2021 Saint Louis University Research Institute Impact Report

On the Cover

Responding to a Pandemic, For and With St. Louis In a time of dire need, researchers at Saint Louis University worked diligently in testing and administering safe and effective vaccines for COVID-19. This work was made possible through the extraordinary response from the St. Louis community, including the hundreds of residents who participated in vaccine trials. The University’s Center for Vaccine Development recruited its first volunteer for a COVID-19 trial the week of August 10, 2020, when its researchers began a study to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of the Moderna vaccine. SLU became one of the most highly enrolled sites in the Moderna trial, which included sites across the country.

Volunteers Enrolled

Total Saint Louis University - Moderna Clinical Trial Participants

Enrollment Period, By Week

Some photos used in this report were taken before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This book covers research from September 2020 – September 2021, and therefore was written before the emergence of the Omicron variant.

The SLU Research Institute Annual Impact Report is published annually for Saint Louis University, its alumni, friends, and benefactors.

SPECIAL THANKS

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SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSIT Y

C O N TA C T U S

OTHER UNIVERSIT Y PHONE NUMBERS

Office of the President 314­-977-­7777 Office of the Provost 314-977-2193 Undergraduate and Graduate Admissions 314-977-2500 Alumni Engagement 314-977-2250

EDITORIAL TE A M

Kevin Lynch Editor Ryan Lawless Assistant Editor

CONTRIBUTORS

MaryCait Dolan Claire Creedon Taylor Management Group

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Fred P. Pestello, Ph.D. President Joseph Conran (’67, ’70) Chair of the Board of Trustees Michael Lewis, Ph.D. Provost Sheila Manion Vice President, Development

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The University’s Response to COVID-19

SLU RESE ARCH

Kenneth A. Olliff Vice President for Research and Partnerships Director, SLU Research Institute Matthew Christian Associate Vice President for Research and Chief of Staff Jasmin Patel Assistant Vice President for Research Strategy and Innovation Amy Breuer Manager, Programs and Partnerships

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82 Big Ideas

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Table of Contents 04

OPENING LETTERS

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SLU RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Research Statistics 14 Distinguished Fellows 18 The Sinquefield Center for Applied Economic Research 26 36

THE UNIVERSITY’S RESPONSE TO COVID-19

82

CENTER FOR VACCINE DEVELOPMENT

98

GEOSPATIAL INSTITUTE

Geo-Resolution 2021 114 118

WATER INSTITUTE

130

INSTITUTE FOR HEALING JUSTICE & EQUITY

144

AHEAD INSTITUTE

160

INSTITUTE FOR DRUG AND BIOTHERAPEUTIC INNOVATION

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CENTER FOR ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING

188

SLU/YOUGOV POLL

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THE NEW ROOTS FOR RESTORATION BIOLOGY INTEGRATION INSTITUTE

242 Support Us

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THE DIPAOLO LAB

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PEOPLE AND TECHNOLOGY HORIZON

208 THE HENRY AND AMELIA NASRALLAH CENTER FOR NEUROSCIENCE 214

RESEARCH INSTITUTE FELLOWS

224

PUBLISHED EXCELLENCE

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ANNOUNCEMENTS

240 SUPPORT US 242

APPENDIX TABLE OF CONTENTS

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City, St. Louis County, and the State of Missouri enabled us to bring our research into the community during a time of great need.

As it entered its third century, Saint Louis University approved a strategic plan that would ensure our next 100 years would be filled with discovery, partnership, and insights in service to humanity. In 2018, we were blessed with a historic gift that allowed us to rigorously pursue that vision: a 10-year, $50 million donation from Dr. Jeanne and Mr. Rex Sinquefield that established the Saint Louis University Research Institute.

The Research Institute has proven to be a catalyst for cutting-edge research at our University, making meaningful and strategic investments that empower our faculty and students to pursue their greatest research ambitions. It has been a distinct pleasure of mine to witness the growth, momentum, and impact of our research over the last year.

When we set out on this journey in 2018, none of us could have anticipated the devastation and adversity caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, the establishment of the Research Institute prior to the pandemic ensured we had a strong foundation that would allow us to launch an aggressive and successful pandemic response.

Additionally, our relationships with St. Louis

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I am immensely proud of the way SLU rose to the challenge of the pandemic. As a national leader in vaccine research, we knew right away that SLU would join the race for a COVID-19 vaccine. Our Center for Vaccine Development, one of just 10 Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Units (VTEUs) in the country, led phase 3 clinical trials for both the Moderna and J&J/Janssen vaccines. In the past year, students and faculty from the Trudy Busch Valentine School of Nursing have distributed thousands of those vaccines in vaccine drives hosted both on and off campus. Meanwhile, our College for Public Health and Social Justice partnered with St. Louis County on an impressive regional response, informed by real-time data and geospatial analysis provided by SLU experts.

Finally, the Sinquefields, in yet another token of extraordinary generosity, helped launch the Research Institute’s COVID-19 Seed Fund, which supported a wide range of immediateimpact projects, such as addiction treatment during the pandemic, telehealth, health communication, and contact tracing.

In the last few years, we have made significant investments in our research, even as we did not fully know when those investments would pay off. We have seen that there is strength in bold, decisive action during times of crisis. As we slowly begin to imagine

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life beyond the pandemic, SLU will not lose sight of our responsibility to address emerging challenges and lead the way for all.

We constantly analyze what the future may hold, both for the University and for our world. This is who we are as a Jesuit research university, and this is the vision made possible by the Sinquefields’ gift.

Saint Louis University is now fully prepared to live our mission as a world-class Jesuit research university, leading where possible and serving where needed. I am humbled to serve at this University during what I believe is the beginning of a bold new chapter of research excellence and humanitarian service.

On behalf of the entire Saint Louis University community, I invite you to explore this Research Institute Impact Report and share in our journey toward a better world — for all.

Sincerely,

FRED P. PESTELLO, PH.D. President

This year marks three years since Saint Louis University announced the Sinquefields’ gift that created the SLU Research Institute. Their generosity launched SLU’s current rise as a preeminent Jesuit research university in the City of St. Louis. It has been my distinct honor to serve as the director of the Research Institute and to assist SLU’s researchers in pursuing their ambitions.

Over these formative years, the Research Institute has invested in talented researchers across the University, recruited promising new scholars and scientists, and supported a set of new interdisciplinary research initiatives.

Pulling together expertise from across the breadth of the University to tackle major societal and social challenges, these “Big Ideas” institutes have proven remarkably successful.

The Research Institute supported the launch of two new institutes in the past year: the Institute for Drug and Biotherapeutic Innovation (IDBI) and the Center for Additive Manufacturing (SLU CAM). IDBI is a consortium of SLU researchers whose diverse expertise are shaping the future of drug discovery, particularly for underserved patients such as those with rare or neglected diseases. SLU CAM utilizes emerging 3D technology along with highly trained staff to enable researchers to bring ideas into physical form and thus fuel innovation.

SLU’s faculty have again responded to the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the past year, our Geospatial Institute provided vital support in location data gathering and analysis, establishing itself as a regional leader in geospatial health. The Institute for Healing Justice & Equity raised awareness of health disparities exacerbated by the pandemic to promote equitable access to medical care.

In spite of the pandemic, SLU institutes achieved major milestones this year.

The AHEAD Institute, in collaboration with our healthcare partner SSM Health, launched a Virtual Data Warehouse that comprises de-identified health data to improve health care delivery. The WATER Institute convened the 2021 Summit for Water, which brought together Midwestern government, academic, and industry leaders to examine critical regional priorities, from urban water infrastructure to changes in our rivers.

The pages in this 2021 Impact Report provide a glimpse into the accomplishments of SLU’s researchers and their perseverance. We invite you to read along and celebrate their successes.

Sincerely,

KENNETH A. OLLIFF Vice President for Research and Partnerships Director, SLU Research Institute

The outstanding work of these Big Ideas — and all SLU’s researchers — fulfills the vision of a preeminent Jesuit research university that was at the heart of the Sinquefields’ gift. With tremendous momentum behind us, over the next years we will aggressively grow research excellence that translates into tangible impacts in our community and world.

OPENING LETTERS

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The Saint Louis University Research Institute Research the Jesuit Way

R. Scott Martin, Ph.D., works with a PolyJet printer in the Center for Additive Manufacturing’s facility.

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THE RESEARCH INSTITUTE

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Charting the Path Inside the Research Institute’s Mission In 2018, Saint Louis University (SLU) announced a historic gift: $50 million from Dr. Jeanne and Mr. Rex Sinquefield, the largest single gift in the University’s history. The Sinquefields’ generous gift set SLU on a path to becoming a world-class research university, one whose ambitions and motivations are uniquely informed by SLU’s Jesuit values of service and the pursuit of truth.

Dr. Jeanne and Mr. Rex Sinquefield visit the Saint Louis University campus.

Since its establishment, the Research Institute has affirmed SLU as a leader in rigorous research, exemplifying relentless discovery, transformative outcomes, and engaged scholarship. The Research Institute plays a vital role in investing in SLU’s faculty and infrastructure, building areas of research strength, fostering new collaborations and partnerships, and recruiting outstanding new scholars and scientists. The Research Institute exemplifies SLU’s distinctive, rigorous, and impactful approach to research: “Research the Jesuit Way.” The Research Institute’s overarching goals are to: ‒ Achieve and sustain annual research expenditure growth that places SLU among the fastest growing universities in the country ‒ Establish eminence in strategic, University-wide research priority areas ‒ Raise the profile and reputation of SLU as a world-class research university in the St. Louis area and around the world ‒ Recruit and retain world-class research leaders and provide significant investments in their work ‒ Leverage the initial gift to increase federal, industry, and philanthropic funding for research done at SLU 8

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Interdisciplinary The Research Institute is transforming research at SLU by fostering large, interdisciplinary collaborations addressing global challenges that cut across disciplinary boundaries. Faculty supported by the Research Institute have launched new institutes and centers, including:

Geospatial Institute at SLU (GeoSLU)

The Water Access, Technology, Environment and Resources (WATER) Institute

The Institute for Healing Justice & Equity (IHJE)

The Advanced HEAlth Data (AHEAD) Research Institute

The Institute for Drug and Biotherapeutic Innovation (SLU-IDBI)

The SLU Center for Additive Manufacturing (SLU CAM)

The Research Institute has also supported existing centers of research excellence, such as the University’s Center for Vaccine Development. Rising initiatives supported by the Research Institute cover topics including neuroscience, humanities, biomedical science, and the human-technology interface. The Research Institute has also facilitated new collaborations with leaders in government, industry, and research institutions, such as the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), the Boeing Company, and the Danforth Plant Science Center.

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Flavio Esposito, Ph.D., associate professor of computer science, joins Enbal Shacham, Ph.D., professor of public health, in leading a discussion on mobility tracking and anonymous contact tracing within the MY COVID19 Tracker App.

United in Purpose The People and Programs of the Research Institute

The Research Institute is comprised of researchers and University leaders working to build an intense culture of discovery and innovation. What began as a historic act of generosity from the Sinquefields has flourished into an ambitious and collaborative effort to rethink how a university carries out its research mission and the impact that it can have on the world.

The Research Institute is overseen by a director as well as a number of faculty members and committees, each of which brings a unique perspective in deciding how best to leverage the Sinquefields’ generosity. However, the expertise of the Research Institute is not limited to the faculty — external partnerships are essential to keeping SLU at the forefront of discovery. Each center and institute supported by the Research Institute has combined their efforts with external organizations, businesses, research centers, and more. SLU has created a community of research that will leave a mark on the world for generations to come.

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Research Councils and Committees The Research Institute is made up of leadership bodies that have responsibility for overseeing distinct aspects of the Institute’s mission. Committees are responsible for allocating funds from the Research Institute and identifying emerging research priorities, while also increasing faculty engagement in research across the University.

This multi-layered organizational structure ensures the Research Institute fulfills its mission to grow existing research at SLU.

Leslie Hinyard, Ph.D., MSW, leads AHEAD Institute researchers in designing a new study.

Research Growth Committee The Research Growth Committee internally advises SLU’s research growth agenda and oversees investments in university-wide initiatives.

Research Institute Fellows Committee The Research Institute Fellows Committee, a group of preeminent SLU researchers appointed by the Provost, guides the selection of researchers to be awarded the title of Fellow.

Science and Engineering Research Council The Science and Engineering Research Council advises SLU’s research growth agenda in science and engineering and facilitates research initiatives among faculty members.

Applied Health Research Council

Amanda Cox, Ph.D., P.E., and a team of researchers prepare a catamaran with a GNSS antenna.

The Applied Health Research Council advises SLU’s research growth agenda in applied health and monitors research initiatives among faculty members.

Scholarship Research Council The Scholarship Research Council manages funds for scholarly research, identifies scholarship winners, and enables collaboration through funding opportunities.

School of Medicine Research Planning Committee The Research Planning Committee is the advisory body to the Dean of the School of Medicine for policies, activities, and long-term objectives pertaining to research in the School of Medicine.​ THE RESEARCH INSTITUTE

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Funding & Support The Research Institute has several means for distributing merit-based awards to the University’s best and brightest minds whose ambitions fuel SLU’s research success.

Sofie Liang, M.Sc.Eng., uses the Quadrupole Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry system to quantify organic compounds in water samples to help address water quality issues.

Big Ideas

Research Institute Fellows

The Big Ideas competition is a multi-year process for identifying and investing in collaborative projects that will further SLU’s ascension as a leading research destination. The program encourages collaboration across departmental and collegiate lines, allowing truly ambitious projects to thrive.

Like other great research universities, SLU is constantly seeking outstanding faculty members who will contribute to the creation of new knowledge, the training of students, and engagement with scholarly and civic communities. In addition to providing financial support to departments and schools in their recruitment efforts, the SLU Research Institute Fellows program creates a cohort of scholars from multiple departments.

The Research Institute hosts dinners and workshops specifically for Research Institute Fellows.

The Big Ideas competition advances the University’s goal of pursuing new university-wide priorities. Core infrastructure, major instrumentation proposals, and long-standing research projects are proposed to a panel of faculty reviewers and senior administrators. Selected proposals are offered varying amounts of investment support based on their level of faculty engagement, strong leadership, and compelling research plans.

Several projects that began as Big Ideas have since launched as full institutes, and several more projects are progressing well.

The competitive format of the competition supports ambitious faculty and encourages teams to be entrepreneurial and forward-thinking with their plans. The Big Ideas competition is a direct reflection of the depth and scale of research that has been enabled by the Sinquefields’ gift.

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A section dedicated to the Research Institute Fellows can be found on page 214. In the upcoming year, the Research Institute plans to expand the Fellows Program to increase recognition and support for many of SLU’s other deserving researchers. The Fellows designation builds on the fourth goal of the Research Institute: increasing the eminence and impact of SLU’s research.

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Applied Health Sciences Research Grant Program The Applied Health Sciences Research Grant Program is intended to encourage collaborative groups of interdisciplinary researchers across at least two academic units to conceptualize a larger future grant application for external funding.

Beaumont Scholarship Research Award The Beaumont Scholarship Research Award encourages faculty researchers in the arts, humanities, and social sciences to advance and complete their scholarly research projects, and to conceptualize and prepare applications for external funding.

President’s Research Fund The President’s Research Fund supports promising projects with strong potential to attract external funding. Since 2009, these funds have been available for researchers to support data collection and pilot activities to support extramural grant applications.

Scholarship Opportunity Fund The Scholarship Research Council sponsors the Scholarship Opportunity Fund (SOF), which is supported by the Research Institute. The SOF aligns with the goals of the Research Institute by leveraging small investments for high-return gains.

It is intended to benefit SLU researchers in the humanities, social sciences, and beyond to complete high impact research projects.

Spark Microgrants The Research Institute recognizes the importance of flexible funding to stimulate ambitious ideas and form collaborations across the University and beyond. To support faculty research, the Research Institute offers Spark Microgrants to support faculty wishing to launch new projects with collaborators outside of their primary disciplinary area.

Saint Louis University’s Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering (ISE) building features innovative teaching environments and flexible lab spaces. Opened in summer 2020, the 90,000-square-foot, three-story structure is a place where students and faculty learn and collaborate together.

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Investments in Impact Measuring the Growth of SLU Research

Overall External Grant Funding in 2021 3%

$1,706

17% $8,984

9%

$4,500

65%

5%

$34,424

$2,799

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Federal – Health & Human Services/ National Institutes of Health

Federal – Other

Non-profit

Federal – National Science Foundation

State & Local

Corporation

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All figures presented in thousands (000s)

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Home of the Center for Vaccine Development

(COVID-19 Research)

All figures presented in thousands (000s)

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Non-medical

Non-medical

All figures presented in thousands (000s)

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Robert Cardillo moderates a panel discussion at the 2021 Geo-Resolution conference on SLU’s campus.

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Distinguished Fellows Robert Cardillo Former Director, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA)

Dennis Muilenburg Former President and CEO, The Boeing Company

Art McCoy, Ph.D. Superintendent Emeritus, Jennings School District

Over the years, Saint Louis University has been fortunate to build deep relationships with some of the world’s most eminent scientists, scholars, and industry leaders. In recognition of their continued support for SLU’s mission, the Research Institute created the Distinguished Fellows Program in 2020.

Distinguished Fellows are selected by the Research Institute for their outstanding accomplishments in their respective fields and dedicate time to advising the Institute on emerging research trends, key external partnerships, and strategic priorities.

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Robert Cardillo “Find your passion and pursue it relentlessly.

In other words, think about the outcomes that are most important to you and then find ways to create them.”

Distinguished Fellow, Saint Louis University Research Institute Former Director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) Robert Cardillo is the president of The Cardillo Group (TCG). TCG delivers strategic and operational expertise to create an enhanced awareness of our planet to enable improved decision-making.

TCG’s portfolio includes academic, non-profit, and national securityrelated clients.

Before TCG, Cardillo held leadership positions with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Defense Intelligence Agency, and Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Until 2019, Cardillo was the sixth Director of the NGA. He transformed the Agency’s future value proposition through innovative partnerships with the growing commercial geospatial marketplace.

Why did you choose to become a Distinguished Fellow at Saint Louis University after stepping down as director of the National GeospatialIntelligence Agency?

I was seeking to find a way to continue to contribute to my profession of geospatial intelligence in the service of our nation’s security. My position at SLU offers me the opportunity to help prepare the next generation of GEOINT professionals, especially via the Geospatial Institute. Moreover, SLU offers me a homeroom from which I can continue to engage with the growing GEOINT ecosystem in the St. Louis region to meet the growing demand signal as the Next NGA West (N2W) headquarters is under construction in North St. Louis. Finally, SLU allows me to identify new opportunities for GEOINT solutions beyond NGA — for example, in the equitable application of health care services.

How do you think SLU can best contribute to the St. Louis region’s aspiration to become the nation’s geospatial center of excellence?

By staying true to its core mission — enable human flourishing. To that end, there are so many outcomes that geospatial approaches can assist. These include food security, water safety, supply chain security, and enhanced safety. And to pursue each of those in a responsible, moral, and ethical manner.

What advice do you have for young people who would like to explore geospatial science as a future career possibility?

Find your passion and pursue it relentlessly. In other words, think about the outcomes that are most important to you and then find ways to create them. Finally, don’t hurry — learn your craft — and be purposeful.

You served under President Obama for several years. Are there any lessons about leadership that you came away with from that experience?

I learned discipline. Discipline to figure out not just if the President needs to know something but when he needs to know it. Discipline to frame extremely complex situations into a comprehensible context that allows arguably the world’s busiest person to make an informed decision. And, finally, the discipline to never play poker with

Robert Cardillo addresses Vasit Sagan, Ph.D., director of the Geospatial Institute at SLU, during a panel discussion on geospatial solutions to global challenges at the 2021 Geo-Resolution conference.

President Obama — he was impossible to read during a briefing. Afterwards, I was often (pleasantly) surprised that he had not only completely digested the gist of the presentation but he then elevated the issue to the strategic framework in which it belonged.

Although you’ve never lived here, you’ve been visiting St. Louis regularly for many years. Are you feeling optimistic about the city’s future?

I am very, very optimistic about the city’s future. This is not to say that I don’t appreciate all of the challenges on the road to that outstanding outcome. I do recognize them. But what makes me so confident about our future is the level of commitment at all levels of Team St. Louis — business and academic leaders, government officials, non-profits, and the local population. The U.S. government has benefited greatly from nearly 200 years of such commitment from the citizens of St. Louis. And I see that benefit growing exponentially as St. Louis steps up to the increased demand signal to meet the needs of a complex world.

What does St. Louis need to do in order to become a more vibrant region?

Step one: talent, talent, talent. Growth is primarily dependent upon a reliable availability of people to step into the new jobs. Step two: stay united. Step three: bring in more and more partners in the city and the region.

What does St. Louis need to do in order to become a more equitable region?

As difficult as winning the talent game will be, becoming more vibrant in an equitable manner is arguably more difficult. Especially since this has not been done well before.

Step one: reimagine our social compact in a way that identifies and builds bridges between currently included groups and those that have been traditionally excluded.

Step two: provide tools to members of the excluded groups so they can compete to join the profession (e.g., software development skills via LaunchCode or an advanced manufacturing certification via Ranken). Step three: measure and monitor the rate of increased participation over time. Make adjustments as lessons are learned.

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Dennis Muilenburg “Leverage your God-given talents and passions, pursue a career that makes a meaningful difference, and take on the toughest challenges you can find.”

Distinguished Fellow, Saint Louis University Research Institute Former President, CEO, Chairman of the Board, The Boeing Company Dennis Muilenburg is Chairman, CEO, and Co-Founder of New Vista Acquisition Corporation, launched in 2021, and Owner, President, and CEO of DAM CyFly Consulting, LLC, launched in 2020. Previously, Muilenburg joined The Boeing Company in 1985 as an engineering intern. He quickly rose through the company, serving as president from 2013 to 2019, as chief executive officer from 2015 to 2019, and as chairman of the board from March 2016 to October 2019. Until July 2015, Muilenburg served as vice chairman, president, and chief operating officer of Boeing, where he supported the company’s aerospace business operations and focused on specific growth enablers, including important global relationships, leadership initiatives, and development program performance.

Why did you choose to become a Distinguished Fellow at Saint Louis University?

I’ve always enjoyed investing in people and driving the leading edge of innovation.

After retiring from Boeing, I was also eager to give back to our community and region, and the opportunity to become a Distinguished Fellow at SLU was a perfect fit. I’m thrilled to be part of a world-class research university with a noble mission, partnering with the next generation of talent and pursuing technologies and capabilities that benefit the globe.

You started at the Boeing Company as an intern and worked your way up to CEO. What advice do you have for students who are just starting out in their careers?

I encourage students to stretch for their dreams, and then stretch farther. Know who you are and be purposeful. Leverage your God-given talents and passions, pursue a career that makes a meaningful difference, and take on the toughest challenges you can find.

What similarities and differences do you see between a corporate boardroom and a research university?

While there are differences in organizational structures, processes, governance, and outcome metrics, I believe the similarities are more significant. In both cases, the most important investment leaders make is their investment in people. And, in both the boardroom and the university, a compelling vision and strategy, clarity of mission and purpose, teamwork, a strong values framework, and the pursuit of excellence are common objectives.

Students work together in the Academic Technology Commons (ATC) in the Pius XII Memorial Library.

What does it take for universities and corporations to form long-standing, sustainable partnerships?

Strong and sustainable partnerships are built on shared values, long-term perspective, mutual respect, and top-notch people. These are elements I see in SLU’s existing partnerships and the ones we are pursuing for the future. Universities and corporations also form the most effective partnerships when they have a common understanding of success objectives and metrics, with a willingness to tailor and flex their processes to match their partner’s needs.

How do you think SLU can best contribute to the St. Louis region’s growing innovation ecosystem?

SLU already plays a pivotal role in the St. Louis region’s innovation ecosystem, and the growth opportunities ahead are extraordinary. For example, rapid expansion in the fields of biomedical, geospatial, aerospace, and agriculture technologies — intersecting with advanced manufacturing — create unique cross-discipline innovation flywheels in the region. By investing in top talent and leading-edge technology, building strong industry collaborations, and focusing on meaningful outcomes, I’m convinced SLU has a very exciting future.

What does St. Louis need to do in order to increase diversity and equity in STEM fields?

We need to engage diverse talent at every level of the education system, creating opportunities for all and generating STEM interest at an early age. With educationindustry collaborations, including hands-on experiential learning, we can create new career models, with rewarding and equitable opportunities for personal and business growth. And, we need to communicate the awesome and exciting possibilities that STEM careers provide, having meaningful and positive impact for people and for the world.

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Art McCoy, Ph.D. “There is no better time than today to go about teaching, serving others, and leading the Jesuit way.”

Distinguished Fellow, Saint Louis University Research Institute Superintendent Emeritus, Jennings School District SAGES President Regional Business Council STL.works Leader After graduating Magna Cum Laude with a bachelor’s degree at age 19, Art McCoy, Ph.D., began his career as a trailblazing mathematics teacher in the Rockwood School District, making him the youngest certified teacher in Missouri. By age 33, McCoy had received his master’s degree and Ph.D., and was named the youngest and first African American Superintendent of Ferguson-Florissant School District. Under his leadership, Jennings School District achieved multiple years of 100% graduation, college, and career placement through innovative programming and professional mentorship. In the last 15 years, McCoy has raised over $20 million to create innovative programs in STEAM, workforce development, diversityinclusion-equity, mental health and wellness to sever attainment gaps existing in society (SAGES).

Why did you choose to become a Distinguished Fellow at Saint Louis University?

For over two decades, my mission as a minister and education leader has been to educate as if our life, legacy, and liberty depend on it by lovingly severing attainment gaps existing in society. After retiring from the superintendent of schools position but never from the mission of teaching, researching/learning, and leading, there was no other institution as committed to this cause, the Jesuit way, as Saint Louis University.

The SLU core values of Christian spirit, competence, creativity, and social involvement in teaching, research, and health care are my life’s work and focus, having started two school-based health clinics, homeless shelters, school-based food hubs, and ParentChild Interaction Therapy and research in schools, while achieving 94% to 100% graduation, career, and college placement rates with underrepresented students and urban districts for over a decade.

Being a Distinguished Fellow enables me to bolster SLU faculty and involvement in education, research, health care, and workforce development in St. Louis and beyond as the Regional Business Council STL.works leader, Missouri’s only Mental Health America board director, Chair of BJC Children’s Hospital Community Public Health Benefit Committee, and education scholar.

What are the lessons we have learned in education during the pandemic that SLU can leverage to make an impact?

It was a pleasure to lead a series of SLU webinars throughout this year on successful schooling during COVID-19 with state and local leaders, including the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner, COVID-19 Task Force physicians, psychiatrists, Missouri’s teacher of the year, and others.

First, we have learned that education institutions must focus on student and staff wellbeing and mental health and enhance research, policies, and practical programs with students, school staff, and communities.

Second, we have learned that, despite many educators acknowledging the pandemic presented an opportunity to redesign education, education innovation requires significant, long-term guidance with thought leadership, technical assistance, and action research.

Students return to campus for the fall 2020 semester amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

Third, we learned that more money and technology fall short of the systemic improvements that strong leadership, committed scholars, interdisciplinary experts, and educators can make with students and parents.

SLU has a variety of partnerships with school districts, and its researchers are engaged in educational policy analysis. What impact do you hope SLU will have in this space?

SLU provides truth, transparency with data, research, scholarship, and a spotlight on local, state, and national trends on topics essential for Missouri to move forward.

Hopefully, SLU will spur greater action for education innovation, equity, and leadership.

SLU is positioned to create LIFE – a leadership institute for education and equity. We can be a brighter lighthouse for information and inspiration for educational innovation that brings more equitable practices, policies, and procedures for the nearly one million Missouri students and beyond. School districts need our technical assistance and partners to provide information, professional development, and academic scholarship.

What advice do you have for aspiring teachers?

Aspiring teachers must be mission-minded and understand their specific calling as an educator and public servant while reconciling the purpose of America’s public school system, which is to build character, citizenry through an educated electorate, and career competency.

Strong servant-leaders are needed to enlighten, empower, and engage rural, suburban, and urban communities with the greatest need during this historic period when over 50% of public-school students are people of color and from homes that qualify for free or reduced meals. In a time when some communities and people in power believe that lessons on racism and historical power struggles in America are political left-winged critical race theory propaganda, educators must be equipped to address such topics with sufficient understanding and scholarship, evidence, and accuracy. With tough skin, prepare to be mental health-minded while helping others learn, care more, and even disagree agreeably in a moment when board members and educators are egregiously disrespected and even harassed by individuals over issues such as requiring students to wear a mask in school for the well-being of others.

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The Sinquefield Center for Applied Economic Research Michelle Wickman presents statistical employment results to colleagues.

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We’re currently focusing a lot of our work on St. Louis. Helping our brothers and sisters in our community is a core tenet of our work.

Michael Podgursky

Ph.D., Director, The Sinquefield Center for Applied Economic Research

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Dillon Fuchsman writes a model of pension wealth accrual.

Research for and with St. Louis 28

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“We’re currently focusing a lot of our work on St. Louis. Helping our brothers and sisters in our community is a core tenet of our work,” Podgursky said.

The Sinquefield Center was established in 2018 as part of the $50 million Sinquefield gift that also established the SLU Research Institute. The Center is guided by an executive committee that includes leaders from the College for Public Health and Social Justice, the School of Education, and the Richard A. Chaifetz School of Business.

The mission of the Center is to advance rigorous economic research that can inform public policy and advance urban economic development. Center staff and affiliated researchers are currently studying a variety of topics including taxation, education, health, regulation, entrepreneurship, and technology policy.

The Center is currently working with geospatial cell phone data to analyze workplace reentry as Missouri begins to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Another project is led by Takako Nomi, Ph.D., associate director of the Sinquefield Center, who is conducting multiple longitudinal studies related to education in Missouri, with a focus on urban areas. The Center hopes these studies can uncover inequities and disparities in education and evaluate the educational pipeline to find where issues may be occurring and what factors lead to the best economic outcome for students.

A core question in all academic research is: How can this research and the knowledge being generated be applied to the challenges of today? The Sinquefield Center for Applied Economic Research at Saint Louis University gets right to the heart of this question by doing applied research, or research applied directly to real-life scenarios to understand and predict future outcomes.

“With applied economics, we typically evaluate something, a potential policy change or tax increase, for example, and determine what the downstream effect is,” Mike Podgursky, Ph.D., director of the Sinquefield Center, said. By evaluating the impact of new economic policies, for example, the Sinquefield Center is able to show the way to a more equitable and just society, particularly for the regional community in St. Louis.

Guided by the University’s Jesuit values, the Sinquefield Center is using the tools of modern applied microeconomics to support creating better economic opportunities for all residents.

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Building a Database The best way to apply data is to first gather a lot of it. The Sinquefield Center has taken this to heart, developing a massive data warehouse over the past year. Essentially a cluster of remote computer servers that house and organize the data like a large-scale filing cabinet, this data warehouse is a rich trove of data that will accelerate the Center’s output of impactful research.

Ultimately, four major sections of data were developed over the past year, making up a large portion of the 400+ terabytes of data in the Center’s new cloud warehouse. These data sets are highlighted below.

Michelle Wickman presents statistical results to colleagues.

Veraset Geospatial Data The Sinquefield Center entered into an agreement to secure a second year of cell phone mobility data from Veraset.

The research team is moving rapidly to download and do spatial matches to these data. The Center is matching the detailed phone mobility data with data on roughly 1.2 million plats, a unit of property registered with a city or county.

There are multiple projects underway that are utilizing this dataset, from public health studies analyzing distance travelled to receive a COVID-19 vaccine to studies comparing economic patterns prior to the pandemic and patterns developing during the city’s recovery.

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Missouri Income and Sales Tax Data

Missouri Longitudinal Education Data

Through an arrangement with the University of Missouri’s Department of Economics, more than a decade of tax data from the Missouri Department of Revenue and Missouri Legislature will be preserved and updated annually by the Sinquefield Center. This dataset will provide SLU researchers with customized, geographically aggregated data files and will be used in conjunction with the Veraset data to study patterns of economic activity and recovery in the St. Louis region.

Takako Nomi, Ph.D., is leading several projects that make use of de-identified large longitudinal K-12 and higher education data files. These longitudinal studies will hopefully unveil pipelines related to education programs and funds that lead students to better economic outcomes. One of Nomi’s evaluations focuses on high school students who participate in Project Lead the Way career and technical education programs.

Another project examines a cohort of Missouri public school ninth graders through high school graduation and

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the six subsequent years by sweeping records against the National Student Clearinghouse. Still another study uses public higher education data to track credit accumulation for transfer students.

Through the accrual of these data, the Center has made great progress in developing a cooperative research relationship with two state education agencies: the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development. The Center also collaborates with the Urban Education Research Center at UM-Kansas City to strengthen the capacity of education research in Missouri.

Jonathan Pressler monitors data processing on the cloud server.

Chess Data In the wake of popular media attention, there is a great deal of interest in performance gaps between men and women in chess. Given the extensive collaboration between SLU and the St. Louis Chess Club, the Sinquefield Center has been able to access data from the International Chess Federation.

The Center has just completed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the U.S. Chess Federation that will grant access to individual level data on chess performance in domestic and international tournaments. The Center will soon begin longitudinal studies of gaps between male and female players and any contributing factors, hopefully providing a roadmap to close them.

In addition to economic data, the Center houses large data sets covering tournament chess performance and ratings for over one hundred thousand U.S. and international chess players.

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Dillon Fuchsman describes his econometric model to colleagues.

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Building a Team The Sinquefield Center made huge strides in filling out its research and administrative team in 2021. The Center has gained 11 new members over the last two years: a new associate director, three postdoctoral fellows, two predoctoral fellows, two graduate research assistants, a research consultant, and two Research Fellows.

“These new hires will be vital to the future success of the Center as they look to create a wealth of economic knowledge for St. Louis and beyond.”

The additions, while recent, have already resulted in promising developments.

Postdoctoral Fellows Dillon Fuchsman, Jonathan Pressler, and Guangli Zhang who joined in 2020 and 2021, have focused on teacher labor markets, urban economics, and labor economics, respectively. Predoctoral Fellows Michelle Wickman and Steve Scroggins are both involved in geospatial-related dissertation research. James Molloy, a new graduate assistant with the Sinquefield Center, has research focused

on the recession and recovery of inperson workplace density due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Darrin DeChane, another new graduate assistant, joined the education research team.

These new hires will be vital to the future success of the Center as it looks to create a wealth of economic knowledge for St. Louis and beyond. Biographies on the Center’s senior most members are on the following pages.

Jeffrey Cohen Ph.D.

The Sinquefield Center for Applied Economic Research Research Fellow

Cletus Coughlin Ph.D.

The Sinquefield Center for Applied Economic Research Research Fellow

Photos courtesy of Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

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Michael Podgursky

Takako Nomi

Director of The Sinquefield Center for Applied Economic Research

Associate Director of The Sinquefield Center for Applied Economic Research Associate Professor of Educational Studies, School of Education

Ph.D.

Ph.D.

Podgursky’s primary research focus is the economics of education, training, and labor markets, topics on which he has published many scholarly academic articles and policy studies. He serves on the board of editors of several academic journals including Education Finance and Policy and Education Next, advisory boards for various statistical agencies, research institutes, and education organizations.

He was a Fellow of the George W. Bush Institute from 2010-2013 and is a co-investigator at the National Center on Performance Incentives at Vanderbilt University and the Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research at AIR, two national research centers funded by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) of the U.S. Department of Education. In addition to IES and other government agencies, his research has been funded by numerous private foundations.

Prior to coming to SLU in 2019, Podgursky spent 23 years on the faculty at the University of Missouri-Columbia, where he served as Chair of the Economics Department from 1995-2005.

Nomi’s current research interests include issues related to college readiness, transitions from high school to postsecondary education and workforce, and policies and programs that support reducing post-secondary degree attainment disparities. Previously, she evaluated a districtwide reform of raising high school graduation requirements, its unintended consequences, short-term and long-run impacts of a ninth-grade double-dose algebra program to support struggling students, and the policy mechanisms to better understand effective policy implementation. Nomi’s research has been supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, the Spencer Foundation, and the American Educational Research Association. Her publications have appeared in Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, American Educational Research Journal, Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, and Journal of Human Resources. She currently serves on the editorial board of Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, the faculty advisory board of the Geospatial Institute at SLU, and the board of Gateway Global American Youth and Business Alliances, a non-profit apprenticeship training provider for high school and college students.

Prior to joining SLU, she was a senior researcher at the University of Chicago, Consortium on Chicago School Research.

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Dillon Fuchsman

Jonathan Presler

Guangli Zhang

Postdoctoral Fellow

Postdoctoral Fellow

Postdoctoral Fellow

Michelle Wickman

Steve Scroggins

James Molloy

Predoctoral Fellow

Predoctoral Fellow

Graduate Assistant

Darrin DeChane

Antonia Franco

Graduate Assistant

Research Consultant THE SINQUEFIELD CENTER FOR APPLIED ECONOMIC RESEARCH

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An Unprecedented Challenge After 200 Years Saint Louis University has operated for more than 200 years, but the COVID-19 pandemic has been one of the University’s greatest challenges to date.

With the pandemic raging across the world, an interdisciplinary group of SLU researchers came together to confront this global crisis while protecting communities here in St. Louis.

Deborah Horton, RN, at one of Saint Louis University’s vaccine clinics. Horton organized a series of vaccine clinics to vaccinate communities across St. Louis.

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Tapas Patra, Ph.D., senior research associate in the Ray Lab (Center for Vaccine Development), reviews a specimen through a microscope.

Researchers Rise to the Occasion As the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in St. Louis, SLU researchers mobilized immediately.

Saint Louis University was buzzing with anticipation in January 2020 as students returned to campus for the spring semester. Though many had seen reports of a mysterious respiratory illness spreading across China, the threat seemed distant at the time.

The first half of the semester proceeded normally, some travel restrictions notwithstanding. But by the time the University left for Spring Break in March, it was becoming clear that this would become one of the most unusual and challenging semesters in the University’s history.

On March 10, University President Fred P. Pestello, Ph.D., announced that the University would cancel all in-person instruction and on-campus learning during the first week that students were scheduled to return from break.

During this time, the University would assess the fluid situation around the world and consult with public health and infectious disease experts across the region – including those at the University. Just hours later, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic, and just hours after that, Pestello announced the University would extend its suspension

of in-person classes for the remainder of the semester. University employees would begin working from home immediately.

In announcing this decision, Pestello wrote to the campus community: “Our shared love for and commitment to our community is exactly why we decided to move to remote learning. We have a role in the St. Louis community to react responsibly to a pandemic situation and do our part to reduce potential spread and the toll that takes on our health care system. Higher purpose. Greater good.”

“Our shared love for and commitment to our community is exactly why we decided to move to remote learning. We have a role in the St. Louis community to react responsibly to a pandemic situation and do our part to reduce potential spread and the toll that takes on our health care system. Higher purpose. Greater good,” said Pestello.

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SLU’s Position to Help With infections spreading rapidly across the nation, SLU researchers sprang into action. SLU was well-positioned to respond to this pandemic for a number of reasons.

EVERY MOMENT A MILESTONE

A Timeline of Saint Louis University’s Response to COVID-19

1/9/20 The World Health Organization reports that Chinese authorities have determined that the outbreak of ‘viral pneumonia’ in the country is caused by a novel coronavirus.

1/13/20 Spring semester classes begin.

1/20/20 CDC confirms the first laboratoryconfirmed case of COVID-19 in the U.S. from samples taken on January 18 in Washington State.

1/21/20 A team from SLU’s Center for Vaccine Development attends a gathering of the Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Units (VTEUs) in Washington, D.C.

01/31/20 SLU biostatician Steve Rigdon, Ph.D., co-authors a book on how statistics can be applied to detect diseases and track epidemics — ­­­­ an exercise that has moved from textbook to reality in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The book is titled Monitoring the Health of Populations

by Tracking Disease Outbreaks: Saving Humanity from the Next Plague.

1 2 3 4 5

SLU has a deep bench of infectious disease experts, including those in the University’s Center for Vaccine Development, home to one of only 10 federally-funded Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Units (VTEUs).

SLU’s College for Public Health and Social Justice had a variety of existing collaborations with regional public health agencies that could be expanded upon to help the community during the crisis.

The SLU Research Institute had previously made strategic investments to accelerate research growth and improve research infrastructure at SLU, making the University more nimble in times of crisis. The Research Institute had also supported faculty in launching a variety of new Institutes that could respond to the new challenges of the pandemic, including the Geospatial Institute at SLU, the Institute for Healing Justice & Equity, the SLU Center for Additive Manufacturing, and more.

The University’s Jesuit Mission, which emphasizes critical thinking and service to humanity, made SLU uniquely positioned to grapple with the emerging ethical dilemmas and the exasperated social disparities presented by the pandemic.

Many of the University’s researchers had first-hand experience in outbreaks such as this. Many had previously been called upon during the 2009 swine flu pandemic, and many more had experience with coronavirus outbreaks; the COVID-19 pandemic was the latest in a series of such outbreaks that began with the SARS outbreak in 2002.

COVID-19 presented a number of massive challenges for the University’s researchers, including: the development of effective vaccines as well as treatments that could be deployed sooner; tracking the spread of the virus; accurate and accessible health data and information; new ethical and legal dilemmas related to personal health choices and privacy; and bolstering the regional response to the pandemic in St. Louis.

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Jianguo Liu, Ph.D., examines a rendering in the Liu Lab (Center for Vaccine Development).

Securing SLU’s Labs While many research labs shut down at the start of the pandemic, the work of many researchers only intensified as they were called upon to address the multifaceted challenges of the pandemic.

This made the work of those responsible for assuring safety across SLU’s research enterprise all the more important. Mark Haenchen is the Executive Director of Environmental Health & Safety (EHS) at the University. He also leads the University’s Research Integrity and Safety Group, which is responsible for ensuring safety across the University’s entire research enterprise and compliance with government regulations.

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At the start of the pandemic and in consultation with SLU’s own experts in the School of Medicine, the Research Integrity and Safety Group developed a set of guidelines that would reduce viral transmission in research settings.

These guidelines addressed issues such as interpersonal behavior in research settings and laboratory density. This would allow researchers to focus on their urgently needed work without fear of infection.

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Another early challenge was the quick yet thorough review of research biosafety protocols. These protocols are typically submitted by the principal investigator (PI) of a given study and then are reviewed in series by the EHS biosafety team before a final review by the Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC). Protocol reviews examine both the science and the safety of the pending study, assess risks to researchers and the environment, determine appropriate

2/11/20 The World Health Organization announces that the disease caused by the novel coronavirus would be named COVID-19.

3/3/20 Saint Louis University suspends all SLU-sponsored travel to countries that the CDC identifies as a Level 3 Travel Health Notice; strongly encourages faculty, staff, and students to share travel plans for at least the next month; faculty, staff, and students who travel to or return from a country with a CDC Level-3 Health Notice will be required to isolate at their homes for 14 days before returning to campus.

3/6/20

laboratory biosafety containment level, engineering controls, and personal protective equipment (PPE). These reviews could normally take weeks to months; during the pandemic, the biosafety review team, including the IBC, often needed to complete them in the span of a week because of the vital need for research related to the pandemic, including research into vaccines.

EHS staff made extraordinary sacrifices to keep research moving at the University during this crisis. While much of the University was working from home, EHS staff were on campus constantly to assure safety in labs, conduct and facilitate inspections, and dispose of hazardous waste. Some

worked extra hours to expedite review of research protocols. Despite the immense workload, SLU passed all regulatory inspections of its laboratories and research facilities during the pandemic.

Haenchen keeps a spreadsheet on his desktop that illustrates the impressive expertise and experience of each of his EHS team members.

“What I’m really proud of is these folks. These are very dedicated and professional people who I’ve worked with a long time. We’ve basically got about 140 years of experience among eight people. I’ve said this for a number of years now, but we’ve got the best team we’ve ever had. It’s just a bunch of good and really dedicated people. And when we need to be there, we’ll be there.”

SLU’s Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Unit (VTEU) participates in a teleconference with other VTEU sites to begin coordinating a response to the pandemic.

3/10/20 University President Fred P. Pestello, Ph.D., announces that SLU will suspend all in-person instruction and on-campus learning during the week of March 15.

- This is the first of regular updates the President would provide to the campus community at the outset of this crisis.

3/11/20 The World Health Organization declares COVID-19 a pandemic.

The Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC) moved its regular meetings to Zoom at the start of the pandemic. The IBC increased meeting frequency and turnaround time to accommodate the urgency of COVID-19 research protocols.

“What I’m really proud of is these folks. These are very dedicated and professional people who I’ve worked with a long time. I’ve basically got about 140 years of experience among eight people. I’ve said this for a number of years now, but we’ve got the best team we’ve ever had. It’s just a bunch of good and really dedicated people. And when we need to be there, we’ll be there,” Haenchen said.

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A researcher from the Peng Lab (Center for Vaccine Development) examines materials.

Early Support from the Research Institute A look at the multidisciplinary research funded by the Research Institute early in the pandemic

In the early weeks of the pandemic, the SLU Research Institute moved quickly to support researchers entering the fight against COVID-19. In March 2020, the Research Institute announced that the latest round of funding from the Sinquefields’ gift would support COVID-19 research. A portion was also allocated to the School of Medicine’s Research Growth Fund and to purchase new equipment that would enhance infectious disease research at SLU. 42

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3/12/20 University President Fred P. Pestello, Ph.D., announces that the University will suspend in-person courses and instruction for the 2020 spring semester.

- “It is apparent that life is changing and sacrifices are demanded of all of us. Rest assured that the team at SLU is keeping the best interests of our students, patients, and employees at the center of our decision making.

At this point, there are many more questions than there are answers.

We pledge to keep communicating with you. I thank everyone for pulling together to get us through the disruptions we face.”

“Our shared love for and commitment to our community is exactly why we decided to move to remote learning. We have a role in the St. Louis community to react responsibly to a pandemic situation and do our part to reduce potential spread and the toll that takes on our health care system. Higher purpose. Greater good.”

3/13/20 President Donald Trump and Missouri Governor Mike Parson declare a state of emergency for the United States and Missouri, respectively.

3/13/20

The Rapid Response COVID-19 Seed Fund $300,000 was also allocated to launch a new Rapid Response COVID-19 Seed Fund. This fund was designed to empower research across all fields and support shovel-ready pilot projects aimed at improving our understanding of coronaviruses and mitigating the broader effects of the pandemic.

25 projects were selected to receive support across two rounds of funding in spring and summer 2020. The Rapid Response COVID-19 Seed Fund engaged nearly 40 researchers across 20 departments in what has proven to be a very fruitful effort to study the pandemic’s myriad challenges. Funded proposals covered topics as diverse as gambling addiction during the pandemic, media messages regarding COVID-19, enhancing telehealth, and more.

“I refer to this as SLU research – the Jesuit way,” said Jeanne Sinquefield, Ph.D., at the time of the announcement.

“The projects we are funding fit perfectly into SLU’s historic service-focused mission, challenging and providing opportunities for the University’s diverse community of students, faculty, and researchers to make the world a better place.”

Though varying in scope, all projects shared one commonality: they were not self-contained. Research sponsored by the Seed Fund produced more than 20 new publications and resulted in 13 new grant applications.

“I refer to this as SLU research – the Jesuit way,” said Jeanne Sinquefield, Ph.D., at the time of the announcement. “The projects we are funding fit perfectly into SLU’s historic servicefocused mission, challenging and providing opportunities for the University’s diverse community of students, faculty, and researchers to make the world a better place.”

Interim Chief Information Officer Kyle Collins announces that the cloud-based video-conferencing system Zoom is now available for remote learning, collaborative meetings, and more.

Students from the College for Public Health and Social Justice examine location data related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Highlighted Projects Below is a small selection of projects funded by the Rapid Response COVID-19 Seed Fund. A complete list of funded projects, as well as some larger synopses of the projects below, can be found in the Appendix, beginning on page 246.

3/13/20 - 3/15/20 Roughly 1,500 SLU students move out of their on-campus residences, enacting policies reviewed by public health officials.

A sample is collected in the Center for Vaccine Development.

Sample Collection from COVID-19 Patients Primary Investigators: Christopher Eickhoff, M.S., and Daniel Hoft, M.D., Ph.D. During the first round of funding in spring 2020, researchers within SLU’s School of Medicine identified a broad need for samples collected from patients recovering from COVID-19. These samples were crucial for many studies examining the treatment and prevention of COVID-19. Specifically, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) are important to study infection-induced B and T cells, but only a limited number of

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these cells can be collected from a single blood draw. The Research Institute funded a proposal that allowed these faculty to collect sufficient quantities of PBMC samples that could then be disseminated to multiple SLU labs.

This proposal proved essential to researchers’ ability to generate data and obtain additional funding from outside agencies.

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“I am inspired by the outpouring of support from members of the Billiken community.

Whether it’s three generations of a family helping distribute packages in the mailroom to students as they move out, or the families offering to contribute to help other students in need. I am deeply touched. My heart may be heavy as we face these difficulties, but it remains full of the love you show Saint Louis University.” — Fred P. Pestello, Ph.D.

3/16/20 St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson announces first positive case of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the City of St. Louis.

“Our ability as Billikens to care for one another knows no bounds.” ­ — Fred P. Pestello, Ph.D.

3/17/20 SLU Center for Vaccine Development stops accepting new studies unrelated to COVID-19 so that the team can focus on addressing the pandemic.

A New Smartphone App to Track COVID-19 Symptoms Primary Investigator: Enbal Shacham, Ph.D., M.Ed. As the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the world, researchers pondered the spread of the disease and what the risks of individual and community transmission rates were in various locations.

To address this, SLU researchers Enbal Shacham, Ph.D., M.Ed., a professor of

public health and associate director of the Geospatial Institute at SLU; Flavio Esposito, Ph.D., assistant professor of computer science; and Roberto Coral, a research assistant in computer science, developed an app to monitor realtime symptoms and the location of symptomatic individuals. The app helps to track the spread of COVID-19 at an

individual level and enables contact tracing. Users can go onto the app multiple times a day to track if they are experiencing any recognized symptoms for COVID-19.

Read more about this project on page 248.

A person examines a map in the My COVID19 Tracker App, developed by SLU researchers with support from the Research Institute’s Rapid Response COVID-19 Seed Fund.

Gambling Addiction during the COVID-19 Pandemic Primary Investigator: Jeremiah Weinstock, Ph.D. As stay-at-home orders took effect across the country and non-essential businesses closed their doors to the public, Jeremiah Weinstock, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at SLU, wanted to know the long-term effects of social isolation on those suffering from addiction to gambling, clinically known as gambling disorder. Weinstock hoped to conduct a study that could provide insight into the behaviors and coping mechanisms of those affected by gambling disorder during this time of isolation.

Read more about this project on page 250.

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Studying the Credibility of COVID-19 Information, Impact on Health Behaviors Primary Investigator: Jennifer Ohs, Ph.D. Since the start of the pandemic, health misinformation and otherwise unreliable information has proliferated. With funding from the Rapid Response COVID-19 Seed Fund, Jennifer Ohs, Ph.D., associate professor of communication, is analyzing how people are getting their information during the pandemic and how that impacts health behaviors.

Read more about this project on page 249.

Circle of Friends Primary Investigator: Marla Berg-Weger, Ph.D., LCSW The pandemic sent the world into isolation, including older adults at high risk of contracting the virus. Necessary safeguards left this population uniquely cut off from the world.

3/17/20 University President Fred P. Pestello, Ph.D., announces that employees should begin working from home and that employees covered by the University’s sick leave policy will have access to additional hours of sick leave during the pandemic.

Marla Berg-Weger, Ph.D., professor emeritus of social work and executive director of the Gateway Geriatric Education Center at the SLU School of Medicine, wanted to find a way to open the world up for senior citizens — without putting their health at risk. With support from the SLU Research Institute’s Rapid Response COVID-19 Fund and in collaboration with colleague, John Morley, M.D., professor emeritus at SLU’s Division of Geriatric Medicine, Berg-Weger created Circle of Friends, an online platform for seniors to engage with one another during lockdown.

The project seeks to establish meaningful and therapeutic connections between seniors, ultimately preventing the loneliness and despair associated with the pandemic.

3/17/20 Michael Rozier, S.J., Ph.D., publishes a column in America: the Jesuit Review entitled “We must not allow the coronavirus to rob us of our humanity.

How can we (safely) preserve it?”

“The virus is simply doing what viruses do. It is time for us to do what we do. That is, to be more human than before…”

— Michael Rozier, S.J., Ph.D.

3/18/20 Brookings highlights SLU, Cortex Innovation Community in fight against COVID-19.

Read more about this project on page 251.

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Jennifer Ohs, Ph.D., teaches a class prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Sarah George, M.D., examines a sample under a microscope in the Center for Vaccine Development.

Vaccine and Treatment Research Saint Louis University researchers join the historic, national effort to develop COVID-19 vaccines.

In January 2020, Daniel Hoft, M.D., Ph.D., was in Washington, D.C. to attend a kick-off conference with representatives from each of the nation’s Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Units (VTEUs). Among a number of roles at SLU, Hoft is the director of the Center for Vaccine Development and the principal investigator of the VTEU at SLU. The VTEUs make up an elite research network that is designed to respond to public health emergencies. As a VTEU, SLU conducts phase 1 through 4 vaccine and treatment trials, often in

collaboration with industry partners.

Just one month before the conference, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) had renewed SLU’s prestigious VTEU status, which it was first awarded in 1989.

The Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Anthony Fauci, M.D., was scheduled to speak at this conference but was abruptly called away that morning to speak with Congress and the White House. Earlier that month, the World Health Organization reported that

Chinese authorities had determined that a large outbreak of “viral pneumonia” in the country was caused by a novel coronavirus. Just a day before the January conference, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the first laboratoryconfirmed case of COVID-19 in the United States.

“His departing message to us,” Hoft recalled one year later, “was that the VTEU network should prepare ourselves for a trial by fire.”

“His departing message to us,” Hoft recalled one year later, “was that the VTEU network should prepare ourselves for a trial by fire.”

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The Center for Vaccine Development The Center for Vaccine Development at SLU has been a national leader in the study of infectious diseases and the development of new treatments and vaccines since it was established more than 30 years ago. The Center’s researchers have access to SLU’s state-of-the-art facilities, including more than 7,000 square feet of research and clinical space and approval to work with select agent pathogens under BSL-3 conditions. The VTEU at SLU often places these researchers on the frontlines of the global fight against infectious disease; before the COVID-19 pandemic, the VTEU at SLU previously tested life-saving vaccines during the 2009 swine flu pandemic and the 2016 Zika outbreak.

Experts around the world recognized that a vaccine for this novel coronavirus would be the most effective way of protecting people and ending the global pandemic, but vaccine development takes time. Patients were in need of a viable treatment immediately.

3/22/20 “Thank you for your continued commitment to the Billiken spirit. In fact, I have decided to dub that spirit OneSLU. You have inspired me, as countless faculty, staff, students, and parents reached out and asked how you can serve in this time of need. You prove time and time again that when we come together as OneSLU, we can conquer anything.” — Fred P. Pestello

In March 2020, the Center for Vaccine Development stopped accepting new studies unrelated to the pandemic so that its researchers could focus on the crisis at hand.

3/23/20 Stay at Home Order goes into effect for the City of St. Louis.

3/23/20 University President Fred P. Pestello, Ph.D., announced that laboratory work at the University must be limited to essential personnel and essential functions only.

3/24/20 University President Fred P. Pestello, Ph.D., and Washington University Chancellor Andrew Martin, Ph.D., co-author column for the St. Louis PostDispatch on the city’s resilience in the face of a pandemic.

-“In times of crisis, communities pull together. As history has shown, some do this better than others. In St. Louis, if our past is any indication, we have what it takes to dig in and do what is needed to pull through. … We must stay focused, brace ourselves for what comes next, and know that whatever happens, we’ll face it together.”

Sarah George, M.D., works with a trial volunteer in the Center for Vaccine Development. George was the principal investigator of the Adaptive COVID-19 Treatment Trial (ACTT) at SLU.

Treatment Trials Just days after this decision, the Center began its first study related to COVID-19. The study, entitled “The Adaptive COVID-19 Treatment Trial (ACTT),” was the first in a series of studies aimed at identifying different treatment strategies for COVID-19. This first iteration, ACTT-1, investigated the safety and effectiveness of the antiviral drug remdesivir in treating COVID-19. At the time of the trial, there were no treatments for the novel coronavirus — patients with COVID-19 were treated for their symptoms, not the virus itself — and many hoped this study would provide the first. Sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the study was conducted at 68 sites across the country. Sarah George, M.D., associate professor of infectious diseases at SLU, was the principal investigator of the St. Louis trial.

Volunteers were recruited from patients hospitalized at SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19. Volunteers received either the investigational drug or a placebo. Their condition was then carefully monitored

by SLU researchers and hospital staff. After they were discharged from the hospital, volunteers attended follow-up visits with the Center’s team so that researchers could continually evaluate their health.

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Findings

3/24/20

In April 2020, the first findings of the remdesivir trial were released, offering a ray of hope in the fight against COVID-19. Early data from the trial showed that hospitalized patients recovered faster when given remdesivir, and mortality rates also dropped among patients treated with remdesivir. A few days after the release of this initial data, Anthony Fauci, M.D., called remdesivir “the new standard-of-care” at a White House press conference. Later data supported these early findings, and in May 2020, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the use of remdesivir in treating COVID-19 among hospitalized patients. The FDA granted full approval of the use of remdesivir in October 2020.

Saint Louis University health professions students launch St. Louis vs. COVID-19, an initiative to help SSM, SLU, and SLU-affiliated health care providers with temporary urgent household needs as they perform essential clinical duties during COVID-19.

Sarah George, M.D., served as the PI of several more iterations of the ACTT trial in the following months. ACTT-2, for example, examined the effects of adding baricitinib, an anti-inflammatory drug used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, to the approved remdesivir regimen. The study found that baricitinib plus remdesivir would further reduce a patient’s recovery time. The FDA issued an EUA for baricitinib in November 2020.

3/25/20 SLU’s Rob Gatter, J.D., professor of health law, is named to the St. Louis County Health Department COVID-19 Response Team to assist with reviewing and drafting policies aimed at fighting the spread of COVID-19.

3/31/20 Researchers led by principal investigator Sarah George, M.D., begin an NIHsponsored trial of the safety and effectiveness of antiviral drug remdesivir in treating COVID-19 in patients hospitalized with the disease at SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital.

4/2/20 University President Fred P. Pestello, Ph.D., announces the University will postpone in-person commencement ceremonies scheduled for May 2020.

4/5/20

Vaccine Trials In July 2020, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) launched the COVID-19 Prevention Network (CoVPN). The CoVPN centralized a number of existing clinical trial networks, including the VTEU system. The VTEU at SLU became a part of this new network designed to test a variety of investigational vaccines and monoclonal antibodies to protect people against COVID-19. Later that month, SLU and Washington University in St. Louis, another member organization of the CoVPN, announced their shared intention to enroll approximately 3,000 participants across St. Louis in vaccine trials.

