Impact

The complex issues involved in improving health at the community level require innovative approaches. No single institution working alone can address the critically important issues of global climate change, social determinants, and health equity. Thus, our ambitious research and education programs take a locally based, collaborative approach to tackling complex, cross-cutting issues in health across the globe.

Tackling Complex Issues with Collaborative Projects

The Institute’s projects align the research and knowledge of our partners into efficient, coherent, multidisciplinary programs. These projects realize the full potential of collaborative research for tackling complex health issues

Basic Research

Basic research supported by the Institute focuses on the interaction of the cell and its environment, and involves partners from Ireland to Israel.  Current projects include:

• Contact lenses as an omics platform for diagnosing and managing chronic disease.
• Analysis of the volatile organic compounds in exhaled breath for glucose control in diabetes and pre-diabetes.
• Tracking of omics changes in blood and urine and symptoms in people with pre-diabetes.
• Exploration of the role of oscillation and circadian rhythm in human health and disease.
• Elucidating the precise cellular pathways by which the epigenome dynamically responds to the environment, particularly how social determinants of health such as stress, diet, behavior, toxins, and other factors regulate gene expression and translate into health outcomes.

Applied Research

In collaboration with the University of Houston and Houston Methodist Research Institute, Institute-supported research has developed optical sensors capable of measuring tissue oxygenation continuously and non-invasively. Future applications of this technology including post-surgical healing and prevention of bedsores.

This project has resulted in five papers and the Institute’s seed funding was directly responsible for the project receiving $150,000 in matching funds.

Other applied research projects include:

• Near-infrared spectroscopy applications in fitness and neuromuscular disease.
• Remote patient monitoring to predict decompensation in congestive heart failure.
• Clinical metabolomic profiling in insulin resistance syndromes.
• New noninvasive sensors for retinal monitoring in space flight and type 2 diabetes.
• Novel noninvasive biosensors for tracking vital signs in diagnosis and health management.
• Metabolomic analysis for prediction and management of type 2 diabetes.

Global Health

We support global health education through UTMB, and capacity-building projects in Perú and the Dominican Republic.

El Comedor

El Comedor, in Lima, Perú, is a program devoted to promoting nutritional treatment of malnourished children. The program, in partnership with the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, works to improve the nutritional status of malnourished children under 3 years of age through an educational program that allows parents and caregivers to learn to prepare a well-balanced diet on a minimal budget and, in turn, disseminate this education throughout the community. Specifically, El Comedor:

• Improves nutritional status by providing two balanced daily food rations to children at risk of malnutrition.
• Educates parents/caregivers regarding preparation of a balanced diet on a minimal budget as well as proper childhood development in general.
• Sensitizes parents/caregivers to the role they play in feeding and the development of their children.
• Emphasizes techniques in food hygiene.
• Measures objective indicators to monitor nutritional rehabilitation, including weight, length, and hemoglobin levels.

The support of Institute donors has allowed El Comedor to hire nutritionists and community health workers, and to begin the scientific assessment of their work, with the goal of developing a scalable program that can be used in other settings throughout the world.  Each year, the Institute supports a research fellowship residency at El Comedor.

La Clínica de Familia

Originally founded by Columbia University, Clínica de Familia is a comprehensive clinic in La Romana, Dominican Republic that provides medical attention and psychosocial support to adults and children with HIV, sex workers, adolescents, and other highly vulnerable populations in the eastern part of the Dominican Republic. Clínica de Familia aims to improve the quality of life of the poorest and most vulnerable populations in the eastern part of the country with a holistic, family-centered approach. 

The Institute funded a capacity-building project in collaboration with Clínica de la Familia, UTMB, Universidad Central de Este, Hospital Buen Samaritano, and the Dominican Ministry of Health. The project is building a collaborative research infrastructure and community IRB (institutional review board) to review proposals for human subjects research.

The Institute is providing logistical support, in-person training, and start-up funding for the project. In addition, the Institute supports opportunities for students to work on research projects in the region. Past research fellows have conducted field epidemiological studies of the chikungunya virus and other febrile illnesses.

Education

One of the most important roles of the Institute is to support the work of early-career researchers, trainees, and students. We support research experiences for  medical trainees, medical students, PhD students, and undergraduates. We also support continuing education for professionals.

