21st Century Science
A Bridge Between Public Health Research and the San Diego Community
Successful public health research — such as studying the impact of climate change in communities or the effects of physical activity on health — and a culture of collaboration at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science at UC San Diego are bridging research and discoveries and immediate and direct impact on lives.
“The distance between the work we undertake at UC San Diego and the community’s opportunity to experience the benefits of discovery research is shortening,” said Cheryl A.M. Anderson, Ph.D., M.P.H., founding dean of the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and inaugural Hood Family Endowed Dean’s Chair in Public Health.
“Our faculty and staff are doing more community-driven and community-based research, which nicely complements our already strong portfolio of public health and clinical research studies. Our discipline has the potential to quickly disseminate and implement research discoveries for tremendous population health impact.”
Public Health Research Day
Connecting Community and Public Health
Wael Al-Delaimy, M.D., Ph.D., professor
Designing and implementing effective public health solutions requires well-constructed connections between different community sectors and scientific disciplines, said José Ricardo Suárez, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., associate professor.
Suárez is the program director of the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health Climate and Environmental Health Research program, which in the 2023-2024 academic year boasted 52 members including 29 faculty across UC San Diego, 17 students and six faculty from other institutions, including San Diego State University and Naval Health Research Center.
“This year was an opportunity to make introductions and learn about each other’s areas of expertise to bridge two or more fields together,” said Suárez. “Scientists carry out interdependent tasks, such as data science, economics, mental health, environmental sciences and public health, to achieve a common goal.”
Pairing scientists with policymakers, graduate students and community stakeholders, and teams can design public health initiatives that are culturally appropriate and garner community engagement and acceptance.
One of the climate and environmental health research program members, Wael Al-Delaimy, M.D., Ph.D., professor, was awarded a $3.8 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) P20 grant to lead the Global Center on Climate Change, Water, Energy, Food, and Health Systems to address the impacts of climate change in the climate-vulnerable communities in the Jordan’s Azraq Basin.
“The Middle East is the front post or early warning of what a climate change crisis will look like. We need to act now through prevention and preparation to support the region to adapt to and for us to learn from it to prepare the most vulnerable communities locally and globally,” said Al-Delaimy.
The program launched in September 2023 with 30 scientists spanning UC San Diego, UC San Francisco, Texas A&M, University of Jordan, Hashemite University, The Royal Scientific Society in Jordan, and six Jordanian community organizations to target rural and refugee communities in the most water-deprived areas of Jordan. It addresses the four core elements of the NIH’s investment in climate health research: health effects research, health equity, intervention research, and training and capacity building.
Al-Delaimy is building on other local and global projects bridging between communities, including another NIH-funded center, the GeoHealth Hub on Climate Change and Health in the Middle East and North Africa to determine climate change health impacts on vulnerable populations in Jordan, Lebanon and Morocco on topics ranging from nitrate water levels, to air pollution, dust storms and heatwaves.
“It is most rewarding when we see our research translate into meaningful benefits to communities who need it the most,” said Al-Delaimy.
Strong connections between communities, researchers and governments ensure scientific advancements address real-world needs and are implemented effectively for the public good. This collaboration fosters trust and empowers communities to be active participants in shaping scientific solutions.
Meeting of GeoHealth Hub stakeholders.
“It is most rewarding when we see our research translate into meaningful benefits to communities who need it the most.”
– Wael Al-Delaimy, M.D., Ph.D.
Designing Solutions to Promote Physical Activity
In the 2023-2024 academic year, biostatisticians Professor Loki Natarajan, Ph.D., and Assistant Professor Jingjing Zou, Ph.D., were awarded NIH grants that require an interdisciplinary approach to address contemporary public health problems.
Both grants analyze the impact of physical activity and sedentary behavior on obesity and cardiometabolic disease. Using data from the Women’s Health Initiative Strong and Healthy study, the Hispanic Community Health Study, and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, Natarajan’s $2.7 million R01 grant leverages deep learning to classify sitting posture and measure sedentary patterns from accelerometer data.
“The goal of this project is to develop statistical and deep learning tools to obtain accurate measures of sedentary behavior,” said Natarajan. “Such tools could then be used to inform guidelines on how much to limit sedentary time or how to break up sedentary time to reduce its negative health impacts.”
