FPG Faculty Fellow updates from campus
Nutritionist connects research from Galapagos to Helene relief
Heather Wasser, PhD, an FPG faculty fellow and assistant professor at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, has been able to apply lessons from her work with the UNC Center for Galapagos Studies on safe infant feeding in western North Carolina in the wake of Helene.
When Wasser went to western North Carolina in October to provide relief to Hurricane Helene victims and promote safe infant feeding, she found a situation similar to what she had seen in the Galapagos. Families in both places had easy access to powdered infant formula but lacked the clean water to prepare it safely. That presented new issues to examine.
“While most mothers in both areas breastfeed, there’s still a good amount who also use formula,” said Wasser, who’s been at Carolina for 22 years. “I’ve promoted breastfeeding for nearly 30 years, since I first learned its amazing benefits as an undergraduate student. But it wasn’t until the Galapagos that I appreciated its power in protecting the lives of babies when clean water or power are scarce — a situation many families in western N.C. are facing.”
Read the full story by Josh McCormick.
Gabriel Dichter Awarded NICHD Grant to Study Brain-Immune System Connections in Autism
Gabriel Dichter, PhD, an FPG faculty fellow and associate director for research at the UNC School of Medicine Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities, has been awarded an exploratory grant from the National Institute of Child and Human Development (NICHD) to study linkages between brain functioning and the immune system in autism. The project builds on pilot data collected by Kaitlin Cummings, a clinical psychology graduate student in Dichter’s lab.
In addition to Cummings, collaborators on the project include Keely Muscatell (Psychology and Neuroscience), Alana Campbell (Psychiatry), Kinh Truong (Biostatistics), Katherine Meltzoff (UC-Riverside), and Bennett Wood, MSW, a neurodivergent practitioner and former UNC LEND trainee. The project will use the EEG resources of the UNC Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center.
