Ferritin iron from food is readily bioavailable to humans and has the potential for treating iron deficiency. Whether ferritin iron absorption is mechanistically different from iron absorption from small iron complexes/salts remains controversial. Here, we studied iron absorption (RBC 59Fe) from radiolabeled ferritin iron (0.5 mg) in healthy women with or without non-ferritin iron competitors, ferrous sulfate, or hemoglobin. A 9-fold excess of non-ferritin iron competitor had no significant...

BMJ 2011; 343:d5506 http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/bmj.d5506 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21972295 ABSTRACT We constructed a state transition, compartmental, mathematical model of tuberculosis epidemics to estimate the impact of alternative future smoking trends on tuberculosis control. We projected tuberculosis incidence, prevalence, and mortality in each World Health Organization region from 2010 to 2050, and incorporated changing trends in smoking, case detection,...

he administration of anti-trypanosome nitroderivatives curtails Trypanosoma cruzi infection in Chagas disease patients, but does not prevent destructive lesions in the heart. This observation suggests that an effective treatment for the disease requires understanding its pathogenesis. To understand the origin of clinical manifestations of the heart disease we used a chicken model system in which infection can be initiated in the egg, but parasite persistence is precluded. T. cruzi...

A video describing the hisotry of Tuberculosis.

Describes how the TB program for British Columbia is implemented including screening, treatment, testing and locations around the province.

Anti-malarial drugs are being used inappropriately for sick children in Zambia -- a problem that can be addressed by arming community health workers with a simple rapid-diagnostic test and a supply of antibiotics, a study led by researchers at Boston University School of Public Health has found. Listen to Kojo Yeboah-Antwi, assistant professor of international health at BUSPH, and David Hamer, professor of international health at BUSPH, discuss the study. Learn more at...

The video describes my invention of Engineered cells which can act as a live vaccine. These cells are programmed to intelligently detect a particular gut pathogen and then specifically and completely kill it without affecting the normal gut microbial flora. This automated approach thus prevents from horrible side effects of current antibiotics and growing resistance against them.

A Scripps researcher hopes to demonstrate that improving developing world cooking methods could slow global warming and improve public health along the way

Intestinal roundworms infect >2 billion of the poorest peoples and have received little attention. Very little money is spent on much needed drug development for human parasites, making them one of the great neglected tropical diseases. Recently, a new and powerful class of anti-roundworm drugs (anthelmintic) has emerged- crystal proteins (e.g., Cry5B) made by Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). Here we show that combining Cry5B with nicotinic acetylcholine receptor agonists like tribendimidine...

My postercast provides an overview of my thesis on the food culture of City Heights, which includes the purpose of my research, findings/analysis, and an explanation to how the knowledge that is gathered from my thesis could contribute to grassroots mobilization.