Author Archives: Kim Morris

The 2nd Annual Global Health Scholars Symposium is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 16 from 9:15am-12pm! Presented by the UNC Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases (IGHID) and the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health (GSGPH), the symposium will feature global health research from MD/PhD students, doctoral candidates, postdoctoral fellows and...

In this tribute to pioneering ID physician and researcher Adaora Adimora, MD, MPH, FIDSA, who died Jan. 1, 2024, two members of IDSA’s George W. Counts Interest Group, Michelle Floris-Moore, MD, MS, FIDSA, and Celia J. Maxwell, MD, FACP, FIDSA, reflect on her life and legacy. Dr. Adimora was a...

Researchers at the UNC Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases and the Thurston Arthritis Research Center’s Core Center for Clinical Research, investigated the relationship between knee pain and a red meat allergy, caused by a tick bite known as alpha-gal syndrome. “Tick-borne disease infections and chronic musculoskeletal pain,” published in...

Alena Markmann, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine in infectious diseases has received the American Society for Clinical Investigation’s Young Physician-Scientist Award. Markmann focuses her research on using novel sequencing, imaging and viral cloning techniques in order to understand what the neutralizing and protective antibody targets are in polyclonal human sera...

A report published by Lester Gutiérrez, a PhD candidate and IGHID Fellow, provides a new assessment of Giardia lamblia and the pathogenesis of stunting and cognitive growth in children from low- and middle-income countries, published with mentor Luther Bartelt, MD. Giardia is most common during childhood, mainly in low-and-middle income countries. Symptoms...

The Vietnam Union of Friendship Organizations recently recognized UNC for significant contributions to the sustainable development of Vietnam. This is the second year in a row that UNC has received this award. UNC Project-Vietnam’s Director Tran Viet Ha, MD, MSc, accepted the award on December 26, 2023.   The Vietnam Union...

It is with heavy hearts that we share the passing of our esteemed colleague, Ada Adimora, Sarah Graham Kenan Distinguished Professor of Medicine and professor of epidemiology. Dr. Adimora, a brilliant and compassionate physician scientist, left an indelible mark on our department and the broader medical community. A true pioneer,...

Joe Tucker, MD, PhD, and Weiming Tang, PhD, co-directors of UNC Project-China announce a new scholarly exchange program that will give early-career researchers from the U.S. the opportunity to train in China. The China Medical Board (CMB) has awarded UNC a $340,000 grant to facilitate the CMB Postdoctoral Research Fellowship. UNC...

The National Resident Matching Program released results for the 2023 Medicine and Pediatric Specialties Match on November 29. More than 7,000 applicants matched to advanced training positions. After a successful match, four fellows will join the ID Fellowship Program in July 2024. The Division of Infectious Diseases and the Institute for...

Jonathan Parr, MD, MPH, assistant professor medicine and researcher with the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases, has been elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI), a nonprofit medical honor society that seeks to seeks to support the scientific efforts, educational needs, and clinical aspirations of physician-scientists...

The UNC Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) is an engine for funding HIV research, supported by a competitive NIH P30 infrastructure grant that has been successfully renewed since 1998. It is also a consortium of three complementary institutions (UNC, RTI and FHI) as CFAR Director Ron Swanstrom, PhD, and Associate...

The curtains have fallen on yet another enriching and insightful journey: the 2023 UNC Project-China / SESH /GDDH Annual Conference. This annual gathering resumed on Oct. 11-12 after a three-year suspension, serving as a platform for professionals, community partners, and researchers from various fields to exchange insights, discuss research findings,...

Nurturing future global health leaders is crucial to building resilient and sustainable health systems. The Office of Fellowship and Training Programs provides robust clinical and non-clinical experiences for professional and personal growth, led by Benjamin Chi, MD, MSc, the Institute’s Associate Director of Fellowship Programs. “Mentorship and training are pivotal parts...

Post-doctoral fellow Ashenafi Assefa, PhD, and Jonathan Parr, MD, MPH, assistant professor of medicine in infectious diseases, researchers with the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases (IGHID) working in the IDEEL (the Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Ecology) Lab assess the pros and cons of a new strategy to simplify malaria...

David Rosen, MD, PhD, a researcher with the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases (IGHID), assessed healthcare services at county jails in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. The results indicate jail healthcare falls short of community standards. The need for adequate healthcare has been a long-standing concern...

Hard-won gains in the long-running global HIV epidemic are in danger of being lost, argues Wafaa El-Sadr, MD, MPH, MPA, global director of ICAP at Columbia University, in a new commentary published today in Science. Co-authored with Myron S. Cohen, MD, director of the Institute for Global Health and Infectious...

The analogy “give a man a fish or teach a man to fish,” demonstrates the essential role training can play in global health. When a doctor takes care of one child, that care is for one child only. But when a doctor can train other doctors to care for young...

Jessica Lin, MD, MSCR, Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases, is one of four researchers selected for the 2023-2024 RTI University Scholar Program. The RTI University Scholars Program supports senior academics, typically on sabbatical, to spend time collaborating with RTI researchers. The program is designed to...

Researchers in the Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Ecology Lab (IDEEL) at UNC are process driven investigators with a unique comradery, working in 20+ countries to improve basic understandings of pathogens. The applied nature of their work has a direct impact on the health and well-being of millions of individuals around...

Ramya Kumar‘s face lights up when she talks about her work in Zambia, and her chosen family in the Lusaka community. For nearly a decade, she has lived and worked as an epidemiologist in Zambia, investigating and responding to urgent outbreaks of disease. “I loved Zambia so much that I...