2015 Opportunities
For the 2015 Global Health Disparities Research Fellowship, you may apply to no more than two (2) of the research projects described below. Please read the descriptions carefully and ensure that you have the qualifications required to complete the project. If you have any questions, please contact the MHIRT program. Please DO NOT contact the professors directly.
BANGLADESH - Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Benefits Project
Jack Colford and Leanne Unicomb (2 slots)
Title: Investigating the long-term health effects of waterborne infections on child health and development
Background: This project investigates the long-term health effects of waterborne infections on child health and development. A secondary goal of the project is to measure the comparative cost-effectiveness of a suite of different sanitation, water quality, handwashing, and nutritional interventions.
Project Description: The study is being implemented in two countries-- Bangladesh and Kenya-- in order to learn how biological, environmental, and economic differences in the two regions affect peoples' health. Two to three MHIRT students will be working together in rural Western Kenya or rural Bangladesh. Two to four MHIRT students will be working together in rural Bangladesh on characterizing environmental enteropathy in the control and intervention arms of the study. Environmental enteropathy (EE), a subclinical inflammatory disorder of the gut, is ubiquitous among people living in contaminated environments. EE likely mediates childhood stunting and poor oral vaccine efficacy in low-income countries. The MHIRT students will be using ELISA techniques to characterize EE in biological samples. They will also have an opportunity to accompany the EE team to the field and to learn sample/data collection and to learn management skills.
Recommended qualifications for applying students: laboratory experience.
The study is being implemented at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh in Dhaka and Mymensingh.
BRAZIL — Bacterial Infections
Lee Riley & TBD (1 slot)
Background: The Riley laboratory has been involved in collaborative projects in Brazil since 1990. The collaboration has focused on infectious diseases of importance to urban centers, specifically on infectious diseases of urban slums. Brazil has undergone more than 350% increase in its urban population since 1960. This has engendered completely new types of health problems with magnitude not seen in most developing or developed countries. Urbanization and the explosive increase in shantytown populations have created a new set of health problems: chronic infectious (TB, AIDS, post-infectious cardiovascular and renal diseases) and non-infectious diseases (hypertension, diabetes, asthma, and unintentional and unintentional injuries). A single placement with the Riley lab will be available in Brazil, but the particular project and site will be negotiated once a student joins the lab. The options are outlined below.
Possible Project 1 (Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, Salvador): Exploiting the knowledge gained from basic TB pathogenesis research conducted at UC Berkeley, we are evaluating immunological responses in patients with latent infection, to determine responses predictive of those who may progress to active disease. In addition, we are evaluating a new serologic method to monitor response to treatment in those newly diagnosed to have TB. This is done in collaboration with researchers at Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Salvador, Brazil. This project will require some experiences working in a laboratory, especially with immunology procedures.
Possible Project 2 (Federal University of Fluminense, Rio de Janeiro): In addition to the above TB project, we have initiated a new project that focuses on assessing disease burden to create new disease burden metrics in urban slum vs non-slum communities. In particular, we are examining the impact of infectious diseases on chronic diseases (e.g., diabetes mellitus) when the chronic disease occurs in slums vs non-slums. This project will require skills in mapping and data analyses.
Possible Project 3 (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro): Hospital infections are a major emerging problem in Rio de Janeiro as well as in other major cities of Brazil. For the last 10 years, we have been conducting molecular epidemiologic studies with the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, to understand risk factors for transmission and characterize pathogens implicated in infections in a large university hospital in Rio. This project will require some experiences in microbiology research.
CHINA – HIV Transcription Activation
Qiang Zhou and Yuhua Xue (2 slots)
Title: Functional characterization of novel Tat partners key for activation of HIV-1 transcription.
Background: We are interested in elucidating the mechanisms and identifying host cellular co-factors that control HIV-1 transcription. It was 15 years ago when the human transcription elongation factor P-TEFb was first identified as a host cofactor for activation of HIV-1 transcription by the viral encoded Tat protein. Recruited by Tat to the viral LTR, P-TEFb stimulates RNA polymerase II elongation, a process essential for viral replication. Since 1997, this landmark discovery has provided the basic framework for our understanding of Tat function during the HIV life cycle, and P-TEFb remains the only widely accepted functional Tat partner till this day. However, published data suggest that Tat-transactivation involves more than the interaction between Tat and P-TEFb. A major effort of ours is thus aimed at identifying additional cellular factors that may associate with Tat-P-TEFb to further enhance Tat-transactivation.
