July 16, 2019
Insulin, a medication used to treat diabetes, is temperature-sensitive and has a short shelf life. It can be stored unopened for up to a year, but once opened, it must be used within weeks or even days. Because insulin is composed of proteins suspended in a water-based solution that facilitates its delivery and preservation, if it isn’t refrigerated or used shortly after opening, those proteins can break down and become… Read more
Dr. Julie Baldwin is the Director of the Center for Community Health and Engaged Research and a Professor of Health Sciences at Northern Arizona University. Dr. Baldwin earned her doctorate in Behavioral Sciences and Health Education in 1991 from the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. From 1994-2004, she served as a tenured faculty member at Northern Arizona University, with a joint appointment in the Mel and Enid Zuckerman Arizona College of Public Health.… Read more
Author:
Carmenlita Chief
Program Coordinator, Senior
Community Engagement Core
Southwest Health Equity Research Collaborative
Earlier this year, the SHERC Community Engagement Core (CEC) established a funding mechanism called “Community-Campus Partnership Support,” or CCPS, which provides potential community and academic partners up to $5,000 per year to develop a partnership without the pressure of project outcomes or grant application deadlines. CCPS funds allow partners to meet face-to face at… Read more
Co-Authors:
Christine Kirby
Program Coordinator
Research Infrastructure Core
Southwest Health Equity Research Collaborative
Archana Varadaraj
Assistant Professor
Chemistry & Biochemistry
I sat down with Dr. Archana Varadaraj, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, to better understand the recently SHERC (Research Infrastructure Core) purchased xCELLigence Real Time Cell Analysis Instrument. Feeling a bit overwhelmed to digest the terminology I knew was bound to… Read more
Associate Professor of Practice Department of Biological Sciences
Professor ‑ Department of Biological Sciences
Roughly one in six Native American adults has diabetes, a higher percentage than any other racial group in the United States.
Many Native Americans also live on land where the water is contaminated with arsenic, which can prevent chronic diabetic wounds from healing.
For people with diabetes, a small cut or wound on the foot can be a big problem.… Read more
Viacheslav “Slava” Fofanov, PhD
Assistant Professor
School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems
Why do Arizona children have twice the rate of dental caries—also known as tooth decay—as children outside the state?
Socioeconomic status and limited access to dental care explain only part of the difference, said NAU researcher Viacheslav “Slava” Fofanov. “We suspect there is a biological explanation,” he said.
Human mouths are full of bacteria, he said, and about one-third of all people carry a strain… Read more
Narendiran Rajasekaran, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry
Archana Varadaraj, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry
NAU cancer researchers Narendiran Rajasekaran and Archana Varadaraj each had strong mentors who guided them through college and inspired them in the lab. Now, they are returning the favor and mentoring the next generation of scientists.
“In every way we can, we try to keep our labs open to students,” said Varadaraj, whose research looks at ways to modify… Read more
Talima Pearson, PhD
Assistant Research Professor
Department of Biological Sciences/Pathogen and Microbiome Institute
Diseases once confined largely to hospitals—such as staph infections— are now increasingly being transmitted through everyday contact among healthy people.
That’s why researcher and double NAU alumnus Talima Pearson (MA Biology, ’02; PhD Biology, ’09) is leading a five-year study among different populations in Yuma, Arizona. His goal? To better understand how staph infections are spread outside health care settings—and to see what steps can be taken… Read more
Kerry Bennett
Office of the Vice President for Research
A region of vast expanses and unparalleled natural beauty, the southwestern United States is a land of harsh socioeconomic realities for many, especially for underserved Native American and Hispanic populations. The Southwest has some of the highest poverty rates in the country, some of the lowest rates of health care access and a widespread incidence of serious chronic diseases, infectious diseases and behavioral health problems.
Health disparities—defined by Healthy People 2020 as… Read more