Researchers knew it would be critical to enroll participants who were at risk of severe disease from COVID-19, including individuals over age 65. Additionally, early data showed significant racial and ethnic discrepancies in both infection and mortality rates: Black Americans, for example, were dying at higher rates compared to others diagnosed with COVID-19. The Center recognized the essential need to engage affected communities throughout the vaccine process.

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“In partnership with SLUCare and SSM Health, we recently made more than 180 rooms available in Reinert Hall to our physicians, nurses, mid-level practitioners, technicians, and other staff who do not feel comfortable traveling home and, perhaps unknowingly, expose their families to COVID-19. Additionally, we have designated isolated housing on campus for those medical providers who have either tested positive for COVID-19, or who are symptomatic and are awaiting test results. That designated housing is in our Grand Forest Apartments, a series of 21 buildings on the east side of campus.” — Fred P. Pestello, Ph.D.

Sharon Frey, M.D., principal investigator for the Moderna and J&J/Janssen vaccine trials at Saint Louis University.

The Moderna Trial

The first vaccine trial in St. Louis began at SLU in August 2020. Researchers in the Center for Vaccine Development launched a phase 3 clinical trial to study the effectiveness, safety, and immune response generated by a vaccine co-developed by scientists at Moderna and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Vaccine Research Center. Sharon Frey, M.D., clinical director of the Center for Vaccine Development, was the principal investigator on the trial.

mRNA Vaccines: How Do They Work?

The Moderna vaccine is a messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine. Most vaccines are made from a weakened or inactive version of the targeted pathogen that is then injected into the body to trigger an immune response. These vaccines may take years to produce because they involve mass production of viral proteins. mRNA vaccines, however, use messenger RNA, a common genetic material that teaches our bodies how to produce proteins and teach our cells how to fight off a specific pathogen. mRNA vaccines can often be produced

faster than other vaccines because they can be developed in a laboratory with more readily available materials. Though mRNA vaccines are newly available to the public, the technology is not new; mRNA vaccines have been studied for decades as possible treatments for everything from influenza to cancer.

As soon as the pathogen’s genome was made available — the Chinese government shared it in January 2020 — scientists were able to begin developing an mRNA vaccine for COVID-19.

Coronaviruses such as COVID-19 are named for a unique crown-like protein on their surface called a spike protein.

The Moderna vaccine uses mRNA to teach our bodies how to make harmless copies of this spike protein so that if we are exposed to the real virus in the future, our bodies will recognize it and fight it off. After this, our bodies then break down the mRNA. The copied spike proteins similarly do not last long in our bodies. It is not possible to contract COVID-19 from this vaccine.

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4/5/20 St. Louis Post-Dispatch highlights SLU researchers fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.

- A feature story in the paper’s Sunday issue highlights the efforts of SLU researchers across many fields who are working to combat COVID-19.

At this early point in the pandemic, there were already more than 36 researchers across the University studying the pandemic and its broader effects.

4/6/20 Enbal Shacham, Ph.D., professor of public health and associate director of of the Geospatial Institute at SLU, was highlighted by theSTL.com for her work tracking COVID-19. Shacham had been tracking the spread of the virus since it appeared in China in 2019.

4/7/20

(Holy Week)

“Yes, even in these difficult days, I do believe that we are living in a time of grace.... But we may still have an impact. We may make a difference. We may still serve the world as OneSLU, spreading light and love. That is what this Holy Week calls me to do. I hope you join me.” — Fred P. Pestello, Ph.D. A nurse in the Center for Vaccine Development collects a sample.

4/13/20

The St. Louis Trial Frey and her team were tasked with evaluating the safety and effectiveness of this vaccine. Over 400 participants from across the St. Louis region volunteered for the trial.

Of all of the study sites across the country, SLU was one of the highest enrollers.

Study participants were randomly assigned to receive either 2 doses of vaccine or 2 doses of placebo, 28 days apart. Participants’ health was carefully monitored by the research team, and the Center’s nursing staff checked in to make sure they didn’t develop COVID-19. Participants were not deliberately exposed to COVID-19 at any point.

In November 2020, Moderna shared the results of the overall study: vaccine efficacy against COVID-19 was 94.1% and vaccine efficacy against severe COVID-19 was 100%.

The Moderna vaccine received an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the FDA in December 2020, and was later approved for use in children ages 12-18 years old.

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Stephen C. Peiper, M.D., (Med ’77) and Zi-Xuan “Zoe” Wang, Ph.D., give $750,000 to SLU to support research aimed at developing new vaccines for COVID-19 and other illnesses. This gift will establish a center of excellence in vaccine research and will be called the Stephen C. Peiper and Zi-Xuan Wang Institute for Vaccine Science and Policy.

4/14/20 Saint Louis University moves summer 2020 classes to online delivery, cancels June 2020 summer camps.

Sharon Frey, M.D., checks in with a trial volunteer.

The J&J/Janssen Trial Researchers in the Center didn’t get much time to rest after the Moderna trial. In November 2020, the team launched another phase 3 clinical trial, this time to evaluate the safety and efficacy of Janssen’s recombinant adenovirus vaccine developed by scientists at Johnson & Johnson.

Adenovirus Vaccines: How Do They Work?

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is an adenovirus vaccine. Adenoviruses are very common viruses that often cause minor illnesses such as the common cold. An adenovirus vaccine uses an adenovirus which has been genetically

modified so that it can’t make you sick.

This modified adenovirus is used as a vehicle to deliver genetic material into your body that teaches your cells how to produce the coronavirus’s signature spike protein. Your immune system can then

recognize the spike protein and begin to produce new antibodies to combat it.

Your body will know how to fight off COVID-19 if you are ever exposed to the real virus.

research team, and the Center’s nursing staff performed regular check-ins with each participant. Participants were not deliberately exposed to COVID-19 at any point.

COVID-19 was 85%. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine was granted an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in February 2021, becoming the first single-shot vaccine in the fight against COVID-19.

The St. Louis Trial Once again, Sharon Frey, M.D., was the principal investigator of this trial.

Adult volunteers randomly received either the vaccine candidate or a placebo. Unlike previous vaccines, this one only required patients to receive a single shot, after which patients’ health was again carefully monitored by the

Data from the overall trial indicated that vaccine efficacy against severe

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Azra Blazevic, D.V.M., M.S., leads the VCL Excel Team, which processes clinical samples for the Center for Vaccine Development. To date, the VCL Excel Team has processed over 5,000 samples for SLU’s COVID-19 trials.

A Team Effort While the Center for Vaccine Development had all the expertise needed to make an impact, these fast-moving trials presented an unprecedented influx of work for the team, which has nearly doubled in size since the start of the pandemic. The large-scale nature of the trials also meant that the Center saw a dramatic increase in both trial volunteers and clinical samples.

VCL Excel Team Clinical samples collected during a trial with the Center are processed by the VCL Excel Team, which is led by Azra Blazevic, D.V.M., M.S., assistant professor of immunobiology and internal medicine. Blazevic was educated in Bosnia and has worked for the Center for Vaccine Development for the past 20 years.

During the COVID-19 trials, the daily number of samples that the team needed to process was much larger than usual.

Samples need to remain at specific temperatures, and they need to be shipped quickly to a central repository where samples from all the study sites are stored. The team knew that time was of the essence, often working long days that began as early as 7:00 in the morning and went well past 8:00 in the evening. The team strived to ship out samples the same day they were received.

Since the first COVID-19 trial, the VCL Excel team has processed more than 5,000 samples.

Blazevic said that her team simply did what needed to be done. She is particularly proud of the fact that, despite the increased workload, her team was able to hit every study deadline during the pandemic, including on nonCOVID-19 studies.

Blazevic said it’s a great feeling to see success come in the form of safe and effective vaccines.

“You can see something that’s helping your community immediately,” Blazevic said.

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4/16/20 St. Louis City, St. Louis County extend stay-at-home orders indefinitely.

4/17/20 $765,000 of the 2018 Sinquefield gift supports faculty and students engaged in COVID-19 research.

- In a round of funding from the Sinquefield gift, the Research Institute awards more than $765,000 to support several innovations in cross-discipline research related to COVID-19, along with critical, specialized equipment.

4/20/20 In response to the pandemic, SLU and SSM Health prepare nurses to return to the workforce.

- Responding to the need for nurses on the frontlines of COVID-19 care, Saint Louis University’s Trudy Busch Valentine School of Nursing and SSM Health mobilized trained nurses who were out of the workforce to return to practice through an expedited training program.

“We have a great team! We always have someone who’s willing to step up for the hardest role,” said Mosby.

Nursing Staff Karla Mosby, RN, CCRC, is the clinical nurse manager in the Center for Vaccine Development. For more than 10 years, she has led the Center’s dedicated team of nurses who closely monitor the health of all trial volunteers. While the team had previous experience with large-scale trials, the quick succession of COVID-19 trials meant that the team had to work with an unprecedented influx of trial volunteers.

The first ACTT treatment trial recruited volunteers who were hospitalized at SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital with COVID-19. Mosby and her team worked closely with nurses at the hospital to carry out the study while protecting the volunteers and themselves.

The vaccine trials presented other challenges. The Center recruited more than 500 volunteers from across the St. Louis region for these trials. Mosby and her team coordinated the study and monitored the volunteers for COVID-19. Since these trials were blinded studies, volunteers were not aware whether they had been given the vaccine candidate or the placebo. The test results gathered by the nurses enabled researchers to gauge the effectiveness of the vaccine against the placebo. Once the vaccines were approved, the nurses offered the vaccine to all volunteers given the placebo.

Karla Mosby, RN, CCRC, clinical nurse manager in the Center for Vaccine Development.

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4/23/20 “Certainly, this is a painful moment in our history, but our university has faced grave moments in its past. In each of those dark times, the SLU community pulled together and rose to the occasion. I am confident we, the ones who carry this past resolve forward, will share the sacrifices necessary to position our University for a strong recovery and a bright future. The light of SLU continues to shine.” — Fred P. Pestello, Ph.D. A nurse in the Center for Vaccine Development meets with a trial volunteer.

With much unknown about the virus in the early days of the pandemic, there was a lot of anxiety among team members about contracting it. Team members worked together to finish work on the trials while supporting one another and each person’s unique circumstances. No nurses contracted COVID-19 as a result of their work on the trials.

The team has also doubled in size during the pandemic. A number of retired nurses returned to work, and the Center also hired several new nurses, some with ICU experience who could teach and reassure team members who did not have experience working with COVID-positive patients.

“We have a great team! We always have someone who’s willing to step up for the hardest role,” said Mosby.

While this team made extraordinary sacrifices during the pandemic, Mosby believes that the trial volunteers are also owed a debt of gratitude.

“We’re always working to build greater trust with our community,” said Mosby. “The volunteers in our studies are really the most important part. They are vital to the success of this research, so it’s always our priority to keep them safe and informed and build that trust with them.”

“We’re always working to build greater trust with our community,” said Mosby. “The volunteers in our studies are really the most important part. They are vital to the success of this research, so it’s always our priority to keep them safe and informed and build that trust with them.”

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4/27/20 SLU’s Ruqaiijah Yearby, J.D., M.P.H., discusses health care disparities, racial inequalities during the COVID-19 pandemic in STLPR article.

4/29/20 Encouraged by early findings from the NIH study of remdesivir in the treatment of COVID-19, Anthony Fauci, M.D., states the drug may represent a “new standard of care” in the treatment of COVID-19. The study took place, in part, at Saint Louis University.

4/30/20 Vice President and Chief Financial Officer David Heimburger announces that SLU has opened a new form to help provide students with relief funding, including distribution of CARES Act funds.

5/1/20 The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issues an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the usage of remdesivir in the treatment of COVID-19 in hospitalized patients. The safety and the effectiveness of the drug was tested in part at SLU. Sarah George, M.D., was the principal investigator of the trial.

Speed of the Vaccine Process The process of developing and testing new vaccines has previously taken as long as 10 years. The fact that numerous COVID-19 vaccines were tested, approved, and administered in the span of one year is a scientific marvel. So how did they do it?

First, the technology used in the vaccines was not new. While mRNA vaccines had not been distributed to the public prior to the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, the technology was not novel. Scientists have been working with mRNA vaccines for years now, and mRNA vaccines have previously been used in trials for other infectious diseases.

“We weren’t starting at square one,” said Rachel Edwards, Ph.D., project manager of the Center for Vaccine Development.

Scientists were also able to work quickly by overlaying different phases of the vaccine trials. This meant continually analyzing data from a previous phase

while beginning work on the next phase.

Certain processes managed by federal agencies were also streamlined, making the resulting vaccines available faster.

SLU researchers emphasize that no corners were cut in the process, and that scientists have even learned how to streamline future processes. They are optimistic that future trials may move with similar efficiency, meaning that resulting treatments for other infectious diseases could be available sooner than before.

“We weren’t starting at square one,” said Rachel Edwards, Ph.D., project manager of the Center for Vaccine Development.

Dan Hoft, M.D., Ph.D., discusses data collected from recent trials with Sharon Frey, M.D.

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Just eight months after the Center for Vaccine Development enrolled its first volunteer in the Moderna trial, Saint Louis University hosted its first vaccine clinic in the Simon Recreation Center on campus.

Vaccine Clinics

While researchers in Saint Louis University’s Center for Vaccine Development were testing vaccines, another group of SLU researchers were preparing to administer them.

On December 11, 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for use in preventing COVID-19.

One week later, the FDA issued a second EUA for the Moderna vaccine.

It was a watershed moment in the fight against COVID-19, providing what

many hoped would be a practical end to the pandemic. It was a moment that researchers at Saint Louis University had eagerly awaited, especially those who had dedicated countless hours to testing the vaccines and those who would soon spend countless hours administering them across the St. Louis region.

Exactly one month after the FDA issued the first EUA, SLU announced that it had

completed an application with the State of Missouri to become a vaccine provider site. By the first week of February, the state had approved SLU’s application, making the University one of the first vaccination sites in the region. SLU was unique among the vaccination sites, as many others were health care organizations.

“We deliberately took a science-based approach while keeping an eye on new knowledge. Everything was data-driven,” said Terri Rebmann, Ph.D., RN, professor of epidemiology and biostatistics and special assistant to the president.

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A Successful Semester on Campus By the time the University became a state-authorized vaccination site, SLU had already successfully completed one semester of the 2020-21 academic year with primarily in-person classes and labs and students living in on-campus residences. SLU had meticulous safeguards informed by the latest science and crafted by the University’s own experts.

“We deliberately took a science-based approach while keeping an eye on new knowledge. Everything was data-driven,” said Terri Rebmann, Ph.D., RN, professor of epidemiology and biostatistics and special assistant to the president.

Rebmann arrived at the University about 20 years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and established the Institute for Biosecurity in the College for Public Health and Social Justice. The Institute’s faculty and students are at the forefront of biological and biosecurity disaster preparedness. This unique expertise and research experience caught the attention of SLU President Fred P. Pestello, Ph.D., who named her Special Assistant to the President during the pandemic. As Special Assistant, Rebmann is responsible for overseeing compliance with the University’s COVID-19 policies, testing on campus, and monitoring infection rates on campus.

5/4/20 Spring semester ends.

For Rebmann, the ultimate goal is to keep campus safe for its students, faculty, and staff – a goal that is personal for Rebmann as both a faculty member and a parent of a SLU student.

5/12/20 The Research Institute announces the first round of projects funded through the newly established Rapid Response COVID-19 Seed Fund.

“I wanted to make sure if we were going to open campus, we would do it in a safe way,” Rebmann said.

5/14/20 Saint Louis University announces that it will move to a test optional admission process in fall 2021 for all students. This is the beginning of a three-year pilot.

5/15/20 University President Fred P. Pestello, Ph.D., announces public health guidance for those returning to campus, including maintaining six feet of distance between individuals and wearing a face mask.

“When historians inquire how SLU responded to this pandemic, I hope that they will discover what I have witnessed in all of us — a community that, when faced with endless opportunities to turn inward and allow fear to consume us, chose a different path. We chose the path of kinship, generosity, and service... They will not have to look long to understand the meaning of OneSLU. May God bless you and Saint Louis University.”

— Fred P. Pestello, Ph.D.

Beginning the Vaccine Clinics When the time came to begin distributing the very vaccines the University had tested just months earlier, Rebmann and University leadership turned to Deborah Horton, RN, assistant professor of nursing. Horton had been at SLU for 10 years, and she directed the University’s regular asymptomatic testing program that conducted over 20,000 tests across the fall 2020 and spring 2021 semesters.

Horton also leads SLU’s Closed Point of Dispensing (POD) team. SLU has a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the St. Louis City Health Department that states, in the event of a public health emergency, the University will dispense lifesaving medication across the region. The University’s mechanism to achieve this would be the Closed POD team, which is designed to distribute life-saving medications in the event of a biological attack in the region. Horton adapted the Closed POD plans into a strategy for vaccinating the community.

SLU was ready to begin its vaccine clinics when it received its first vaccines at the start of March. The University administered 100 doses of the Moderna vaccine to campus community members who met the state’s priority phases and eligibility tiers for vaccination. The Center for Vaccine Development at SLU had enrolled its first volunteer in the clinical trial of the Moderna vaccine just eight months earlier.

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5/26/20 Kathleen Davis, vice president for enrollment and retention management, announces that the University has connected more than 5,000 students with about $2.8 million in aid in the past month, including the $2.57 million in CARES Act funding SLU received as well as aid from SLU’s emergency relief fund. Davis also announces the Special Circumstances Relief Fund for fall 2020 for all students who have experienced loss of income or other special circumstances that affect their ability to afford their educational expenses.

5/29/20 “It is tempting to think that living our mission would provide a clear path forward, when in fact, relying on our values to make decisions actually creates more contemplation. This discernment is a bedrock of the Ignatian charism.” — Fred P. Pestello, Ph.D. Deborah Horton, RN, collects vaccines from a storage facility.

Working For and With Missouri The Missouri National Guard offered a to a regional assisted living facility Jesse Helton, Ph.D., associate professor generous allotment of vaccines to SLU’s where residents had received their first of social work, connected with Horton vaccine clinics, and the University was doses from a pharmacy chain but never and the SLU COVID-19 Vaccination proud to support the National Guard’s received their second doses. The team Team about assisting St. Louis area efforts across the region. Since the was able to provide second doses to a faith leaders in getting members of Moderna and Pfizer vaccines need to be number of residents and staff members. local church communities vaccinated. kept at precise temperatures and SLU has In April 2021, the Vaccination Team Horton even organized a vaccine clinic the research and medical infrastructure hosted a vaccine clinic at Beloved in a St. Louis restaurant when she heard to accommodate that, the University Methodist Church, vaccinating members from a friend how difficult it often is for was able to store vaccines on campus of the church community and those of people who work in hospitality to get for the Missouri National Guard. More surrounding churches. away from work to get vaccinated. than 40,000 doses of vaccine were stored on campus to support “It’s about trust and building that relationship Horton and the team went to the restaurant and vaccinated all of mass vaccination efforts across with the community,” said Horton. “If you don’t the employees, and even returned the region. This meant that most earn that trust, the community isn’t going to to give second doses at a later date. days SLU staff members arrived seek you out in times like these.” to campus early to help National “It’s about trust and building that Guardsmen load up the vaccines relationship with the community,” The Vaccination Team also worked needed to host vaccination events across said Horton. “If you don’t earn that trust, with Christian Friends of New America, the St. Louis region. the community isn’t going to seek you a local non-profit organization that out in times like these.”

The Missouri National Guard’s generous works with immigrants and refugees allotment also put the University in a in St. Louis, to administer vaccines to strong position to vaccinate communities this community. The team also traveled across St. Louis.

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Students Step Up The success of SLU’s vaccine clinics is due in no small part to the University’s own students. The University was at an advantage because it didn’t need to hire new professionals for these vaccination events; students were eager to do their part in the fight against COVID-19.

students who had not yet completed the course helped with registration at the clinics. Faculty provided constant support and supervision to all of these students.

Students were required to arrive at the vaccination site an hour before their shift so that they could familiarize themselves with the process. In addition to administering the vaccines, “The students did an excellent job,” said Horton. students were also “By the end, they were all pros. I’m so proud of responsible for them. We couldn’t have done the clinics without educating patients the help of our students.” about expected side effects, Over 200 students were engaged in the updating patients’ proof of vaccination, University’s vaccine clinics, including and monitoring patients during the undergraduate students from the Trudy mandatory observation period. Students Busch Valentine School of Nursing and also assisted with many of the SLU graduate students from the Doisy College COVID-19 Vaccination Team’s offof Health Sciences. Only undergraduate campus clinics. students who had completed a required “The students did an excellent job,” said course in vaccinations were allowed Horton. “By the end, they were all pros. to administer vaccines. A number of

SLU students and faculty host a vaccine clinic at Beloved Methodist Church.

I’m so proud of them. We couldn’t have done the clinics without the help of our students.”

Making an Impact

By September 2021, SLU had administered over 13,000 vaccines at its clinics. On the busiest day, SLU faculty and students administered over one thousand vaccines in just four hours. And that number’s still growing: the University has since begun administering booster shots at its clinics.

“I’m really proud of SLU’s vaccination clinics,” said Rebmann.

“The biggest thing is getting vaccines into arms,” said Horton. “We’re trying to help others, and we know that our way out of this pandemic is by getting everyone vaccinated. That’s hopefully our ticket to move on so we can get back to some semblance of normal — whatever normal looks like now.”

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Students return in person to class at the College for Public Health and Social Justice.

The College for Public Health and Social Justice Saint Louis University is home to the only school of public health in the State of Missouri.

The College for Public Health and Social Justice at Saint Louis University brings together the region’s brightest public health researchers, who train the next generation of researchers and policymakers.

The College has enjoyed strong, collaborative relationships with health departments across the region long before the COVID-19 pandemic. The St. Louis Academic Health Department, for example, is a coalition between

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the College, the St. Louis City Health Department, and the St. Louis County Health Department. The St. Louis Academic Health Department is funded by the Missouri Foundation for Health and has four main functional areas: teaching, research, workforce development, and policy. This partnership is mutually beneficial for the Foundation and the University: the Foundation provides educational and career opportunities for the University’s public health students, and SLU provides

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research and data analytic support for regional public health initiatives.

When COVID-19 first began to spread across the region, Pam Xaverius, Ph.D., professor of epidemiology and principal investigator for the project, reached out to partners through the St. Louis Academic Health Department to see how SLU could help. Researchers with the College were soon able to provide support on data analysis, health communication, and contact tracing.

Tom Burroughs, Ph.D., professor and former dean of the College for Public Health and Social Justice.

An Expanded Partnership with the Region

6/1/20 The Center for Vaccine Development resumes follow-up visits with volunteers from non-COVID-19 trials.

6/1/20 The SLU Research Institute announces the second round of projects funded through its Rapid Response COVID-19 Seed Fund, bringing the total amount allocated to faculty through this fund to $300,000.

6/17/20 The SLU Research Institute, in partnership with the Geospatial Institute at SLU, hosts “Research Roundtable: Predicting and Responding to Outbreaks,” a webinar that brings together regional leaders and SLU researchers to discuss the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and what they have learned for future outbreaks.

The event was moderated by Robert Cardillo, former director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and Distinguished Geospatial Fellow at SLU. A recording of the event is available on SLU’s Youtube channel.

7/8/20 The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) launches the COVID-19 Prevention Network (CoVPN) to test COVID-19 vaccines and other prevention tools.

In October 2020, the College for Public Health and Social Justice expanded its existing partnership with the St. Louis County Health Department in response to the ongoing pandemic. As part of this new partnership, a team of faculty and students from the College are working alongside St. Louis County Health Department personnel. This interdisciplinary team provides expertise in epidemiology, biostatistics, data collection and analysis, geospatial science, behavioral science, and health communication. The support of the SLU team frees up Health Department personnel to focus on day-to-day operations.

The partnership was facilitated through a $1.2 million contract made possible by federal funding provided through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act that was awarded to principal investigator and former Dean of the College for Public Health and Social Justice, Tom Burroughs, Ph.D. Since the beginning of this partnership, the SLU team has developed analytical decision support tools and training materials for the County’s contact tracers and case investigators, and synthesized the latest COVID-19 research into recommendations and strategies for area school districts. The team also worked with the County Executive’s Office on strategies to address vaccine hesitancy and effectively communicate disease risk to the public.

FACULTY ENGAGED IN THE PARTNERSHIP Enbal Shacham Ph.D., M.Ed.

Enbal Schacham, Ph.D., M.Ed., a professor of public health and associate director of the Geospatial Institute, and Flavio Esposito, Ph.D., assistant professor of computer science, together developed the My COVID19 Tracker App, which utilizes real-time data to track symptoms and locations to best understand where populations are most affected by COVID-19. The app has helped St. Louis County identify where people may be at higher risk for infection. More information on the app can be found on page 248.

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FACULTY ENGAGED IN THE PARTNERSHIP (continued)

Ricardo Wray

on focus groups that included residents of African American neighborhoods in North St. Louis City and County, the findings of which could be used to develop more effective public health intervention strategies.

Findings from such surveys can inform the County’s efforts to address vaccine hesitancy and misinformation.

Approximately 1100 participants were surveyed across St. Louis County.

Leveraging the funding awarded to the College through the CARES Act, Wray and his colleagues at SLU developed a survey of St. Louis County residents that gauged their intention to vaccinate.

With additional, later support from the College, Wray was also able to conduct a similar survey in St. Louis City and neighboring counties in Illinois. Finally, the Stephen C. Peiper and Zi-Xuan Wang Institute for Vaccine Science and Policy provided Wray with the necessary funding to survey intention to vaccinate across the rest of Missouri. Wray and his colleagues plan to replicate the survey in the near future and include new questions about parents’ intentions to vaccinate their children.

Jen Jen Chang

Rachel Charney

Darcy Scharff

Jen Jen Chang, Ph.D., associate professor of epidemiology, Lauren Arnold, Ph.D., associate professor of epidemiology, and Steve Rigdon, Ph.D., professor of epidemiology and biostatistics, are leading epidemiological and analytic support.

Rachel Charney, M.D., professor of pediatrics within the SLU School of Medicine, and Kristin Wilson, Ph.D., associate professor of health policy and education, have developed online training and education programs for contact tracers and case investigators.

This was done with the Heartland Center for Public Health and Community Capacity Development, which Wilson leads in the College.

Darcy Scharff, Ph.D., associate professor of behavioral science and health education, and Pamela Xaverius, Ph.D., associate professor of epidemiology, are mentoring and leading students engaged in this partnership.

Ph.D.

Ricardo Wray, Ph.D., professor of behavioral science and health education, is leading vaccine adoption research and message development.

He was first engaged in regional health communication work in the early days of the pandemic through the St. Louis Academic Health Department. At that time, Wray worked with St. Louis City and St. Louis County health officials

Ph.D.

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“That was a great experience,” Wray said of his time working alongside these health officials. “I kind of miss our weekly meetings with them. We really developed some strong relationships, rapport, and mutual trust.”

M.D.

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Ph.D.

7/15/20 The newly established Water Access, Technology, Environment and Resources (WATER) Institute brings together experts for “The Role of Water during COVID-19,” a webinar about public health theory and practice in water, as well as sanitation and hygiene, as it pertains to pandemic response. A recording of the webinar can be found at www.slu.edu/water.

7/21/20 Saint Louis University joins the COVID-19 Prevention Network (CoVPN).

7/31/20 The SLU/YouGov Poll releases a new poll that gauges the pandemic’s impact on Missourians. Analysis from this poll is available at www.slu.edu/poll.

8/3/20 Interim Vice President for Student Development Debra Rudder Lohe, Ph.D., announces a new module for students returning to campus. The module was developed by student leaders on campus to educate students on new policies and public health safeguards as they prepare to return to campus.

8/10/20 The Center for Vaccine Development enrolls the first volunteer in a phase 3 clinical trial to study the effectiveness, safety, and immune response generated by a vaccine co-developed by scientists at Moderna and the NIAID Vaccine Research Center. Sharon Frey, M.D., clinical director of the Center for Vaccine Development, was the principal investigator.

“A safe and effective vaccine that will protect against COVID-19 is our best hope for ending the current pandemic,” said Frey.

8/14/20 Welcome Week begins at SLU as students move back to campus for the new semester.

Enbal Shacham, Ph.D., works with public health students.

“Our students were impressive,” said Tom Burroughs, Ph.D. “They were working through the data and putting presentations together, and once a week, the students would actually deliver the presentations to the County leadership.”

Student Engagement The expanded partnership with St. Louis County provides a unique opportunity for the College’s students to work alongside public health professionals and make a quantifiable difference in the regional fight against COVID-19.

The team includes undergraduate students, graduate students, and Ph.D. students. These students are analyzing data and putting together and delivering presentations to the St. Louis County Health Department. Under the supervision of Charney and Arnold, students also scanned often dense literature for new findings related to COVID-19.

This helped County Health Department officials stay informed on the latest science.

Students also helped Wray in developing focus groups and surveys to help inform future messaging campaigns around the pandemic.

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Enbal Shacham, Ph.D., and Flavio Esposito, Ph.D., present the My COVID19 Tracker App to a group of students.

Location Matters

With leadership from the Geospatial Institute, researchers at Saint Louis University are using location data to inform effective public health strategies.

In December 2019, while people across the United States were getting ready for the holidays, Enbal Shacham, Ph.D., professor of public health and associate director of the Geospatial Institute at SLU, was tracking emerging cases of “viral pneumonia” across China. Shacham was among the first researchers at SLU to study the virus which would later become known as COVID-19, and she quickly recognized the risk for certain populations here in the United States.

“Our most vulnerable are going to be at highest risk,’’ Shacham said, reflecting on those early days of the crisis.

“Our concern was, we know that there’s going to be people that work at a nursing home that’s close to an airport — those are the people who are going to be moving around. That’s where we focused our initial work, and then we learned how infectious it was.”

Since then, Shacham has partnered with a number of experts to examine how location impacts public health and to collect and analyze location data to inform effective intervention strategies.

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Why Does Location Data Matter in a Pandemic?

Location data can provide insight into outbreaks by tracking movement patterns in a network of communities. Data aggregated by Shacham and her colleagues, for example, revealed that city and state borders became very porous as travel restrictions and mask mandates eased up, driving regional infection rates up.

Data such as this can provide researchers with a window in which to test hypotheses and provide officials with actionable information that informs resource distribution and public health measures. Since the start of the pandemic, researchers such as Shacham have geared data collection and analysis toward best equipping public health officials so that they can implement effective, location-minded strategies.

8/17/20 Fall semester classes begin.

9/3/20 In partnership with the Justice Collaborative Institute and Data for Progress, the Institute for Healing Justice & Equity publishes a report that investigates the laws and policies contributing to significant health disparities among minority groups.

More information can be found on www.ihje.org.

10/22/20 The Food and Drug Administration approves the usage of remdesivir for the treatment of COVID-19 in adults and pediatric patients 12 years of age and older who require hospitalization.

Remdesivir was studied earlier in the year at SLU. Sarah George, M.D., was the principal investigator of the trial.

“Some have not really leveraged location and how location matters so much in this pandemic,’’ Shacham said. “We would have had greater success in managing responses if we focused on that.”

Many modern technologies allow location data to be collected in real time. Smartphone data, for example, has been transformative in forecasting outbreaks.

“Never before have we been able to deeply understand community mobility,” Shacham said. “Geospatial science provides that insight.”

The Geospatial Institute was uniquely equipped to gather and analyze this data. Since its launch in 2019, the Institute has maintained a focus on leveraging geospatial science and technology for public health, often called “geohealth.” The Institute has a longstanding interest in the ethical dimensions of geospatial technology, and was therefore wellpositioned to tackle the unique ethical dilemmas presented by the pandemic and the collection of personal, location data. With new and strengthened partnerships across the St. Louis region, the Institute has quickly emerged as a leader in this field.

11/19/20 The FDA issues an Emergency Use Authorization for the use of baricitinib in the treatment of hospitalized COVID-19 patients. The safety and effectiveness of the anti-inflammatory drug was studied in a trial at SLU. Sarah George, M.D., was the principal investigator of the trial.

11/23/20 Utilizing $1.2 million of CARES Act funding, SLU’s College for Public Health and Social Justice expands existing partnership with the St. Louis County Health Department in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Enbal Shacham, Ph.D., explains the role of location in a pandemic during a public health class.

“Our most vulnerable are going to be at highest risk,’’ Shacham said, “Our concern was, we know that there’s going to be people that work at a nursing home that’s close to an airport — those are the people who are going to be moving around. That’s where we focused our initial work, and then we learned how infectious it was.”

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11/27/20

Tracking in Action Utilizing COVID-19 Location Data Experts at SLU have come together to examine geospatial health, or the study of location in public health. Geospatial experts, computer scientists, and more have spent the past year developing new technologies and methodologies to track the spread of COVID-19 and find ways to protect communities. The Geospatial Institute has emerged as a regional leader in geospatial health. Researchers such as Enbal Shacham, Ph.D., and Chris Prener, Ph.D., assistant professor of sociology, are leading the way in tracking the pandemic’s progress across the region.

Collecting Data On behalf of St. Louis County, Shacham, Flavio Esposito, Ph.D., associate professor of computer science, and Roberto Coral, a research assistant in geospatial science, created the My COVID19 Tracker App early on in the pandemic. This app tracks users’ symptoms and vaccination status in relation to their location. The location data collected can be applied in a way that complements what we know about public health and health care. The app has allowed researchers and public health officials to pinpoint counties with high rates of infection, identify vaccination rates of disparate areas, study exposure risks, and implement location-minded mitigation strategies. The app has contact tracing capabilities that could be utilized to inform individuals of recent COVID-19 exposure to prevent further viral spread.

Examining Collective Risks Shacham has also worked with the Sinquefield Center for Applied Economic Research to study the movement of COVID-19 resulting from baseball’s 2021 opening weekend in St. Louis.

Using smartphone data acquired from Veraset, researchers have been able to analyze where individuals originated from, how long individuals stayed at the 68

game as well as where they stopped on the way home. This research found that communities with bars and restaurants experienced an increase in infections a few weeks after opening weekend fans visited. This demonstrates the impact of location in the spread of COVID-19, particularly as it relates to major events, and how it correlates with collective risk and vaccination rates.

Shacham also partnered with Justin Goodson, Ph.D., Father Davis Professor of Operations and IT Management, to conduct a vaccine optimization study to identify mobility in distribution of vaccines in relation to infection rates.

Creating an Informed Community Chris Prener, Ph.D., assistant professor of sociology, started the pandemic by watching coverage of nursing home outbreaks in Washington. He began thinking of the impact of the pandemic on students and how the disease would soon spread across the country. By March, he was risk mapping to provide a forecast for case counts and health care considerations and collecting spatial data in the St. Louis region and beyond.

In an effort to make COVID-19 data more accessible to the general public, Prener began a series of outreach efforts to the community he was studying: St. Louis. He now makes nightly COVID-19

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Research from Enbal Shacham, Ph.D., shows that St. Louis and St. Louis County mask mandates slowed COVID-19 infections in the region.

12/4/20 Fall semester ends.

12/11/20 The Center for Vaccine Development begins a phase 3 clinical trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of Janssen’s investigational COVID-19 vaccine candidate. Sharon Frey, M.D., clinical director of the Center for Vaccine Development, is the principal investigator of the Janssen trial at SLU.

12/11/20 Under an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA), the the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorizes the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to prevent COVID-19 in individuals 18 years of age and older.

12/18/20 Under an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA), the FDA authorizes the use of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to prevent COVID-19 in individuals 18 years of age and older. The vaccine was tested in a trial at SLU. Sharon Frey, M.D., was the principal investigator of the trial.

1/11/21 SLU applies with the State of Missouri to become vaccine provider site.

1/19/21 Gritstone bio advances second generation COVID-19 vaccine with support from NIAID; SLU’s Daniel Hoft, M.D., Ph.D., announced as protocol chair and lead principal investigator of the trial.

1/28/21 Spring semester begins with hybrid (in-person and online) classes.

updates on social media. He’s also created a weekly newsletter on Substack called “River City Data.”

Prener’s efforts have kept the St. Louis region informed with accessible, easily understood data throughout the pandemic.

He said that his goal is to provide people with context and do it in a way that prioritizes clear data visualization often unavailable through the media. This has made Prener a trusted voice in St. Louis during the pandemic. From April to July 2021, he served on St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones’s Stimulus Advisory Board. In this role, Prener advised and assisted the mayor in determining how to best use funds provided through the American Rescue Plan. Prener provided expertise in data collection and evaluation.

SLU researchers have also collaborated with the St. Louis Regional Pandemic Task Force in the hopes of creating actionable mitigation strategies. These researchers routinely share location data and results with the Task Force and analyze how this data can be leveraged for the public good.

Considering Ethical Standards Geospatial mapping technologies have tremendous potential for the common good, yet can cause immense harm if used without ethical consideration. The Geospatial Institute at SLU continually considers the ethics of collecting, analyzing, and sharing personal location data. The Geospatial Institute established the Geospatial Ethics Research and Practice Group to scrutinize geospatial technologies and practices prior to implementation. By the time COVID-19 emerged, the Institute was well-prepared to examine complex issues such as location data, personal identity, and privacy.

Michael Rozier, S.J., Ph.D., assistant professor of health management and policy, completed a study on people’s willingness to share location data, including their concerns on who gets to see that private location information.

The results showed a general willingness to share that information with others, especially if the individual was infected with COVID-19. Despite this willingness, many health officials across the nation have yet to implement extensive contact tracing measures.

Graphics from Chris Prener, Ph.D., who manages a website tracking the COVID-19 pandemic in Missouri. This site is updated nightly using data from a variety of federal, state, and local data sources as well as the New York Times’ COVID-19 Project.

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Professional singers demonstrate the VocalEase mask during a photo shoot performance. Photo by Intuitive Eye Photography.

New Insights & Inventions Researchers at Saint Louis University launched a variety of novel inventions to address the unique challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The strength and ingenuity of SLU researchers have been on full display throughout the pandemic.

The crisis presented a number of new challenges and unique needs, and SLU researchers embraced this opportunity to forge new partnerships and pursue innovative solutions. Below is a selection of these technologies, inventions, and initiatives developed by SLU researchers since the start of the pandemic.

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2/4/21

VocalEase

State of Missouri accepts SLU’s application to become a vaccine provider site.

During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Stephanie Tennill, assistant professor of Music in the Fine and Performing Arts Department, observed a critical problem for singers and speakers that seemed to go neglected: the ability to communicate clearly with authenticity and optimal vocal health while wearing a mask.

2/22/21

The co-founders of the Institute for Healing Justice & Equity pen column in the Guardian on racism in COVID-19 health care.

2/27/21

Under an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA), the FDA authorizes the use of the J&J/Janssen COVID-19 vaccine to prevent COVID-19 in individuals 18 years of age and older. The vaccine was tested in a trial at SLU. Sharon Frey, M.D., was the principal investigator of the trial.

3/2/21 SLU receives first 100 doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, to begin vaccinating the community.

3/5/21 SLU hosts its first vaccine clinic at the Simon Recreation Center on SLU’s campus.

3/25/21 First participant is enrolled in Gritstone bio second generation COVID-19 vaccine study. Getahun Abate, M.D., Ph.D., is the principal investigator for the SLU site of the trial.

4/10/21 The SLU COVID-19 Vaccination Team hosts a vaccine clinic for local church communities.

5/10/21 Spring semester ends; SLU successfully concludes the academic year after remaining open and in-person.

Funded by a SPARK grant from the Research Institute and fueled by her passion to help the singing and professional-speaking community, Tennill worked with SLU biomedical engineer Andy Hall, D.Sc., director of the Saint Louis University Center for Additive Manufacturing (SLU CAM), and professional costume designer Noelle Wagner to create a mask that could offer maximum clarity, comfort, and protection for its wearer.

After months of trials and testing, Tennill created a successful prototype.

On August 12, 2021, with the support of the University, she launched VocalEase — a company offering an acoustically transparent mask for speech and singing.

She set up the business as an LLC with a mission to achieve maximum social impact.

with partners that contribute to the common good by providing hope and opportunities to underserved individuals and organizations.”

VocalEase masks are produced in St. Louis by The Collective Thread ­— a nonprofit sewing collaborative that empowers vulnerable women by teaching them new skills and providing them a living-wage job — and packaged at JSI, a local sheltered workshop.

With every VocalEase mask sold, a portion of the proceeds supports the national nonprofit Sing for Hope and the organization’s efforts to introduce underserved communities around the globe to the healing power of arts and music.

“It’s been an ambitious path, and I’m so grateful to everyone who has helped bring us to this moment,” added Tennill.

“Supporting the arts is about supporting the community and bringing people together. The fact that this product has been able to do that — from production and packaging to performance — is extraordinarily humbling.”

For more information about VocalEase or to order a mask, visit VocalEaseMask.com.

“This product allows singers and speakers to fearlessly and safely return to the community and share their collective gifts with the world,” said Tennill.

“And in the spirit of giving, we aligned

“This product allows singers and speakers to fearlessly and safely return to the community and share their collective gifts with the world,” said Tennill. “And in the spirit of giving, we aligned with partners that contribute to the common good by providing hope and opportunities to underserved individuals and organizations.”

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Circle of Friends Aging populations are more likely to experience loneliness — a problem only exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

As the pandemic swept across the world, older adults were thrown into deep isolation to keep themselves safe from a highly contagious and often deadly virus.

The Research Institute’s Rapid Response COVID-19 Seed Fund

allowed researchers to find a way for senior citizens to experience fulfilling social interactions while maintaining their health. Marla Berg-Weger, Ph.D., professor of social work and executive director of the Gateway Geriatric Education Center at the SLU School of Medicine, in collaboration with John Morley, M.D., professor emeritus at SLU’s Division of Geriatric Medicine,

created Circle of Friends to support seniors struggling with isolation. Though pre-pandemic meetings were in-person, Circle of Friends quickly transitioned to an online platform, connecting seniors together for virtual social engagement.

This project enables seniors to prioritize their overall well-being rather than sacrificing their emotional needs for the sake of their health.

A student on SLU’s campus enters their health data in the My COVID19 Tracker App.

My COVID19 Tracker App The early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic were marked by a rapid increase in hospitalizations and viral transmission. In response, SLU strengthened an existing partnership with the St. Louis County Health Department to provide resources for tracking and research within the community. Led by Enbal Shacham, 72

Ph.D., professor of behavioral science and health education, and Flavio Esposito, Ph.D., professor of computer science, SLU developed the My COVID19 Tracker App. This mobile application allowed researchers to monitor realtime symptoms and track the location of symptomatic individuals, providing valuable insight into the areas and

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populations most affected by COVID-19.

The data collected from the app will help public health officials understand the context around COVID-19 infections and support the work of the department in successfully mitigating the spread.

6/8/21 University President Fred Pestello, Ph.D., announces COVID-19 vaccination requirement for all students, staff, and faculty who will be physically present on the University’s St. Louis campuses for the fall semester.

- Exemptions are granted on the grounds of religious beliefs or medical circumstances.

6/16/21 SLU hosts a media briefing of the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force.

6/28/21 Terri Rebmann, Ph.D., receives the President’s Distinguished Service Award from the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC). Rebmann is a professor of epidemiology and the director of SLU’s Institute for Biosecurity. She was appointed Special Assistant to the President by President Pestello early in the pandemic to advise on the University’s response. Her leadership was instrumental in allowing SLU to stay open and hold mostly in-person classes throughout the 2020-2021 academic year.

8/2/21 All of SLU’s non-clinical staff return to campus ahead of the fall semester.

8/12/21 Stephanie Tennill, assistant professor of music, launches the VocalEase mask, an acoustically transparent mask for speech and singing. The SLU Research Institute had previously awarded Tennill a grant to support initial planning and prototyping.

9/1/21 Fall semester begins.

Mock-ups for a custom, 3D-printed N95 respirator developed by researchers in the Center for Additive Manufacturing.

N95 Respirator Alternatives Personal protective equipment grew scarce at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, drawing fears that hospitals could run out of vital N95 masks for critical health care workers. To address this problem, the SLU Center for Additive Manufacturing collaborated with Keith Pereira, M.D., in the SLU School of Medicine to design and 3D print masks that would pass N95 filtration criteria. The production process required an optical scan of the wearer’s face to guarantee a custom fit, which was then used as a blueprint for a custom 3D-printed mask. New prototypes were produced nearly every day for six weeks until they received approval from the SLU Institutional Review Board.

While the commercial supply eventually stabilized, the rapid response of these SLU researchers brought peace of mind to health departments across the St. Louis region.

Read more about this project on page 252.

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Beyond the Pandemic — The Landscape for a Healthier Future

Ana Santos Rutschman, S.J.D.

In the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers encountered more questions than answers: How dangerous was the virus? How did it spread?

What activities were safe? When could “normal life” resume? SLU researchers led the charge in a multitude of ways— from conducting vaccine trials and investigating vital research questions, to supporting the St. Louis region’s pandemic response and opening vaccine clinics for the community.

As the pandemic evolves, scientists and scholars at SLU remain focused on many of the challenges shaping the future. While there is always work to be 74

done, the research efforts and progress achieved so far help pave the way toward a healthier tomorrow.

For researchers like Ana Santos Rutschman, S.J.D., and Timothy Wiemken, Ph.D., who have spent the past decade investigating the effects of vaccine misinformation and disinformation, vaccine policies and mandates, and emerging infectious respiratory diseases, their expertise has deepened the world’s knowledge of the pandemic.

SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSIT Y RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Ana Santos Rutschman, S.J.D. Assistant Professor

Center for Health Law Studies, Center for International and Comparative Law

Timothy Wiemken, Ph.D. Adjunct Professor

Division of Infectious Diseases, Allergy and Immunology

IMPACT REPORT 2021

Making Vaccines Accessible As COVID-19 was first emerging in the United States, Ana Santos Rutschman, S.J.D., assistant professor in SLU’s Center for Health Law Studies and Center for International and Comparative Law, had just finished writing a paper focused on vaccines, intellectual property, and health laws—particularly as they related to vaccines against emerging infectious disease pathogens.

to achieve that goal—how patent-based incentives and R&D can be misaligned.

As she worked on the final edits of the paper before publication in the Michigan Law Review Online, COVID-19 was gaining speed, but Rutschman explained her research stayed relevant. “The piece didn’t change because the things I’ve been studying for the past 10 years have remained the same.”

Rutschman has an expansive knowledge of intellectual property laws in connection to vaccines. In particular, Rutschman studies patent laws, which prevent vaccine replication and dictate their allocation. These laws have played a long-term role in vaccine nationalism; when wealthy, developed countries have strict patent laws, it prevents the equitable allocation of resources and leaves developing nations without access to life-saving treatments.

“It was eerie,” Rutschman said. “My paper was focused on the intellectual property of vaccines and included takeaways from recent outbreaks.”

“It was eerie,” Rutschman said. “My paper was focused on the intellectual property of vaccines and included takeaways from recent outbreaks.” Her essay explores the ways in which law and policy have been designed to support the development and commercialization of new vaccines, and how they often fail

A vaccine clinic hosted by Saint Louis University.

Vaccine nationalism is not a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic, however. “I was studying these things and now they’re happening again. It’s the same thing but it’s just bigger,” said Rutschman. “I spend a lot of time thinking about what patents are preventing us from accessing the technology and replicating the vaccines we need.” One such inquiry is determining how vaccines reach those in disadvantaged communities and populations across the globe where safe, effective vaccines are needed the most—an ongoing issue that Rutschman’s research studies.

This expertise and research experience made Rutschman a strong candidate for the Biden campaign’s COVID-19 Innovation Committee. In fall 2020, she was assigned to the COVID-19 Response Subcommittee, where she advised on vaccines and related intellectual property issues.

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Combating Misinformation With misinformation and disinformation, a type of misinformation shared with the intent to mislead or deceive, swirling across the globe, many people remain reluctant to get the vaccine. “Vaccine hesitancy had been growing before the pandemic,” Rutschman said. “But it’s grown exponentially now. It’s frightful.”

Rutschman’s research examines how to combat these issues through regulatory changes. As she investigated various options for regulating vaccine misinformation—from government responses to self-regulation—Rutschman surprised herself. “As a law professor, I normally like things that are mandatory,” she said. “But a bit to my surprise, I decided that I want modes of selfregulation, which for somebody like me was counterintuitive.”

During a class, Ana Santos Rutschman, S.J.D., explains some of the legal considerations of the vaccine roll-out.

and mandates were “We’re trying to understand what people effective tools to combat are saying and how we can head off these vaccine hesitancy. “The conspiracies and start debunking them before question was, ‘Will they reach the mainstream,” Wiemken said. you pay people to get a COVID-19 vaccine?’” said Rutschman. As proposals for cash groundbreaking research. Over the past Self-regulation, Rutschman explained, incentives gained traction, the pair year, he’s pursued a number of projects calls on the government to pass a law studied potential outcomes. centered on debunking conspiracy articulating that vaccine-specific content theories and providing the public with a Although there were benefits to is to be moderated. “I think we should clear, data-driven perspective on offering monetary rewards in exchange be pushing for a vaccine-specific code,” vaccine safety. for vaccinations, Rutschman was she said. “There’s a difference in trying concerned that it would One particular project examined disproportionately impact COVID-19 case and death rates in “Vaccine hesitancy had been growing before economically-disadvantaged connection with the 2016 election data. communities as higher“Our main variables of interest were who the pandemic,” Rutschman said, “But it’s income individuals would the county voted for in 2016,” Wiemken grown exponentially now. It’s frightful.” have the financial means to explained. His research discovered that refuse. “As much as I want individuals in a county predominantly the vaccines to make it where they are older than 50 who voted Republican to vaccinate the world and the country needed,” she said, “I don’t want it to be at faced a COVID-19 death rate that was when there’s misinformation nonstop. the expense of people who don’t have a 90 percent higher than those who voted It starts with self-regulation. It starts by choice.”

Democrat. “It’s not to blame any political asking companies, ‘What will you do for party,” said Wiemken. “It’s to say, ‘Look, us?’” public health is apolitical.’ This is about With misinformation spreading rapidly keeping everyone safe.” and national vaccination rates slowing Another research project tackled a down, Rutschman partnered with popular conspiracy theory positing Timothy Wiemken, Ph.D., adjunct As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, that COVID-19 death rates were professor in the Division of Infectious more and more data has become overexaggerated and fabricated. To Diseases, Allergy and Immunology, available. For Wiemken, new data meant disprove the theory, Wiemken and to study if vaccination incentives a new opportunity to dive deep into

Debunking Conspiracy Theories With Data

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his team compiled the past 20 years of deaths of all causes. “We used novel statistical methods to figure out the number of people we should expect to die each week, given the past 20 years,” he explained. “Then, we overlaid actual deaths—of all causes. The difference between how many people died over the COVID-19 transmission period was so much higher.”

Through this research, Wiemken understood that conspiracy theories were often easier to spread than they were to debunk. In hopes of identifying conspiracies before they take root in public discourse, Wiemken is now turning to Reddit. “We’re trying to understand what people are saying and how we can head off these conspiracies and start debunking them before they reach the mainstream,” he said.

Striving Toward a Safer Future For Wiemken and Rutschman, the pandemic has given them a renewed sense of purpose and a multitude of new opportunities as they investigate some of the most critical challenges confronting public health.

Wiemken, is currently at work on a project that reimagines the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), a database of all reports of adverse reactions to vaccines.

According to Wiemken, however, the system is nearly unusable from a public perspective. “We want to build a new system that’s public-facing and helps persuade the public that the COVID-19 vaccinations are some of the safest ever released.”

“We want to build a new system that’s publicfacing and helps persuade the public that the COVID-19 vaccinations are some of the safest ever released.”

Rutschman is also working toward a healthier, safer future for all. In addition to helping the public understand new mandates and orders, she’s written extensively on vaccine laws

A vaccine clinic hosted at Saint Louis University’s Simon Recreation Center.

and policies and published a number of papers related to the pandemic—with many more to come. As her research garners more attention—one article she wrote about vaccine mandates in the workplace ended up with over 160,000 readers—so has her calendar.

“I woke up at 3 a.m. to speak at a conference in Hong Kong on intellectual property and patents,” Rutschman remembered. “I also stayed awake until 1:30 am for a conference in New Zealand discussing misinformation.” In the early days of 2022, Rutschman’s research is just as relevant and vital as ever: “Invitations are trickling in and my calendar is filling up.”

For both Rutschman and Wiemken, new partnerships with professors and academics across disciplines and departments have been a high point.

“It’s been a really great year for forging new collaborations across schools, which is what I’m really interested in,” said Wiemken. “Being able to work with new people like Ana has been a motivator.

You can’t innovate unless you’re working with people who think differently than you.”

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Getahun Abate, M.D., Ph.D., listens to a trial volunteer’s heartbeat. Abate is the principal investigator for the SLU site of the Gritstone bio trial.

Continued Vaccine Clinics As soon as vaccines became available in the St. Louis region, SLU opened vaccine clinics in support of the community.

From February to September of 2021, over 13,000 vaccines were administered at the University’s vaccine clinics.

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With the rise of possible variants and the availability of booster shots, these numbers will only continue to increase— and with it, the heightened safety of St. Louis.

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In the fall of 2021, as booster vaccines were under review, SLU kept up with the latest recommendations and requirements to ensure eligible community members could receive a booster shot at the soonest opportunity.

The SLU COVID-19 Vaccination Team has already begun to plan to administer booster vaccines.

Gritstone bio Trial There are now multiple vaccines available to the public that have been proven to be safe and effective against COVID-19.

While these current vaccines trigger a good antibody response against COVID-19 and therefore remain our best protection against the virus, scientists anticipate that this protection will wane over time. Scientists also expect COVID-19 to continue to mutate, with new variants of the virus becoming the dominant strain. As of September 2021, it is unknown how the durability of protection offered by current vaccines will hold up against such variants.

Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic is the latest in a series of coronavirus outbreaks; the SARS outbreak in 2002 and the MERS outbreak in 2012 were also caused by coronaviruses.

Therefore, scientists anticipate future outbreaks could be on the horizon, and vaccine development needs to look for long-term solutions to this trend.

In January 2021, biotechnology company Gritstone bio announced that it was advancing a second-generation COVID-19 vaccine candidate into a Phase I clinical trial with the support of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). SLU’s own Daniel Hoft, M.D., Ph.D., was selected as the protocol chair and lead principal investigator of the study. Getahun Abate, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of infectious diseases, is the principal investigator for the SLU site.

The Gritstone bio vaccine may provide longer protection and more durable protection against future variants by maximizing our bodies’ T cell response. T cells are a type of white blood cell that can “remember” viruses for long periods of time. Scientists hope that this could mean longer-lasting immunity.

“Gritstone’s vaccine may provide more comprehensive viral protection by inducing a better combination of T cell responses and neutralizing antibodies as compared to the currently available vaccines,” Hoft said at the study’s start.

The VTEU at SLU was one of four sites in this Phase I study.

The first participant at the SLU site was enrolled in March 2021.

“Gritstone’s vaccine may provide more comprehensive viral protection by inducing a better combination of T cell responses and neutralizing antibodies as compared to the currently available vaccines,” Hoft said at the study’s start.

In addition to the Gritstone bio trial, SLU is building infrastructure to expand impact and equip SLU researchers to respond to the ongoing pandemic and future outbreaks. In April 2020, the Stephen C. Peiper and Zi-Xuan Wang Institute for Vaccine Science and Policy was established. This endeavor is aimed at developing new vaccines for COVID-19 and other illnesses, making vaccine research at SLU more expansive and interdisciplinary by bringing together researchers from across the University.

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Growing Partnerships The pandemic gave SLU’s faculty and students a tremendous opportunity to collaborate and work alongside new partners—all while strengthening the existing partnerships that have powered SLU researchers for years. Many of the researchers involved in these partnerships recognize that future public health crises are inevitable—including new coronavirus outbreaks—and multidisciplinary partnerships lead to innovative insights and discoveries, protecting public health.

The College for Public Health and Social Justice deepened its partnership with the St. Louis County Health Department, demonstrating to the region the support and expertise SLU researchers have to offer. This partnership has already enabled the College to expand its impact in the St. Louis region, and it has generated additional partnerships with the State of Missouri, the City of St. Louis, and numerous surrounding counties in Missouri and Illinois.

Tom Burroughs, Ph.D., professor and former dean of the College for Public Health and Social Justice, recognizes that much work needs to be done to

restore the public’s confidence in public health and public health officials. He is optimistic that researchers within the College can earn the trust of local communities through action.

Burroughs believes a part of this includes instilling certain values and skills in the next generation of public health leaders, such as accessible and effective communication skills.

“SLU’s College for Public Health and Social Justice does a lot of public health workforce development for both Missouri and Illinois, and we’re trying to be agents of change,” said Burroughs.

“We don’t demand the public’s trust, and we can’t assume our titles and degrees make us trustworthy. Instead, we have to demonstrate trustworthiness to our community. That’s SLU. That’s who we are.”

Burroughs, along with a number of other researchers, feels motivated to maintain this momentum moving forward, particularly as the SLU team continues to respond to the ongoing pandemic and prepare for new developments that may come in the future.

“SLU’s College for Public Health and Social Justice does a lot of public health workforce development for both Missouri and Illinois, and we’re trying to be agents of change,” said Burroughs. “We don’t demand the public’s trust, and we can’t assume our titles and degrees make us trustworthy. Instead, we have to demonstrate trustworthiness to our community. That’s SLU. That’s who we are.”

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The Saint Louis University flag flies outside the Center for Global Citizenship on SLU’s campus.

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Ranjit Ray, Ph.D., works with researchers Vijayamahantesh Bajegoudar, Ph.D., and Mr. Keith Meyer.

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Center for Vaccine Development Protecting Humanity from Deadly Disease

In a time of desperate and global need, the world-renowned Center for Vaccine Development at Saint Louis University stepped up and began a race against time to fight the pandemic. In addition to its heavy focus on COVID-19, the Center for Vaccine Development continues to study and test vaccines against ever-evolving diseases.

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Dan Hoft, M.D., Ph.D, and Sharon Frey, M.D., review lab samples together.

Continuing the Fight A Conversation with Daniel Hoft, M.D., Ph.D., Director, Center for Vaccine Development

“Every single one of us here understands the importance of the work we’re doing,” Hoft said.

For all the innovation and impact it brings to the world, the research process tends to move slowly. It takes time not only to plan a study, but also to procure funding, conduct methodology, and publish findings. But for Daniel Hoft, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Center for Vaccine Development (CVD), the last few months have been anything but slow. He describes this as the most fastpaced, intensely focused period in the Center’s history, as researchers at every level continue to mobilize against the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Every single one of us understands the importance of the work we’re doing,” Hoft said. “That was certainly true before 84

the pandemic, but there’s a renewed motivation and energy to it now. Along with our colleagues around the world, we are united in this singular purpose to end the devastation.”

Hoft explains that the CVD’s capabilities — and contributions — in the field of vaccine development are multidimensional. The Center is uniquely equipped to conduct both basic research and clinical trials related to vaccines and treatments for some of the world’s most deadly diseases, from tuberculosis to influenza. But when COVID-19 emerged in late 2019, it became clear that the CVD would be called upon to mount an aggressive response.