Project Description: Recently, our laboratory has successfully identified the first new Tat partners in more than a decade. The MHIRT research apprentice will use a combination of molecular and biochemical techniques to characterize these new factors and determine the mechanism by which they cooperate with Tat and P-TEFb to stimulate HIV-1 transcription. A portion of this project can be conducted in our collaborator's lab, led by Dr. Yuhua Xue at Xiamen University in China.
International site: The partner for this project is Dr. Yuhua Xue in the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Xiamen University, China. Xiamen University has standard training and educational programs in place for international students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. The visiting student will first be paired with a senior graduate student or a postdoc in the lab in order to become familiar with the daily operations in the lab.
Required qualifications: Advanced undergraduates or graduate students in MCB will have the appropriate background to complete this project.
INDIA — Women’s Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights
Art Reingold & Suneeta Krishnan (2 slots)
Title: Soukhya Phase 2: Enhancing health system responses and establishing active community participation while dealing with gender based violence in urban Bengaluru
Background:The first phase of Soukhya project has lasted for three years and attempted at improving primary health systems response to women experiencing domestic violence in urban Bengaluru. Encouraging results have led to this expansion which looks at further bolstering efforts by reaching out to more women.
Project Description: This project aims to build up on learnings from the first phase and to evaluate impact. Achieving these objectives shall be through refinement of the existent tools and methods that were used for capacity building in the health care settings. A new community component shall also be added which shall help establish active community participation. The community component shall include health care providers, other community front line workers and members from self help groups. Also innovative technologies in the form of mHealth apps and cloud computing shall be used as tools in the above activities.
International Site Information:These studies are being implemented by a joint research program of the St. John's Research Institute, Bengaluru (SJRI) and Research Triangle Institute (RTI) International, USA. SJRI, established in 2004, strives to achieve excellence in academic education as well as service to society. Our vision is to improve the health of the community and patients through research and the development of a center of excellence in research in India. SJRI's mission is to make a significant impact on health through basic and clinical research, promotion of evidence based health care and population health research initiatives. SJRI currently is made up of 33 research investigators and staff with advanced degrees (PhDs or MDs) in the sciences. We have several core group clusters (e.g., Statistics and Epidemiology) and research group clusters (e.g., Maternal and Child Health, Mental Health). The intern will be supervised by Dr. Suneeta Krishnan, PhD who holds joint appointments at RTI and SJRI and is based in Bangalore as well as the project director Dr. N S Vishwanath, MBBS, MPH.
Required Qualifications: We seek an undergraduate student intern to assist with the above study. The intern will assist with data management, quality control, and documentation of study implementation/preparation of study reports. Applicants should have a serious interest in public health and women’s health promotion, taken a course in international development/public health, and strong writing skills. Experience with database development, basic statistical analysis a plus. Prior experience in a developing country setting desirable; if none, should have experience working in a cross-cultural context. Sensitivity, independence, and self-motivation are essential.
KENYA I - Slums, Sanitation & Health in Nairobi, Kenya
Jason Corburn, Peter Ngau, Jane Weru (2 slots)
Title 1: Toilet access and women's health and safety in Nairobi slums
Title 2: Food security and health in Mathare, Nairobi
Background: This project works with slum dwellers and slum dweller community-based organizations in the Mukuru and Mathare informal settlements of Nairobi, Kenya. We focus on social determinants of health through slum upgrading, which includes planning, helping design and evaluating the impacts of new sanitary infrastructure and housing on health.
Project Description: In each project, students will work with faculty director and slum dweller organizations to assist with implementation and/or evaluation of each project and the impact of health and social determinants of health in each community. This year the focus will be on women's health and safety. More information on the project and orientation to slum health can be found on the Center for Global Healthy Cities website healthycities.berkeley.edu.
Qualifications: The projects are community-based participatory action research, so familiarity with field work is important; epidemiology and global health knowledge; mapping/GIS skills are a plus; knowledge of informal settlements/ slum health issues in East African Cities are a plus.
KENYA II - Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Benefits Project
Jack Colford and Clair Null (1 slot)
Title: Investigating the long-term health effects of waterborne infections on child health and development
Background: The WASH Benefits study is a large-scale randomized controlled trial that measure the impact of individual and combined WASH and nutrition interventions on child health and development. As an intermediate outcome between the interventions and the health outcomes, the project also measures fecal contamination in the domestic environment of study participants.
