Harness Big Data for Health, Well Being and the Environment

Study identifies novel gene loci for traits related to obesity

May 3, 2017 Drs. Anne Justice and Kari North are part of an international collaboration that explored whether and how smoking tobacco may alter one’s genetic susceptibility to obesity and distribution of body fat. Their study was published in Nature Communications.

Study confirms link between alcohol consumption, breast cancer risk in black women

May 1, 2017 Based on studies that primarily have included data from white women, alcohol consumption is a known risk factor for breast cancer. Now, a study co-authored by epidemiology doctoral student Lindsay Williams, Dr. Melissa Troester and others confirms the link between alcohol consumption and breast cancer risk for black women, an understudied group.

Maps in new UNC-led study show each state’s stroke risk factors at a glance

February 8, 2017 A new study led by Dr. Matthew Loop has produced data-rich maps of the United States that show the geographic distribution of key stroke-causing factors. On the maps, the Southeast, especially the states of Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee, display some of the highest prevalence of hypertension and diabetes among whites and blacks.

ESE researchers awarded large supercomputing grant from DOE

A team of researchers, including two UNC faculty members and an alumnus, has been awarded a large grant from the United States Department of Energy (DOE). Through the Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment program, they will receive 115 million core hours of use on the world’s third-fastest supercomputer.

JAMA study: Palliative care improves patient quality of life and symptom burden

November 21, 2016 Palliative care was associated with statistically and clinically significant improvements in measures of patient quality of life and symptom burden, in a JAMA study led by Dr. Dio Kavalieratos, adjunct professor in health policy and management at the Gillings School.

JAMA study finds more patients obtain medications when they are prescribed electronically

A recent study published by JAMA Dermatology analyzed possible reasons why some patients do not fill prescriptions for dermatologic medications. Study researchers, including Elizabeth A. Suarez, doctoral student of epidemiology at the Gillings School, found that patients are more likely to obtain medications if they are prescribed in an electronic, rather than paper, format.

UNC-IntraHealth fellows explored digital health, services for sex workers, other health concerns

Gillings School graduate students Michael DeFranco, Willa Dong and Kristan Rosenthal recently completed training as part of the UNC-IntraHealth Fellows Program. This year marks the seventh year of partnership between the Gillings School and IntraHealth International.

Gillings researchers to lead $1.2M grant to develop new analysis methods for eQTL studies

Drs. Andrew Nobel and Fred Wright, both faculty members in the UNC Gillings Department of Biostatistics, will lead a three-year, $1.2 million grant to address statistical challenges that arise in the analysis of next-generation expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) studies.

Kosorok to co-lead NIH ‘Big Data’ supplemental grant to train doctoral students in biomedical sciences

June 28, 2016 The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) have awarded a $97,956 supplemental “Big Data to Knowledge”  (BD2K) grant to... Read more »