HPH NOW, Sept 15, 2006, Around the School

State of the School Address

Thursday, October 12
12 pm to 1 pm
Kresge Cafeteria

Members of the HSPH Community are invited to join Deans Barry R. Bloom and James H. Ware to discuss recent accomplishments at the School, as well as priorities, challenges and special initiatives in the current academic year.

You are invited to bring your lunch. Dessert and beverages will be provided.
There will be ample time for questions and discussion.

Landmark Community
A shuttle will run between the AMC Theatre on Brookline Avenue and the Kresge Building at 677 Huntington Avenue. More information will be announced soon.

Green Receives Grant to Study Previously Neglected Areas of AIDS Prevention

Edward Green, senior research scientist at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, has received a grant of nearly $2 million from the John Templeton Foundation to support the AIDS Prevention Research Project. The project investigators will research the role of sexual behavior in driving sexually transmitted AIDS epidemics, especially those in Africa.

Previous research has suggested that patterns of having multiple, concurrent sex partners drive such epidemics and that HIV prevalence declines when fewer men and women engage in such behavior, said Green. Yet interventions aimed at promoting fewer partners have not been part of mainstream AIDS prevention. The AIDS Prevention Research Project will examine previously neglected areas of behavioral research, including the impact of programs that aim to change male treatment of wives and of partners in general.

Green is the author of the book Rethinking AIDS Prevention: Learning from Successes in Developing Countries.

Christiani Receives NHLBI Grant to Study ARDS

David Christiani, professor of occupational medicine and epidemiology in the Departments of Environmental Health and Epidemiology, received a $3 million award from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute at the NIH to study gene-environment interactions in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), a condition that kills 170,000 persons each year in the U.S. alone. The devastating condition has a mortality rate of 40 to 50 percent, despite significant advances in intensive care. Major injuries predisposing to the development of ARDS include sepsis, aspiration, trauma, pneumonia, burns, multiple transfusions, pancreatitis and cardiopulmonary bypass. Recent findings from an HSPH-MGH research group and others suggest that genetic susceptibility may play a role in the development of ARDS. The research will examine genetic, clinical, and phenotypic biomarkers of risk and clinical outcomes.