Introducing HHRI Research Highlights | |
These last few years have brought several significant leadership and operational changes to HHRI, ringing in many firsts for the organization. In addition to the appointment of HHRI’s first woman president in 2023, Kirsten L. Johansen, MD, HHRI also celebrated the newly created roles of Vice President of Equity, Warren McKinney, PhD; Chief Academic and Research Officer, Meghan Walsh, MD, MPH, FACP; Director of Training and Mentoring, Sandra Japuntich, PhD, LP; and Vice President of Engagement, Kate Diaz Vickery, MD, MSc. These new positions will enhance our efforts to build better support for and connections among members of our community; both internally at HHS and externally with our research partners and the patients and populations we serve.
This inaugural issue of the HHRI Research Highlights newsletter is another important step toward establishing more connections with Hennepin Healthcare System research stakeholders. In the stories that follow, we want to celebrate the essential connections that have already been accomplished. Looking ahead, we’ll work more closely together to create a more inclusive and collective approach.
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Mpls.StPaul Magazine's 2024 Top Doctors
| | While everyone at Hennepin Healthcare and HHRI makes a difference every day, we want to give an extra shout-out to the physician-scientists featured in this year's prestigious Mpls-StPaul Magazine's "2024 Top Doctors." These physicians were selected through a peer-nominated and juried process. | |
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Woubeshet Ayenew, MD, Cardiology
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Jason Baker, MD, MS, Infectious Diseases
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Satya Bommakanti, MD, Hematology-Oncology
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Louis Kohl, MD, FACC, Cardiology
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Meghan Walsh, MD, MPH, General Internal Medicine/Hospitalist
| |  | | Research Awards - Congratulations! | | Please join us in congratulating the following researchers who received NIH and DoD awards to support their health-related research and development. | | |
The irritating flying insects that give humans red, itchy bumps are the same flying insects that, when infected, lead to the global health concern, malaria. It’s this very parasite that Kristina Burrack, PhD, has been awarded to study through a Research Project Grant Program (R01) award of $2,939,730 from the NIH.
In this study, entitled “Enhancing T and B cell responses to Plasmodium
infection and vaccination via IL-15,” Dr. Burrack will examine the effects of the immune-modulatory therapy on the T and B cells and their antibody responses to the Plasmodium infection and vaccination.
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Persons living with HIV (PLWH) have an elevated risk of chronic inflammation and related adverse health outcomes. HHRI Investigator Anne Frosch, MD, MPH has been awarded a Research Project Grant Program (R01) of $3,332,437 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study the aging PLWH demographic’s vaccine immunity and inflammation responses.
Data from this study will determine if customized approaches are needed to vaccinate individuals living with HIV in advancing age who are on antiretroviral therapy.
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With the frigid winter temperatures of Minnesota frequently plummeting to subarctic levels, it’s the perfect place for Hennepin Healthcare Research Institute (HHRI)’s internationally recognized frostbite and burn researcher Rachel Nygaard, PhD, to study frostbite.
Dr. Nygaard has received an award of $1,999,869 from the Department of Defense (DoD) to aggregate data across institutions of severe frostbite injuries and their outcomes in the Frostbite Multicenter ObServational Trial (FROST). Data from this study will inform the military’s protocols for the management of severe frostbite injury.
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Patients with a history of both end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) and cancer face unique risks due to their medical history. To provide the best care for patients with ESKD, nephrologists need quality data on patients’ pre- and post-transplant outcomes to inform decisions that balance the risk of death on dialysis while waiting for a kidney transplant with the risk of cancer recurrence after transplant.
Nephrologist, Chair of the Institutional Review Board (IRB), and Deputy Director of the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR) Allyson Hart, MD, MS, has received a Research Project Grant Program (R01) award of $1,645,446 from the NIH; National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases to develop a clinical decision support tool to understand the survival benefit of kidney transplantation in candidates with a history of cancer.
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Publications & Media Highlights |
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Tyler Winkleman, MD, MSc; Peter J. Bodurtha, MPP; and their research collaborators at Yale School of Medicine published findings from their study "Postrelease Risk of Overdose and All-Cause Death Among Persons Released From Jail or Prison: Minnesota, March 2020-December 2021" in the American Journal of Public Health.
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Casey Dorr, PhD, co-authored a Nature Communications article "Implementing community-engaged pharmacogenomics in Indigenous communities."
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Kate Diaz Vickery, MD, MSc; Becky Ford, PhD; and investigators from Mayo Clinic published an article "Digital Storytelling Intervention for Hemoglobin A1C Control Among Hispanic Adults With Type 2 Diabetes." in JAMA Network Open.
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Jon Snyder, PhD, co-authored a Research Letter in the Journal of American Medicine Association (JAMA) on "Thirty-Year Trends in Perioperative Mortality Risk for Living Kidney Donors."
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Elizabeth Bottorff, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher from the University of Minnesota, is currently assisting the Restorative Neurotrauma Lab's E-STAND trials. She recently spoke on the paralysis-focused podcast, Curecast, to discuss sexual function after a spinal cord injury.
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From brain health to the opioid epidemic, HHRI investigators shared their expertise on several healthcare topics as recent guests on radio programs and podcasts.
| | Featured Research Program: HHCJ | |
The Health, Homelessness, and Criminal Justice (HHCJ) Lab conducts research that focuses on the complex drivers of health for people with homelessness and/or criminal justice involvement. Within this context, they study physical health, mental health, and substance use conditions and the overlapping systemic barriers to health, often driven by structural racism.
Their overarching goal is to improve health for people with homelessness or criminal justice involvement in our community, in Minnesota, and across the United States through research and collaboration with a broad coalition of partners.
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