As an academic research institution, Emory’s faculty and staff conduct studies across every discipline, from the sciences to the humanities. This compilation of published research findings and the newest grant awards illustrates how Emory researchers are cutting a path toward groundbreaking discoveries.
Rollins School of Public Health
Research publications
Winship Cancer Institute
Finally, a proxy for tracking responses in chronic lymphocytic leukemia
A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests it may finally be possible to predict when patients are becoming resistant to Bruton’s tyrosine kinase inhibitors (BTKi), a common treatment used in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).
Led by Winship Cancer Institute researchers Andres Chang, assistant professor of hematology and medical oncology, and Rafi Ahmed, professor of microbiology, the team found that nearly all activated and growing CLL cells express the protein PD-1, an effect that can be blocked by BTKi treatment. The percentage of CLL cells that expressed PD-1 in the blood correlated with BTKi treatment response and progression, suggesting that PD-1 expression could be a useful biomarker to predict response and resistance to BTKi therapy. Additionally, eliminating CLL cells that express PD-1 could be a potentially useful therapeutic strategy.
Citation: Chang, A., et al. (2025). PD-1 expression identifies proliferating malignant CLL B cells and is a potential biomarker of response to BTK inhibitor therapy. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
Study links survivorship care to longer life for childhood cancer survivors
Childhood cancer survivors who engage in long-term survivorship programs and receive a personalized survivorship care plan (SCP) live longer than those who do not, according to a new study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
The research provides the first evidence that SCPs, when integrated into comprehensive pediatric survivorship programs, are associated with significantly improved survival. Lead author Xu Ji and corresponding author Sharon M. Castellino are both faculty members in the Department of Pediatrics and researchers with Winship Cancer Institute and the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.
The research team followed 3,366 childhood and adolescent cancer survivors diagnosed between 2002 and 2016 who were eligible for a survivorship program at a comprehensive pediatric cancer center, tracking outcomes for up to 10 years. Those who received an SCP had a 38% lower risk of death over 10 years compared with those who did not. Survivors with multiple survivorship visits and SCP updates experienced even greater survival benefits.
The team plans to continue tracking survivors beyond 10 years, examine quality of life alongside survival and explore web-based platforms to help survivors and clinicians access SCPs nationwide.
Citation: Ji, X. et al. (2025). Survivorship care and mortality in a contemporary and diverse cohort of childhood cancer survivors. Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Read more in the Winship news center.
Emory School of Medicine
Emory researchers find behavioral therapy effectively treats urinary symptoms commonly experienced in Parkinson's disease
Camille Vaughan, professor of geriatrics and gerontology in the School of Medicine, and colleagues studied whether behavioral therapy is as effective as drug treatment for managing overactive bladder (OAB) symptoms in people with Parkinson’s disease. OAB can be especially difficult for those with PD, while medications like solifenacin may cause side effects that worsen other PD symptoms.
Researchers conducted a 12-week trial with 77 participants diagnosed with Parkinson’s and moderate to severe OAB. Participants were randomly assigned to either behavioral therapy — which included pelvic floor muscle exercises and strategies to suppress urges to void — or solifenacin medication. Both groups showed significant improvement in bladder symptoms, with scores falling within the study’s noninferiority margin, meaning behavioral therapy worked just as well as the drug. Importantly, those in the behavioral group experienced fewer side effects, such as dry mouth and falls, which were more common in the drug group.
These findings, published in JAMA Neurology, suggest that behavioral therapy is a safe and effective alternative to medication for treating OAB in PD patients. Behavioral therapy may be a better first-line treatment option, helping to avoid drug-related complications while still improving quality of life. This research could help shape future clinical guidelines for managing urinary symptoms in Parkinson’s disease.
Citation: Vaughan CP, et al. (2025). Behavioral Compared with Drug Therapy for Overactive Bladder Symptoms in Parkinson Disease: A Randomized Noninferiority Trial. JAMA Neurol. 2025 Sep 1;82(9):925-931. doi: 10.1001/jamaneurol.2025.1904. PMID: 40658410; PMCID: PMC12261112.
