Rachel Hale, MA presented her research on climate change and Arkansas farmers at the APHA conference in November 2023. Her project with Keneshia Bryant-Moore, PhD, RN, FNP-BC and intern Anna Eichenberger won third place in the OHS Student Poster Competition.
Associate Professor Ping-Ching Hsu, PhD, is a leading researcher on environmental health and cancer in Arkansas. Dr. Hsu is among five UAMS researchers awarded funds appropriated by the Arkansas Breast Cancer Act to support emerging breast cancer studies. Dr. Hsu’s project is titled “Precision Environmental Health to Tackle High Early-Onset Breast Cancer in Arkansas Rural Community Health Study (ARCH).”
Mitch McGill, PhD recently secured funding in the amount of $107,000 from Haleon plc for his project titled “In vitro assessment of the protective effects of selected ingredients against acetaminophen hepatotoxicity.”
Dr. Gunnar Boysen is leading a project on water quality in collaboration with colleagues at Ouachita Baptist University (OBU) and Harding University. The educational goal is to train the next generation of science-educated health professionals by building a team of undergraduate students that will study the water quality in their communities.
The scientific objective of this project is to collect, map, and analyze water samples across the state of Arkansas to identify and quantify man-made contaminants of emerging concern in Arkansas water systems.
The rationale for the proposed research is that low level contamination of water by pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and PFAS is a threat to the health of Arkansas wildlife and residents.
Dr. Boysen is studying PFAS by LC-MS, Dr. Sara Hubbard and her students at OBU is studying pesticides by GC-MS, and Dr. Amie Murphy and her students at Harding are studying pharmaceuticals by LC-MS.
The project’s recruitment goal is to have 5 areas, each testing open water systems and publicly available tap water.
This research is funded by the Arkansas Water Resources Center at the University of Arkansas.
A US patent has been issued to Dr. En Huang for the invention of linear lipopeptide antimicrobial agents, known as paenipeptins. These compounds exhibit potent antimicrobial activity against a variety of multidrug-resistant bacterial pathogens (superbugs). Paenipeptins hold substantial promise as candidates for further development in the treatment of bacterial infections.
Dr. Huang’s research in this field is ongoing.
A group of students, from colleges and universities in Arkansas, received an invaluable public health experience through the 2023 Stead Scholars Program. The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health in collaboration with the Arkansas Department of Health led nine interns through the rigorous program.
Arkansas Rural Community Health (ARCH) cohort, formerly known as the Spit for the Cure, is the largest cohort exist in Arkansas established in 2007 and totals 26,375 women participants from all 75 Arkansas counties and has a high rate of early-onset breast cancer cases (45.6%, n=1,054) at baseline recruitment among all breast cancer patients in the study. Dr. Ping-Ching Hsu is the Principal Investigator for the ARCH Cohort, and has devoted her research to identifying the drivers of health disparities in rural and underserved communities in ARCH.
Access the project homepage here: UAMS.info/ARCH
Rachel Hale, MS, is leading research with Arkansas farmers to assess attitudes toward climate change and health.
When possible, our faculty members love to open their laboratory doors to young students who are interested in studying the sciences in college. Lasya Buddha is a sophomore at Little Rock Central High School. She has conducted research that focused on comparing the effects of individual and combined food additives on gut bacteria with mentorship from Dr. En Huang and Sun Hee. Her research has centered on testing different combinations of sodium nitrite, sodium erythorbate, and sodium ascorbate on E.coli and Lactobacillus. She has placed in regionals and won third place in the Arkansas State Science & Engineering Fair (ASEF) with her research. She hopes to continue her research to further understand the impacts of preservatives on the human body.
Dr. Kennon-McGill’s work primarily focuses on prenatal drug exposure and its effects on the neurodevelopment of children who were exposed in utero. Her current focus is prenatal cannabis and cannabinoid use and their effects on brain development and neurobehavioral outcomes in children. She utilizes liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) to quantify THC and CBD metabolites in the maternal, umbilical cord, and neonatal blood and correlates levels of exposure to various neurodevelopmental outcome measures.
