| School news |
| May 08, 2009 | |
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Peterson to lead World Health Organization Collaborating Center The World Health Organization (WHO) has designated the Department of Maternal and Child Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as its newest Collaborating Center.  Dr. Herbert Peterson "This is a classic win-win situation," said Peterson, who will direct the new center. "We're helping WHO achieve its global mission to promote cutting-edge reproductive polices, programs and practices, and it gives UNC the opportunity to lead the way in translating research into practice -- which is one of the strengths of the Gillings School of Global Public Health." The Global Breastfeeding Institute at Carolina, led by Miriam Labbok, MD, professor of the practice of public health in the department, will be part of the collaborating center, helping to discover and promote best practices for feeding infants worldwide. Barry Popkin popping up all over the globe  Dr. Barry Popkin In the book, Popkin argues that sweetened beverages and processed foods are the primary culprits in our ever-expanding world. Add the decline in physical activity and a trend toward supersized meals and snacks away from home, and it becomes clear why our collective health has begun to suffer. News outlets from U.S. News & World Report to The New York Times to National Public Radio have written about his book and his studies. Popkin was again in high demand by media around the world after publication of an editorial in March 23 edition of the journal, Archives of Internal Medicine. In the editorial, Popkin says the impact of eating too much red meat is not just on the individual (increased risk of cancer, heart disease, etc.), but the rising consumption of meat, poultry and dairy products, particularly in countries like India and China, is substantially increasing the burden on the world's water and energy resources and having a significant impact on climate change. New activities supported by Gillings Gift Four new Gillings Innovation Laboratories have been awarded, on topics as diverse as treating hog waste more efficiently and effectively, developing new methods for genetic research, determining the risks and benefits of drugs for older adults and developing a global seamless classroom. All of these research projects have potential to benefit people across North Carolina and around the world. These projects are funded by proceeds from the Gillings gift, managed by Carolina Public Health Solutions (CPHS).  Don Holzworth Also, the Gillings gift will fund a meeting of some of the world's leading scientists to evaluate the link between population and the achievement of key international development goals and objectives. Herbert Peterson, MD, Kenan Distinguished professor and chair of the department of maternal and child health and professor of obstetrics and gynecology in the UNC School of Medicine, is leading the project. Read more online about programs and research supported through Carolina Public Health Solutions at www.sph.unc.edu/accelerate. 2009 Minority Health Conference  Dr. Barbara Wallace Barbara C. Wallace, PhD, professor of health education at Columbia University's Teachers College, was keynote speaker. A licensed psychologist, Wallace is active in health disparities research at Columbia and around the world. She is director of Globe HELP (Health Education Leadership Program), an Internet-based venture for the dissemination of curricula to peer educators and community health workers. Her lecture, "Our World, Our Community: Building Bridges for Health Equality," is available online at www.minority.unc.edu. The evening before the conference, at an alumni reception, planned by the Minority Student Caucus and the Office of External Affairs, several alumni and supporters of the conference were recognized. These included Delton Atkinson, Dorothy Browne, Geni Eng, Rudy Jackson and Bill Jenkins. They also were recognized at Friday's conference. WUNC Radio's series on global health  Rose Hoban "North Carolina Voices: Global Health Connections" examined research and service projects organized by North Carolinians abroad. The first installment focused on Malawi and Zambia, two of the world's poorest countries. Read more and/or listen to the reports. McDonough, 'Hero of the Environment,' presents Foard Lecture  William McDonough Webcasts of talks at the School, including McDonough's, can be viewed at www.sph.unc.edu/media/webcasts.html. Researchers recreate SARS virus Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Vanderbilt University Medical Center have synthetically reconstructed the bat variant of the SARS coronavirus (CoV) that caused the SARS epidemic of 2003. The scientists say designing and synthesizing the virus is a major step forward in their ability to find effective vaccines and treatments for any strain of SARS virus that might affect humans in the future. A report of the work appeared in November in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences' Early Edition, which publishes papers online and later in print.  Dr. Ralph Baric "The bat SARS virus is about four times larger than any other virus that has been synthesized to date," Baric said. "It will allow us to test the pathways in which the virus emerges and understand the ways that animal coronaviruses move from one species to another." RESEARCH AWARDS
Behets receives grant to study AIDS efforts in DRC  Dr. Frieda Behets The Glaser Foundation, a world leader in the fight against pediatric AIDS, has provided $1.25 million in operations research grants to five awardees for studies in Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe. Biostatistics center gets $8 million, 7-year grant to study COPD The Collaborative Studies Coordinating Center (CSCC) in the Department of Biostatistics, was selected by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to coordinate a study of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The contract spans seven years, and the total award is $8,192,632.  Dr. Lisa LaVange The award is the result of successful cross-campus collaboration at UNC, with contributing faculty from the CSCC and Department of Biostatistics in the Gillings School of Global Public Health, the departments of medicine and bioinformatics in the School of Medicine, and the School of Information and Library Science. Lisa LaVange, PhD, director of the CSCC and professor of the practice of biostatistics, is the principal investigator for the GIC. UNC receives $181 million to evaluate health, poverty, gender programs  Dr. Sian Curtis The award is the largest ever received by UNC. The award funds the monitoring and evaluation of family planning, maternal and child health, nutrition and HIV/AIDS programs around the world. The project also monitors and evaluates malaria, tuberculosis and avian influenza programs, and will expand to include programs addressing poverty and gender equity. Going into its third phase, MEASURE Evaluation builds on the previous two phases of the project and the earlier EVALUATION project which began in 1991. The project already has a presence in nearly 50 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America and will expand to more. Besides the $181 million of project funding in this grant, the award includes the potential for countries to request evaluation activities valued at up to an additional $125 million over the five years. The MEASURE (Monitoring and Evaluation to Assess and Use Results) Evaluation project uses different strategies to collect and use data about health issues. For example, a tool for assessing and modifying HIV/AIDS prevention programs locally or nationally -- called the Priorities for Local AIDS Efforts (PLACE) method -- can identify geographic areas that contain key HIV transmission networks. The PLACE method was developed by Sharon Weir, PhD, research assistant professor of epidemiology in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and a CPC fellow. Olshan receives grants to study birth defects, pediatric cancer  Dr. Andrew Olshan The grant provides five years of funding for research that will be coordinated by the N.C. Center for Birth Defects Research and Prevention, which contributes data to the National Birth Defects Prevention Study. The study is an ongoing project that collects information from nine states, including North Carolina, on the pregnancies of mothers of children with and without birth defects. It is one of the largest epidemiological efforts ever undertaken in the United States to identify environmental and genetic causes of birth defects. Olshan also was awarded a grant worth nearly $2.9 million from the National Cancer Institute to study the causes of neuroblastoma. The most common cancer in babies, neuroblastoma develops from nerve cells found in several areas of the body and most commonly affects children aged 5 or younger. The five-year study will investigate the disease's causes, with a focus on mothers' diets and supplemental vitamin intake during pregnancy. Olshan leads the cancer epidemiology program of UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and is research professor of otolaryngology/head and neck surgery in the UNC School of Medicine. Read more about his National Cancer Institute grant and Centers for Disease Control grant online. School gets $8.5 million for preparedness research center  Dr. Ed Baker The institute was selected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to lead one of seven new Preparedness and Emergency Response Research Centers. The center at UNC will be known as the North Carolina Public Health Preparedness Systems Research Center. Carolina Public Health is a publication of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health. To view previous issues, please visit www.sph.unc.edu/cph. |
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| Last updated May 20, 2009 |