Research Translation Core
The Team
Virginia Casey, PhD Northeastern Univ.
Julia Brody, PhD Silent Spring Institute Carmen Milagros Velez Vega, PhD
Univ of Puerto Rico Phil Brown, PhD
Northeastern Univ.
Research Translation (RT) Plan
• Transition from stand-alone Research Translation Core (RTC) to component of Administrative Core - but goals remain the same
• RT Coordinator and team will continue in its mission of translation and dissemination of research to all relevant stakeholders
• RT Coordinator and team will work with all 4
Projects to develop Investigator-Initiated Research Translation plans
• RT Coordinator and team will engage with Projects
and Cores and to promote training and technology
transfer activities
Research Translation Activities
Work with each Project/Core leader to develop and implement RT plan
Project 1: John Meeker (Environmental Epidemiology)
• Dissemination of study results to health professionals, scientific researchers, clinicians, and public health
agencies through publications and scientific presentations, and to participants and public in brochures and other
products
Project 2: Rita Loch-Caruso (Mechanistic Toxicology)
• Identify opportunities to engage stakeholders, including
government agencies, professional organizations and
affected Puerto Rican communities using plain-language
descriptions and visuals
Research Translation Activities
Project 3: Ingrid Padilla (Fate & Transport)
• Disseminate historical data, field measurement data, and project models to EPA, USGS, and relevant PR departments and agencies for estimation of risk assessment and monitoring of water resources, ecosystems, and waste disposal facilities
Project 4: Akram Alshawabkeh (Remediation)
• Share results from portable (point-of-use; point-of-
entry) water treatment system using water samples
from PR sites. Coordinate with CEC and Puerto Rico
Science, Technology and Research Trust to transition
technology into implementation
Research Translation Activities
Support technology transfer activities through commercialization
• Identify potential intellectual property for patents and commercial viability
• Provide training in tech transfer for trainees through PROTECT webinar series
Disseminate PROTECT results and materials
• Assist in updating website
• Maintain accessible repository of research findings and details of collaboration on website
• Facilitate report-back development and sharing with community
• Assist in proposal writing (e.g., FLORECE)
• Work with CEC on series of “PROTECT at 10 Years” products
Conferences, Presentations, University-Wide Efforts
• Co-sponsor conferences that highlight Northeastern’s role in environmental health
• Local Environmental Action Conference (annually)
• PFAS Conference (bi-annually)
• Guest lecturer on PROTECT Center’s work to Bouve College School of Nursing students, Global Resilience Institute, and various other classes across the
university
• Develop major proposal for Northeastern cluster:
“Citizen Science and Environmental Modeling”
Links with Other Cores
Training Core
• Assist in designing topics and recruiting speakers Community Engagement Core
• Very entwined with report-back development, community group linkages
Enrichment Core
• Meet regularly with Admin Core/CEC/Training Core to coordinate efforts
Data Management Core and Human Subjects and Sampling Core
• Working together on the sharing of data for report-back
Design of Report-Back is a Collaborative Effort Between RTC, Community
Engagement Core (CEC) and Silent Spring Institute (SSI)
RTC, CEC and SSI collaborated in designing report-back :
• Conceptualization
• Platform
• Training for clinical staff
• Post report-back interviews
• Evaluation of success
• Leading article writing
Report-Back Events
Smartphone DERBI is a Central Report-Back Component
• As a technical product
• As a community engagement application
• As something that has gained large attention, including at
NIEHS
Expand Smartphone DERBI to other projects
• Smartphone DERBI was funded and made possible by Silent Spring's BCERP grant to use Smartphone DERBI in the Santiago, Chile girls cohort.
• PROTECT was important next step for Smartphone DERBI based on participant request
• NIEHS R21 grant (Silent Spring, Northeastern, Berkeley) “Scaling up access and usability of smartphone tools for reporting chemical biomonitoring results.”
• Report back with University of California-San Francisco and University of Illinois
• Use DERBI in NIEHS Research to Action project on PFAS effects on children's immunotoxicity
• R21 proposal under review on training researchers to use DERBI
Hosted conference in 2016 on public health aspects of karst geology and fate & transport
of the contaminants that directly enter aquifers.
March of Dimes 2008 Prematurity Report Card indicates that Puerto Rico has the highest preterm
birthrate in
the US (19.4%) and among highest in world.
CEnR approaches resulted in a very engaged cohort with high retention rates (85%), that willing to come to meetings and share their was
exposure data with friends and family.
2008
Preterm birth rate in PR went down from 19.4% in 2007 to 11.4% in 2017- decrease was greater within
PROTECT cohort in Northern Puerto Rico (10.2% in 2019). Monitoring is ongoing.
Report-back component added to project at request of community partners, with Silent
Spring Institute.
2018
Distributed materials to educate communities about strategies to reduce exposure and attempt
to change individual behaviors.
2012
Built cohort, trained staff, engaged with community orgs and government units, obtained additional funding to follow children.
Community participated in data collection, data reporting, data analysis.
Application &
Synthesis
Fundamenta l Questions
Implementation
& Adjustment
Practice
Impact Assessment
Met with health practitioners around the island to share findings so they can educate patients and
encourage behavior change.
In 2012 PROTECT participants requested report-back data, preferably accessible via smartphone, leading the Center to partner
with Silent Spring Institute to develop a new platform.
Thoughts on ability of framework to incorporate contributions of community partners and other stakeholders:
Community & Participant Contributions in Translational Research
In 2015, expanded EHS work with addition of Children’s Environmental Health Center
(CRECE) and later, ECHO.
Developing and testing a green technology for remediation and cleanup of phthalates and other organic contaminants in water
PROTECT is a collaboration between Northeastern U, (Alshawabkeh, Brown, Kaeli, Giese), UPR-MSC (Velez-Vega), UPR- Mayaguez (Padilla), U Georgia (Cordero) and
U Michigan (Meeker, Loch -Caruso)
oingOng CEnR activities were
present from outside through Human Subjects Core, and
then further institutionalized in
Community Engagement Core in
2012
Expanded public health activities after
2015 Zika outbreak and 2017 hurricanes Irma and Maria to include disaster response.
Northeastern University Translational Timeline for PROTECT Project: TCE, Phthalates, and Pre-term Births in Puerto Rico
Phil Brown, Northeastern University; others?; Kristi Pettibone, NIEHS;
Co nte xt
EHL improved among staff &
public; increased capacity of community organizations
Ongoi ng 2008 SRP proposal includes fate and transport (in situ),
toxicology (mechanistic animal), remediation (in situ), targeted analysis (phthalates, TCE, and others), and
untargeted analysis (identification of multiple contaminants) projects.
Ongoing
