Research Projects

alicia-genisca-tall

Mentor

Adam Levine, MD

Alicia Genisca, MD

Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine, Associate Professor of Pediatrics Rhode Island Hospital

Project 1. Ebola Virus Disease Treatment

Project one (Alicia Genisca, MD). Project one, “Ebola Virus Disease Treatment” will study the role of gut barrier dysfunction with consequent microbial translocation to identify optimal interventions to decrease mortality due to Ebola. Ebola remains a serious emerging and re-emerging infectious disease threat, with case fatality rates as high as 90% during some outbreaks. 5 Since its discovery, there have been more than 40 documented outbreaks worldwide. Outbreaks in West Africa from 2014-16 resulted in approximately 29,000 confirmed cases and over 11,000 fatalities with more a recent outbreak in 2018-20 in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) culminating in over 2,000 deaths. Though new interventions such as a vaccine and monoclonal antibodies have reduced the case fatality rate, it remains incredibly high and motivates study of the supportive treatments which best decrease risk of mortality in the context of these newer interventions. Dr. Genisca and her mentor Dr. Levine, a global expert in Ebola Virus Disease, will leverage a unique and well characterized clinical data set from the DRC to understand the role of microbial translocation in mediating mortality and which supportive treatments are most effective in specific subgroups of patients.

NIH PROJECT ABSTRACT Right-open-big Right-open-big
silvia-chiang-tall

Mentor

Carol Mitnick, Sc.D.
Co-mentor Jennifer Friedman, MD, PhD .MPH

Silvia Chiang, MD, MSc

Associate Professor of Pediatrics Rhode Island Hospital

Project 2. Mechanisms leading to tuberculosis-related respiratory sequelae in adolescents

Project two (Silvia Chiang, MD, ScM) will addresses Tuberculosis (TB), the pathogen responsible for the second greatest number of deaths globally in recent years, behind only COVID-19. TB caused a staggering 1.3 million deaths in 2022,6 a decline from 2021’s 1.6 million thought to be due to disruptions in care due to the pandemic 7. Dr. Silvia Chiang, a pediatrician who has served on WHO working groups to create guidelines for adolescent TB, will utilize data already collected from an adolescent cohort from Peru to understand risk factors for post TB lung disease as characterized by sophisticated spirometry and radiographic data. Post TB lung disease represents a poorly characterized clinical phenotype, which likely contributes significantly to the global burden of disease given the impact of chronic lung disease, the high prevalence of individuals living with post TB lung disease, and the long duration given onset in adolescence. Understanding the incidence of this disease entity among adolescents, identifying risk factors and non-invasive diagnostic tools will make a significant contribution to management approaches. Her primary mentor, Dr. Carole Mitnick, ScD, Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard University is a founding investigator for a collaborative effort to conduct RCTs to improve treatment of drug-resistant TB. Dr. Mitnick was contributing author to the original and revised Guidelines for the Programmatic Management of MDR-TB.

NIH PROJECT ABSTRACT Right-open-big Right-open-big
meagan-barry-tall

Mentor

Jeffery Bailey, MD, PhD

Meagan Barry, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine Rhode Island Hospital

Project 3: The role of environmental enteric dysfunction in praziquantel absorption and the pathogenesis of anemia among young children with schistosomiasis

Project three (Meagan Barry, MD, PhD) will be led by Dr. Barry, a physician scientist whose scholarship since the time of her PhD has addressed pathogens of global significance. Her project will leverage data and samples already available from an NIH funded clinical trial of children ages 1-4 years led by her mentor Dr. Friedman. Her project will address Environmental Enteric Dysfunction (EED) due to schistosomiasis, and its impact on both a) Praziquantel absorption using pharmacokinetic data from the trial and b) the role of EED in the pathogenesis of systemic inflammation with consequent anemia of inflammation. Schistosomiasis causes significant morbidity among children due to anemia, growth stunting, and undernutrition acting as major drivers of its DALYs.8,9 Dr. Friedman is a recognized international expert in morbidity due to schistosomiasis and optimal interventions to mitigate morbidity among children. These studies will leverage well characterized PK data from a pivotal NIH funded trial and will advance our understanding of the extent to which EED impacts praziquantel absorption, which may have implications for the absorption of other therapeutics. Understanding the role of EED in the pathogenesis of anemia among young children at highest risk for anemia globally represents an innovative hypothesis which will inform approaches to treatment. Specifically, young children have the highest prevalence of anemia globally, however, providing iron in the context of anemia due to inflammation will have a significantly dampened effect due to alterations in both iron absorption and bioavailability and must be addressed by treating the cause of the inflammation which we hypothesize is due to intestinal schistosomiasis contributing to EED.

NIH PROJECT ABSTRACT Right-open-big Right-open-big
ambrish-jha-tall

Mentor

Jonathan Kurtis, MD, PhD

Ambrish Jha, MD

Assistant Professor of Medicine, Clinician Educator Rhode Island Hospital

Project 4. Developing a novel therapeutic class of antimalarials targeting PfGARP as treatments for severe malaria

Project four (Ambrish Jha, MD) will discover novel therapeutics to address the intolerable burden of disease due to malaria globally. This project is led by physician-scientist, Ambrish Jha, MD who was a post-doctoral student (2015-17) with his mentor Dr Kurtis (see below) and co-authored three manuscripts (Nature, Clin Inf Dis, J Inf Dis) during that time. Malaria remains one of the greatest single agent killers globally, with over half a million deaths annually, 80% among children under the age five
10. Further, emerging resistance to current antimalarials, most worrisomely, Artemisinin derivates, has led to calls for development of novel therapeutics. This project will develop a small molecule drug candidate targeting Pf-GARP, a vaccine candidate, identified by Dr. Kurtis 11. PfGARP is a protein found only on the exofacial surface of P. falciparum infected red blood cells. Antibodies targeting PfGARP kill parasites at the trophozoite stage by inducing parasite apoptosis in the absence of immune cells or complement forming the scientific premise for and this project which will screen large libraries of small molecules to identify novel drug candidates which mimic the binding of antibodies to PfGARP resulting in parasite death.

NIH PROJECT ABSTRACT Right-open-big Right-open-big

CONTACT

Rhode Island Hospital
55 Claverick St.
Suite 101
Providence, RI 02906

sjohnson18@brownhealth.org

RESEARCH FUNDED BY

This website is supported by the Pathogens COBRE funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under grant number P20GM156688. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

QUICK LINKS

CORES RI
CIHR
Pharmacology Core of URI
International Health Institute at Brown Medical School
Global Health Initiative

brownhealth_rih_primarylogo500
cihr logo
uri-pharmacology-core-logo-small
© 2026 Rhode Island Hospital Department of Pediatrics