Epidemiology and Translational Science PhD Program News UCSF / Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics /Issue 3 Fall 2015 ear Friends and Colleagues: Welcome New PhD Students for 2015-16 ! Please join me in welcoming our new D Epidemiology and Translational Science PhD students. This is an exceptional group of students n Ekland Abdiwahab, MPH –coming into the PhD program after previous train- ing at Yale, Berkeley, Minnesota, and UCSF’s own Education: University of California, Davis (BS, Microbiology); Training in Clinical Research program-- and I look University of Minnesota School of Public Health forward to watching their trajectories unfold here (MPH, Community Health Promotion, Health Disparities at UCSF. They will join a fantastic group of students Interdisciplinary Concentration) currently in the program. Our students received My academic and research interests include health many official recognitions of excellence this year equity, breast cancer disparities, social determi- (see page 2 of this newsletter), but I am especially impressed by their behind-the-scenes efforts to nants of health, and methods in social epidemiology. build the PhD program, enrich the university, and Coordinating a breast cancer outreach and edu- help one another, all while doing great population cation program for African American women in health research. Sacramento and conducting breast cancer related We also welcome back our fearless leader, Depart- fieldwork in Ghana have given me insight into the disproportionate bur- ment Chair Dr. Bob Hiatt, who returned this spring den of breast cancer in low-income, minority populations. In the doctoral after a sabbatical in London. Although I am sure Bob’s sabbatical provided him an extremely valuable program I would like to investigate environmental risk factors for breast intellectual renewal and opportunity to check out cancer; specifically, how neighborhood characteristics influence breast London’s post-punk music scene, it is nonethe- cancer risk and outcomes. In addition to advanced epi and biostatics meth- less great to see Bob’s warm presence back in the ods, I am also interested in gaining skills in geospatial and social network corner office (or rather, the corner Activity-Based- analyses. Workstation). Last year’s “research tools” workshop series, focusing on research quality, was a great success, albeit with n Stephen B. Asiimwe, MD some surprises (especially in Dr. Greenland’s lec- I do research among adults in sub-Saharan Af- ture). Many thanks to PhD student Kristen Aiemjoy, rica aimed at reducing mortality from infectious who did an excellent job organizing the series last diseases. In this setting, high prevalence of HIV year. Kristen has passed the torch to PhD student Josh Demb, who is organizing this year’s series, with and other infectious diseases commonly result in a (loose) theme of handling heterogeneity. Methods young adults going down with various forms of to address effect heterogeneity, including the chal- critical illness. Against a backdrop of rampant lenges in estimating effects within small subgroups resource-limitations hindering the provision of and generalizing research results to new popula- comprehensive acute care at hospitals, it is com- tions, have been a long-standing challenge for epidemiologists. Recent technical innovations offer mon to see a young person (like aged 20), dying from, of all things, a new tools to address these challenges and to learn bacterial infection. A death of this nature would be very strange in some more from the data at hand. This year’s workshops parts of the world. My studies mostly focus on this problem; i.e., the death will introduce some of these approaches. Everyone of young people from infections; why it happens, and what we can do in DEB and across the university is welcome to join about it. I use epidemiologic causal inference techniques to investigate (and other activities for that matter). some mortality risk factors (HIV-associated malignancies, severe sepsis, We are also excited that Sir Michael Marmot will and malnutrition). My research is also aiming to increase the utilization of be giving a lecture at UCSF later this fall. Profes- sor Marmot has been a tremendous advocate for aggregated clinical data and associated technologies to solve some clinical addressing social determinants of health through- problems and to promote learning from treatment activities. (continued on page 8) (continued on page 8) PhD Student + Post-Doctoral Accomplishments: 2015 PhD Student AWARDS Kristen Aiemjoy (2013) was awarded the UCSF Training in Clinical Research Award for Excellence in Teaching; and was a recipient of the Soroptimist Sierra Pacific Region Doctoral Fellowship. Josh Demb (2014) was awarded the Earle C.Anthony Sciences Fellowship for Academic Year 2015-16. Rajkumar Kalapatapu, MD (2014) continues as a K-23 Grant recipient of the NIH, National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). The grant is titled: ‘OT-based Cognitive Rehabilitation of Cocaine Abusers. Raj was also recently promoted to Assistant Adjunct Professor, Step 2 -School of Medicine, Dept. of