Public Health

George Mason REACHes for regional health policy solutions

Nathan Kahl — Fri, 01 Nov 2024 15:53:52 +0000

George Mason REACHes for regional health policy solutions Nathan Kahl Fri, 11/01/2024 - 11:53

As the planet’s climate shifts, so too does the health of its inhabitants. Rising temperatures, wildfires, and worsening air quality are environmental and public health concerns.

With a new $3.69 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Research and Engagement for Action in Climate and Health (REACH) Center is set to tackle the urgent intersection of climate change and public health in the nation’s capital. ��AV is part of a team of institutions working on environmental health innovation that includes George Washington University (GWU), Howard University (HU), and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). The REACH Center will be directed by Susan Anenberg, professor and chair of the Milken Institute School of Public Health at GWU.

Jim Kinter, director of the Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies and the Virginia Climate Center (VCC) at George Mason, sits on the REACH internal advisory board. VCC's interdisciplinary team of Mason experts conduct research on Virginia’s vulnerability and risks to the impacts of climate change in order to provide local decision makers with actionable climate information.

“Climate change is having negative impacts on public health, and projected future climate changes will only exacerbate those effects, most acutely felt in underserved communities," said Kinter. "The REACH Center serves a vital role in making data and information more accessible, more effective, and more useful for conducting research and co-producing equitable solutions to advance public health resilience. With George Mason experts working across several disciplines, the center has a unique and powerful capability to transform research and applications in public health, and the emphasis on community engagement will help translate findings into practical solutions.”

Lucas Henneman, an assistant professor in the Sid and Reva Dewberry Department of Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering at George Mason, is leading a research project within the center studying climate policy in Washington, D.C. He’ll look at congestion pricing—charging a toll for vehicles traveling into a central part of the city—and the impacts on air pollution and local health. The D.C. government previously showed interest in such policies, and Henneman is working with researchers at George Mason and GWU along with a transportation advocacy group called Greater Greater Washington, who have deep ties in the D.C. government and interested community groups.

“The big thrust is that there's all this useful data out there that can be used to better protect public health from impacts of climate change," said Henneman, "but how do we make that data useful to stakeholders like researchers, community groups, and local governments?”

The co-location of these entities in the Washington, D.C., region allows them to work with the federal and regional governments, as well as other experts in public health and big data. The REACH Center will also look broadly at the implication of health and climate data.

“How do you process air pollution and public health information in a way that can be useful for different stakeholders,” said Henneman. “In D.C., for example, you have wards, neighborhoods, and census tracts, and you might have different amounts of data in each of those geographies and different stakeholders would want to see information about their locations. So, how do we interpret the outcome of a policy on these different geographic boundaries?”

Daniel Tong, director of George Mason's Cooperative Institute of Satellite and Earth System Studies, is co-directing REACH’s Exposure Assessment Core. He gave an example of how even far-flung incidents can affect local populations, and why it’s important to understand this impact. “Rising temperature and droughts bring more wildfire smoke and every-day air pollution to cities like Washington, D.C.," said Tong, who is also an an associate professor in the College of Science. "It is critical to measure how these changes harm people’s health. The exposure core will leverage George Mason’s world-renowned expertise in atmospheric and climate sciences to support health researchers and practitioners to understand these impacts.”

Jenna Krall, an associate professor in George Mason's College of Public Health, also brings expertise to the project, further emphasizing the interdisciplinary aspects.

The NIH Climate Change and Health Initiative (CCHI) funded 16 new exploratory research centers in September, including the REACH Center. These centers will support the development of innovative transdisciplinary research into the complex impacts of climate change on health.

Henneman noted that, in the long-run, this could mean more opportunities for George Mason researchers to study how regulations can consider the intersection of climate change and health.

In This Story

Lucas Henneman

Jenna Krall, PhD

Learn more about the Virginia Climate Center

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CEIE Success Stories

George Mason researchers receive $1.78M from NIH for work improving the health of mothers, children

Shayla Brown — Wed, 05 Jun 2024 16:57:43 +0000

George Mason researchers receive $1.78M from NIH for work improving the health of mothers, children Shayla Brown Wed, 06/05/2024 - 12:57

��AV scientists, nurses, and researchers in the College of Public Health have just entered the second cycle of a National Institutes of Health (NIH) program called Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO).

The NIH grant provides ECHO teams across the country with a total of $7 million a year for seven years to research five outcomes of women and children: pre-, peri-, and postnatal outcomes; upper and lower airways; obesity; neurodevelopment; and positive health. George Mason will receive $1.78 million every year throughout this cycle.

An ECHO researcher taking measurements of a child participant. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding.

