Top scientists supercharge UAF Native health research

Submitted by Marie Gilbert
Phone: (907) 474-7412
12/06/06

FAIRBANKS, Alaska-The Center for Alaska Native Health Research at the University of Alaska Fairbanks will host seven prestigious biomedical research scientists at a retreat Dec. 8-9, 2006 to kick off the center’s visiting scholars program.

Each scientist will rotate through the center’s five-year President’s Professor of Biomedical Research position for one to two months at a time. There will be 10 scientists participating. The position is funded by BP and ConocoPhillips, through the University of Alaska Foundation, as part of a charter agreement with the state of Alaska.

"What we’re trying to do is simulate what an investigator would experience if he or she was, for example, at the University of Washington medical school," said Gerald Mohatt, CANHR director and UAF professor of psychology. The visiting investigators will collaborate with CANHR scientists on research design, data analyses, publications and grant applications, which will improve the center’s long-term sustainability.

"Because there is not a strong tradition of biomedical research at UAF this type of close interaction is essential to the success of the CANHR group, and we all expect to reap the benefits of having the President’s Professors on campus," said Diane O’Brien, CANHR researcher and assistant professor of biology and wildlife in the Institute of Arctic Biology and Department of Biology and Wildlife at UAF.

The visiting scientists are experts in genetics, epidemiology, research ethics, diabetes, nutrition, toxicology, cancer, psychology and anthropology--the same disciplines or complementary disciplines to those of CANHR researchers.

"They will be working with our investigators using the same community-based, participatory research approach we use," Mohatt said. "We’ll spend the retreat this week planning who will come when, what exactly they’ll be doing and how they can work with us on our research including study design and analysis."

This will be the first time many of the CANHR investigators and the visiting scholars will meet.

The scientists come from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (part of the National Institutes of Health), University of Washington School of Medicine, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (part of the United States Department of Health and Human Services), Nathan Klein Institute for Psychiatric Research, University of Kentucky College of Medicine and University of Illinois at Chicago Department of Psychology. A brief description of the scientists and their research interests is below.

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The Center for Alaska Native Health Research, part of the Institute of Arctic Biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, began with a five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health, National Center for Research Resources. The center approaches the investigation of weight, nutrition and health in Alaska Natives from genetic, dietary and cultural-behavioral perspectives. The center partners with the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation.

CONTACT: Gerald (Jerry) Mohatt, director, Center for Alaska Native Health Research, Institute of Arctic Biology, professor of psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, at (907) 474-7927 or via e-mail at ffgvm@uaf.edu. Marie Gilbert, public information officer, Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, at (907) 474-7412 or via e-mail at marie.gilbert@uaf.edu. Diana Campbell, communications specialist, Center for Alaska Native Health Research, Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, at (907) 474-5221 at diana.campbell@uaf.edu.

ON THE WEB: www.alaska.edu/canhr
www.iab.uaf.edu.

Research summaries for CANHR visiting president’s professors:

Peter Bennett, M.B. (bachelor of medicine), FRCP (Fellow of the Royal College of Physicans)--Peter Bennett has a long-standing interest in the epidemiology and pathogenesis of diabetes mellitus and its complications. Bennett and his team of investigators at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases in Phoenix, Ariz. have conducted a longitudinal prospective study of type-2 diabetes among the Pima Indian population of Arizona for 40 years. Pima have an extraordinarily high prevalence of diabetes. Bennett’s investigations have advanced the understanding of many aspects of this disease and his group has published extensively on factors that predict the development and complications of diabetes. Their investigations were the first to quantify the relationship between glycemic levels and the incidence of specific microvascular complications of diabetes such as retinopathy and nephropathy. Their work led to development of criteria used today to diagnose diabetes.

Wylie Burke, M.D., Ph.D.--Wylie Burke heads the Department of Medical History and Ethics at the University of Washington and works as an attending physician in the UW Adult Genetics Clinic. Burke’s academic work addresses the ethical and policy implications of genetic information in medicine and public health. She is particularly interested in the diffusion of genetics into mainstream clinical practice and its implications for medically underserved populations. Burke is currently principal investigator of the UW Center for Genomics and Healthcare Equality. The Center focuses on implications of genetic healthcare for medically underserved populations and is developing partnerships with Native communities in Alaska and Washington. The Center is also pursuing a series of analytic projects aimed at defining appropriate methods for evaluation of emerging genetic tests.

Bruce A. Fowler, Ph.D., Fellow of the Academy of Toxicological Sciences--Bruce Fowler is an internationally recognized expert on the toxicology of metals and served on committees of the National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council, World Health Organization and the International Agency for Research Against Cancer. Fowler is author of more than 200 research papers and book chapters, which deal with molecular mechanisms of metal toxicity and biomarkers for early detection of metal-induced cell injury, and is editor/co-editor of five books or monographs on metal toxicology and mechanisms of chemical-induced cell injury. Fowler’s research interests include ultrastructural and biochemical approaches for evaluating mechanisms of metal-induced cell injury and cell death, roles of metal-binding proteins in mediating mechanisms of cell injury and cell death in mammals and aquatic organisms and molecular roles of stress proteins in mediating cell injury and cell death.