Project Description:The study is being implemented in two countries-- Bangladesh and Kenya. The MHIRT student will work in rural Bangladesh or Kenya on the environmental microbiology component of the study. This component entails measuring indicators of fecal contamination in various types of samples (water, hand rinse, sentinel toys, soil) collected from study participants in different study arms. The student will use membrane filtration and IDEXX techniques for the enumeration of fecal indicator organisms, and aid with management and preliminary analysis of laboratory data. The student will also have an opportunity to travel to the field sites with the team to learn about sample collection and observe the collection of survey data and spot check observations in study households.
Qualifications: Excellent Stata programming skills, advanced proficiency with Excel.
Kenya III – Treatment of Intestinal Helminths in Children
Edward Miguel& Joan Hamory Hicks (1 slot)
Title: Kenya Life Panel Survey: Long-term labor market impacts of investments in school-based child deworming
Background: Intestinal helminths - including hookworm, roundworm, schistosomiasis and whipworm—infect more than one in four people worldwide and are particularly prevalent among school-aged children in developing countries. Chronic infections in children can lead to severe anemia, listlessness, and reduced school attendance. In 2004, an evaluation of a randomized trial of school-based deworming conducted in Busia, Kenya demonstrated that mass treatment of entire schools can reduce severe anemia, promote gains in children's height, and increase school participation. These benefits have been shown to "spill over" into untreated communities near schools with access to deworming medicines.
Project Description: The Kenya Life Panel Survey is a long-term follow-up study of children involved in the original school-based deworming program that examines the labor market outcomes of adults who were treated for intestinal helminths. A recently launched addition to this study is a survey of the children of individuals who participated in the original deworming program. This component will build a unique dataset that exploits the experimental variation of the deworming treatment to also measure the intergenerational impacts of health interventions. Berkeley students involved in this ongoing project will participate in refinement of the study design and surveying instruments, coordination of survey data collection, pilot study design, qualitative research, and preliminary analysis of new data.
Required Qualifications: Advanced undergraduates in public health or social/behavioral sciences who have completed upper-level coursework in economics. Strong STATA skills preferred.
NICARAGUA I – Household Transmission of Influenza
Aubree Gordon (SPH, Michigan), Guillermina Kuan and Angel Balmaseda (2 slots)
Title - Influenza transmission dynamics
Background: Influenza virus is an airborne pathogen of major medical and public health significance worldwide that is thought to be transmitted through a combination of contact, droplet, and aerosol transmission. Despite decades of research, major questions remain about the relative contribution of each of the modes of transmission of influenza virus. This is especially true in the tropics, where it has been hypothesized that influenza transmission occurs primarily through contact; however, interventions to reduce contact transmission in tropical developing country settings have had low effectiveness, and models suggest that aerosol transmis¬sion is occurring. Moreover, a detailed understanding of specific factors that influence influenza transmis¬sion in the tropics is lacking.
Project Description: The goal of this study is to investigate transmission parameters and the effect of individual and household factors on influenza transmission. Both laboratory and fieldwork placements are available. The laboratory project consists of performing influenza serology assays to determine who has been infected with influenza and then investigating determinants of asymptomatic influenza infection. The second project is based in the health center and involves assisting in the coordination of household study visits as well as the determination of the secondary influenza attack rate in the household.
International Site: Our foreign research site is embedded within the Ministry of Health of Nicaragua and administered in collaboration with the Sustainable Sciences Institute (SSI). Placements are available both at the National Virology Laboratory and at a Ministry of Health Primary Health Center. The site is well-established with over 60 study employees and hosts several large prospective studies of influenza and dengue fever.
Requirements: Motivated undergraduates or graduate students with Spanish language proficiency. Previous laboratory experience or STATA/SAS programming experinece preferred, but not required.
NICARAGUA II - Dengue Viremia Dynamics and Clinical Outcome
Eva Harris, Lionel Gresh and Angel Balmaseda (1 slot)
Title: Investigation of the dynamics of dengue viremia and its impact on clinical outcome
Background: The four dengue virus serotypes (DENV1-4) cause the most important mosquito-borne viral disease of humans, with ~100 million cases annually, yet no approved vaccines or antivirals exist. Dengue can present as a range of clinical manifestations from undifferentiated fever to Dengue Fever to severe, life-threatening syndromes. Several factors are known to influence dengue clinical outcome, including dengue virus serotype, viral fitness, viral load, pre-existing immunity, and timing of infection.
