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Director: |
Durland Fish, Ph.D.
Professor of Epidemiology
Dept. of Epidemiology and Public Health
Yale School of Medicine
60 College St. P.O. Box 208034
New Haven, CT 06520 |
Announcements:
Forums
currently available for viewing:
Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies Center for
EcoEpidemiology (YIBSCEE) sponsors a Forum
Series on topics that integrate ecology and
epidemiology to address contemporary issues in
enviornment and human health. Each Forum has
been videotaped in its entirety is available for
viewing at this site. A total of 37 lectures is
currently available. These lectures are
suitable for class assignments or research
reviews, but content is not copyrighted or
considered published and therefore should not be
cited or referenced in any publication.
Forum on Climate and Disease
Global climate change and emerging disease
threats are among the most pressing issues
facing humankind. Much speculation has developed
concerning the relationships between these
events, but what is really known about cause and
effect? This Forum addresses the current state
of our knowledge on the relationship between
climate and disease by bringing together a group
of academic and government scientists with
international experience in climate/disease
research. A range of topics is presented that
demonstrate the need, capacity, and benefits of
understanding how climate influences risk for
infectious diseases in humans.
To view videos of talks,
click here.
Forum on Biodiversity
and Human Health
The loss of biodiversity is accelerating while
new infectious diseases appear to be emerging
and reemerging at a faster rate. Research on the
links between these two processes can have an
important impact on our view of biodiversity,
the services provided by natural ecosystems, and
how we manage them. This interdisciplinary forum
of researchers, practitioners, and decision
makers in ecology, public health, remote
sensing, and the social sciences discusses the
state of the science, refine research
priorities, and discuss how to integrate
existing data into a monitoring and
risk-forecasting network that aims to prevent or
significantly mitigate risks of human disease
and threats to biodiversity around the world.
Co-sponsored by EPA, Smithsonian Institution,
and World Conservation Union.
To view videos of talks,
click here.
Forum on Avian
Reservoirs of Human Pathogens
The threat from animal pathogens transmissible
to humans is at an unprecedented increase
worldwide. Epidemics of Lyme disease and West
Nile virus in the US, and the potential for
world-wide pandemic avian influenza have
revealed critical weaknesses in our knowledge of
how these diseases emerge, spread, and are
maintained in nature. Microbial pathogens
transmitted from birds to humans, either
directly or through intermediate vectors (ticks
and mosquitoes), are of particular concern
because birds are ubiquitous, locally abundant,
and can move pathogens over long distances
quickly. The involvement of birds in public
health threats to humans poses significant
management dilemmas for wildlife biologists and
human disease epidemiologists that are
infrequently addressed together. The objective
of this interdisciplinary forum is to provide an
opportunity for communication and discussion
among the disciplines of microbiology,
ornithology, entomology, epidemiology, and
conservation biology in order to identify needs
for advancing efforts to understand and mitigate
disease risk caused by microbial pathogens
humans share with avian wildlife.
To view videos of talks,
click here.
Forum on Zoonoses: Infectious Disease Threats
from the Environment
Planned for Next Spring
Graduate Summer Fellowships in EcoEpidemiology
The Center for EcoEpidemiology has awarded three
Graduate Summer Fellowships in EcoEpidemiology :
·
Maggie Montgomery
Ph.D. Candidate, Environmental Engineering
Program, Dept. of Chemical Engineering
Utilizing principles of epidemiology and
engineering to improve prevention, control, and
monitoring of water-related diseases in East
Africa.
·
Maya Leonard-Cahn
Masters of Environmental Science Candidate,
School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
Modeling population viability in the context of
disease ecology for endangered Sierra Nevada
bighorn sheep.
·
Bridgid Curry
Masters Candidate, Joint Program in
Environmental Health Sciences and Forestry and
Environmental Studies.
Health effects of Canadian forest fires on
asthmatic children in southern New England
OVERVIEW
| INTRODUCTION | GOAL | ACTIVITIES |
| CENTER
PARTICIPANTS
OVERVIEW
Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies (YIBS)
serves as a principal focus for Yale
University's research and training efforts in
the environmental sciences and forms
intellectual centers for research and education
that address fundamental questions that will
form the ability to generate solutions to the
biosphere's most critical environmental
problems. Health issues are among the most
relevant environmental problems of today, and
include both human health and ecosystem health.
