Research Accomplishments from across NSU (Jan. 2023)

Find below a selection of recent research accomplishments by investigators from across NSU colleges.

 

From the Dr. Pallavi Patel College of Health Care Sciences:

In January, a team of students along with Dr. Monique Mokha will be studying interlimb coordination and force modulation changes in >50 American football players training for the 2023 NFL draft at Bommarito Performance Systems (Owner, Pete Bommarito is an HHP adjunct instructor and Advisory Board member). The study has laboratory and in-field components. Players will have their sprinting biomechanics assessed before and after training camp in NSU’s Sports Performance and Gait Science laboratory using 3D motion capture and an instrumented force treadmill. In the field, the research team will use force plates during weight training sessions to measure force modulation differences between dynamic (sub-max loads, high speed) and maximum (heavy loads, slow speed) effort protocols. Results will benefit high-performance coaches, strength training specialists, and sports scientists. In fact, the results of this study will be used in real-time to provide feedback to the sports performance team to monitor each athlete’s progress.

 

Dr. Joanne Flanagan has two recent publications related to autism and traumatic brain injury:

  • Demchick BB, Flanagan J, Li C-Y, Cassidy R, Golding J. Early Indicators of Autism in Infants: Development of the IMES Screening Tool. OTJR: Occupation, Participation and Health. 2022;0(0). doi:10.1177/15394492221134910
  • Pappadis, M. R., Lundine, J. P., Kajankova, M., Hreha, K. P, Doria, N., Xinsheng C., & Flanagan, J. E. (2022). Traumatic brain injury education for children and adolescents with TBI, families and caregivers: A systematic scoping review. Brain Injury. DOI: 10.1080/02699052.2022.2145357

 

Dr. Elliot Montgomery Sklar co-published with Stephanie Kubiak, a Ph.D. graduate in Health Science (2022) whose committee he chaired. The findings of her dissertation work show that regular exercise reduced the risk of hospital readmission among patients with spinal cord injury in data from a national database on spinal cord injury. Drs. Kubiak and Sklar are continuing to work together on publications and recently had a manuscript accepted to be published in the Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.

  • Kubiak, S., & Sklar, E.M. (2022, January). Relationship of exercise and hospital readmission after spinal cord injury: A secondary analysis. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 76, 7601180070. https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2022.047944

 

Dr. Kamilah Thomas-Purcell and colleagues from the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of West Indies, Mona campus, and Loma Linda University were awarded an NIH grant on cervical cancer stigma in the Caribbean titled “Examining Cancer Stigma and its Impact on Cervical Cancer Prevention and HPV Vaccination within High-risk Caribbean Countries.” Although cervical cancer is preventable, treatable, and curable, it is one of the most stigmatized and deadliest cancers among women worldwide. Moreover, in developing countries there is little success to prevent cervical cancer due to limited resources as well as actionable barriers to uptake of prevention programs, including cervical cancer screening and HPV vaccination, stemming from stigma. Thus, the goal of this grant is to develop and validate measurements of cancer stigma and elucidate the mechanisms and pathways by which cancer stigma impacts cervical cancer prevention in low-middle income Caribbean countries.

 

From the H. Wayne Huizenga College of Business & Entrepreneurship (HCBE) & Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Allopathic Medicine (NSU MD):

A project titled “Collaborative for Population Health Equity: Partnership Advancing Equitable Access To Health and Wellbeing (PATHWell)” has been competitively selected for funding by the Health Foundation of South Florida and involve four HCBE faculty noted below.  The Collaborative is the first alliance of its kind in South Florida that advances health equity through academic/health system/non-profit partnership. It is also a reflection of the incredible synergy that has been fostered and developed between HCBE and NSU MD, enabling an interdisciplinary team of faculty in medicine and business to develop a hub of excellence for advancing the state of the science of health equity, employing proven scientific approaches to achieve its aims. The Collaborative will engage numerous health systems partners to seek interventional solutions, raise public awareness of health inequities, and drive policy.

  • Professor Julie Jacko (Principal Investigator/Project Director)
  • Professor François Sainfort (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Professor and Dean Johannes Vieweg (Executive Leadership of clinical/healthcare delivery interventions)
  • Professor Tim Page (Data, Modeling and Economic Analysis Lead)
  • Assistant Professor Will Hawks (Disparities, Social Needs & Dissemination Lead)
  • Visiting Scholar and Professor David Nash (Chair, Expert Advisory Board)
  • Associate Professor Arkene Levy (Intervention Design and Diversity Lead)
  • Associate Professor Amanda Chase (Medical Education and Training Lead)

From the Halmos College of Arts & Sciences:

Dr. Tamara Frank, Professor Marine Sciences received an NSF grant to work on the visual ecology of hydrothermal vent shrimp as it relates to the habitat. The grant is titled “Collaborative Research: Visual Ecology of Hydrothermal Vent Shrimp.” Besides Frank as PI, the grant includes collaborators from University of Delaware, Duke University, and Florida International University. The total grant is for ~$1 million + shiptime, with $369,729 coming to the Deep-sea Biology lab at NSU.