New research from Emory examines health effects of telehealth versus in-person encounters among older veterans with diabetes
A new study, led by Quratulain Syed, assistant professor of medicine, examined how older veterans (age 70+) with diabetes fared when receiving hybrid telehealth care (a mix of virtual and in-person visits) compared to in-person care alone. The researchers analyzed data from over 410,000 veterans in the VA system between 2019 and 2021, including a subgroup of high-need, high-risk patients. Patients in the hybrid telehealth group had more health care visits overall. Their average blood sugar levels were slightly higher than those in the in-person only group, but the difference was not clinically meaningful. However, hybrid care patients experienced more hospitalizations and emergency department visits.
In the high-risk subgroup, blood sugar levels were similar between both groups. Hospitalization rates were slightly higher for hybrid care, but emergency visit rates were comparable. The team concluded that telehealth is widely used among older adults with diabetes, especially those with complex health needs. While it didn’t reduce hospital or emergency visits, its high usage suggests it may be an important supplement to face-to-face care for older adults.
Citation: Syed Q, et al. (2025). Comparative Analysis of Clinical Outcomes Related to Telehealth and In-Person Encounters Among Older Veterans with Diabetes. J Gen Intern Med. 2025 Sep 22. doi: 10.1007/s11606-025-09871-2. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40983833.
SOM researchers develop scoring system for organ function during acute and critical illnesses
Three Emory School of Medicine investigators were part of a team that developed a modern scoring system to characterize organ function during acute and critical illnesses. Greg Martin and Steve Hollenberg, both professors of medicine, along with Craig Coopersmith, professor of surgery, joined a large international group of experts in critical care who focused on organ function as a major factor in the survival and outcomes in acutely ill patients. In research published in JAMA, they investigated whether an updated Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score, SOFA-2, would better describe organ dysfunction and its association with intensive care unit (ICU) mortality compared to the original SOFA score.
The SOFA-2 score, validated in 10 international multicenter cohorts of 3.3 million adult ICU patients, assigns an increasing score to six organ systems, ranging from 0-24 points, with higher scores indicating worse organ function. The new score used a data-driven approach to set score thresholds to optimize prognostic validity, and importantly, address confounding medications and treatments that were not part of the original version. The SOFA-2 score, updated to include contemporary organ support treatments and new score thresholds, describes organ dysfunction, supported by good predictive validity, in a large, geographically and socioeconomically diverse population of critically ill adults. The authors believe their new score will help clinicians and researchers to predict outcomes and calibrate both quality improvement and research efforts in critically ill patients.
Citation: Ranzani OT, et al. Development and Validation of the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA)-2 Score. JAMA. doi:10.1001/jama.2025.20516
Understanding metabolic signatures of cystic fibrosis-related diabetes
Cystic fibrosis-related diabetes (CFRD) is one of the most common health complications among people with cystic fibrosis (CF). Jessica A. Alvarez, associate professor of medicine in the School of Medicine, and collaborators aimed to uncover the biological mechanisms linked to CFRD by examining small molecules in the blood using high-resolution metabolomics.
A new paper in Respiratory Medicine describes how the team analyzed blood samples from adults with cystic fibrosis who were hospitalized for lung infection. The samples revealed disruptions in how the body processes energy, nutrients and inflammation-related molecules based on CFRD status. A better understanding of these changes could help identify early warning signs and improve monitoring of disease progression, and guide future strategies to prevent or manage diabetes in people with cystic fibrosis.
Citation: Yang CA,et al. (2025). Assessment of the metabolome across the glucose tolerance spectrum in adults with cystic fibrosis hospitalized for pulmonary exacerbations. Respir Med. 2025 Oct 23;249:108456. doi: 10.1016/j.rmed.2025.108456.
High out-of-pocket costs for hospice care in ACA marketplace plans
People with marketplace insurance through the Affordable Care Act may face substantial bills if they need hospice care, according to a new study co-authored by Sarah Cross, assistant professor of family and preventive medicine. While Medicare covers hospice services with no cost to patients, ACA plans commonly require enrollees to pay thousands of dollars before insurance begins to cover hospice.