Loki Natarajan, Ph.D., professor
Jingjing Zou, Ph.D., assistant professor
Natarajan and Zou are applying mathematics and statistical methods to bridge a knowledge gap on the impact of physical activity and sedentary behavior on obesity and cardiovascular health. However, to design public health solutions, they are collaborating with the Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute at UC San Diego, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Arizona State University, City of Hope, Children’s Mercy Hospital, Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute, University of Massachusetts, Deakin University, Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, and University of Queensland.
Zou’s $2.5 million R01 grant analyzes accelerometer data to examine the long-term changes in physical activity in preventing cardiovascular diseases. Because physical activity studies often use accelerometer data, this study also examines deficiencies in accelerometer data collection.
A physical activity tracker measures movement throughout the day. In the past, analysis of accelerometer data only evaluated the total activity for the entire day. The problem is that activity levels can change throughout the day. For example, a person may be more active in the morning and evening, and less active in the afternoon. By only looking at the total activity, important information is missed, said Zou.
“New methods are being developed to capture these changes in activity patterns throughout the day,” said Zou. “By understanding these patterns, we can learn more about how activity affects our health, and we can design effective interventions to promote healthy physical activity habits.”
“The goal of this project is to develop statistical and deep learning tools to obtain accurate measures of sedentary behavior.”
– Loki Natarajan, Ph.D.
Bridge Funding For Seed Projects
To help Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health faculty, research scientists and project scientists bridge the gap between the development of a project to the point where they can obtain external funding like that of the NIH, in the 2023-2024 academic year the school announced four pilot project grants totaling $115,000.
“The Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health pilot grant program has the potential to help the next generation of public health researchers obtain federal funding by providing seed funds that can pay for preliminary data collection, data analysis, and test whether a novel research idea is feasible,” said Sonia Jain, Ph.D., professor and associate dean for research affairs.
Submissions were required to align with the school’s research priorities: climate and environmental health, health equity and global health justice, health services research and health policy, healthy aging and human longevity science, mental health and substance use, quantitative methods in public health, and women’s health and reproductive justice.
Britta Larsen, Ph.D., associate professor, received funding for the project “Building an EHR-integrated personalized physical activity counseling guide for providers treating patients with hypertension: A novel approach to incorporating wearables.” This project aims to build automated, algorithm-driven physical activity counseling guides to aid primary care providers in evidence-based physical activity counseling for patients with pre- or stage 1 hypertension.
Because public health traverses a wide range of health topics, some of the funding opportunities are collaborative.
Britta Larsen, Ph.D., associate professor
Angela Bazzi, Ph.D., M.P.H., professor
One of the four grants is a collaboration with the San Diego Center for AIDS Research at UC San Diego, one of several centers funded by the NIH to further HIV research in U.S. academic institutions.
Submissions must also focus on research that is relevant to HIV/AIDS and public health. This includes areas related to epidemiology, optimizing HIV care, relieving health disparities, finding a cure, implementation science and developing vaccines.
One of the funded projects is led by Angela Bazzi, Ph.D., M.P.H., professor. Titled “Novel Exploration of Weight loss medications in People with HIV who use drugs to Address Their Health disparities (NEW PATH),” the project has the potential to optimize HIV care and address health disparities by promoting new treatment approaches at the intersection of the HIV and substance use disorders epidemics.
The school of public health is also partnering with UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center to provide grants for new collaborations on projects that extend across cancer control and public health. This includes areas related to epidemiology, primary prevention, early detection, health services, implementation science, palliation and survivorship.
“Multi-disciplinary research is central to public health. Having collaborative pilot funds will help build new relationships and strengthen existing relationships across UC San Diego to support novel and innovative research questions,” said Sheri Hartman, Ph.D., associate professor and assistant dean for research affairs.
“The Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health pilot grant program has the potential to help the next generation of public health researchers.”
– Sonia Jain, Ph.D.
Science education extends into community health
One aim of the work of the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health is to lead in innovations that improve community health. Research teams include staff, students, postdoctoral fellows and medical residents.
To highlight the unique perspectives and cutting-edge public health work being done by undergraduate and graduate students, medical students, postdoctoral researchers, residents and staff, the school hosts Public Health Research Day.
Each year the event continues to grow and reach across disciplines.
In 2024, Public Health Research Day showcased 65 research abstracts and 59 research posters by teams, reflecting the school’s wide breadth of research accomplishments and public health activities.
Topics ranged from food security, disease prevention, tobacco use and vaping, aging and CPR.
Public Health Research Day
“O ur research portfolio is thriving, driven by teams engaged in collaborative research that would not be possible without community partners, and is changing how we do public health,” said Anderson. “Our strength lies in collaboration.”
UC San Diego Public Health Faculty.
