting professor in the Department of Community Health, Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center, Moshi Tanzania.

Her research focuses on the causes and consequences of malnutrition in women and children in developing countries. Current major projects include the SHINE (Sanitation, Hygiene, and Infant Nutrition Efficacy) Trial in Zimbabwe, Mycotoxins and Infant Growth (Zimbabwe and Tanzania), Implementation Science for Scaling up Nutrition (Tanzania), and a project in Kenya and Ethiopia to translate the new global recommendation for calcium supplementation in pregnancy into policies and programs in Kenya and Ethiopia.  

Agenda:

• 12 p.m. Lunch
• 12:30 p.m. Keynote Address: Elucidating the causes of childhood malnutrition: poor diet, enteric dysfunction disorders, and mycotoxins
• 1:30-2:30 p.m. Student Presentations
• 2:30 p.m. Break
• 3-4 p.m. Global Health Research Panel
• 4 p.m. Closing