Solutions to these problems are complicated by a
significant intellectual gap which exists
between the medical discipline of epidemiology
and the environmental discipline of ecology.
Medical epidemiology lacks a comprehensive
understanding of natural environmental processes
that influence disease agents, and environmental
science lacks the sound methodology and advanced
technology of contemporary epidemiological
investigation. The goal of the YIBS Center for
EcoEpidemiology (YIBSCEE) is to merge the
boundaries between
the medical and environmental sciences, and in
so doing, create opportunities at Yale for
research and training in the epidemiology of
agents affecting both human health and the
natural environment.
The Center's goal is
achieved through an
interdisciplinary effort
among participating Yale
faculty. YIBSCEE faculty
includes representatives
from three schools (School
of Medicine, School of
Forestry & Environmental
Studies, and the Graduate
School of Arts and Sciences), three Departments
(Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Epidemiology
and Public Health, and Internal Medicine), and
three Divisions within the Dept. of Epidemiology
and Public Health (Epidemiology of Microbial
Diseases, Environmental Health, and
Biostatistics).
Activities of YIBSCEE include symposia and
seminar series on a wide range of contemporary
topics relating to environment and health which
are open to the Yale community. These activities
form the basis for the creation of new
interdisciplinary undergraduate and graduate
courses. YIBSCEE also coordinates existing
curricula among participating faculty to broaden
scope and improve content. In addition, the
center provides a forum and resources for
planning and acquisition of extramural funding
for interdisciplinary training and research in
eco-epidemiology at Yale.
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INTRODUCTION
Human society is continuously threatened by
chemical, physical and biological agents
emanating from both the natural and man made
environment that directly affect survival,
health, and quality of life. Effective
mitigation of these threats requires basic
knowledge from a wide range of disciplines
within the general area of environmental
science. Because of its roots in the human
medical sciences, the science of epidemiology
focuses only on the human health outcomes
associated with exposures to environmental
stressors and agents. Epidemiology does not
typically draw upon disciplines in the natural
environmental sciences to consider the role of
natural ecosystems as sources of human exposure
to hazardous agents. Solutions for many of
today's epidemiological problems require
knowledge from several disciplines which are
outside the mainstream of classic research and
training in traditional medical schools and
schools of public health. There is an urgent
need for an interdisciplinary approach that will
strengthen our intellectual capacity to address
the environmental processes through which
harmful agents threaten human existence and
welfare. Likewise, there is also a need to
assess the impact of such agents on the
ecosystem, both directly, and indirectly through
results of mitigation against human threats. The
YIBS Center for EcoEpidemiology fulfills these
needs by providing an opportunity for faculty
and students to participate in a
cross-disciplinary effort between the medical
and natural environmental sciences. Yale
provides an unusual academic environment for
this center as few academic institutions in the
U.S. have expertise in both disciplines on the
same campus.
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GOAL
The major goal of YIBSCEE is to serve as a
platform for the integration of epidemiology and
environmental science at Yale. The Center
enhances opportunities for intellectual exchange
and program development by providing a forum and
resources for faculty and student interaction
that results in increased interdisciplinary
participation and visibility. The ultimate goal
of the center is to merge the boundaries between
the medical and environmental sciences which
will enhance research and training in the
epidemiology of agents affecting both human
health and the natural environment.
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ACTIVITIES
There are a wide range of critical environmental
questions and issues that are relevant to the
goals of the proposed center. YIBSCEE focuses
upon issues that are truly interdisciplinary and
not currently addressed in existing research or
training programs at Yale. Center activities
build upon and expand existing independent
efforts among faculty to interact effectively
and form a cohesive group with common
intellectual pursuits. These activities include
the coordination of existing course instruction
and training opportunities, the sponsorship of
YIBCSEE forums and seminars, and the development
of new courses.
Several activities that have been independently
initiated by participating center faculty serve
as examples of an interdisciplinary curriculum
in eco-epidemiology. The success of these
activities have been enhanced through increased
dialogue with participating faculty and
financial support for new activities from YIBS.Courses:
 Ecology
and Evolution of Infectious Agents
(EEB720a/EMD544a) provides an interdisciplinary
view of infections diseases. It is taught by
Paul Turner (EEB) with guest lectures by D. Fish
and M. Diuk-Wasser of EPH. This course was
hugely successful its premier year with more
than 70 students (mostly undergraduate)
enrolled.