The cohort, which includes Boston Children’s Hospital, is led by the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. George Mason is the only university in Virginia participating in the project. The research being done for the ECHO project is part of a new set of research initiatives made possible with the opening of the Population Health Center on the Fairfax Campus.

They are currently re-recruiting participants from the first cycle. They have confirmed just over 300 participants out of 1,512. The youngest participant is under one year old and the oldest is 12.

“We’re aiming to gather information about women and children in a longitudinal manner to compare to our data to that of Omaha, Nebraska, or Iowa. Learning about the regional disparities will then allow us to use them to influence national policy,” said principal investigator Kathi Huddleston, PhD ’08, an associate professor in the College of Public Health.

Huddleston said George Mason’s robust PhD nursing program and her dissertation research on pediatric emergency preparedness helped to prepare her for this extensive project.

The team studied the effects of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also known as “forever” chemicals, as well as air pollution modeling, sleep patterns, nutrition, and COVID-19, gathering real-time data and look at their associations with child health outcomes, such as child obesity, immunization rates and more.

This research from the first cycle of ECHO revealed that school lunch consumption was associated with increased obesity in children and prompted policy change that strengthen the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA). This resulted in a significant decrease in the overall body mass index among school-aged youths and will have substantial health benefits on generations of children.

More results from the first cycle included changes in sleep patterns due to COVID-19 and disparities in sleep patterns between children of different racial/ethnic backgrounds. The team also found that there is a strong relationship between the health of the mother at pre- and early conception and the overall health of children. For example, babies born to mothers with higher levels of toxic metals were more likely to be underweight, which could lead to future health issues.

“If we want to have healthy kids, we have to have healthy moms,” said Huddleston.

As part of cycle two, the researchers will recruit more pregnant women to gain additional insight, including women who were patients at Inova Health System and have also been working with a lot of the same kids for many years, said Grace Lawrence, PhD ’18, director of research clinical operations for the ECHO project.

Student researchers Daisy Posada, Seema Poudel, and Shiva Zarean. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding.

Also on the team are Alma Fuller, nursing student Shiva Zarean, and research project administrators Daisy Posada BA ’13, MA ’18, and Bruna Mayen, a biology major who also acts as the project and lab manager. Mayen’s role as lab manager includes collecting teeth, hair, and urine samples to test the progression of health and well-being in the participants as they grow.

“I ensure samples are stored at required optimal conditions and freezers are monitored daily,” said Mayen. “I also perform data entry and quality assurance/quality control of all data and samples.”

“Each interaction with the participants is so special, it brings potential for new connections and enriches the overall experience and impact they have on the study and us on their development,” said Mayen.

The families come into the research facility once a year so researchers can record each family member’s weight, height, and head and waist circumferences, as well as their body fat percentage.

“We were in the ECHO study when my first child was a newborn. Then my second child was born, and we just kept going,” said Cassie Gallagher, a mom of three young children, all of who participate in the ECHO study. “We’ve been very active in the study, we send in nails, teeth, everything.”

“I also appreciate how thorough the questions are in the surveys that they send us because they’re trying to get the important answers. Especially when they ask about our stress level and different environmental aspects,” said Gallagher.

The project encompasses the concept of citizen science as the participants provide all of the information being used to create an impact in public health. They also receive quarterly updates with the researchers’ findings.

“One of the understated benefits of this study is that children are encouraged to participate firsthand in science and gather an understanding of science in a very personal way,” said Huddleston. “We have received wonderful feedback from the kids about how they feel giving new information to better all children’s health.”

In This Story

Dr. Kathi Huddleston, PhD, MSN

Discover more Research from CPH

Should you be worried about ‘zombie deer’?

Mary Cunningham — Wed, 20 Mar 2024 17:28:05 +0000

Should you be worried about ‘zombie deer’? Mary Cunningham Wed, 03/20/2024 - 13:28

Attention Media: To speak to Amira Roess about chronic wasting disease, please contact Director of Marketing and Communications, Michelle Thompson at mthomp7@gmu.edu

��AV researcher Amira Roess discusses deer with chronic wasting disease, nicknamed "zombie deer," and what the risk to humans is.

Photo by Getty Images

Zombies have been found in a northern Maryland state park—zombie deer that is. The sick deer are not after human brains, but they could be harmful to humans who have contact with them.

We spoke with Amira Roess, professor of global health and epidemiology at ��AV's College of Public Health, to learn about zombie deer. Roess worked on deer-related illness while she was an epidemic intelligence service officer (i.e., an outbreak investigator) at the Centers for Disease Control. She is one of the principal investigators, along with Taylor M. Anderson of the College of Science on a study funded by the USDA examining the nature of human and deer contact in urban areas, specifically in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.

What are zombie deer?