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In early 2020, the CVD took tremendous steps to accommodate a surge of COVID-19 vaccine research, evaluation, and testing. Much of this rapid response is attributed to SLU’s status as one of only 10 Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Units (VTEUs) in the country, a designation that was renewed by the National Institutes of Health in 2019. By August 2020, the Center was well-equipped to conduct a phase 3 clinical trial for the Moderna vaccine. Led by Sharon Frey, M.D., clinical director for the CVD, the study evaluated the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness against the virus, and recruited hundreds of volunteers from across the St. Louis region. As Hoft explains, we owe them a sincere thanks.

“None of this would have been possible without the time, patience, and

generosity of our community,” Hoft said. “They stepped out of their comfort zone and took on a major responsibility for the world. They deserve our utmost gratitude.”

Upon successful phase 3 results, the Moderna vaccine was submitted to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for approval in August 2021. Although that’s reason for celebration, Hoft cautions that we aren’t out of the woods yet. As with many viruses, SARS-CoV-2 will mutate over time and could present new public health challenges in the years to come. Predicting and preempting those challenges is an emerging priority for the CVD.

Hoft’s continued leadership over the CVD, especially in response to COVID-19, made him the ideal choice to lead a new center of excellence at SLU, the Stephen C. Peiper and Zi-Xuan Wang Institute for Vaccine Science and Policy. Established in 2020 following a generous gift from Drs. Peiper and Wang, the Institute builds on the CVD’s rich foundation to address the multidisciplinary questions surrounding vaccinology, ultimately connecting the gaps between vaccine science, bioethics, policy, and public health.

As he reflects on the most eventful period of his career, one that’s caused heartbreak and devastation across the globe, Hoft speaks not with fatigue or sadness — but hope.

“These have certainly been dark days,” Hoft said. “But what has kept me going are the countless examples I see of people stepping up all over the world — to help others, to be there, to do good. It’s tremendously uplifting. And it reminds me that, even in times like this, it’s human nature to do the right thing.”

“Our work is ongoing,” Hoft said.

“Pandemics may subside, but viruses continue to evolve. We’ve seen it multiple times just in the last 20 years, first with the initial SARS and MERS viruses, then 2009 H1N1 pandemic flu, followed by avian flu outbreaks, and now with SARS-CoV-2. We have to be ready for the next one.”

To that end, Hoft said the CVD is fortunate to have recruited new talent during the pandemic. In the last 18 months, the Center has nearly doubled in size and added 15 trained nurses and staff members. The additional capacity will not only enable a higher research output, but also allow the Center to work proactively on large, ambitious projects.

Hoft said he’s currently pursuing one such project: a universal coronavirus vaccine.

“We’ve now had two epidemics and one pandemic from the coronavirus family just in 20 years: SARS, MERS, and SARS-CoV-2,” Hoft said. “So it seems likely that we’ll have another. And while we could certainly develop new vaccines when needed, it would be better to have one vaccine that protects against the most lethal of the coronaviruses. That’s a tall order, but it’s one the world needs.”

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Experts in the Field Meet the Team Leading the Center for Vaccine Development Director and Professor, Division of Infectious Diseases, Allergy and Immunology Director, Center for Vaccine Development Director, Stephen C. Peiper and Zi-Xuan Wang Institute for Vaccine Science and Policy Adorjan Endowed Chair of Infectious Diseases and Immunology Hoft is a professor and director of the Division of Infectious Diseases, Allergy and Immunology, Adorjan Endowed Chair of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, director of the Center for Vaccine Development (CVD), and principal investigator (PI) for the SLU Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Unit (VTEU), one of only 10 elite NIH-funded units in the country. Under his leadership, the CVD has built upon its 30-year legacy of community-centered vaccine research. In December 2019, the NIH renewed SLU’s VTEU status, and in April 2020, a generous donation from Dr. Stephen C. Peiper, M.D., (Med ’77) and Dr. Zi-Xuan Wang, Ph.D., established a new center of excellence under Hoft’s leadership: the Stephen C. Peiper and Zi-Xuan Wang Institute for Vaccine Science and Policy.

Daniel Hoft M.D., Ph.D.

In addition to his proven leadership, Hoft has earned national recognition for his contributions to science. Hoft has studied whether mucosal vaccinations and booster vaccinations enhance immunity induced by conventional vaccination.

He was the first to demonstrate that human γ9δ2 T cells develop protective memory responses after vaccination, a paradigm shift that provides an important new approach for tuberculosis vaccine development. Among his contributions to the field are the development of improved tuberculosis vaccines, the development of vaccines for Chagas Disease, pandemic influenza vaccine development, and conducting multiple phase 1-3 COVID-19 vaccine trials.

Recognizing his scientific accomplishments and excellence in teaching, Hoft was elected a Fellow of the St. Louis Academy of Science in 2018. In June 2020, he was elected to the National Vaccine Advisory Committee, which provides peer review, consultation, advice, and recommendations to the assistant secretary for health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Dan Hoft, M.D., Ph.D., and Sharon Frey, M.D., review clinical data.

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Sharon Frey M.D.

Clinical Director, Center for Vaccine Development Kinsella Endowed Chair in Internal Medicine Professor, Associate Director of Clinical Research, Division of Infectious Diseases, Allergy and Immunology Frey is a professor and the Ralph Kinsella Endowed Chair in the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, Allergy and Immunology at SLU. Frey also serves as the clinical director for the Center for Vaccine Development (CVD), the co-principal investigator (PI) for SLU’s NIH-sponsored Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Unit (VTEU), and the co-director for clinical research in the Division of Infectious Diseases, Allergy and Immunology. In addition, she is a current member of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).

Frey is a clinical trials expert and has conducted two of the first three prophylactic HCV trials in humans. Her research emphasis has been in the evaluation of vaccines against influenza including chimeric and pandemic influenza strains, vaccines to counter bioterrorism/biowarfare, and emerging infections such as smallpox and plague. Frey is also the PI for the Moderna and Comirnaty (Pfizer/BioNTech) phase 3 COVID-19 vaccine trials that will continue at the CVD until 2022. These trials are evaluating the effectiveness, safety, and immune response generated by the vaccines in a diverse population. The Comirnaty vaccine received full FDA approval on August 23, 2021 and the Moderna vaccine is currently pending FDA approval.

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Researcher Xia Liu, Ph.D., works in the Peng Lab.

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Sarah George

Getahun Abate

Associate Professor, Infectious Diseases, Allergy and Immunology

Associate Professor, Infectious Diseases, Allergy and Immunology

George is an associate professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases, Allergy and Immunology at SLU and a staff physician at the John Cochran VA Medical Center. The George Lab has extensive expertise on mosquito-borne diseases, in particular Zika, dengue, and yellow fever.

These emerging viral pathogens have caused pandemics or outbreaks in recent years. At the CVD, George has conducted numerous flavivirus vaccine trials and has helped demonstrate that live attenuated tetravalent dengue vaccination induces a cross-serotype, specific, durable T cell response that recognizes discrete viral proteins. In the coming year, she will conduct clinical trials of several novel vaccines, including vaccines against yellow fever, West Nile, and chikungunya.

Abate is an associate professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases, Allergy and Immunology at SLU, chief of the Clinical Section of Infectious Diseases, and program director of the Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program. His research focuses on development of diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines for mycobacterial diseases, including tuberculosis (TB) and nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM).

M.D.

In addition, George is PI for the Adaptive COVID-19 Treatment Trial (ACTT) for hospitalized patients at Saint Louis University Hospital. This clinical trial, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, is evaluating novel therapies for SARS-CoV-2, including remdesivir.

M.D., Ph.D.

On the vaccine development front, Abate studies the importance of inducing mycobacterial immunity through vaccination and directing immune cells to the lungs using harmless adenoviruses that make proteins to attract immune cells. This strategy is important as the lungs are primarily affected by mycobacterial infections and enhancing lung immunity protects against mycobacterial disease. In this project supported by the Department of Defense, Abate uses animal models to study the strategies of recruiting immune cells to the lungs to protect from subsequent mycobacterial infections and the importance of recruiting immune cells in resolution of established mycobacterial infection or disease.

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Clinical Studies and Crucial Discoveries A Look at the CVD’s Current Research The Center for Vaccine Development (CVD) embodies Saint Louis University’s Jesuit mission to serve humanity by developing life-saving vaccines for all people. The Center’s work spans the spectrum of the vaccine development process, from basic immunology research to clinical testing of candidate vaccines for some of the world’s most devastating illnesses. Although much of the Center’s recent efforts have centered on COVID-19 vaccine development, the following summaries reflect the Center’s broader efforts to protect humanity from all disease.

Developing Vaccines That Provide Long-lasting Immunity Against All Existing and Emerging Influenza Strains Influenza viruses mutate constantly, resulting in the emergence of viruses that may not match those targeted by seasonal and pre-pandemic influenza vaccines. Seasonal influenza vaccines are remade yearly in the hope that they match the strains predicted to circulate in the upcoming season. Therefore, 90

to receive the best protection against influenza, people must be vaccinated annually. Daniel Hoft, M.D., Ph.D., and his team are developing a universal vaccine that will protect against all strains of influenza, thereby providing broad, long-lasting protective immunity.

In collaboration with EpiVax, Hoft has received a $3 million R01 award to complete pre-clinical work on a prototype universal influenza vaccine targeting T cells.

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Human Challenge Studies The state-of-the-art Extended Stay Research Unit (ESRU) includes an $860,000 renovation to convert hotel rooms in SLU’s Salus Center into a space where researchers can conduct human challenge and natural history studies.

The facility is designed to protect the safety of the study volunteers and nonstudy participants in the building during examination, using a sophisticated HVAC system for aerosol containment. Clinic

staff provide round-the-clock patient care in a space that includes 23 patient rooms with private bathrooms, two lounges, a kitchen, dining room, and an exercise facility to allow volunteers to continue their normal activities as much as possible. This unique asset was designed for influenza human challenge studies and has been updated for COVID-19 positive trial volunteers during controlled exam visits as well.

Identifying Novel Strategies to Treat Human Cancer It is now well-recognized that manipulation of the immune system to recognize and eradicate tumor cells in patients with advanced cancers is an attractive alternative to chemotherapy.

However, current immunotherapies, including checkpoint blockade therapy, have limited success rates in certain types of cancers. Identification of alternative checkpoint molecules or interrupting tolerogenic pathways for the development of effective strategies for tumor immunotherapy is urgently needed.

Guangyong Peng, M.D., Ph.D., professor of infectious diseases, allergy, and immunology, recently discovered a novel suppressive mechanism whereby regulatory T (Treg) cells and malignant tumor cells induce senescence in effector T cells that then exhibit potent suppressive activity and amplify immune suppression. Therefore, his lab has been focused on understanding the cellular and molecular processes that control tumor and Treg-induced senescence in tumor-specific T cells, which is essential for developing strategies to effectively treat human cancer. In addition, the Peng Lab is developing innovative approaches to reverse and prevent senescence (a form of dysfunction) in tumor-specific T cells within the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment for immunotherapy.

These projects are currently supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), American Cancer Society (ACS), and Melanoma Research Alliance (MRA).

Guangyong Peng. M.D., Ph.D., works with researcher Feiya Ma, MS, Ph.D. student, in the Peng Lab. FOR VACCINE DEVELOPMENT CENTER

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On the Horizon Current and Planned Clinical Trials Within the CVD The Center for Vaccine Development (CVD) has led a global fight against infectious diseases for more than 30 years. Home to the region’s brightest experts in the field, the Center regularly conducts clinical trials intended to gauge the safety and efficacy of new vaccines and treatments. Below is a summary of current and planned trials within the Center.

COVID-19

Influenza

‒ A multicenter, adaptive, randomized, blinded, controlled trial of the safety and efficacy of investigational therapeutics for the treatment of COVID-19 in hospitalized adults (ACTT1, ACTT2, ACTT3, and ACTT4)

‒ A phase 1 trial to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of quadrivalent (Fluzone® and Flublok®) influenza vaccines in healthy U.S. adults with and without adjuvant

‒ A phase 3, randomized, stratified, observer-blind, placebocontrolled study to evaluate the efficacy, safety, and immunogenicity of mRNA-1273 SARS-CoV-2 vaccine in adults aged 18 years and older (Moderna) ‒ A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 3 study to assess the efficacy and safety of Ad26.COV2.S for the prevention of SARS-CoV-2-mediated COVID-19 in adults aged 18 years and older (Janssen) ‒ A phase 1 trial to evaluate the safety, immunogenicity, and reactogenicity of heterologous and homologous chimpanzee adenovirus and self-amplifying mRNA prime-boost prophylactic vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 in healthy adults (Gritstone bio) ‒ DAIT/NIAID systemic allergic reactions to SARS-CoV-2 lipid mRNA nanoparticle vaccines ‒ COVID-19 convalescent blood studies to identify protective responses ‒ COVID-19 convalescent leukapheresis for more detailed studies of protective responses

‒ A controlled human infection study of influenza A/ Bethesda/MM2/H1N1 virus (A/California/04/2009/H1N1like) in healthy subjects to assess the effect of pre-existing immunity on symptomatic influenza virus infections ‒ A phase 2 study to assess the safety, reactogenicity, and immunogenicity of a single dose of 2017 A/H7N9 inactivated influenza vaccine (IIV) administered intramuscularly with or without AS03 adjuvant in 2013 A/H7N9 IIV primed or A/ H7 IIV naïve subjects ‒ A phase 2 study in healthy adults 18-64 years old to assess the safety, reactogenicity, and immunogenicity of a Seqirus A/H7N9 inactivated influenza vaccine administered intramuscularly with or without MF59® adjuvant ‒ A phase 1 trial to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of an influenza vaccination strategy including an H3N2 M2SR prime followed by a seasonal quadrivalent inactivated vaccine boost in a pediatric population 9-17 years old ‒ A phase 1 A/IB trial to evaluate the safety, tolerance, and immunogenicity of MAS-1-adjuvanted seasonal inactivated influenza vaccine (MER4101) with hemagglutinin dose escalation compared to non-adjuvanted comparator inactivated influenza vaccine (IIV) standard dose (SD) in healthy adults and high dose (HD) IIV in ambulatory elderly subjects ‒ A phase 2, double-blind, multicenter, randomized, placebocontrolled trial to assess the safety, reactogenicity, and immunogenicity of two doses of multimeric-001 (M-001) followed by seasonal quadrivalent influenza vaccine

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Researchers keep samples at appropriate temperatures using dry ice.

Tuberculosis

Recent Grants

‒ A phase 1, open-label, single-dose study to evaluate the pharmacokinetics and safety of Pretomanid in subjects with renal impairment compared to subjects with normal renal function

‒ Role of senescent T cells in Alzheimer’s disease (Peng – NIA)

‒ A phase 1, single-dose, open-label, sequential group study comparing the pharmacokinetics and safety of Pretomanid in subjects with mild, moderate, and severe hepatic impairment to matched, non-hepatically impaired subjects

‒ Selection of vaccine antigens for protection from hepatitis C virus infection (Ray – NIDDK) ‒ Hepatitis C virus infection and mechanism of liver disease and progression (Ray – NIDDK) ‒ Targeting T cell senescence and dysfunction for anti-tumor immunity (Peng – NCI)

‒ A phase 2, open-label human vaccination and challenge study to assess the ability of intradermal BCG TICE vaccination to induce protective TB immunity capable of inhibiting replication in vivo in healthy human volunteers

‒ Metabolic control of innate and adaptive immunity in breast cancer (Peng – NCI)

‒ Performance evaluation of the VIDAS® TB-IGRA assay – precision study

‒ Universal T cell targeted influenza vaccine (Hoft – NIH)

‒ Performance evaluation of the VIDAS® TB-IGRA assay – low risk for TB study ‒ Expression signatures of TB-specific memory responses within the human lung ‒ PPD+ or BCG vaccinated blood ‒ A phase 1, double-blind, randomized clinical trial to evaluate the safety, tolerability, and immunogenicity of the singlevial lyophilized ID93 + GLA-SE vaccine administered intramuscularly in healthy adult subjects [IDRI-TBVPX-120] ‒ Collection and storage of biological samples obtained by leukapheresis for the future study of immune responses induced by two BCG vaccinations in BCG-naïve healthy adults in the U.S.

‒ Universal influenza T cell targeted mucosal vaccines (Hoft – DOD) ‒ Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Unit (VTEU) renewal (Hoft – NIH) ‒ Evaluation of antibody responses elicited by Zika vaccination in flavivirus-naïve and -experienced individuals (Krebs/ Brien – NIH) ‒ Evaluation of T cell responses associated with protection against Zika virus (Hoft – NIH) ‒ A novel model to measure durable protection from dengue viremia and disease (George – VA) ‒ Mechanistic investigations of Granzyme A-mediated g9d2 T cell TB protective effects (Hoft/Rasi – NIH) ‒ ITN clinical trial: systemic allergic reactions to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination (Dykewicz – NIH)

‒ Use of PET/CT scan to detect in vivo dissemination of a BCG challenge strain

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From Bench to Bedside Inside the New Stephen C. Peiper and Zi-Xuan Wang Institute for Vaccine Science and Policy In 2020, the Stephen C. Peiper and Zi-Xuan Wang Institute for Vaccine Science and Policy was launched following a generous $1.5 million investment by Drs. Peiper and Wang and the Saint Louis University School of Medicine. This new center of excellence, led by Daniel Hoft, M.D., Ph.D., sits at the intersection of basic and clinical vaccinology, public health, bioethics, law and diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Collaborative Strengths The Institute is composed of nine collaborative strengths and more than 35 faculty from across the University, including faculty from SLU’s School of Medicine, College of Arts and Sciences, College for Public Health and Social Justice and School of Law. Building on the strong foundation laid by the Center for Vaccine Development, the new Institute will tackle big questions surrounding vaccinology that cannot typically be addressed by a single academic discipline, from equitable vaccine accessibility to intellectual property issues.

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Preclinical, Translational, and Clinical Vaccinology Led By: Daniel Hoft, M.D., Ph.D. Professor, Infectious Diseases As leader of the Preclinical, Translational, and Clinical Vaccinology collaborative strength, Hoft will connect the preclinical researchers with clinical samples and serve as both a mentor and a facilitator of clinical trials at the Center for Vaccine Development. His expertise and leadership will help investigators move their work to the next stage of vaccine research.

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Basic Immunology Led By: Richard DiPaolo, Ph.D. Professor and Interim Chairman in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology DiPaolo’s research program includes studying the regulation of inflammatory diseases, autoimmunity, and cancer, as well as immune responses to infections and vaccinations. As leader of the Institute’s Basic Immunology collaborative strength, he will promote translational applications of basic vaccine science discoveries.

Getahun Abate, M.D., Ph.D., performs a check-up with a clinical trial participant.

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Computational Biology

Social and Behavioral Science

Led By: Tae Hyuk (Ted) Ahn, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Computer Science

Led By: Ricardo Wray, Ph.D. Professor, Behavioral Science and Health Education

Ahn is also a core faculty member in the graduate program of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology. As leader of the Institute’s Computational Biology unit, Ahn will use his interdisciplinary expertise in bioinformatics, biomedical informatics, high-performance computing, and various computational sciences, including machine learning and deep learning, to support researchers in developing analytic methods to interpret biological data.

Omics Led By: James Edwards, Ph.D. Professor, Chemistry David Ford, Ph.D. Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Edwards is a bioanalytical chemist widely regarded as an expert on the use of mass spectrometry methods for metabolomic research. Ford is a physiological biochemist with a research focus on lipid metabolites as mediators and biomarkers of inflammation.

Together, they will build system vaccinology at SLU and enable members of the Institute to probe scientific questions with multi-platform omic strategies, ultimately informing new treatments and preventative measures.

Data Science and Epidemiology Led By: Timothy Wiemken, Ph.D. Adjunct Professor, Division of Infectious Diseases, Allergy, and Immunology Wiemken will support the Institute’s researchers in managing and analyzing large datasets. Drawing on his expertise in epidemiology, he will also work with faculty members to tackle complex questions regarding vaccines that bridge multiple disciplines within the Institute.

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Wray’s research primarily seeks to understand how communication processes intersect with institutional, social, and community-level phenomena affecting population health in minority communities. His leadership at the Institute will help shape conceptual approaches and research to explore programmatic and policy questions of interest to the Institute.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Led By: Daniel Blash, Ph.D., LCP Vice Dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Chief Diversity Officer, School of Medicine Esmeralda Aharon, M.A. Program Director, School of Medicine Blash is an experienced educator with a track record of advocacy in diversity and inclusion. His doctoral research focused on the role of religion and spirituality among underrepresented minorities in the academic environment. Aharon is the Program Director of Staff and Community Engagement for the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

In this role, she collaborates with hiring managers to attract and retain underrepresented individuals. Together, Blash and Aharon will help promote interactions between the Institute and the St. Louis community to develop trusting, long-term relationships with underrepresented populations.

Bioethics Led By: Jason Eberl, Ph.D. Professor, Albert Gnaegi Center for Health Care Ethics Eberl’s research interests pertain to the philosophy of human nature and its application to issues at the margins of life, and ethical issues related to endof-life care, genetics, and health care

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allocation. As leader of the Institute’s Bioethics collaborative strength, he will apply his expertise to address ethical issues related to vaccine research and development, allocation policies, and public education.

Law and Policy Led By: Ana Santos Rutschman, S.J.D. Assistant Professor, Center for Health Law Studies Rutschman is an assistant professor at Saint Louis University School of Law and was named a Health Law Scholar by the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics for her work on legal and policy issues related to vaccine R&D, allocation, and distribution. In her role with the Institute, she will work toward improving dialogue and understanding between the academic disciplines that naturally intersect in vaccine science and policy.

Recent Achievements The Institute recently established a board of Executive Sponsors and identified 11 key leaders who will guide the research direction of the Institute.

In addition, the Institute has secured $50,000 for pilot funding that will be awarded annually to investigators who engage in interdisciplinary research that bridges two or more of the Institute’s collaborative strengths and the Institute’s goal that novel questions be pursued and innovative approaches applied.

Times like this are humbling. To feel like the work you’ve done your whole life can do this much good for the world. I’m privileged to be at SLU at this time in history.

Daniel Hoft M.D., Ph.D., Director

Dan Hoft, M.D., Ph.D., and Sarah George, M.D., confer with their fellow researchers.

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Enbal Shacham, Ph.D., M.Ed., reviews COVID-19 data with students in the Remote Sensing Lab. Location data can help public health officials develop intervention strategies during crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Researchers at the Geospatial Institute at SLU are leading St. Louis’ ascent as a global hub for geospatial science and examining some of humanity’s greatest challenges along the way.

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Grand Challenges A Conversation with Vasit Sagan, Ph.D., Director, Geospatial Institute at SLU

“As a child, I wished I had a crystal ball so I could see what’s happening all over the world,” Sagan said. “Later on, I realized that the crystal ball was satellite imaging.”

The Geospatial Institute at Saint Louis University launched in fall 2019, and the past two years have been transformative for both the University and the geospatial ecosystem across St. Louis. Now, the Institute is applying its robust expertise to some of the most pressing issues of the day, from climate change to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Vasit Sagan, Ph.D., director of the Geospatial Institute at SLU, is confident in the face of such daunting, grand challenges. The potential of these technologies has been obvious to him since he was a child growing up in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China. It was there that Sagan first witnessed the devastating impact of climate change, and it was there that his lifelong wonderment with the environment and geospatial technologies was born.

mountains got smaller and smaller until eventually we had winters without any snow at all, and in summers when we wouldn’t need the rain, we would get flooding.” The result: droughts in the early seasons that would prevent crops from germinating.

Sagan develops technologies that give farmers’ valuable data and resources to improve crop yields. While crops are managed and harvested by hand in many parts of the world, Sagan believes that geospatial technologies can revolutionize agriculture.

The changing water cycle led to a tense relationship between Sagan’s community and this vital natural resource. During this time, Sagan became driven to find the solution to these problems.

“With the advances in satellite imaging, and with the power of artificial intelligence and machine learning, we can build fully autonomous systems that can digitize every corner of crop fields, monitor growth, apply fertilizer and water as needed, and dispatch drones to harvest.”

“As a child, I wished I had a crystal ball so I could see what’s happening all over the world,” Sagan said. “Later on, I realized that the crystal ball was satellite imaging.”

Sagan said that what he witnessed happen to the environment in his hometown during his childhood can now be seen across the American Midwest. His current research focuses on the grand challenge of feeding the world’s growing population.

“I am excited that my research can contribute to addressing these challenges.”

“I grew up in a small town named ‘Sagan’ next to one of the biggest sand deserts in the world, and I noticed a big change in the climate just over two decades of time,” Sagan said. “What I witnessed as a child was that the big snowpacks and rainfalls that we would get each year from the

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“When we think about what the biggest challenges are for the global population, it comes down to water and agriculture,” said Sagan. “Everything is so tied to it.

That’s why I ended up doing my research on monitoring agriculture and water resources using remote sensing technology.”

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“The demand for agricultural products will increase by 70% in the next several decades, which is the most pressing challenge of our time that directly impacts quality of life and stability around the world,” Sagan said. “I am excited that my research can contribute to addressing these challenges by developing better crops that can thrive in future climates and technologies that helps improve yield.”

The past year has also seen the Geospatial Institute make great progress in addressing another grand challenge: the devastating COVID-19 pandemic.

Sagan believes that the pandemic has underscored the necessity of geospatial science and technology in public health.

Data has informed much of the national and regional response to the pandemic,

Vasit Sagan, Ph.D., presents topographical data in a class. Sagan uses geospatial data as a means of examining environmental issues, such as food and water security.

but getting good data and the experts needed to analyze it has been a challenge.

The Geospatial Institute is well equipped to provide and analyze such data alongside regional partners. Sagan said that, with leadership from the Institute’s Associate Director, Enbal Shacham, Ph.D., professor of public health, the Institute has emerged as a regional leader in “geohealth”, applying data to inform the national regional response and strongly influence the actions of organizations such as the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force.

The Institute is also developing new technologies and methodologies to address future public health crises.

“There is no way that we can manually look at each piece of data, interpret the results, and extract the information we need. Using machine learning and other technologies, one person with the right

training can do a job that would normally take thousands,” Sagan said.

As the director of the Institute, Sagan said that he is inspired by this wide breadth of geospatial research happening within the Institute. Training students in a variety of disciplines and establishing a new, crucial talent pipeline for the region has emerged as a major priority for the Institute.

“We have students — from earth and atmospheric sciences, public health, engineering, biology, sociology, and more — learning how to use this technology and applying it to their respective fields,” Sagan said. “It’s been very exciting seeing the progress we’re making in training the next generation of geospatial talent.”

The Geospatial Institute has also seen substantial growth in its faculty and staff over the past year. The Institute has filled several important staff and faculty

positions, including a new director of business development, a geospatial data scientist, a new assistant professor in geographic information science, and numerous postdoctoral researchers.

These new team members have increased the Institute’s ability to establish itself as a regional hub for geospatial science.

Sagan hopes that, along with making real progress in addressing these grand challenges for communities around the world, the Geospatial Institute will make people more aware of the impact of geospatial technologies.

“Geospatial science is involved in everything from mapping directions on your phone to tracking disease and forecasting weather, and yet people don’t realize that it’s all coming from one thing – geospatial technology.”

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Experts in the Field Meet the Team Leading the Geospatial Institute Director, Geospatial Institute Associate Professor, Geospatial Science Sagan’s current research focuses on developing state-ofthe-art remote sensing and GIS tools, AI/machine learning, climate change detection, and geospatial analytics. Sagan’s work involves utilizing these tools and technologies to address the growing issue of food and water insecurity.

Sagan has authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications, two book chapters, and presented more than 100 conference papers and workshops. He has served as principal investigator (PI) or co-PI on over $36 million in grant funding from several government agencies, including the National Science Foundation (NSF), the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE), and NASA.

Vasit Sagan Ph.D.

As the director of the Geospatial Institute, Sagan directs SLU’s geospatial research and training programs, and promotes the overall mission and vision of the Institute by facilitating collaborative scientific inquiry and cutting-edge research across SLU and beyond. His recent work has been recognized through a number of best paper awards in multiple international conferences and scientific journals. Sagan also serves as an associate editor of ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, and the U.S. Department of the Interior recently named Sagan to a three-year appointment on its National Geospatial Advisory Committee (NGAC). The NGAC provides counsel to the executive branch on matters of geospatial intelligence and promotes responsible data sharing across government, as well as the private and non-profit sectors.

Vasit Sagan, Ph.D., speaking at the 2021 Geo-Resolution conference.

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Ness Sandoval Ph.D.

Associate Director, Geospatial Institute Professor, Sociology Sandoval currently conducts research at the intersection of demographic techniques and computational spatial science, studying spatial inequality in American cities. His primary research interests involve applying different techniques to advance the field of social-environmental synthesis.

Sandoval also has an interest in the emerging field of forensic GIS and the applications of spatial statistics to crime, social, and localized economic disadvantages. He has also initiated several projects that focus on machine learning and spatial-temporal changes in urban areas and hierarchical spatial models for social and economic inequality. Sandoval is the co-director of the Ph.D. program in Public and Social Policy and is the director of the University’s M.A. Sociology Program.

Vasit Sagan, Ph.D., is examining soybean growth at an experimental field where his team is researching the growing issue of food insecurity.

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Enbal Shacham Ph.D., M.Ed.

Associate Director, Geospatial Institute Professor, Public Health Shacham has built her career on conducting research to identify health inequities and improve health outcomes across community and clinical settings both domestically and internationally. Her research agenda has focused on predicting and preventing infectious and chronic disease by exploring community and geospatial health determinants, examining patient behaviors and clinical practices to improve health outcomes. These studies are anchored in location and how physical and social environments impact health opportunities and outcomes. She has been funded for decades to examine how location and health are interrelated.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Shacham focused on developing methods to utilize nontraditional data to complement public health and health care data to develop early sensing opportunities for when and where COVID-19 infections will occur. These studies have utilized community mobility as a measure of infection risk, and assessing the additional risks of infection by community mobility has provided early insights as to where infections may occur.

Further, Shacham’s team has conducted studies examining the impact of mask mandates, vaccine impact on infection rates in communities and within nursing home settings, and how social media may be able to serve as an indicator of vaccine intent.

Shacham co-directs the Institute’s Geospatial Ethics Research and Practice Group, which was formed with the mission of scrutinizing geospatial technologies and practices for their ethical considerations, in a manner consistent with SLU’s commitment to justice and the common good.

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Enbal Shacham, Ph.D., discusses location and public health amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

Henning Lohse-Busch Ph.D.

Director of Business Development and Outreach Lohse-Busch advances the Geospatial Institute by facilitating internal and external engagement, seeking new strategic partners, identifying potential research opportunities, supporting grant applications, and promoting academic programs through communication, brown bag sessions, seminars, symposiums, and outreach events.

Lohse-Busch is a strategic thinker and technical leader with over 20 years of experience in transportation, energy efficiency, and renewable energy research. Prior to joining SLU, he led and managed a research group at Argonne National Laboratory. He also spent time working on assignments at the U.S. Department of Energy in Washington, D.C. and co-developed and taught a powertrain course at the Illinois Institute of Technology.

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Forging Partnerships, Leading Together A Look at the Geospatial Institute’s Strategic Partners Building a regional hub for geospatial science requires partnerships and collaboration across the region. Over the past two years, the Geospatial Institute has forged partnerships with some of the largest geospatial organizations in the nation, and collaborated with researchers and local community members on a variety of research, training, and service opportunities. Together, the Institute and its partners are building a better St. Louis and forging an exciting future for geospatial science in the region. Below are a few of the impactful partnerships the Institute has built over the past year.

A conference attendee reviews the program at the 2021 Geo-Resolution conference.

President Fred P. Pestello, Ph.D., participates in a panel discussion at the opening of the 2021 Geo-Resolution conference.

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA)

conference hosted on SLU’s campus highlighting collaborations between government, academia, and industry in the growing geospatial ecosystem in the greater St. Louis region. More information on Geo-Resolution can be found in the dedicated Geo-Resolution section.

Saint Louis University’s work with the NGA began in 2012 with a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA), and that CRADA was renewed and expanded in 2018 to include educational partnerships and further push geospatial research.

CRADAs are formal agreements that allow federal agencies and partner organizations to optimize their resources, share technical expertise, enhance workforce development, and leverage the national industrial base and innovation communities.

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Department of Defense In February 2021, the Institute was awarded $5 million by the Department of Defense (DOD) to train the DOD and NGA in geoinformatics and geospatial data sciences as a part of the GEOINT Learning through Academic Programs (GLAP). Over the next five years, SLU faculty will teach geographic

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information system (GIS) mapping, remote sensing, photogrammetry, geomatics, geoinformatics, data science, geospatial analytics, coding, computer vision, artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML), human geography, and cybersecurity. The Institute is partnered with the Workforce Center at Saint Louis University to facilitate the high-quality training. Currently, over 93 courses across 12 focus areas are available. This partnership is closely aligned with the Institute’s mission to train experts in the field and establish itself as a leader in geospatial training.

A drone operated by researchers at the Geospatial Institute takes flight.

Esri

Higher Education

Esri is the global market leader in geographic information system (GIS) software, location intelligence, and mapping. Esri provides the leading GIS software family, ArcGIS. In 2020, the Geospatial Institute and Esri began collaborating in an effort to advance research and innovation focused on climate change, access to food and clean water, and economic stability.

Through collaboration in funded research and training projects, the Institute has built strong partnerships with many academic institutions including Harris-Stowe State University, the University of Missouri, Northwest Missouri State University, Missouri State University, Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville, and Washington University in St. Louis.

GeoFutures

Vasit Sagan, Ph.D., and a group of Harris-Stowe State University (HSSU) faculty have received funding from the U.S. Department of Education and NASA Missouri Space Consortium focused on increasing the underrepresented workforce in STEM. The research team established experimental test sites on HSSU campus and Columbia, Missouri where they studied the impact of climate change on agriculture using AI/ML with aerial robots. This collaboration has resulted in joint tenure-track faculty positions shared by both institutions as well as shared resources for HSSU and SLU students interested in geospatial education.

GeoFutures is an initiative that was launched in October 2019 to bolster the St. Louis region’s rapidly growing geospatial sector and develop a strategic plan for the future. In 2020, GeoFutures released a strategic roadmap that provides a detailed analysis of the city’s strengths for geospatial development, as well as five- and ten-year strategies for developing the region as a globallyrenowned center for geospatial excellence. The Geospatial Institute is uniquely positioned to support the talent pipeline and workforce training needed to support these ambitions, and the Institute is eager to partner with the GeoFutures Coalition as the group moves into an implementation phase.

Institute faculty have also forged a strong collaboration with faculty from the University of Missouri to produce joint research projects centered on artificial intelligence use in agriculture.

The partnership has resulted in 24 publications and two best paper awards.

Finally, SLU, Ohio State University, and Purdue University have received a planning grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to establish a new, geo-referencing focused NSF center as an Industry-University Cooperative Research Center.

The Center will integrate the capabilities of the three listed universities to advance geospatial research directed by a consortium of 33 companies and agencies.

Danforth Plant Science Center SLU faculty members Vasit Sagan, Ph.D., and Abby Stylianou, Ph.D., have collaborated with the Danforth Plant Science Center to carry over $15 million in funded research.

One of the projects, FieldDock, focuses on an NSF-funded project to develop a fully automated field platform capable of comprehensive soil and environmental measurements. A drone is sent out to take daily multispectral measurements of the field and analyze these measurements at the edge in a way that gives insight into a crop’s performance in real-world conditions with the aim of accelerating the breeding cycle.

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A user submits data on the My COVID19 Tracker app. The app was developed early in the pandemic by researchers at SLU under the leadership of Enbal Shacham, Ph.D.

Onward Progress Active Projects Within the Geospatial Institute Despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Geospatial Institute made great progress toward its goals while playing a vital role in the region’s response to the pandemic. The following highlights a number of the Institute’s active projects.

Tracking and Combating COVID-19 The Geospatial Institute’s Health Lab continued to address the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic throughout 2021, from initiating new research projects to supporting the local St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force with timely geospatial analytics. The work committed to COVID-19 has been focused on how we can better predict when and where an outbreak may occur using nontraditional public health and health care data. Faculty and students within the Institute developed and implemented My COVID19 Tracker, a symptom and location tracking app with contact tracing capability. This app was adapted and implemented by

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the St. Louis County Department of Public Health with an awarded $100,000 contract.

Further, the team has promoted the app’s use to synthesize multiple data points to identify locations where COVID-19 outbreaks could occur to be prepared for the next outbreak or even the next pandemic. Completed research studies include analyzing the impact of mask mandates on COVID-19 infections; geographic variation of vaccine intent across Puerto Rico; understanding the relationships between vaccine and new infections; assessing the likelihood of parental vaccination for children; and patterns of decision making and schooling throughout Missouri.

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Geospatial Ethics During the Pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic further brought to light the importance of ethics around geospatial data. The Geospatial Ethics Research and Practice Working Group conducted a research study led

by Michael Rozier, SJ, Ph.D., which was funded by his fellowship awarded by The American Geographical Society.

The study examined perceptions of how personal information such as location is considered private or public. In the context of the pandemic, Rozier was also able to explore how perceptions of contact tracing were considered private or public good. The Institute continues to explore how these data should be collected and shared.

Improving Crops, Crop Yields with New Artificial Intelligence Technology

Serving Students: Increased Free and Reduced Price School Meal Access in Missouri

Everything comes from plants, not just the food on our dinner table, from medicine to the strongest rubber used for spaceships.

Institute Associate Director Ness Sandoval, Ph.D., is working with researchers from Washington University on a funded research project that explores statewide school-level data from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education from 2016-2020 to examine free and reduced price school meal programs.

One focus of the project is to explore the methodological advantages of using geographically weighted regression (GWR) spatial models over fixed effects models to explore policy implications for free and reduced price school meal access.

In close collaboration with Danforth Plant Science Center and through a number of projects funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), United Soybean Board, and the Department of Energy ARPA-e program, faculty and students from the Geospatial Institute under Vasit Sagan, Ph.D, have been designing cutting-edge artificial intelligence and computer vision (photogrammetry, multiscale imaging) technologies to develop more nutritious crop varieties that can thrive under future climate conditions with minimal carbon footprint and water use. Using multi-scale remote sensing technology, the team has been developing fully automated, solar powered, intelligent airborne and ground data collection robots capable of large scale crop monitoring, which is critical for developing improved genotypes. These technological developments can automate crop monitoring and compute precision farm directives for every farm in the world every week, covering about 1.76 billion hectares, and show farmers when to plant, fertilize, and harvest, as well as what their crop needs to improve yields and reduce input costs. With this technology, farmers can increase yields as much as 35% while lowering costs up to 25% by precision fertilization.

Additionally, the team is studying sunflowers, an important source of premium rubber, to improve the quality and quantity of latex from sunflower plants through drone-based imaging, AI, and genetic engineering. As a fast growing large plant, sunflowers have the great potential to produce better rubber than industrial rubber still needed for spaceships and airplanes.

testing plans to maximize on-orbit success; and applying model-based systems engineering methods to automatically generate design and test plans. In parallel, he sponsors a team of undergraduates who design, assemble, test, and fly small spacecraft; the lab has had three missions flown to date and has a fourth in final assembly (fall 2021).

From CubSat Design to Launch Mike Swartwout, Ph.D., directs the project work and research work in the Space Systems Research Laboratory.

His primary research interest is in improving mission success for small satellites, which he pursues in three ways: maintaining a comprehensive database of every small satellite ever launched; developing first-principles methodologies for identifying the necessary design principles and

An undergraduate researcher adjusting a small satellite for higher orbit success.

A research team recording substrate-borne acoustics to gauge environmental activity.

Tapping Into Acoustic Insects for Subsurface Sensing Research from Kasey Fowler-Finn, Ph.D., focuses on how biotic and abiotic environmental conditions shape behavioral and physical traits, with a focus on predation, mating, and communication. She utilizes acoustic signals for understanding the spatial and temporal use of our world by tapping into the substrate-borne acoustic world.

In doing so, she will be able to generate novel insights into anthropogenic and environmental activity utilizing arthropod communities as sentinels of anthropogenic activities—e.g., soil contamination due to chemical spill, explosive materials, and subsurface disturbance—at an unprecedented scale.

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Geospatial Institute Seed Grant Program The Institute implemented a Seed Grant Program to help engage more faculty from the different departments across the university and support the development of new research.

Three exciting proposals were awarded funds.

Geospatial Institute Integrative Earth-Surface Research Group Seed Proposal Zachary Phillips, Ph.D., plans to use his funds to start a group focused on Integrative Earth-surface research.

The overarching goals are to 1) contribute to the largescale understanding of geomorphic processes as related to hydrologic systems, 2) develop automated tools and workflows to facilitate using remote sensing data for studying Earth-systems, 3) provide new methods of monitoring hydrologic and geomorphic systems, and 4) facilitate professional development by integrating student learning into research.

Longitudinal and Geospatial Study of Assets in Civil Infrastructure Ronaldo Luna, Ph.D., P.E., FASCE, will perform a Longitudinal and Geospatial Study of Civil Infrastructure Assets. New sensors connected to the Internet-of-Things (IoT) were embraced by the Missouri Department of Transportation for mobility purposes to enhance the roadway experience. Roadway structures in service and under construction can be monitored remotely at the desired time interval and the data can be visualized and analyzed for decision making via an online dashboard. A group of students will focus on the validity of the data and its spatial distribution.

Reconstructing Lost Neighborhoods - Identifying Archival Map and Imagery Resources to Support Structure from Motion Renderings of Mill Creek Valley Chris Prener, Ph.D., intends to digitally reconstruct lost neighborhoods. His team will use archival map and imagery resources to support structure reconstruction from motion renderings of Mill Creek Valley in St. Louis. In 1959, an area between Grand Boulevard and 20th Street was cleared, creating a desolate scar as a logical result of exclusionary zoning, racially restrictive deed covenants, and redlining to limit housing opportunities for African Americans, Asians, and immigrants. Local and government archives contain images of Mill Creek Valley before it was destroyed.

This imagery will be used with reproducible machine learning and image analysis routines to reconstruct a model of the lost neighborhood.

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At a Glance Over $9 Million

Active Grants and Contracts

$50 Million

Grant Proposals Submitted

50+

Peer-Reviewed Papers Published

85+

Students Enrolled in Geospatial Programs

1,100+

Credit Hours Taught

Location matters in public health. Where a person is located — where they eat, where they exercise, and where they learn — impacts both individual and community wellness. Location data can help determine future public health initiatives, and the Geospatial Institute at SLU is equipped to provide both the data and the expertise necessary to lead our communities into a healthier and more equitable tomorrow.

Chasing Bold Aspirations The past year was monumental for the Geospatial Institute, including: over $9 million in active research projects; $50 million of grant proposals submitted; 50+ peer-reviewed papers published; over 85 students enrolled in the geospatial certificate and related minors and degree programs at SLU; and 1,100+ credit hours taught. These successes have helped propel the Institute toward its goal of establishing the St. Louis region as the country’s preeminent geospatial hub.

The Institute is motivated by these successes, and the team is eager to continue making progress toward its goals. The following are a few of the team’s short-term and long-term aspirations.

A research team prepares a drone for flight over an agricultural parcel of land.

In a public health class at SLU, Enbal Shacham, Ph.D., discusses various factors in crafting a response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Establishing the Geospatial Institute as the nation’s academic leader in geospatial science research, training, and innovation and enhancing St. Louis as a global geospatial center of excellence

Institute aspires to be the nation’s academic leader in geospatial science and build a strong St. Louis geospatial ecosystem that will be more competitive for broad research grants.

In the short term, the Geospatial Institute will continue to grow in its role as regional leader and powerhouse of geospatial science and technology.

The Institute remains committed to advancing research, training, and innovation by developing inclusive partnerships with innovators, industry, federal agencies, local and regional governments, and universities. The 112

Expanding Academic & Workforce Training In the coming years, the Geospatial Institute will continue to create new programs and initiatives designed to train the next generation of geospatial researchers through classic academic degrees and certificates as well as new workforce development programs.

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Establishing Data & Analytic Services As the Institute pursues larger and broader projects, the need for data analytics infrastructure increases.

The Institute plans to invest in new tools and systems that support the intake, processing, and interrogation of the large data sets produced by geospatial research techniques. Once this infrastructure is in place, the Institute plans to offer mapping and data analytic services to local stakeholders and partners, enabling the Geospatial Institute to provide contractual service to the local geospatial ecosystem.

The Geospatial Institute will become the nation’s leading research, innovation, and teaching force. We want to train the next generation of students that are taking on today’s challenges and tomorrow’s.

Vasit Sagan Ph.D., Director

Vasit Sagan, Ph.D., participates in a round-table discussion in the Remote Sensing Lab.

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SLU President Fred P. Pestello, Ph.D., and LaTonia Collins Smith, Ed.D., interim president of Harris-Stowe State University, participate in a panel discussion at the start of the 2021 Geo-Resolution conference.

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SLU, NGA Host Geo-Resolution 2021 Conference After a year off due to the pandemic, the annual conference made a big return to SLU’s campus.

Saint Louis University and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) hosted Geo-Resolution 2021: Building a 21st Century Geospatial Ecosystem – From Hard Problems to Opportunities on September 14, 2021. The annual conference fosters collaborations across government, academia, and industry in growing the geospatial ecosystem in St. Louis.

“The investment St. Louis is making in establishing themselves as the geospatial hub of the nation — I’ve heard terms thrown around calling it Silicon Prairie — we’ve talked about it the last couple of years. It’s really exciting to see how it’s starting to take shape, how partnerships are being formed and strengthened,” Sharp said.

Some of those partnerships have been with local universities, including SLU and Harris-Stowe.

“At Saint Louis University, we’re all in on this,” Pestello said.

Image from the 2021 Geo-Resolution conference.

This year’s conference included keynote addresses from Jack Dangermond, president of Esri, and Tony Frazier, executive vice president of global field operations at Maxar. Featured panelists discussed topics including how geospatial science can solve some of the world’s most challenging problems, training the next generation of geospatial experts, and the ethical considerations surrounding geospatial research and data.

This year’s conference also highlighted collaborations with Harris-Stowe State University, located just across the street from SLU.

Leaders’ Look The conference kicked off with a moderated conversation between NGA Director Vice Adm. Robert Sharp, SLU President Fred P. Pestello, Ph.D., and Harris-Stowe State University Interim President LaTonia Collins Smith, Ed.D. The trio fielded questions about the state of the geospatial ecosystem.

One of the big developments Sharp mentioned was the construction underway at the new NGA campus in north St. Louis. Locating the NGA’s western headquarters in St. Louis reflects the region’s commitment to becoming a geospatial center.

“It’s an opportunity we can’t pass up,” Pestello said. “Here at SLU, we’re leveraging that. We’re leveraging it through our Geospatial Institute.

Basically, it comes down to education, research, data, and industry partners.

We’ve created bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral programs so that we’re training the next generation of leaders.”

Collins Smith said Harris-Stowe is also embracing this opportunity.

“We’re very excited to be a partner in this adventure,” Collins Smith said. “Harris-Stowe is very interested in creating a diverse pipeline of the next geospatial leaders. We are very committed to under-resourced and under-prepared students and making sure that there is a space for them in [the regional geospatial ecosystem.]”

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“I’m convinced that some of our nation’s best and brightest are right here in St. Louis.”

Robert Sharp

Vice Admiral, Director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency

Mapping the Future of St. Louis Since its beginning, Geo-Resolution has strengthened partnerships across the region that are shaping the future of St. Louis, such as GeoFutures, an initiative launched in October 2019 to bolster the region’s geospatial sector and develop a strategic plan for the future.

“The Geo-Resolution conference exemplifies the emergence of the geospatial ecosystem in St. Louis,” said Andy Dearing, president of Spatial STL Advisors and a Lead on GeoFutures.

“The partnership between Saint Louis University and the National GeospatialIntelligence Agency directly aligns with the GeoFutures Strategic Roadmap’s priority of promoting St. Louis as a geospatial, national thought leader.”

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Robert Sharp, director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), thanks Laurna Godwin for hosting the conference.

Henry Wright, second-place geospatial poster winner, poses alongside his research.

Opportunities for Students Geo-Resolution 2021 provided local high school and college students with a number of opportunities, including a Q&A session with young professionals and a mentoring lunch in which leaders from industry, academia, and government joined students to discuss career opportunities, developing in-demand skill sets, and growing the STEM workforce.

Students were also invited to create posters illustrating their own geospatial research. Posters from 29 students were displayed during the conference, and attendees voted on their favorites. The winning posters are listed to the right, and images of the posters can be found starting on page 256 in the appendix.

First Place Mekund Chidambaram, Lindbergh High School: “A Small Computer Cluster for Computation Onboard an Unmanned Aerial System” Second Place Henry Wright, Saint Louis University, Parks College of Engineering, Aviation and Technology: “The Development of a UAV Platform for Intelligent Flight Control” Third Place (Tied) Siddharth Chandra Shekar, Saint Louis University, Parks College of Engineering, Aviation and Technology: “An Experimental-Computational Investigation of Damaged UAV Wings: Detecting and Locating Damage Using Machine Learning” Alex Yentumi, Harris Stowe State University: “Racial Bias in Contaminated Land Locations: Assessment of St. Louis Metro Area Radioactive Sites and Brownfield Contaminated Land”

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A student working with the WATER Institute takes water readings with a multiparameter sonde at Rockwoods Reservation.

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Our world’s most precious resource faces perpetual challenges in infrastructure, contamination, and water quantity. In the WATER Institute, researchers are combining lab and field work to confront emerging water-centric challenges facing communities around the world.

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Amanda Cox, Ph.D., P.E., works with students on a water flow model.

Drops of Inspiration A Conversation with Amanda Cox, Ph.D., P.E., Director, WATER Institute

“Our goal has always been to bring together smart, talented people and facilitate a broader conversation around water,” Cox said.

To say the last year has been turbulent would be an understatement. And yet, the Water Access, Technology, Environment and Resources (WATER) Institute at Saint Louis University has navigated these uncertain times with clear focus and unwavering ambition.

Amanda Cox, Ph.D., P.E., associate professor of civil engineering, said that’s a direct reflection of the foundation she and her collaborators have spent the last year cultivating — both within SLU and in the St. Louis community.

“Launching during a pandemic was certainly a challenge, but not an insurmountable one,” Cox said. “We invested a lot of time and energy into

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significantly grow our technical capabilities and allow the WATER Institute to pursue bigger, more ambitious research projects related to water purity, treatment, and more.”

One such connection resulted in an incredible gift from American Water, the largest and most geographically diverse U.S. publicly traded water and wastewater utility company.

The Institute received a gift of a mass spectrometer for conducting chemical analysis in water, which opened the door for several new projects among investigators.

Since launching in June 2020, the WATER Institute has added several new associate investigators spanning education, urban planning, law, chemistry, and beyond. The Institute has also formed new external partnerships with regional agencies and civic organizations. From these partnerships, the WATER Institute hopes to better understand the real-world challenges of communities living along America’s waterways. Interesting collaborations like these are precisely what Cox and her team envisioned when founding the Institute.

“We are very fortunate to have a solid relationship with American Water,” Cox said. “Their generous gift will

“Our goal has always been to bring together smart, talented people and facilitate a broader conversation around

connecting with individuals and organizations with an interest in water research. And now, we’re starting to see those connections come to fruition.”

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water,” Cox said. “Historically, water has been studied from an engineeringoriented perspective. But we see a greater opportunity to take a more interdisciplinary approach and consider all the ways water touches our society.”

Since summer 2020, the WATER Institute has had a dedicated space to work and collaborate in the University’s new Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Building on SLU’s main campus. Although utilization has been somewhat limited by the pandemic, Cox said the move has been nothing short of instrumental.

“Having this space really advances our vision for a research community,” Cox said. “It’s created a place where students and faculty can come together, help one another, and learn from each other.”

In March 2021, the WATER Institute took another significant step toward regional leadership by hosting the second-ever SLU Summit for Water.

This day-long conference featured keynote speaker Emily Berglund, Ph.D., a leading name in water-related research, as well as presentations from many of the Institute’s investigators. The summit also provided ample opportunities for student involvement, which Cox said has been an area of extreme interest and growth for the WATER Institute.

choose to work with students. They bring that energy and enthusiasm.”

For Cox, water research is an intricate, never-ending challenge — but one that’s well worth her time. Water, she said, is our world’s most precious resource, but it’s so often taken for granted. She hopes the Institute’s research will inform responses not only to global challenges, like climate change, but also to smaller, more intimate issues facing local communities, like reservoir sedimentation and chlorination treatment.

“Of course, things like climate change and flooding create a clear demand for waterbased research,” Cox said. “But we’re also thinking about issues that may not be as obvious, like sediment generation and transport. We want to advance our collective understanding of water and put it in action in communities all over the world.”

“We want to advance our collective understanding of water and put it in action in communities all over the world.”

“We’ve been thrilled to see so many undergraduate and graduate students express interest in our research,” Cox said. “It’s exciting to get them involved in our labs, where they have an opportunity to grow outside the classroom and develop the skills of a researcher. And that’s why so many of our investigators

Amanda Cox, Ph.D., P.E., and Elizabeth Hasenmueller, Ph.D., using a catamaran.

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Experts in the Field Meet the Team Leading the WATER Institute

Amanda Cox

Elizabeth Hasenmueller

Rachel Rimmerman

Director, WATER Institute Associate Professor, Civil Engineering

Associate Director, WATER Institute Associate Professor, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences

Director of Business and Outreach, WATER Institute

Ph.D., P.E.

Cox’s research activities cover a wide range of topics related to water movement. She has conducted studies on river engineering, sediment transport, urban drainage, stream restoration, bridge pier scour, hydraulic structures, and erosion control. Cox uses a variety of research methods including numerical simulations, physical modeling, direct field measurements, and remote sensing.

Through her research, she applies advanced technologies in novel ways to observe and model water and sediment flow behavior.

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Ph.D.

Hasenmueller’s overarching research goal is to improve our understanding of how disturbances, especially urbanization and climate change, affect water quality and quantity. Her research focuses on the interaction of water, soil, and rock in both natural and altered systems. She is particularly interested in the origin and transport of contaminants in surface waters and groundwaters. To examine hydrologic and geochemical processes over multiple scales in space and time, Hasenmueller’s research incorporates a variety of methods such as field sampling, laboratory experiments, analytical techniques, and theoretical modeling.

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MBA

As director of business and outreach, Rimmerman leads the WATER Institute’s marketing, communications, and development processes. This includes identifying strategic partnerships with internal and external stakeholders, as well as facilitating outreach activities for community impact. Her collaboration with colleagues across the University builds the awareness and engagement needed to grow the WATER Institute into a leading center for water-centric research.

Craig D. Adams

Sofie (Xuewei) Liang

Primary Investigator, WATER Institute Oliver L. Parks Endowed Chair, Professor of Civil Engineering

Laboratory Technician, WATER Institute

Ph.D., P.E., FASCE

Adams’ research in SLU’s Water Quality and Treatment Laboratory is focused on both drinking water quality issues and on evaluating and implementing appropriate water sanitation and hygiene (WASH) technologies for developing nations. His recent work analyzing the cause and control of both cyanotoxins/cyanobacteria and novel taste-and-odor compounds directly translates into actionable guidance for utilities in the United States and beyond.

Adams is also involved in the validation and testing of a wide range of filtration and disinfection technologies used in developing nations.

M.Sc.Eng.

Liang joined the WATER Institute in January 2021 and has been working with the directors and primary investigators on instrumentation and devices in the WATER Institute labs. In her role, Liang is responsible for managing the setup, maintenance, and operation of advanced research and teaching instruments, as well as training students and supervising lab safety. She earned her master’s degree from Iowa State University where her research focused on the biodegradation of cyanotoxins in drinking water and recreational water. Among her many discoveries is a bacterial species that is able to degrade microcystins (the most common group of cyanotoxins) from water samples and produce harmless byproducts.

Student using a GNSS Antenna Post.

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Making Waves Student Involvement in the WATER Institute Students play an integral role in the WATER Institute, partnering with investigators each year on a multitude of water-centric projects. These students are incredibly motivated and passionate about taking on work that could transform the world for all humanity. The WATER Institute team is proud to train and collaborate with the next generation of researchers as they become leaders in their respective fields.

Billikens for Clean Water, a student organization committed to addressing global inequities in access to clean water in the Busch Student Center. This organization is mentored by WATER Institute researchers.

Students working with the WATER Institute travel upstream on the Meramec River.

Current student and advisee involvement within the Institute includes:

Billikens for Clean Water

Student Research

Billikens for Clean Water is a group of Saint Louis University students dedicated to educating others about the global water crisis. Since its formation, the group has raised over $10,000 to support waterrelated projects all over the world and has sent students to Flint, Michigan, as well as Panama, Belize, and Honduras. Under the mentorship of Craig Adams, Ph.D., P.E., and Rachel Rimmerman, MBA, Billikens for Clean Water exemplifies the connection between students, research, and service at SLU.

The WATER Institute has taken great strides to foster mentorships and collaboration between its faculty and SLU students. Interested students are encouraged to reach out to faculty members and inquire about ways they may contribute to the Institute’s growing research portfolio.

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Undergraduate Researchers Graduate Researchers Postdoctoral Researchers

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The following testimonials highlight the diversity of student passions and experiences that have united in the WATER Institute.

“My passion for the environment started during my junior year of college when I was working for a student organization that advocated for environmental protection. Ever since then, I wanted to pursue a career that would benefit both society and the environment. Water research is a perfect blend of the two. Providing clean and safe drinking water is important not only because millions of people lack this basic resource, but also because those who have access to it now might see a shortage in the future given increasing population and climate change. Studying water keeps me connected to both the developed world and developing communities, like my home country of India.”

Susheera (Sesha) Pochiraju Ph.D. Candidate, Civil Engineering

“My passion for studying water is the result of academic interest as well as environmental and humanitarian concerns. Most recently, I attended the 2021 SLU Summit for Water, which allowed me to attend presentations and discussions of water research. Classes taught by WATER Institute faculty including Hydrology, Environmental Aquatic Chemistry, and Environmental Geochemistry have all been excellent. Each class has supported my learning to be able to better succeed in water research.”

Ethan Wetter

Undergraduate Student, Environmental Science and Chemistry

“Water is such an important resource in our planet, and both water quantity and quality are essential for us to thrive. I have always had a passion for protecting the environment, so being able to make it my career has been a dream. Working with Dr. Elizabeth Hasenmueller and the WATER Institute has been immensely rewarding. I came to SLU unsure of what I wanted to do after my education, but I very quickly realized that I wanted to become a researcher. Throughout my time at SLU, I have had numerous opportunities for career development, such as attending and presenting at national and international conferences, and I have learned many technical skills that will be very valuable in the future. I also published my M.S. thesis in a high-impact scientific journal and have multiple papers in the works. I feel like I have grown so much both as a person and a scientist!”

