Fall 2023 Spark Award Recipients Announced

The Yale Institute for Global Health has selected Thomas Fernandez, MD; Eleanor Reid, MD, PhD; and Vanessa Ezenwa, PhD to receive the Fall 2023 Spark Award.

Each recipient will receive an award of up to $10,000. The Spark Award aims to provide initial funding to support global health research initiatives and partnerships among YIGH-affiliated faculty. Candidates were selected based on five criteria: innovation, feasibility, sustainability, anticipated outcomes, and alignment with YIGH’s mission to improve the health of individuals and populations worldwide. Below is a summary of the Fall 2023 Spark Award projects and their Principal Investigators:

Thomas Fernandez, MD: Associate Professor in the Child Study Center and in Psychiatry; Vice Chair for Research, Child Study Center; Co-Director of the Tic and OCD Program, Child Study Center; Affiliated Faculty, Yale Institute for Global Health

Project Summary: This project aims to establish a sustainable, cost-effective genetic testing program in Pakistan, focusing on diagnosing and treating inherited neurodevelopmental disorders prevalent in consanguineous families. Dr. Fernandez will collaborate with Dr. Sara Mumtaz of the National University of Medical Sciences in Pakistan. The initiative will address the significant lack of genetic testing resources in Pakistan. Spark Award funding will be used for initial activities including DNA sample transfer, sequencing, and result sharing, alongside the development of educational materials for clinicians and families. This effort is poised to enhance health outcomes in Pakistan by enabling early diagnosis, guiding interventions, and fostering new scientific discoveries in the field of genetics.

Eleanor Reid MD, PhD: Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine; Associate Medical Director, Yale Shoreline Emergency Department; Affiliated Faculty, Yale Institute for Global Health

Project Summary: The estimated gap in Ethiopia between need for palliative care and access is over 95%, resulting in unnecessary physical suffering and significant costs that are absorbed by the individual and family, often resulting in medical impoverishment. The Spark Award will help create a sustainable, scalable, and Ethiopian-derived model for home-based palliative care delivery by empowering indigenous neighborhood organizations, known as iddirs, to serve as community health workers within their communities. Given the established role of iddirs in Ethiopia, this project will help improve the quality of life of millions of vulnerable Ethiopians and reduce the tremendous costs of illness that often accompany diagnoses of incurable disease.

Vanessa Ezenwa, PhD: Professor, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology; Affiliated Faculty, Yale Institute for Global Health

Project Summary: Bovine tuberculosis (BTB) is one of the world’s most neglected zoonotic diseases. This project will adapt a human TB test that has shown promise in distinguishing different stages of disease for use in a major animal reservoir of BTB in Africa. Spark Award funding will be used for the development of this test which will pave the way for large-scale studies to examine the efficacy of novel TB interventions in wildlife. This project will begin to assess if controlling BTB in animals reduces the burden of zoonotic TB in people.