MD-PhD student Camille Morgan processes samples from her study of hepatitis B transmission in the DRC
Postdoc Dr. Ashenafi Assefa talks about malaria elimination efforts in Ethiopia and the role of serological and molecular surveillance during IDEEL's weekly lab meeting.
IDEEL faculty and trainees celebrating a productive day in Kinshasa, DRC. L-R: Jonathan Parr, Kristin Banek, Ruthly François, Rachel Sendor, Camille Morgan, and Jonathan Juliano
IDEEL PhD students Rachel Sendor and Ruthly François visiting DRC field sites with the Kinshasa School of Public Health entomology team.
IDEEL investigators have been invited to present research at the Genetic Epidemiology of Malaria Conference at the Sanger Institute in the United Kingdom. Drs. Juliano 2014, 2016; Aydemir 2018; Parr 2018, 2021; Verity 2021.
Multiple investigators and students from IDEEL@UNC precent recent advances in vivax research at the 5th International Converence on Plasmodium vivax Resarch in Bali, Indonesia. (May 2015)
Dr. Meshnick worked with the Thai MOPH to develop studies of the use of active case detection for malaria in Thailand that integrated molecular techniques developed in his laboratory.
Drs. Meshnick and Juliano visited with faculty at the Tropical Medicine unit at University of Tuebingen to develop collaborations. (From left: Peter Kremsner, Bertrand Lell, Benjamin Mordmuller, Jonathan Juliano, Steven Meshnick, Carsten Kohler)
Graduate student Lauren Levitz takes part in a study visit in a longitudinal study of malaria transmission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
IDEEL@UNC investigators visit the Ejikman Institute to establish research collaborations for studying Plasmodium vivax.
Dr. Lon, one of IDEEL@UNC collaborators at AFRIMS, works with patients in Cambodia.
UNC students Morgan Goheen and Daniel Gardner spend the summer researching malaria in The Gambia.
Dr. Lin presented her work on transmission of malaria from a cohort study in Cambodia.
Dr. Juliano was invited to participant in a cross disciplinary think tank in Barcelona, Spain in January 2016. The meeting brought together experts in anti-infective, herbicide and insecticide resistance to discuss core concepts about the evolution of resistance.
Members of the UNC-Kinshasa School of Public Health study team performing a cross-sectional malaria survey (active surveillance) at a rural study site in Kinshasa Province.
Dr. Juliano was awarded one of four 2016 UNC Distinguished Teaching Awards for Post-Baccalaureate Instruction. He was honored on the floor of the Dean Dome at halftime during the UNC-Pitt basketball game.
Dr. Juliano and his collaborator Dr. Andreas Martensson (pictured) visit the MUHAS field site at Yombo, near Bagamoyo, Tanzania.
IDEELists roasting Ugandan coffee beans on the Gillings loading dock.
Dr. Jonathan Parr and UNC student Alexandra Wilcox at World Health Organization headquarters in Switzerland. Alex served as an intern in the WHO Global Malaria Program throughout the summer of 2016. Dr. Parr traveled to Geneva to join the first WHO Technical Consultation on P. falciparumhrp2/3 gene deletions and has helped establish a WHO laboratory network to support surveillance.
Dr. Steve Meshnick teaches Olivia Anderson how to count cultured parasites using microscopy.
Drs. Juliano and Parr, with their collaborator Dr. Jeffrey Bailey, visited the Ethiopian Public Health Institute in February 2017 to develop new collaborations and conduct a scientific seminar.
IDEEl and their collaborators (Dr. Rhoel Dinglasan, Dr. Andreas Martensson, and Dr. Jeffrey Bailey) gathered in Bagamoyo to develop new projects and investigate opportunities for capacity development with local researchers.
Dr. Juliano and his collaborator, Dr. Jeffrey Bailey, visit a field site assisting their research on antimalarial drug resistance in Africa. The field team is working on intensive sample collection by hospitalizing patients to better understand the dynamics of parasites within a person after therapy.
The Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Ecology Lab (IDEEL) was officially formed in 2015 by a group of principal investigators who shared a vision for improving the health of the world’s poorest populations by improving our understanding of the infectious diseases that impact them most. It is a collaboration between UNC and investigators at Brown University and Imperial College, and co-founded with the support of the late Steven Meshnick, MD, PhD. The idea was to provide a platform for collaborative interdisciplinary research that explores how pathogens interact with human hosts. Investigators come from a wide-breadth of backgrounds including infectious disease physicians, epidemiologists, molecular parasitologists, cell biologists, geneticists and geographers. Current UNC faculty include:
The work of this collaborative team primarily focuses on malaria, including studies of cellular biology, genomics, translational and spatial epidemiology. However, the investigators embrace other diseases that affect these populations and have conducted a range of work on other pathogens including Trypanosoma cruzi (the agent of Chagas disease), hepatitis B and C viruses, syphilis, and illnesses transmitted by ticks (e.g. Rickettsia).
The work being done by IDEEL will directly impact the health and well being of millions of individuals around the globe. The advances provided by this research will improve our basic understanding of the pathogens we study. The applied nature of much of our work allows for direct and immediate impact on health policies at all levels.