Selected Publications

Antoulas AC, Zhu B, Zhang Q, York B, O’Malley BW, Dacso CC. A novel mathematical method for disclosing oscillations in gene transcription: A comparative study. PLoS One. 2018 Sep 19;13(9):e0198503.

Zhu B, Dacso CC, O’Malley BW. Unveiling “Musica Universalis” of the Cell: A Brief History of Biological 12-Hour Rhythms. J Endocr Soc. 2018 Jun 6;2(7):727-752.

Satterfield CA, Dacso MM, Patel P. Using multiple mini interviews as a pre-screening tool for medical student candidates completing international health electives. Med Educ Online. 2018 Dec;23(1):1483694.

Dacso CC. In older men, 5α-reductase inhibitors were linked to increased risk for self-harm and depression but not suicide. Ann Intern Med. 2017 Jul 18;167(2):JC9.

Zhu B, Zhang Q, Pan Y, Mace EM, York B, Antoulas AC, Dacso CC, O’Malley BW. A Cell-Autonomous Mammalian 12 hr Clock Coordinates Metabolic and Stress Rhythms. Cell Metab. 2017 Jun 6;25(6):1305-1319.e9.

Langsjoen RM, Rubinstein RJ, Kautz TF, Auguste AJ, Erasmus JH, Kiaty-Figueroa L, Gerhardt R, Lin D, Hari KL, Jain R, Ruiz N, Muruato AE, Silfa J, Bido F, Dacso M, Weaver SC. Molecular Virologic and Clinical Characteristics of a Chikungunya Fever Outbreak in La Romana, Dominican Republic, 2014. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2016 Dec 28;10(12):e0005189.

Loh LC, Valdman O, Dacso MM. Coalicion de Salud Comunitaria (COSACO): using a Healthy Community Partnership framework to integrate short-term global health experiences into broader community development. Global Health. 2016 May 2;12(1):15.

Goodman ML, Serag H, Gitari S, Keiser PH, Dacso M, Raimer BG. Exploring Pathways Between HIV+ Status and Excellent Overall Health Among Kenyan Women: Family Functioning, Meaningfulness of Life, Seroconcordance, Social Support and Considering the Need for Integrated Care. J Community Health. 2016 Oct;41(5):989-97.

Pollonini L, Forseth KJ, Dacso CC, Parazynski SE, Friedman JD. Self-contained diffuse optical imaging system for real-time detection and localization of vascular occlusions. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2015 Aug;2015:5884-7.

Loh LC, Cherniak W, Dreifuss BA, Dacso MM, Lin HC, Evert J. Short term global health experiences and local partnership models: a framework. Global Health. 2015 Dec 18;11:50.

Zhu B, Gates LA, Stashi E, Dasgupta S, Gonzales N, Dean A, Dacso CC, York B, O’Malley BW. Coactivator-Dependent Oscillation of Chromatin Accessibility Dictates Circadian Gene Amplitude via REV-ERB Loading. Mol Cell. 2015 Dec 3;60(5):769-783.

 

Fleet T, Zhang B, Lin F, Zhu B, Dasgupta S, Stashi E, Tackett B, Thevananther S, Rajapakshe KI, Gonzales N, Dean A, Mao J, Timchenko N, Malovannaya A, Qin J, Coarfa C, DeMayo F, Dacso CC, Foulds CE, O’Malley BW, York B. SRC-2 orchestrates polygenic inputs for fine-tuning glucose homeostasis. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2015 Nov 3;112(44):E6068-77.

Guidi G, Pollonini L, Dacso CC, Iadanza E. A multi-layer monitoring system for clinical management of Congestive Heart Failure. BMC Med Inform Decis Mak. 2015;15 Suppl 3:S5.

Pollonini L, Padhye NS, Re R, Torricelli A, Simpson RJ, Dacso CC. Pulse transit time measured by photoplethysmography improves the accuracy of heart rate as a surrogate measure of cardiac output, stroke volume and oxygen uptake in response to graded exercise. Physiol Meas. 2015 May;36(5):911-24.

Dhawan AP, Heetderks WJ, Pavel M, Acharya S, Akay M, Mairal A, Wheeler B, Dacso CC, Sunder T, Lovell N, Gerber M, Shah M, Senthilvel SG, Wang MD, Bhargava B. Current and Future Challenges in Point-of-Care Technologies: A Paradigm-Shift in Affordable Global Healthcare With Personalized and Preventive Medicine. IEEE J Transl Eng Health Med. 2015 Mar 5;3:2800110.