Psychiatry. Kristen Aiemjoy with Jeff Martin, MD, MPH, TICR Program Director, receives Alyssa Mooney (2014) is a UCSF Eugene Cota-Robles Fellow, for a second year 2015-16. the Award for Excellence in Teaching in June, 2015 Heidi Moseson (2012) was awarded the Soroptimist Doctoral Fellowship for Women Scientists Work- ing to Advance Women’s Health/Wellbeing/Rights Eugenie Poirot (2012) was awarded the Earle C.Anthony Sciences Fellowship for Academic Year 2015-16. Caroline Tai (2013) was recently awarded a three-year F31 Individual Predoctoral National Research Service Award (NRSA) from the NIH. Her application was scored at the top 4th percentile by a review committee at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) for her pro- posal on Germline Genetic Pathways for Prostate Cancer Risk and Progression, sponsored by John Witte, PhD, Professor of Epidemiol- ogy and Biostatistics. Tu My To (2013) was awarded the Graduate Research Mentorship Fellowship for 2015-16. PhD Student CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS Cecily Miller (2012) presented at the Indonesia Annual Scientific Respiratory meet- ing Jakarta, Indonesia, March 28, 2015. Also presented talk at the USAID TB Team Workshop on the Tool of prioritization of risk groups for TB screening, June 10, 2015 in Washington, D.C. Caroline Tai (2013) organized a UCSF panel event titled “Race, Racism, and Health Inequalities” on May 5, 2015. The event was co-sponsored by the Assoicated Students of the Graduate Division (ASGD) and the new campus Consortium for Social and Popu- lation Sciences Research. Natalie Engmann (2014) attended the 7th International Breast Density and Breast Cancer Assessment Workshop at UCSF on June 10-12, 2015. Heidi Moseson at left explains her poster presented at this year’s SER conference in Denver, CO to Harvard Post-doc Tu My To (2013) attended the American Diabetes Association Scientific Sessions, Fellow, Jessica Marden. Boston, MA in June 2015. She presented a poster on “Comorbid Type 2 Diabetes with Low Renal Function Does Not Further Increase Risk of Cardiovascular Disease in a Cohort of Older Mexican Americans.” She also attended the Society for Epidemiologic Research Conference, Denver, CO (June, 2015) where she presented a poster titled“Type 2 Diabetes and Cognitive Function in Middle-Aged Mexican-Americans: the Role of Parental History of Type 2 Diabetes.” Josh Demb (2014) presented a poster on the “Utilization of screening mammography in older women to comorbidity and function- ing: A systematic review” at the International Cancer Screening Network Conference in Rotterdam, Netherlands on June 2-4, 2015. Sarah Ackley (2013) attended the Society for Epidemiologic Research (SER) in Denver, CO in June, 2015 with an oral presentation on “Causal Diagramming with Compartmental Model Diagrams: Illustrating a Parametric Alternative to DAGs.” Megha Mehrotra (2014) presented at SER in Denver, CO in June, 2015 for session on “HIV in an Era of Chronic Disease” with an oral presentation titled “The role of depression on adherence to HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis in men who have sex tihe men and transgender women: A marginal structural model analysis.” Heidi Moseson (2012) attended the Psychosocial Workshop (part of Population Association of America (PAA)) in San Diego in April. She also presented a poster on “MSM vs. Unweighted PLR under varying levels of time Dependent Confounding: A Simulation Study” at the Society for Epidemiologic Research (SER) in Denver, CO in June, 2015 Alyssa Mooney (2014) was a selected participant of the UC Criminal Justice & Health Consortium during the Spring of 2015. 2 Accomplishments 2015 - present: Selected PhD Student Publications Sarah Ackley: Hargrove, JW, and Ackley SF. “Mortality es- Fair E, Miller CR, Ottmani SE, Fox GJ, Hopewell Newby G, Hwang J, Koita K, Chen I, timates from ovarian age distributions of the PC. Tuberculosis contact investigation in low- Greenwood B, von Seidlein L, Shanks GD, tsetse fly Glossina pallidipes Austen sampled and middle-income countries: standardized Slutsker LM, Kachur SP, Wegbreit J, Ip- in Zimbabwe suggest the need for new ana- definitions and indicators. Int J Tuberc Lung Dis. polito MM, Poirot E, Gosling R. Review of lytical approaches.” Bulletin of entomological 2015;19(3):269-72. PMID: 25686131 mass drug administration for malaria and its operational challenges. 2015 Am J Trop research (2015):105.03: 294-304. Chaisson L, Katamba A, Haguma P, Ochom E, Med Hyg14. doi:10.4269/ajtmh.14-0254. Fengchen L, Enanoria W, Zipprich J, Blum- Ayakaka I, Mugabe F, Miller C, Vittinghoff E, berg S, Harriman K, Ackley SF, Wheaton Davis JL, Handley MA, Cattamanchi A. Theory- Priya Prasad: WD, Allpress JL, and Porco TC. “The role of informed interventions to improve the quality vaccination coverage, individual behaviors, of tuberculosis evaluation at Ugandan health Prasad PA, Gleason N, Senter C, Otto M, and the public health response in the control centers: a quasi-experimental study. PLoS One. Afshar A, Gonzales R. Individual PCP Re- of measles epidemics: an agent-based simu- 2015 Jul 14;10(7):e0132573.