Kim Hopper, Ph.D.--Kim Hopper is a medical anthropologist who works as a research scientist at the Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, where he co-directs the Center for the Study of Issues in Public Mental Health. Hopper is also professor of clinical sociomedical sciences at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health and lecturer at the Columbia Law School. Hopper’s research interests include the reconfiguration of public mental health, cross-cultural long-term follow-up studies of psychotic disorders, modalities of coercion, moral economies of care, and working clergy and mental health. Hopper is also interested in the technical issues of field research, including interview results that are simply "too good to be true,"? difficulties in mixed-methods team research and ethical quandaries arising in field settings, especially when research is conducted under contract.

William Knowler, M.D., DrPH (Doctor of Public Health)--William Knowler conducts research on several aspects of type-2 diabetes. Knowler works primarily with American Indians in the southwestern United States, but also works on several multi-center clinical trials and genetics studies involving people from many other ethnic groups in the United States. Knowler’s main research areas are the behavioral and genetic risk factors for type-2 diabetes and its complications, especially diabetic nephropathy; obesity and its relationship to diabetes; diagnostic criteria for diabetes; and statistical methods in genetic epidemiology. Knowler’s current activities concentrate on the genetics and prevention of diabetes and its complications. These include pedigree and genetic linkage studies, and the Diabetes Prevention Program, a multi-center clinical trial of weight loss in prevention of cardiovascular complications of type-2 diabetes.

Nancy Schoenberg, Ph.D.--Nancy Schoenberg’s research addresses the long-term health and care needs of middle-aged and older adults. Schoenberg, a medical anthropologist and gerontologist, maintains research interests in explanatory models of chronic diseases and their prevention and management, self-care decision-making and formal health care use and qualitative and complementary methodology. Her research projects include a study of lifestyle management of rural women with diabetes and coronary heart disease; an investigation of adherence to dietary recommendations among African-American elders with hypertension; ethnographic approaches toward cardiac decision-making; survey research into the characteristics associated with elders at risk of inadequate nutrition; and in-depth interviews on determinants of cancer screening. Schoenberg’s research emphasizes the cultural context of health decisions and community-based participatory approaches. Schoenberg’s recent focus is on the application of basic science findings to the administration of interventions.

Mary Sexton, Ph.D., MPH, private consultant--Mary Sexton, former chair of the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Maryland has been active in developing the Center for Alaska Native Health Research’s infrastructure. She has significant expertise in research on smoking, a leading risk factor for both cancer and cardiovascular disease among Alaskans. Sexton has been a principal investigator on large multisite intervention studies to reduce smoking. Sexton will co-lead CANHR’s epidemiology program, which is designed to assist investigators in planning and carrying out their studies. She has served for the past six years as a consultant to CANHR investigators and the director.

Mary Story, Ph.D., RD (research director)--Mary Story is professor in the Division of Epidemiology and Community Health in the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota and holds a joint appointment in the Department of Pediatrics. Story is the director of the National Program Office of the Healthy Eating Research Program and the Maternal and Child Health Bureau Public Health Nutrition and Maternal and Child Nutrition Training Program. Her research focuses on community, environmental and family-based interventions with youth for obesity prevention and improving eating patterns, factors influencing eating behaviors of youth and environmental approaches for improving nutrition. She is currently the principal investigator of Bright Start, an NIH-funded school-and family-based obesity prevention study with kindergarten through first-graders on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation in South Dakota. She was also the principal investigator for the Pathways Lakota/Minnesota field site of the NIH funded multisite school based obesity prevention trial with American Indian children.

Beti Thompson, Ph.D.--Beti Thompson is a full member of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and a professor of health services at the University of Washington. Her major research focus is on cancer prevention through lifestyle change, such as dietary practices and smoking behavior, as well as encouraging populations to participate in cancer-screening activities. Thompson is committed to a community organization approach to intervention and currently leads three large community studies in the Lower Yakima Valley of Washington State. One study focuses on cancer awareness, prevention and screening; another focuses on diabetes education and prevention; and the third aims to reduce the take-home pathway of pesticide exposure among children of farm workers.

Edison Trickett, Ph.D.--Edison Trickett’s research has focused on the development of an ecological perspective within community psychology toward conducting community research and intervention. Central to this perspective is the importance of understanding the history and dynamics of community life and the importance of conducting community research in the spirit of collaborative inquiry. Trickett’s empirical work has focused on how to assess the social environments of public schools and their effects on adolescent development. In the past 15 years, his emphasis has been on the role of the schools in the acculturation and adaptation of immigrant and refugee adolescents and families. Currently, his conceptual work involves ecological theorizing about community intervention as a culturally-embedded, transactional process, with the intervention goal being one of community development or the increase in local community resources.