Elias P, Rajan NO, McArthur K, Dacso CC. InSpire to Play (Promote Lung Assessment in Youth): Evolving the Self-Management Paradigms of Young People with Asthma. Journal of Medical Internet Research Med 2 0. 2013 May 21;2(1):e1. doi: 10.2196/med20.2014

Pollonini L, Padhye NS, Re R, Simpson RJ, Dacso C. “Integrated device for the measurement of systemic and local oxygen transport during physical exercise,” 34th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC’12) San Diego, August 2012.

Sexton K, Bondy M, Spitz M, Conneely O, McArthur K, Harris AM, Queen C, Dacso C. Designing a translational epidemiologic study: Chloroquine and breast cancer chemoprevention in Returned Peace Corps Volunteers. 140th APHA Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA. October 2012.

Pollonini L, Re R, Howell P, Prasad K, Simpson R, Dacso C. Relationship between systemic and local physiological response to graded exercise assessed with near-infrared spectroscopy. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2012, Vol. 44:5.

Zetola N, Ben-Haim Y, Dacso C. Info-gap management of public health policy for TB with HIV-prevalence and epidemiological uncertainty. BMC Public Health. 2012;12:1091

Dacso C, Pollonini L, Amodeo A. Integrated Device for the Post-Operative Monitoring of Cardiac Functions in Pediatric Populations. 35th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC’13), July 2013.

Hall AK, Dodd V, Bernhardt JM, Harris, AM, McArthur K, Dacso C, Colton L. Heart Failure Patients’ Perceptions and Use of Technology to Manage Heart Failure Symptoms. 13th Annual American Academy of Health Behavior Meeting, Santa Fe, New Mexico, March 17-20, 2013.

Hall AK, Dodd V, Harris, AM, McArthur K, Dacso C, Colton L. Technology and Heart Failure: Patients’ Perceptions and Use of Technology to Manage Their Disease. Telemedicine and e-Health. April 2014, 20(4): 324-331.

Mayfield P, McOwiti A, Barney J, Qu Shijing, Sexton KR, Harris AM, McArthur K, Hilsenbeck SG, Bondy ML, Conneely O, Spitz M, Dacso CC, Becnel LB. CorpsChronicles: An Application Leveraging Social Networks for Online Epidemiologic Survey Studies. American Medical Informatics Annual Symposium Washington, DC. November 16-20, 2013.

Chen J, Quadri S, Pollonini L, Naribole S, Ding J, Zheng Z, Knightly EW, Dacso CC. Blue Scale: Early Detection of Impending Congestive Heart Failure Events via Wireless Daily Self-Monitoring. IEEE Healthcare Innovation and Point of Care Conference, Seattle, WA. Oct 8-10, 2014.

Pollonini L, Quadri S, Chen J, Ding J, Zheng Z, Naribole S, McArthur K, Knightly EW, Dacso CC. Blue Scale: a multi-sensing device for remote management of congestive heart failure. 36th Annual Conference of IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Chicago, IL Aug 26-30, 2014.

Research Grants Partially Supported by Institute Funding

(through research management by Kara McArthur & Erin O’Malley)

Department of Defense, Congressionally Directed Medical Research Projects

“A Translational Approach to Validate In-Vivo

Anti-Tumor Effects of Chloroquine on Breast Cancer Risk” 2012-2014

Dacso Principal Investigator

National Science Foundation

National Science Foundation 2014-2015

“IEEE Point of Care and Health Innovation”

Dacso, Principal Investigator

NASA CASIS 2013-2015

“Longitudinal Assessment of Intracranial

Pressure During Prolonged Spaceflight”

Dacso, Principal Investigator

NASA CASIS

“Generation of Mesendoderm Stem Cell 2013-2014

Progenitors in the ISS-National Laboratory”

Dacso, Principal Investigator

NASA CASIS

“Integrated OMICs Collaboration” 2014-2019

Dacso PI

Research Grants Received Through Matching Funding from the Institute, 2014-2015

University of Houston

Technology Gap Fund, 2015 ― “Development of bedside-ready prototype for assessment of decubitus ulcers by near-infrared spectroscopy” 

Houston Methodist Hospital Research Institute

Sponsored Research Award, 2013 ― “Design and development of an imaging system for intra- and post-operative blood perfusion monitoring”