Teresa Baraza Piazuelo Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences

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Flowing Progress Active Projects & Aspirations Within the WATER Institute Despite a myriad of challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, the WATER Institute remains committed to its current research and future aspirations. The Institute is currently home to several wide-reaching projects in water movement, quality, and infrastructure — with more on the horizon. Investigators look forward to welcoming new colleagues in diverse fields such as civil engineering, health care, and the humanities over the next few years. The following is a summary of the WATER Institute’s key projects.

WATER Institute lab technician analyzes water samples with the new QToF.

A student with the WATER Institute records a water reading at Rockwoods Reservation.

HydroClim Database Jason Knouft, Ph.D., professor of biology, is leading a team to address an ongoing need for high-resolution, ecologically relevant data related to the alterations of streamflow and water temperature due to climate change. These variables are critical for predicting the water-related effects of climate change, yet ecologically relevant high-resolution data are not readily available.

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Knouft’s team is developing a database, called HydroClim, that will provide web-accessible historical and projected monthly streamflow and water temperature data for stream sections in all major watersheds across the United States and Canada from 1950-2099.

The data will also be integrated with FishNet 2, an online biodiversity database that provides open access

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to over 2 million localities of freshwater fish species in the United States and Canada, thus allowing for the characterization of the habitat requirements of freshwater species across this region. Once launched, HydroClim will become an invaluable resource to water researchers as they deepen their understanding of freshwater systems across North America.

Cyanotoxins Samar Maalouf, Ph.D. candidate, is partnering with Craig Adams, Ph.D., P.E., to investigate new treatment options for cyanotoxins. Cyanotoxins are toxic agents caused by cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, often found in the reservoirs used by utility companies for drinking water. Cyanobacteria present several issues for water quality, and their toxicity is only exacerbated by climate change.

Maalouf’s project intends to evaluate different oxidation techniques to treat cyanotoxins. Her research will be a critical component of Version 4.0 of the Hazen-Adams CyanoTOX Tool, a tool developed in part by Adams for predicting the removal of a wide range of cyanotoxins with a wide range of oxidants under various water conditions.

Maalouf’s work will enable researchers, and particularly water utilities, to visualize more effective treatment options to deliver safer drinking water for people around the world.

At a Glance $1.39 Million

Total Award Funding Attached to Active Projects

5

Collaborative Proposals Submitted

4

Collaborative Projects Funded

23

Peer-Reviewed Publications Published

13

Conference or Seminar Presentations

Student taking water readings with a multiparameter sonde.

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Innovative Methods for Modeling Long-term Morphological Changes in Rivers Amanda Cox, Ph.D., P.E., is collaborating with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to develop a tool that forecasts changes in river form and riverbed material using a hybrid modeling approach. Rivers are dynamic systems that change size, slope, and material makeup over time in response to environmental and water management factors. However, existing models for forecasting these lack the complex channel response needed for thorough analysis.

A student with the WATER Institute takes a water sample with a syringe at Rockwoods Reservation.

examines the role of reservoirs along river systems in regulating water quality within agricultural critical zones. Her team conducted a long-term nutrient mass balance for an Illinois reservoir that showed lakebed sediments can act as both nutrient sinks or sources for river systems. Hasenmueller indicates that agricultural reservoirs could become important sources for downstream nutrient pollution in the future. Her work has proven critical to advancing our understanding of how contaminants move through the environment and will ultimately inform better management strategies for nutrient pollution.

The innovative modeling tool is uncertaintybounded and flexible to Cox believes the tool will become a explore a range of possible significant advancement for studying the scenarios. As a hybrid ongoing effects of climate change as well as model, it incorporates traditional process-based the long-term health of our river systems. hydraulic and sediment transport models with a set of rules for how Water Treatment in the channel responds to imbalances in sediment transport rates. Cox believes Developing Nations the tool will become a significant Millions of people around the world do advancement for studying the ongoing not have access to safe drinking water. effects of climate change and the longAnd in many developing countries, the term health of our river systems. chlorination process intended to produce clean water is actually creating Water Quality in Agricultural carcinogenic byproducts when too much Critical Zones chlorine is used, or causing inadequate Elizabeth Hasenmueller, Ph.D., is leading disinfection when too little chlorine is a project to improve our understanding used, leading to potential health issues of chemical processes in the “critical for citizens. zone,” the thin, life-supporting layer of Earth’s surface from the tops of the Craig Adams, Ph.D., P.E., has partnered trees to the bottom of the groundwater. with three students: Crystal Bell, Jacob Intensive land management in Zlotopolski, and Mary Rohatgi, to collect agricultural areas can considerably alter and publish clear data demonstrating the the critical zone by introducing excess impacts of mishandled water treatment inputs of nutrients from fertilizers technologies and guidance for proper or manures that can trigger nuisance use. The project fills a critical need for and harmful algal blooms in water technical expertise in the developing resources. Mitigating nutrient pollution world and will drive better health requires a thorough understanding of outcomes for its populations. The team river systems, which transport excess plans to publish its findings in late 2021. nutrients to the ocean, but can also sequester them. Hasenmueller’s project

Water is our world’s most precious resource, touching everyone and everything. So we feel a deep obligation to understand it — and protect it.

Amanda Cox Ph.D., P.E., Director

Amanda Cox, Ph.D., P.E., examines a model with a student in the Parks College of Engineering, Aviation, and Technology.

Ruqaiijah Yearby, J.D., M.P.H., teaches a health law class at SLU’s School of Law.

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As both academics and advocates, IHJE is amplifying the voices of the unheard and creating steps toward equity for all. Through a forward-thinking approach to address long-standing inequity, IHJE hopes to dismantle oppressive structures that pervade our society.

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Forward Together A Conversation With Ruqaiijah Yearby, J.D., M.P.H., Executive Director, Institute for Healing Justice & Equity “I’m motivated by the idea that now is the time to make real change,” Yearby said.

We often think of research in the abstract, with scientists in white coats scrawling complex equations on a whiteboard when, suddenly, a lightbulb goes off. But for the Institute for Healing Justice & Equity (IHJE) at Saint Louis University, the work is not only real — it’s personal.

“This Institute is deeply rooted in community,” said Ruqaiijah Yearby, J.D., M.P.H., executive director of the Institute. “Where it may be a backdrop or a case study for some, it’s very much part of who we are and the work we do.”

The healing, Yearby said, is perhaps the most neglected component in today’s conversation.

“As much as we’re trying to fix these problems, we’re also trying to give people a chance to heal,” Yearby said.

“When you break your arm, you don’t just bounce back. Your body needs time to rest and regain its strength. That’s healing. And the goal is not to get back to what you had before — but to get to something even better.”

As Yearby explained, healing is not only a process that happens between individuals, but also between populations and communities.

“A key theme for us is transformation, not transaction,” Yearby said. “We want to help systems, organizations, and communities operate in truly equitable ways...”

Yearby is one of four co-founders of the Institute, which officially launched in 2020 with support from the SLU Research Institute’s Big Ideas competition, which identifies and supports University-wide research priorities. IHJE is a first-of-its-kind research institute in the United States, uniting research, training for systems change, community engagement, and public policy to build equitable communities by assessing and promoting best practices that foster healing from social injustice, trauma, and oppression.

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“Healing does not only exist for those who suffered oppression — it also exists for those who perpetuated oppression. It’s an integral part of what we do.”

In the last year, the Institute has witnessed considerable growth through new faculty and community partnerships, as well as several projects formed in direct response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Yearby recalled first learning about COVID-19 when it began to spread throughout China, worrying about its impact on marginalized communities here in the U.S. “I don’t think anyone could have predicted the extent of the harm we’ve seen,” Yearby said. “But we felt pretty

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certain that COVID-19 was going to have a disproportionate impact on the poor as well as people of color.”

One of IHJE’s initial responses to the pandemic was a webinar series entitled, “The Color of COVID.” For three sessions, the Institute hosted a group of esteemed panelists to discuss the pandemic and its disproportionate impact on racial and ethnic minority communities. The Institute also partnered with several state agencies and community organizations to improve public health awareness and vaccination rates among minority communities.

IHJE counts organizations like Forward Through Ferguson, One Heart – Many Hands, and the Missouri Foundation for Health among its many collaborators.

And although COVID-19 remains a global priority, Yearby said IHJE is pursuing action against the many crises affecting people of color.

The Co-Founders of the Institute for Healing Justice & Equity. From left: Ruqaiijah Yearby, J.D., M.P.H.; Amber Johnson, Ph.D.; Kira H. Banks, Ph.D., and Keon Gilbert, DrPH.

“It was never just COVID,” Yearby said.

“It was COVID and police violence, COVID and forest fires, or now COVID and climate change. We want to be a leader that government officials, public health departments, and other authorities look to for guidance. And as we work together, it’s our hope that they will begin to think differently about how they plan for these destructive events and pursue more equitable responses.”

This requires a fundamentally different approach than traditional diversity training or other short-term programs currently in use around the world.

IHJE, Yearby said, offers a more multi-disciplined approach for lasting, meaningful change in communities.

“A key theme for us is transformation, not transaction,” Yearby said. “We want to help systems, organizations, and communities operate in truly equitable

ways by promoting healing justice. So that when emergencies arise, those in power can come to us and ask, ‘Who should we be working with?’ That’s how we create true, equitable change.”

Despite the amount of work that remains to be done toward dismantling racial oppression and social injustice, Yearby emphasized the progress that’s being made and the opportunity that stands before the world.

“I’m motivated by the idea that now is the time to make real change,” Yearby said. “When everything is falling apart and so many people have been harmed, it makes you feel like we’re at the point where we can begin to take bigger, more sustainable steps to heal and achieve meaningful change. And I believe IHJE is in an excellent position to listen to the community, amplify their voice, and bring to light what those steps should be.”

“Our logo is inspired by the Mpatabo, the seventh century Ghanaian Adinkra symbol of reconciliation and peacemaking.

It represents the bond or knot that binds parties in a dispute to a peaceful, harmonious reconciliation.

It is a symbol of peacemaking after strife.”

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Experts in the Field Meet the Team Leading the Institute for Healing Justice & Equity

Ruqaiijah A. Yearby

Kira Hudson Banks

Co-Founder, Executive Director, and Director of Community Research Ethics, Institute for Healing Justice & Equity Professor of Law, Center for Health Law Studies

Associate Professor, Psychology Co-Founder, Institute for Healing Justice & Equity

J.D., M.P.H.

Ph.D.

Yearby is a specialist in the structural determinants of health care, the intersection of employment and health care, and justice in medical research. Her storied career has been defined by addressing and advocating for improvements in the lives of vulnerable populations by addressing the lack of equal access to quality health care.

Through her research and work with community groups, Yearby advocates for equal access to quality health care and fair wages for racial and ethnic minorities, women, and the economically disadvantaged. Her research explores the ways these groups of people are barred from equal access to quality health care through societal and legal inequities. Her work has been published in the American Journal of Bioethics, Health Affairs, and the Oxford Journal of Law and the Biosciences and used in law, medical, and social science classes at schools such as Harvard, NYU, Fordham, and the University of California Berkeley.

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Banks has been working to support individuals and groups to understand themselves, others, and systems of oppression for over 20 years. Her teaching, research, and community involvement is rooted in the values of Black Psychology, which uplifts the interconnectedness and resilience of people and rejects an individual, deficit approach. Banks enjoys facilitating difficult dialogues and has done so by making complex and controversial topics accessible and intergroup interactions more understandable in schools, communities, institutions of higher education, and corporations.

Her research examines the experience of discrimination, its impact on mental health, and intergroup relations. Her courses have ranged from Abnormal Psychology to the Psychology of Racism. Banks has published over 20 articles in peer-reviewed outlets including American Psychological Association journals such as American Psychologist, Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, and Journal of Diversity in Higher Education. Banks’ expertise was sought after and she served as a racial equity consultant for the Ferguson Commission and continued as the Racial Equity Catalyst for Forward Through Ferguson, framing racial equity in the St. Louis region.

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Keon L. Gilbert

Amber Johnson

Co-Founder and Director of Equity and Policy, Institute for Healing Justice & Equity Associate Professor, Behavioral Science and Health Education

Co-Founder, Institute for Healing Justice & Equity Professor, Communication and Social Justice Interim Vice President of Diversity and Innovative Community Engagement

DrPH

Gilbert uses his interdisciplinary training to engage in research in several areas, including social capital, health disparities, African American men’s health, and interventions to prevent chronic diseases, as well as work with communities to develop strategies to address systemic racism through antiracist interventions.

Gilbert’s work focuses on the intersection of racial identity, racial socialization, and structural racism as important social and structural determinants of African American males’ health across their life course. Part of understanding this intersection is to understand cultural and structural changes within African American communities over time and to better understand the opportunities and limitations of males’ participation in formal organizations, social networks, and systems of social support where they live, work, and play.

Gilbert is a co-editor of Racism: Science and Tools for the Public Health Professional (APHA Press) and is guest editing a special volume for the Journal of Health Promotion and Practice entitled, “What is Anti-Racism in Health Promotion Practice? Evidence, Action, and Emerging Voices Advancing Equity and Justice.”

Recently, Gilbert joined the Brookings Institution as a David M. Rubenstein Fellow. During this fellowship, his work will focus on understanding policy interventions to enhance social mobility for African American males, and opportunities to rebuild the public health infrastructure and address persistent inequities in health that have been exacerbated as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ph.D.

As a scholar, artist, and activist, Johnson’s research and activism focus on narratives of identity, resistance, and social justice in digital media, popular media, and everyday lived experiences. Johnson is Founding Director of the Justice Fleet, a mobile social justice museum that fosters healing through art dialogue and play, and Co-Founder of the Institute for Healing Justice & Equity, where they specialize in humanizing equity and exploring the relationship between healing justice and equity.

Johnson’s notable awards include the Golden Anniversary Monograph Award for research on black masculinity and the performative possibilities of social media; the Norm White Award for engaged scholarship and service; the Faculty Excellence Award for Diversity and Social Justice; and a presidential citation for social justice work within and beyond the communication discipline.

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Ruqaiijah Yearby, J.D., M.P.H., talks with a student during a health law class.

One World — For All Real-World Impact from the Institute for Healing Justice & Equity The Institute for Healing Justice & Equity launched in 2020 with a distinct focus on pursuing tangible outcomes both in the St. Louis community and beyond. Over the last year, the Institute has led both meaningful and sustainable actions intended to highlight and address issues of oppression. Listed below are just a few areas in which the Institute has made an impact.

“As much as we’re trying to fix these problems, we’re also trying to give people a chance to heal,” Yearby said.

Advocacy for Positive Change The Institute for Healing Justice & Equity is leading valuable research that is being used to advocate for legal and policy reform to benefit all individuals, but especially racial and ethnic minorities, women, and the economically disadvantaged.

The Institute’s findings are proving instrumental in supporting oppressed communities and individuals through legal action.

In September 2021, the Institute sponsored the Health Justice digital symposium and webinar in partnership 136

with the Petrie Flom Center at Harvard Law School, the American University Washington College of Law Health Law and Policy Program, the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine, and ChangeLab Solutions.

Interrupting Internalized Racial Oppression Kira Banks, Ph.D., has developed a group and individual intervention, which supports Black women to interrupt the appropriation of racial oppression. This community-based

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intervention is an adaptation of acceptance commitment therapy (ACT).

It helps individuals distance themselves from the negative messages racism provides about who they are. Results showed a decrease in appropriated racial oppression, shame, and psychological distress as a result of the intervention.

This intervention is the first of its kind, focusing on interrupting the negative effects of discrimination on mental health. Grant funding is now being used to test the intervention with individuals from other oppressed groups.

Co-Founder and Faculty Affiliates Updates During 2021, Institute co-founders and faculty affiliates have been awarded over $7 million in grant funding and published over 35 articles, reports, blogs, and op-eds.

The Institute serves as a hub for transdisciplinary research collaboratives, where community members and scholars work jointly to create new conceptual, theoretical, methodological, and translational innovations that integrate and move beyond discipline-specific approaches to address a common problem. Here is some of their work: Kira Banks ‒ Banks, K. H., Goswami, S., Goodwin, D., Petty, J., Bell, V., & Musa, I. (2021).

“Interrupting internalized racial oppression: A community based ACT intervention.” Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, 20, 89-93. ‒ Bañales, J., Banks, K. H., & Burke, M. A. (2021). “The impact of a diversity intervention on White college students’ colour-blind racial attitudes.”

Whiteness and Education.

Keon Gilbert ‒ Moore, J., Gilbert, K., Lively, K., Laurent, C., Chawla, R., Li, C., Johnson, R., Petcu, R., Mehra, M., Spooner, A., Kolhe, R., & Ledford, C. (2021). “Correlates of COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy among a Community Sample of African Americans Living in the Southern United States.” Vaccines, 9(8), 879-896.

Amber Johnson ‒ Named Associate Provost of Diversity and Community Engagement, became a Full Professor, and serving as Interim Vice President of Diversity and Innovative Community Engagement. ‒ The Justice Fleet is virtual! Two new exhibits launched: Radical Forgiveness and Transfuturism.

Ruqaiijah Yearby ‒ Wile, L., Yearby, R., & Hammond, A. (2021). “Lex-Atlas US Covid-19 Response Report, in Oxford Compendium of National Legal Responses to Covid-19.” Oxford University Press, Sponsored by King’s College, University College London, and the Max Planck Institute.

Elizabeth Baker ‒ Baker E. (2021). Co-Investigator with Dr. Keon Gilbert, 2021-2022 Local Community‐Based Workforce to Increase COVID‐19 Vaccine Access, HRSA ($804,073.00). ‒ Baker, E. (2021). Principal Investigator, COVID-19 Response Network, HRSA ($4,310,000).

Rhonda BeLue ‒ BeLue, R., Elenwo, C., Adams, C., Anakwe, A., Taylor, K., Manu, S., & Conteh, S. (Accepted) “A communitybased participatory research project to increase the understanding of the health concerns of African immigrant communities in urban Missouri.”

Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities. ‒ BeLue, R., Barnes, A., Manu, S., Luckett, C., & Adam, B. (Accepted) “Culturally Responsive Psychiatric Services for Refugee and Immigrant Adolescents: Are Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists Prepared to Serve Refugee Children? A focus on African Refugee Families.” Health Equity.

Liz Chiarello ‒ Chiarello, E. (2021). “Pharmacists Should Treat Patients Who Have Opioid Use Disorders, Not Police Them.” Journal of the American Pharmacists Association. ‒ Chiarello, E. & Brandt, A. (2021).

“Opioid settlements are imminent.

Spend the money on proven treatments that save lives.”

USA TODAY. Denise Hooks-Anderson ‒ The School of Medicine will have a new required class for all first-

year students entitled Medicine and Society. Bias, Systemic Racism, and Microaggressions are a few of the lectures that will be provided.

Tim Huffman ‒ Huffman, T., Leier, C., Generous, M., Hinrichs, M., & Brenneman, L. (2021).

“Climbing the ‘scaffolded city’: tactics used by homeless young adults to navigate employment barriers.” Journal of Applied Communication Research, which was also featured on the National Communication Association website. ‒ Received the Norm White Award for Engaged Scholarship and Service.

Elizabeth Pendo ‒ Pendo, E. & Dineen, K. (forthcoming 2022) “Engaging Disability Rights Law to Advance Racial and Disability Justice for People with Substance Use Disorder.” Journal of Law Medicine and Ethics. ‒ HealthSPAN (Health and Social Policy in Action Network), Saint Louis University Research Institute, Big Idea Planning Grant to support creation of a transdisciplinary collaborative network of academics and community partners that generates health policy research, education, service, and advocacy to improve access to quality, affordable, equitable health care and public health services (with Ellen Barnidge, Heather Bednarek, Fred Rottnek, and Sidney D. Watson, coPIs), 2020-2021.

Chris Prener ‒ Prener, C. (2021). “Demographic Change, Segregation, and the Emergence of Marginal Spaces in St. Louis, Missouri.” Journal of Applied Geography 133:102472. ‒ Prener, C. & A. Stylianou. (2021).

“Reconstructing Lost Neighborhoods Identifying Archival Map and Imagery Resources to Support Structure from Motion Renderings of St. Louis’s Mill Creek Valley.” Geospatial Institute Seed Funding ($4,768) and Spark MicroGrand Funding ($1,000).

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Identifying Barriers.

Illuminating Solutions.

The Institute for Healing Justice & Equity Responds to COVID-19 From the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Institute for Healing Justice & Equity has led substantive dialogue around its disproportionate impact on vulnerable populations, including racial and ethnic minority communities, women, and LGBTQIA individuals. The Institute has fostered wide-reaching collaborations with researchers across Saint Louis University and partners in faith-based, social service, and health agencies to create lasting reform and promote personal healing from the disparities of COVID-19.

Images from Gilbert’s work on The Barbershop Project, which partners with local barbershops in North City/County and nursing students to do health screenings.

COVID-19 Response Network When COVID-19 struck Missouri, the Bootheel and Ozark regions were quickly identified as areas experiencing some of the worst health outcomes, given their high levels of social vulnerability and limited medical facilities available. Along with One Heart Many Hands (OHMH), Saint Louis University created the COVID-19 Response Network in response to this clear need for health and social service agencies in Missouri. The Network

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serves as a place to share information and tangible resources on COVID-19, and touches on social and structural factors impeding the community response.

With over $4.3 million in funding by the Missouri Foundation, for Health, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and, most recently, the U.S. Health Resources & Services Administration, the Network will collaborate with the Institute for Healing Justice & Equity to train and employ critical health workers across

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the Ozark and Bootheel regions. This project is led by Elizabeth Baker, IHJE faculty affiliate.

Generating Actions to Achieve Health Equity Keon L. Gilbert, DrPH, and Janice Ballard, executive director of Health in the Heartland, received a $342,400 grant from the Missouri Foundation for Health to research various barriers to health equity in the state. Gilbert and Ballard have worked in close partnership

inequities. This panel featured scholars, community members, and activists who were engaging in community-driven solutions to eliminate inequities in various contexts. Participants discussed evidence-based and practice-informed strategies that range from developing community engagement strategies to the development, implementation, and evaluation of those strategies and their relationship to achieving health equity.

Employment and Health

Image of Kira Banks, Ph.D.

with Elizabeth Baker, Ph.D., Ruqaiijah Yearby, J.D., M.P.H., Debbie Chase, Charysse Gibson, and community members and organizations to identify systems, structures, policies, laws, and processes that have contributed to health inequities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, the group is working to understand the needs of communities, before and during the pandemic, by conducting interviews and surveys, as well as reviewing existing reports. Based on their findings, they will develop actionable strategies to begin to create change and strengthen the capacity of government to achieve equity.

Webinar Series In 2021, IHJE hosted a webinar series entitled “Community Conversations,” which featured candid discussions about COVID-19’s continued harmful impact on vulnerable communities.

Discussed below, each webinar featured a panel with a range of experts including essential workers, teachers, and those in fields such as medicine, psychology, and sociology.

Humanizing Equity Humanizing equity is an approach to equity work that ensures the most marginalized people are the face of the solution and not the problem. This panel featured experts in equity and inclusion to discuss ways to shift future practices, so our work is community driven and inspired. Participants were asked to bring potential equity efforts and prepare to talk about ways to humanize those efforts.

Equity in Education Equity in education was a concern long before COVID-19. This panel gathered experts in education to discuss where we need to focus our attention and efforts as schools continue to navigate the pandemic on top of the ongoing struggle for equity in public schools. Panelists explored strategies that were showing promise and the innovation that will guide future practices.

Community Drivers for Equitable Solutions To achieve equity in health, it must be defined by communities who are most affected by social and economic

The impact of employment on an individual’s health and well-being has often been ignored. However, COVID-19 has shown how employment not only limits an individual’s ability to adopt healthy behaviors, but also increases exposure and susceptibility to disease. Panelists discussed strategies for protecting essential workers for workplace exposure to COVID-19.

In the Press IHJE’s co-founders have also been featured in the national press. In December 2020, Co-founders Amber Johnson, Ph.D., and Kira Banks, Ph.D., co-authored an article entitled “This Is What Healing Justice Looks Like” in Essence. That same month, co-founder Ruqaiijah Yearby, J.D., M.P.H., coauthored an op-ed entitled “In the rush to roll out vaccines, commitment to social and racial justice must not fall by the wayside” in The Boston Globe. In February 2021, all four co-founders co-authored an op-ed in The Guardian, entitled “For Black Americans, COVID-19 is a reminder of the racism of US health care,” which examined the deep legacy of racism within the American health care system. Cofounder Keon L. Gilbert, DrPH, also published an op-ed for The Guardian in February 2021 entitled “A colorblind vaccine approach isn’t good enough. The US needs racial equity.”

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Leading the Conversation Active Projects & Aspirations within the Institute for Healing Justice & Equity The Institute for Healing Justice & Equity has worked with racial and ethnic minority communities over the last year to foster research, provide resources, and create avenues for expression. With a team of experts spanning multiple disciplines and increased funding, IHJE hopes to grow with these communities as they help counteract systemic oppression. A few of the Institute’s active projects are listed below.

Racism as a Public Health Crisis IHJE is actively working to identify jurisdictions declaring racism as a public health crisis, tracking and analyzing the process of racial reckoning in the United State in real time.

Over the past year, IHJE has committed to discovering laws and policies condemning racism as a public health crisis and subsequently building a database record for legal reference.

The Institute’s research expertise has allowed the coverage to span federal, state, and local jurisdictions. Based on these efforts, IHJE published a report with the Justice Collaborative and Data for Progress, Racism is a Public Health Crisis. Here’s How to Respond. The report was authored by Ruqaiijah Yearby, J.D., M.P.H., Crystal Lewis, Keon L. Gilbert, DrPH, and Kira Banks, Ph.D., and was cited in the American Psychological Association Resolution to Combat Racism and in the 2020 Health Equity report for the County of Boone, MO. IHJE plans to publish an updated report, specifically focused on racism as a public health crisis and the social

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determinants of health, in spring 2022.

Meanwhile, IHJE is working with a number of organizations to create a national Racism as a Public Health Crisis Collaborative and in 2021 has participated in panels during the Network for Public Health’s Public Health Conference and the American Public Health Association’s annual conference to discuss governmental entities adopting racism as a public health crisis declarations.

Shut It Down Kira Banks, Ph.D., IHJE co-founder, is the current primary investigator for Shut It Down, founded in 2014 by the late Norm White, Ph.D., which partners with schools to foster an equitable and safe environment for students.

The program is grounded in theory and practice related to racial equity, culturally sustaining pedagogies, and trauma-informed educational practices.

Principals have reported successes such as “a decrease in the number of students struggling with trauma and anger issues.” Teachers report feeling more competent as a result of participating

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Amber Johnson, Ph.D., is interviewed as part of the Smithsonian’s “Our Shared Future: Reckoning with our Racial Past.” The documentary highlighted the work of the Institute and the Justice Fleet, and it also included an interview with Institute Co-Founder Kira Banks, Ph.D. THE INSTITUTE FOR HEALING JUSTICE & EQUIT Y

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Artwork from Wriply Bennet and Amber Johnson, Ph.D., featured in Transfuturism, a photography and art activism exhibit that renders black transgender and nonbinary people in their own power through superhero motifs.

in Shut It Down: “The program has helped shape the way I react in extreme situations and how I calm students down.” Shut It Down has been successful in supporting the adults in the schools so they can create an optimal learning environment. Supported by funding from the Missouri Foundation for Health, Clarice Thomas, Ph.D., was recently hired in the African American Studies Program and the School of Education to become director of Shut it Down.

Using a mix of photographs, participant quotes, Afrofuturistic art, and activities, it promotes an open dialogue on the complexities at the intersection of race and gender constructs. The exhibit was hosted in St. Louis’ Pulitzer Arts Foundation in June 2021, but has also been made available virtually in an immersive 3D experience.

Transfuturism

In spring 2021, the Justice Fleet received an award of $23,000 from the St. Louis Regional Racial Healing + Justice Fund to pursue the development of a grief garden in north St. Louis City along the Hodiamont Tracks.

Transfuturism is a photography and art activism exhibit under the Justice Fleet that renders black transgender and nonbinary people in their own power through superhero motifs. Organized

by Amber Johnson, Ph.D., IHJE cofounder, and comic artist Wriply Bennet, Transfuturism both humanizes and celebrates trans and gender-fluid people.

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Experience the exhibit at: www. thejusticefleet.com/transfuturism.

The Grief Garden

Through horticulture therapy and conservation, the grief garden will provide a safe and public green space for the surrounding community to tap into feelings and grief and healing following systemic injustice and

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community violence. The space aims to join communities together in emotions typically viewed as taboo while promoting self- and communal-care.

The Justice Fleet also plans to include a mobile experience to target minority neighborhoods throughout the St. Louis metropolitan area.

Aspirations IHJE strives to create a national coalition of those working to address systemic racism and oppression that partners with international, federal, state, and local governments, corporations, foundations, philanthropic organizations, and academic institutions to implement sustainable change. IHJE uses health research, psychological studies, and community outreach to truly make a difference in affected communities. Through these efforts, the Institute’s co-founders hope to be recognized as the leading research institute for humanizing equity, healing justice, and health equity.

When we fall down, we don’t always learn the right lessons. We must value people and communities who are suffering. And not only value them, but also give them the tools they need to heal.

Ruqaiijah Yearby

J.D., M.P.H., Executive Director

Ruqaiijah Yearby, J.D., M.P.H., listens to a student during a classroom discussion.

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Director of Biostatistics Joanne Salas consults with Clinical Research Scholar Megan Ferber, Ph.D., on recent study results.

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Creating more positive health outcomes starts with discovering new patterns and correlations in health care. The AHEAD Institute is harnessing the power of data to improve public health, advance quality of care, and lower the cost of health care for all.

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Evolving Expertise A Conversation With Leslie Hinyard, Ph.D., MSW, Executive Director, AHEAD Institute

“COVID-19 has highlighted just how important it is to have good data available — and quickly,” Hinyard said.

There has perhaps never been a greater time to invest in health care data analysis than now. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a time of challenges and opportunities according to Leslie Hinyard, Ph.D., MSW, Executive Director of the Advanced HEAlth Data (AHEAD) Research Institute at Saint Louis University — but the opportunities shine far brighter.

“COVID-19 has highlighted just how important it is to have good data available — and quickly,” Hinyard said. “I think back to the beginning of the pandemic and the mistakes we, as a health care industry, made about how we collected, stored, and shared data. We now understand a clear need to standardize data collection so that researchers may identify trends, disparities, and, ultimately, opportunities to improve our health care system.”

Institute’s initial projects was the Virtual Data Warehouse (VDW), a de-identified, research-ready health care database of SSM Health’s system-wide electronic health records. The VDW launched in spring 2021 and Hinyard said it’s already proven to be a vital tool for researchers across SLU and SSM Health.

“Launching the VDW was a landmark accomplishment for the Institute,” Hinyard said. “We now have a very practical data source that we can use to inform a very diverse array of health care research. In fact, one of the first projects to utilize data from the VDW is an examination of health behaviors and health care utilization rates before and after the pandemic.”

The VDW launch also marked the beginning of an evolution of the AHEAD Institute’s founding vision. The Institute was originally planned as a data warehousing unit that would partner with researchers to identify “We create deep collaborations with the right data for their investigators and leverage our analytical projects and offer some expertise to help them build the strongest analytical support. But research possible.” it soon became clear that the demand for the Institute’s expertise spanned the entire research cycle, from Launched in mid-2020, the AHEAD planning to publication.

Institute is a comprehensive center for data-driven innovation and research “We’re very fortunate to have seen aimed at improving the health of an outpouring of support from the individuals and populations. One of the

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University,” Hinyard said. “As we look forward, we’re now thinking much more long term and planning new ways to assist our investigators. We’re going to be much more involved in helping them design studies around data and providing analytical leadership to ultimately improve the quality of their work.”

In the last year, the AHEAD Institute was also accepted into the Health Care Systems Research Network (HCSRN), a collective of research centers that collaborate on multi-site studies in realworld health care settings across the United States and in Israel. The AHEAD Institute fills a vital gap as the Midwest’s only member and Hinyard said the designation is a significant validation of the AHEAD Institute’s mission and approach.

Leslie Hinyard, Ph.D., MSW, leads AHEAD Institute researchers in designing a new study.

“The HCSRN shares our mission to use big data in a way that’s not only effective, but also ethical,” Hinyard said. “Our membership here will enable new collaborations across the country and open the door for more funding opportunities for our researchers.”

in St. Louis, Barnes-Jewish Hospital, and Mercy Hospital. That was an unprecedented collaboration that enabled us to evaluate extensive COVIDrelated data in the community and quickly inform appropriate responses for the City of St. Louis.”

As she looked back on the last year, Hinyard was encouraged by the pace of the AHEAD Institute’s growth despite the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, she said the pandemic has expedited many initiatives within the health care industry that once seemed decades away.

In the years to come, Hinyard said the AHEAD Institute will focus on two things: utilization of the VDW and developing programs for long-term research assistance.

“We’re now seeing a realization from health systems that there is real, lifesaving value in sharing data with other systems,” Hinyard said. “Toward the beginning of the pandemic, we were invited to join the St. Louis Comparative Modeling Network, a collaborative effort between Washington University

“It’s really a two-pronged approach,” Hinyard said. “It starts with the VDW, which is truly a cutting-edge resource for actionable health data.

And on the support side, we create deep collaborations with investigators and leverage our analytical expertise to help them build the strongest research possible.”

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Experts in the Field Meet the Team Leading the AHEAD Institute

Leslie Hinyard

Jeffrey Scherrer

Paula Buchanan

Executive Director, AHEAD Institute Chair and Associate Professor, Health and Clinical Outcomes Research

Senior Director for Research, AHEAD Institute Professor, Family and Community Medicine

Associate Director for Consulting, AHEAD Institute

Hinyard has expertise in secondary data analysis including national survey research, large administrative claims databases, and research involving electronic medical records, as well as analysis of prospective and observational studies. Her research focuses on health disparities and health equity, health-related quality of life, and psychosocial needs of cancer patients.

Additionally, she works with an interdisciplinary group of researchers to improve training for interprofessional health care clinicians for improvements in advance care planning and palliative care. Hinyard earned her Master of Social Work degree from Washington University in Saint Louis and her Ph.D. in Public Health Studies from Saint Louis University.

Scherrer started his career in 1990 as a research assistant in animal models of memory. After developing a bad allergy to rodents, he sought out a research coordinator position in epidemiology during which time he also completed his doctoral degree in Health Services Research. In 2013, Scherrer joined the Department of Family and Community Medicine at Saint Louis University School of Medicine. His research pursues eclectic interests ranging from diabetes quality indicators to military veteran issues to metformin and its association with dementia, all while maintaining a funded research focus on risk factors for, and consequences of, mood disorders.

Ph.D., MSW

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Ph.D.

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Ph.D.

Buchanan and her team provide methodological and analytic support for many grants and research projects for faculty throughout the School of Medicine, Trudy Busch Valentine School of Nursing, and Doisy College of Health Sciences at Saint Louis University.

Buchanan also provides support to SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital Department of Internal Medicine. The support ranges from power and sample size calculations to data analysis and interpretation to presentations of results.

Buchanan has experience with all types of study designs from retrospective to prospective, as well as working with sample sizes of three subjects to well over one million subjects.

Richard Grucza

Divya S. Subramaniam

Sarah Gebauer

Core Faculty, AHEAD Institute Professor, Family and Community Medicine Fellow, SLU Research Institute

Core Faculty, AHEAD Institute Assistant Professor, Health and Clinical Outcomes Research Program Director, M.S. in Health Data Science

Core Faculty, AHEAD Institute Assistant Professor, Family and Community Medicine

Ph.D.

Grucza completed his Ph.D. in the Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences at Washington University, where he also received postdoctoral training in biostatistics and epidemiology. Grucza is broadly interested in advanced quantitative research related to the epidemiology of substance misuse and related disorders.

He has been continuously funded through grants from the National Institutes of Health and other sources since completing his postdoctoral fellowship in 2003.

Ph.D., M.P.H.

Subramaniam has expertise in primary data collection methods, survey design and testing, prospective and observational studies, and research involving national surveys. Her research focuses on health measurement, health disparities, behavioral health, and health promotion related to vaccination uptake and compliance. Furthermore, Subramaniam works with various research collaborators to develop and test survey instruments. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of Tulsa, and her Master of Public Health and Ph.D. in Public Health Studies from Saint Louis University.

M.D., M.S.P.H.

Gebauer has been a clinical scientist faculty member since 2017. She completed medical school at Saint Louis University’s School of Medicine, her family medicine residency at Saint Louis University’s Southwestern Illinois Program in 2015, SLU’s Academic Family Medicine Fellowship in 2017 and her M.S.P.H. in epidemiology in 2018.

She sees patients at St. Louis County’s South County Health Center and is the course director for epidemiology and biostatistics at the School of Medicine. Her research interests are centered in the social determinants of health, particularly neighborhood characteristics and chronic pain.

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Chris Prener

Kenton J. Johnston

Matthew Breeden

Core Faculty Assistant Professor, Sociology

Core Faculty, AHEAD Institute Associate Professor, Health Management and Policy

Core Faculty, AHEAD Institute Assistant Professor, Family and Community Medicine

Johnston’s Ph.D. training is in health services research and health policy.

Prior to academia, he worked in the medical informatics field at BlueCross BlueShield. Johnston’s research focuses on Medicare, value-based payment, risk adjustment, and vulnerable populations.

He has published widely on these topics in journals such as JAMA, Annals of Internal Medicine, JAMA Internal Medicine, Journal of General Internal Medicine, Health Services Research, and Health Affairs.

Johnston teaches graduate courses in analytical methods and in health insurance and managed care.

Breeden specializes in family medicine, with special interest in quality improvement for better patient care, the interface of health care and technology, and office-based procedures. He cares for patients of all ages, treating acute conditions, chronic illnesses, and performing routine office procedures, including skin biopsies and joint injections. Breeden is primarily interested in research that examines the effect of technology on health care access and delivery.

Ph.D.

Prener is an urban and medical sociologist with an interest in mixed methods research designs that incorporate spatial data. Prener’s current research focuses on the impact that population decline and segregation have had on St. Louis, Missouri across a number of outcomes, including vacancy, crime, and poor health. In addition to pursuing these questions, he actively maintains several opensource software projects to make spatial research more reproducible and St. Louis data more accessible. Prener also maintains a COVID-19 tracking project for Missouri, focused on harmonizing data from various sources to create data visualizations of regional and statewide patterns in cases, deaths, and health disparities.

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Ph.D., M.P.H.

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M.D.

Alex Zhang develops a protocol for an upcoming AHEAD Institute study.

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Partners in Progress A Look at the AHEAD Institute’s Partnerships Collaboration is at the heart of the AHEAD Institute’s mission to leverage big data in pursuit of positive health outcomes for individuals and communities. To that end, the Institute has formed several relationships within the University and with industry partners to share expertise, identify funding opportunities, and enhance the collective strength of health care data analysis within the region.

The AHEAD Institute has established partnerships with the following SLU departments to provide analytic support for its researchers.

Internal Medicine Pediatrics Otolaryngology

Surgery Family & Community Medicine Cardinal Glennon

Obstetrics & Gynecology

“The AHEAD Institute expands on SLU’s role as the academic partner for SSM Health.”

SSM Health The AHEAD Institute expands on SLU’s role as the academic partner for SSM Health. Most notably, their collaboration resulted in the successful deployment of the Virtual Data Warehouse (VDW), a centralized repository of de-identified medical records that fills a very practical need for real-world health care data among researchers. Their strategic alignment has also led to new research projects intended to improve health outcomes, reduce health care costs, and enhance the patient experience across the SSM Health network.

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Health Care Systems Research Network The SLU and SSM Health partnership enabled the AHEAD Institute to become the newest member of the Health Care Systems Research Network (HCSRN).

As the only member in the American Midwest, the Institute can now participate in multi-site collaborative research with other members of the network. AHEAD Institute leadership serves on the HCSRN’s governing board and core faculty actively participate in its many scientific interest groups.

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St. Louis Regional Comparative Modeling Network The AHEAD Institute is a member of the St. Louis Regional Comparative Modeling Network (STL CMN), a diverse and collaborative group of local experts from health care systems, academic institutions, and public health associations in Missouri and Illinois.

The STL CMN works to model various components of the COVID-19 pandemic, including: testing, tracing, and transmission; prevention and behavior; syndromic surveillance; and vaccination and immunity. Efforts by the STL CMN, in collaboration with the area Pandemic Task Force, have successfully informed data-driven decision making for the St. Louis region throughout the pandemic, including the issuance of mask mandates and social distancing orders.

SLUCare Center for Specialized Medicine.

Lobby of SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital.

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Director of Biostatistics Joanne Salas discusses findings from a research study initiated by Clinical Research Scholar Megan Ferber, Ph.D.

Virtual Information, Real Impact A Look at the Virtual Data Warehouse at SLU In February 2021, Saint Louis University announced a groundbreaking partnership with SSM Health to develop a Virtual Data Warehouse (VDW) consisting of de-identified patient data from more than 5 million SSM Health and SLUCare patients. The VDW is managed by the AHEAD Institute and is now being used to inform wide-reaching studies to improve public health, advance the quality of medical treatment, and decrease the cost of health care.

The VDW fills a critical, practical need for real-world data to support health care research. It is accessible only to SLU and SSM Health faculty, and the AHEAD Institute has taken great lengths to ensure the data is secure and untraceable to individual patients.

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“We are grateful to our partners at SSM Health for their collaboration in advancing our mission as a studentand patient-centered Jesuit research university,” said Fred P. Pestello, Ph.D., president of Saint Louis University, at the time of the VDW’s launch.

“Utilizing the expertise and deep data resources of the AHEAD Institute, medical and academic researchers will be able to identify and explore some of the most pressing health challenges of our time and positively affect patient care and health outcomes.”

To access the VDW, researchers must submit a proposal to the AHEAD Institute. Once approved, the AHEAD Institute offers several services to assist researchers throughout the project

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cycle. Health care data is highly complex, and the AHEAD Institute is uniquely positioned to offer analytical and statistical support to achieve actionable results. In the last year, the Institute has added new capabilities with the strategic hires of a biostatistician and data scientist.

“The quality data and robust methodological procedures used at the AHEAD Institute allow research to be conducted efficiently and applied in meaningful ways,” said Leslie Hinyard, Ph.D., executive director. “We’re proud to support and collaborate with SLU and SSM investigators as they seek to address critical health issues.”

Since going live, the VDW has attracted researchers from a variety of disciplines, including experts in epidemiology, health services, health outcomes, health economics, the social determinants of health, and health disparities. Initial projects using the VDW include:

In addition to patient data housed within the VDW, the AHEAD Institute also maintains databases for national commercial claims and national hospital discharges. Together, these resources offer ample data to support the next era of medical and academic research.

‒ An examination of health care utilization disparities before and after COVID-19

The AHEAD Institute and the VDW both underscore the University’s commitment to addressing public health issues and improving patient health outcomes — especially those that disproportionately affect poor and underserved communities. This union of robust data and rigorous analysis, guided by SLU’s Jesuit mission, will ensure a brighter, healthier future for people around the world.

‒ Research into the factors associated with retention in buprenorphine therapy for prescription opioid use, led by Jeffrey Scherrer, Ph.D. ‒ A study of the impact of live discharge from hospice on patients and caregivers, led by Leslie Hinyard, Ph.D.

Services offered by the AHEAD Institute include: Study design and protocol development Data collection (telephone, web based, and in-person interviewing; chart abstraction and database extraction) Database design and management Statistical programming and analysis Interpretation and reporting Communication of results

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The Road Ahead Active Projects & Aspirations Within the AHEAD Institute In just one year, the AHEAD Institute has shown tremendous promise as a vehicle for innovative data analysis and groundbreaking health care research. The Institute has fostered collaborative relationships across Saint Louis University as well as SSM Health, many of which have led to new, funded research. In the years to come, the AHEAD Institute will focus on identifying new programmatic methods to support researchers not only in the initial design of their projects, but also the continual analysis of its data and performance. The following is a summary of the AHEAD Institute’s key projects and future aspirations.

Researchers led by Leslie Hinyard, Ph.D., MSW, examine new health data collected by the AHEAD Institute during a meeting in the Academic Technology Commons in the Pius XII Memorial Library.

Health Care Utilization Disparities Before and After COVID-19 The first project to leverage the AHEAD Institute’s Virtual Data Warehouse (VDW) is a collaboration with SSM Health to analyze patient data to determine if racial disparities in access to preventative health care changed from 2019 as compared to the first 12 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. The project is currently in the analysis stage.

Opioid Use Disorder Jeffrey Scherrer, Ph.D., is leading a project to determine factors associated 156

with retention in buprenorphine therapy for ‘pure’ prescription opioid use disorder compared to other forms of prescription opioid use disorder.

The VDW will serve as one of three patient cohorts with replication in Veterans Health Administration (VHA) medical record data. Key questions are focused on whether patient vs. provider reasons for initiating buprenorphine are associated with retention, whether common psychiatric disorders are barriers to buprenorphine retention and whether treating these disorders improves retention.

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The Impact of Live Discharge from Hospice on Patients & Caregivers Cara Wallace, Ph.D., assistant professor for the College for Public Health and Social Justice, was awarded a grant of $472,276 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study live discharge from hospice care. She is joined by collaborators Leslie Hinyard, Ph.D., and Verna Hendricks-Ferguson, Ph.D., at SLU and Stephanie Wladkowski, Ph.D., at Eastern Michigan University.

Their project will evaluate quality of life, health status, caregiver well-being, health care, and service utilization during the six months following

Short-Term Goals Expand the use of the Virtual Data Warehouse (VDW) for health outcomes research Grow AHEAD Institute recognition as the premier resource at SLU for health outcomes research support Host an inaugural research symposium showcasing collaborative research endeavors Continue fostering space for sharing health data science and health outcomes research with monthly Dine with Data lunch-and-learn series Provide expanded faculty development opportunities for School of Medicine and Health Sciences

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Active Projects

12+

SLU Departments Served

117

Requests for Data and Research Support

28

Projects with Clinical Research Scholars Program (CRSP) Fellows

5,248 Long-Term Aspirations

Analytic Hours Worked

Continue to collaborate on multi-site health system research within the Health Care Systems Research Network (HCSRN) Continue to collaborate with SSM Health to enable integration of patient-reported outcomes and other patient-related data Play a pivotal role in increasing grant revenue for SLU’s School of Medicine via research support services and access to data resources Increase opportunities for student and resident training in health data science and health outcomes research

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hospice discharge. Initial data collection has begun and the team is currently recruiting participants who have experienced a live discharge from hospice due to decertification from care.

Disparities in Physical Therapy Utilization This collaboration between the SLU Program in Physical Therapy and the AHEAD Institute explores racial disparities in physical therapy utilization in patients with musculoskeletal pain using large health databases. Results of the initial project using the OPTUM database, a nationally distributed cohort derived from electronic health records, indicated that African American patients had lower utilization and longer time to utilization compared to white patients, after adjusting for covariates.

A developing project seeks to expand the research question by examining variables that potentially contribute to racial disparities in physical therapy referral and utilization at the patient level (e.g., educational level, neighborhood SES, access to care) and provider level (e.g., race, age, specialty) using the VDW.

Association Between Palliative Care Consultation, Hospital Length of Stay, and In-hospital Costs in Women with Metastatic Breast Cancer in the U.S.

higher hospital costs compared to those without multiple acute comorbidities.

Hence, targeted interventions must be implemented to increase PCC for metastatic breast cancer patients in the United States. A manuscript of the study’s complete findings is in progress.

Utilization of Gastrointestinal Motility Studies in the Pediatric Population Dhiren Patel, M.D., associate professor in the Division of Gastroenterology and a clinical research scholar at the AHEAD Institute, is investigating utilization patterns of gastrointestinal motility studies in pediatric populations.

Using a nationally representative sample drawn from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Kid Inpatient Database, the study identified patients with a gastrointestinal disorder who underwent a motility procedure between 2006 and 2016. The study found that the rate of motility studies is increasing over time. White patients, those with private insurance, and boys were all more likely to have a motility study. Most interesting was that patients residing in the South and West were significantly less likely to have a motility study than those in the Midwest. Future work on this project is examining the impact of rural versus urban access to motility

centers on utilization and evaluation of variability in cost and length of stay for motility studies. Findings will begin to build the case for standardization of practice for motility studies across pediatric centers.

Level of Care in Pediatric Adenotonsillectomy Patients Jennifer Brinkmeier, associate professor in the Division of Pediatric Otolaryngology and Clinical Research Scholar in the AHEAD Institute, is conducting multiple studies examining variability in evidence-based guideline compliance and investigating where new guidelines can improve consistency of care across settings. Aligned with this work, she has recently been investigating variability in practice patterns of hospital admissions for adenotonsillectomy.

She found that comorbid conditions identified in established clinical practice guidelines are predictive of increased respiratory complications, confirming the recommendation for increased level of care in the postoperative period for these patients. However, respiratory complications remain relatively infrequent, creating an opportunity to further tune how we structure postoperative care to reduce cost and length of stay while balancing known risks.

This study set out to determine the incidence of inpatient palliative care consultations (PCC) in women with metastatic breast cancer and to examine the association between palliative care consultation and hospital length of stay (LOS) and in-hospital costs in a nationally representative sample.

Researchers found that inpatient PCC for women with metastatic breast cancer increased LOS and hospital costs. They also found that inpatient palliative care consultation was provided to sicker patients­— patients who would likely have longer length of stay and, in return, 158

Jeff Scherrer, Ph.D., and Alex Zhang listen to a presentation on new health data.

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If this pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that the time for collaboration and innovation is now.

And the AHEAD Institute is well-positioned to be the catalyst for groundbreaking health care research throughout the Midwest.

Leslie Hinyard

Ph.D., MSW, Executive Director

Leslie Hinyard, Ph.D., MSW, explains the result of a recent study to her fellow researchers.

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A student studies a sample under a microscope in the Zustiak Lab.

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Pharmaceutical companies typically focus their resources on highly prevalent diseases, leaving lesser-known diseases understudied. The Institute for Drug and Biotherapeutic Innovation is filling this critical space in drug discovery and saving lives around the world.

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Building Momentum A Conversation with John E. Tavis, Ph.D., Director, Institute for Drug and Biotherapeutic Innovation

“What we’ve seen over the last year and a half is a tremendous growth in our collective understanding of viral diseases, the spread of pathogens, and how drug therapies can protect us,” Tavis said.

Much like diseases themselves, the world of drug discovery is constantly evolving.

New conditions require new drugs, new drugs require new discoveries — the process itself can take years before a drug ever comes to market. The new Saint Louis University Institute for Drug and Biotherapeutic Innovation (SLU-IDBI) was created in response to a shifting paradigm within the pharmaceutical industry, wherein some drug discovery is moving out of major companies and into academia. Under the leadership of John E. Tavis, Ph.D., professor of molecular microbiology and immunology, SLUIDBI has raised more than $37 million in grant funding to pursue a reimagined process of drug research.

SLU-IDBI is led by Tavis and colleagues Marvin Meyers, Ph.D., associate professor of chemistry; Jack Kennell, Ph.D., professor of biology; Silviya Zustiak, Ph.D., associate professor of biomedical engineering; David Griggs, Ph.D., associate professor of molecular microbiology and immunology; Fran Sverdrup, Ph.D., associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology; and Graeme Thomas, assistant to the vice president for research and partnerships.

Under their guidance, SLU-IDBI is diverging its path from that of major pharmaceutical companies by pursuing drug discovery for rare and neglected diseases that don’t carry the same profit incentive as other more common conditions in the United States.

“When you think of Big Pharma, you think of mass “It’s easy to forget now, but COVID-19 was a scale and mass profit,” Tavis brand new disease and it was moving very said. “And the problem with quickly,” Tavis said. that is that not every drug is going to make billions of dollars, but that doesn’t make it any less valuable for “Drug discovery has often been referred the people whose lives may depend on to as a higher order, multi-dimensional it. We’re in a much more agile position optimization process,” Tavis said. “And at SLU, where we can investigate all we’re in a position now, as SLU-IDBI, to diseases, not just the common ones. And support that process by attracting faculty we can take on these smaller diseases and with broad expertise to address the de-risk the drugs so that pharmaceutical various issues at play and optimize the companies will be more likely to bring end goal of bringing a drug to market.” them to people.”

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Grad student Nathan Ponzar and postdoctoral fellow Razia Tajwar, Ph.D., purify a DNA sample.

SLU-IDBI launched with three modules: Expert Communities, Educational Services, and Discovery Services. The founders intended to structure the Institute in a way that would allow for deep collaboration among chemists, biologists, pharmacologists, and other disciplines involved in drug discovery.

Tavis said he’s impressed with the diversity of researchers SLU-IDBI has attracted in its first year and the support it’s been able to provide.

“In the past year, we’ve added about 20 principal investigator-level members reflecting a diverse array of disciplines,” Tavis said. “We’ve also established a seed grant program to better fund some of their collaborations. We’ve awarded about 10 grants so far that have kickstarted the drug discovery process here at SLU in ways that simply have not historically happened. We’re getting more people involved, and earlier in the process.”

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, Tavis said SLU-IDBI had to move quickly to maintain the high levels of collaboration that had been established.

In addition to transferring the bulk of its collaborations online, SLU-IDBI also rose to the challenge by publishing succinct, insightful white papers for clinicians and aiding in the search for personal protective equipment (PPE).

more aware and sensitive to the many shortcomings in drug treatment. He hopes it will catalyze more proactive research into drug therapies for diseases that, while benign now, have the potential to become devastating. SLU’s size and agility makes it an attractive partner for this level of research and the Institute has built the collaborative infrastructure for it to happen.

“It’s easy to forget now, but COVID-19 was a new disease and it was moving very quickly,” Tavis said. “And frontline clinicians were working to the point of exhaustion just to keep up. So we knew they didn’t have time to read all the literature that was coming out. And we took it upon ourselves to summarize the latest findings and create more actionable white papers for them. We felt like it was the least we could do for the ones working so hard to protect us.”

“What we’ve seen over the last year and a half is a tremendous growth in our collective understanding of viral diseases, the spread of pathogens, and how drug therapies can protect us,” Tavis said. “And I believe the market has taken note. That’s going to help us as we apply for grants and convince people to pursue these types of drug investigations.”

Now over 18 months into the pandemic, Tavis said the public has become

for the diseases — big and small — affecting people around the world.

“Saving lives is the job here,” Tavis said.

“For as complex and multi-faceted as the process can be at times, that’s our ultimate objective. The SLU mission is to serve mankind and IDBI is in a position to fill a gap where industry cannot. And I believe we’ll save lives as a result.”

COVID-19 has also served as a powerful reminder of the crucial role drug treatments play in public health. Tavis said it’s times like this that motivate him to continue the fight and seek treatments

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Experts in the Field Meet the Team Leading SLU-IDBI

John Tavis

David Griggs

Jack Kennell

Director, Department of Molecular Microbiology & Immunology Professor, Saint Louis University School of Medicine

Associate Professor, Molecular Microbiology & Immunology

Professor, Biology

Ph.D.

Tavis has studied Hepatitis B Virus replication mechanisms, HBV reverse transcriptase’s metabolism and non-catalytic roles in the cell, and biochemistry of viral reverse transcription since 1992. He serves as the chairman of the Scientific Advisory Council for the International HBV Meeting, the Incoming Chair of the International Coalition to Eliminate HBV, and has been a member of the council for Extramural Grants at the American Cancer Society. His research focus is currently on basic biochemistry of the HBV ribonuclease H and developing drugs to suppress HBV replication that target this essential enzyme. Notably, Tavis received the Society’s Mission Hero Award in 2018 for his efforts on behalf of the American Cancer Society.

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Ph.D.

A major interest of Griggs for many years, both at SLU and in prior research performed while working at global pharmaceutical companies (Searle/ Pharmacia/Pfizer), has been the roles of integrins in physiology and disease.

Griggs’ laboratory currently specializes in drug discovery and the translation of basic discoveries to therapeutic application. The lab has recently discovered and characterized new small molecule compounds that are making exciting progress toward development of an effective treatment to reduce or reverse the destructive organ fibrosis that occurs in many disease conditions. His lab is also currently applying its molecular, cellular, and pharmacology expertise to develop new medicines for treatment of tuberculosis, cryptosporidiosis, and bone disorders.

In 2019, he was elected a senior member of the National Academy of Inventors for his contributions to patents and commercialization of technologies to bring real impact on the welfare of society.

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Ph.D.

Kennell is a professor and former chair in the Department of Biology, focusing his research on molecular fossils and mitochondrial-nuclear interactions.

In the past, Kennell has incorporated service-learning projects in his classes and found that these projects are very effective in stimulating student interest in biology, leading to favorable learning outcomes. Service-learning projects allow students to experience biology in real-world settings and offer insight into concepts that cannot be adequately provided in the classroom.

Marvin Meyers Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Chemistry Director, Chemical Biology Program Meyers is an experienced medicinal chemist and drug discovery scientist.

Upon completion of his Ph.D. in chemistry at the University of IllinoisUrbana Champaign, he spent a decade at Pharmacia and Pfizer working on new drug discovery for a variety of diseases, resulting in two novel compounds entering human clinical trials. Since joining SLU in 2010, his research focus shifted to identification of novel drug candidates for rare and infectious diseases including cryptosporidiosis, malaria, tuberculosis, hepatitis B virus, herpes simplex virus, and more. Meyers partners with leading disease experts to form complementary interdisciplinary teams with the goal of identifying drug candidates for clinical trials. His work has resulted in 50 peer-reviewed publications, 29 patent applications, and five issued U.S. patents. In 2021, Meyers was elected as a senior member of the National Academy of Inventors.

A researcher in the Zustiak Lab uses a pipette to transfer a sample onto a slide.

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Silviya Zustiak

Fran Sverdrup

Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering

Associate Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Zustiak has a diverse educational background with a bachelor’s and master’s in bioelectrical engineering, doctoral degree in biochemical engineering, and a postdoctoral training in biophysics from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Zustiak’s primary research interests are in hydrogel biomaterials and tissue engineering, with emphasis on developing novel biomaterials as cell scaffolds, drug screening platforms, and drug delivery devices. Her research is highly multidisciplinary, merging the fields of engineering, material science, and biology. Zustiak has received several research awards such as the NIH Fellows Award for Research Excellence in 2011 and the Saint Louis University Scholarly Works Award for a Junior Faculty in 2017. Her work has resulted in over 50 peer-reviewed publications, over 200 conference presentations, and multiple patent applications.

Sverdrup is an experienced pharmaceutical research biologist with a background in functional genomics, cell biology, molecular biology, biochemistry, and virology. Following a Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and postdoctoral work at Tufts, Sverdrup spent 12 years in the pharmaceutical industry on discovery research, biology, target identification and validation, and small and large molecule discovery for infectious and inflammatory diseases. Sverdrup joined the University in 2010 to focus on the discovery and development of affordable therapies for neglected diseases, rare diseases, and other unmet medical needs. His major focus is on facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) with the goal of identifying therapies that promote the epigenetic suppression of the pathogenic D4Z4 locus. Sverdrup has applied his wealth of experience to his research in FSHD, identifying numerous disease pathways as therapeutic targets, and identifying a diverse set of small, large, and biologic compounds as potential therapeutics.

