School Notes: School of Public Health
September/October 2010

NIH grant funds brain tumor study

A new meningioma study funded by the National Institutes of Health will seek to identify genes associated with meningioma, now the most frequently reported primary intracranial tumor in the United States. Under the leadership of Elizabeth B. Claus ’88PhD, ’94MD, a biostatistics professor and an attending neurosurgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, the study will enroll thousands of people in an attempt to pinpoint the genetic origins of the disease. “This is the first effort to perform a genome-wide association study of meningioma,” said Claus. “As these studies require extremely large numbers of persons to achieve statistical power, we will be opening our enrollment to patients beyond our ongoing population-based meningioma studies, allowing us to include meningioma patients worldwide.”

Meningioma tumors afflict thousands of people in just the United States each year. They can cause seizures, loss of vision, or weakness in an arm or leg.

Sweeping changes recommended to nation’s diet

In the face of soaring obesity rates in the United States, a national dietary advisory committee that includes a School of Public Health professor is recommending sweeping changes to the American diet: a reduction in overall calorie consumption, drastically reducing the intake of sodium and added sugars, and shifting diets to more seafood and plant-based foods. Rafael Pérez-Escamilla, a professor at the division of chronic disease epidemiology, is among the 13 national experts who worked for the past two years on the comprehensive evaluation and review of existing federal nutrition guidelines and put forth the proposed changes. If followed, the recommendations could have a significant effect on the health and waistlines of Americans, he said.

The report will be forwarded to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and will become the foundation for updated federal guidelines on nutrition, diet, and health. The recommendations also could influence existing food assistance programs such as school lunches and food stamp and industry regulation.

Lyme app developed for iPhones

The popular iPhone now features a Lyme disease “app” that allows users to better protect themselves against the most prevalent insect-borne disease in the United States. Faculty and students at the School of Public Health combined research data with creativity to build the new application. It includes information on the abundance of infected ticks at the location of the user (within the United States) as determined by GPS. If ticks are determined to be present, the user is given a list of precautions to avoid tick bites. A tick identification chart is also provided with life-size photos of black-legged ticks (also known as deer ticks) so that each life stage can be determined, since some stages cannot transmit Lyme disease. If the user has been bitten, instructions on how to properly remove a tick are provided along with a narrated video. “This is the first health application for smartphones that could have an immediate impact on a major disease,” said Durland Fish, a professor who oversaw the application’s development.