What is referred to as "zombie deer" are actually deer infected with chronic wasting disease (CWD), which is a prion disease. Deer with CWD can appear very unsteady, stumbling a lot, and are often very thin. They may also show other symptoms related to neurological damage.

Prions are proteins that cause other proteins to unfold. Some describe them as virus-like proteins. When they infect a person or an animal they cause severe neurological damage. This leads to serious symptoms that get worse over time including unsteadiness, loss of the ability to speak or walk or swallow, and weight loss.

How worried should people be about getting prion disease?

Fortunately, the risk of prion disease from deer appears low if humans limit their contact with deer, especially their blood and nervous tissue. But this means that we must be very careful and vigilant.

Why haven’t we heard of prions before?

You may not remember hearing the word "prion,” but you might remember hearing about a prion called bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), which was commonly called “mad cow disease” by many. That experience showed the world just how deadly prion diseases can be for humans.

During the BSE outbreak in England in the 1990s, humans became infected after eating beef products that had come from cattle infected with prions. Infected people lost their ability to walk, talk, and had very agonizing slow deaths that could only be diagnosed after death upon autopsy. That was the largest prion outbreak ever documented. What is very concerning is that in the U.S. when we test deer for chronic wasting disease, we increasingly find it.

Are you worried about outbreaks?

I am concerned that it is a matter of time before we find prion disease among people whose only exposure was through direct contact with deer. In the case of BSE, it was hypothesized that many infected individuals had first gotten exposed 10 or more years prior to their deaths. We believe that during those 10 or more years the prion slowly caused damage and went undetected until the damage got so extensive, that symptoms appeared.

How can we reduce our risk of contracting CWD?

Deer are wildlife, and as with all wildlife, we need to limit our contact with them. In many parts of the U.S., white-tailed deer are becoming habituated or accustomed to humans. They know that we generally don't hurt them, and increasingly we do things like feed them. But remember, deer are not pets—they have not evolved to be in such close contact with humans. They are still wildlife and deserve our respect and distance.

Do not approach deer and train your pets not to approach them either. If you have children or take care of children, make sure to teach them to be respectful of wildlife and to never approach deer or other wildlife. This is especially important if the animal appears hurt, sick, or disoriented. In that case, call 311 or your local wildlife office immediately to get a professional involved to help the animal.

Is there a group that is more at risk for chronic wasting disease?

Deer hunters are at an increased risk because of their close contact with the blood and nervous tissue of deer that they have hunted. Numerous educational resources about how to protect yourself from the risk of prions and other pathogens when hunting are now available. The best advice is to use personal protective equipment (PPE). If a deer appears sick, do not hunt it. Hunters can access information from their local games departments and in the USDA chronic wasting disease website.

Are there other animals that carry prions?

So far there have been reports of prion disease in humans, sheep, goats, cattle, mink, cats, and lemurs, among other mammals. Our knowledge about which other animals can be infected is limited by the fact that we don't have active surveillance for prion disease and most other diseases. What we know is very limited and confined to our experiences with cattle, deer, and other animals that have been found infected because of symptoms. Prions can remain in the environment for long periods of time, and they are very difficult to destroy.

What can we do to protect deer?

Remember that all wildlife deserve our respect and deserve to be left alone. Do not feed deer or other wildlife and remove all food sources (such as trash) to protect deer, raccoons, squirrels, birds and other animals.

When people approach an injured or sick animal, we often cause stress to the animal which then can make the animal sicker. If a deer looks sick, you should exercise extreme caution and not approach it. Instead, call 311 and report the deer so that it can be tested.

Studies have found that wildlife are losing their fear of humans, and this is linked to an increase in illness in these animals and also in people. Remember that wildlife carry numerous diseases that can harm people, including deer ticks that spread Lyme disease, and raccoons, coyotes, and foxes that spread rabies.

To speak to Amira Roess about chronic wasting disease, please contact Michelle Thompson at mthomp7@gmu.edu

Amira Roess is a professor of global health and epidemiology at ��AV's College of Public Health, Department of Global and Community Health. She is an epidemiologist with expertise in infectious diseases epidemiology, multidisciplinary and multi-species field research and evaluating interventions to reduce the transmission and impact of infectious diseases. Roess currently oversees several longitudinal studies to understand emergence and transmission of zoonotic infectious diseases globally, including the emergence and transmission of Campylobacter (with support from The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation), MERS-CoV (with support from the US National Science Foundation), and the development of the microbiome during the first year of life. She studies links between food animal production and emerging infectious and zoonotic disease emergence globally, and mHealth (especially apps) technology integration and evaluations to reduce the impact of infectious diseases outbreaks, promote health care and health reduce disparities.