Ph.D.

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Ph.D.

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Researcher using a compact inverted routine microscope for cell culture.

Graeme Thomas

Jaffre Athman

Assistant to the Vice President for Research

Business Development Director, Research Innovation Group (ex officio)

Thomas is the assistant to the Vice President for Research for Bioscience Initiatives, connecting SLU researchers to the vibrant St. Louis bioscience community. In this role, he is responsible for building partnerships, identifying opportunities for the commercialization of products of SLU research, and helping researchers develop startup businesses. Through the Research Innovation Fund, Thomas guides researchers through each stage of bringing their discoveries to market, leveraging the existing St. Louis innovation community to ensure the SLU Research Institute fosters excellence in faculty innovation.

With a history of working in both the biotechnology industry and academia, Athman’s interest lies in the development and translation of basic research into drug discovery and preclinical development. He earned a Ph.D. in pathology, and has performed research on tuberculosis immunology and oncolytic viruses. Relying on his scientific training and scientific and research communication experience, Athman seeks out opportunities for University, and IDBI, faculty to collaborate with industry partners.

Ph.D.

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Major Opportunities Over the last year, SLU-IDBI has significantly increased its membership and its overall productivity. Numerous grant awards, publication features, industry presentations, and patents issued over the last year can be directly attributed to SLU-IDBI’s rise as a center of excellence in drug discovery. The following is a brief summary of a select number of SLU-IDBI achievements over the last year.

Student Molly Woodson presenting work at the International HBV Meeting in Toronto, Canada.

“Drug discovery has often been referred to as a higher order, multi-dimensional process,” Tavis said.

“And we’re in a position now, as SLU-IDBI, to support that process.”

Research Productivity

Research Collaborations

SLU-IDBI members have been immensely productive in their first 18 months. Their early success has greatly improved the prominence of SLU-IDBI within the drug research community, and the momentum will increase in the coming years.

SLU-IDBI researchers have built strategic collaborations with industry partners in fields ranging from biotechnology to chemistry, as well as startup companies in both early- and advanced-stage therapeutic research.

Internally, the IDBI has over 15 collaborative projects in progress between members, including primary drug screening and discovery with iterative medicinal chemistry, in vitro PK/ADME studies, and animal models.

‒ 51 new research grants awarded, for a total value of $14.7 million ‒ 24% increase in senior members ‒ 60% increase in per-member grant receipts 168

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Patents SLU-IDBI members have been very successful in securing patents for their discoveries. Over the past 18 months, SLU-IDBI members: ‒ Submitted 10 provisional patent applications ‒ Submitted 17 full patent applications ‒ Were awarded 15 patents Of these patent filings and awards, 33 of 42 are directly applicable to therapeutic discovery and development, and the remaining nine are related to advancing life science and health research or treatment. The new intellectual property reflected in these 27 applications and 15 awarded patents reflects the ingenuity of Institute members and provides solid support for subsequent commercialization of their discoveries.

Silviya Zustiak, Ph.D., examines a sample under a microscope. The Zustiak Lab is interested in hydrogel biomaterials and tissue engineering, and with the support of SLU-IDBI, hopes to develop novel biomaterials.

New Publications Since SLU-IDBI’s formation, its senior members have authored or co-authored 149 academic papers related to the Institute’s mission, all of which may be accessed via the NIH’s PubMed database.

Of those publications, 124 were primary reports stemming from original research involving IDBI members, and 25 were reviews and commentaries. SLU-IDBI members also co-authored an additional 127 academic publications on topics that do not fall directly under IDBI’s mission.

Commercialization Efforts Key to the continued success of SLUIDBI is the commercialization of its many discoveries because that is the most direct way to bring drug discoveries to the patients who need

them. To that end, SLU-IDBI members are committed to building robust partnerships with industry research programs. In 2020, members Jaffre Athman, Ph.D., and Graeme Thomas attended the BIO Industry conferences to introduce the University, SLU-IDBI and the Institute’s wide portfolio of drugrelated research. Athman and Thomas said these industry events are often the catalyst to larger, more ambitious partnerships between SLU-IDBI and the broader research community. Working in partnership with the SLU Research Innovation Group for licensing and research contracts, Athman and Thomas’ efforts build upon the successful ongoing research and development projects between IDBI member labs and their industry partners.

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New Connections Innovation and Outreach at SLU-IDBI Like any research center, SLU-IDBI needs exposure and outreach to grow its standing, both on campus and in the drug discovery community. Although the pandemic created a myriad of challenges related to in-person interaction, SLU-IDBI was able to act with agility and speed to build stronger connections with internal and external stakeholders. Below is an overview of SLU-IDBI’s outreach efforts in the last year.

A researcher tending to cells grown in culture in a Class II Biosafety Hood.

Graduate student Daniel Bradley presenting a scientific poster at the International HBV Meeting in Toronto, Canada.

The Seed Grant Program

project. Some of the funded projects this year include studies regarding cancer treatment, herpes simplex viral treatment, muscle regeneration, and coronavirus studies.

This program aims to provide access to research funding to conduct key experiments to improve the competitiveness of external funding applications. The selection criteria and review processes are designed to ensure unbiased selection of the seed grant applications most likely to expand SLU-IDBI collaborations and lead to acquisition of external funding.

The program has four cycles per year, and this year, eight seed grants went to investigators across the University.

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Outreach Perseverance In light of COVID-19, digital communication became more important than ever to SLU-IDBI’s growth and success. The Institute’s leadership team immediately focused on developing organizational structures and establishing new vehicles for community and outreach. This included:

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Virtual Mixers The IDBI Virtual Therapeutic Mixer maintained the ability of faculty to share nascent research, learn about resources available on campus and off to support their efforts, and find collaborators in a COVID-19 environment when informal gatherings and discussions were severely curtailed. Much like their in-person predecessor, the Virtual Mixers have proven to facilitate new collaborations amongst SLU faculty and enhance research within member labs. While the virtual element has proven successful, IDBI will transition some future events into in-person gatherings to strengthen research in the community.

Creating The Elixir The Elixir is a biweekly email newsletter for SLU-IDBI members intended to maintain connection during COVID-19 and beyond. Announcements, funding opportunities, education, and industrial engagement are highly featured.

Faculty accomplishments, including grant awards, publications, speaking engagements, and society awards, are also shared in The Elixir.

Content Upgrades SLU-IDBI supplements The Elixir with a monthly column “Commercialization Compass” to highlight entrepreneurship and research commercialization efforts within the Institute. This column also covers a broad range of topics partners may wish to know about, such as invention disclosures, patentability, research contracts to protect faculty interests, and steps to creating startup companies.

New Website SLU-IDBI is merging its two websites into one hosted on slu.edu/idbi. The new website will appeal to both the Institute’s internal and external audiences, including SLU faculty, SLU students, non-SLU academics, biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry professionals, and philanthropists.

A researcher using a centrifuge to sediment particulates in a suspension.

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Bright Futures Active Projects and Aspirations Within SLU-IDBI SLU-IDBI launched with a wide scope that enables researchers to unite across multiple disciplines through all stages of drug discovery. Within the Institute, researchers are conducting ongoing research into drugs to treat a wide array of viral, chronic, and genetic conditions. The following projects represent the broad scope and scale of SLU-IDBI’s research.

Graduate student Daniel Bradley pipetting a sample as part of an HBV drug discovery project.

Hepatitis B Virus Led By: John Tavis, Ph.D., Marvin Meyers, Ph.D. HBV infects more than 260 million people in the world, most of whom live in the developing world with limited access to health care. Tavis and Meyers are collaborating to develop drugs targeting one of the viral enzymes, the HBV ribonuclease H, that is essential for HBV replication but has not yet been subjected to drug discovery efforts because the appropriate screening assays did not exist. The Tavis and Meyers team recently established biological screening assays specific for ribonuclease H inhibitors and

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optimized chemical synthetic methods for a promising class of inhibitory compounds, the N-hydroxynapthyridinones.

This project very recently received strong support from the National Institutes of Health in the form of a $3.2 million, five-year research grant to advance these compound classes far enough to enter the detailed pre-clinical studies needed to obtain regulatory approval for first-in-human studies when the grant ends. This project will extensively use the SLU-IDBI Discovery Services Core, and it is an excellent example of how the collaborations established through SLU-IDBI can launch successful drug discovery efforts.

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Antibiotic Development Led By: John Walker, Ph.D., and Feng Cao, Ph.D. In 2019, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported more than 2.8 million people experience antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections in the United States each year, with more than 35,000 people dying from them annually. Additionally, the economic cost from just the six most prevalent resistant bacterial strains was estimated at over $4.6 billion annually.

Most alarming is that these numbers continue to rise and there are now aggressive bacterial strains that cannot be managed by antibiotics, unless there

are consistent prevention and infection control efforts.

Using a seed grant from SLU-IDBI, the team was able to determine pharmacokinetic parameters for promising BTZ compounds and advance them into an animal model of infection.

This data is helping to guide the team’s efforts to develop the BTZ scaffold as a new class of antibiotics. Recent data has also shown that some BTZ compounds are also effective in inhibiting bacterial efflux (i.e., pumping a drug out of the cell), which is one of the major mechanisms that bacteria use to become resistant to antibiotics, suggesting there may be multiple uses for the BTZ scaffold.

Chronic Pain Led By: Daniela Salvemini, Ph.D. Over 30 million people in the U.S. alone suffer from chronic neuropathic pain (>10% of the population worldwide).

Treatment for these patients is very difficult and current medications are limited by severe side effects, including dependency and potential for abuse, and poor efficacy. Thus, new non-narcotic analgesics are needed.

Salvemini’s research interests are to understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms underpinning neuropathic pain and to develop non-opioid based therapeutics to target these mechanisms.

Her translational research combines behavioral pharmacology, biochemistry, molecular biology, genetics, toxicology, and drug discovery. Salvemini’s research on new targets, including GPR160 and S1PR1, have been funded by over $4.1 million in R01 grants from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), as well as a $1.3 million grant from the Department of Defense. Translating discoveries to the clinic — a bench-tobedside approach — is a key mission of Salvemini’s work.

A researcher is pipetting tissue culture medium into a 96-well tissue culture plate for growing cells.

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Maha Arshad, an undergraduate chemical biology student, using a 96 well pipet to set up an HBV ribonuclease H inhibition assay.

Aspirations In the coming years, SLU-IDBI will pursue aggressive growth toward becoming a fully realized, financially independent center for drug-related innovation at SLU. Most notably, it seeks to raise in excess of $5 million over the next 10 years to create a substantial endowment to fund future activities and seed grants, ultimately ensuring its longterm impact and potential.

Expand Discovery Services Core The ADME/PK Laboratory currently provides expert consultations and wet bench support for assays and animal pharmacology studies. It also provides connections to external service providers who have signed master service agreements to perform assays unavailable within the lab. SLU-IDBI aims to expand both physical and virtual offerings to better serve its members. Anticipated new wet-bench offerings include expanding basic feefor-service assays to improve solubility, formulation, and delivery. Example virtual enhancements include widely advertising the availability of the master

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services agreements maintained by IDBI with companies providing specialized discovery services, expanding use of the Collaborative Drug Discovery (CDD) Vault database for analysis and sharing of large compound data sets, and enhancing access to and sophistication in use of the Schrödinger molecular modeling suite for discovery and development of both small molecule and biologic therapies. The latter enables high-throughput screening to be conducted virtually and even modeling of complex protein-protein and protein-RNA complexes. Early results have already led to identification of novel drug candidates for pain and have enhanced ongoing antiviral drug discovery projects.

NSF Research Experience for Undergraduate Students Grant Application IDBI will submit an application for the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program. This will enhance the research experience for SLU undergraduate students and, vitally, bring non-SLU undergraduates to train

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in IDBI member labs, expanding access to quality STEM education and research to students from around the country, and facilitating enhanced collaboration and networking opportunities.

Expand Educational Services Core SLU-IDBI plans to coordinate instructional activities of members to: enhance access of SLU students to SLU-IDBI member labs; expand coordination with the chemical biology degree program; encourage guest lectures by SLU-IDBI members in their areas of expertise; and provide formal drug and biotherapeutic discovery and development instruction to all SLU-IDBI members.

“The reality is not every drug is going to make a billion dollars — but it could save a life. And that’s what we care about. We’re making it possible for more drugs to see the light of day, and in doing so, saving more lives.”

John E. Tavis Ph.D., Director

John Tavis, Ph.D., analyzing potential drug binding sites in the HBV polymerase protein.

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Scott A. Sell, Ph.D., and Andre Castiaux, Ph.D., work with a 3D printed model at the Center for Additive Manufacturing.

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SLU CAM makes one of the greatest engineering innovations of the last few decades accessible for everyone on campus. Through 3D printing technology and expertise, SLU CAM is opening the campus community to an exciting new area of manufacturing and bringing new concepts to life across diverse fields of study.

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The SLU CAM leadership team. From left: Andrew Hall, D.Sc.; Scott A. Sell, Ph.D.; R. Scott Martin, Ph.D., and Andre Castiaux, Ph.D.

Added Value A Conversation with Andrew F. Hall, D.Sc., Director

“What the University needed was not a handful of researchers who could 3D print, but rather an infrastructure to facilitate printing and educate the campus community on the possibilities.”

3D printing may seem like a niche hobby, but, in fact, 3D printing is perhaps the greatest engineering innovation in the last few decades. And thanks to the leadership of Andrew F. Hall, D.Sc., and his co-founders (Scott Sell, Ph.D., in biomedical engineering and R. Scott Martin, Ph.D., in Chemistry), the Saint Louis University Center for Additive Manufacturing (SLU CAM) is wellpositioned to help industry partners and researchers across the University harness its full potential.

“All of us had been independently pursuing additive manufacturing at SLU,” Hall said. “But we soon realized

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that what the University needed was not a handful of researchers who could 3D print, but rather an infrastructure to facilitate printing and educate the campus community on the possibilities.”

SLU CAM officially launched in 2021 as part of the Research Institute’s Big Ideas competition to identify and invest in University-wide research priorities. It now occupies a 1,000 square foot space in SLU’s new Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Building. SLU CAM was founded with a mission statement consisting of three pillars: support research at SLU through additive manufacturing; educate students,

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faculty, and community partners in additive manufacturing techniques; and collaborate with St. Louis manufacturers to incorporate additive manufacturing into their operations.

And while the COVID-19 pandemic limited the Center’s ability to host students and faculty in the lab, Hall said leadership took that time to focus on technology development.

“So much of our growth relies on student and faculty exposure to the technology,” Hall said. “So we had to adapt. We focused on growing our capabilities so that, when everyone was back on campus, we would have even more to offer. We’ve not only added new printers, we’ve also explored new technologies and applications that we would not have been able to had we been busier.”

In addition to expanding its capabilities, SLU CAM spent the last year rising to

the challenges presented by COVID-19.

Toward the onset of the pandemic, Hall and his collaborators saw the potential for a mass shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE), especially the face masks that had become critical to fighting viral spread. In less than six weeks, his team built a tool for 3D printing custom-fit masks that met the stringent N95 criteria.

“That was an interesting project because we successfully integrated customization,” Hall said. “We used optical scanning to create a 3D model of the wearer’s face and then fed that data into our printing software to create a mask that’s truly custom. That’s a technique with wide-reaching potential in the medical field, and we were able to get it up and running very quickly.”

incredible replica of the church at this moment of time. And unlike an image, you can see it and interact with it in 3D.” In the years to come, Hall envisions SLU CAM as a clearing house for 3D printing at SLU, a center of excellence home to the University’s expertise and capabilities in the field. He described early partnerships with other University departments, such as the School of Medicine Biology, and Chemistry, as opportunities to showcase the broad, real-world applications for 3D printing technology.

“We’re only just scratching the surface here,” Hall said. “Our goal is to be a resource to the incredible research that’s already happening on campus. And we find that, in many cases, additive manufacturing can take that work to the next level.”

Now with students back on campus, Hall said the energy around SLU CAM has grown tremendously. The Center is open to all students seeking education and training on 3D printing, and students are encouraged to come in with an idea — big or small — and learn about how it could come to life. Hall said that’s a feeling that never gets old.

“We’re really training the next generation of 3D printers,” Hall said.

“We want to see our students graduate as makers who never have to say, ‘Well, I can’t build that.’ This is a generation that’s becoming more and more empowered to do things no one has ever thought possible. And it’s happening here in our lab.”

Although 3D printing is most prominently used in STEM fields, Hall said the technology’s applications are virtually endless. In fact, one of the Center’s first official projects was a scale model of SLU’s St. Francis Xavier College Church, featuring full color and impressive detail. Hall indicated that it was an interesting challenge requiring collaboration from the Geospatial Institute at SLU.

“We’re only just scratching the surface here,” Hall said. “Our goal is to be a resource to the incredible research that’s already happening on campus...”

“We wanted to create a token of our gratitude for the University,” Hall said.

“And so we had the idea to recreate St. Francis Xavier College Church, but there were obviously no digital design files when construction began in 1884.

So we collaborated with the Geospatial Institute to deploy LIDAR-equipped drones around the church and create a full, digital image. Now, we have this

A 3D printed model of St. Francis Xavier College Church on SLU’s campus. SLU CAM engineers used data collected via drone by the Geospatial Institute at SLU to print this exact model of the iconic church.

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Experts in the Field Meet the Team Leading the Center for Additive Manufacturing

Andrew F. Hall

R. Scott Martin

Director, Center for Additive Manufacturing Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering

Professor, Chemistry

D.Sc.

Ph.D.

Hall’s research interests since joining SLU include medical imaging, medical devices, and medical robotics. He works with interventional radiologists to optimize pro-operative imaging protocols to support emerging minimally invasive procedures. His lab is also working on image-guided robotic therapies for pedicle screw placement and laminectomy in the spine. His lab uses 3D printing extensively, including the development of 3D-printed objects with controllable radiopacity and dissolvable 3D-printed tissue molds derived from CT images. Finally, Hall works on the development of smartphone-based medical devices.

Hall’s recent publications include work in 3D printing with controllable radiopacity, development of radiopaque microspheres for arterial embolization, image-derived 3D-printed tissue scaffold molds, and image-guided robotic spine surgery. He has 21 peer-reviewed publications and holds 15 patents. In addition to his work at SLU CAM, Hall mentors graduate and doctoral students, and teaches courses in signal processing, medical imaging, medical robotics, and engineering entrepreneurship.

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Martin has been a figure in SLU’s chemistry department since 2003. He and his research group are well-established in the area of developing microchip-based cell culture models with integrated analytical schemes. He aims to better understand cell-to-cell communication processes as well as how these pathways are changed in various diseases.

Recently, his research has focused on developing methods to create 3D scaffolds to better mimic the extracellular matrix in microfluidic devices. Along with leading and mentoring at SLU CAM, he is an active researcher in the area of using 3D printing to fabricate microfluidics devices. His team is currently developing techniques to further decrease the feature size that can be achieved by 3D printing and new methodologies of integrating analytical measurement schemes into 3D-printed devices.

He has been widely recognized in his field, notably as recipient of the Mid-Career Award from American Electrophoresis Society (2017), recipient of the Graduate Mentor Award (Saint Louis University Graduate Student Association, 2011), and member of the editorial board for Electrophoresis (2005-2008). Aside from SLU CAM, Martin has been actively involved with the journal Analytical Methods, serving as an Associate Editor (2013-2017) and then Editor-in-Chief (2017-present).

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Scott A. Sell Ph.D.

Associate Professor Program Coordinator, Biomedical Engineering Sell conducts research in the areas of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Sell’s Tissue Engineering Scaffold Fabrication Lab currently focuses on the fabrication and evaluation of tissue engineering scaffolds capable of replicating both the form and function of the native extracellular matrix (ECM). Of principal interest is the fabrication of scaffolds capable of promoting wound healing and the filling of large tissue defects, as well as orthopaedic applications such as bone and intervertebral disc repair.

Sell is also interested in engineering and entrepreneurship education, having worked closely with both the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN) and the Coleman Foundation.

Sell has over 85 peer-reviewed publications, over 195 conference abstracts, and more than 5,500 citations of his work. He has also been the recipient of several prestigious awards during his time at SLU: the Association of Parks College Students Outstanding Faculty of the Year Award, Saint Louis University’s Junior Faculty Grant Winner Award for Excellence in Research, the Outstanding Graduate Faculty Award for Parks College, and Saint Louis University’s Outstanding Faculty Mentorship Award.

Another model of St. Francis Xavier College Church, 3D printed by engineers within SLU CAM. THE CENTER FOR ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING

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On the Cutting Edge A Look at SLU CAM’s Technology SLU CAM is staffed by Amer Sadikovic, a full-time engineer who has extensive additive manufacturing experience, and several students to assist faculty in the development of their ideas and the operation of the facility’s equipment. The Center operates with an open-door policy that provides equal access to its cutting-edge equipment for students and researchers alike. SLU CAM currently houses four commercial-grade 3D printers, two laser engravers, 3D scanning equipment, and auxiliary computing resources. Below is a detailed look at the Center’s equipment.

An engineer works with a PolyJet printer in the Center’s facility.

Laser Cutters & Engravers SLU CAM offers two high-performance laser cutters for 2D cutting and engraving applications. The first is the Epilog Helix, an industrial-grade CO2 machine best suited for 2D cutouts in a variety of materials. It is most commonly used to create quick, precise cuts in plywood, acrylic, balsa wood, cardboard, and rubber. SLU researchers have used the cutter to model designs for drone parts, airplane wings, electronic board anchor plates, and more.

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A figure of a brain printed in the Center’s facility.

The Center also houses a 45-watt Glowforge Pro. This wireless laser cutter is compatible with a large catalog of materials and uses a built-in camera to help users scale and modify their designs in real time. The Glowforge Pro is capable of laser engraving on nearly any material, even delicate surfaces such as glass.

FDM Printers Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) printing is the most common method

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of 3D printing. An FDM printer pushes thermoplastic filament through a heated nozzle that melts the material. The nozzle is attached to a gantry, which moves around an XY plane to place the material into a specified pattern, forming multiple layers and, eventually, a full 3D model.

SLU CAM offers two FDM printers: the Stratasys Fortus 250mc and the Fortus 450mc. The Fortus 250mc uses durable ABSplus as the build material and SR30 as a support material. The Fortus 450mc

has many options of model materials with corresponding support. Both printers are compatible with a variety of thermoplastics and SLU CAM staff is on hand to assist researchers in selecting materials, colors, and strength grades.

FDM printers allow rapid, low-cost prototyping of parts that would otherwise be impossible to manufacture, such as airplane wings or automobile engines. SLU CAM has helped researchers across the University take advantage of FDM printing techniques to bring their visions to life at a fraction of the cost of traditional manufacturing.

PolyJet Printers SLU CAM is home to a state-of-the-art PolyJet printer. PolyJet printers work similarly to standard inkjet printers, but use drops of photopolymers instead of ink. Once exposed to ultraviolet light, the polymers solidify and the printer begins a new layer, repeating the process until the desired height is reached.

PolyJet printers have greater design capabilities than other 3D printers, giving users more control over accuracy, surface finish, and detail. They can also mix multiple materials and colors together into one model, allowing for an endless combination of color gradients, transparency, and flexibility.

PolyJet printers also offer voxel printing capabilities, a fusion of art and printing.

A voxel is essentially a 3D version of a pixel, and the PolyJet software is capable of assigning color and material data for every voxel of a 3D print. This allows for complete control over every aspect of the design, including stiffness, texture, and color of each voxel. The PolyJet printer enables SLU CAM to print complex shapes with intricate details and delicate features, such as microfluidic devices with controlled channel sizes.

R. Scott Martin, Ph.D., works with one of the two Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) printers in the Center’s facility.

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Immediate Impacts Recent Projects From SLU CAM SLU CAM began operations in August 2020, but formally opened in June 2021. Since then, the Center has pursued a number of projects and partnerships intended to highlight the breadth of its capabilities and its technical expertise to assist researchers across Saint Louis University in their endeavors. In addition to STEM fields, SLU CAM also partners with students and faculty in the fine arts, humanities, and other disciplines to identify creative ways of applying additive manufacturing technology to their interests. The following is an overview of some of the projects SLU CAM has completed in its first year.

A model of a customized N95 mask designed by Andrew Hall, Ph.D. Hall aimed to produce the custom masks for frontline health care workers when masks were scarce in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

St. Francis Xavier College Church To celebrate its official launch, SLU CAM created a scale replica of St. Francis Xavier College Church and presented it to Fred P. Pestello, Ph.D., president of Saint Louis University, at the opening ceremony. As there was no digital design file, SLU CAM partnered with the Geospatial Institute at SLU to digitally map the exterior using LIDAR-equipped drones. The data from the drone scan was then processed into a computer model, which was brought to life via additive manufacturing.

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N95 Respirator Alternatives The early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic brought a shortage of personal protective equipment and there were fears that health care workers would run out of N95 masks. In response, SLU CAM collaborated with Keith Pereira, M.D., in the Interventional Radiology Department at SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital to design and print masks that would pass N95 filtration criteria. Each mask started with an optical scan of the wearer’s face to ensure a true, custom fit before being manufactured via 3D printer. Although the masks received SLU Institutional

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Another 3D-printed model of St. Francis Xavier College Church.

Michael Borovik, a student worker with SLU CAM, prepares a digital rendering of St. Francis Xavier College Church for printing.

Review Board approval, full deployment became unnecessary as commercial mask supply stabilized. SLU CAM’s rapid response, however, brought peace of mind to health departments during a very critical stage of the pandemic.

Dogfish Skulls in Comparative Anatomy SLU CAM has partnered with SLU’s Department of Biology to make biological resources more available for its comparative anatomy studies. Lindzy Dodson, Ph.D., associate professor of biology, possessed only two dogfish skull samples for her class to examine together, which impeded workflow and limited interaction for students.

In response, SLU CAM successfully scanned the existing samples and created an optimized digital model to be reproduced via 3D printing. The Center printed enough replicas of the skulls for each student in the class and provided Dodson with a robust model to be used for years to come. As word of the model spread, Dodson’s colleagues at Washington University in St. Louis requested their own set.

Cutting-Edge Microfluidics

Terra-Source Global

R. Scott Martin, Ph.D., professor of chemistry, operates a lab that uses 3D PolyJet printing to fabricate microfluidic devices for integrated cell culture and analytical measurements. His lab recently published two papers on the subject, for which findings were heavily based on printings via SLU CAM.

SLU CAM has partnered with TerraSource Global, a company designing and manufacturing largeformat materials handling equipment for a variety of industrial applications, such as coal processing. TerraSource Global frequently displayed its equipment at trade shows and other industry events with full-size “show units.”

While valuable for visualization and interaction, these show units were costly and labor-intensive to transport and set up.

One paper discussed the discovery of a new approach to integrate electrode materials into microfluidic devices during the printing process. This approach utilizes an internally developed stacked-printing process, resulting in devices where electrodes and a capillary fluidic connection are directly integrated and ready to use by the end of printing.

The second paper summarized a printing method for an in-line microfluidic device with amperometric detection incorporating a three-electrode set-up made possible by threading electrodes into a 3D-printed flow cell. This resulted in a single 3D-printed device that can be used to detect nitric oxide (NO) and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) almost simultaneously by amperometry and chemiluminescence, respectively.

In response, SLU CAM developed a digital replica of the company’s roomsized Cage-Paktor machines, which was then used to produce 3D-printed scale models. The models showed the machine in impressive detail and allowed trade show attendees to more readily interact with it, ultimately creating a better trade show experience for TerraSource Global.

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Looking Ahead SLU CAM’s Goals & Aspirations Over the next several years, SLU CAM aims to expand on areas of collaboration, innovation, and education. The Center also plans to increase the size and scope of its collaboration with industry partners, particularly those in technology and manufacturing.

A student works with the 3D printer available to students in the Academic Technology Commons in the Pius XII Memorial Library.

A researcher with the Geospatial Institute reviews a rendering created using data collected via drone.

SLU CAM engineers used this data as a basis for their 3D-printed model of the church.

Community & Industry Partnerships

Faculty & Student Education

New Printing Technology

SLU CAM also seeks to expand its educational offerings for both students and faculty in the coming years. Its leadership is passionate about training the next generation of makers, and developing formal curriculum and programs is key to that mission. In fact, SLU CAM leadership indicates that entry-level 3D printing technology, while relatively available and inexpensive, is rarely present in the K-12 school system.

To reach its goal of impacting multiple types of research on campus, SLU CAM needs a diverse array of 3D printing technology. Certain designs require certain materials to serve the print’s functional purpose, and SLU CAM aims to be a one-stop shop for virtually all 3D printing needs across the University.

With upcoming donor and grant support, SLU CAM will invest in a new printing platform to expand its capabilities. Metal printing, which is commonly used for medical and surgical device modeling, remains a top priority for the Center.

As the world slowly recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic, SLU CAM will be in a better position to bring its expertise into the St. Louis community.

The Center looks forward to building new relationships with local industry partners and manufacturer societies to gain a deeper understanding of how additive manufacturing may impact their operations. To that end, SLU CAM plans to increase the number of industrycentric events it hosts in its facility and attend more industry trade shows, where it may properly demonstrate its design and manufacturing capabilities.

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Last year, SLU CAM held its first 3D printing workshop with eight St. Louis area middle and high school teachers.

During the workshop, attendees were able to build their own 3D printer under instruction from SLU CAM leadership.

Attendees then took the printers back to their classrooms, where they may be incorporated into the curriculum.

Additionally, SLU CAM provided each teacher with computer-aided design files needed to facilitate student instruction.

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With additive manufacturing, we can produce things that once took weeks to create in a matter of hours — and at a fraction of the cost. It’s revolutionary. And it’s our mission to open eyes to it.

Andrew F. Hall D.Sc., Director

Scott A. Sell, Ph.D., Andre Castiaux, Ph.D., and Andrew Hall, D.Sc., work together in the Center’s facility.

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A woman voting at a local election venue during the pandemic.

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“ The SLU/YouGov Poll is the only regular survey of Missourians where findings and data are freely accessible,” said Steven Rogers.

Prior to 2020, no academic institution was conducting non-partisan, state-wide polling of public opinion in Missouri.

That changed in 2020 when researchers at Saint Louis University partnered with YouGov, a global leader in market research and data analytics, to launch the SLU/YouGov Poll, a first-of-its-kind survey to gauge Missourians’ opinions on current events, policies, and elected officials.

The goal of the SLU/YouGov Poll is to provide policymakers and researchers with a scientific assessment of public opinion across the state, and to highlight disconnects between the public and their elected officials.

“The SLU/YouGov Poll is the only regular survey of Missourians where findings and data are freely accessible,” said Steven Rogers, Ph.D., associate professor of political science and director of the SLU/YouGov Poll.

The SLU/YouGov Poll occurs every year following the end of Missouri’s legislative session, with additional polls occurring each October in election years. While many questions change between polls, each poll contains a set of identical questions pertaining to issues such as the economy, public health, and education, to track how Missourians’ opinions change over time. These changes are crucial not only for policymakers, but also researchers in fields such as political science, anthropology, and medicine.

Researchers at SLU can recommend their own questions to be included

in each poll, which has enhanced research across the University. Faculty and graduate students in the School of Education, for example, are currently using the survey to better understand Missouri voters’ positions on charter schools and teacher salaries, which researchers hope will translate into better education policies across the state.

The SLU/YouGov Poll has conducted three surveys to date, and each has brought considerable attention to the state and the University. Survey findings have been covered by a number of national outlets, including MSNBC, The Washington Post, and The Atlantic. The findings have also attracted attention from regional leaders.

“Leaders in the Missouri government and in a variety of interest groups have engaged with and publicized results from our survey,” said Rogers.

For Rogers, the SLU/YouGov Poll builds upon his experience at Vanderbilt University. There he was a member of the Vanderbilt Poll, a survey of public opinion among Tennessee voters aimed at better informing policymakers of their constituents’ opinion. Now at SLU, Rogers hopes to have a similar impact in Missouri, a place he’s always called home.

“I was born and raised in this state,” explained Rogers. “I feel that it is vital for government officials to know voters’ opinions to maintain a healthy democracy. As a Missourian, I hope this poll informs the policymaking process.”

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Voters line up to make their voices heard.

The July 2021 SLU/ YouGov Poll Creating New Knowledge Through Interdisciplinary Collaboration

“I feel that it is vital for government officials to know voters’ opinions to maintain a healthy democracy,” said Steven Rogers.

The SLU/YouGov Poll conducted its latest survey in July 2021, interviewing 950 Missourians about a variety of relevant issues including education, COVID-19 vaccines, the economy, and infrastructure across the state. Faculty from SLU’s College of Arts and Sciences and School of Education selected the questions, which gauged these likely voters’ opinions of elected officials and a variety of policies recently adopted by the Missouri state government. The survey also shed light on Missourians’

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views of political candidates up for election in 2022 and 2024.

The SLU/YouGov Poll is funded by the Policy Research in Missouri Education (PRiME) Center in SLU’s School of Education and the Saint Louis University Research Institute.

Detailed survey results are available online at www.slu.edu/poll. Analyses from the leaders of the SLU/YouGov Poll are also available online and in the appendix of this report.

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A woman voting in a recent election.

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Experts in the Field Meet the Team Leading the SLU/YouGov Poll

Steven Rogers

Kenneth Warren

Associate Professor, Political Science Director, SLU/YouGov Poll

Professor, Political Science Associate Director, SLU/YouGov Poll

Steven Rogers, Ph.D., associate professor of political science, is the director of the SLU/YouGov Poll. Rogers received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in Politics. Rogers’ research focuses on elections, particularly at the state level. His in-progress book manuscript addresses the question, “Do elections hold state legislators accountable for their own performance?” Rogers’ research has appeared in top disciplinary journals such as the American Political Science Review and the American Journal of Political Science. Prior to joining Saint Louis University, Rogers was a postdoctoral fellow at Vanderbilt University, where he contributed to the Vanderbilt Poll.

Ken Warren has his Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and has over 30 years of professional polling experience as the President of The Warren Poll. Warren is the author of several publications in the area of electoral behavior and public opinion research, including In Defense of Public Opinion Polling (Westview, 2001), “Public Opinion Polls” (Wiley StatRef, 2014), “Public Policy Planners Be Aware: Public Opinion Poll Data Are Very Valuable for Public Policy Planners, but Data Can Prove Counterproductive if Polling Data Are Not Representative of the Opinions Sought” (Esade, 2020), and General Editor and contributor of Encyclopedia of U.S. Campaigns, Elections, and Electoral Behavior, Vols 1 and 2 (Sage, 2008), among others.

Ph.D.

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Ph.D.

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A man casting a ballot at his local election venue.

Evan Rhinesmith

Gary W. Ritter

Director of Research and Evaluation, SLU PRiME Center Associate Director, SLU/YouGov Poll

Professor and Dean, SLU School of Education Executive Sponsor, SLU/YouGov Poll

Evan Rhinesmith earned his Ph.D. from the University of Arkansas and uses survey findings in his research to shape and inform education policy.

His research focuses on educational policies intended to improve access and opportunities for students and community-engaged research.

His current research focuses on postsecondary access, career and technical education, testing policies, and meta-analysis. His published works include chapters in several books, technical reports, and peer-reviewed articles. He also regularly writes policy briefs and blog posts on education policy and practice in Missouri for the PRiME Center.

Gary W. Ritter, Ph.D., is a professor and dean of the School of Education at Saint Louis University. Since taking the role as dean in 2018, Ritter has focused on growing programs that are evidence-based, academically rigorous, and of direct service to the St. Louis region. Ritter was a faculty member in education policy at the University of Arkansas from 2000-18. He has published over 100 articles, books, book chapters, and working papers on topics related to teacher quality, teacher evaluation, postsecondary access for low-income students, and the implementation and evaluation of programs aimed at improving educational outcomes for low-income students.

Ph.D.

Ph.D.

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SLU Professor Tapped to Lead New Institute at Danforth Center The New Roots for Restoration Biology Integration Institute

As both a professor of biology at Saint Louis University and a principal investigator at Danforth Plant Science Center, Allison Miller, Ph.D., holds a one-of-a-kind position in her field. Photo courtesy of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center.

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“We just have so many major challenges facing the world right now. I think it’s really time to put our heads together and do everything we can to make progress in science to help humans and the planet.”

For Allison Miller, Ph.D., professor of biology, a childhood fascination with plants has blossomed into a lifelong mission. Miller started her career in biology studying plant evolution and wild species, and in graduate school shifted her focus to agricultural resources, the products of artificial selection. Equipped with research insight, Miller is seeking to optimize agriculture for the benefit of humanity and the betterment of the environment.

Miller plays a one-of-a-kind role between two regional organizations at the forefront of plant science: Saint Louis University and the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, the world’s largest independent, non-profit institution for plant research whose mission is to improve the human condition through plant science. Her dual-role as professor at SLU and principal investigator at the Danforth Center was created in 2018 to support her proven research ability and the value of such research for the greater good. Now Miller is able to increase the scale of collaboration between SLU and the Danforth Center, leveraging each institution’s impressive resources to enhance research output and training opportunities for SLU students. In addition, Miller maintains a longstanding collaborative relationship with researchers and educators at the Missouri Botanical Garden.

“Different scientists have different ways of developing their programs,” Miller said. “But for me, collaboration has been

a linchpin of the whole thing. Working together at SLU and the Danforth Center, we have been able to do way more than we ever could have done on our own.”

In September 2021, just a few years into this joint appointment, Miller was tapped to serve as director of the New Roots for Restoration Biology Integration Institute (NRR-BII).

The NRR-BII was established at the Danforth Center following a $12.5 million five-year grant from the National Science Foundation that Miller led as Principal Investigator.

The NRR-BII offers an incredible opportunity to revolutionize the way in which researchers approach restoration of human-impacted landscapes by focusing on both natural and agricultural ecosystems in tandem, and by applying cutting-edge technologies developed for and applied primarily in annual grain crops to wild plant species and perennial crop candidate species.

The NRR-BII is a collaboration between nine organizations and 26 faculty members including SLU and the Danforth Center. Both graduate and undergraduate students at SLU will be invited to collaborate with leading researchers at the Danforth Center and earn hands-on research experience.

“The Danforth Center is a really unique place,” Miller said. “Students who work with our lab group not only participate in our projects, but also get to see and meet people from other lab groups, learn

about their research, and get experience working in state-of-the-art facilities and with cutting-edge technology.“ Combining the data capabilities of the Danforth Center and SLU, the NRRBII applies technology in natural and agricultural systems to mimic real-world ecosystems. The discoveries made by researchers at both facilities will help agriculture professionals understand how plant traits change over time, and how those traits may impact the environment around them, such as changing nutrient levels or moisture levels in the soil.

The NRR-BII will utilize new technology developed by Abby Stylianou, Ph.D., assistant professor of computer science at SLU and senior member of the NRR-BII. Stylianou recently developed a prototype for a “backpack phenotyper” that phenotypes plants in-field and allows researchers to track the diversity of wild plants. To accompany this prototype, Stylianou is developing an app for plant imaging and analysis. As most researchers cannot bring all of their equipment into the field, her work will provide a very practical innovation in plant research.

In its first few years, the NRR-BII will focus on understanding of how the above- and below-ground components of plants relate to one another, and how those relationships influence and are influenced by surrounding plants and the soil ecosphere.

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Tulips abloom at the Missouri Botanical Gardens.

The NRR-BII is a collaboration between: The Land Institute University of Kansas University of Missouri, Columbia Saint Louis University Donald Danforth Plant Science Center Missouri Botanical Garden Saint Louis Science Center Chicago Botanic Garden University of Vermont

Abby Stylianou Ph.D.

“I think, together, we can do so much more than any institution can do alone,” Miller said.

Miller and her fellow researchers aim to optimize selection of plants for use in restored natural ecosystems and re-imagined agricultural systems, finding new ways of adapting agriculture to ever-changing conditions, without doing harm to the land that sustains them.

“I think, together, we can do so much more than any institution can do alone,” Miller said. “We have so many major challenges facing the world right now. I think it’s really time to put our heads together and do everything we can to make progress in science to help humans and the planet.”

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Assistant Professor, Computer Science Senior Member, NRR-BII Abby Sylianou, Ph.D., assistant professor of computer science and senior member of NRR-BII, is changing the face of plant research through groundbreaking technology. She recently developed a prototype for a “backpack phenotyper” that phenotypes plants in-field and allows research to track the diversity of wild plants. Additionally, Stylianou is developing an app for plant imaging and analysis. As most researchers cannot bring all of their equipment into the field, her work will solve a very practical need for innovation in plant research.

Branching Out A Look at Other Projects Supported by This Joint Appointment Along with her lab group and partners, Allison Miller, Ph.D., is leading a new generation of discovery in plant science focused on perennial plant diversity and evolution. In addition to the NRR-BII, Miller has developed other projects supported by her joint appointment. Over time, Miller hopes her and her colleagues’ discoveries will contribute to more sustainable agricultural systems, and to the conservation of wild lands and species.

Sustainability in Farming The Miller Lab is collaborating with the Land Institute in Salina, Kansas to develop approaches for expediting the domestication and improvement of perennial grain crops. This publicprivate partnership is funded in part by the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR). The project is testing the hypothesis that observations made early in a plant’s life (seed shape and size, seedling growth rate, etc.) could be used to predict traits that appear later in the lifespan of plants, including yield.

Photo courtesy of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center.

Grape Grafting

The National Science Foundation awarded Miller $4.6 million to pioneer research into how root systems impact shoot systems in grapevines. As part of the study, Miller’s team surgically fused shoots from one grape variety to roots from another via a horticultural technique known as grafting. Through phenotyping, imaging, and analytical approaches, researchers have discovered a ubiquitous, yet subtle, effect on the flowers, berries, and leaves of the grapevines. The findings through this project could optimize the selection of rootstocks for particular soil types and conditions, leading to healthier plants and higher-quality products for industries such as wine. This project

is being completed using experimental vineyards across Missouri, South Dakota, New York, Pennsylvania, and California.

Miller is the principal investigator on this project, with collaborating researchers from seven institutions, including: • South Dakota State University • Ohio State University • Pennsylvania State University

Longer-lived (perennial) plants produce deeper, persistent root systems that stabilize soil and prevent erosion. The world has lost an estimated 50% of its top soil in the last 150 years, and perennial plants have been shown to hold soil, increase absorption of water, and reduce erosion. Over the span of the five-year project, they aim to develop components of agricultural systems and crops that will develop deeper root systems that stem soil loss and regenerate soil growth. Their findings may provide a pathway to speed up the development of perennial crops to facilitate sustainability in commercial agriculture in the future.

• The University of Missouri, Columbia • Missouri State University • Michigan State University • Cornell University

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The DiPaolo Lab Changing the Face of Cancer Research

Richard DiPaolo, Ph.D., working in lab with a student.

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“This is a five-figure investment that has led to eight figures in grant applications in just 18 months,” DiPaolo said. “It goes to show that, with the right technology and the right researchers, you can move with quite a bit of agility.”

In 2020, Richard J. DiPaolo, Ph.D., professor of molecular microbiology and immunology, made a persuasive case to fundamentally change the course of cellular research at Saint Louis University. Sharing DiPaolo’s ambitious vision, the Research Institute invested in a newly developed, cuttingedge technology known as singlecell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-Seq).

This technology allows scientists to catalog and analyze thousands of individual cells and determine their gene expression, ultimately improving detection for cancer and other diseases.

Although scRNA-Seq is a relatively new technology, it has revolutionary implications for disease research at SLU. “Put very simply, a healthy cell expresses healthy genes,” DiPaolo said. “A cell that’s becoming cancerous, for example, will send some signals before it gets to that point. And historically, we would take a sample tissue, look at a large group of cells, and judge the overall health of that tissue based on the result. The new scRNA-Seq technology is far more granular and far more useful in the fight against disease.”

With this technology, researchers across SLU now have increased capability to detect genetic changes within a single cell, which will provide breakthrough insights into the body’s complex biological systems. DiPaolo says scRNASeq is highly attractive to researchers in cancer genomics, inflammatory diseases, and cellular responses to infections and vaccines. In the last year, SLU has extended use of the scRNA-Seq technology to new areas of research,

such as epilepsy and the impact of obesity on cancer.

“This is a five-figure investment that has led to eight figures in grant applications in just 18 months,” DiPaolo said. “It goes to show that, with the right technology and the right researchers, you can move with quite a bit of agility.”

In his own lab, DiPaolo uses scRNA-Seq to improve the detection capabilities for gastric cancer. He explains that gastric cancer is rarely screened for in the United States due to the high cost of equipment. While the incidence rate for gastric cancer is relatively low, the survival rate is also low due to the aggressive spread of the cancer by the time it is detected. DiPaolo aims to leverage scRNA-Seq to better understand the specific biomarkers associated with gastric cancer so that physicians may better identify high-risk ​​ individuals who could benefit from routine, early screening. As with all cancers, early detection is the greatest tool for a healthy recovery.

The 10x Genomics Chromium Controller acquired

by DiPaolo Lab for cellular profiling

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“Thanks to this investment, we’re answering questions that no one else can. That is the definition of innovation, and I’m so excited to see it happening at SLU, and more excited to see where it goes from here.”

Richard DiPaolo, Ph.D., reviewing data with a fellow researcher.

During the pandemic, DiPaolo and Tae-Hyuk (Ted) Ahn, Ph.D., associate professor of computer science, began building on an existing project in collaboration with the FBI to quickly and effectively diagnose disease by sequencing immune cells in the blood. Using a bioinformatics pipeline developed by Ahn and the scRNA-Seq platform, DiPaolo was able to diagnose smallpox exposure with 98% accuracy.

When COVID-19 struck, there were no diagnostic capabilities available for the

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disease, so DiPaolo worked to adapt the pipeline to detect COVID-19 cells with 95% accuracy. And, just as importantly, DiPaolo developed a means to train the pipeline’s algorithm to determine if an exposed patient would have a positive or negative outcome. This study showed such great promise that it was selected by the SLU Research Innovation Fund to move forward for commercialization or licensing, bringing this work into the real world and potentially saving the lives of people around the globe.

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“The scRNA-Seq platform is truly a revolution in how we study cells,” DiPaolo said. “Where we once operated under a lot of assumptions about cell populations, we can now get more specific, actionable information. And that’s going to make a tremendous difference for medical research, not just in my lab — but across the University.”

Richard J. DiPaolo Ph.D.

Professor, Molecular Microbiology and Immunology DiPaolo’s laboratory is interested in studying mouse models of human diseases to develop strategies that suppress chronic inflammatory disease. Using the data from these mice, the laboratory is developing new therapies for autoimmune and chronic inflammatory diseases.

The DiPaolo Lab is currently using combinations of cellular and molecular assays to understand how a subset of T cells, known as regulatory T cells (Tregs), affects the various stages of ongoing disease in our gastritis/gastric cancer model.

Furthermore, the lab is identifying cytokines that play an important role in regulating the development of gastritis and its progression into gastric cancer. Some of these cytokines act on immune cells and regulate inflammation, while other cytokines act on gastric epithelial cells and regulate their potential to become cancerous cells. The lab is investigating strategies to manipulate the activities of Tregs and cytokines to suppress chronic inflammation and to reduce the risk of cancer in humans.

DiPaolo and his team ultimately hope to continue their research of autoimmune disorders in an effort to identify chronic illness early and one day find treatments for those afflicted before their condition deteriorates.

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Expanding the Horizon, for People and Technology A Look at PATH at SLU

Jenna Gorlewicz, Ph.D., and Flavio Esposito, Ph.D., work with students in the PATH Lab, which is housed in the Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Building.

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“It’s about just being human. We just want to exist with technology. We don’t want to use it. We don’t want to learn it. We just want to be.”

Technological advancements have impacted almost every facet of life as we know it. Our environment is filled with technologies that entertain, inform, and connect us. This deep inter-connection means that we can no longer design and create new technologies without a deep understanding of human interaction, and we can no longer study human communication without a deep understanding of the utility and limitations of technology. Without this, innovation is stifled, leading to numerous unintended consequences, such as the release of technological designs that are restrictive in terms of who can use them, the types of interactions they support, and the forms of dialogue and exchange that can circulate. We experience the outcome of this disconnect in the design process today; we often feel frustrated and fatigued with our technologies, wishing things were just easier, more civil, or more genuine.

Researchers with SLU’s People and Technology Horizon (PATH) initiative are bridging this gap.

“We often find ourselves interfacing with technology that doesn’t feel like it fits us. We have to go out of our way to learn about it, or we just get frustrated using it,” said Jenna Gorlewicz, Ph.D., associate professor of mechanical engineering and director of PATH. Through deep, multi-disciplinary research collaborations, PATH integrates cutting-edge findings from linguistics and anthropology to engineer nextgeneration technologies that capture, facilitate, and augment human potential

to address today’s most pressing challenges. PATH co-creates and collaborates with community partners, with an intentional focus on delivering intuitive, impactful designs rooted within a community’s existing ecology.

PATH’s unique research approach creates team-based, problem-centered learning opportunities for students across STEM and the social sciences at SLU, preparing them for careers in industry and research, and establishing SLU as a distinguished center for socially engaged design.

“Using cutting-edge findings from anthropology, we are rethinking communication technology that intuitively meets the demands of the day,” Gorlewicz said.

PATH’s interdisciplinary approach allows the group to holistically rethink communication and technology.

By studying the groups most often marginalized in technological design, such as the DeafBlind community, PATH is exploring new, optimized modes of interaction for all people. PATH, for example, learned from the DeafBlind community for their haptic sleeve project. Gorlewicz believes work such as this will lead to new technologies, not only for the DeafBlind community, but for all people. To date, PATH has secured more than $4.8 million in funding from the National Science Foundation.

“It’s not about accessibility,” said Gorlewicz. “It’s about just being human.

We just want to exist with technology.

We don’t want to use it. We don’t want to learn it. We just want to be.”

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Goals

A student tests a program developed by PATH at SLU. PATH is interested in using touchscreen technology to improve communication.

Creating New Knowledge Through Interdisciplinary Collaboration Drawing on connections across the fields of anthropology, engineering, and computer science, PATH researchers go beyond the basic applied dichotomy of either being an anthropology project or an engineering project, for example, to think through consequential design problems that are already deeply situated within the dichotomy.

“The technologies of today have shaped the very way we interact and communicate as humans.

Communication and technology are now so intertwined that it no longer makes sense to view them independently. We are limited in our study of human communication without understanding the underpinnings of technology,” 204

said Gorlewicz. “We are also limited in our design and innovation of communication technologies if we continue to view humans as an end user without deeply including them in all facets of the design process.”

Researchers with PATH have presented and published their findings in venues including the prestigious American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the IEEE WorldHaptics Conference, and the IEEE Transactions on Haptics journal. The team has also secured funding through the National Science Foundation to extend work in support of DeafBlind children and their families during the pandemic through the creation of hybrid learning environments that include tactile elements.

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Establish and Foster a National Network of Researchers, Scholars, and Community Members PATH believes its goal of creating frictionless technology should be shared by all. The group has established an interdisciplinary network of anthropologists, computer scientists, and engineers at several institutions including Johns Hopkins University, the University of Chicago, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of California, Irvine, Berkeley, and Los Angeles. PATH has already held several small-scale seminars, and the group is planning a larger multiday workshop for generating new lines of inquiry and deepening collaborative relationships.

Students and faculty affiliated with PATH at SLU work together in the collaborative lab space in the Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Building.

Craft Innovative Research Programs and New Learning Opportunities To change the future of technology, we must change the way we educate those designing technology. PATH seeks to train this next generation by creating research programs and learning opportunities that train engineers to think deeply about topics such as communication. PATH faculty are currently planning a fellowship program for undergraduates who want experience working at the intersection of design and social science. The group has completed a landscape assessment, and are building this fellowship program, among other opportunities, to create distinct learning experiences at SLU.

“The technologies of today have shaped the very way we interact and communicate as humans.

Communication and technology are now so intertwined that it no longer makes sense to view them independently. We are limited in our study of human communication without understanding the underpinnings of technology,” said Gorlewicz.

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Experts in the Field Meet the Team Leading PATH

Jenna Gorlewicz

Flavio Esposito

Terra Edwards

Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering

Associate Professor, Computer Science

Assistant Professor, Sociology and Anthropology

Ph.D.

Associate Dean for Research and Innovation, Parks College of Engineering, Aviation, and Technology and Special Assistant to the Vice President for Research and Partnerships for Innovation Director, SLU PATH Gorlewicz directs the Collaborative Haptics, Robotics and Mechatronics (CHROME) Lab. Her research interests are in haptic and multimodal interfaces; learning technologies; medical devices and robotics; engineering education; and entrepreneurship. Gorlewicz is a recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER award, and she is the co-founder of an educational technology company, Vital, which is bridging the digital graphics accessibility gap in STEM education.

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Ph.D.

Esposito’s research centers on networked systems: network virtualization, network management, SoftwareDefined Networks (SDNs), network architectures, and (wireless) network protocols. His recent research projects include the use of machine learning for network management and computer security, networking for big data and network management for disaster scenarios, 5G, and Internet of Things.

He is a member of the Faculty Advisory Board of the Geospatial Institute at SLU, a member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), and a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

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Ph.D.

Edwards’ research is concerned with the many ways that language reflects and is shaped by our experiences in the world. For the past 10 years, she has been pursuing this interest in DeafBlind communities in the United States, which has developed a new tactile-based communication system.

She has published articles on language emergence, re-channeling language, sign-creation, and intention-attribution.

Edwards is currently writing a book about language and life in DeafBlind communities, titled Going Tactile: Life at the Limits of Language.

Jenna Gorlewicz, Ph.D., works alongside a student on an electronic hand model.

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The Henry and Amelia Nasrallah Center for Neuroscience Unlocking the Mysteries of the Nervous System

Angel of Mercy statue by the gateway at the SLU Medical Center

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“We strongly believe in advancing brain research and its importance for developing new treatments for multiple neurologic and psychiatric disorders, many of which still have treatment challenges, leading to physical, mental, social, and functional disability.”

Daniela Salvemini, Ph.D., is the William Beaumont Professor and Chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology and director of the Henry and Amelia Nasrallah Center for Neuroscience, a center aimed at groundbreaking discoveries in neuroscience. Her leadership places her at the helm of more than 90 experts across 27 departments of the University and provides the unique opportunity to unlock the mysteries of the nervous system through interdisciplinary research and education.

In 2018, Salvemini was awarded a planning grant from the Research Institute’s Big Ideas competition to develop a center for translational chronic pain research. This grant expanded upon a generous $250,000 gift from Henry Nasrallah, M.D., professor emeritus at the University, that established the Henry and Amelia Nasrallah Center for Neuroscience.

“We strongly believe in advancing brain research and its importance for developing new treatments for multiple

neurologic and psychiatric disorders, many of which still have treatment challenges, leading to physical, mental, social, and functional disability,” said Henry Nasrallah, M.D., at the time of launch. “We both hope that this gift will elevate the visibility of neuroscience research and education in the School of Medicine and across SLU under the strong leadership of Dr. Salvemini.”

Salvemini has been director of the Center since its launch and accepted the Chair appointment in early 2021. She is a nationally recognized researcher in the field of neuroscience and is well-equipped to lead the Center down a continual path of vital discovery.

Salvemini’s impressive research achievements are reflected in over 200 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters, as well as fellowships from the St. Louis Academy of Science and the National Academy of Inventors.

At SLU, Salvemini’s lab is highly translational, seeking to serve the least fortunate among us by studying a range of neurological disorders.

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Daniela Salvemini, Ph.D., photographed in her lab.

“Our goal is to find new treatments that will alleviate chronic neuropathic pain, which affects 2-3% of patients in the U.S.,” Salvemini said.

Salvemini and her colleagues focus their research on diseases of aging, brain trauma, enabling technologies and the overall health of the community.

While the Center is diverse in focus, addressing chronic pain is a key strength.

Recently, researchers have been using multidisciplinary approaches to unravel molecular and biochemical signatures of chronic pain to identify new treatments for those conditions.

“Our goal is to find new treatments that will alleviate chronic neuropathic pain, which affects 2-3% of patients in the U.S.,” Salvemini said. “This is a debilitating condition about which we

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understand very little. As a researcher, that makes the work all the more motivating.”

Salvemini acknowledges that neuropathic pain constitutes a medical need that has been largely unmet to date, one that carries an annual economic burden exceeding $600 billion.

Neuropathic pain conditions are chronic and exceedingly difficult to treat.

Opioids are a widely used treatment, but their effectiveness is limited. They can lead to dependency and addiction, creating a national crisis in the United States that has led to thousands of overdose deaths.

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“Early in my career, I noticed that patients who took opioids had a heightened sensitivity to pain, which seemed paradoxical,” Salvemini said.

“From there, I spent much of my time researching the effects of opioids on the nervous system and chronic pain.

The reality is that opioids don’t work particularly well for these patients, but clinicians don’t have many other effective options to recommend in their place.”

Salvemini’s research with the Center is essential to the development of non-opioid therapies and ending this devastating crisis. In January 2020, Biointervene, a biopharmaceutical company founded by Salvemini, raised $30 million in series A funding from MPM Capital to begin Phase I clinical trials for a new non-addictive painkiller.

This was one of the biggest investments in research commercialization in SLU’s history.

Apart from studying pain, the Center brings together experts across fields to examine a variety of neurological conditions. Collaborative efforts have been launched with colleagues in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology to further research on current and emerging immunotherapies for Multiple Sclerosis. Experts within the Center, in conjunction with colleagues in the Departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Internal Medicine, and Pharmacology and Physiology, have also focused their time on developing RNA-based therapies for neurodegenerative disease such as Alzheimers and Parkinsons.

Other efforts include drug screening applications to address concerns on low drug efficacy as well as tumor treatments. The Center is also working with scientists across a variety of fields in studies examining depression and schizophrenia. To address this, teams of internationally recognized scientists investigate areas including cellular and molecular neurobiology, developmental neuroscience, human memory, mood, cognition, and language.

A researcher working in Salvemini’s lab.

The Center for Neuroscience has brought together researchers from all across the University, and it has provided students with valuable opportunities for hands-on research experience. Salvemini and her team are poised to fundamentally shift the understanding of neurological disorders through basic and clinical research, providing relief to the thousands of people around the world with these debilitating conditions.

“What makes our approach unique is that we’re enabling treatment from bench to bedside,” Salvemini said. “We’re working hard to take the discoveries from our lab and immediately place them in clinical trials. Even if we can make a large difference in a small percentage of patients who suffer from chronic pain, that’s an impact worth pursuing.”

Samples collected by Daniela Salvemini, Ph.D.

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Areas of Interest The Center for Neuroscience launched with a broad focus on emerging and longstanding challenges in neuroscience. The mind is central to the human experience, and understanding the factors that alter its functions will certainly aid in the fight against pervasive illness, chronic pain, psychiatric disorders, and beyond. A few key areas of interest include:

Students walk to class at the University’s School of Medicine.