The analysis, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, looked at more than 840,000 plans sold from 2014 to 2024. The median deductible was 4,000 dollars, with a typical out-of-pocket maximum of about 7,300 dollars. Most plans also required about 20 percent coinsurance once the deductible was met. Only Platinum plans, which are rarely chosen because of higher premiums, typically offered hospice coverage before the deductible.
These financial hurdles may lead patients to avoid or delay hospice near the end of life. That can push people toward more hospital-based care, which research suggests may be less aligned with patient preferences and more expensive overall. The concern is especially pressing because about two-thirds of marketplace enrollees have low incomes near twice the federal poverty level.
The authors suggest options that could improve access, such as making hospice a service that is covered before the deductible is met or offering state-level subsidies to offset costs.
Citation: Anderson DM, et al. (2025). Hospice Cost-Sharing in the Affordable Care Act Marketplace Individual Plans. JAMA Intern Med. Published online October 27, 2025. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2025.5343
Emory researchers help shape national recommendations for safe and effective AI in health care
Emory researchers Sivasubramanium Bhavani and Judy Gichoya are co-authors of a new report that calls for stronger national coordination on how artificial intelligence is developed and used across health care. The paper, published in JAMA and based on the 2024 JAMA Summit on AI, notes that many AI tools are now widely adopted in clinics and hospitals but are not consistently evaluated for their safety, effectiveness, or impact on patients.
The report reflects input from experts across leading health systems, universities, government agencies, and technology companies, including Kaiser Permanente, Yale, Harvard, Stanford, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Microsoft, Apple, Google and the American Medical Association.
Gichoya, associate professor of radiology, and Bhavani, assistant professor of medicine, argue that AI should improve access to care, clinical outcomes, efficiency and equity. To support that goal, they recommend involving patients and clinicians throughout the development process, creating better data systems that allow real-world evaluation of AI tools, and giving health systems the resources to monitor whether these tools help patients over time. They also propose aligning market and policy incentives to encourage responsible innovation and accountability.
Citation: Angus D. C., et al. (2025). AI, Health, and Health Care Today and Tomorrow: The JAMA Summit Report on Artificial Intelligence. JAMA. 2025;334(18):1650–1664. doi:10.1001/jama.2025.18490
Hospice use to improve hospital metrics under scrutiny in national study
Gregg Robbins-Welty, assistant professor of medicine, co-authored a new study exploring how hospitals across the country may use hospice referrals to influence their reported inpatient mortality rates. The research, published in the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, surveyed clinicians at 182 health systems that include more than 1,000 hospitals. Nearly eight in ten respondents said their systems tracked mortality metrics that can be affected by discharges to general inpatient hospice.
Among other things, the authors found that 62% of health systems reported efforts to increase transitions to general inpatient hospice. These efforts aim to lower the number of deaths counted in acute care settings by shifting some end-of-life care to hospice, which is often excluded from hospital mortality measures. Common approaches included encouragement from hospital leaders to refer patients to hospice and, less often, automatic referrals or peer comparisons among clinicians.
While general inpatient hospice can improve comfort for patients whose symptoms cannot be managed elsewhere, the study raises concerns about whether initiatives driven by quality reporting may sometimes prioritize metric improvements over patient preference. The authors note the need for transparency in how hospitals use hospice and for future research on how these initiatives affect patient-centered care.
Citation: Piscitello, G. M. et al. (2025). When Hospice Referrals are Placed to Improve Acute Care Hospital Mortality Metrics. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management.
Alcohol use disorder treatment in a safety-net primary care setting
A team of Emory clinician-researchers led by Jennifer Lom, associate professor of medicine, recently evaluated early implementation of a new primary care-based alcohol use disorder (AUD) clinic at the Grady Health System created to provide accessible alcohol use disorder treatment in a safety-net health system. While primary care-based alcohol use disorder treatment models have shown promise, their resource-intensiveness has led to limited implementation. The Emory study, published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, supplies a need for real-world, resource-conscious experience implementing treatment within primary care. The team’s evaluation of the AUD clinic at Grady suggests that it has potential positive effects on patient engagement, treatment uptake, and alcohol-related outcomes, including alcohol-related hospitalization. Using a streamlined approach and leveraging existing primary care resources may allow for implementing AUD treatment in resource-conscious settings.