Project Description: The goal of this study is to analyze the impact of dengue viremia (i.e., viral load in serum) and the dynamics of viremia stratified by DENV serotype on clinical outcome. Dengue cases will be captured through two ongoing studies of pediatric dengue in Managua, Nicaragua: a community-based cohort and a hospital-based study. Viremia will be quantified using real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The project includes performing RNA extractions and viremia quantification from serum samples from dengue cases at the National Virology Laboratory, as well as correlating viral load with relevant clinical variables collected through the studies.
International Site Information: Our foreign research site is embedded within the Ministry of Health of Nicaragua and administered in collaboration with the Sustainable Sciences Institute (SSI). Placement is available at the National Virology Laboratory of the National Center for Diagnosis and Reference (CNDR) of the Ministry of Health. The site is well-established with over 60 study employees and serves several large prospective studies of dengue and influenza. Numerous MHIRT, MPH, and PhD students have been hosted by SSI and the National Virology Laboratory in Managua.
Required qualifications: Motivated undergraduate or graduate students with Spanish language proficiency. Previous laboratory experience, particularly molecular biology. STATA/SAS programming experience preferred, but not required.
NIGER - Where the Rubber Hits the Road
Malcolm Potts and Abdourahamane Balla (1 slot)
Title: Preventing the reversal of global health gains in the world’s most vulnerable region
Project Description: The overarching goal of this research is to test, refine, and widely disseminate a model to integrate community-based family planning into ongoing agriculture initiatives in rural Niger. Specifically, the research will test feasibility and acceptability of an intervention to promote family planning in the context of African Market Gardens (AMGs). AMGs are a proven, agricultural intervention adapted for the West African context, which includes drip irrigation and the promotion of quality, drought resistant vegetables for improved yields and enhanced family nutrition. There are currently over 3,000 such gardens in the Sahel region and International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-arid Tropics (ICRISAT) estimates an additional 7,000 will be launched in the coming years (see map, page 4). In essence, we will test whether improved birth spacing – which on its own improves food security at the household level – can be added to this evidence-based agricultural innovation on the brink of regional scale-up.
The research will be a cohort study of AMG participants. The intervention villages will be randomly selected from among those in the Tillabéri region of Niger that have (i) successfully implemented the AMG package for at least one year (per ICRISAT’s local office) and (ii) no other family planning or reproductive health programs operating on site. A dynamic intervention model will allow for adaptation of the intervention to account for findings from interim process objectives, but also be sufficiently rigorous for an impact evaluation. A control village will help account for temporal trends.
International Site:The student will work at Center for Excellence in Agronomy Research (CRESA), a research institute at the Abdou Moumouni University in Niamey, Niger. Niger is the world’s poorest country and Niamey is the capital city. Islam is practiced by nearly all Nigeriens. French is the official language.
Required Qualifications: Highly motivated and mature undergraduates (3 or 4th year) or graduate students with an ability to live and work effectively in challenging conditions. Public health, or agronomy coursework and French language skills desirable but not essential.
UGANDA – Translational Research in Malaria
Philip Rosenthal (UCSF), Moses Kamya (Makerere University) and Roland Cooper (Dominican University of California) (1 slot)
Title: Investigating parasite and host factors associated with clinical malaria outcomes.
Background: Our group performs clinical and translational research on malaria and other infectious diseases in Africa, at UCSF and at Dominican University of California. The team at UCSF also includes Grant Dorsey and Bryan Greenhouse (Division of Infectious Diseases, Dept. of Medicine) along with many collaborators at Makerere University. This ongoing collaboration is formally known as the Makerere University-UCSF Uganda Malaria Research Program.
Project Description: Topics may include clinical, epidemiology, or molecular aspects of malaria research. In particular, we are interested in predictors of and mechanisms of drug resistance, antimalarial immune responses, and parasite-host markers of severe malaria. Other studies in Uganda involve surveillance of malaria at rural locations across the country.
International Site: This study is based in Kampala, Uganda, at the Molecular Research Laboratory (Molab) located in the New Mulago Hospital Complex. This is a long running partnership between researchers at UCSF and Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda. Additional studies take place in Tororo, Uganda. Please see http://www.muucsf.org for more information.
Required Qualifications: Students currently studying biology or public health are preferred.