Faculty Mentor: Dr. Paige Williams
Graduate Student Mentor: Miguel Marino, PhD candidate
Program Participants: Sophia Salazar, Irene Headen, and Marcia McNutt

Project Title: Evaluating the Prevalence of Psychiatric Disorders Across Races in HIV-positive and HIV-negative Associated Children

Project Description: The students examined whether there is a racial difference in the prevalence and severity of psychiatric disorders in both children who have HIV and children who live with someone who has HIV. Using linear and logistic regression, students found that no significant differences in prevalence nor severity among races were found. The secondary objective was to examine the percent agreement of children and their caregivers when reporting on the child's psychiatric symptoms. Preliminary findings showed a disagreement between the child and caregiver when reporting for each disorder.

Dr. Paige Williams, Sophia Salazar, Miguel Marino (Graduate Student Mentor), Irene Headen, and Marcia McNutt

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Xihong Lin
Post Doctoral Mentor: Dr. Caterina Stamoulis
Program Participants: Nian Verzosa, Sando Baysah, and Uche Amazigo

Project Title: Examination of Arsenic Exposure Effects on Proteomic Profiles

Project Description: Arsenic, a human carcinogen, is one of the most serious environmental health hazards. In Bangladesh, 55-77 million people are at risk of drinking arsenic contaminated water—the largest mass poisoning of a population in history. Developing appropriate therapeutic interventions for treating arsenic exposed individuals rely on a detailed understanding of the biological mechanisms of response to heavy metal exposure. However, research on the effects of chronic arsenic is very limited.

Advanced proteomic technologies are useful tool for studying the abundances of many proteins simultaneously. We will use linear regression analysis to study the effect of chronic arsenic exposure on protein profiles of subjects from a large arsenic case-control study of skin disease in Bangladesh. The data contains phenotypic and proteomic information on 214 subjects. The goal is to determine which proteins have abundances associated with chronic exposure to arsenic.

Nian Verzosa, Dr. Xihong Lin, Sando Baysah, and Uche Amazigo

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Christoph Lange
Graduate Student Mentor: Dr. David Fardo, PhD
Program Participants: Marquette Moore, Thomas Blair, and Sunny Intwala

Project Title: Genetic Determinants of Alcoholism

Project Description: This project used regression models to investigate genetic determinants of alcoholism. They applied multivariate regression models to the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA), which contains genetic and phenotype information on approximately 1600 subjects from 143 families. The goal of the project was to identify any significant genetic markers of alcoholism (or surrogate phenotypic traits).

Marquette Moore, Dr. David Fardo (Graduate Student Mentor), Thomas Blair, and Sunny Intwala