Some of her deer-related work appears in these journal articles:

More resources about chronic wasting disease can be found here:

In This Story

Amira Roess, PhD, MPH

Study Public Health at Mason

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Strengthening global partnerships: Professor Amira Roess collaborates with international researchers to strengthen pathogen discovery

Mary Cunningham — Fri, 26 Jan 2024 22:06:19 +0000

Strengthening global partnerships: Professor Amira Roess collaborates with international researchers to strengthen pathogen discovery Mary Cunningham Fri, 01/26/2024 - 17:06

In This Story

Amira Roess, PhD, MPH

Since the first trade routes were established thousands of years ago, pathogens traveled along them spreading infectious diseases from once-isolated parts of the world. Today, global interconnectedness continues to rapidly spread infectious diseases across the world, transcending state, national, and continental boundaries. Consequently, the importance of understanding and preventing the transmission of pathogens relies on global cooperation and necessitates collaborative efforts among researchers.

Amira Roess, ��AV professor of public health, has been collaborating with colleagues in Bangladesh since 2002 on topics such as the impact of antibiotic use in animals on human health and the burden of pneumococcus, once a leading cause of neonatal infectious disease deaths in low-and-middle-income countries and once a leading cause of pneumonia in the United States. Pneumococcus infections have significantly decreased due to the introduction of vaccines globally.

Drs. Nicol Janecko, Senjuti Saha, and Amira Roess

In 2018, colleagues from the United Kingdom joined the U.S.-Bangladesh collaboration when the team, led by Roess, received a $1.2 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. With the grant, the team studied campylobacter, the leading bacterial cause of diarrheal diseases in the U.S. and Europe, which causes an estimated 400 million infections per year globally.

“Collaboration across countries is critical to learn about and reduce the spread of infectious diseases. Universities play a crucial role in maintaining long-term global collaborations that withstand the constant changes in political alliances between nations,” said Roess. “Studying rapidly emerging infectious diseases requires that scientists from across the world work together and share data and technology. By uniting our efforts, we can protect each other against the spread of diseases, creating a global shield that transcends borders and protects the health and well-being of all."

In 2023, Nicol Janecko from the Quadram Institute in the United Kingdom and Roess received a £50,000 Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council United States Partnering Award to expand existing collaboration between researchers in the UK and the U.S. In January 2024, Janecko and Senjuti Saha visited Mason’s SciTech campus to share their knowledge and learn from other Mason researchers focused on discovering more about the transmission of infectious diseases.

Saha and Janecko spoke with Mason faculty and student researchers about “Applying metagenomics to understanding complex transmission dynamics of zoonotic pathogens.” Saha spoke about the Child Health Research Foundation’s research and outreach on meningitis in Bangladesh and Janecko shared research about campylobacter.

Saha and Janecko also met with Mason students and faculty who have common research interests, including Professor Ginny Espina, Professor Iosif Vaisman, Mason’s Institute for Biohealth innovation Executive Director Amy Adams, Professor Patrick Gillevet, and Associate Professor Aarthi Narayanan. The visiting researchers also toured Mason’s Biomedical Research Laboratory, Mason’s MicroBiome Analysis Center, Mason's Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine, and Mason’s other public health laboratory facilities.

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What to know about air quality alerts

Mary Cunningham — Thu, 08 Jun 2023 18:59:19 +0000

What to know about air quality alerts Mary Cunningham Thu, 06/08/2023 - 14:59

In This Story

Amira Roess, PhD, MPH

Air quality alerts are currently raised higher than usual along the eastern United States due to traveling smoke from Canadian wildfires. Epidemiologist and professor in Mason’s College of Public Health Amira Roess discusses what you need to know about air quality alerts and how it affects your health.

Why are wildfires in Canada affecting the air in northern Virginia?

The wildfires that are raging in Northeast Canada approximately 800 miles from those of us in the DMV (D.C.-Maryland-Virginia) are generating tremendous amounts of smoke and pollutants. Satellite imagery shows smoke blanketing our area and many other parts of the United States.

These fires are the worst that Canada has seen and are being fueled by a lingering high-pressure system over Canada for weeks now that has led to high temperatures and low precipitation. In addition to the high-pressure system, there is another low-pressure system in the northeast. Together these two systems are creating something like a pathway for smoke to move along over parts of the U.S.

How do I know what the air quality is?

There are many weather apps that now include air quality. The air quality scale most in use in the U.S. ranges from 0 to 300 and colors are assigned to the different ranges. The colors to look out for are:

Orange (101-150) is considered unhealthy for some populations and individuals who are vulnerable should avoid being outdoors.
Red is considered unhealthy (151-200) for all individuals, and everyone should limit their time outdoors, avoid strenuous activity, and wear a good quality N95 or K95 mask.
Purple (201-300) is considered very unhealthy for all groups and, in addition to the precautions taken under a red alert, everyone should stay indoors when purple alerts are issued.
Maroon (301) is considered hazardous, and we rarely see this.

