Mission
Though still in the process of being formed, the Consortium for Slum Health Action Research & Engagement (aka CoSHARE) aims to cover the following goals:
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Affiliated Faculty
Lee Riley, MDLee Riley, MD is Professor and Head of Division of Infectious Disease and Vaccinology at the School of Public Health, University of California at Berkeley. His research program focuses on three general areas—1) basic biology of tuberculosis (TB) pathogenesis; 2) genetics of drug resistance and molecular epidemiology of drug-resistant infections; and 3) infectious diseases of urban slums in developing countries.
Tuberculosis pathogenesis research focuses on delineating the mechanism of latency and reactivation from latency. The laboratory has been studying a family of operons called mce (mce1-4) that resemble ABC transporters, possibly involved in lipid transport across the cell wall of M. tuberculosis. The basic pathogenesis research has led to several translational research activities, including the development of a new therapeutic/adjunctive TB vaccine and new biomarker-based diagnostic and prognostic tests for TB The second basic research area involves characterizing the genetics of drug resistance in Gram negative bacterial (GNB) pathogens. New diagnostic tests to rapidly detect emerging drug resistance determinants (e.g., KPC, NDM, ESBL) are being developed as part of their translational research program. The laboratory has field sites in Brazil and India where they conduct studies to assess burden of infectious diseases that are predominant in urban slum settlements, including leptospirosis, rheumatic heart disease, TB, and the interaction of infectious disease with non-communicable chronic diseases. Products of the basic research above (e.g., new diagnostic tests) are applied at these sites to assess disease burden. These research activities emphasize linking basic biology with translational research to address infectious diseases of global importance, especially of vulnerable populations. Publications
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Jason Corburn, PhD, MCP Jason Corburn, PhD, MCP, is an associate professor at the University of California, Berkeley, jointly appointed in the Department of City & Regional Planning and the School of Public Health. He co-directs Berkeley's joint Master of City Planning (MCP) and Master of Public Health (MPH) degree program, Global Metropolitan Studies and lead the Center for Global Health Cities. His research focuses on the links between environmental health and social justice in cities, notions of expertise in science-based policy making, and the role of local knowledge in addressing environmental and public health problems. He is currently working on developing a strategy for integrating health equity into all decision making in city governance, drafting and implementing integrated upgrading plans for informal settlements and researching metrics and indicators for urban health equity. He is a practitioner and researcher focused on promoting greater health equity in cities and linking city planning and public health. His work helps build partnerships between urban residents, professional scientists and decision-makers in order to collaboratively generate policy and planning solutions that improve the qualities of cities and the well-being of residents, particularly the poor and people of color.
He is committed to engaged scholarship, which to me means using research and the resources of the university to promote change, particularly social justice. In his own work, this most often happens through partnerships with community-based organizations and governments, but also includes foundations and international agencies.See my Projects page for more details. He has received numerous awards for my work, including the United Nations Association Global Citizenship Award, the Paul Davidoff Book Award for Street Science, a Health Policy Investigator Award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Environmental Leadership Program Fellowship. He was also a fellow at Harvard Law School, Program on Negotiation when He was a doctoral student at MIT. His CV is available here. Publications |
Alon Unger, MDAlon Unger, MD is an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Division of Hospital Medicine in the Department of Medicine. He went to medical school at UCSF and completed dual residencies in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at UCLA. He also completed a Masters in Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and he has worked in various settings including South Africa, Uganda, Thailand and Brazil. He recently completed one year of service to Doctors without Borders in Myanmar as the HIV advisor to a large treatment program. Currently, Alon attends on the inpatient medicine service at UCSF. He has a long-standing interest in global health, and he has been involved in research and service projects in both communicable and non-communicable diseases in slum settings.
Publications
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Robbie Snyder, PhDRobbie is a PhD Student in the Division of Epidemiology at the School of Public Health. He received his MPH from UC Berkeley in 2012 working in the Riley lab to develop a point-of-residence diagnostic test for tuberculosis for use in informal settlements. His current research interests include developing comprehensive health metrics to quantify and compare disease in informal settlements, the intersection of chronic and infectious disease in informal settlements, understanding the impacts and distribution of social determinants of health in these communities, and scientific capacity building. He will spend 2014-2015 carrying out research in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil supported by the Fulbright Student Program.
Publications
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Guillermo Jaimes, PhDGuillermo is a PhD candidate in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at the University of California Berkeley. His research is focused on issues of urban health equity and particularly looks at the mismatch between macro and micro scale environmental and health assessments that can mask localized disparities in vulnerable communities. He uses geospatial analysis, and qualitative research methods, to highlight these localized disparities through examinations of national census data and locally gathered geospatial data particularly focusing on data that captures urban infrastructure which can serve as an indicator for determining how vulnerable communities are to chronic and infectious diseases. Prior to pursuing his PhD, he worked with nonprofits and government agencies and academic institutions to address environmental issues, public health issues, and the intersection of the two in the form of environmental justice. Additionally he has managed field work for personal air monitoring studies, taking the approach of engaging with project participants as research partners.
Publications
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Syed Imran Ali, PhDImran Ali, PhD is an aid worker and academic focused on humanitarian challenges at the intersection of environment and public health. He is a water and sanitation specialist with Médecins Sans Frontières and has been part of emergency responses in South Sudan and Pakistan. Imran holds a doctorate in environmental engineering from the University of Guelph and received his B.Sc. in engineering from Queen’s University. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Development Impact Lab and the Blum Center for Developing Economies at UC Berkeley. Imran’s current research deals with emergency safe water supply in refugee/IDP camps. In response to major knowledge gaps in humanitarian operations, his research aims to develop evidence-based guidelines for emergency water treatment. His doctoral research focused on the participatory design of household and community safe water systems in urban slums in South Asia. Imran is also interested in the role of engineers and technical ‘experts’ in supporting communities in environment and resource related struggles. Originally from Toronto, Canada, Imran’s researches and travels have also taken him to India, Sri Lanka, and Bolivia, all in an effort to avoid the Canadian winter.
Publications
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Mariel Marlow, PhD, MPHDr. Marlow conducted her Ph.D. in Biosciences at the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina in Brazil and M.P.H. in Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the George Washington University. She has worked in several countries across South-east Asia and South America. Currently working on site in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, she is entering her second year as a GHES Fellow and Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Lee Riley at University of California, Berkeley in collaboration her co-mentor Dr. Fábio Alves at the Universidade Federal Fluminense. Her research interests center on developing new methods for quantifying health disparities across various infectious diseases, mainly TB and antimicrobial resistant Gram-positive bacteria, which disproportionately affect urban informal settlements, or “slums”. She also spends her time on site conducting several courses on epidemiological methods and molecular epidemiology as well as mentoring students and improving manuscript writing through published editorials and lectures.
Publications
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