RESEARCH PROJECTS

Nurse’s Health Study 3 (NHS3)                                                                                                                          2017 – present

Principal Investigator: Prof. Jorge Chavarro

Project description: The Nurses’ Health Study 3 (NHS3) is a study of U.S. and Canadian female nurses and nursing students born on or after January 1, 1965. Open recruitment started in 2010 and is ongoing. Female and male registered nurses (RNs), licensed practical/vocational nurses (LPNs/LVNs) and nursing students, ages 18-46, are eligible to participate. Although the study began as a cohort of female nurses, male nurses are now eligible to participate. More than 44,000 nurses have participated so far. The NHS3 questionnaires are web-based; participants complete questionnaires on a regular schedule dating from their study enrollment. 

Role: Postdoctoral Research Fellow

• Propose and investigate new approaches and methods for analyses
• Conduct comprehensive statistical analyses
• Prepare high level manuscripts in respected peer reviewed journals
• Specially interested in different environmental, occupational and nutritional exposures and fecundity in women
• Consult with the expert researchers and the clinical collaborators
• Lead data management and cleanup

The Danish Men Cohort                                                                                                                                          2017 – present

Principal Investigator: Dr. Niels Jørgensen

Project description: In Denmark, all men, except those with severe or chronic diseases (<15%), are required to attend a medical examination before being considered for military service. Young men are called upon to present themselves for the medical examinations are therefore considered representative of the general population of young men. Men attending these medical examinations in the greater Copenhagen area of Denmark since September 1996 were asked to participate in the present study, irrespective of whether they were declared fit for military service or not. Those men who consented to participate were given an appointment for examination at the Department of Growth and Reproduction at Rigshospitalet (Copenhagen, Denmark). Participants completed questionnaires and provided a semen samples.

Role: Postdoctoral Research Fellow

• Propose and investigate new approaches and methods for analyses
• Apply for ESHRE Travel fellowship
• Conduct comprehensive statistical analyses
• Prepare high level manuscripts in respected peer reviewed journals
• Consult with the both Danish and Harvard expert researchers

Mesalamine And Reproductive Health Study (MARS)                                                                                  2014 – present

Principal Investigator: Prof. Russ Hauser

Project description: MARS Study is an innovative novel crossover- cross back prospective study in which 73 men (enrolled from 2010 to 2016 from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIMC), Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)) with inflammatory bowel diseases who were on mesalamine medications were enrolled. Men crossed over and crossed back on medications that contain or not contain Dibutyl-n-phthalate, a potential endocrinal disruptor. We collected up to 6 samples per man of different biological samples. We are able to assess the different effects on male reproductive health using cutting edge statistical approaches.

Role: Postdoctoral Research Fellow and during doctoral training

• Write a pilot NIEHS grant for new emerging questions using the already collected data in MARS
• Propose and investigate new approaches and methods for analyses
• Conduct comprehensive statistical analyses
• Prepare high level manuscripts in respected peer reviewed journals
• Consult with the expert research committee members and the clinical collaborators
• Lead data management and cleanup

The Environment And Reproductive Health (EARTH) Study                                                                         2014 – present

The Semen Quality Study1 (SQS1)                                                                                                                     2017 – present   

Principal Investigator: Prof. Russ Hauser                                                                                                       

Project description: EARTH study is an ongoing prospective cohort and an extension of SQS1, of enrolled couples seeking fertility treatment at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Fertility Center beginning in 2004 to identify determinants of fertility. We are able to assess understudied exposures in 400 men with more than 1,000 samples such as personal care product use and the urinary biomarkers of endocrinal disruptors using novel statistical approaches that were never used before. Results are important for future research applications in exposure assessment.

Role: Postdoctoral Research Fellow and during doctoral training

• Propose and investigate new approaches and methods for analyses
• Conduct comprehensive statistical analyses
• Prepare high level manuscripts and published in respected peer reviewed journals
• Consult with the expert research committee members and the clinical collaborators
• Assist in data management and cleanup

Air Pollution and Different Outcome Studies                                                                                                          2014 –2016                                                                                             

Role: Research assistant at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (air pollution lab) during doctoral training

• Measure, adjust, unload and load the air flow in the air particle samplers with Teflon and Quartz filters for particulate matter (PM) and for No 2 monitors for all projects that measured PM and NO2.
• Assist in writing and modifying the lab protocols and the quality assurance
• Assist in training new lab members

TRansgenerational Assessment of Children's Environmental Risk (TRACER)                                                   2011–2013

Principal Investigator: Profs. Douglas Dockery and Rosalind Wright

Project description: TRACER is national prospective birth cohort; the first of its kind in the area that started in 2011 and enrolled around 3,000 pregnant women- children pairs in Kuwait of a budget of more than $3,000,000. The aim of the study was to examine the association between the different environmental exposures early in life such as pre-conceptional and in-utero exposures and outcomes during pregnancy, delivery and in early childhood. The study was collaboration between Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Cyprus International Institute and Dasman Diabetes Institute.

Role: Project Field Manager of Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health studies at Dasman Diabetes Institute, Kuwait

• Overall project management of TRACER Study
• Played a major role in designing, grant application, protocols and questionnaires creation, and quality control and assurance plan creation.
• Prepared all materials for all the institutional review boards (IRBs) both at HSPH and at Dasman Diabetes Institute and made sure all the approvals are in place and updated in a timely manner.
• Primary spoken person about the project in the media such as giving local radio and television interviews about the study and the community support.
• Prepared written material for the project (including website content, letters and press releases).
• Maintained interest and support from all stakeholders in Kuwait with Harvard and Cyprus.
• Initiated Interest and recruited local medical and academic professionals in Kuwait to collaborate and support the project from public and private sectors.
• Gave technical support and trained for the study staff for the online data collection tool
• ​ Prepared and presented progress reports knowledgeably with initial results to the international scientific board of Dasman Diabetes institute and to the clinical and academic collaborators