Citation: Lom J., et al. (2025). Successful Integration of Alcohol Use Disorder Treatment into a Primary Care Clinic at a Safety-Net Hospital. J Gen Intern Med. 2025 Jul 25. doi: 10.1007/s11606-025-09775-1. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40715962.
Emory team advances promising microbiome therapy, testing for multidrug-resistant bacteria in long-term care setting
Intestinal multidrug-resistant organism (MDRO) colonization is highly prevalent in long-term acute care hospital patients, where multidrug-resistant organisms can easily be transmitted to and infect other patients. While there are no therapies approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to reduce colonization, a new paper, published in JAMA Network Open, collected gut microbiota from thoroughly screened healthy donors, then administered this treatment – either through an enema or a feeding tube — to 10 long-term care patients who had multidrug-resistant organisms in their gut.
Lead investigator Michael Woodworth, associate professor of medicine, says the trial found patients who received the treatment had fewer bloodstream infections and needed fewer days of antibiotic therapy compared to control patients. Though these differences were not statistically significant due to the small sample size, the team concluded this technique was feasible for long-term acute care patients without related serious adverse events. Although not powered to test these outcomes, this study found potential reductions in bacteremia, intestinal pathogen domination and antibiotic use associated with FMT, suggesting FMT should be evaluated in larger, randomized trials.
Citation: Woodworth MH, Babiker A, Prakash-Asrani R, et al. Microbiota Transplantation Among Patients Receiving Long-Term Care: The Sentinel REACT Nonrandomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Network Open. 2025;8(7):e2522740. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.22740
Emory emergency medicine doctor helps create management system for mental health crisis calls
A recent graduate of the Emory Department of Emergency Medicine led a team that established a better system for handling callers to the Georgia Poison Center who are experiencing a mental health crisis at the same time. Matthew Dernbach, who started the project during his time as a fellow in the department’s medical toxicology program, worked with the Poison Center as well as the state’s 911 emergency services and 988-related mental health services to create a system that helps transfer Poison Center calls from an individual in distress to specialized behavioral health support services. This new alliance provides access to mental health, suicide prevention, and substance use crisis support. The Georgia Poison Center managed 533 such cases in 2024, the year the new protocol began, of which 45 (8.4%) were transferred to 911. Dernbach’s study, published in the American Journal of Public Health, demonstrates that emergency services can effectively develop statewide collaborations to improve mental health outcomes and that poison centers have a vital role in national suicide prevention efforts.
Citation: Dernbach, M.R. et al. (2025) Managing Mental Health Crisis Calls Received by a US Poison Center: A Statewide Collaboration Between the Georgia Poison Center, 911, and 988. American Journal of Public Health 115, 1814_1817.
Rollins School of Public Health
Social behavior and infectious disease transmission in low- and middle-income countries
Person-to-person interactions are a major factor in spreading infectious disease, and they vary between countries and cultures. In a new study published in Nature, Rollins researchers studied children’s in-person contacts in four low- and middle-income countries to inform future infectious disease modeling efforts.
In each country, the researchers found that school-aged children came into contact with the most people each day, rates of contact tended to be higher in rural areas, and most children had contact with non-family members in their homes. This data will help infectious disease models more accurately capture behavioral patterns that drive the speed and patterns of infection spread in different settings.
Citation: Nelson, K.N., et al. (2025). Characterizing social behavior relevant for infectious disease transmission in four low- and middle-income countries, 2021-2023. Nature Communications 16, 9586 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-64850-9
Racial and insurance disparities in severe maternal morbidity
Serious complications during labor and delivery can cause both short- and long-term health consequences for the mother, something known as severe maternal morbidity (SMM). A study by Rollins School of Public Health researchers in Health Economicsused hospital and vital records data to investigate how race and type of insurance affect SMM.