Translational Chronic Pain Research ‒ How the brain receives and processes sensory inputs that result in the sensing and perceiving of pain ‒ New drug targets for the treatment of pain ‒ Development of more effective and safer non-opioid-based pain medications

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New Approaches to Diseases of Aging and Recovery from Brain Trauma ‒ The mechanisms that drive age-related dementias, genetic degenerative disorders of the nervous system, and cognitive disabilities that arise from brain injury, such as trauma or stroke ‒ New drug leads and targets to delay or prevent age-related dementia and cognitive disabilities from brain injury

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Development of Enabling Technologies ‒ Novel technologies to not only make fundamental mechanistic discoveries, but also enable the translation of those discoveries into clinical practice, including drug delivery, medical devices, and small molecule therapeutics

“Conditions like neuropathic pain are difficult for everyone involved: the patient, their clinician, and their loved ones. We’re so limited by the treatments we have today. But every day at this Center is a step forward.

We truly believe in this opportunity to improve the quality of life for people around the world.”

Daniela Salvemini Ph.D.

Attention to the Health of Our Community ‒ Behavioral and neural markers to identify and mitigate the effects of psychological stress, aging, and other factors on cognitive functions ‒ Opportunities to improve access to treatment for neuro-psychiatric conditions for underserved communities

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COLLECTIVE STRENGTH Like other great research universities, Saint Louis University is constantly seeking outstanding faculty members who will contribute to the creation of new knowledge, the training of students, and engagement with scholarly and civic communities. In addition to providing financial support to departments and schools in their recruitment efforts, the SLU Research Institute Fellows program creates a cohort of scholars from multiple departments. The Research Institute hosts dinners and workshops specifically for Research Institute Fellows.

The following individuals have been designated Research Institute Fellows by the Research Institute for exemplifying its standards of rigor, innovation, and impact.

RESEARCH INSTITUTE FELLOWS Edwin Antony, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Yi Li, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Nutrition and Dietetics Abby Stylianou, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Computer Science James L. Edwards, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Chemistry Richard Grucza, Ph.D., MPE, Professor, Family and Community Medicine Denise Côté-Arsenault, Ph.D., Hemak Endowed Professor of Maternal Child Nursing J. Cameron Anglum, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Educational Policy and Equity

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Research Institute Fellow Richard Grucza, Ph.D., discusses health and clinical outcomes research at a meeting with AHEAD Institute researchers.

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Edwin Antony, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, School of Medicine

Antony feels closely aligned with the University’s Jesuit mission and is continually impressed with its caliber of students.

“Even at the undergraduate level, the students here at SLU are top-notch,” Antony said.

“They bring so much energy and enthusiasm into the lab. And I feel we’re truly making a difference for humanity in the work we do each day.”

Speaking about his work, Antony remarked that the allure of research transcends any given field or discipline. Rather, it’s the notion of exploring the unknown that keeps Antony and his team motivated to continue exploring an ever-evolving set of challenges in biochemistry and biology.

Antony is a leading researcher in the field of DNA repair and recombination. His research intends to broadly understand the activities of enzymes, the proteins coordinating many of the body’s chemical reactions. Using a combination of pre-ready state kinetics, single molecule methods, structural, and biophysical approaches, Antony’s lab takes a quantitative approach to studying enzyme activity within a cell.

Current Projects Mechanisms of DNA Hand-Off During Lesion Repair in BER and NER R01 GM130746, ending January 2023

Mechanisms of RPA, Recombinases, and Mediators in Homologous Recombination R01 GM133967, ending August 2023

Allosteric Control of Electron Transfer in Nitrogenase-Like Enzymes DE-SC0017866, ending August 2024

“I enjoy going to work and having the opportunity to ask questions no one has asked and do things no one has done,” Antony said. “It’s a very unique job description.”

“Enzymes have an extraordinary presence within the cell, yet they are endlessly complex,” Antony said. “My goal is to build the experimental tools necessary to explore their nuances and how they may be manipulated for various purposes, from cancer treatment to fertilizer production.”

Antony has previously done research at respected institutions such as Johns Hopkins University, Washington University in St. Louis, Utah State University, and Marquette University. Now at Saint Louis University,

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Edwin Antony, Ph.D., and a fellow researcher looking at a rendering of an enzyme initiating recombinational repair in DNA.

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Yi Li, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Nutrition and Dietetics, Doisy College of Health Sciences

“By identifying the genetic biomarkers associated with obesity, we have a greater opportunity to understand how these conditions develop and how they are potentially passed on to children,” Li said.

Li’s work has received recognition and funding from some of the nation’s leading authorities in health care, such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Now at Saint Louis University, Li believes his work will only benefit from the University’s extensive capabilities.

Li’s research is centered on an emerging issue both in the United States and around the world: obesity. Specifically, he focuses on applying cellular and molecular techniques to investigate the influence of nutritional factors on the epigenetic mechanisms in the development of obesity and type 2 diabetes.

“SLU is a great fit for my research,” Li said.

“Having the School of Medicine here gives me an incredible opportunity to expand and enhance my research through clinical trials and partnerships with medical students.”

Current Projects Inheritable Epigenetic Biomarkers in Development of Childhood Obesity NIH R01 proposal, February 2019

Inheritable MicroRNA Biomarkers of Obesity Collaboration with Washington University, Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences Just-in-Time Core Usage Program Proposal, March 2020

Quinine Supplementation to Prevent Coronavirus Infection Saint Louis University COVID-19 Proposal, April 2020

Involvement of Epigenetic Modifications in Adipogenesis NSF CAREER Proposal, August 2020

“We know that more than 95% of type 2 diabetes cases develop in obese patients,” Li said. “Our goal is to go a step deeper and begin to understand the mechanisms involved in obesity: what they are, what causes them, and what can be done about them.”

Li’s research approach is a prime example of nutritional genomics, an emerging field of interdisciplinary research that studies the lesser-known influences on genes. Li believes nutritional genomics is key to understanding the chronic conditions affecting millions of people each day, from diabetes to cardiovascular disease to cancer.

Yi Li, Ph.D., working in a lab.

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Abby Stylianou, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Computer Science, College of Arts and Sciences University to develop TraffickCam, an image search tool that collects photos of hotel rooms from more than 250,000 smartphone users. Users simply photograph their hotel rooms when traveling and TraffickCam submits the image to a secure database. Features such as carpet patterns, furniture, and accessories are automatically extracted from images, and are then matched against the database to provide law enforcement with a list of potential hotels where the photo may have been taken. You may contribute to the project by downloading the TraffickCam app on your iOS or Android device.

Stylianou’s research applies novel computer vision and machine learning techniques to combat human trafficking. The U.S. Department of State estimates between 600,000 and 800,000 men, women, and children are trafficked across international borders each year. It’s a global issue that has been historically addressed through traditional police investigations. But Stylianou believes emerging technology offers a different approach.

“My research is in computer vision and machine learning — writing computer vision programs to automatically learn patterns from large datasets of images,” Stylianou said.

“It turns out this is extraordinarily relevant in human trafficking cases.”

Human trafficking victims are often photographed inside hotel rooms for online advertisements. With this insight, Stylianou collaborated with researchers at Temple University and George Washington

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“If we can identify the hotel rooms, we’re able to supply a very credible lead to law enforcement,” Stylianou said. “This is an exciting project combining artificial intelligence, machine learning, and crowdsourcing — all in an effort to do some genuine good for the world.”

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, Stylianou said she has gained a renewed appreciation for the levels of collaboration and energy she experienced both in the lab and in the classroom. Still, she has managed to pursue new relationships with University and industry partners over the last year, including with collaborators in the SLU Geospatial Institute and the Danforth Plant Science Center. As she looks to the future, she looks forward to reconnecting with students and exploring new research opportunities together.

“The co-working technologies we have now are truly amazing,” Stylianou said. “But nothing beats the experience of sitting in a room with students and coming up with new ideas. I can’t wait to get back to that.”

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Current Projects BII: New Roots for Restorations: integrating plant traits, communities, and the soil ecosphere to advance restoration of natural and agricultural systems National Science Foundation, 2021-2026

Machine Learning Competitions for G2P and End-of-Season Phenotype Prediction Agricultural Genome to Phenome Initiative, 2021-2022

Transforming Cleft Speech Assessment and Care Through Online Crowdsourcing Plastic Surgery Foundation, 2020-2021

Explainable AI for Bioenergy Crop Phenotyping and Precision Agriculture U.S. Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy, 2019-2021

An Object-Centric Approach for Image Analysis to Combat Human Trafficking National Institute of Justice, 2019-2021

James L. Edwards, Ph.D. Professor, Chemistry, College of Arts and Sciences filled in a critical gap in his work. Now, the Edwards lab is equipped to follow a dual approach that combines chemical tagging to identify small molecules of interest, while also using microfluidic devices to obtain a more accurate reflection of the vasculature.

“I would describe it as old-school chemistry, powered by new-school technology,” Edwards said. “We’re working to change the chemistry of the molecule to make them more easily detectable. That, in turn, makes them easier to study and understand.”

Edwards is a bioanalytical chemist whose research seeks to understand the intricate factors involved in the processing of sugar within cells. Where traditional study methods have examined only a handful of molecules found in the process, Edwards is applying new technology to identify and study them in the thousands. The results, he said, could fundamentally change the way we understand diabetes and diabetic complications.

“I’ve been researching diabetes for the last 15 years,” Edwards said. “And it’s remarkable how much more we know now. Thanks to mass spectrometry and other new methods, we’re able to take a much broader look at the interplays between sugars, amino acids, and other compounds within the body.”

Current Projects Universal Metabolite Tagging NIH R01, awarded September 2019

Applying Ion Exchange Chromatography Supercritical Fluid Chromatography to Small Molecule Analysis. NSF proposal awarded 2019.

From an early age, Edwards was drawn to the idea of discovery. And while scientists have made remarkable discoveries in the past, he said the door remains wide open for others to deepen our understanding of the human body. He hopes his multi-faceted approach will inform more individualized, effective treatment for diabetes and other chronic conditions.

“There aren’t many places on the globe that remain undiscovered, but there’s so much of the body we still don’t understand,” Edwards said. “Modern chemistry is helping us understand new classes of molecules, which is really the starting point for any biological research. I think we have a bright future ahead of us.”

As a Research Institute Fellow, Edwards received funding to expand his research.

The fellowship enabled him to hire a research technician and acquire new instrumentation, namely a full chemical analysis set that has

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Richard Grucza, Ph.D., MPE Professor, Family and Community Medicine, School of Medicine Professor, Health Outcomes Research, School of Medicine research examines the nature of Medicaid, the leading insurer for those struggling with substance use, and how its coverages are set at the federal level. His practice research takes a closer look at how states allocate federal funding related to addiction treatment.

“Both sides of my research have grown in the last year, which is very exciting,” Grucza said. “And the Research Institute has been instrumental in allowing me to pursue higher-risk areas of my work.

It’s a great relationship.”

Grucza is a trained epidemiologist seeking to understand the social-environmental and genetic determinants of substance use disorders. Such disorders, commonly referred to as addictions, affect millions of people around the world. But too often, Grucza said, they aren’t treated like medical disorders. His research aims to improve addiction treatment and remove many of the barriers preventing access for the people who need it most.

Grucza’s background is in addiction research, but he became particularly interested in the opioid crisis. The prevalence of opioid addiction creates a sincere demand and urgency for his research, and Grucza said it’s the SLU mission that ultimately aligned with his motivations.

“We’re looking at a very glaring health disparity here,” Grucza said. “We have proven treatments for opioid addiction.

They’re just not getting to the right places.

And we have an opportunity, here and now, to correct that issue and make a genuine difference in the world.”

“We often see that people with zero or minimal insurance don’t have access to the same treatment options for substance use disorders,” Grucza said. “But the treatments exist. They just aren’t made available and that perpetuates more widespread substance abuse.”

Grucza’s primary project involves the ongoing opioid crisis in the United States.

He’s currently examining treatment disparities in opioid addiction through two distinct lenses: policy and practice. His policy

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Current Projects An Examination of Age-Related Disparities in Medication Assisted Treatment and Associated Outcomes (for Opioid Use Disorders) R21 DA044744

Smoking, Suicide and Mental Health: Using Policy Change to Probe Causality R01 DA042195

Cannabis, Depression and Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors R01 DA040411

Denise Côté-Arsenault, Ph.D., RN, CPLC, FNAP, FAAN

Hemak Endowed Professor of Maternal Child Nursing, Trudy Busch Valentine School of Nursing various health risks and divorce rates. CôtéArsenault believes taking the time to process the loss and giving parents dedicated outlets to express their grief is key to improving health outcomes.

“Society tends to tell these couples, ‘Oh, that’s terrible — but you all can have another baby.’ And that’s really not the right approach,” Côté-Arsenault said. “We need to be proactive in protecting their mental health and give parents the time, space, and care to figure out where their life goes from there.”

Côté-Arsenault first came to Saint Louis University as an endowed professor before being named a Research Institute Fellow.

That designation gave her the time needed to focus on her many research interests, specifically the inherent responses and experiences of losing a baby during pregnancy or shortly after birth. Côté-Arsenault indicated it’s an area of health care that, while quite common, is understudied and rarely discussed.

“As a people, we don’t like to talk about dying, death, or grief,” Côté-Arsenault said.

“But especially for pregnant families, the grief for those who never got to bring their child home is virtually invisible.”

Current Projects Cultural Analysis of Perinatal Bereavement Support in Edinburgh, Scotland Fullbright Research Scholar – Edinburgh Napier University (in country 5-8/2021)

Parent Experiences of Perinatal Autopsy after Perinatal Loss Delta Lambda Chapter of Sigma Theta Tau, International

Although she has led this research for years, Côté-Arsenault is constantly amazed by the grace and resilience of parents who have lost an infant. She talked about the dozens of families around the world who share their stories with her, hoping to raise awareness and spread love for others facing such devastating times. It’s those families that motivate her to continue her research and shed light on an issue affecting the entire world.

“It’s surprising how little it takes to have a tremendous impact on them,” CôtéArsenault said. “In so many cases, they are grateful to have someone asking about their lost baby, to have someone listening to their experience, and sharing ways to help. We carry around so much pain — but we don’t have to. All it takes is a little extra care.”

Côté-Arsenault’s research seeks to equip health care providers with the knowledge and skills to provide better care to those parents who have suffered the loss of an infant.

Depression and anxiety are very common after a loss, both of which contribute to

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J. Cameron Anglum, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Educational Policy and Equity, School of Education Affiliated Researcher, SLU Policy Research in Missouri Education (PRiME) Center turnover; and how does public opinion of school choice shift over time? These questions give Anglum a wide purview for studying the connections between economics and education outcomes. And he’s grateful that support from the Research Institute is enabling him to make a significant impact right here in St. Louis.

“The success of the St. Louis Public School System permeates so many other systems in the region,” Anglum said. “We need it to succeed. And my RI Fellowship designation is a tremendous vote of confidence that SLU and the School of Education believes in this mission.”

At the heart of Anglum’s research is a desire to improve the quality of education in our public schools. His work employs an interdisciplinary approach to examine equity in public education policy, particularly as it relates to disadvantaged students and the communities serving them. Although public education remains the largest public expenditure at the local and state levels, Anglum said the funding isn’t always allocated fairly or wisely.

“We live in a world of ever-changing economic conditions,” Anglum said. “But those conditions often introduce challenges into our public schools, especially those in underserved areas. My research intends to look at those challenges through a number of lenses.”

Anglum has made several strategic partnerships through his research, both internal and external. He is closely aligned with SLU’s Policy Research in Missouri Education (PRiME) Center and has recently worked with the SLU/YouGov Poll to track public opinion on charter schools. Anglum said robust partnerships are key to resolving disparities and achieving more equitable outcomes for future generations.

“Equity is not a component of my research — it’s the core,” Anglum said. “I’m fortunate to have the opportunity to lift the voices of those who are generally left out of the conversation, like minorities and economically disadvantaged families. I deeply value collaborating with SLU’s community of equity-focused scholars and students in this offer.”

Anglum breaks his research down into three key questions: how do schools receive and use public funding; how can local and state policies alleviate the impacts of teacher

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Current Projects Evaluation of the Consortium Partnership Network in St. Louis Public Schools: $100,000 St. Louis Public Schools, 2019-2022

Separate and Unequal in St. Louis: Between – and Within – School District Differences in School Funding and Teacher Salaries: $5,000 The Edunomics Lab at the McCourt School of Public Policy, Georgetown University, 2021

Image from the classroom of Cameron Anglum, Ph.D., during a guest lecture series.

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Student studying on the Saint Louis University campus.

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Published Excellence Over the last year, researchers at Saint Louis University have published an impressive number of books showcasing their work. These books offer detailed examinations of issues of morality, history, social frameworks, and more to ultimately advance our understanding of the world around us. The following section highlights just some of the many works published by SLU’s research community this year.

Ted Mathys, M.F.A.

Joya Uraizee, Ph.D.

Gold Cure: Poems (p. 90). Minneapolis: Coffee House Press, 2020.

Writing That Breaks Stones: African Child Soldier Narratives (p. 129). East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2020.

https://coffeehousepress.org/collections/ poetry/products/gold-cure Lustrous, tender, and expansive, Gold Cure moves from boomtown gold mines and the mythical city of El Dorado to the fracking wells of the American interior, excavating buried histories, legacies of conquest, and the pursuit of shimmering ideals. Ted Mathys skewers police brutality in a 16-part poem built on the bones of a nursery rhyme and drives Petrarchan sonnets into shale fields deep under the prairies. In crystalline language rich with allegory and wordplay, Mathys has crafted a moving elegy for the Anthropocene.

about novels and memoirs as well as on the fieldwork conducted by social scientists about African children in combat situations. Writing That Breaks Stones groups the twelve narratives into categories and analyzes each segment, comparing individually written memoirs with those written collaboratively, and novels whose narratives are fragmented with those that depict surreal landscapes of misery. It concludes that the memoirs focus on a lone individual’s struggles in a hostile environment, and use repetition, logical contradictions, narrative breaks, and reversals of binaries to tell their stories. By contrast, the novels use narrative ambiguity, circularity, fragmentation, and notions of dystopia in ways that call attention to the child soldiers’ communities and environments. All twelve narratives depict the child soldier’s agency and culpability somewhat ambiguously, effectively reflecting the ethical dilemmas of African children in combat.

https://msupress.org/9781611863758/writingthat-breaks-stones/ Writing That Breaks Stones: African Child Soldier Narratives is a critical examination of six memoirs and six novels written by and about young adults from Africa who were once child soldiers. It analyzes not only how such narratives document the human rights violations experienced by these former child soldiers but also how they connect and disconnect from their readers in the global public sphere.

It draws on existing literary scholarship

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reasoning concerning the justification for police use of force and the just application of such force, and they propose just policing as a model that is consonant with promoting a just peace in communities and society. In addition, they explore the implications of such an approach for wider, international questions about just war, terrorism, the responsibility to protect, and post-war justice.

elucidates why it is critically employed through these subsequent sections.

The first section explores the sources of Christian ethics, including each of the four fonts: scripture, tradition, experience, and reason.

The second section examines fundamental or basic elements of Christian ethics and covers different methods, approaches, and voices in doing Christian ethics, such as natural law, virtue ethics, conscience, responsibility, narrative, worship, and engagement with other religions.

The third section addresses current moral issues in politics, medicine, economics, ecology, criminal justice and other related spheres from the perspective of Christian ethics, including war, genetics, neuroethics, end-of-life decisions, marriage, family, work, sexuality, nonhuman animals, migration, aging, policing, incarceration, capital punishment, and more.

Tobias L Winright, Ph.D. Serve and Protect: Selected Essays on Just Policing (p. 179). Eugene: Cascade Books, 2020. https://wipfandstock.com/9781725253919/ serve-and-protect/ This collection of essays on policing and the use of force, while written over the course of the last twenty-five years, remains relevant and timely. Although issues in policing and questions about excessive force and brutality have been addressed by criminologists, sociologists, philosophers, and criminal justice ethicists, only a handful of theological ethicists treat this pressing matter. While the Christian moral tradition has a voluminous record of theological attention to violence and nonviolence, war and peace, there is a dearth of references to policing.

And most considerations of criminal justice issues by Christians and their churches concentrate on prison reform, or abolition, and the death penalty, but not policing. These essays, authored by a theological ethicist possessing professional experience in law enforcement, seek to fill this curious gap. They offer a framework for moral

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Tobias L Winright, Ph.D. T&T Clark Handbook of Christian Ethics Bloomsbury: T&T Clark, 2021. https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/tt-clarkhandbook-of-christian-ethics-9780567677174/ The T&T Clark Handbook of Christian Ethics provides an ecumenical introduction to Christian ethics, its sources, methods, and applications.

With contributions by theological ethicists known for their excellence in scholarship and teaching, the essays in this volume offer fresh purchase on, and an agenda for, the discipline of Christian ethics in the 21st century.

The essays are organized in three sections, following an introduction that presents the four-font approach and

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Claire M. Gilbert , Ph.D.

In Good Faith: Arabic Translation and Translators in Early Modern Spain (p. 486). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 2020. https://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/ book/16151.html

The century that followed the fall of Granada at the end of 1491 and the subsequent consolidation of Christian power over the Iberian Peninsula was marked by the introduction of antiArabic legislation and the development of hostile cultural norms affecting Arabic speakers. Yet as Spanish institutions of power first restricted and then eliminated Arabic language use, marginalizing Arabic-speaking communities, officially sanctioned translation to and from Arabic played an increasingly crucial role in brokering the administration of the growing Spanish empire and its overseas territories. The move on the peninsula from a regime of legal pluralism to one of religious and legal orthodoxy created new needs and institutions for Arabic translation, which simultaneously reflected, subverted, and ultimately reaffirmed the normative anti-Arabic language politics.

In Good Faith examines the administrative functions and practices of the individual translators who walked the knife’s edge, as the task of the Arabic-Spanish translator became both more perilous and more coveted during a volatile historical period.

Despite the myriad personal and political risks run by Arabic speakers, Claire M. Gilbert argues that Arabic translation was at the core of early modern Spanish culture and society and that translators played pivotal roles in the administrative, institutional, and ideological development of Spain and its relationships, both domestic and international. Using materials from state, local, and religious archives, Gilbert develops the notion of “fiduciary translation” and uses it to paint a vivid picture of the techniques by which translators attempted to demonstrate their expertise and trustworthiness— thereby to help protect themselves, their families, and even their communities from the Inquisition and other authorities. By emphasizing the practices and networks of the individual translators themselves, Gilbert’s social history of Arabic translation deepens our understanding of religious minorities, international relations, and statecraft in early modern Spain.

of “traditional” domesticity, believed to be a formative influence for their class, demonstrates how women understood the imperative to change the world outside of their natural families. Their writings, which demonstrate the appeal of sentimental virtue, show us how women’s public lives could exist not in opposition to prevailing religious and social ideals but because of them.

Jennifer J. Popiel, Ph.D. Heroic Hearts: Sentiment, Saints, and Authority in Modern France. University of Nebraska Press, 2021.

Heroic Hearts examines how young women in nineteenth century France, authorized by a widespread cultural discourse that privileged individual authority over domesticity and marriage, sought to change the world. Jennifer J. Popiel offers a recuperative reading of sentimental authority, especially in its relationship to religious vocabulary.

Heroic Hearts uncovers the ways sentimental appeals authorized women to trust themselves as modern actors for a project of cultural restoration. With their emphasis on sacrifice and heroism, these cultural currents offered liberatory potential.

Heroic Hearts examines not only general cultural currents but their adoption by particular women, each of whom was privileged with access to money and social influence. The words of three extraordinary women, Philippine Duchesne, Pauline Jaricot, and Zélie Martin, offer powerful testimony to their agency. These women’s rejection

Simone Bregni, Ph.D. Locus amoenus: Nuovi strumenti di analisi della Commedia (New Instruments of Analysis of the Divine Comedy) (p. 248).

Ravenna: Longo Editore, 2020. http://www.longo-editore.it/scheda_libro. php?id=1637 In his 2004 article “Against Intertextuality,” published in Philosophy & Literature, William Irwin argues that intertextuality should be “erased from the lexicon of sincere and intelligent humanists.” According to the author, on the other hand, correct applications of the theories of intertextuality can prove to be particularly fruitful, in particular if applied to pre-modern literature, the product of epochs in which the relations between texts and the process

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of transmission of culture were radically different from the modern one. An approach to the classical and medieval concept of imitatio and æmulatio in the light of the theories of intertextuality can provide new elements on the modalities (intertextual, interdiscursive) of Dante’s process of imitatio in the Commedia. Analyzing a particular topos of the classical tradition that is present and recurrent in the Comedy, that of the locus amoenus, the author shows how the intertextual analysis sheds light not only on the modalities of transmission of the classical tradition through the late antiquity and the Middle Ages, but also on the medieval culture in its entirety, framing itself perfectly in the specific vision of the world and of human life that the Middle Ages possessed. According to the author, the topos of the locus amoenus is employed in the Comedy in order to summarize and condense, and ultimately allude to, the values and ​​ the whole worldview of pagan antiquity, a key referent to the classical tradition in the whole.

The author proposes to use, instead of the term “intertextuality”, in some ways dated, but above all limited, the expression “imitatio intertextuale / interdiscursiva,” which better captures the complexity of the use of the ancient rhetorical tools in Dante’s poem. Recent digital tools such as Digital Dante (digitaldante.columbia.edu), show the continuing relevance of research on intertextual / interdiscursive imitatio in Comedy today, opening up new research perspectives.

Simone Bregni, Ph.D. “(Video) Games, Gamification, and Game-Based Learning in the Foreign/ L2 Classroom” in Hipwell, Louise, and Melucci, Donatella, “Italian Language and Culture Conference: Challenges in the 21st Century Italian Classroom”, 1, fall 2020, Georgetown University, pp. 7-29.

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Simone Bregni, Ph.D. Book Chapter: “‘Unarmed Prophets Have Always Been Destroyed, Whereas Armed Prophets Have Succeeded:’ Machiavelli’s Portrayal in the Assassin’s Creed Series.” In Polegato Andrea, and Benincasa Fabio (eds), “Machiavelli in Contemporary Media.”

Palgrave Macmillan This contribution analyzes the character of Machiavelli in the popular video game series Assassin’s Creed. According to the author, Niccolò’s representation in the Assassin’s Creed series as a digital, interactive narrative medium and related gamers’ reception shows that it generated interest in Machiavelli the historical character, his real life, times, and works, even pushing users to factcheck events and Niccolò’s words and compare them with the actual text of The Prince. Moreover, the interactive nature of the medium responds well to contemporary modes of, and needs for, media consumption in contemporary society. For these reasons, the author also shows how video games such as Assassin’s Creed can effectively deliver cultural content and can be used as a learning device in class.

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Douglas R. Boin, Ph.D. ALARIC THE GOTH: An Outsider’s History of the Fall of Rome (p. 272). New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2020. https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393635690 Alaric the Goth: An Outsider’s History of the Fall of Rome, written by Douglas Boin, Ph.D., associate professor of history, was published in June 2020 by W.W. Norton & Company. The book is a biography of Alaric the Goth, who was the first king of the Visigoths who sacked Rome and helped to bring about the fall of the Western Roman Empire.

The book received positive reviews from a number of outlets. In December 2020, it was named a “Book of the Year” by the Economist, placing Boin among other nationally recognized authors such as former president Barack Obama.

Publisher Description Denied citizenship by the Roman Empire, a soldier named Alaric changed history by unleashing a surprise attack on the capital city of an unjust empire.

Stigmatized and relegated to the margins of Roman society, the Goths were violent “barbarians” who destroyed “civilization,” at least in the conventional story of Rome’s collapse. But a slight shift of perspective brings their history, and ours, shockingly alive.

Ellen P. Carnaghan, Ph.D., and Kathryn Kuhn, Ph.D. (Ed.) Power and Protest at an American University: No Confidence, No Fear.

Routledge, 2020. https://www.routledge.com/Power-andProtest-at-an-AmericanUniversity-NoConfidence-No-Fear/Carnaghan Kuhn/p/ book/9780367861704 This book examines the successful no-confidence movement led by faculty at Saint Louis University in 2013 in an effort to unseat the university president, considering the reasons for success when similar movements often fail. Through a series of chapters written by faculty from many disciplines at the university, it uses a particular episode of faculty protest to shed light on wider issues concerning the circumstances in which faculty are likely to be motivated to protest, the institutional frameworks that make protest possible and the strategies that get results. As such, it will appeal to scholars of social movements with interests in protest and mobilization in the field of education.

Christopher M. Duncan, Ph.D.

Ajlina Karamehić-Muratović, Ph.D.

Radical Conversion: Theorizing Catholic Citizenship in the American Liberal Tradition, Eugene, OR, Cascade Books 2021.

Remembrance and Forgiveness: Global and Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Genocide and Mass Violence. Routledge, 2020.

Radical Conversion utilizes both analytic and normative philosophic/ theoretical frameworks to study the relationship between ChristianCatholic conceptualizations of politics, citizenship, faith, and religion as viewed through a quasi-theological lens. The work is situated in the context of the American liberal tradition and in conversation and debate with the public philosophy that attempts to sustain it and provide a rationale for its perpetuation. In a single sentence, the book’s thesis is that for America to fully realize its authentic and unique moral and political mission and secure it into the future, it will need to become both more Catholic and more catholic.

Concordantly, that mission, properly understood, is nothing less than the recognition and protection of the idea of the sacredness of every individual human person and their right to flourish and realize the fullness of their particular vocation as a child of God.

An inquiry into the social science of remembrance and forgiveness in global episodes of genocide and mass violence during the post-Holocaust era, this volume explores the ways in which remembrance and forgiveness have changed over time and how they have been used in more recent cases of genocide and mass violence. With case studies from Rwanda, Ethiopia, South Sudan, South Africa, Australia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Timor-Leste, Israel, Palestine, Argentina, Guatemala, El Salvador, the United States, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Chechnya, the volume avoids a purely legal perspective to open the interpretation of postgenocidal societies, communities, and individuals to global and interdisciplinary perspectives that consider not only forgiveness and thus social harmony, but remembrance and disharmony. This volume will appeal to scholars across the social sciences with interests in memory studies, genocide, remembrance, and forgiveness.

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Thomas C. Westfall, Ph.D. The History of Pharmacology and Physiology at Saint Louis University School of Medicine.

The book is a comprehensive history of pharmacology and physiology at SLU, from 1842 to the present day.

Craig A. Boyd, Ph.D. (School for Professional Studies) Recently published a new book (coauthored with Kevin Timpe). The Virtues: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2021.

From the philosophy of Aristotle and Confucius, to Thomas Aquinas Summa Theologiae, to the paintings of Raphael, Botticelli, and many more, fascination with the virtues has endured and evolved to fit a wide range of cultural, religious, and philosophical contexts through the centuries.

This Very Short Introduction introduces readers to the various virtues: the moral virtues, the intellectual virtues, and the theological virtues, as well as the capital vices. It explores the role of the virtues in moral life, their cultivation, and how they offer ways of thinking and acting that are alternatives to mere rule-following. It also considers the relationship of the virtues to our own emotions, desires, and rational capacities.

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Nil Santiáñez, Ph.D. (Languages, Literatures, and Cultures) recently published a new book: Spanish Fascist Writing. Edited by Justin Crumbaugh and Nil Santiáñez, University of Toronto Press, 2021.

Spanish Fascist Writing presents the first collection of Spanish fascist texts in English translation and offers an intellectual and political history of fascist writing in Spain, a history that resituates the country within the larger unfolding of right-wing extremism worldwide from the early twentieth century to the present.

The manifestos, newspaper articles, essays, letters, and pieces of prose fiction gathered in this volume demonstrate why the Spanish case proves essential to a comprehensive understanding of fascism in general. These Spanish fascist texts also highlight the need for comparative analysis in order to better grasp the transnational character of fascism, fascism’s profound roots in colonialism, fascism’s multiple temporalities, and the rise in recent years of right-wing extremism throughout the world. In short, Spanish Fascist Writing takes Spain from the margins to the forefront of fascist studies.

Eleonore Stump, Ph.D. (Translation) Wandering in Darkness: Narrative and the Problem of Suffering.

Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Translated into Polish by Mateusz Przanowski and published as Wędrówka w ciemnościach. Narracja a problem cierpienia. Edited by Mikolaj Sławkowski-Rode, tr.Eliza Litak, (Warsaw: Dominikańska Biblioteka Teologii, 2020) [appeared in 2021]

Eleonore Stump, Ph.D. Aquinas, (in the series The Arguments of the Philosophers). London and New York: Routledge, 2003.

Translated into Polish by Mateusz Przanowski and published as Akwinata, transl. Piotr Lichacz, Poznań – Warszawa: Wydawnictwo W drodze – Instytut Tomistyczny 2021.

Scott Berman, Ph.D. Platonism and the Objects of Science.

Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021.

What are the objects of science? Are they just the things in our scientific experiments that are located in space and time? Or does science also require that there be additional things that are not located in space and time?

Using clear examples, these are just some of the questions that Scott Berman explores as he shows why alternative theories such as Nominalism, Contemporary Aristotelianism, Constructivism, and Classical Aristotelianism, fall short.

He demonstrates why the objects of scientific knowledge need to be not located in space or time if they are to do the explanatory work scientists need them to do. The result is a contemporary version of Platonism that provides us with the best way to explain what the objects of scientific understanding are, and how those non-spatiotemporal things relate to the spatiotemporal things of scientific experiments, as well as everything around us, including even ourselves.

Johan De Smedt, Postdoctoral Fellow & Helen De Cruz, Ph.D. Empirically Engaged Evolutionary Ethics.

Springer, 2021.

A growing body of evidence from the sciences suggests that our moral beliefs have an evolutionary basis. To explain how human morality evolved, some philosophers have called for the study of morality to be naturalized, i.e., to explain it in terms of natural causes by looking at its historical and biological origins. The present literature has focused on the link between evolution and moral realism: if our moral beliefs enhance fitness, does this mean they track moral truths? In spite of the growing empirical evidence, these discussions tend to remain high-level: the mere fact that morality has evolved is often deemed enough to decide questions in normative and meta-ethics.

This volume starts from the assumption that the details about the evolution of morality do make a difference, and asks how. It presents original essays by authors from various disciplines, including philosophy, anthropology, developmental psychology, and primatology, who write in conversation with neuroscience, sociology, and cognitive psychology.

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By making complex ideas easily accessible, this unique book allows you to engage with philosophical ideas in entertaining new ways, and is an ideal entry point for anyone interested in using fiction to better understand philosophy.

Rachel Greenwald Smith, Ph.D. Helen De Cruz, Ph.D., Johan De Smedt, Postdoctoral Fellow, & Eric Schwitzgebel Philosophy through science fiction stories.

Exploring the boundaries of the possible.

Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021.

Bringing together short stories by award-winning contemporary science fiction authors and philosophers, this book covers a wide range of philosophical ideas from ethics, philosophy of religion, political philosophy, and metaphysics.

Alongside the introductory pieces by the editors that help readers to understand how philosophy can be done through science fiction, you will find end-ofstory notes written by the authors that contextualize their stories within broader philosophical themes.

Organized thematically, these stories address fundamental philosophical questions such as:

On Compromise: Art, Politics, and the Fate of an American Ideal. Graywolf Press, 2021. https://www.graywolfpress.org/books/ compromise

Helen De Cruz, Ph.D. Philosophy Illustrated: 42 Thought Experiments to Broaden Your Mind. Oxford University Press, 2021.

This is an edited volume with 42 illustrations De Cruz made of philosophical thought experiments.

The volume aims to show both how thought experiments help to stir philosophical imagination, and how pictures can further help us to philosophize. Each picture has a commentary by an expert on the significance of the thought experiment, in some cases, written by the author of the original thought experiment.

Closing with a piercing discussion of the uncompromising nature of the COVID-19 pandemic and how global protests against racism and police brutality after the murder of George Floyd point to a new future, On Compromise is a necessary and vital book for our time.

‒ What does it mean to be human? ‒ Is neural enhancement a good thing? ‒ What makes a life worthwhile? ‒ What political systems are best?

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On Compromise is an argument against contemporary liberal society’s tendency to view compromise as an unalloyed good—politically, ethically, and artistically. In a series of clear, convincing essays, Rachel Greenwald Smith discusses the dangers of thinking about compromise as an end, rather than as a means. To illustrate her points, she recounts her stint in a band as a bass player, fighting with her bandmates about “what the song wants,” and then moves outward to Bikini Kill and the Riot Grrrl movement, the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Poetry magazine, the resurgence of fascism, and other wideranging topics.

IMPACT REPORT 2021

Roger D. Lewis, Ph.D., CIH, FAIHA The Role of the Industrial Hygienist in a Pandemic: 2nd edition, Version 2. American Industrial Hygiene Association Biosafety and Environmental Microbiology Committee, 2021. https://aiha-assets.sfo2.digitaloceanspaces. com/AIHA/resources/Role-of-the-IndustrialHygienist-in-a-Pandemic-2nd-edition.pdf The Role of the Industrial Hygienist in a Pandemic outlines the challenges faced in controlling pandemic pathogens, as well as control measures and the improvement of workplace hygiene and sanitation. Although the book was researched and written because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is intended to be used for insight on how to control future pandemics as well. The book contains contributions from students of Lewis’ PUBH 2300 class, “Contemporary Issues in Global Health.” The students names are listed at the front of the book and their work is included in the appendix of the book.

Jason T. Eberl, Ph.D. The Nature of Human Persons: Metaphysics and Bioethics. University of Notre Dame Press, 2020.

Jason Eberl, Ph.D., professor and director of the Albert Gnaegi Center for Health Care Ethics, was awarded funding from the Scholarship Opportunity Fund to complete his recent book, The Nature of Human Persons: Metaphysics and Bioethics. Upon its release, the book topped Amazon’s list of New Releases in Medical Ethics.

What does it mean to be human? Is there a shared nature between us all?

What is required for a human being to truly exist – a mind, a physical body, or perhaps a soul? Philosophers have grappled with these profound questions for generations, and in his new book, Eberl offers a metaphysical investigation of the human essence. Eberl brings the work of 13th century philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas into dialogue with various prominent contemporary theories, shedding new light on how we ought to understand our own existence.

Student studying in the Pius XII Memorial Library.

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Announcements Timothy and Jeanne Drone In spring 2021, Tim (AS ‘72, MA ‘75, MBA ‘77) and Jeanne Drone generously donated their collection of historical newspapers, spanning over 200 years of history, to the Saint Louis University Archives, housed in the Pius XII Memorial Library. The Drone Newspaper Collection will be used for classes in a variety of disciplines, as part of topical course content, and as a resource leading to independent inquiry and discovery. The Collection will allow students and researchers to contextualize major moments in national and international history and explore a number of topics, including politics, art, design, science, and innovation.

The Drone Collection will allow Pius Library to meet the needs of SLU’s faculty and students by providing research data not previously available through its archival collections.

Angela Spencer, MLS In April 2021, Angela Spencer, MLS, health sciences reference librarian at Saint Louis University, won the 2021 Medical Library Association (MLA) President’s Award for her efforts on the MLA COVID-19 Resource Page.

The page served as a valuable resource for health information professionals, providing accurate information on the frontline of the pandemic.

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Dannielle Joy Davis, Ph.D. Dannielle Joy Davis, Ph.D., professor of higher education, published United We Stand: The Role of Spirituality in Engaging and Healing Communities in January 2021. The book explores the role of spirituality in addressing division and marginalization within communities.

Joy Davis also published a piece in the Journal of Comparative Family Studies entitled, “‘Why We Can’t Breathe’ During COVID-19.” In the piece, Joy Davis explains the influence of the COVID-19 virus on health, education, and social interactions within families, particularly on Black communities.

In the past year, Joy Davis was promoted to a tenured Full Professor at the University and invited to serve as an Associate Investigator and Affiliated Faculty with the WATER Institute at SLU. Joy Davis was also awarded the Core Curricular Innovation Fellowship at SLU, which grants faculty with funding to develop dynamic learning opportunities for the undergraduate curriculum.

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Ajlina Karamehic-Muratovic, Ph.D Ajlina Karamehic-Muratovic, Ph.D., assistant professor of sociology and anthropology, edited the book, Remembrance and Forgiveness: Global and Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Genocide and Mass Violence, which was published in October 2020. The book is an inquiry into the social science of remembrance and forgiveness in global episodes of genocide and mass violence during the post-Holocaust era.

Flavio Esposito, Ph.D. Flavio Esposito, Ph.D., assistant professor of computer science, and graduate student Alessio Sacco coauthored a paper entitled, “Owl: Congestion Control with Partially Invisible Networks via Reinforcement Learning.” The paper, which was published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in May 2021, discusses a new internet transport

protocol, Owl, developed by Esposito and his team. The protocol uses reinforcement learning to select the proper congestion window, learning from end-to-end features and network signals.

Jeremiah Weinstock, Ph.D. Jeremiah Weinstock, Ph.D., department chair and associate professor of psychology, was hired by the State of Missouri Department of Mental Health as an Expert Addiction Consultant in fall 2020. Weinstock will work on the implementation of contingency management, a clinical intervention, in the treatment of stimulant use disorder.

Erin Wolf Chambers, Ph.D. Erin Wolf Chambers, Ph.D., professor of computer science, received a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to study new data analysis methods. The project, entitled “Collaborative Research: AF: Medium: A Unified Framework for Geometric and Topological SignatureBased Shape Comparison,” brings together three institutions to investigate topological and geometric methods for shape comparison across the next four years.

Luke Vest, Research Assistant Luke Vest, a third-year medical student, won first place at the 2021 SLU AOA Medical Student Research Forum for his work on the project “RNA sequencing in a mouse model of gastric adenocarcinoma to understand the role of cytokines in metaplastic transformation.” He went on to present this work at the 2021 National Student Research Forum and won the “Excellence in Infectious Disease & Immunology Research Oral” award.

Vest has also been involved with clinical research in the School of Medicine’s Center for Abdominal Transplantation, and published two papers detailing the pandemic’s effect on kidney transplantation, including: ‒ “Survey of US Living Kidney Donation and Transplantation Practices in the COVID-19 Era” Kidney International Reports (2020) ‒ “An International Survey on Living Kidney Donation and Transplant Practices during the COVID-19 Pandemic” Transplant Infectious Disease (2021)

Nori Katagiri, Ph.D. Nori Katagiri, Ph.D., associate professor of political science, published four papers on cyber warfare in the past year. The papers include: ‒ “Why International Law and Norms Do Little in Preventing NonState Cyber Attacks,” Journal of Cybersecurity, Vol. 7, No. 1 (2021) ‒ “From Cyber Denial to Cyber Punishment: What Keeps Japanese Warriors from Active Defense Operations?” Asian Security (2021) ‒ “Cyber Countermeasures for Democracies at War,” in Robert Johnson, Martijn Kitzen, and Tim Sweijs, eds., The Conduct of War in the 21st Century: Kinetic, Connected and Synthetic (Routledge, 2021) ‒ “Non-Western Deterrence: Japanese Concepts of Deterrence,” in Tim Sweijs and Frans Osinga, eds., Deterrence in the 21st Century: Insights from Theory and Practice (Netherlands Defense Academy and Hague Center for Strategic Studies, 2020)

Cort W. Rudolph, Ph.D. A research team led by Cort W. Rudolph, Ph.D., associate professor of industrial and organizational psychology, and in partnership with Hannes Zacher, Ph.D., of Leipzig University, began a study on how work characteristics and employee behavior relate to physical and mental health. The study utilizes monthly data collections from a large national sample in Germany. The study has been extended, with additional grant funding from the Volkswagen Foundation, to include 23 total waves of data collection (until December 2021) to address changes in stress, health, and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. The team has already published a number of papers related to this grant. More information can be found on Rudolph’s website: www.cortrudolph.com.

Candice L. Thomas, Ph.D. In June 2021, Candice L. Thomas, Ph.D., assistant professor of industrial and organizational psychology, published an article in Human Resources Management Review entitled, “Employee Lactation: A Review and Recommendations for Research, Practice, and Policy.” The article examined the experiences of working and lactating mothers, outlining resources and steps to make workplaces more supportive and inclusive of these mothers.

Albert Gnaegi Center for Health Care Ethics Publishes 12 Articles and Essays Related to the COVID-19 Pandemic The Center’s faculty, students, and alumni addressed COVID-19 in a variety of other ways over the pandemic including articles, essays, surveys, keynote presentations, interviews, and seminars. These lists can be found on page 282 in the appendix.

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Notable Achievements for Oluwatoyosi Owoeye and the Athletic Injury Prevention and Health Promotion Lab Oluwatoyosi Owoeye, BPT, M.S., Ph.D., assistant professor of physical therapy and athletic training, has been named Associate Editor of the British Journal of Sports Medicine and Guest Editor of the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health – Special Issue: Injury Prevention in Sport.

In addition, Owoeye and the Athletic Injury Prevention and Health Promotion Lab published the following 12 papers over the last year: 1. “Health-Related Outcomes 3-15 Years Following Ankle Sprain Injury in Youth Sport: What Does the Future Hold?”

2. “Return to sport decisions after an acute lateral ankle sprain injury: introducing the PAASS framework— an international multidisciplinary consensus” 3. “Prevalence and pain distribution of anterior knee pain in college basketball players” 4. “Magnitude, Frequency and Accumulation: Workload Among Injured and Uninjured Youth Basketball Players” 5. “Is Adiposity a Risk Factor for SportRelated Injury in Youth? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses” 6. ”Warm-ups and coaches’ perceptions: Searching for clues to improve injury prevention in youth basketball” 7. “Evaluating Methods for Imputing Missing Data from Longitudinal Monitoring of Athlete Workload” 8. “Dissemination and Implementation Research in Sports and Exercise Medicine and Sports Physical Therapy: Translating Evidence to Practice and Policy”

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9. “Psychosocial Factors and the Effects of a Structured Injury Prevention Workshop on Coaches’ Self Efficacy to Implement the 11+ Exercise Program”

‒ “A Case of Aphemia Following Non-Dominant Sub-Insular Stroke: Unveiling the Foix-Chavany-Marie Phenomenon” was published in Neurocase on March 18, 2021.

10. “Reducing Injuries in Soccer (Football): An Umbrella Review of Best Evidence Across the Epidemiological Framework for Prevention”

‒ “Novel, Neuroscience-Informed Approaches to Trauma Care in Community Clinical Settings” was published in Missouri Medicine - The Journal of the Missouri State Medical Association in summer 2021.

11. “Epidemiology of All-Complaint Injuries in Youth Basketball” 12. “How much, how often, how well?

Adherence to a neuromuscular training injury prevention warm-up program in youth basketball”

Whitney Postman, Ph.D., CCC-SLP Whitney Postman, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, assistant professor of speech, language & hearing sciences, authored several new publications in the past year, including: ‒ “Written Language Usage With Pen and Technology in Adults Across Generations”, was published in the Communication Disorders Quarterly journal on October 9, 2020. The work is based upon survey data collected from elderly African American participants of Postman’s cognitive stimulation therapy group for those in early stages of dementia. ‒ “Leveraging the History of Black Excellence in Medicine to Promote Health Equity for Black Elders at Risk for Dementia” was published in the Journal of the National Black Association for Speech-Language and Hearing in the winter of 2020. ‒ “Forging Community Partnerships to Reduce Health Disparities in LowIncome African American Elders of North St. Louis at Risk for Dementia” was published in the Journal of National Black Association for SpeechLanguage and Hearing in spring 2021.

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In addition, Postman launched a new research project entitled, “Real-Time Ultrasound Intra-Oral Visual Feedback for Adult Acquired or Degenerative Motor-Speech Disorders,” and gave a speech entitled, “Why Now is the Best Time Ever to Study the Neural Substrate of Motor-Speech Performance in Neurologically Intact Individuals & In Cases of Stroke, Brain Injury & FrontoTemporal Degeneration” at the 5th annual UMSL Neuroscience Showcase.

Cara Wallace, Ph.D, LMSW, APHSW-C Cara Wallace, Ph.D, LMSW, APHSW-C, assistant professor of social work, received two NIH Grants. The first grant, awarded in September 2020, was for a project entitled “Outcomes in Live Discharge from Hospice for Patients and Families.” The second grant is for a supplemental project entitled “The Social Context of Live Discharge from Hospice for Family Caregivers of Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias.”

In January 2021, Wallace was named as a Cambia Health Foundation Sojourns Scholar. The program awarded $180,000 funding to a project entitled “Reframing Hospice in Public Consciousness.”

Tim R. Randolph, Ph.D., MT(ASCP) Tim R. Randolph, Ph.D., MT(ASCP), professor of clinical health sciences, is developing low-cost diagnostic testing for underdeveloped countries.

Randolph’s work focuses on three new methods for diagnostic testing of sickle cell disease that will support a future sickle cell program in Haiti.

Jintong Tang, Ph.D. Jintong Tang, Ph.D., Mary Louise Murray Endowed Professor of Management, published a piece entitled, “Now is the time: The effects of linguistic time reference and national time orientation on innovative new ventures,” in the Journal of Business Venturing. The piece explores the underlying mechanisms of international variation in new venture creation with respect to time by focusing on two salient and interrelated aspects of time at the national level: linguistic time reference as an institutional factor and time orientation as a cultural value factor. Tang dedicated the piece to her late father.

Tang also published, “To reopen or not to reopen? How entrepreneurial alertness influences small business reopening after the COVID-19 lockdown” in the Journal of Business Venturing.

Jeffrey Bishop, M.D., Ph.D. Jeffrey Bishop, M.D., Ph.D., Tenet Endowed Chair in Bioethics and professor of philosophy, health care ethics, and theology, won the Expanded Reason Award for his book, Biopolitics After Neuroscience: Morality and the Economy of Virtue. The Award was given by the Josef Ratzinger/Benedict XVI

Foundation for Science, Philosophy, and Theology and included a €25,000 award.

Sarah George, M.D. Sarah George, M.D., associate professor of infectious diseases, allergy, and immunology, led and participated in a variety of new studies in the past year, including: ‒ Acute COVID Treatment Trial: This study enrolled people hospitalized with COVID-19 at SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital, and it tested and identified different treatment strategies. The work resulted in the identification of remdesivir as an effective antiviral and baricitinib as an effective immune modulating therapy. ‒ In collaboration with investigators at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR), George and James Brien, Ph.D., received NIH R01 funding to characterize type-specific potentially protective antibodies after sequential dengue and Zika infection. ‒ George is the PI on a Saint Louis University Center for Vaccine Development study on Yellow Fever vaccines. This study sponsored by Sanofi will test whether a candidate vaccine manufactured by a different method than the existing licensed vaccine and given at a slighter lower dose is sufficiently safe and immunogenic. ‒ George is the PI on an upcoming Saint Louis University vaccine trial evaluating a vaccine against Chikungunya, a debilitating viral infection spread by mosquitoes that has become endemic in much of the tropics and was responsible for a major outbreak in the Caribbean that began in 2013.

immunity after Zika vaccination. This research is a direct outgrowth of an NIH-sponsored Saint Louis University vaccine trial to evaluate a candidate Zika vaccine in healthy adults. ‒ George, in collaboration with Scott Parker, Ph.D., and others, published studies of a potentially effective recombinant antibody treatment for poxvirus infection in a murine model. Poxviruses (such as smallpox, monkeypox, and others) currently have limited treatment options.

Recombinant antibody therapies are currently being deployed against COVID-19. As Poxviruses are among the agents that can be weaponized for bioterrorism, development and testing of effective therapies in appropriate animal models is important for protection against a possible release or natural infection.

Culturally Appropriate Transformation to the Culture of Health Culturally Appropriate Transformation to the Culture of Health (CATCH) is providing immigrants and refugees who face language and cultural barriers in the U.S. health care system with personalized health-coaching. Over a dozen SLU faculty members from a variety of disciplines, representatives from community organizations, and over two dozen SLU volunteer students collaboratively carried out this evidencebased program, offering personalized health-coaching to foreign-born residents in the St. Louis area so that they could navigate the complicated U.S. health care system, thereby improving their health.

‒ George is PI on an NIH-funded contract to study memory T cell

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College for Public Health and Social Justice An interdisciplinary team of faculty and students from the College for Public Health and Social Justice (CPHSJ), and colleagues from the Saint Louis University School of Medicine, have joined forces to support Saint Louis County’s coronavirus pandemic response efforts since October of 2020.

The team is comprised of undergraduate students, graduate students, Ph.D. students, epidemiologists, biostatisticians, computer scientists, medical doctors, health policy experts, and health educators all who have worked closely with Saint Louis County Department of Public Health. The team has created analytical decision support tools, developed training materials for contact tracers and case investigators, and synthesized the latest COVID-19 research into recommendations and strategies for area school districts to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in classrooms. The team also designed and implemented an app to track COVID-19 symptoms and worked with County Executive Sam Page’s office on strategies to address vaccine hesitancy and effectively communicate disease-risk to the St. Louis area public. Research projects currently underway stemming from this work include: ‒ Exploring geospatial relationships in COVID-19-related symptoms and health outcomes ‒ Surveying COVID-19’s impact on mental health in the St. Louis region ‒ Seeking to better understand the symptoms and impact of “long haul” COVID-19 ‒ Racial and geographic disparities in vaccine coverage in the St. Louis region

This partnership between CPHSJ and Saint Louis County and associated research was facilitated through a $1.2 million contract awarded to PI and former Dean of the College for Public Health and Social Justice, Tom Burroughs, Ph.D., and made possible by federal funding from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act. This work has enabled the College to expand its impact in the St. Louis region and has generated additional governmental partnership opportunities with the State of Missouri, City of St. Louis, St. Charles County, Jefferson County, Franklin County, Madison County, and St. Clair County.

The Health and Social Policy Action Network The Health and Social Policy Action Network (HealthSPAN) presents the following one-year highlights: ‒ Awarded $471,339 by Missouri Foundation for Health to examine the impact of Medicaid expansion on a key social determinant of health, food security ‒ Awarded $57,697 by Missouri Foundation for Health for transdisciplinary research to support Medicaid Expansion Implementation in Missouri ‒ HealthSPAN was able to respond quickly and effectively to an inquiry from Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital to create an academic medical legal partnership clinic to promote the health and well-being of children and their parents through legal and policy interventions ‒ Associated faculty:

‒ Uncovering patterns in cases of COVID-19 among fully-vaccinated individuals, “breakthrough” cases

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Ellen Barnidge

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Heather Bednarek

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Elizabeth Pendo

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Fred Rottnek

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Sidney Watson

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Students learning in the Biology Extension Building.

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With open hearts and helping hands,

WE WILL TRANSFORM TOMORROW.

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When you give to Saint Louis University, it changes the tide for all humanity. We have grown together through this challenging time in pursuit of change: for our neighbors, our world — and our future. And with your help, we’ll continue leading the way toward a bright future for all. We invite you to explore our research portfolio and align your support with a cause near to your heart.

TO MAKE YOUR G I F T, PLE ASE CON TAC T:

SHE I L A M. MANI ON Vice President, Development (314) 977-2306 sheila.manion@slu.edu

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Researchers Supported by the Research Institute John Tavis, Ph.D.

Fred Rottnek, M.D., MAHCM

Katherine C. MacKinnon-Burks, Ph.D.

Director, Institute for Drug and Biotherapeutic Innovation; Professor, Molecular Microbiology and Immunology

Professor and Director, Division of Community Medicine; Program Director, Addiction Medicine Fellowship

Associate Professor; Director of Anthropology

David Griggs, Ph.D.

Sidney D. Watson, J.D

Associate Professor, Molecular Microbiology and Immunology

Jane and Bruce Robert Professor; Director, Center for Health Law Studies

Associate Professor; Co-Director, Center for International and Comparative Law

John Kennell, Ph.D.

Jenna Gorlewicz, Ph.D.

Leslie Hinyard, Ph.D., M.S.W.

Professor, Biology

Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering; Director, People and Technology Horizon (PATH)

Executive Director, AHEAD Institute; Chair and Associate Professor, Health and Clinical Outcomes Research

Flavio Esposito, Ph.D.

Jeffrey Scherrer, Ph.D.

Silviya Zustiak, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Computer Science

Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering; Associate Professior, Pharmacology and Physiology

Professor, Family and Community Medicine

Terra Edwards, Ph.D.

Marvin Meyers, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Chemistry

Mary Dunn, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Theological Studies Cathleen Fleck, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Sociology and Anthropology Elena Bray Speth, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Biology Paul Bracher, Ph.D.

Department Chair, Fine and Performing Arts; Associate Professor, Art History

Assistant Professor, Chemistry

Kate Moran, Ph.D.

Brenda Kirchoff, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, American Studies

Associate Professor, Psychology

Hal Parker, Ph.D.

Chris Carroll, Ph.D., P.E.

Professor, History

Program Coordinator, Civil Engineering; Associate Professor

Ellen Barnidge, Ph.D., M.P.H.

Associate Professor, Behavioral Science and Health Education Heather Bednarek, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Economics Elizabeth Pendo, J.D.

Mike May, S.J., Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Mathematics and Statistics Mary Prendergast, Ph.D.

Division of Humanities, Anthropology, SLU Madrid

Joseph J. Simeone Professor of Law

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Monica Eppinger, Ph.D., J.D.

Paula Buchanan, Ph.D.

Associate Director for Consulting, AHEAD Institute Richard Grucza, Ph.D.

Professor, Family and Community Medicine; Fellow, SLU Research Institute Divya S. Subramaniam, Ph.D., M.P.H.

Assistant Professor, Health and Clinical Outcomes Research Sarah Gebauer, M.D., M.S.P.H.

Assistant Professor, Family and Community Medicine Chris Prener, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Sociology Kenton J. Johnston, Ph.D., M.P.H.

Associate Professor, Health Management and Policy

APPENDIX

Matthew Breeden, M.D.

Rachel Rimmerman, MBA

Jianguo Liu, M.D., Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Family and Community Medicine

Director of Business and Outreach, WATER Institute

Professor, Internal Medicine

Vasit Sagan, Ph.D.

Craig D. Adams, Ph.D., P.E., FASCE

Director, Geospatial Institute; Associate Professor, Geospatial Science

Oliver L. Parks Endowed Chair, Professor of Civil Engineering

Ness Sandoval, Ph.D.

Sofie (Xuewei) Liang, M.Sc.Eng.

Professor, Sociology

Laboratory Technician, WATER Institute

Enbal Shacham, Ph.D., M.Ed.

Andrew F. Hall, D.Sc.

Professor, Public Health Henning Lohse-Busch, Ph.D.

Director, Center for Additive Manufacturing; Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering

Director of Business Development and Outreach, Geospatial Institute

R. Scott Martin, Ph.D.

Ruqaiijah A. Yearby, J.D., M.P.H.

Co-Founder, Executive Director, Institute for Healing Justice & Equity; Professor of Law, Center for Health Law Studies Kira Hudson Banks, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Psychology Keon L. Gilbert, DrPH

Associate Professor, Behavioral Science and Health Education Amber Johnson, Ph.D.

Professor, Communication and Social Justice Amanda Cox, Ph.D., P.E.

Professor, Chemistry Scott A. Sell, Ph.D.

