The following faculty members were promoted recently. 

Alberto Ascherio, Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition, Departments of Epidemiology and Nutrition

Ascherio's research group focuses on identifying the causes, risk factors (positive and negative), and biomarkers of susceptibility and early diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (MS), Parkinson’s disease (PD), and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Because of their progressive and disabling nature, these diseases have major adverse personal, social, and economic consequences.

 

Russ Hauser, Professor of Environmental and Occupational Epidemiology, Departments of Environmental Health and Epidemiology

Hauser's research interests are in the field of reproductive and developmental epidemiology. His research focuses on the impact of environmental and occupational chemicals on fertility and pregnancy. He is currently conducting an NIH-funded study on the effects of chemicals classified as endocrine disruptors on male and female reproductive health endpoints.


Frank Hu, Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology, Departments of Nutrition and Epidemiology

Hu's major research interests include epidemiology and prevention of type 2 diabetes and metabolic diseases through diet and lifestyle; gene-environment interactions in relation to type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular complications; methodological development (especially dietary pattern analyses) in nutritional epidemiology; and obesity, metabolic syndrome, and cardiovascular disease in Chinese populations.


Cheng Li, Associate Professor of Biostatistics, Department of Biostatistics

Li's major research interest is the analysis methods and software of gene expression and SNP microarray data. He helps run a computational biology lab with application interests in cancer and neuroscience. The current emphasis is to develop analysis methods and software for high-throughput gene expression and SNP microarray data.


Michelle Mello, Professor of Law and Public Health, Department of Health Policy and Management

Mello conducts empirical research into issues at the intersection of law, ethics, and health policy. She is the author of more than 70 articles and book chapters on the medical malpractice system, medical errors and patient safety, research ethics, mass tort litigation, the obesity epidemic, pharmaceuticals, clinical ethics, and other topics.


Eric Rubin, Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases

Rubin investigates tuberculosis, which is the leading infectious killer of adults worldwide. As HIV predisposes to tuberculosis, the number of deaths has been rising rapidly in many parts of the world. Despite over a century of research on the causative organism, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, there is still poor understanding of tuberculous infections. Rubin has helped develop tools for studying M. tuberculosis and related mycobacteria in an effort to identify genes required for growth, survival and virulence in mycobacteria. He is also taking advantage of the recent sequencing of the M. tuberculosis genome to systematically analyze genes to determine their importance in disease using transposon mutagenesis and DNA microarrays.