They found that for both privately insured patients and patients with Medicaid, Black individuals had higher rates of SMM than white individuals, although the gap was smaller for those with private insurance. Characteristics of the hospitals where Black individuals are more likely to give birth likely result in discrimination and contribute to these differences.
Citation: Adams, E. K. et al. (2025). Decomposing Racial Disparities in Severe Maternal Morbidity Within Insurance Groups. Health Economics.
Heart rate variability biofeedback support patients with mental stress
Heart rate variability biofeedback (HRVB) uses guided breathing and visualization to help control autonomic nervous system activity. Researchers from Rollins School of Public Health recently published a study in JAMA Network Open looking at this intervention as a means of regulating myocardial blood flow during times of mental stress.
In this 21-person, six-week trial, the researchers found that participants who practiced HRVB had increased myocardial blood flow when compared to participants who did not practice HRVB. This suggests that HRVB can be a useful tool during periods of mental stress and potentially in cardiovascular disease prevention.
Citation: Shah AJ, et al. (2025). Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback and Mental Stress Myocardial Flow Reserve: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Network Open. 2025;8(10):e2538416. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.38416
Goizueta Business School
Why simultaneous voting makes for good decisions
When expert panels vote at the same time, decisions improve. Tian Heong Chan, associate professor of information systems & operations management at Goizueta Business School, partnered with Panos Markou of the University of Virginia to analyze 17 years of FDA advisory committee activity before and after the agency shifted in 2007 from sequential to simultaneous voting. Their research, published in Management Science, found that products approved under simultaneous voting were less likely to draw boxed warnings or be recalled later, a signal that the pre-vote discussion becomes more rigorous and less prone to social influence.
For boards, investment committees, hiring panels and grant reviews, the implication is practical: structure deliberation so information-sharing happens first and the vote happens all at once. This approach nudges members to prepare more carefully, voice dissent when needed, and weigh evidence on its merits rather than follow the first mover.
Citation: Markou, P., & Chan, T. H. (2025). Incentivizing Information Exchange Within Groups: The Role of Voting Protocols in US Food and Drug Administration Advisory Committees. Management Science.
Learn more in the Goizueta Business School news center.
Grants and awards
Winship Cancer Institute investigator to co-lead NCI SPORE grant to address ancestry-related differences in lymphoma outcomes
Jean Koff, associate professor of hematology and medical oncology at the Winship Cancer Institute, has received a five-year, $12.1-million Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) grant to support a new multi-institutional effort aimed at improving outcomes for patients with lymphoma. The Lymphoma Outcomes SPORE (U54CA302435) from the National Cancer Institute will focus on understanding how patient ancestry, lymphoma biology and survival are connected, with the goal of advancing precision medicine and eliminating health disparities in the diagnosis and treatment of this complex disease. Koff’s team seeks to bridge the gap between bench, bedside and community through four specific goals: redefining lymphoma subtypes by ancestry, developing new diagnostic biomarkers and treatment strategies, launching biomarker-directed clinical trials and training the next generation of investigators.
Read more in the Winship news center.
NETEC launches $37.5 million award program to expand Level 2 special pathogen treatment network
A consortium including Emory University is awarding grants of up to $500,000 to help up to 75 U.S. hospitals develop their ability to respond to outbreaks of high-consequence infectious diseases. Grants for these so-called “special pathogen events” will be handled through the Special Pathogen Treatment and Network Development (STAND) award. Grant recipients can use the funds to develop their status as Level 2 Special Pathogen Treatment Centers within the National Special Pathogen System (NSPS), a nationwide system of facilities that helps coordinate the health care system’s response to outbreaks of highly contagious, potentially fatal pathogens.
Level 2 centers form a critical tier in the national framework for managing high-consequence infectious diseases (HCIDs) by offering specialized care closer to communities and strengthening workforce and facility readiness. Funding is available for infrastructure improvements, staff training, specialized equipment and ongoing technical support through the National Emerging Special Pathogens Training and Education Center (NETEC), of which Emory is one member, and the Regional Emerging Special Pathogen Treatment Center (RESPTC) network. Eligible hospitals must have inpatient, emergency and critical care capabilities including airborne infection isolation and may not be current Level 1 RESPTCs or federal health care facilities.