Associate Professor; Program Coordinator, Biomedical Engineering Dapeng Zhang, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Biology Daniel Hoft, M.D., Ph.D.

Associate Dean for Research, Trudy Busch Valentine School of Nursing; Ph.D. Program Director Marla Berg-Weger, Ph.D., M.S.W.

Professor Emeritus of Social Work; Executive Director, Gateway Geriatric Education Center, SLU School of Medicine Jennifer Ohs, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Communication Jeremiah Weinstock , Ph.D.

Professor, Clinical Program; Department Chair, Psychology Jason Taylor, M.D.

Associate Professor, Medicine Jason Werner, M.D.

Associate Professor, Pediatrics

Director and Professor, Division of Infectious Diseases, Allergy and Immunology; Director, Center for Vaccine Development; Director, Stephen C. Peiper and Zi-Xuan Wang Institute for Vaccine Science and Policy; Adorjan Endowed Chair of Infectious Diseases and Immunology

Associate Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Ranjit Ray, Ph.D.

Candice L. Thomas, Ph.D.

Director, WATER Institute; Associate Professor, Civil Engineering

Professor, Infectious Diseases

Elizabeth Hasenmueller, Ph.D.

Reza Tourani, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences

Helen Lach, Ph.D., RN, CNL, FGSA, FAAN

Bill Wold, Ph.D.

Professor and Former Department Chair, Molecular Microbiology and Immunology Susana Gonzalo-Hervas, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, IndustrialOrganizational Psychology Program

Assistant Professor, Computer Science

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Researchers Supported by the Research Institute

continued

Karen Moore, DNP, APRN, ANP-BC, FNP-C, FAANP, FAAN

Associate Professor, Adult-Gerontology Primary Care NP Program Faculty Coordinator Mitzi Brammer, Ph.D., CCC-SLP

Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Program, Speech, Language Hearing Sciences Whitney Postman, Ph.D., CCC-SLP

Adriana Montano, Ph.D.

Amanda Izzo, Ph.D.

Professor, Department of Pediatrics and Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Assistant Professor, Women’s and Gender Studies

Koyal Garg, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering Richard Bucholz, M.D.

Professor, Neurological Surgery

Assistant Professor, Speech, Language & Hearing Sciences

John Morley, M.D.

T. Scott Isbell, Ph.D.

Claudia Karagoz, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Italian Studies

Associate Professor, Pathology and Pediatrics Sergey Korolev, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Maria Romo-Palafox, Ph.D., RD

Assistant Professor, Nutrition and Dietetics Sarah George, M.D.

Associate Professor, Infectious Diseases, Allergy, and Immunology Dannielle Joy Davis, Ph.D.

Professor, Higher Education Administration Rich DiPaolo, Ph.D.

Professor and Interim Chair, Molecular Microbiology and Immunology Ted Ahn, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Computer Science

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Professor, Medicine

Grant Kaplan, Ph.D.

Steber Chair and Professor, Theology Bukky Gbadegesin, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Art History and African American Studies Michael Barber, S.J., Ph.D.

Professor, Philosophy Joel Jennings, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor and Undergraduate Director, Sociology

Jason Eberl, Ph.D. Director and Professor, Albert Gnaegi Center for Health Care Ethics

Associate Professor, English

Claire Gilbert, Ph.D.

Jennifer Popiel, Ph.D.

Rachel Greenwald Smith, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, History

Associate Professor, History

Steve Schoenig, S.J., Ph.D.

Ajlina Karamehic-Muratovic, Ph.D.

Associate Professor and Associate Director, History

Assistant Professor, Sociology and Anthropology

Atria Larson, Ph.D.

Charles Parker, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Medieval Christianity

Professor, History

Tarrell Campbell, Ph.D.

Adjunct Professor, Departments of American Studies & Religious Studies

Adjunct Professor, Department of African American Studies Tom Finan, Ph.D., FSA

Chair and Associate Professor, History Ben Looker, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, American Studies

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Miles Park, Ph.D.

Ellen Carnaghan, Ph.D.

Professor, Political Science Nori Katagiri, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Political Science

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James Adam Redfield, Ph.D.

Gary W. Ritter, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Bibical and Talmudic Literatures

Professor and Dean, SLU School of Education

Edwin Antony, Ph.D.

Allison Miller, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Professor of Biology; Principal Investigator and Leader of The New Roots for Restoration Biology Integration Institute at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center

Yi Li, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Nutrition and Dietetics Abby Stylianou, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Computer Science James L. Edwards, Ph.D., Ph.D.

Professor, Chemistry

Daniela Salvemini, Ph.D.

Director, Henry and Amelia Nasrallah Center for Neuroscience; William Beaumont Professor and Chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology

Denise Côté-Arsenault, Ph.D.

Hemak Endowed Professor of Maternal Child Nursing J. Cameron Anglum, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Educational Policy and Equity Steven Rogers, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Political Science; Director, SLU/YouGov Poll Kenneth Warren, Ph.D.

Professor, Political Science Evan Rhinesmith, Ph.D.

Director of Research and Evaluation, SLU PRiME Center; Associate Director, SLU/YouGov Poll

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Rapid Response COVID-19 Seed Fund Projects All Funded Projects Antibody Response and Prevention of SARS-CoV-2 Fusion Activity

The Etiology of Staying Home

Principal Investigator: Ranjit Ray, Ph.D. Professor, Infectious Disease

Principal Investigator: Monica Eppinger, J.D. Director, Center for International and Comparative Law

Collaborators: Daniel Hoft, M.D., Ph.D. Professor, Infectious Diseases

Health Misinformation, Media Exposure, Uncertainty and Anxiety During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Sarah George, M.D. Assistant Professor, Infectious Diseases

Principal Investigator: Jennifer E. Ohs, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Communication

James Brien, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Molecular Microbiology and Immunology Changes in Gambling Behavior Due to COVID-19 Principal Investigator: Jeremiah Weinstock, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Psychology Comprehensive Evolutionary and Functional Elucidation of COVID-19- Related Viruses Principal Investigator: Dapeng Zhang, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Biology Effects of BCG Vaccination on Host Immunity Against SARS-CoV-2 Infection Principal Investigator: Jianguo Liu, M.D., Ph.D. Professor, Infectious Diseases Collaborator: Daniel Hoft, M.D., Ph.D. Professor, Infectious Diseases

Impact of Changes During the COVID-19 Pandemic on Activity, Anxiety, Stress and Sleep in Older Adults Principal Investigator: Helen Lach, Ph.D. Professor, Nursing Large-Scale Collection of COVID-19 Donor PBMC Principal Investigators: Daniel Hoft, M.D., Ph.D. Professor, Infectious Diseases Christopher Eickhoff, M.S., Internal Medicine-General Collaborators: Ranjit Ray, Ph.D. Professor, Infectious Diseases Richard DiPaolo, Ph.D. Professor, Molecular Microbiology and Immunology David Ford, Ph.D. Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Sarah George, M.D. Assistant Professor, Infectious Diseases

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Technology-Assisted Intervention to Address Loneliness and Social Isolation Among Older Adults Principal Investigator: Marla Berg-Weger, Ph.D. Professor, Social Work Collaborator: John E. Morley, M.D. Professor, Geriatric Medicine Specimen Collection to Study SARS-CoV-2-Specific Cell Responses Principal Investigator: Daniel Hoft, M.D., Ph.D. Professor, Infectious Diseases Collaborators: Ranjit Ray, Ph.D. Professor, Infectious Diseases Richard DiPaolo, Ph.D. Professor, Molecular Microbiology and Immunology David Ford, Ph.D. Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Sarah George, M.D. Assistant Professor, Infectious Diseases 3D Printed User-Specific N95 Respirator Alternative Principal Investigator: Andrew Hall D.Sc. Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering Collaborators: Keith Pereira, M.D. Assistant Professor, Radiology

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COVID-19 and Student Resilience: A Blessing in Disguise?

Principal Investigator: Mitzi Brammer, Ph.D., CCC-SLP Assistant Professor; Director of Graduate Program, Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences

Supporting Employees During Involuntary Telework: How Supervisors Are Helping Employees Manage the Work-Family Interface Principal Investigator: Candice Thomas, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Psychology

Vitamin D as Treatment for SARS-CoV-2 Infection

Burnout, Resilience and the Humanism of Medicine During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Principal Investigator: Susana Gonzalo, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Principal Investigator: Jason Werner, M.D. Associate Professor, Pediatrics

Stress Experienced by Nurses During the COVID-19 Pandemic Principal Investigator: Karen Moore, DNP, APRN, ANP-BC, FAANP, FAAN Associate Professor, Nursing

Assessing the Effect of Obesity on the Pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2 (the Causative Agent of COVID-19) in the Syrian Hamster Mod Principal Investigator: William Wold, Ph.D. Chairman, Molecular Microbiology and Immunology

Advanced Tele-Practice Services for Adult Neurogenic Communication and Swallowing Disorders During the COVID-19 Pandemic Principal Investigator: Whitney Postman, Ph.D., CCC-SLP Assistant Professor, Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences North American Coalition for the Study of Digestive Manifestations of COVID-19 (DMC19) Principal Investigator: Jason Taylor, M.D. Associate Professor, Internal Medicine

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Rapid Response COVID-19 Seed Fund Projects continued

SLU Researchers Develop App to Track COVID-19 Symptoms BY: CL AIRE CREEDON This is a part of a series of stories from the Office of the Vice President for Research highlighting SLU’s Rapid Response COVID-19 Seed Fund.

As the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the world, researchers pondered the spread of the disease and what the risks of individual and community transmission rates were in various locations.

To address this, SLU researchers Enbal Shacham, Ph.D., a professor of public health and associate director of the SLU Geospatial Institute (GeoSLU); Flavio Esposito, Ph.D., assistant professor of computer science; and Roberto Coral, a research assistant in computer science, developed an app to monitor realtime symptoms and the location of symptomatic individuals.

The app helps to track the spread of COVID-19 at an individual level and enables contact tracing. Users can go onto the app multiple times a day to track if they are experiencing any recognized symptom for COVID-19.

Shacham has long been interested in using geospatial technology to grow, inform, and improve public health. COVID-19 is an example of how location drives health and health outcomes.

“Public health is related to everything, and location determines opportunity and outcomes,” said Shacham. “We can recognize in real time when people are feeling sick, where they are sick, and how we can get them resources as quickly as possible.”

The app was first designed for airport staff who may be routinely exposed to COVID-19, but that changed when the crisis began to spread among communities.

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With support from the SLU Research Institute’s Rapid Response COVID-19 Seed Fund, the team broadened the scope of their project to focus on a wider population and create an app that could be a crucial resource for businesses, schools, governments, and other organizations looking to create a comfortable and safe environment.

“The Seed Fund allowed us to start focusing on our efforts and develop a truly useful app,” said Shacham.

The app is now available to everyone. Currently, the team is trying to promote the app to employers for their employees to use the app as they start returning to their workplaces. With cases once again rising, there is a greater responsibility to create a safe place for employees and customers alike.

While the team feels the app is a step in the right direction, Shacham emphasized that more efforts to use available data be taken to inform better public health.

“We cannot say this one app is going to solve all of our problems, but rather, this app in concert with other data points should support systems that should be working together,” Shacham said.

The app is available for download here: https://cs.slu.edu/projects/covid19/ More information on efforts at SLU to track COVID-19 can be found here: https://www.slu.edu/research/coronavirus/ tracking-covid19.php

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APPENDIX

SLU Communication Professor Studying Credibility of COVID-19 Information, Impact on Health Behaviors BY: MARYCAIT DOL AN This is a part of a series of stories from the Office of the Vice President for Research highlighting SLU’s Rapid Response COVID-19 Seed Fund.

Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in the United States, staying up to date with reliable information has become an essential part of many Americans’ daily routine. A Saint Louis University researcher is now analyzing how people are getting their information during the pandemic.

Jennifer Ohs, Ph.D., associate professor of communication, has launched a new study, “Health Misinformation, Media Exposure, Uncertainty, and Anxiety during the COVID-19 Pandemic,” to analyze trends in news and information consumption.

Ohs, in collaboration with Amber Hinsley, Ph.D, Texas State University; Ilwoo Ju, Ph.D., Purdue University; and Taehwan Park, Ph.D., St. John’s University, will examine how Americans seek out and absorb health-related information and what factors might influence their search.

“Our study examines how people weigh the credibility of COVID-19 related information and sources, and how those judgments affect their decisions about health behaviors to protect against contracting the disease,” Ohs said. “The knowledge gained from this work may be used by public health officials and other emergency managers to design more effective messages in the fight against COVID-19.”

The study will analyze participants’ anxiety about COVID-19 information alongside their perceived susceptibility to the virus and the potential severity of illness. Researchers will examine how these factors may change the ways in which participants search for and verify information.

“We would expect, for example, that older adults may be more likely than younger adults to have an increased trust in a physician and seek information from medical professionals about the pandemic,” Ohs said. In contrast, she said, younger adults may be seeking pandemic-related information from mediated sources, family members, and friends.

Ohs brings extensive expertise in interpersonal and health communication to the study, focusing on the influence of interpersonal social networks and age on information-seeking and preventive behaviors.

The team was able to start their research by recruiting study subjects through the SLU Research Institute’s Rapid Response COVID-19 Seed Fund. Subjects were surveyed to investigate psychological and behavioral aspects of protective health decisions in the context of COVID-19.

The researchers plan to expand the findings of this study with future opportunities to apply for extramural funding.

Ohs and Hinsley will examine users’ perceived credibility of COVID-19 information on social media, while Ju and Park will study the influence of mass mediated sources on decisions to engage in protective behaviors during COVID-19 and the role of optimistic bias in practicing preventive health behaviors during the pandemic.

“Making health decisions based on the benefits to our collective society has been a central feature of public health messages about COVID-19,” Ohs said. “This study examines the extent to which such messaging helps to motivate the public in their health decisions and behaviors.”

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New Study from SLU Psychologist Examines Gambling Addiction During COVID-19 BY: MARYCAIT DOL AN This is a part of a series of stories from the Office of the Vice President for Research highlighting SLU’s Rapid Response COVID-19 Seed Fund.

Some gamblers, Weinstock said, may be able to use this time as an opportunity to quit gambling. Others, however, may turn to other addictions such as alcohol or tobacco use to fill the void, while others still may turn to other forms of gambling online.

A Saint Louis University researcher is studying the unique impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health, specifically among those with addiction and gambling disorders.

Weinstock hopes that the dissemination of data collected from this research will be useful to future policymakers and treatment providers, among other relevant communities, in creating policy to support those with gambling disorder and help them receive the treatment they need.

As stay-at-home orders took effect across the country and nonessential businesses closed their doors to the public, Jeremiah Weinstock, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at SLU, wanted to know the long-term effects of social isolation on those suffering from addiction to gambling, clinically known as gambling disorder.

Weinstock, whose research focuses on addiction with an emphasis on gambling disorders, partnered with Carla J. Rash, Ph.D., of the University of Connecticut Health Center, to study the potential outcomes of the pandemic. Weinstock and Rush devised a survey-based longitudinal study, “Changes in Gambling Behavior Due to COVID-19.”

The study is still in the data collection phase. The researchers have surveyed 400 individuals with gambling problems from all over the United States. Participants have completed three surveys and will complete one more assessment at the end of September.

The study received funding from the SLU Research Institute’s Rapid Response COVID-19 Seed Fund, which was established in spring 2020 to empower and support researchers as they seek to answer important questions that arise in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Weinstock and Rush also received support through the University of Connecticut’s Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy (InCHIP).

Typically, those with gambling disorder are also affected by other psychiatric problems such as depression and anxiety. Weinstock and Rush hope to determine trends of the potential long-term implications of extended periods of forced abstinence on the well-being and mental health of survey participants.

“The Jesuit mission of social justice and caring for all directly applies to people suffering from addiction,” said Weinstock.

Weinstock hopes the study will provide insight into the behaviors and coping mechanisms that those affected by gambling disorder might turn to as they are forced to stay home from casinos and other gambling venues.

Gambling addiction is often associated with a great deal of shame and is often something that those affected by it try to hide from their families and other loved ones. The stigma that surrounds gambling disorder, Weinstock said, often prevents those affected from seeking treatment.

“It’s unclear what happens to [those suffering from gambling disorder] during a period of forced abstinence,” Weinstock said. “It’s a moment that will allow some people, not everybody, to pause and engage in reflection while other people will be very distraught by the fact that they can’t gamble because it’s a primary means by which they cope and deal with the world.”

“Nobody chooses to have a gambling problem, to go wreck their lives financially and to lose the trust of their family members,” Weinstock said. “Nobody willingly decides to go do that. There’s something else driving this behavior and I want to understand that and to help other people understand that. I want to make lasting and meaningful changes.”

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IMPACT REPORT 2021

APPENDIX

SLU Researcher Develops New Platform to Address Senior Loneliness BY: RYAN L AWLESS This is a part of a series of stories from the Office of the Vice President for Research highlighting SLU’s Rapid Response COVID-19 Seed Fund.

With support from the Seed Fund, Berg-Weger and Morley’s team is working on a computer-based system that allows for these crucial meetings to still take place while also making the program easier to facilitate for the provider.

Loneliness and social isolation among older adults in America was considered a crisis even before COVID-19. The ongoing pandemic has only increased distance between older adults and the rest of society.

There is a direct link between certain chronic conditions and social isolation. “We’ve done just about all we can to keep older adults isolated,” Berg-Weger said. She notes segregation of elderly communities, the tendency to self-isolate as age-related health issues develop, and the increasing average lifespan as some of the major issues causing the rise in social isolation. “We segregate older adults from where they live and where they shop to how they socialize.”

As Executive Director of the Gateway Geriatric Education Center at Saint Louis University’s School of Medicine, Marla Berg-Weger, Ph.D., LCSW, professor of social work, has studied this problem for several years. With support from the SLU Research Institute’s Rapid Response COVID-19 Seed Fund and in collaboration with colleague, Dr. John Morley, M.D., Professor Emeritus, SLU Division of Geriatric Medicine, BergWeger’s latest project aims for a therapeutic and communal solution to curbing the loneliness felt by so many seniors.

The project makes Circle of Friends, a group lonelinessrehabilitation program for older adults, accessible virtually on a dedicated telehealth platform. The program’s meetings were originally in-person in the St. Louis area, but the pandemic forced these meetings to be suspended, placing these older adults at risk for increased physical and mental health illness that occurs when loneliness and social isolation are experienced.

With potential isolation strategies for older adults lasting until 2022, a solution was urgently needed.

Berg-Weger’s team is currently developing training for the system, which will allow future researchers and health care providers to use the platform to both conduct their own research and ultimately deliver easier and more holistic health care to older adults.

This project is part of a larger geriatric-specific telehealth platform Berg-Weger and Morley have helped develop that includes the Medicare Annual Wellness Visit and a Rapid Geriatric Assessment (RGA) developed by the Geriatrics Division of SLU. As of February, the team will have both the Medicare Annual Wellness Visit and the RGA in the beta testing phase. The Circle of Friends program will follow in the near future. In the meantime, Zoom-based Circle of Friends groups are being offered through the SLU Aging & Memory Clinic.

“We are working toward having a number of our programs available on the new telehealth platform and were planning to develop these over two or three years, but when the pandemic started we realized we really needed to expedite this. So, we applied to the COVID-19 Seed Fund and it enabled us to put more time and effort into working with a local technology company to develop the system,” said Berg-Weger.

APPENDIX

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Rapid Response COVID-19 Seed Fund Projects continued

SLU Researchers Develop Custom PPE for Frontline Healthcare Workers BY: RYAN L AWLESS This is a part of a series of stories from the Office of the Vice President for Research highlighting SLU’s Rapid Response COVID-19 Seed Fund.

workers. The masks were then 3D-printed and subjected to an industry standard quantitative fit test. Fourteen of the 15 masks passed this test, and the failed mask is being redesigned and retested.

At the start of the COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S., there were immediate outcries from the medical field regarding a lack of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). Within the first few weeks, N95 masks for hospital workers were in extremely low supply, and people began worrying that some hospitals might run out of masks entirely. A national survey of hospital PPE supply conducted by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) in late March found that nearly half (48%) of all hospitals were out of or nearly out of respirators.

Pereira successfully applied to the SSM Institutional Review Board (IRB), which allows 3D-printed masks to be used in the hospital in case they run out of commercial masks. The team is also working with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to gain an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to make the masks available outside the SSM SLU hospital.

SLU researchers Andrew Hall, D.Sc., associate professor of biomedical engineering, Keith Pereira, M.D., SLUCare physician, and Andre Castiaux, Ph.D., Chemistry Post-Doc, along with Charles Wolfersberger, an engineer with Bayer, responded by creating a project that would provide a safety net for local St. Louis hospitals in the event that they encounter a severe shortage of N95 masks. “Using an optical face scan and a CAD program, we design [N95] masks that are customized to an individual … that we can successfully, quantitatively fit-test on the user,” Hall explained.

Two of the researchers, Hall and Castiaux, made up part of the team that recently established the SLU Center for Additive Manufacturing (SLU CAM), a 3D printing-focused center that will allow researchers and students access to state-of-the-art printers for applications ranging from class projects to realworld prototyping. “SLU’s Center for Additive Manufacturing allows our faculty and students to not only think of big ideas, but also to design and build solutions to some of society’s greatest challenges,” said Michelle Sabick, Ph.D, dean of Parks College of Engineering, Aviation and Technology.

Hall and the team of researchers took advantage of Parks College’s newly acquired optical scanner, as well as a new highend computer, to create detailed facial scans of 15 SSM hospital

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The study received funding from the SLU Research Institute’s Rapid Response COVID-19 Seed Fund, which was established in spring 2020 to empower and support researchers as they seek to answer important questions that arise in the way of the COVID-19 pandemic. The high-end computer used in the study was provided through this funding.

Hall was encouraged to take on this project due to novel discoveries from his previous research with medical imaging.

“In medical imaging, usually you’re concerned with things within the body, but it turns out that if you have a CT or an MRI of a patient and look at the image the right way, you can see their face — you have a 3D image of the face surface. We had done a little bit of early work with incorporating faces from medical imaging into things that we had 3D-printed, so that combination led us to believe we could do something here.”

In line with the University’s Jesuit mission, Hall said the goal was to serve those on the frontlines of this crisis. “That was the motivation — just to try and help.”

When asked about what it was like to work on the project, Hall remarked, “You know, in a standard research project, you’re trying to do something that hasn’t been done before so that you can publish it and maybe get a grant etc., but this was really about, ‘What’s the fastest way to deliver this solution to healthcare workers?’ — ­ with little thought to anything else.”

IMPACT REPORT 2021

APPENDIX

Center for Vaccine Development Select Media Coverage

GETAHUN ABATE, M.D., PH.D.

SARAH GEORGE, M.D.

1.

1.

What we need to know about COVID vaccines and SARS-CoV-2 variants. Adebabay Media, December 22, 2020.

2.

SHARON FREY, M.D. 1.

Virus rates dipping. Hospitalizations down. St. Louis doctors see hope. St. Louis Post-Dispatch. May 18, 2021.

Post-vaccine Covid-19 cases are uncommon, but St. Louis County experts urge caution. St. Louis PostDispatch. April 19, 2021.

CDC experts disagree with Pfizer on COVID boosters, threatening pharma giant’s billion dollar revenue stream. The Defender. July 1, 2021; Conscience Life News. July 5, 2021.

3.

Washington U study finds clues to long-term COVID-19 immunity in survivor’s bone marrow. St. Louis Post-Dispatch. May 24, 2021.

4.

3.

SLU enrolling people for new COVID vaccine trial. Fox Channel 2.

December 8, 2020.

5.

4.

CDC-convened committee votes to add nursing home residents to first phase of COVID-19 vaccine access.

USA Today. December 1, 2020.

No ‘consistent rationale’: Why vaccinations are open to all in some states and not others. USA Today.

March 29, 2021.

6.

Saint Louis University participates in Moderna vaccine trial. KMOVTV Channel 4. November 23, 2020.

COVID19 vaccination and empowering yourself. 500 Women Scientists, Saint Louis, Missouri.

March 29, 2021.

7.

2.

5.

6.

7.

8.

Mayor Krewson tours Moderna vaccine trial facilities at SLU. Fox Channel 2. November 23, 2002.

SLU researchers optimistic about Moderna COVID vaccine. Fox Channel 2. November 16, 2020.

St. Louis doctor among the first to test COVID-19 vaccine. KSDK. September 4, 2020.

8.

9.

St. Louis alderwoman says vaccine knocked out some of her long-term COVID-19 effects, and she’s not alone. KSDK-TV Channel 5. April 14, 2021.

Unusual blood clots are ‘very rare’ AstraZeneca side effect, says EU drug regulator. Healthline. April 8, 2021.

VERIFY: why it’s unlikely to spread COVID-19 after vaccination.

KSDK-TV Channel 5. March 26, 2021.

COVID vaccine side effects raise question of which pain reliever to take and when. KSDK-TV Channel 5. March 26, 2021.

WashU trial evaluates effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines for people taking immunosuppressants. KSDKTV Channel 5. March 23, 2021.

10. All Missouri adults will be eligible for COVID vaccine April 9. St. Louis Public Radio. March 18, 2021.

11. Important insight: the COVID-19 vaccine. Town & Style St. Louis.

March 10, 2021.

12. COVID-19 vaccines may help stop virus transmission: here’s what we know. Healthline. March 3, 2021.

13. Lunch with a researcher. Missouri Cures. February 4, 2021.

14. St. Louis COVID19 panel. St. Louis Forum. Saint Louis, Missouri.

November 30, 2020.

15. Update on COVID19: where we have been and where we might be going. SLU Pediatric Grand Rounds.

Saint Louis, Missouri. October 14, 2020.

DANIEL HOFT, M.D., PH.D. 1.

Coronavirus vaccines are widely available in the U.S. So why are scientists working on new ones?

Washington Post. June 30, 2021.

2.

St. Louis character: how Saint Louis University’s Dr. Daniel Hoft became one of the nation’s leading vaccine experts. Saint Louis Business Journal. June 10, 2021.

3.

How Saint Louis University’s Dr. Daniel Hoft became one of the nation’s leading vaccine experts.

KSDK-TV Channel 5. June 10, 2021.

APPENDIX

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4.

5.

6.

7.

Volunteers needed for new COVID-19 vaccine. KSDK-TV Channel 5. March 23, 2021.

SLU enrolling participants for COVID-19 vaccine trial. KMOV-TV Channel 4. March 23, 2021.

Listen: St. Louis University infectious disease physician answers vaccine questions. St. Louis on the Air – St. Louis Public Radio. March 23, 2021.

Should someone with asthma get a COVID-19 vaccine before someone with cancer? The next big challenge in the vaccine rollout. Time.

February 10, 2021.

8.

Could a single vaccine work against all coronaviruses? The New York Times. February 9, 2021.

9.

Think getting a COVID-19 vaccine means you can abandon the face covering? Not quite. St. Louis Magazine. January 14, 2021.

10. Saint Louis University participates in Moderna vaccine trial. KMOVTV Channel 4. November 23, 2020.

11. Mayor Krewson tours Moderna vaccine trial facilities at SLU. Fox Channel 2. November 23, 2002.

12. St. Louis scientists want high-risk patients to test coronavirus vaccine.

St. Louis Public Radio. November 4, 2020.

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TIMOTHY WIEMKEN, PH.D. 1.

Asked and answered: life after the vaccine. Town & Style St. Louis.

June 2, 2021.

2.

The crowds are coming back: STL entertainment venues boost capacity.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch. May 21, 2021.

3.

St. Louis area festival organizers eye in-person return after pandemic hiatus. St. Louis Public Radio. May 13, 2021.

4.

Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology 5-Second Rule #20: Not all Bugs are Bad. Podcast. May 11, 2021.

5.

PDI Insights: PDI Perspective Podcast: Beyond the Sneeze: The Role of Surface Transmission with Respiratory Viruses. May 4, 2021.

6.

7.

8.

9.

SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSIT Y RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Pandemic will have ‘slow end,’ St. Louis Task Force leader suggests we could see relief in summer, fall.

KMOX. April 12, 2021.

Large COVID vaccine centers serve many, but some St. Louisans need other options. St. Louis Public Radio. April 6, 2021.

Region’s coronavirus caseload has stalled, leaving experts worried: are we dropping our guard too soon? St. Louis Post-Dispatch. April 4, 2021.

Drops in COVID transmission rates stall in St. Louis area. Associated Press. April 3, 2021.

IMPACT REPORT 2021

10. Missouri COVID-19 rates return to summer levels. St. Louis County forecasts steadier vaccine shipments.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch. February 12, 2021.

11. Missourians aren’t showing up for second COVID-19 vaccine doses, health officials say. St. Louis Public Radio. January 29, 2021.

12. Missouri ranks last in coronavirus vaccinations. St. Louis Public Radio.

January 26, 2021.

13. Virus cases and deaths climb among Missouri nursing home residents and staff. St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

December 14, 2020.

14. The do’s and don’ts of wearing a mask. The Neighbor. December 11, 2020.

15. Missouri can do more to safely keep schools open during COVID surge.

Missouri Independent. December 8, 2020.

16. How important is fresh air in preventing COVID-19 transmission? KSDK. November 17, 2020.

17. Nearly half of Missouri’s COVID deaths occurred in nursing homes.

Missouri Independent. October 23, 2020.

18. Doctors fear flu season could spell trouble for hospitals burdened with the coronavirus. St. Louis Public Radio. September 2, 2020.

APPENDIX

Publications

Comments on the Preliminary Framework for Equitable Allocation of COVID-19 Vaccine, Submission to the National Academies of Science (Sept. 4, 2020) (with Julia Barnes-Weise, Robert Gatter, and Timothy Wiemken)

The Case for Face Shields: Improving the COVID-19 Public Health Policy Toolkit, Bill of Health (Sept. 3, 2020) (with Timothy Wiemken and Robert Gatter)

From Misinformation to Hidden Economic Agendas: The Coronavirus Lawsuit Against China, Duke FinReg Blog (May 7, 2020) (with Robert Gatter)

The COVID-19 Vaccine Patent Waiver: The Wrong Tool for the Right Goal, Bill of Health (May 5, 2021) (with Julia BarnesWeise)

FDA is Departing from Long-Standing Procedures to Deal with Public Health Crises, and this May Foreshadow Problems for COVID-19 Vaccines, The Conversation (Aug. 27, 2020) (with Liza Vertinsky and Yaniv Heled)

Lawsuits as Conduits for Misinformation During COVID-19, Bill of Health (Apr. 30, 2020) (with Robert Gatter)

The Intellectual Property Framework of the COVID-19 Vaccine Race, COVID-19 Law and Human Rights Observatory (Mar. 23, 2021)

Playing Tennis During a Pandemic: From Social Distancing to the Possibility of Mandatory Vaccination, Tennis Life Magazine (Jul. 17, 2020)

Can Employers Require Workers to Take the COVID-19 Vaccine? 6 Questions Answered, The Conversation (Dec. 22, 2020)

How ‘Vaccine Nationalism’ Could Block Vulnerable Populations’ Access to COVID-19 Vaccines, The Conversation; republished

by PBS News Hour and other news outlets; translated into Hungarian and republished by Coronavirus News Live (Jun. 17, 2020)

Why Paying People to Get the Coronavirus Vaccine Won’t Work, The Conversation (Dec. 11, 2020) (with Robert Gatter) Why the Government Shouldn’t Pay People to Get Vaccinated Against COVID-19, Bill of Health (Dec. 1, 2020) Facebook’s Latest Attempt to Address Vaccine Misinformation—And Why It’s Not Enough, Health Affairs Blog (Nov. 5, 2020)

Smoke Screens: An Initial Analysis of the Coronavirus Lawsuits in the United States against China and the World Health Organization, Protego Press (Apr. 22, 2020) (with Robert Gatter) Require Court Orders for All Quarantines, Saint Louis Post-Dispatch op-ed (Mar. 15, 2020) (with Robert Gatter) Mapping Misinformation in the Coronavirus Outbreak, Health Affairs Blog (Mar. 10, 2020) (listed number 2 on Ten MostRead Health Affairs Blog Posts of 2020) (Dec. 31, 2020)

Stay-at-home Order Isn’t Religiously Biased, Saint Louis Post-Dispatch op-ed (Jun. 4, 2020) (with Chad Flanders) 3D Printing: How an Emerging Technology May Help Fight a Pandemic, IPR Info (Finland) (May 25, 2020) (with Dinusha Mendis and Rosa Ballardini)

APPENDIX

255

Geo-Resolution 2021 Student Poster Winners 1st Place

A Small Computer Cluster for Computation onboard an Unmanned Aerial System Mukund Chidambaram, 12th Grade, Lindbergh High School, St. Louis, Missouri

Background

Raspberry Pi Cluster

Results

• Geospatial processes in today’s scientific climate are computationally heavy.

• Parallel processing has risen to meet the challenge of complex programming.

• Size/weight/Power(SWaP) is generally large when looking at traditional parallel processing units • Cannot fly large units, they finish processes from the ground Objective 1: Evaluate a compact computational cluster capable of flying onboard a drone

Objective 2: Assess the cluster’s performance in relation to mainstream high-speed processors

Methods • The cluster is comprised of 1 Raspberry Pi 3B+, which acts as the controller, and 4 Raspberry Pi Zero nodes which assist in computation.

• The 4 nodes are connected to each other and the controller via the ClusterHAT, an attachment which allows all the Pis to connect via LAN. • When running heavy computational tasks, the cluster can utilize MPI4py, a library which allows parts of a task to be distributed amongst the nodes, which can report back to the controller.

Prime Computation • To benchmark the cluster, I created a test which measured the time taken to compute the number of primes between 1 and 25000 • The test was done in three separate trials • I tested the cluster in relation to an ASUS Q552U laptop with an Intel i7 6th gen processor with 12.0 GB RAM and a 2.50GHz processing speed • The Pi 3B+ has 1 GB of RAM and a 1.4 GHz processing speed • All 4 Pi Zeroes have 512 MB of RAM and a 1 GHz processing speed • CPU temperature and time elapsed were the two criteria collected

A Small Computer Cluster for Computation Onboard an Unmanned Aerial System AUTHORS: MUKUND CHIDAMBARAM, LINDBERGH HIGH SCHOOL; SRIKANTH GURURAJAN, SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSIT Y.

“This poster presents the design, capabilities, and future potential of a small computer cluster for use onboard an Unmanned Aerial System (UAS). This Raspberry Pi single board computerbased cluster is composed of a Raspberry Pi 3B+ controller and 4 Raspberry Pi Zero nodes connected via an interface board, named Cluster Hat. The cluster is designed with computing geospatial processes onboard an aircraft in mind. The nodes communicate with the controller via the Hat, while parallel processing is done via a software known as MPI4PY, a message

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SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSIT Y RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Conclusions and Future Work • The cluster’s raw processing speed is roughly 15% of the Q552U, which places the cluster near the level of an Intel Pentium Silver.

• In addition, the cluster maintained a lower average CPU temperature than the Q552U, which speaks to its longevity for future use.

• With the added compactness, this is proof that the cluster can be utilized in onboard processing, as its specs are comparable to a CPU suitable for machine learning.

passing interface which allows users to designate tasks to be done by specific nodes. Performance benchmark tests are currently being performed on the cluster and involve a prime number computation test. Additionally, the CPU temperature readings are also recorded every 0.2 seconds to establish the heat profile. Since the vast majority of geospatial processes are heavy on computation, this approach allows for more efficient task completion as the cluster handles jobs while in flight. When fully implemented, the cluster will be able to read data from a flight controller, and execute a trained neural network, built on Tensorflow and Keras, on said data to predict future values and designate faults in a sensor.”

IMPACT REPORT 2021

APPENDIX

2nd Place

The Development of a UAV Platform for Intelligent Flight Control Saint Louis University Parks College of Engineering, Aviation and Technology Henry Wright Advised by Dr. Srikanth Gururajan

Introduction

Flight Vehicle

Motivation

Initial Design

A new era of aviation is upon us. With the onset of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the nature of flight is poised to change forever. It is predicted that the total value of business and labor across all industries that could be improved with UAVs is upwards of $127.3 billion [1]. Industries and services that will benefit greatly from UAVs include coastal survey, forestry and environmental survey, event coverage, and product delivery. This increased market demand will result in increased autonomy, for reasons of both cost and safety.

Challenges

What happens when an autonomous survey UAV loses a control surface, or when a package delivery drone encounters unexpected weather conditions?

These are several scenarios that can result in catastrophe to the vehicle, people, and infrastructure. In order to fully reap the benefits of this technology, autonomous UAVs must be tolerant to a wide range of failure scenarios and intelligent control is a possible solution.

Unmodeled Flight Conditions

Unmodeled Failures

• Rain and hail

• Structural damage

• High winds

• Sensor failures

• Actuator failures

Current nonǦlinear controllers require a highly precise model to function. This model may not be available during nonǦlinear flight conditions or failures.

Machine learning and other intelligent control techniques can aid in estimating the system model.

Gain Scheduling

Preliminary design was completed using Advanced Aircraft Analysis (AAA), a software made available through DARcorporation. The software allowed for the analysis of different flight regimes and geometries in order to estimate the dynamic stability and maneuverability of the vehicle.

The test vehicle (Figure 1) was designed and manufactured with maneuverability as the driving criteria. In order to meet this criteria, the control surfaces were designed to have high effectiveness and the airframe was manufactured with fiberglass and carbon fiber composites for rigidity.

3. Have the control algorithm recognize a flight failure from the nonlinear model and allocate available controls to maintain vehicle stability.

Airframe

Length

52 in

Span

42 in

Weight

7Ǧ8 lb

Static Thrust

7Ǧ8 lb

2. Estimate the model online during linear and nonlinear flight conditions, using intelligent system identification methods for the nonǦlinear model.

Linear Flight Conditions

Flight Computer and Sensors The vehicle is equipped with a Pixhawk 4 commercial flight computer with 3 IMUs, GPS, and altimeter to determine the body and inertial positions and attitudes. The vehicle is also equipped with an air data boom that allows for the measurement of airspeed, angle of attack, and angle of sideslip (Figure 2).

Goals

1. Identify the model offline during linear and nonlinear flight conditions.

Figure 1: CAD generated image of the vehicle (left) and general specifications (right)

Multiple Models

Flight Testing Flight testing will be performed in multiple stages of increasing complexity with a highly organized mission structure. Online and offline model estimation are a key component in determining the correct control allocation during unexpected failures or other nonǦlinear flight conditions.

Non-linear Flight Conditions

Traditional Control

Injected Flight Failures

Intelligent Control

Project’s Current State

Currently, the airframe has almost been completed (Figure 3) and a second one is being manufactured as well. We are excited to begin flight testing before the end of September 2021.

Precise System Model

Dynamic Inversion

Research Objectives

Figure 2: CAD generated image of the air data boom

This research aims to accomplish the following:

• Design and develop an agile UAV

• Design and program a controller capable of intelligent control • Flight test under different flight conditions

• Compare performance to traditional control techniques

The Development of a UAV Platform for Intelligent Flight Control AUTHORS: HENRY WRIGHT, SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSIT Y; SRIKANTH GURURAJAN, SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSIT Y.

“A new era of aviation is upon us. With the onset of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the nature of flight is poised to change forever. It is predicted that the total value of business and labor across all industries that could be improved with UAVs is upwards of $127.3 billion The increase in the demand for UAVs will naturally lead to increased autonomy for reasons of both safety and cost, but we will not be able to fully reap the benefits of these autonomous UAVs until they are able to fly safely in urban or cluttered environments, under a wide range

Figure 3: Current vehicle

Acknowledgments

I would like to acknowledge the Office of Graduate Education and Research of Parks College as well as the student participants of the AirCRAFT Lab.

References

[1] Drone Powered Solutions, "Clarity from above," PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2016 [2] www.darcorp.com/advancedǦaircraftǦanalysisǦsoftware

of conditions. Research in intelligent adaptive flight controllers to address this is active and strides have been made, but the robustness of these flight controllers in autonomous vehicles experiencing unmodeled nonlinearities including system failures, especially under non-ideal atmospheric conditions, remains to be determined. In the case of autonomous UAVs, these failures can be random and possibly unidentifiable.

Consequently, the most promising method of control would be for the system to learn the best allocation of its resources, following a failure. This current research project focuses on bridging this gap through the extensive development and testing of an autonomous UAV in these unmodeled conditions. The UAV, modeled after a T-38, is currently being manufactured and the intelligent flight controller is beginning to be developed.

Flight testing has not yet occurred, but it is expected that this flight controller aided by machine learning will outperform traditional adaptive control techniques.”

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Geo-Resolution 2021 Student Poster Winners continued

3rd Place Tie Racial Bias in Contaminated Land Locations: Assessment of St. Louis Metro Area Radioactive Sites and Brownfield Contaminated Land Alexander Yentumi1 1Harris-Stowe

Goal

Motivated by the desire to rehabilitate contaminated lands in a way that priorities social justice, the research goal was to conduct a case study of the St. Louis Metropolitan Area to see how populations of African-Americans were impacted by contaminated lands.

Specifically, our approach was to examine the extent to which contaminated land coincides with areas of higher percent of black population.

Two types of contaminated lands were studied in particular: radioactive sites and brownfields.

Radioactive Sites

Locations where radioactive materials was manufactured, used, stored, or disposed of improperly.

Brownfields

Property whose use is complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant or contaminant.

Brownfields and Radioactive Site Examples

Radioactive Sites

T = σ𝑛𝑛𝑖𝑖=0 𝑃𝑃𝑖𝑖𝐴𝐴𝑖𝑖

Percent Black = B/T

This allowed us to calculate B, the total black population, and T, the total population by taking a summation of the density in a buffer zone (Di for black and Pi for total) multiplied by the area of a tract (Ai) present in the buffer zone. Then the percent black was calculated by dividing black population by total population.

An abandoned factory is a hazardous brownfield until rehabilitation takes place. Source: Commons.wikimedia.org

Brownfields and Grid-cells

Brownfields were a point data set representing sources of contamination within the metro area. To examine the relationship between brownfields and race, we created 1-km grid cells aggregating the number of brownfields in each grid cell. Then, we visualized the percent black data in each tract with the aggregated brownfield count data.

Results This map is the Greater Saint Louis with radioactive waste dumping in Saint Metropolitan Area, with counties A landfill Louis.

Source: en.wikipedia.org designated by the East-West Gateway displayed as the region of study in red.

Analyzing the African-American or Black population in buffer zones designated as areas of interest led to the conclusion that North county suffers from inequitable environmental planning. Looking at a 3 mile buffer around each of the radioactive sites showed that in the two more populated zones, blacks are represented at a mark above the national average.

With these data constraints, we first created a 3-mile buffer around the radioactive sites as an area of interest. Then, using Arc Pro’s intersect tool, the US Census tract data were attached to the buffer. We then restricted the data to the intersection of census tracts with the area of interest. The following calculations (using the dissolve tool) brought us to percent black in each of the three buffer zones: 𝐵𝐵 = σ𝑛𝑛𝑖𝑖=0 𝐷𝐷𝑖𝑖𝐴𝐴𝑖𝑖

The inside a of former Superfund Site that is being cleaned. Source: flickr.com/photos/velo_city

Results Continued

Data & Methodology To examine the relationship between contaminated land and percent black, the Race Demographics in the 2010 Census data was obtained through the living atlas of ArcGIS Pro for data on population density by race and census tract area. Additionally, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Facility Registry Sites of Interest (FRS Interest) which marks contaminated land locations was compiled with US Counties data. From the FRS Interest data, the selection of contaminated sites was limited to ACRES (brownfield sites) and RADINFO (radioactive sites) clipped to the Saint Louis area via the counties data.

Visualizing the extent to which higher densities of brownfields are located within areas of higher concentration of black populations, we see that all regions with the most abundant brownfield counts fell in areas with more than 80% black populations. Saint Louis City and North County, known for higher black populations, had the highest number of brownfields. Saint Louis County areas more westward were noticeably absent in terms of brownfield developments.

Black Population In radioactive areas 4%, 14% & 37%

Saint Louis Metro Area

National Average (based on census.gov)

18.8%

13.4%

Conclusion Areas that are designated as contaminated have a higher percent black population. The fact remains that racial injustice exists in contaminated land locations. Minority populations overlap with these uses of land more so than do their white counterparts. This dilemma of locating environmental waste emphasizes the socioeconomic inequality that exists in the United States, particularly in the Saint Louis Metro Area.

Rehabilitation of contaminated lands is therefore an issue of racial justice. This research serves as a starting point to furthering efforts to make policy that not only revitalizes land but is also more mindful of potentially restricting land utilization to be more equitable. Our hope is that this can contribute to the public narrative that influences environmental and racial justice in our local community.

Acknowledgements I would like to thank Dr. Vasit Sagan and Justin Vilbig for sharing their pearls of wisdom with me during this research. I am also immensely grateful to Dr. Ann Podleski for her guidance and poster edits. Finally, I would like to gratefully acknowledge the financial and professional support of the Minority Science and Engineering Improvement Program under the Federal Department of Education, Award No. P120A1600064 and the NASA grant cooperative agreement #80NSSC20M0100.

Source: East-West Gateway

Racial Bias in Contaminated Land Locations: Assessment of St. Louis Metro Area Radioactive Sites and Brownfield Contaminated Land AUTHOR: ALEX YENTUMI, HARRIS-STOWE STATE UNIVERSIT Y; SRIKANTH GURURAJAN, SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSIT Y.

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“Motivated by the desire to rehabilitate contaminated lands in a way that prioritizes social justice, the research goal was to conduct a case study of the St. Louis Metropolitan Area to see how populations of African-Americans were impacted by contaminated lands. Specifically, by considering how contaminated lands coincided with black populations, an assessment was made of how much contaminated lands are impacting blacks. Two types of contaminated lands were studied in particular: radioactive sites and brownfields. We used the Saint Louis Metro Area for study.

IMPACT REPORT 2021

APPENDIX An Experimental-Computational Investigation of Damaged UAV Wings: Detecting and Locating Damage Using Machine Learning Saint Louis University Parks College of Engineering, Aviation and Technology Siddharth Chandra Shekar Advised by Dr. Srikanth Gururajan

MACHINE LEARNING

Introduction Drones

A method to label the damage was developed called the labelling matrix.

Having

The

EPOCH - 2

Machine

EPOCH - 3

Figure 6 visualizes the learning process after every epoch of training.

EPOCH - 4

are now being more prominently used in everyday life like shooting movies, collecting data for research, delivery, etc. If there is a sudden damage during one of these tasks, there is a need to identify the extent of damage immediately. the capability to do so will help the drone to continue its mission without having the need to come in for repairs or stop the mission completely.

My research proposes developing a method to detect, identify and characterize

the damage so that the aircraft can deploy counter measures to either continue the mission or land safely.

Figure 3 shows the Labelling Matrix which is used to label the damage per grid

EPOCH - 1

point – 0 indicating no damage and 1 indicating that the damage has gone all the way thought the wing section.

label matrix is associated with the respective data from that specific damage configuration.

A

database is built by compiling the data from all the different combination of damage.

Learning was implemented that mapped the difference in performance of each airfoil to the labelling matrix.

With

proper training, the algorithm can predict what possible damage could be. The machine learning algorithm chosen was a Multi Layered Perceptron.

EPOCH - 5

EPOCH - 10

EPOCH - 15

Figure 1: Sharpshooter UAS during Flight Testing

WIND TUNNEL TESTING The Sharpshooter UAV is a custom built UAS part of the The airfoil chosen was a NACA 2410.

Figure 3: Labeling Matrix

AIRCRAFT lab at SLU.

EPOCH - 20

Two types of damage was induced: Structured (Modular) and Un-structured.

Figure 6: Visualizing the learning process

Undamaged

and Damaged wings were run in the wind tunnel to obtain the difference in performance of the wings when damaged.

FUTURE WORK

There is a limit to the number of wings that can be built and damaged.

Figure 4: Complete Left Wing Assembly

Computational

Fluid Dynamics (CFD) can be used to further increase the amount of training data available.

Flight

testing with the damaged wings is planned to be performed to better identify the real world effects of the damage .

Label Matrix

Database Wind Tunnel Data Figure 2 (Left): Wind Tunnel Testing. (Right): Different combinations of Damage

Multi Layer Perceptron

Figure 5: Work Flow

Damage Prediction

This

tool can be deployed in real time onboard flight controllers that can immediately identify and categorize the damage and deploy countermeasures to ensure that the UAS can continue flying or land in a safe and controlled manner.

Acknowledgments

I would like to acknowledge the Office of Graduate Education and Research of Parks College as well as the student participants of the AirCRAFT Lab.

An Experimental-Computational Investigation of Damaged UAV Wings- Detecting and Locating Damage Using Machine Learning AUTHOR: SIDDHARTH CHANDRA SHEKAR, SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSIT Y.

“With a steady increase in the role that UAVs play in our day to day lives, their robustness and resilience becomes more important for safe operations. In-flight wing damage could potentially interfere with the operations of these small autonomous aircraft - the level of damage could vary and sometimes might not immediately render the aircraft unflyable in level flight, but the same damage could potentially lead to undesirable effects while the aircraft is making maneuvers. If the on-board flight controller does not identify such wing damage, it is likely for such sudden changes to be too much for

the aircraft to safely recover from. In either condition (benign or unrecoverable), awareness of the extent of damage is critical in order to continue the mission or land safely. The work presented here is a follow-up to our prior work to investigate asymmetric wing damage using a combination of wind tunnel experiments; in this effort we discuss implementing machine learning techniques on the data from computational simulations and wind tunnel experiments to predict the potential areas and extent of damage on the wing surface.”

APPENDIX

259

The AHEAD Institute New Grants and Contracts

PI/PD

SUPPORTING AGENCY

TOTAL $

EFFECTIVE AND

AND AGENCY ACTIVE

AMOUNT

EXPIRATION

ROLE

TITLE OF PROJECT

Improving Health through Data

DATES

AWARD/PENDING PROPOSAL NUMBER

Leslie Hinyard Ph.D., MSW – Executive Director

Saint Louis University Big Idea Initiative

$1,500,000

2019present

Principal Investigator

Leslie Hinyard Ph.D., MSW – Executive Director

National Institute of Nursing Research R21NR017978

$183,071

2021

CoInvestigator

Leslie Hinyard Ph.D., MSW – Executive Director

National Institute of Nursing Research R21NR017978-01A1

$472,276

20202022

CoInvestigator

The Impact of Live Discharge from Hospice on Patients and Caregivers (PI—Cara Wallace, PhD, MSW)

$290,896

02/15/202002/14/2022

Co-Principal Investigator

Common Adult Vaccinations and Incident Dementia

$1,867,551 Health Resources and Jeffrey Scherrer, Services Administration Ph.D. – Senior Director of Research T0BHP30018

7/1/20166/30/2021

CoInvestigator (PI Jacobs)

Primary Care Training and Enhancement (PCTE) Award

Jeffrey Scherrer, National Institute on Ph.D. – Senior Drug Abuse Director of Research R01DA043811-01A1

4/1/20193/31/2024

Principal Investigator

Pathways from Chronic Prescription Opioid Use to New Onset Mood Disorder

Jeffrey Scherrer, The Benter Foundation Ph.D. – Senior 2020-01 Director of Research

$3,653,634

The Social Context of Live Discharge from Hospice for Family Caregivers of Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (PI—Cara Wallace, PhD, MSW)

Under Review: Jeffrey Scherrer, • Buprenorphine Health Services Use and Outcome in Pure Prescription Opioid Dependence compared to Other Ph.D. – Senior Forms of Prescription Opioid Dependence, R01 application to be reviewed in October and submitted to NIDA Director of Research • Clinically Meaningful PTSD Improvement: Reducing Risk for Adverse Outcomes in Comorbid Cardiometabolic Disease, R01 submitted to NHLBI

260

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IMPACT REPORT 2021

APPENDIX

PI/PD

SUPPORTING AGENCY

TOTAL $

EFFECTIVE AND

AND AGENCY ACTIVE

AMOUNT

EXPIRATION

ROLE

TITLE OF PROJECT

DATES

AWARD/PENDING PROPOSAL NUMBER

Megan Ferber, Ph.D., LMFT – CRSP Fellow

Missouri Foundation for Health FLOURISH Aligned Activities for Priority Areas Grant

$149,548

CoInvestigator

MOM - Making Optimal Mental Healthcare

Megan Ferber, Ph.D., LMFT – CRSP Fellow

SLU’s Research Institute Spark Microgrant

$868

Principal Investigator

Psychosocial variables and their association on treatment adherence among emerging adults with a history of sports-related concussion

Megan Ferber, Ph.D., LMFT – CRSP Fellow

Washington University of St. Louis Institute of Clinical and Translational Studies Just-in-Time Funding

$2,925

CoInvestigator

Hitting Home: COVID-19 and Conjunctive Financial and Job Insecurities Effects On Family

Megan Ferber, Ph.D., LMFT – CRSP Fellow

Under Review: Health Care Systems Research Network’s Mental Health Research Network Pilot Funding

$14,124

6/18/2021

Principal Investigator

Assessing association between successful weight loss and maternal mental health outcomes in a multi-state healthcare system

$3,000

March 2021

Principal Investigator

Analysis of outcomes, cost, efficiency, and coordination of clinical care delivered through pediatric interdisciplinary aerodigestive program

Dirhen Patel, M.D. – Under Review: Clinical CRSP Fellow and Translational Research Funding Program

Principal Investigator

Dysmotility in patients with intestinal malrotation

Dirhen Patel, M.D. – In Preparation: RO3 CRSP Fellow

Principal Investigator

Dysmotility in patients with intestinal malrotation

Dirhen Patel, M.D. – SLU Applied Health CRSP Fellow Sciences Research Grant Program

Jennifer Brinkmeier, NIDCD/University of M.D. – CRSP Fellow Utah

2018–2023

Randomized Controlled Trial of Valganciclovir for Cytomegalovirus Infected Hearing Impaired Infants

Jennifer Brinkmeier, CDC/Eastern Virginia M.D. – CRSP Fellow Medical School

2018–2021

Registry for Prospective Monitoring of Juvenile Onset Recurrent Respiratory Papillomatosis (JORRP)

APPENDIX

261

The AHEAD Institute Publications

LESLIE HINYARD, PH.D., MSW – EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

McKee, A., Al-Hammadi, N., & Hinyard, L., (In Press). Disparities in utilization and outcomes with continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion in young adults with T1D. Endocrine Practice.

Wallace, C.L., Trees, A., Ohs, J., & Hinyard, L. (In Press). Narrative medicine for healthcare providers: Improving practices Omega—Journal of Death and Dying.

Bhatt, R., Davaro, F., Wong, R., Siddiqui, S., Hinyard, L., & Hamilton, Z. (2021).

Contemproary analysis of epididymal tumors using a national database.

Central European Journal of Urology, 74(1), 39-43.

McKee, A., Al-Hammadi, N., & Hinyard, L. (2021). Outcomes for continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion users in young adults from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism.

Cai, M., Zhang, B., Yang, R., Zheng, R., Dong, G., Lin, H., Rigdon, S.E., Xian, H., Hinyard, L., Xaverius, P.K., Liu, E., Burroughs, T.E., Jansson, D.R., LeBaige, M.H., Yang, S., & Qian, Z. (2021). Association between maternal outdoor physical exercise and the risk of preterm birth: a case-control study in Wuhan, China. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, 21, 206. https://doi-org.ezp. slu.edu/10.1186/s12884-021-03678-9.

Bitter, C.C., Patel, N., & Hinyard, L. (2021). Depiction of resuscitation on medical dramas: Proposed effect on patient expectations. Cureus, 13(4), e14419. DOI 10.7759/cureus.14419 262

Hamilton, Z.A., Carbonella, J., Siddiqui, S., Al-Hammadi, N., & Hinyard, L. (2021). Infectious complications associated with perioperative blood transfusion in partial or radical nephrectomy. Urologic Oncology: Seminars and Original Investigations, 39(2), 134.e17-134.e26.

Pennell, N.A., Dillmon, M., Levit, L.A., Moushey, E.A., Alva, A.S., Blau, S., Cannon, T.L., Dickson, N.R., Diehn, M., Gonen, M., Magdalena Gonzalez, M., Hensold, J.O., Hinyard, L. J., King, T., Lindsey, S.C., Magnuson, A., Marron, J., McAneny, B.L., McDonnell, T.M., Finch Mileham, K., Fuld Nasso, S., Nowakowski, G.S., Oettel, K.R., Patel, M.I., Patt, D.A., Perlumutter, J., Pickard, T.A., Rodiguez, G., Rosenberg, A.R., Bourbeau, B., Bruinooge, S. S., Foster, S., Grubbs, S., Hagerty, K., Hurley, P., Kamin, D., Phillips, J., Schenkel, C., Schilsky, R.L., & Burris, H.A. (2020).

American Society of Clinical Oncology Road to Recovery Report: Learning from the COVID-19 experience to improve clinical research and cancer care. Journal of Clinical Oncology 0 0:0.

JCO.20.02953.

Breitbach, A.P., Pole, D., Rauvola, R.S., Kettenbach, G., & Hinyard, L. (2020). Longitudinal assessment of students’ perceived collaboration skills at an institution with a structured interprofessional education curriculum.

Journal of Allied Health, 49(4), 235-245.

JEFFREY SCHERRER, PH.D. – SENIOR DIRECTOR FOR RESEARCH

Day P., Secrest S., Davis D., Salas J., van

SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSIT Y RESEARCH INSTITUTE

IMPACT REPORT 2021

den Berk-Clark C., Kale N., Hearing C., Schneider F.D., Scherrer J.F. and the ARCHNet Investigators. Prescription Opioid Use Duration and Beliefs about Pain and Pain Medication in Primary Care Patients. Journal of Opioid Management. In Press.

Gebauer S., Salas J., Scherrer J., Callahan L. Which Aspects of Neighborhood Environment are Most Associated with Meeting Physical Activity Recommendations in American AdultsAn NHIS Study. BMJ-Open. 2020. In Press.

Scherrer J.F., Salas J., Grucza R., Sullivan M.D., Lustman P.J., Copeland L.A., Ballantyne J.C. Depression and Buprenorphine Treatment in Patients with Non-Cancer Pain and Prescription Opioid Dependence without Comorbid Substance Use Disorders. Journal of Affective Disorders. In Press.

Scherrer J.F., Tucker J., Salas J., Zidong Zhang, Grucza R. Comparison of opioids prescribed for patients at risk for opioid misuse before and after CDC opioid prescribing guidelines. JAMA Network Open. 2020;3(12):e2027481. PMCID: PMC7711316.

Salas J., Norman S.B., Tuerk P.W., van den Berk-Clark C., Cohen B.E., Schneider F.D., Chard K.M., Lustman P.J., Schnurr P.P., Friedman M.J., Grucza R., Scherrer J.F. PTSD Improvement and Substance Use Disorder Treatment Utilization in Veterans: Evidence from Medical Record Data. Drug and Alcohol Dependence. In Press.