Due to the smoke that is being generated by the Canadian wildfires currently, we are seeing red and purple alerts during much of the day. You can learn more about what these alerts mean from the U.S. Air Quality Index.

What can you do to protect yourself?

When air quality is suboptimal (orange), certain individuals should avoid being outdoors. Those with underlying conditions, especially respiratory and heart conditions, the elderly and young children should avoid being outdoors because they are at risk for the worst health impacts from poor air quality. When air quality is poor (red) or very poor (purple), which is what we are seeing right now, then all individuals should avoid being outdoors.

If you must be outdoors when air quality is poor or very poor, limit your time and you should wear an N95 or a KN95 mask. Remember that we want to make sure we use clean masks. These masks cannot be washed and once they are wet or dirty, they are a lot less effective, so discard them. Wearing scarves or bandanas is not at all effective at protecting you. It's very important to limit your time outdoors.

If you have pets that need to go out, take them out for short bathroom breaks only. Do not take them on long walks or have them do any strenuous activities. Remember that pets cannot wear masks as this can cause them to panic and can hinder their breathing. Late in the evening air quality tends to improve.

If you start to develop respiratory or other symptoms due to spending time outdoors, you should contact a health care provider immediately.

In addition to not going outside, what can you do to stay safe on a red or purple air quality day?

Limit how much outdoor air comes into your home.

Keep your doors and windows closed while air quality is poor or very poor.

When you are home, you can do small things to keep the indoor air quality good, such as not lighting candles and not using gas stoves, if you can avoid it.

Make sure your HVAC system is working efficiently. This means making sure that you change the filters as the manufacturer recommends and that you stick to your HVAC service schedule.

If you have neighbors or loved ones that are immune compromised or in the vulnerable groups mentioned above, check up on them and help them avoid being outdoors. You can do small things like taking their garbage out or walking their pets.

Are we going to see more of these situations?

In general, as we've seen a shift towards higher temperatures in our hemisphere, we are going to see more wildfires and other climate change-related disasters.

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Mason hosts NIH All of Us Research Program

Mary Cunningham — Mon, 08 May 2023 16:27:50 +0000

Mason hosts NIH All of Us Research Program Mary Cunningham Mon, 05/08/2023 - 12:27

From May 30 to June 2, ��AV will host the National Institutes of Health’s All of Us Journey, a traveling, hands-on exhibit about the All of Us Research Program, which aims to speed up health research and medical breakthroughs. To do so, All of Us is asking 1 million volunteers to share different types of health and lifestyle information—information like where they live, what they do, and their family health history. 

“National research programs like All of Us are so important in the advancement of public health. With information from this program, researchers here at Mason and across the country will learn more about our similarities and difference and help improve the public’s health. I hope our Mason community will learn more and consider participating,” said Alison Cuellar, interim associate dean for research at Mason’s College of Public Health.&n

The All of Us exhibit at Mason will take place May 30 to June 2 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the Merten Lawn. It is sponsored by University Libraries, Northern Virginia Area Health Education Center, and the College of Public Health. Download the flyer here.

The exhibit is for those who are interested in learning more about the program and the impact it can have on the public’s health and well-being. Additionally, the mobile exhibit includes an opportunity for visitors to sign up to participate in the program by answering surveys and giving their physical measurements and blood and urine samples. The exhibit includes:  

A virtual reality experience.
Private rooms for physical measurement and bio sample collection, and 
An interactive station where participants can write a note to share with others about their inspiration for joining the program.

The program is open to people both healthy and sick, from all communities. Unlike a single research study focused on a specific disease or community, the All of Us Research Program will create a research resource to inform thousands of studies, covering a wide range of health conditions. This information could help researchers learn more about different diseases and treatments and improve health for generations to come. 

In conjunction with this exhibit, faculty, graduate students, and researchers can join a webinar that showcases how the All of Us database can be used in public health research. Ashley Green, MLIS, senior research projects coordinator for the All of Us Research Program, will present. The All of Us Research Workbench Webinar is June 1 from 12–1 p.m. in Fenwick Library and virtually.

The All of Us Researcher Workbench is the largest, most diverse biomedical data resource of its kind. Built in partnership with participants spanning different ages, races, ethnicities, and regions of the country, it currently includes physical measurements, surveys, wearables, electronic health records, and genomics. Join us as we learn about the participants, explore the data offered, and see how to start a research project using All of Us data and tools.

The All of Us Journey engages community members nationwide and raises awareness about the All of Us Research Program through various educational activities and experiences. To learn more about the All of Us Research Program, please visit JoinAllofUs.org/tour. 