 

Dr. Jeremy Weissman, Assistant Professor Philosophy, was invited to serve as the editor for the latest issue of The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, writing an introduction that ties the issue’s essays together around the theme of how different modes of reasoning often lead to vastly different conclusions on the nature of death and the appropriate orientation toward matters such as euthanasia or procuring organs from brain-dead patients. Halmos Faculty Member Selected as Issue Editor for Journal – SharkBytes (nova.edu)

 

Dr. Eben Gering, Assistant Professor Biological Sciences and Erik Yang (a mentored RAZR student) published a paper with MSU collaborators showing that infection by the parasite Toxoplasma gondii is associated with altered hormone levels in wild hyenas. This parasite’s influence on hormones that regulate mammalian behavior were already known from lab rodents and humans. Presumably, they reflect manipulation by the parasite that help T. gondii spread between it many mammalian hosts. Even though T. gondii occurs worldwide, its effects on host hormone levels had never been tested in nature. The new study confirmed these effects are observable in wild hosts, and suggests the links between infection, hormones, and behavior might therefore impact populations and ecosystems worldwide.

 

Dr. Marlisa Santos, Professor and Director of Center for Applied Humanities, has a new book chapter. The collection focuses on overlooked Native American film director Wallace Fox; this article examines post-Depression-era xenophobic anxieties evident in Fox’s 1942 film, Bowery at Midnight.

  • Santos, Marlisa. “‘Like a crazy nightmare’: Noirish Vampirism and Deviance in Bowery at Midnight.” In The Films of Wallace Fox. Ed. Gary Rhodes and Joanna Hearne. Edinburgh University Press, 2022.

 

From the Fischler College of Education and School of Criminal Justice:

 Drs. Hui Fang Huang “Angie” Su and Jia Borror published a paper on teaching math to young students with autism. The article, “Teaching Math to Preschool Children with Autism,” was published in the International Journal of Educational and Pedagogical Sciences. The paper focuses on effective ways for educators to teach math to preschool children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The study examined two different methods of teaching preschoolers with ASD at a preschool. One method used a combination of discrete trial teaching and Strategies for Teaching Based on Autism Research (STAR). That method was the regular math curriculum utilized at the preschool. The second method was a naturalistic teaching method called Project MIND – Math is Not Difficult. The teaching methods were randomly assigned to four classrooms with students with ASD, and then after three months, the student’s knowledge of mathematics subjects was evaluated.

 

From the College of Pharmacy:

‘Hispanic, black, and pacific islander perspectives on COVID-19 outreach Strategies and patient centered outcomes’ (HeAR US) is an FDA-funded multisite study whose aim is to understand perspectives, preferences, and unmet needs of diverse Black, Hispanic, and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities who are often unheard and hard-to-reach. Dr. Jesus Sanchez (PI), along with co-investigator Dr. Alexandra Perez won an award from the FDA to research this problem. Findings will inform existing FDA communications related to COVID-19 vaccination and guide the development of a culturally-tailored COVID-19 communication playbook and implementation strategy.

 

Dr. Genevieve Hale, along with two highly motivated pharmacy students, Bailey Bruns and Shirley Lorenzo-Castro, recently published “Controlling Blood Pressure During a Pandemic: The Impact of Telepharmacy for Primary Care Patients” in the Journal of Pharmacy Practice. This study highlights the importance of telepharmacy services for patients with hypertension that were unable to physically see their primary care provider during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their findings suggests that the utilization of either in-person or telepharmacy strategies benefit the management of hypertension.

 

Dr. Narasimman Gurusamy is a new member of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences in the College of Pharmacy whose research concerns heart disease, and recently won a grant from the American Heart Association for a project titled ‘Autologous induced-mesenchymal stem cells and their exosomes therapy for myocardial injury’.  This award will examine the use of stem cells for the treatment of heart muscle disease, which have been shown to both treat the symptoms and improve heart function.  This study will generate stem cells from human urine-derived cells through cellular reprogramming and successful completion of this project will help to treat heart muscle disease with the patient’s own cells generated without any surgery.

 

Dr. Benedict Albensi is a co-author on a recent paper published in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia (IF=16.7) titled “Nutritional metabolism and cerebral bioenergetics in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.” This is the flagship journal of the Alzheimer’s Association in the USA and has the highest impact factor of all the Alzheimer’s journals worldwide. Other co-authors include established, “big name” investigators on the paper’s topic and Dr. Albensi contributed to content on mitochondrial function and other areas.

 

From the Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Allopathic Medicine (MD College) and Division of Research & Economic Development (DoR):

MD College faculty member Dr. Robert Smith and student/DoR staff member Fatima Abu-Rumman, along with colleagues, recently published in the The ISME Journal of Nature. Their article examined antibiotic resistance in E.coli in relation to genes that provide selective advantages to their bacterial hosts during antibiotic treatment.

 

From the Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine:

Dr. Nancy Klimas was featured in TIME Magazine for her group’s work on long-COVID and other post-viral illnesses. https://time.com/6240058/post-viral-illnesses-common-long-covid/