Current Research
My current projects focus on neurodegenerative diseases and better understanding their genetic and environmental causes, including inflammation from viral infections. This involves genomic research tools such as polygenic risk scores, as well as network meta-analyses in diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinson’s Disease. I hold a post-doctoral fellowship in the lab led by Dr. Kathryn Fitzgerald at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
In my PhD dissertation, I focused on transmission dynamics, rural health, wastewater based epidemiology, and COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2 under Dr. Katrin Kuhn. I worked to better understand differences between urban and rural COVID-19 burden geographically, and assess the ability for wastewater data to provide information about the real-time level of transmission in the respective communities.
Peer-Reviewed Publications
1.
James SA, Heller JG, Hartman CJ, Schaff AC, Mushtaq N, Beebe LA. Smokeless tobacco point of sale advertising, placement and promotion: Associations with store and neighborhood characteristics.
Frontiers in Public Health. 2021;9. doi:
10.3389/fpubh.2021.668642
2.
Puttock EJ, Marquez J, Young DR, et al. Association of masking policies with mask adherence and distancing during the SARS-COV-2 pandemic.
American Journal of Infection Control. 2022;50:969-974. doi:
10.1016/j.ajic.2022.04.010
3.
Deshpande G, Beetch JE, Heller JG, Naqvi OH, Kuhn KG. Assessing the influence of climate change and environmental factors on the top tick-borne diseases in the united states: A systematic review.
Microorganisms. 2024;12. doi:
10.3390/microorganisms12010050
4.
Vesely SK, King A, Vettese E, et al. Influence of participant and reviewer characteristics in application scores for a hematology research training program.
Blood Advances. 2023;7:4064-4071. doi:
10.1182/bloodadvances.2023009792