For more information about All of Us at Mason, email Kathy Butler, health sciences librarian, at kbutle18@gmu.edu.

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Faculty and Staff News

Social Work associate professor registers U.S. patent to reduce substance use relapse, the department’s first patent

Mary Cunningham — Wed, 26 Apr 2023 15:20:43 +0000

Social Work associate professor registers U.S. patent to reduce substance use relapse, the department’s first patent Mary Cunningham Wed, 04/26/2023 - 11:20

In This Story

Holly Matto, PhD, LCSW-C

Padmanabhan Seshaiyer

Substance use disorder affects more than 46 million Americans according to the 2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Recovery can be a difficult path, but an interdisciplinary team led by Holly Matto, associate professor in the Department of Social Work, aims to make it a little easier through a recently patented technology-based recovery support system.

Matto and College of Science Professor Padmanabhan Seshaiyer received the patent for a mobile technology to help those in recovery overcome triggers that lead to relapse. The technology is a real-time, cloud-based support system that helps manage behavioral responses—for example, the desire to use opioids—by monitoring physical symptoms, such as changes to a person’s heart rate, to identify when someone needs help to overcome a triggering event. With up to 60 percent of patients experiencing relapse within one year of treatment, the support is critical.

“The patent recognizes our unique contribution to the expanding availability of digital health technologies designed to improve access to timely support,” says Matto. The patent is believed to be the first received by a faculty member from the Department of Social Work.

Known as Recovery Engaged Mind-Health (REMind-h), the technology allows individuals in recovery to identify personally meaningful recovery-affirming sensory cues, which might include positive images, sounds, or other sensory stimuli that reinforce their commitment to recovery. Some examples might include peaceful nature scenes, a soundscape, motivational quote, or a sponsor’s message. These data are stored in the system’s cloud server and are activated and delivered to the person when their physiological metrics rise above the trained threshold, cycling through the available cues until regulation is restored.

“By using technology to monitor physiological responses, people in recovery can immediately have a personalized support system right there on their phone when they need it to help them manage the triggering moment,” says Matto. “The goal is to avoid relapse and, ultimately, to improve their quality of life.”

Matto says the patent has allowed the research team to partner with LifeSpan Digital Health LLC, which will license the technology. The technology prototype has already been developed by Rudra Nagalia, a graduate student in Health Administration and Policy and a member of the research team.

Matto began work on the idea behind the patent several years ago. She and Seshaiyer first teamed up to develop the technology after receiving a multidisciplinary grant from the provost’s office in 2015. They were selected for Mason’s National Science Foundation Innovation Corps Site Program in 2018, where they conducted interviews and gathered preliminary feedback on the concept.

Since then, Matto and Seshaiyer have also received a National Institutes of Health Small Business Technology Transfer sub-award to further test some of their recovery cue ideas. Bryce Dunn, PhD student in bioengineering, worked with the team on the grant to examine the regulating impact of recovery cues after exposure to substance-related cues in a virtual reality simulation. College of Engineering and Computing faculty member Nathalia Peixoto, a member of this interdisciplinary research team, offered expertise in measuring physiological and neural responses in the VR simulation, to help test the theory that personalized recovery cues help regulate reactivity to drug-stimuli exposures.

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Research

Study finds probiotics are not only good for the gut, they affect other organs too

Colleen Rich — Mon, 17 Apr 2023 15:03:47 +0000

Study finds probiotics are not only good for the gut, they affect other organs too Colleen Rich Mon, 04/17/2023 - 11:03

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 40% of Americans are classified as obese, leading obesity to be considered a significant public health threat. High fat diets, which are often cited as a cause of obesity, can also result in the development of metabolic syndrome, a group of conditions that may promote the progression of serious health conditions, including cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. With obesity rates still rising, the hunt is on for ways to combat the negative effects of a high fat diet. ��AV researchers now believe they have discovered a possible answer—probiotic supplementation.

Mason researchers Robin Couch and Allyson Dailey in the lab.
Photo by Evan Cantwell/Creative Services

Robin Couch and Allyson Dailey, researchers in Mason’s College of Science and the Institute for Biohealth Innovation, are interested in the correlations between dietary intake and overall health. In a recent study, Couch and Dailey partnered with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to explore the influence of probiotic supplementation on a higher fat diet, using pigs as model organisms.

The research team looked at four groups of pigs—two groups that were fed nutritionally balanced diets with and without probiotic supplementation, and two groups that were fed higher fat diets with and without probiotic supplementation. The probiotic that was tested is known as Lacticaseibacillus paracasei. After six months of dietary intake, organ tissue samples obtained from the pigs were examined, specifically looking at their molecular composition.