Observing the Earth From Space (FES 506b, EMD
548b, GG362b) is a remote sensing course offered
spring of each year by the Geology Department
and is designed to teach students how to use
satellite imagery for environmental
applications. The course is attended by 1-3 EPH
students each year and a lecture is given on
remote sensing applications in epidemiology.
GIS Applications in Epidemiology and Public
Health (BIS511a) is offered each fall semester
by the Biostatistics Division of EPH and is
taught by T. Holford. The course has attracted
students from FES and Yale College and is
designed to teach students how to collect and
analyze spatial data on the environment and
disease cases. This course, together with the
remote sensing course, provides a valuable
training sequence for health applications of
environmental data that is not offered at any
other academic medical institution.
Modeling the Epidemiology and Evolution of
Infectious Diseases (EMD 565a) is offered each
year by A. Galvani.
This course is designed for students to develop
an understanding of the ways mathematical and
computational modeling can be used to explore
the epidemiology and evolutionary ecology of
infectious diseases. Interdisciplinary
approaches include combining epidemiology with
population genetics, evolutionary biology, and
economics.
Joint Training
Programs
FES/EPH Joint Masters Degree Program
The M.F.-M.P.H.,M.F.S.-M.P.H. and M.E.S.-M.P.H.
are degrees for students who are interested in
understanding the environmental context of
public health. These programs allow students
flexibility in designing their curriculum,
although students must satisfy minimum residency
requirements and minimum credit hours in both
schools. This program is a three-year effort and
is unique among US institutions offering degrees
in public health.
Internships and laboratory rotations
Summer internships have been taken by a number
of FES (master degree) and EEB (undergraduate)
students in EPH, and EEB Ph.D. students have
completed laboratory rotations in EPH.
Similarly, EPH Ph.D. students take laboratory
rotations in FES and EEB. This type of exchange
has provided valuable interdisciplinary
experience for students with training in ecology
and environmental science by exposing them to
contemporary epidemiological research methods.
CDC Fellowship Training Program in Vector-Borne
Diseases
The Division of Epidemiology of Microbial
Diseases (EMD) in EPH has just completed a 5
year training grant from CDC, specifically for
training in vector-borne diseases with an
emphasis on field studies. A total of 20 faculty
participated in this training grant, including 2
from FES and 3 from EEB. The grant supported
eleven Ph.D. students which were shared among
EPH, FES, and EEB. Students conducted
laboratory rotations and select dissertation
committee advisors freely among EPH, FES, and
EEB faculty. Students participated in a field
trip to the Caribbean over spring break. CDC
discontinued the program in 2007 and we are
currently seeking other training grant
opportunities to replace it.
Seminar Series
The Center for EcoEpidemiology sponsors
interdisciplinary seminars in Disease Ecology
recent guest speakers have included Klaus
Kurtenbach of the Biodiversity Program at
Imperial College, London and Tom Scott, Director
of the Center for Vector-Borne Diseases at U.C.
Davis, and Sarah Randolph, Dept. of Zoology,
Oxford University and
Xiangming
Xiao,
Complex Systems Research Center, Institute for
the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space, University
of New Hamsphire.
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CENTER
PARTICIPANTS
The following faculty from
Department. of Epidemiology and Public Health
(EPH), School
of Medicine,
School
of Forestry and Environmental Studies (FES)
and Department of
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB)
participate in YIBSCEE (listed alphabetically).
James E. Childs, D. Sc.
Senior Research Scientist, EPH
Maria Diuk-Wasser, Ph.D. Assistant Professor
of Epidemiology, EPH
Dr. Diuk-Wasser is an infectious disease
ecologist with research interests in the
roles of wildlife and environmental change
in the emergence of new infectious diseases
affecting public health. She is currently
working on Lyme disease and West Nile virus
and has past experience working on malaria
in Africa. Her landscape epidemiology
approach to studying the ecology of
infectious diseases relies heavily upon the
use of remote sensing, GIS, and spatial
statistics.