Hawks receives Atlanta global research and education collaborative faculty seed grant
Miranda Hawks, clinical assistant professor in the Woodruff School of Nursing, has received the Atlanta Global Research and Education Collaborative Faculty Seed Grant for her project, “NurseMaiT AI Teammate for Burnout Detection and Support.” This interdisciplinary, cross-cultural initiative uses AI to detect collective burnout in nursing teams, emphasizing ethical and empathetic design. Hawks will collaborate with Lalita Kaligotla, Woodruff professor of practice and Helen Baker, Woodruff associate professor, comparing nursing experiences in the U.S. and Vietnam to inform culturally grounded AI tools that enhance mental health support in clinical settings. The project will also offers hands-on global learning for Emory Master of Nursing students.
School of Nursing informatics specialist receives NIH research software engineer award
School of Nursing senior research data/informatics specialist Delgersuren Bold has received the NIH Research Software Engineer (RSE) Award (R50) for her project, “CADA+ (Enhanced Cohort Adjudication Data Annotation).” This three-year award highlights the essential role of software engineers in advancing biomedical research through innovative computational infrastructure.
CADA+ will support scalable data labeling and continuous AI model validation — foundational to trustworthy, reproducible clinical AI. The platform will annotate multimodal data (electronic health records, MRI scans, neurophysiological and cardiovascular signals) and serve multiple NIH-funded projects, with broader adaptability across disciplines. Bold will also collaborate with partners like PhysioNet and OHDSI to create standardized data labels and transparent AI model testing.
Emory nursing research to focus on reducing barriers to HPV vaccine access
The American Cancer Society has awarded its Research Scholar Grant to Ryan Suk, assistant professor in the School of Nursing. Suk’s research will focus on reducing barriers to children from low-income families in Texas who need access to human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine – work that could influence national public health policy and advance cancer prevention efforts. School of Nursing Associate Professor Jessica Wells will serve as co-investigator, joining her expertise in community engagement and qualitative research to Suk’s experience as a health economist and decision scientist. Partner institutions include Emory School of Medicine, UTHealth and Harvard Medical School.
Physics professor Luiz Santos receives prestigious NSF CAREER Award and DOE grant for groundbreaking quantum materials research
Luiz Santos, associate professor of physics, recently received two grants recognizing his work at the forefront of quantum materials research. Santos is a theorist who specializes in condensed matter physics and studies the interactions of quantum materials — such as atoms, photons and electrons — that don’t behave according to the laws of classical physics.
The first grant is a prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER award, titled “Developing New Paradigms for Hybrid Light-Matter Quantum Materials,”which recognizes early-career researchers with ambitious scientific ideas in their field.
The five-year, $620,000 award will support his ongoing research as well as education outreach with local high schools to advance scientific literacy, inspire future scientists, and expand public engagement with quantum science.
The second award, from the Department of Energy for “Theory of Topological and Competing Orders in Quantum Materials,” continues his prior work identifying novel states of matter with non-trivial topological order. These materials play an important role in developing next-generation quantum technologies such as quantum computing.
Psychology professor receives $3.9 million NIMH BRAINS grant to further research on anxiety disorders
Vanessa M. Brown, assistant professor of psychology, recently received a $3.9 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to further her research of new evaluation tools and treatment for anxiety disorders.
The NIMH Biobehavioral Research Awards for Innovative New Scientists (BRAINS) R01 award is intended to support the research and career advancement of outstanding, exceptionally productive scientists who are in the early, formative stages of their careers. The long-term goal of Brown’s research is to advance understanding and treatment of psychopathology to reduce suffering from mental illness.
Brown, who studies reinforcement learning and decision-making in internalizing disorders, will use an interdisciplinary approach to investigate drivers of avoidance behavior in anxiety. The grant will advance her work to validate a novel computational model of avoidance using neural and behavioral data; use this model to test differences in avoidance behavior in people with anxiety; and assess whether perturbing behavior in line with this model can change real-world avoidance behavior in anxiety.