Couch and Dailey were looking at specifically at metabolites, substances that are produced or used during metabolism. They found that the kidneys and the brain were particularly sensitive to a high-fat diet and when certain metabolites were noted to be at harmful levels, the kidneys and the brain were the most susceptible.

In contrast, they also discovered that, with probiotic supplementation, many of the detrimental metabolite levels reverted to levels found in pigs that were fed a healthy diet. In other words, probiotic supplementation staved off the negative effects associated with a high-fat diet, illustrating how probiotics may play a key role in preventative health care.

“We’d like to see probiotic intake become a regular part of the dietary recommendations that a physician would give to a patient,” said Dailey.

The researchers are also aiming to investigate other probiotic strains.

“If different strains do have distinct effects on the body, then you could see individualized probiotics, or even probiotic cocktails, being used to treat specific diseases,” said Couch. “We think it’s likely that, alongside pharmaceuticals, prescribing probiotics that address various diseases will be more commonplace in the future.”

Additionally, Couch and Dailey view this study as a stepping stone to potential subsequent work on how other nutrients, such as protein and carbohydrates, affect tissue composition.

“We specifically looked at the influence of a high-fat diet in our research, but this opens up a whole world of nutritional investigation at the metabolic level,” said Couch.

For now, the researchers are hoping that their study, which was recently published in the journal Metabolites, serves to add scientific validity to the claims of the benefits of probiotics.

“This is progress towards providing new evidence that probiotics are good for you and that what you consume has a profound effect on your health,” said Dailey. “These findings can contribute to the creation of revolutionary solutions, and, in the end, that’s why I’m in this—to help people thrive.”

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Mason researchers connect with community members to develop an app for individuals recovering from opioid use disorder

Shayla Brown — Thu, 30 Mar 2023 18:39:08 +0000

Mason researchers connect with community members to develop an app for individuals recovering from opioid use disorder Shayla Brown Thu, 03/30/2023 - 14:39

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Holly Matto, PhD, LCSW-C

Siddhartha Sikdar

Screenshots of the app iCONNECT by Rebecca Leung, Dylan Scarton, Jonathan Mbuya, and Srinath Silla. Photos provided.

��AV graduate student Rebecca Leung is part of a team finding ways to use smart technology in order to help those who are struggling with or recovering from substance use disorder (SUD).

“I have always wanted to use smart technology to help different populations,” said Leung, who is working on her master of social work degree.

Leung is teaming up with other Mason researchers to develop an app called iCONNECT, which is intended to help peer support specialists, individuals in recovery from SUD, and their families connect with the specific resources needed to sustain recovery.

Leung was a 2021-22 fellow in Mason’s National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) program, which is training the next generation of leaders to take on some of the most challenging problems faced by society today. The program, led by Mason researcher Siddhartha Sikdar, is a part of the Center for Adaptive Systems of Brain-Body Interactions (CASBBI) program.

During the fellowship, Leung teamed with Dylan Scarton, a third-year PhD student in neuroscience, and Jonathan Mbuya, a PhD student in computer science. The team calls themselves the Good Troublers, and they are mentored by Mason researcher Holly Matto, as a core CASBBI faculty member and mentor in the NRT program, who studies addiction and recovery.

Matto, who was working on her own app to help with mental disease, told Leung about the program and recommended that she apply for it. “I saw an opportunity to work with an interdisciplinary team to solve a social problem that I was keen on solving,” said Leung. After interviewing with CASBBI faculty Leung was chosen to be part of the cohort. “Fortunately, I met Dylan and Jonathan – who were also motivated to help with the opioid epidemic,” said Leung.

Screenshots of the app iCONNECT by Rebecca Leung, Dylan Scarton, Jonathan Mbuya, and Srinath Silla. Photos provided.

“The app will have immediate local impact on the ways in which peer support specialists, individuals in recovery from substance use, and their families are able to connect with the specific resources needed to sustain recovery,” said Matto.

“If someone needs transportation to get to appointments or they need to find a methadone clinic or inpatient places, we put all the local resources together in the app,” said Leung. “It turns out it's very hard to Google, and even when you go to [the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration] to look for resources, you don't know if they're available or if the address or hours are updated.”

“The three of us have been personally affected by the opioid epidemic in different ways, and we're motivated to try to address that crisis in some form or fashion,” said Scarton. “We're designing the app with accessible user interface considerations, to minimize the number of clicks and present the information very clearly, for anyone not familiar with this domain like a caregiver, family member, concerned friend.”

Working with the nonprofit The Chris Atwood Foundation, the team spoke with multiple peer recovery specialists, individuals who have history with either mental health or substance use issues. These certified peer recovery specialists consult and guide individuals who are struggling with those issues, as well as their family members.

CAF is a nonprofit organization that provides free harm reduction, and recovery support services and resources. Daniel Adams, a certified peer recovery specialist at CAF, is working alongside the Mason research team as they develop iCONNECT.

