N Equals One

Despite strong recommendations from the CDC, pregnant people in the U.S. continue to show low vaccination rates against COVID-19. It's been a tough choice for many parents or soon-to-be parents, so in this episode, we dig into the details. UC San Diego Health experts Cynthia Gyamfi-Bannerman, MD, Christina Chambers, PhD, MPH, and Lars Bode, PhD, all weigh in on the latest research and recommendations. We also speak with San Diego mom Jasmine Faniel about her concerns and what it was like to face this choice during her pregnancy. Learn more about the safety of exposures in pregnancy and breastfeeding at mothertobaby.org.

Academic scientists rely on grants to fund their research, and the largest funder of biomedical research is the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). Unfortunately, many of the racial inequities in academic science have trickled their way into this grant funding process. As it stands, applications from African-American or Black scientists are less likely to be funded by federal funding agencies than applications submitted by white scientists. In this episode, Michael Taffe, PhD, a professor at UC San Diego, explains the complex root causes of this disparity and what scientists and institutes can do to address it. (Read his paper on the topic here: https://elifesciences.org/articles/65697)

David Gonzalez, PhD, is an associate professor at UC San Diego, where his lab studies how bacteria affect our health. He’s also a first-generation Mexican-American from San Diego County. Gonzalez, like his siblings, dropped out of high school, got a job and started a family. But when he found himself mowing lawns across the street of the local community college, something inside him shifted. In this episode, Gonzalez shares his unique journey through academia, and honors the mentors who inspired him along the way.

Climate change and COVID-19 are arguably the two greatest crisis of our time. The other thing they have in common is the fact that they disproportionately affect the same people — primarily underserved populations and communities of color. In this episode, we speak with Tarik Benmarhnia, PhD, about his work on environmental justice, and how it plays a role in the health of a community, whether that’s due to an infectious disease, pollutants, heatwaves or wildfires. If we can improve the structural fundamental causes of these issues and these inequalities, he says, we’ll be able to build more resilient communities.

Despite political risk to researchers and participants, a new study provides the first glimpse into the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on health care workers in Nicaragua, a country where the government refuses to acknowledge that there is a pandemic, or do anything about it. Researcher James McKerrow, MD, PhD, discusses his work with colleague Jorge Huete-Pérez, PhD. Richard Feinberg, PhD, provides his insights as an expert on U.S.-Latin American relations.

More than 5 million people around the world die from causes associated with a lack of physical activity. The news comes as many people have transitioned to working from home, are dealing with local gyms closing and may be sheltering-in-place as we face the COVID-19 pandemic. Two research teams from UC San Diego School of Medicine sought to understand sedentary lifestyles, with one finding that even light physical activity, including just standing, can benefit health, and the other that Americans are still sitting too much.

Around the world, at least 53 COVID-19 vaccines are currently undergoing clinical trials. Four of the largest and most promising have reached the final Phase III stage. UC San Diego is a testing site for three of the big four: Moderna, AstraZeneca and Janssen/Johnson & Johnson. In this episode, we speak with Susan Little, MD, principal investigator for two COVID-19 clinical trials in San Diego that are focused on finding a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2. Dr. Little discusses the science behind vaccines, how they will work to address the current pandemic, and when a potential COVID-19 vaccine will be ready.