Harvard Chan faculty awarded bridge funding from Salata Institute
Three faculty members from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health were awarded $25,000 grants from the Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability at Harvard University in late June. The Bridge Grant Program in Climate and Sustainability supports projects that have been critically threatened by federal funding cuts.
Gary Adamkiewicz, associate professor of environmental health and exposure disparities: Beat the Heat
This randomized controlled trial focuses on climate risks to health in underserved Boston neighborhoods. Participants, all older adults with at least one chronic health condition, receive home air conditioners and have their health symptoms tracked.
“Hot days had already arrived when the [National Institutes of Health] funding was pulled, putting the entire project in jeopardy,” said Adamkiewicz. “The Salata funding came at a critical time.”
Adamkiewicz was able to move ahead with a scaled back version of the project, which he said will “inform how such interventions might be brought to scale to best serve low-income and low-wealth families most at risk from the often-hidden effects of climate change.”
Josiemer Mattei, Donald and Sue Pritzker Associate Professor of Nutrition: Climate Change Indicators, Agricultural Diversification, and Food and Nutrition Security in Puerto Rico
The Salata grant will allow Mattei and her colleagues to resume part of an exploratory aim of her cohort study PROSPECT (Puerto Rico Observational Study of Psychosocial, Environmental, and Chronic disease Trends). The research will link data on climate change indicators such as temperature and precipitation with agricultural metrics and georeferenced food and nutrition data collected from PROSPECT participants.
“What is novel about the study is that it will allow us to estimate how climate events and agricultural diversification influence food and nutrition security using actual environmental and individual-level data, rather than modeling,” Mattei said. “These results will inform policymakers and farmers on priorities to sustain climate-resilient localized food production and nutrition in Puerto Rico and similar island settings.”
Mary Rice, Mark and Catherine Winkler Associate Professor of Environmental Respiratory Health Director, Center for Climate Health and the Global Environment (C-CHANGE): Air Purification for Eosinophilic COPD Study (APECS)
The APECS clinical trial studies whether air purifiers can improve symptoms in patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. The bridge funding allowed Rice to complete all the participant visits for the trial and collect blood and nasal fluid samples.
She and her colleagues are maintaining these samples in a freezer as they seek more funding to analyze the samples for biomarkers of pollution exposure and inflammation.
Learn more
Federal funds cut for study that would’ve provided low-income Boston residents with free AC (Harvard Chan School News)
Loss of NIH funding jeopardizes landmark Puerto Rico nutrition, health studies (Harvard Chan School News)