Political science professor receives NSF grant for research on deterrence and conflicts
Renard Sexton, associate professor of political science, recently received a $514,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, Division of Social and Economic Sciences, to investigate the micro-foundations of deterrence (a critical component of security) and the effectiveness of different strategies to prevent conflicts from escalating, with a focus on the Indo-Pacific region.
His project aims to provide rigorous, evidence-based insights into how resolve is built, communicated, and interpreted in real-world contexts, especially by major powers, through the integrated use of quasi-experimental designs, randomized controlled trials and artificial intelligence data collection and analysis.
Sexton studies international security and development, with a current focus on Asia. His ongoing work includes studies on the dynamics of conflict in the South China Sea, local and regional implications of contestation across the Taiwan Strait, subnational violence in the Philippines and Afghanistan and global scholarship on interventions into conflict.
Emory researchers win funding to study effects of climate change on human stressors
Researchers in Emory’s School of Medicine, Rollins School of Public Health, and the College of Arts and Sciences have received funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to study how chemical stressors (soil/water contamination, air pollution) and non-chemical stressors (income, insurance, access to healthcare, etc.) that affect health are impacted by climate change in vulnerable communities in Atlanta; and to use this information to strengthen the resilience of vulnerable communities. The four-year award is from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The program will create an index and map at the neighborhood level focused on the cumulative chemical and non-chemical exposure of individuals in Atlanta and how their health effects are exacerbated by climate change, analyze how highly susceptible individuals with chronic disease perceive and manage the effects of chemical, non-chemical, and climate-related factors on their mental health, asthma, and obesity-sensitive conditions, and then facilitate community-based and community-led education sessions to empower the community and increase resilience against climate change and its effects on health.
The core team is Saria Hassan, associate professor of medicine in the School of Medicine, Lang Liu, Gangarosa distinguished professor of environmental health, Noah Scovonick, assistant professor of environmental health in the Rollins School of Public Health, and Eri Saikawa, Winship distinguished professor of environmental sciences.
Emory SCORE awarded $7.4 million NIH renewal
The Emory Specialized Center of Research Excellence (SCORE) on Sex Differences has received a five-year, $7.4 million renewal from the National Institute on Aging to continue its efforts in the advancement of women’s health by investigating the influence of sex on infectious diseases. Led by Cecile Lahiri, associate professor of infectious diseases and Vas Michopoulos, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, SCORE is an integral part of the National Institutes of Health’s Office of Research on Women’s Health initiative to establish institutional cores to explore and serve as leaders in the research of sex-based differences to improve women’s health outcomes. Sex differences are the biological differences between males and females that affect various health conditions.
Emory’s SCORE grant was originally awarded in 2018 and is one of 12 SCORE programs nationally.
Emory program awarded third NIH renewal to advance women’s health research
The Emory Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH) program has received a five-year, $4.5 million renewal from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases. The funding will support Emory’s efforts to train early-career investigators focused on women’s health and sex differences research.
Emory Emergency Medicine awarded a $2.88 million grant to provide substance-abuse supports during short-term incarcerations
A team led by Joseph Carpenter, associate professor of emergency medicine, has received a five-year, $2.88 million grant to test a program to help people with substance abuse problems during short-term stays in Atlanta area jails. The project extends an existing program, called LINCS UP (Linking Individuals Needing Care For Substance Use Disorders In Urban Emergency Departments), which connects people with substance problems with peer recovery coaches-- individuals who combine training with personal experience of recovery to give others in-person assistance to begin and sustain their own recovery process.
Working through the Atlanta City Detention Center, DeKalb County jail and the Fulton County jail, Carpenter and colleagues will create a randomized trial to see how well this program works on a high turnover population often staying in the jails for just two to three days. Participants with substance use disorder will be linked to community-based recovery resources, such as medications for opioid use disorder, both in the jails and upon release. The new grant comes from the National Institutes of Health Justice Community Opioid Innovation Network (JCOIN), a nationwide program that tests strategies to expand effective treatment, recovery, and related services for individuals involved in the criminal justice system.