Durland Fish, Ph.D., Professor of
Epidemiology, EPH
Professor Fish's research interests are in
the areas of ecology and prevention of
vector-borne infectious diseases. Recent
emphasis has been on tick-borne pathogens
causing Lyme disease and human ehrlichiosis
and mosquito-borne West Nile virus. Current
projects include natural and artificial
regulation of vector populations, vector
competence for viral and bacterial
pathogens, co-infection and transmissions of
multiple pathogens, geographic and spatial
analysis of epidemiological data, and the
use of satellite imagery to predict
vector-borne disease risk.
Alison Galvani, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
of Epidemiology, EPH
Dr. Galvani is interested in integrating
evolutionary ecology and epidemiology in
order to generate predictions that could not
be made by either discipline alone. This
interdisciplinary approach has widespread
potential for answering evolutionary
questions, explaining empirical observations
and informing public health policy.
Professor Galvani has applied this approach
to the study of HIV, influenza, SARS and
helminth parasites.
Theodore Holford, Ph.D., Susan Dwight Bliss
Professor of Public Health, Head, Division of
Biostatistics, EPH
Professor Holford's primary research
interests are in the development and
application of statistical methods in public
health and medicine. One topic he has
especially focused on recently has been how
trends in cancer epidemiology are described,
especially through the use of
age-period-cohort models and geographic
information systems.
Brian Leaderer, Ph.D., The Susan Dwight
Bliss Professor, Vice Chair, Dept of
Epidemiology and Public Health and Deputy Dean
of Public Health
Professor Leaderer's research interests are
in the area of assessing exposures to air
contaminants and assessing the health impact
resulting from those exposures in both
controlled human and epidemiological
studies. Within the context of assessing
exposures, his work includes developing a
theoretical framework for doing exposure
assessment, determining the type and
quantity of health related contaminants
emitted from sources, assessing
environmental concentrations and the factors
impacting those concentrations, developing
monitoring and modeling techniques and
formulating strategies to assess exposures
in epidemiologic studies.
Peter Rabinowitz, M.D., M.P.H. Assistant
Professor of Medicine.
Dr. Rabinowitz is in the Division of
Occupational and Environmental Medicine,
Dept. of Internal Medicine. He has interests
in exploring the use of sentinel animals for
detecting and evaluating human health
hazards in the environment and in developing
innovative strategies for the investigation
of sentinel events in wildlife populations.
He has already developed a protocol and a
proposal for developing an independent Yale
center for these studies.
David
Skelly, Ph.D., Professor of Ecology, FES
Professor Skelly is interested in the
ecology of disease. His research is focused
on understanding the ways in which
environmental context influence transmission
of disease and the impacts of infection. He
is also researching the role of adaptive
host behavior in regulating patterns of
infection and is involved in research to
understand the role of pathogens in
amphibian deformities
Stephen Stearns, Ph.D., Edward P. Bass
Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology,
Chair, Dept. of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Professor Stearns is interested in Darwinian
medicine and in the life history
consequences of infections and disease. He
has published a book on “Evolution in health
and Disease” and is founding editor of the
Journal of Evolutionary Biology.
Paul
Turner, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of
Ecology and Evolution, EEB
Dr. Turner uses microorganisms (RNA viruses,
DNA viruses,bacteria) as model systems to
address hypotheses in ecological and
evolutionary theory, especially questions
regarding the evolution of genetic exchange
(sex), virus ecology and evolution,
host-parasite interactions, and the
evolution of infectious disease. He uses an
inter-disciplinary approach to investigate
these processes, employing techniques from
microbiology, population genetics, molecular
biology and mathematical modeling.
John Wargo, Ph.D. Professor of Environmental
Risk Analysis and Policy, Director of the
Environment and Health Initiative, FES
Professor Wargo's current research explores
spatial, temporal, and demographic
distribution of environmental health risks,
providing a basis for evaluating past
environmental and natural resource
management policies, and for suggesting
legal reform. He has conducted extensive
research on childhood exposure to complex
mixtures of toxic substances, especially
pesticides.
Tongzhang Zheng, Ph.D., Associate Professor
of Environmental Health Sciences, EPH
Dr. Zheng’s research interests have been in
the area of cancer epidemiology and
environmental epidemiology. He is the
Principal Investigator for a case-control
study of female breast cancer in
Connecticut, USA, which investigates the
association between environmental exposure
to organochlorine compounds, genetic
polymorphisms and breast cancer risk
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