“Through The Chris Atwood Foundation we realized that a big need of theirs is connecting individuals in recovery with necessary resources,” said Scarton. “That’s why we're currently developing a smartphone application to address that need.”

“People caught up in substance use and trying to recover have limited information about the resources available to them,” said Adams. “As a peer recovery specialist, you always have resources at your fingertips.”

The team has provided the first Android version of the app to community partners for testing. The peer recovery specialists will continue to test out iCONNECT once it is coded to the Apple platform, before being released to a limited number of users in the county for further feedback.

CAF is in the process of developing a peer drop-in center near Mason’s Fairfax Campus for community members to use. Mason’s Student Support and Advocacy Center also provides resources for individuals dealing with substance use issues on and off campus such as recovery and support meetings.

“It's been a blessing to partner with ��AV,” said Adams. “This app is a tremendous idea and something that I can pass on to the individuals I help and teach them how to be self-reliant in a positive way.”

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Professor receives nearly $500,000 National Institutes of Health grant to study children born with congenital eye disease

Mary Cunningham — Mon, 27 Mar 2023 17:34:21 +0000

Professor receives nearly $500,000 National Institutes of Health grant to study children born with congenital eye disease Mary Cunningham Mon, 03/27/2023 - 13:34

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Carolyn Drews-Botsch, PhD, MPH

Chair of the Department of Global and Community Health Carolyn Drews-Botsch continues her study of unilateral congenital cataracts by studying the risks and benefits of prolonged patching in preschool-aged children.

Children with unilateral congenital cataracts (UCC) are born with cloudy or opaque vision in one eye that, if left untreated, can result in blindness. The condition is treated, as it is in adults, by removing the lens. Glasses, contacts, or implanting an artificial lens are needed to replace the focusing power of the natural lens. Occlusion therapy, also known as patching, is when the child wears a patch covering one eye and it is needed to strengthen the eye after treatment. However, even with the best treatment, about half of these children will remain legally blind in the treated eye. Further, it can be difficult for parents to get children to wear the patch consistently for the required amount of time.

With a $457,00 (directs and indirects) National Institutes of Health R21 grant, Carolyn Drews-Botsch, professor and chair of the Department of Global and Community Health, is studying the effects and benefits of patching in preschool aged children.

“The ultimate goal is to advise parents and health care providers about how to improve visual acuity and how long to continue patching if a child is born with a unilateral congenital cataract,” said Drews-Botsch. “Even with patching, a high proportion of children do not develop usable vision in the treated eye. Therefore, the usefulness of extended patching in eyes destined to have poor vision is unclear, and the costs of therapy need to be weighed against possible benefits.”

Currently, children treated for UCC are advised to patch the unaffected eye for 50% of waking hours throughout the first 5-6 years of life and often into the elementary school years. Adherence to this guideline can be difficult for parents and children, and there are few evidence-based tools to help families. Additionally, vision improvement is not a guarantee with patching, so it could ultimately negatively affect the child. Even with early surgery and consistent patching, relatively few children develop adequate vision by the time they enter school.

The project, “Secondary Analyses of data from the Infant Aphakia Treatment Study: Patching in Children with Unilateral Congenital Cataracts and Poor Visual Acuity,” leverages unique secondary data collected in the Infant Aphakia Treatment Study (IATS). Researchers will provide guidance on how to establish patching habits that may improve outcomes, and conduct cost and benefits analysis of patching in the latter part of preschool. Researchers will determine whether it is possible to accurately identify children who will ultimately have little usable vision in their affected eye using information collected in the first four years of life and if prolonged patching in children who ultimately will not see well impacts their quality of life.

The IATS is a randomized controlled trial designed to compare two treatments for UCC: leaving children without a lens in their eye (aphakic) so that they need to wear glasses or a contact lens versus implanting an artificial lens (pseudophakic) at the time of cataract surgery. The primary study is one of the largest currently available cohorts of children treated for UCC and has provided important evidence about outcomes in these children prior to school entry.

Drews-Botsch and fellow researchers Scott Lambert from Stanford University, Marianne Celano and George Cotsonis from Emory University, and Genie Hartmann from Akron Children’s Hospital have worked with the IATS for over 15 years. Assistant Professor in the Department of Global and Community Health Jaffer Zaidi is new to the team.

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Mason researchers connect with community members to develop an app for individuals recovering from opioid use disorder

In This Story

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Professor receives nearly $500,000 National Institutes of Health grant to study children born with congenital eye disease

In This Story

Chair of the Department of Global and Community Health Carolyn Drews-Botsch continues her study of unilateral congenital cataracts by studying the risks and benefits of prolonged patching in preschool-aged children.

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