Tucker J., Salas J., Zhang Z., Grucza R., Scherrer J.F. Provider specialty and odds of a new codeine, hydrocodone,

APPENDIX oxycodone and tramadol prescription before and after the CDC opioid prescribing guideline publication.

Preventive Medicine. In Press.

Scherrer J.F., Salas J., Wiemken T.L., Jacobs C., Morley J.E., Hoft D.F. Lower Risk for Dementia Following Adult Tetanus, Diphtheria and Pertussis (Tdap) Vaccination. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2021. Online ahead of print.

Salas J., Li X., Xian H., Sullivan M.D., Ballantyne J.C., Lustman P.J., Grucza R., Scherrer J.F. Opioid dosing among patients with 3 or more years of continuous prescription opioid use before and after the CDC opioid prescribing guideline. Int J Drug Policy.

2021. In Press.

Scherrer J.F., Sullivan M.D. Is obesity associated with odds of prescription opioid use independent of depression?

Pain. 2020. In Press.

RICHARD GRUCZA, PH.D. – CORE FACULT Y

Bourdon J.L., Francis M.W., Jia L., Liang C., Robinson H.I., Grucza R.A. The effect of cannabis policies on treatment outcomes for cannabis use among U.S. adults. J Subst Abuse Treat. 2021 Jun 11; 108535. doi: 10.1016/j.jsat.2021.108535.

[Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 34154870.

doi: 10.1111/acer.14609. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 33993541; NIHMSID:NIHMS1707510.

doi: 10.1080/08897077.2021.1876199.

[Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 33617738.

Bray M.J., Chen L.S., Fox L., Ma Y., Grucza R.A., Hartz S.M., Culverhouse R.C., Saccone N.L., Hancock D.B., Johnson E.O., McKay J.D., Baker T.B., Bierut L.J. Studying the utility of using genetics to predict smoking-related outcomes in a population-based study and a selected cohort. Nicotine Tob Res. 2021 May 15. doi: 10.1093/ntr/ntab100.

[Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 33991188.

Cavazos-Rehg P., Li X., Kasson E., Kaiser N., Borodovsky J.T., Grucza R., Chen L.S., Bierut L.J. Exploring How Social Media Exposure and Interactions Are Associated With ENDS and Tobacco Use in Adolescents From the PATH Study. Nicotine Tob Res. 2021 Feb 16;23(3):487-494. doi: 10.1093/ntr/ ntaa113. PubMed PMID: 32598479; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7885778.

Tucker J., Salas J., Zhang Z., Grucza R., Scherrer J.F. Provider specialty and odds of a new codeine, hydrocodone, oxycodone and tramadol prescription before and after the CDC opioid prescribing guideline publication.

Prev Med. 2021 May;146:106466. doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2021.106466. Epub 2021 Feb 23. PubMed PMID: 33636196.

Borodovsky J.T., Krueger R.F., Agrawal A., Elbanna B., de Looze M., Grucza RA. U.S. Trends in Adolescent Substance Use and Conduct Problems and Their Relation to Trends in Unstructured InPerson Socializing With Peers. J Adolesc Health. 2021 Apr 1. doi: 10.1016/j. jadohealth.2020.12.144. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 33814281; NIHMSID:NIHMS1678997.

Salas J., Li X., Xian H., Sullivan M.D., Ballantyne J.C., Lustman P.J., Grucza R., Scherrer J.F. Opioid dosing among patients with 3 or more years of continuous prescription opioid use before and after the CDC opioid prescribing guideline. Int J Drug Policy.

2021 Jun 4; 97:103308. doi: 10.1016/j. drugpo.2021.103308. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 34098282.

Xu K.Y., Borodovsky J.T., Presnall N., Mintz C.M., Hartz S.M., Bierut L.J., Grucza R.A. Association Between Benzodiazepine or Z-Drug Prescriptions and Drug-Related Poisonings Among Patients Receiving Buprenorphine Maintenance: A Case-Crossover Analysis. Am J Psychiatry. 2021 Mar 3; appiajp202020081174. doi: 10.1176/ appi.ajp.2020.20081174. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 33653119; NIHMSID:NIHMS1673224.

Mintz C.M., Hartz S.M., Fisher S.L., Ramsey A.T., Geng E.H., Grucza R.A., Bierut L.J. A cascade of care for alcohol use disorder: Using 2015-2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health data to identify gaps in past 12-month care.

Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2021 May 16.

Cavazos-Rehg P., Xu C., Krauss M.J., Min C., Winograd R., Grucza R., Bierut L.J. Understanding barriers to treatment among individuals not engaged in treatment who misuse opioids: A structural equation modeling approach. Subst Abus. 2021 Feb 22; 1-20.

Cavazos-Rehg P., Li X., Kasson E., Kaiser N., Borodovsky J., Grucza R.A. Investigating the role of familial and peer-related factors on electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) use among U.S. adolescents. J Adolesc.

2021 Feb;87:98-105. doi: 10.1016/j. adolescence.2021.01.003. Epub 2021 Feb 3. PubMed PMID: 33548695.

Borodovsky J.T., Sofis M.J., Grucza R.A., Budney A.J. The importance of psychology for shaping legal cannabis regulation. Exp Clin Psychopharmacol.

2021 Feb;29(1):99-115. doi: 10.1037/ pha0000362. Epub 2020 May 21. Review.

PubMed PMID: 32437193; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7679279.

Xu K.Y., Presnall N., Mintz C.M., Borodovsky J.T., Bhat N.R., Bierut L.J., Grucza R.A. Association of Opioid Use Disorder Treatment With AlcoholRelated Acute Events. JAMA Netw Open.

2021 Feb 1;4(2):e210061. doi: 10.1001/ jamanetworkopen.2021.0061. PubMed PMID: 33625511; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7905500.

Scherrer J.F., Salas J., Grucza R., Sullivan M.D., Lustman P.J., Copeland L.A., Ballantyne J.C. Depression and Buprenorphine Treatment in Patients with Non-cancer Pain and Prescription Opioid Dependence without Comorbid Substance Use Disorders. J Affect Disord.

2021 Jan 1;278:563-569. doi: 10.1016/j. jad.2020.09.089. Epub 2020 Sep 28.

PubMed PMID: 33022442.

Salas J., Norman S.B., Tuerk P.W., den Berk-Clark C.V., Cohen B.E., Schneider F.D., Chard K.M., Lustman P.J., Schnurr APPENDIX

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P.P., Friedman M.J., Grucza R., Scherrer J.F. PTSD improvement and substance use disorder treatment utilization in veterans: Evidence from medical record data. Drug Alcohol Depend.

2021 Jan 1;218:108365. doi: 10.1016/j. drugalcdep.2020.108365. Epub 2020 Oct 18. PubMed PMID: 33109460; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7750304.

Plunk A.D., Rees V.W., Jeng A., Wray J.A., Grucza R.A. Increases in Secondhand Smoke After Going SmokeFree: An Assessment of the Impact of a Mandated Smoke-Free Housing Policy. Nicotine Tob Res. 2020 Dec 12;22(12):2254-2256. doi: 10.1093/ntr/ ntaa040. PubMed PMID: 32080738; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7899270.

Johnson E.C., Demontis D., Thorgeirsson T.E., Walters R.K., Polimanti R., Hatoum A.S., SanchezRoige S., Paul S.E., Wendt F.R., Clarke T.K., Lai D., Reginsson G.W., Zhou H., He J., Baranger D.A.A, Gudbjartsson D.F., Wedow R., Adkins D.E., Adkins A.E., Alexander J., Bacanu S.A., Bigdeli T.B., Boden J., Brown S.A., Bucholz K.K., Bybjerg-Grauholm J., Corley R.P., Degenhardt L., Dick D.M., Domingue B.W., Fox L., Goate A.M., Gordon S.D., Hack L.M., Hancock D.B., Hartz S.M., Hickie I.B., Hougaard D.M., Krauter K., Lind P.A., McClintick J.N., McQueen M.B., Meyers J.L., Montgomery G.W., Mors O., Mortensen P.B., Nordentoft M., Pearson J.F., Peterson R.E., Reynolds M.D., Rice J.P., Runarsdottir V., Saccone N.L., Sherva R., Silberg J.L., Tarter R.E., Tyrfingsson T., Wall T.L., Webb B.T., Werge T., Wetherill L., Wright M.J., Zellers S., Adams M.J., Bierut L.J., Boardman J.D., Copeland W.E., Farrer L.A., Foroud T.M., Gillespie

264

N.A., Grucza R.A., Harris K.M., Heath A.C., Hesselbrock V., Hewitt J.K., Hopfer C.J., Horwood J, Iacono WG, Johnson E.O., Kendler K.S., Kennedy M.A., Kranzler H.R., Madden P.A.F., Maes H.H., Maher B.S., Martin N.G., McGue M., McIntosh A.M., Medland S.E., Nelson E.C., Porjesz B., Riley B.P., Stallings M.C., Vanyukov M.M., Vrieze S., Davis L.K., Bogdan R., Gelernter J., Edenberg H.J., Stefansson K., Børglum A.D., Agrawal A. A large-scale genomewide association study meta-analysis of cannabis use disorder. Lancet Psychiatry.

2020 Dec;7(12):1032-1045. doi: 10.1016/ S2215-0366(20)30339-4. Epub 2020 Oct 20. PubMed PMID: 33096046; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7674631.

Scherrer J.F., Tucker J., Salas J., Zhang Z., Grucza R. Comparison of Opioids Prescribed for Patients at Risk for Opioid Misuse Before and After Publication of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Opioid Prescribing Guidelines. JAMA Netw Open. 2020 Dec 1;3(12):e2027481. doi: 10.1001/ jamanetworkopen.2020.27481. PubMed PMID: 33263762; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7711316.

Xu K.Y., Hartz S.M., Borodovsky J.T., Bierut L.J., Grucza R.A. Association Between Benzodiazepine Use With or Without Opioid Use and AllCause Mortality in the United States, 1999-2015. JAMA Netw Open. 2020 Dec 1;3(12):e2028557. doi: 10.1001/ jamanetworkopen.2020.28557. PubMed PMID: 33295972; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7726637.

Grucza R.A., Bello-Kottenstette J.K., Mintz C.M., Borodovsky J.T. The changing landscape of alcohol use disorder and problem drinking in the

SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSIT Y RESEARCH INSTITUTE

IMPACT REPORT 2021

USA: implications for primary care. Fam Pract. 2020 Nov 28;37(6):870-872. doi: 10.1093/fampra/cmaa066. PubMed PMID: 32634209; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7699309.

Mintz C.M., Hartz S.M., Fisher S.L., Ramsey A.T., Geng E.H., Grucza R.A., Bierut L.J. A Cascade of Care for Alcohol Use Disorder: Using 2015-2018 National Survey on Drug Use and Health Data to Identify Gaps in Care. medRxiv. 2020 Nov 4;. doi: 10.1101/2020.10.30.20222695. PubMed PMID: 33173882; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7654865.

Quach B.C., Bray M.J., Gaddis N.C., Liu M., Palviainen T., Minica C.C., Zellers S., Sherva R., Aliev F., Nothnagel M., Young K.A., Marks J.A., Young H., Carnes M.U., Guo Y., Waldrop A., Sey N.Y.A, Landi M.T., McNeil D.W., Drichel D., Farrer L.A., Markunas C.A., Vink J.M., Hottenga J.J., Iacono W.G., Kranzler H.R., Saccone N.L., Neale M.C., Madden P., Rietschel M., Marazita M.L., McGue M., Won H., Winterer G., Grucza R., Dick D.M., Gelernter J., Caporaso N.E., Baker T.B., Boomsma D.I., Kaprio J., Hokanson J.E., Vrieze S., Bierut L.J., Johnson E.O., Hancock D.B. Expanding the genetic architecture of nicotine dependence and its shared genetics with multiple traits. Nat Commun. 2020 Nov 3;11(1):5562. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-19265-z. PubMed PMID: 33144568; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7642344.

CHRIST PRENER, PH.D. – CORE FACULT Y

Garverich, S., C. Prener, M. Guyer-

APPENDIX Deason, and A. Lincoln. 2021. “What matters: Factors impacting the recovery process.” Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal 44(1):77-86.

with county-level COVID-19 case and death rates in the continental United States.” Manuscript under review for Public Health.

Lincoln, A., M. Eyllon, C. Prener, S. Garverich, J. Griffith, W. Adams, T. Arford, L. Rosenfeld, S. Nykiel, P. Johnson, M. Guyer-Deason, J. Leung, and M. Paasche-Orlow. 2021.

“Prevalence and Predictors of Limited Literacy among Public Mental Health Service Users.” Community Mental Health Journal 57(6):1175-1186.

Revord, R. and C. Prener. “Stigma with a Smile: The Trivialization of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder on Twitter.”

Manuscript under review for Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

Prener, C. Online First. “Demographic Change, Segregation, and the Emergence of Marginal Spaces in St. Louis, Missouri.” Journal of Applied Geography.

Munigala, S., Subramaniam, D.S., Subramaniam, D.P. et al. Incidence and Risk of Pancreatic Cancer in Patients with a New Diagnosis of Chronic Pancreatitis. Dig Dis Sci (2021). https:// doi.org/10.1007/s10620-021-06886-7.

Grant, A., Borders, E., & Ferriby Ferber, M. (under review). Adverse childhood experiences and adult mental health outcomes: A systemic review. Family Relations.

MEGAN FERBER, PH.D., LMFT –

Jacobs, C., Ferriby Ferber, M., Zubatsky, J.M., & Cronholm, P.F. (under revision).

Faculty engagement and productivity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Family Medicine.

Prener, C. and B. Fox. Online First.

“Creating Open Source Composite Geocoders: Pitfalls and Opportunities.”

Transactions in GIS. Wiemken T., A. Santos Rutschman A, S. Niemotka S, and C. Prener. Online First. “Excess mortality in the United States in 2020: Forecasting and Anomaly Detection.” American Journal of Infection Control.

Wiemken, T., S. Niemotka, and C. Prener. Forthcoming. “Methodology Minute: A statistical test primer for infection prevention and control.”

American Journal of Infection Control.

Prener, C. 2021. “Review: Bandage, Sort, and Hustle - Ambulance Crews on the Front Lines of Urban Suffering.” Social Forces soab039.

Prener, C., K. Donaldson, E. Rhinesmith, and T. Wiemken. 2020. “Missouri can do more to safely keep schools open during COVID surge.” Missouri Independent, Dec. 8.

Prener, C. Medicine at the Margins: Space, Place, Poverty, and Urban Emergency Medical Services. Manuscript under review for Fordham University Press.

Eden, J., J. Salas, A. Santos Rutschman, C. Prener, S. Niemotka, and T. Wiemken.

“Associations of presidential voting preference and gubernatorial control

DIVYA SUBRAMANIAM, PH.D., MPH – CORE FACULT Y

CRSP FELLOW

Ferriby Ferber, M., Heiden-Rootes, K., Meyer, D., Zubatsky, M., & Wittenborn, A. (in press) Couple and family therapy students’ experience of transitioning to teletherapy and telesupervision in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

International Journal of Systemic Therapy. https://doi.org/10.1080/26923 98X.2021.1936878.

Pratt, K., Kiser, H., Ferriby Ferber, M., Whiting, R., Needleman, B., & Noria, S. (in press). Impaired family functioning affects 6 month but not 12 month postoperative weight loss. Obesity Surgery. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s11695-021-05448-0 IF = 3.412.

Heiden-Rootes, K., Ferber, M., Meyer, D., Zubatsky, M., & Wittenborn, A. (2021). Relational Teletherapy Experiences of Couple and Family Therapy Trainees: “Reading the Room,” Exhaustion, and the Comforts of Home.

Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 47, 342-358. https://doi.org/10.1111/ jmft.12486IF = 2.528.

Under Review: Ferriby Ferber, M., Chen, T.H., Vallot,

P., McHowat, J., & Bitter, C. (under review). Detrimental effects on worklife integration, career development, and the prevalence of burnout among academic faculty during COVID-19: The Experience of One Institution. Medical Teacher.

Ferriby Ferber, M., Zubatsky, J.M., Jacobs, C., & Cronholm, P.F. (under review). COVID-19 exposure risk, burnout and shifts in Family Medicine faculty’s efforts: A national survey.

Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine.

ZACHARY HAMILTON, M.D. – CRSP FELLOW

Douglas B., Davaro F., May A., Siddiqui S., Hamilton Z. Clinical characteristics of renal cell carcinoma in patients under the age of forty. Urol Oncol, 2021. (accepted) Rosen G, Anwar T, Syed J, Weinstein D, Ravichandran S, Bailey J, Hamilton Z, Murray KS. Initial experience with apixaban for extended venous thromboembolism prophylaxis after radical cystectomy. Eur Urol Foc, 2021. (accepted) Bhatt R, Davaro F, Wong R, Siddiqui S, Hinyard L, Hamilton Z. Contemporary analysis of epididymal tumors using a national database. Cent European J Urol, 2021. (accepted) Dell’Oglio P, De Naeyer G, Xiangjun L, Hamilton Z, Capitanio U, Ripa F, Cianflone F, Muttin F, Schatteman P, D’Hondt F, Ma X, Bindayi A, Zhang X, Derweesh I, Mottrie A, Montorsi F, Larcher A. The Impact of Surgical APPENDIX

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The AHEAD Institute Publications continued

Strategy in Robot-assisted Partial Nephrectomy: Is It Beneficial to Treat Anterior Tumours with Transperitoneal Access and Posterior Tumours with Retroperitoneal Access? Eur Urol Oncol.

2021 Feb;4(1):112-116.

Alexopoulos, G., Khan, M., Coppens, J., Mercier, P. 2020. IgG4-negative pituitary inflammatory pseudotumor with sphenoidal involvement resembling a macroadenoma. Br. J. Neurosurg 16, pg 1.

Davaro F, Kaba A, Joshi P, Osei H, Hamilton Z, Phillips T. Treatment of obstructive sleep apnea does not treat primary nocturnal enuresis. J Pediatr Urol. 2020 Dec 30:S14775131(20)30743-9.

Alexopoulos, G., Quadri, N., Khan, M., Kemp, J., Coppens, J., Bucholz, R., Mercier, P. 2021. Response to Letter to the Editor: Ballistic trajectory in civilian penetrating brain injury. Journal of Neurologic Surgery, Feb 5.

Hamilton ZA, Carbonella J, Siddiqui S, Al-Hammadi N, Hinyard L. Infectious complications associated with perioperative blood transfusion in partial or radical nephrectomy. Urol Oncol.

2021 Feb;39(2):134.e17-134.e26.

Tewari, M., Khan, M., Verma, M., Coppens, J., Kemp, J., Bucholz, R., Mercier P., Egan, T. 2021. Physiology of Cultured Human Microglia Maintained in a Defined Culture Medium.

ImmunoHorizons 5. Pg 256.

Aziz A, Raza SJ, Davaro F, May A, Siddiqui S, Hamilton Z. Stage Migration for Upper Tract Urothelial Cell Carcinoma. Clin Genitourin Cancer.

2020 Oct 13:S1558-7673(20)30227-5.

Renthal, W., Chamessian, A., Curatolo, M., Davidson, S., Burton, M., Did-Hajj, S., Dougherty, P.M., Ebert, A.D., Gereau, R.W., Ghetti, A., Gold, M.S., Hoben, G., Maria Menicella, D., Mercier, P., Ray, W.Z., Salvemini, D., Seal, R.P., Waxman, S., Woolf, C.J., Stucky, C.L., Price. T. 2021. Human cells and networks of pain: Transforming pain target identification and therapeutic development. Neuron, 109, pg 1426.

PHILLIPE MERCIER, M.D. – CRSP FELLOW

Alexopoulos, G., Quadri, N., Khan, M., Bazai, H., Formoso, C., Fraser, C., Kulkarni, N., Kemp, J., Coppens, J., Bucholz, R., Mercier, P.A. 2020. Ballistic lobar trajectory outcomes in civilian firearm penetrating brain injury. Journal of Neurological Surgery 6, pg 1-10.

Khan, M.Q., Prim, M.P., Alexopoulos, A., Kemp, J., & Mercier, P.A. 2020.

Cervical disc arthroplasty migration following mechanical intubation: a case presentation and review of literature.

World Neurosurgery pg. S1878.

Almajali, F., Almajali, M., Schwetye, K., 266

Mercier P.A., Navalkele, P. Postoperative chemotherapy and delayed radiation in children less than three years of age with malignant tumors. Congress of Neurological Surgeons. Essential Papers in Neurosurgery. 2021.

Prim, M., Mercier, P.A. Randomized trial of drainage, irrigation and fibrinolytic therapy for premature infants with posthermorrhagic ventricular diltation: developmental outcome at 2 years.

Congress of Neurological Surgeons.

Essential Papers in Neurosurgery. 2021.

SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSIT Y RESEARCH INSTITUTE

IMPACT REPORT 2021

LOKESH RUKMANGADACHAR, M.D. – CRSP FELLOW

Infection Risk Associated with Multiple Sclerosis Disease Modifying Therapies in a Large US Cohort. Rukmangadachar L.A., AlHammadi N., Kallal C., Hinyard L. Poster Presented at ACTRIMS Forum 2021. Manuscript under preparation.

Rukmangadachar L.A. and Azevedo C.J. (2021). ‘Neuroimaging Modalities in Neuroimmunology, in Piquet and Alvarez (ed.) Neuroimmunology.

Springer.

Baruah B.B., Kola S., Rukmangadachar L., Chaturvedi P., Alagiri S. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of protein expression in the caput and cauda regions of the rat epididymis. Biomed Biotechnol Res J. 2021;5:203-16.

JENNIFER BRINKMEIER, M.D. – CRSP FELLOW

Agamawi Y.M., Cass L.M., Mouzourakis M., Pannu J.S., Brinkmeier J.V. Pediatric Post-Tonsillectomy Opioid Prescribing Practices. Laryngoscope. 2020 Oct 6. doi: 10.1002/lary.29157. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 33022125.

Brinkmeier J.V. Reflections on the Value of Part.icipation in Simulation as Young Faculty. Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2020 Dec;163(6):1076-1077. doi: 10.1177/0194599820945952. Epub 2020 Jul 21. PubMed PMID: 32692285.

Brinkmeier J.V., Thatcher, A.L. Pediatric Head and Neck Malignancies. Cummings Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, 7th edition. Flint PW, et al. ed.

Philadelphia, Elsevier. 2021.

APPENDIX

Presentations

JEFFREY SCHERRER, PH.D. – SENIOR DIRECTOR FOR RESEARCH

Ferber M.F., Chrusciel T., Salas J., Scherrer J. Examining long-term weight surgery success in a national electronic health record dataset. Health Care Systems Research Network annual conference, Virtual 5/12/2021.

Scherrer J.F., Matero L., Secrest S., Autio K., Salas J., Wilson L., Sullivan M., DeBar L., Ahmedani B., Lustman P. Developing a prospective cohort of prescription opioid users: Challenges and lessons learned. Health Care Systems Research Network annual conference, Virtual 5/12/2021.

CHRIS PRENER, PH.D. – CORE FACULT Y

Prener, C. 2021. “Data Seams: Tracking Local COVID-19 Trends and Disparities.”

Invited presentation at the Population Association of America’s Annual Meeting (virtual).

Prener, C. 2021. “Fundamental Causes of COVID-19 - Race, Class, and Health Disparities in St. Louis, Missouri.” Department of Sociology and Criminology. Delaware State University (virtual).

Prener, C. 2021. “Stitching Across Data Seams: Tracking COVID-19 Disparities in Missouri.” Institute for Public Health at Washington University’s COVID Social Determinants of Health Working Group. Washington University in St. Louis (St. Louis, MO).

Sherby, M., T. Walsh, A. Lai, J. Neidich, J. Balls-Berry, S. Morris, C. Prener, J. Newland, and C. Gurnett. Forthcoming.

“SARS-CoV-2 Surveillance Testing in Schools for Children with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities during the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Poster accepted for the Child Neurology Society’s Annual Meeting (October 2021; Boston, MA).

Understanding the Role of Mental Health and Substance Abuse in Perpetrating Violent Acts: In the Presence of Unmet Needs for Mental Health Services (Manuscript Under Review). R Al Juboori, DS Subramaniam, L Hinyard. Journal of Patient-Centered Research and Reviews. Abstracts from the 2021 Health Care Systems Research Network Annual Conference.

Prener, C. and K. Gilbert. Forthcoming.

“Racism, Redlining, and Racial Capitalism in St. Louis’s Mortgage Industry.”

Presentation accepted for the American Sociological Association’s Annual Meeting (August 2021; virtual).

Does the Change in Smoking and Marijuana Use Policies Influence Adolescents’ Risky Sexual Behaviors and Other Associated Factors? (Manuscript Under Review). Al Juboori R, Davy O, Shato T, DS Subramaniam, Q Fu. Journal of Patient-Centered Research and Reviews. Abstracts from the 2021 Health Care Systems Research Network Annual Conference.

Prener, C. 2021. “Redlining, Segregation, and Acute Myocardial Infarction Hospitalization in St. Louis, MO.” Presentation at the Population Association of America’s Annual Meeting (virtual).

Prener, C. 2021. “Fundamental Causes of COVID-19 - Race, Class, and Health Disparities in St. Louis, Missouri.”

Grand Rounds, Department of Family and Community Medicine, School of Medicine.

DIVYA DUBRAMANIAM, PH.D., MPH – CORE FACULT Y

Does Exposure to School Violence Predispose Adolescents to Engage in Risky Sex? (Manuscript Under Review).

R. Al Juboori, D.S. Subramaniam.

Journal of Patient-Centered Research and Reviews. Abstracts from the 2021 Health Care Systems Research Network Annual Conference.

Association between palliative care consultation, hospital length of stay, and in-hospital costs in women with metastatic breast cancer in United States (Manuscript in Progress). Divya S. Subramaniam, Ph.D., M.P.H., Noor Al-Hammadi, MPH, Alexandria Jenkins, BS, Leslie Hinyard, Ph.D., MSW. Journal of Patient-Centered Research and Reviews. Abstracts from the 2021 Health Care Systems Research Network Annual Conference.

Palliative Care among Metastatic Breast Cancer Patients in the End-ofLife Period in the U.S. (Manuscript in Progress). Divya S. Subramaniam, Ph.D., MPH, Zidong Zhang, MPH, Alexandria Jenkins, BS, Leslie Hinyard, Ph.D., MSW. Journal of Patient-Centered Research and Reviews. Abstracts from the 2021 Health Care Systems Research Network Annual Conference.

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The AHEAD Institute Presentations continued

MEGAN FERBER, PH.D., LMFT – CRSP FELLOW

Ferriby Ferber, M., Hecht, L., Martens, K.M., Hamann, A., Carlin A.M., & Miller-Matero, L.R. (2021, June).

Examining differences in long-term weight-loss outcomes after bariatric surgery: The role of romantic relationship status. ePoster presented at American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Annual Conference**, held virtually*.

Ferriby Ferber, M., Chrusciel, T., Salas, J., & Scherrer, J. (2021, May). Examining Long-term Weight Loss Surgery Success in a National Electronic Health Record Dataset. ePoster presented at Health Care Systems Research Network** Conference, held virtually*.

Ferber, M., Malzahn, S., & Meyer, D. (2021, May). Romantic Relationship and Parenting Distress Associations with Emotional Eating and Alcohol Consumption During Covid-19. ePoster presented at Health Care Systems Research Network** Conference, held virtually*.

Murnan, A., & Ferriby Ferber, M. (2020, November). Exploring the Influence of Family of Origin, Children, and Therapists on Substance Use Treatment Decisions Among Women Engaged in Prostitution. Poster presented at annual meeting of the National Council on Family Relations**, virtual due to Covid-19.* ZACHARY HAMILTON, M.D. – CRSP FELLOW

268

Contemporary analysis of epididymal tumors using a national database. Society of Urologic Oncology, Virtual Meeting – 12/2020.

Increasing rate of upstaging low risk prostate cancer after prostatectomy.

Society of Urologic Oncology, Virtual Meeting – 12/2020.

Surveying the Opinions of Urology Program Directors Regarding the Change of USMLE Step 1 Scoring to Pass/Fail. South Central Section, Scottsdale, AZ – 9/2021.

Robotic Surgery for cT2 Kidney Cancer: Analysis of the National Cancer Database.

South Central Section, Scottsdale, AZ – 9/2021.

Increasing surgical wait time does not increase risk of node positive prostate cancer. South Central Section, Scottsdale, AZ – 9/2021.

Comparison of open and minimally invasive approach for nephrectomy with IVC thrombectomy. South Central Section, Scottsdale, AZ – 9/2021.

Unplanned open conversion during radical or partial nephrectomy: Comparing outcomes and trends South Central Section, Scottsdale, AZ – 9/2021.

Robotic Approach to Adrenalectomy Does Not Increase Hospital Charges or Cost. South Central Section, Scottsdale, AZ – 9/2021.

Comparing total hospital charges and total cost for patients undergoing partial or radical nephrectomy by surgical approach South Central Section, Scottsdale, AZ – 9/2021.

SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSIT Y RESEARCH INSTITUTE

IMPACT REPORT 2021

PHILLIPE MERCIER, M.D. – CRSP FELLOW

Navalkele, P., Guzman, M., & Mercier, P.A. Isolated early neurodegenerative Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis responds to cytosine arabinoside chemotherapy.

Presented at ISPNO Japan, 2020.

DIRHEN PATEL, M.D. – CRSP FELLOW

Analysis of Neurogastrointestinal and Motility disorders from national pediatric inpatient database (KID): Exploring national demographic access and outcomes. Dhiren Patel, Noor Al-Hammadi, Evan Xu, Leslie Hinyard, Thomas M. Attard. North American Society of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition meeting Analysis of Neurogastrointestinal and Motility disorders from national pediatric inpatient database (KID): Exploring national demographic access and outcomes. Dhiren Patel, Noor Al-Hammadi, Evan Xu, Leslie Hinyard, Thomas M Attard. European Neurogastroenetrology and Motility Society: June 2021.

JENNIFER BRINKMEIER, M.D. – CRSP FELLOW

Brinkmeier J.V., & Ward G.M. Development of Tool for Case Submission and Review as Foundation for Department Patient Safety/Quality Improvement Program. American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery Foundation, Inc. Annual Meeting. Virtual; 09/20. (Podium)

APPENDIX

The WATER Institute Presentations

Authors in blue are Primary or Associated Investigators with the WATER Institute, and authors with asterisks(*) are advisees of WATER Institute investigators.

ROGER D. LEWIS, PH.D., CIH, FAIHA

American Industrial Hygiene Association Biosafety and Environmental Microbiology Committee. (2021). The Role of the Industrial Hygienist in a Pandemic (R. Lewis and R. Strode, Ed.) American Industrial Hygiene Association. https://aiha-assets.sfo2. digitaloceanspaces.com/AIHA/resources/ Role-of-the-Industrial-Hygienist-in-aPandemic-2nd-edition.pdf.

ELIZABETH HASENMUELLER, PH.D.

Baraza*, T., & Hasenmueller, E.A. 2021. Road salt retention and transport through vadose zone soils to shallow groundwater. Science of the Total Environment, 755, 142240. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.142240.

JASON KNOUFT, PH.D.

DANIEL M. HANES, PH.D.

Hall, D.M., Gilbertz, S.J., Anderson, M.B., Avellaneda, P.M., Ficklin, D.L., Knouft, J. H., and Lowry, C.S. 2021.

Mechanisms for engaging social systems in freshwater science research.

Freshwater Science 40:245-251. https:// doi.org/10.1086/713039.

Hanes, D.M. 2021. Longshore Currents.

Reference Module in Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences. Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12818234-5.00051-1.

Knouft, J.H., Botero-Acosta, A.,* Wu C.L., Charry, B., Chu, M.L., Dell, A.I., Hall, D.M., and Herrington, S. J. 2021.

Forested riparian buffers as climate adaptation tools for management of riverine flow and thermal regimes: a case study in the Meramec River basin.

Sustainability 13:1877. https://doi. org/10.3390/su13041877.

Wu C. L., Herrington S. J., Charry, B., Chu, M. L., and Knouft, J. H. 2021. Assessing the potential of riparian reforestation to facilitate watershed climate adaptation. Journal of Environmental Management 277:111431. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jenvman.2020.111431.

Santos, A.I., Carinhas, D., Oliveira, A., Pinto, J.P., Freitas, M.C., and Hanes, D.M. 2021. A statistical interpretation of acoustic backscatter and laser responses to suspended particle variations in the coastal shelf. Marine Geology, 436 (106474). https://doi.org/10.1016/j. margeo.2021.106474.

CRAIG D. ADAMS, PH.D., P.E., F.ASCE

Pochiraju, S.*, Hoppe-Jones, C., Adams, C., and Weinrich, L. 2021. Development and Optimization of Analytical Methods for the Detection of 18 Taste and Odor Compounds in Drinking Water Utilities.

Water Research X 100099. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.wroa.2021.100099.

Wang, K., Peucker-Ehrenbrink, B., Chen, H., Lee, H., and Hasenmueller, E. A. 2021. Dissolved potassium isotopic composition of major world rivers.

Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 294, 145-159. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. gca.2020.11.012.

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The Institute for Drug and Biotherapeutic Innovation Seed Grants

The goal of the Seed Grant Program is to provide access to funds to conduct key experiments needed to improve competitiveness of an external funding application. The selection criteria and review processes are designed to ensure unbiased selection of the Institute for Drug and Biotherapeutic Innovation (IDBI) seed grant applications most likely to result in expansion of IDBI collaborations and acquisition of external funding. There are four funding cycles per year. Review criteria are similar to those of an NIH grant application: i) Significance to external funding potential, ii) Investigator, iii) Innovation, iv) Approach, and v) Overall impact on funding potential. Seed grants can be submitted by any SLU IDBI senior member. The grants feature a short review/funding timeline, typically 4-6 weeks from submission to funding, and they provide up to $10,000 for a one-year project.

IDBI Seed Grant Program metrics by cycle

Lynda Morrison (MMI), Co-Is – Marvin Meyers (Chemistry), Dave Griggs (MMI), and Maureen Donlin (Biochemistry & Molecular Biology) “Evaluation of a methicillin-resistant Staph aureus killing compound in a 4-day murine peritonitis survival model”, PI – John Walker (Pharmacology & Physiology) “Inhibition of PALB2 for cancer treatment”, PI – Sergey Korolev (Biochemistry & Molecular Biology), Co-Is – John Walker (Pharmacology & Physiology), Marvin Meyers (Chemistry), Katherine Fuh (WUSTL) “Data collection and optimization of an alginate hydrogel delivery platform for use in the Masquelet technique for bone defect repair”, PI – Scott Sell (BME), Co-Is – Sarah McBride-Gagyi (Orthopedic Surgery), Paul Jelliss (Chemistry), Steven Buckner (Chemistry) “Pharmacological modulation of REV-ERB to augment muscle strength and oxidative capacity following volumetric muscle loss”, *Returned when PI left the University, PI – Colin Flaveny (Pharmacology & Physiology), Co-I – Koyal Garg (BME) “Mechanisms of Nanosilicate-Protein Interactions and Complex Formation”, PI – Silviya Zustiak (BME), Co-I – Nicola Pozzi (Biochemistry & Molecular Biology)

Five of the funded IDBI seed grants were from investigators at the South Campus and three were from North Campus investigators. This is proportional to the location of the investigators who applied for seed grants.

“In Vitro Testing the Efficacy of Two Anti-Coronaviral Compounds Against Multiple Human Coronaviruses”, PI – Karoly Toth (MMI), Co-I – William Wold (MMI)

Seed grants funded by the IDBI Seed Grant Program “Immunomodulatory biomaterials for musculoskeletal trauma”, PI –­ Koyal Garg (BME), Co-I – Silviya Zustiak (BME) “In vivo pharmacokinetic analyses of hydroxypyridinones active against herpes simplex virus and Cryptococcus in vitro”, PI –

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Grants

IDBI members have received 51 research grants for projects falling under IDBI’s mission during the 18 month reporting period, for a total value of $14.7 million and an associated indirect cost recovery of just over $4 million (Table #; details in Appendix #). This is an annualized rate of $9.8 million per year.

For comparison, the annualized grant receipt rate from the seven year period used as a baseline in the original IDBI business plan was $5.3 million. Part of that increase is attributable to the increase in senior members from 71 to 88 (a 24% increase), but this does not fully account for the 84% increase in annualized grant receipts. The 60% increase in per-member annualized grant receipts is consistent with IDBI helping to improve grant success rates.

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SLU/YouGov Poll July 2021 SLU/YouGov Poll Release

performance as president • Sen. Josh Hawley’s approval rating grows to 52%, a 3.6% increase in the last year

BY: STEVEN ROGERS, PH.D.

• 40% of Missouri voters approve of Sen. Roy Blunt’s performance, 47% disapprove

Survey results and analyses available at http://www.slu.edu/poll/ Follow the Saint Louis University-YouGov poll on Twitter @SLUPoll

• 37% of Missouri voters favorably view former governor Eric Greitens, 43% have an unfavorable view • 33% of Missouri voters favorably view Attorney General Eric Schmitt, 26% have an unfavorable view

SLU/YouGov Poll: Voters increasingly approve of Parson, Hawley, and Blunt 62% of voters support the state funding Medicaid expansion The July SLU/YouGov Poll interviewed 950 likely Missouri voters about issues important to Missourians. The survey found that voters’ approval of Gov. Mike Parson and U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley increased. A majority of Missouri voters do not believe schools should teach “Critical Race Theory.” A third of voters report they will not get a COVID-19 vaccine or are not sure if they will get a vaccine.

The margin of error for the full sample of the survey is ± 4.1%.

Top-line survey results can be found at https://www.slu.edu/research/research-institute/big-ideas/slupoll/july-2021-poll/slu-poll-july2021-toplineresults.pdf Results with demographic and party cross-tabs can be found at https://www.slu.edu/research/research-institute/big-ideas/slupoll/july-2021-poll/slu-poll-july2021-crosstabresults.pdf

Voters increasingly approving of Governor Parson

Key findings on Missouri issues • 62% of voters believe that the State of Missouri should fund Medicaid expansion • 51% of voters do not think schools should be allowed to teach “Critical Race Theory” • 54% of voters support the new student scholarship program and prohibiting Missouri state and local officials from enforcing federal gun laws • 42% of voters think Missouri is on the right track, and 26% of voters rate the state economy as “Good” or “Excellent” • Missourians are growing concerned about Missouri’s infrastructure and roads • 24% of Missouri voters report they do not plan to get a COVID-19 vaccine, and an additional 10% are not sure about getting vaccinated

Key findings on political leaders • Gov. Parson’s overall approval rating grows to 53%, a 5.7% increase in the last year

The latest SLU/YouGov Poll shows that 53% of likely Missouri voters approve of Mike Parson’s performance as Missouri governor, which is a 5.8% increase from findings from the June 2020 SLU/YouGov Poll. Over 80% of Republicans and 58% of Independents approve of how the Governor is doing his job, but only 16% of Democrats approve. Parson’s support comes from rural Missouri, where 62% of voters approve of his performance, compared to approximately 51% in suburban and urban areas.

Voters also increasingly approve of Gov. Parson’s handling of the pandemic. In June 2020, 48% of voters approved, and 47% disapproved of Parson’s handling of the pandemic, but in July 2021, 53% approve and 44% disapprove (margin of error ± 5.8%).

“These are impressive numbers for the Governor,” said Steven Rogers, Ph.D., director of the Saint Louis University/ YouGov poll. “More voters approve of Parson’s performance despite recent rises in the number of COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations, and deaths in Missouri.”

• 53% of voters approve of Parson’s handling of the pandemic, a 4.6% increase in the last year • 54% of Missouri voters disapprove of President Joe Biden’s

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Partisans divided about President Biden and the direction of the country Fifty-four percent of Missouri voters disapprove of President Joe Biden’s performance as President and only 45% approve.

Forty-nine percent of voters approve of how Biden has handled the COVID-19 pandemic, but only 30% of voters agreed that “The United States is on the right track and headed in a good direction” (margin of error ± 5.8%). Similarly, only 24% of voters thought the U.S. economy was “Excellent” or “Good,” while 73% thought it was “Fair” or “Poor.”

“More than 97% of Biden voters approve of the President’s performance, but fewer than 5% of Trump voters do,” said Rogers. Democrats are much happier with Biden and the direction of the country. The SLU Poll found 66% of Democrats, 17% of Independents, and 6% of Republicans think that the United States is on the right track.

“These findings are likely unsurprising given the strength of partisanship and SLU/YouGov poll’s previous findings,” Rogers said. “In October 2020, 53% of Missourians approved of Trump’s performance (margin of error ±3.9%). Now in 2021, 54% disapprove of Biden’s performance.”

Kenneth Warren, Ph.D., associate director of the SLU/YouGov poll, added, “Not only does political polarization among partisans explain how voters feel about elected politicians, but how they feel about issues as well.”

“Missouri’s Republicans and Democrats are miles apart on how they view gun control, abortion rights, and the state of the economy,” Warren said.

Senators Hawley’s and Blunt’s approval rise Josh Hawley made national headlines with his challenges to the 2020 election outcome and has been a vocal opponent of Roe v. Wade and teaching Critical Race Theory in schools. In June 2020, the SLU/YouGov Poll found that 48% of Missouri voters approved of Hawley’s performance as senator (margin of error ± 4.0%), but in July 2021, 52% approved and 39% disapproved.

Over 90% of Republican and 13% of Democratic voters currently approve of Hawley’s performance, reflecting gains within these groups since the SLU/YouGov Poll in June 2020.

More Missouri voters disapprove than approve of Roy Blunt’s performance as senator, but more voters approve of Blunt than did last year. In June 2020, 38% of voters approved of Blunt’s

performance, but in July 2021, 40% of voters approved, and 47% disapproved. Sixty-two percent of Republican voters, 43% of Independents, and 15% of Democratic voters approve of Blunt’s performance. Both Hawley and Blunt are individually much more popular with voters than the U.S. Congress as a whole.

Only 20% of Missouri voters approve of the U.S. Congress, while 69% disapprove.

2022 Election: Voters views of Republican U.S. Senate candidates In 2022, Missouri voters will vote to replace retiring Sen. Blunt.

Republicans’ recent success in statewide elections suggests the 2022 Republican U.S. Senate primary winner will likely win the general election.

“Missourians overall have relatively unfavorable views of some of the main Republican candidates, but Republican voters are more favorable,” Rogers said, Missourians’ favorability of prominent Republican Senate Candidates: • Former governor Eric Greitens: 37% Favorable, 43% Unfavorable, 20% Not Sure • Attorney General Eric Schmitt: 33% Favorable, 25% Unfavorable, 41% Not Sure • U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler: 28% Favorable; 24% Unfavorable, 49% Not Sure • St. Louis lawyer Mark McCloskey: 28% Favorable; 32% Unfavorable, 40% Not Sure Republican voters’ favorability of these Senate Candidates: • Former governor Eric Greitens: 56% Favorable, 23% Unfavorable, 20% Not Sure • Attorney General Eric Schmitt: 50% Favorable, 8% Unfavorable, 42% Not Sure • U.S. Representative Vicky Hartzler: 38% Favorable, 12% Unfavorable, 51% Not Sure • St. Louis Lawyer Mark McCloskey: 41% Favorable, 13% Unfavorable, 47% Not Sure “Despite a sex scandal that forced Eric Greitens to resign as Missouri’s governor in 2018, his popularity among Missouri Republicans is quite high and more voters are familiar with Greitens than his competition in the upcoming U.S. Senate race,” said Warren.

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continued

Mark McCloskey and his wife recently made headlines again after receiving a pardon on July 30 from Gov. Parson for misdemeanor fourth-degree assault. The McCloskeys came to the country’s attention after pointing guns at social justice demonstrators in St. Louis last year. When asked in October 2020, 55% of Missouri voters said that the McCloskeys “acted responsibly, within their rights to defend their home,” and 40% said the McCloskeys acted irresponsibly (margin of error ± 5.3).

Both Republicans and Democrats are unhappy with the economy and infrastructure Forty-two percent of Missourians stated that the economy should be the Missouri state government’s top priority.

Seventy-one percent of Missourians rated the economy as “Fair” or “Poor,” compared to 26% who rated the state economy as “Excellent” or “Good.” Both Republicans and Democrats have negative views about the Missouri state economy. Sixtyone percent of Republicans and 77% of Democrats rated the economy as “Fair” or “Poor.” Missourians’ views of the economy have worsened since October 2020, where 34% of voters rated the state economy as “Excellent” or “Good” (margin of error ± 3.9%).

A national discussion about infrastructure hits home with Missourians. Voters are growing more concerned and unhappy about the state’s roads and infrastructure. Fifteen percent of Missourians indicated “Infrastructure” should be the top priority of the Missouri state government, which is approximately a 5% increase from the October 2020 SLU/YouGov Poll. In July 2021, only 19% of Missouri voters rated “roads and infrastructure in the State of Missouri” as “Excellent” or “Good,” and 77% rated roads and infrastructure as “Fair” or “Poor” (margin of error ± 6.0%). At least 69% of Republican, Democratic, and Independent Voters each rated the roads and infrastructure in the state as “Fair” or “Poor.”

Missourians support funding Medicaid expansion, new school scholarship program, and federal gun law ban Missouri voters voted to expand Medicaid in 2020 53% to 47%, but the state legislature did not fund the expansion during the 2021 regular session. Voters largely oppose the state legislature’s decision. Forty-two percent of voters “Strongly believe” and an additional 21% of voters “Believe” Missouri should fund Medicaid expansion. The expansion is supported by 96% of Democrats, 54% of independents, and 39% of Republicans.

While the July 2021 poll was being conducted, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that adults aged 19 to 65 whose income is 138% of the federal poverty level are eligible for Medicaid.

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Fifty-four percent of Missouri voters approve of the recently created “Missouri Empowerment Scholarship Accounts Program,” which allows private donations to pay for K-12 scholarships.

“On the one hand, voters support current program regulations prioritizing access for low-income students and students with special needs,” said J. Cameron Anglum, Ph.D., assistant professor in SLU’s School of Education. “On the other hand, voters oppose the geographic limitations which currently exist, a key stipulation included to appease many rural legislators to support the bill’s passage.”

Fifty-three percent of voters believe students in low-income households should be prioritized for these scholarships, but 55% of Missouri voters oppose limiting program participation to students who live in areas with a population of 30,000 or more.

“Now that the Empowerment Program is set to go into effect ahead of the 2022-23 school year, voters may want the legislature to strongly reconsider aspects of the program’s design governing private schools that elect to participate, particularly their admissions, testing, and public reporting practices,” Anglum said.

Gov. Parson recently signed the Second Amendment Preservation Act, allowing state and local officers to be sued if they try to enforce federal gun laws. The controversial measure led Philip Dupuis to resign as chief of police in O’Fallon. Fiftytwo percent of Missouri voters support the state law, and 38% oppose the law (margin of error ± 5.8%). More than 59% of Republicans and Independents support the law, but only 16% of Democratic voters support the law.

Missourians do not think schools should teach “Critical Race Theory” but are less opposed to teaching about racism in institutions Critical Race Theory is an approach to understanding policy and institutions that consider how racism can be embedded in legal systems and laws and not only be a product of individual biases.

Gov. Parson has said that “Critical Race Theory has no business being taught in Missouri classrooms.”

Sen. Hawley also recently introduced the Love America Act that prevents federal funding from schools that teach that “the Constitution of the United States is a product of white supremacy or racism.” Many see the Love America Act as legislation to prevent teaching “Critical Race Theory” in schools.

The SLU/YouGov Poll asked voters about this controversial issue in two different ways. Half of the poll respondents

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APPENDIX indicated if they agreed with the statement “Schools should be allowed to teach critical race theory.” A different half of respondents stated whether they agreed with the statement: “Schools should be allowed to teach about how racism can exist in society and its institutions.” When asked directly about whether “Critical Race Theory” should be taught in schools, 37% agreed, 51% disagreed, and 12% were not sure (margin of error ± 5.8%). When asked if schools should be “allowed to teach about how racism can exist in society and its institutions,” 48% agreed, 37% disagreed, and 14% were not sure (margin of error ± 6.0%).

“This spring, public schools became the ideological battleground over the teaching of Critical Race Theory (CRT), with CRT nearly becoming a ‘four-letter word’ in some circles,” said Evan Rhinesmith, Ph.D., associate director of the SLU/YouGov Poll.

“These poll results indicate some voters may not possess a clear understanding of what distinguishes CRT from more general instruction related to issues of systemic racism.”

Nearly a quarter of likely Missouri voters polled report they will not get a COVID-19 vaccine Missouri has seen a recent surge in COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations, and deaths. Vaccinations are a crucial way to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Sixty percent of likely Missouri voters reported they had received the injections necessary to be fully vaccinated. Those who are vaccinated are older, more educated, and have more income. Another 3% reported they have started the vaccination process but need another shot. An additional 4% of those polled reported they plan to get vaccinated.

Twenty-four percent of likely Missouri voters reported that they will not get a vaccine. There are clear partisan divisions among those who will not get vaccinated. Among voters reporting they will not get a vaccine, 58% are Republicans, 23% are Independents, and 9% are Democrats. An additional 10% of voters are not sure if they will get a vaccine. Among these voters, 51% are Republicans, 29% are independents, and 15% are Democrats.

Methodology and funding YouGov interviewed 950 likely Missouri voters between July 19, 2021 and July 29, 2021. The YouGov panel, a proprietary opt-in survey panel, is comprised of 1.2 million U.S. residents who have agreed to participate in YouGov Web surveys. Using their gender, age, race, and education, YouGov weighted the set of survey respondents to known characteristics of registered voters of Missouri voters from the 2020 Current Population survey.

The margin of error for the weighted data is 4.1%. Reduced samples of voters answered some questions, and margins of error for these questions are indicated above. The SLU/YouGov Poll is funded by PRiME Center in SLU’s School of Education and the Saint Louis University Research Institute Big Ideas competition, which provides funding to research initiatives that demonstrate broad faculty engagement, strong leadership, and compelling research plans.

About YouGov Saint Louis University has partnered with YouGov to conduct its annual survey of Missourians. YouGov conducts surveys for multiple academic institutions and is the primary, trusted survey firm for media organizations, including CBS News and The Economist. An independent Pew Research Center study of online survey firms in 2016 further concluded that YouGov “consistently outperforms competitors.”

About Saint Louis University Founded in 1818, Saint Louis University is one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious Catholic institutions. Rooted in Jesuit values and its pioneering history as the first university west of the Mississippi River, SLU offers more than 12,000 students a rigorous, transformative education of the whole person. At the core of the University’s diverse community of scholars is SLU’s service-focused mission, which challenges and prepares students to make the world a better, more just place.

This release has been modified from its original format. The original may be viewed on www.slu.edu/poll.

The SLU Poll team emphasizes that these figures reflect vaccination rates among likely voters and not all Missourians.

At the time of this poll, the Missouri Department of Health & Senior Services reported that 51% of Missourians who are at least 18 years old were fully vaccinated, and 59% had received at least one dose.

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Approval Ratings of President Biden, U.S. Congress, Missouri Legislature, and Missouri’s Top Officials BY: KENNETH WARREN, PH.D.

Biden’s approval ratings only so-so in Missouri In the 2020 presidential election, Joe Biden received 41.3% of the vote in Missouri. Our 2021 July/August SLU/YouGov poll of registered voters reveals that he is still not very popular among Missouri voters. Only 44.8% of Missourians gave President Biden a positive job approval rating, with 20.7% saying they “strongly approve” and another 24% saying they “approve.” A slight majority (53.5%) gave him a negative approval rating, with 9.2% disapproving and another 44.3% strongly disapproving. Only 1.8% answered “Not sure.”

Nationally, Biden fares better with a 51.1% realclearpolitics.com average approval rating or 6.3% above Biden’s approval ratings given by Missourians in our poll.

As in the 2020 presidential election results, our poll shows that deeply rooted, political polarization helps to explain Biden’s lackluster approval ratings. While Biden received almost 60% job approval ratings in the predominantly Democratic metro areas of Kansas City and St. Louis, his approval ratings were quite poor in Missouri’s predominantly rural Republican areas with only 29.4% approval in Northeast Missouri; 38.4% in Northwest Missouri; 27.5% in Southwest Missouri; and 27.8% in Southeast Missouri. Our poll disclosed that there is no love lost between Republicans and Democrats in Missouri. While 96.9% of Democrats approved of Biden’s job performance, only 7.2% of Republicans approved of Biden’s job performance.

Similar polarized findings were shown for ratings of all Missouri politicians in our poll.

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Missouri legislature receives higher approval than Congress Predictably, in our SLU/YouGov poll of registered Missouri voters, we found Missourians rating their own state legislature much better than the U.S. Congress. We found very similar findings in our 2020 September/October poll. In our 2021 poll, only 2.3% of Missourians “strongly approved” of the way the U.S. Congress was doing its job, while only another 17.5% said they approved for a dismal total approval percentage of just 19.9%. On the negative side, over two-thirds of our respondents expressed disapproval of the way Congress was handling its job, with 34.1% disapproving and 34.5% strongly disapproving, with 11.5% saying “Not sure.” This is quite consistent with Congress’s generally low approval ratings. For example, a July 24-26 Monmouth poll showed Congress with a 22% approval rating, while a July 24-27 Economist/YouGov poll showed Congress with a 16% approval percentage.

In sharp contrast, almost half of Missourians (49.7%) approved of the way its legislative body was performing, with 5.2% saying “strongly approve” and another 44.5% expressing “approve.” However, still a significant percentage expressed disapproval (36.1%), with 16% disapproving and 20.1% strongly disapproving with 14.2% “not sure.” But the job performance of the U.S. Congress and Missouri legislature was viewed through partisan lenses. While 70.1% of Republicans approved of the Missouri legislature’s job performance, only 20.9% of Democrats gave a thumbs up. In contrast, while 38.6% of Democrats gave the U.S. Congress a positive rating on job performance, only 8.1% of Republicans did. The obvious inference is that Republicans gave the Missouri legislature a thumbs up because

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it is controlled by Republicans, while Republicans gave the U.S. Congress a thumbs down because it is controlled by Democrats.

Ratings by Democrats were also driven by their partisanship.

Missourians gave Missouri’s top elected officials only lukewarm ratings

poll, 32.1% of our respondents gave him a “strongly disapprove” rating. This was due to a high disapproval rating by Democrats (8.8% disapproved, but 67.6% strongly disapproved). Only 9.3% of Republicans disapproved or strongly disapproved of Hawley’s job performance.

Senator Roy Blunt’s ratings continue to lag, with only 40.2% of Missourians giving him a positive approval score with 10.4% responding “strongly approve” and 29.9% saying “approve.”

Close to half of Missourians (46.9%) gave Blunt a negative approval rating, with 24.9% saying “disapprove” and another 22% saying “strongly disapprove.”

Favorability of Republican Senate candidates

Our SLU/YouGov poll disclosed that most Missourians only hold lukewarm approval ratings of Missouri’s top elected officials. Barely half of Missourians (53.1%) gave Governor Mike Parson positive approval scores, with 13.1% answering “strongly approve” and 39.1% saying “approve,” while 16.1% said “disapprove” and another 24.6% strongly disapproved. Only 6.2% said “not sure.” Yet, Parson received the highest approval ratings of any politician surveyed.

U.S. Senator Josh Hawley received the next highest approval ratings, just a notch below Parson with a 52% total approval score with 28.1% strongly approving and 23.9% approving.

However, Hawley attracted strong disapproval ratings, probably due to his actions in light of the January 6th U.S. Capitol insurrection and his challenge to Biden’s presidential win.

Although Hawley received only a 6.5% disapproval rating in our

We also sought in our poll favorability ratings for politicians likely running to fill retiring Senator Blunt’s U.S. Senate seat: former Republican Governor Eric Greitens; Missouri’s Republican Attorney General Eric Schmitt; U.S. Representative Ann Wagner (R-2nd); U.S. Representative Vicky Hartzler (R-4th); and Republican attorney Mark McCloskey, who gained notoriety when he and his wife waved guns at protesters last year.

Somewhat ironically, Eric Greitens received the highest total favorability rating (37.2%) in the field with a “very favorable” percentage of 15.8% and a “somewhat favorable” score of 21.4%.

I say somewhat ironic because Greitens was involved in a high-profile sex scandal that forced him to resign as Missouri’s governor on June 1, 2018. His chances of a political comeback at that time looked very bleak, but now his comeback seems possible because he is polling better than any of his likely challengers in the Republican primary with a 56.3% total

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continued favorability rating among Republicans (27.3% “very favorable” and 29% “somewhat favorable”). However, we also found that Greitens earned the highest negative favorability ratings as well, with 30.7% of Missourians giving him a “very unfavorable” rating, another 12% answered “somewhat unfavorable,” while 20% said “not sure.” Yet, this relatively high disapproval rating was due to Democrats largely disapproving of him (69.4%), not Republicans (23.5%), so Greitens’ chances of winning the Republican primary look reasonable at this time, long before the August 2022 primary.

Eric Schmitt has also been controversial because of what many consider his frivolous and seemingly very partisan lawsuits that have attracted national attention but have gone nowhere.

Our poll findings suggest that maybe his favorability ratings have suffered as a result since his total favorability score is only 33.3%, with 10.6% responding “very favorable” and 22.6% saying “somewhat favorable.” Ironically, these lawsuits may not have attracted the attention he sought because a whopping 41.1% of respondents answered “not sure,” which pollsters normally say includes a very high percentage of people who have never heard of the person.

Our poll also confirmed a common finding by pollsters. That is, that U.S. Representatives are normally not that well known outside of their district, especially long distances from their district. Ann Wagner received a 7.2% “very favorable” rating and an 18% “somewhat favorable” percentage, with 12.7% saying “somewhat unfavorable” and another 12.7% saying “very unfavorable.” Yet, in our statewide poll an enormous percentage (49.3%) answered “not sure,” conveying that a very large percentage of Missourians never heard of her. Recently, Ann Wagner announced that she is not running for Blunt’s U.S. Senate seat.

while 10.6% answered “somewhat unfavorable” and 13.1% responded “very unfavorable.” But the favorability ratings for Wagner and Hartzler should be viewed with caution because evidently many of our respondents either never heard of them or knew too little about them to rate them.

Despite Mark McCloskey’s well-covered confrontation with BLM protesters on June 28, 2020, he is also not very well known to Missouri voters, with 39.6% of our respondents saying “not sure.” Of those giving him a rating, most gave him a higher unfavorability rating than favorability rating, with 8.8% saying “very favorable,” 19.3% “favorable,” 9.2% “unfavorable,” and 23.1% “very unfavorable.” His total favorability rating among Republicans was OK at 40.3% with a total unfavorability percentage of 7.7%. But since 39.6% answered “not sure,” it is difficult to judge McCloskey’s actual favorability as he campaigns to win his party’s nomination for U.S. Senate in 2022.

Missourians Disagree with Allowing the Teaching of Critical Race Theory, but Remain Unsure About Teaching Institutional Racism

BY EVAN RHINESMITH, PH.D., AND J. CAMERON ANGLUM, PH.D.

A subset of Americans has not been shy to express their disagreement with the prospect of instruction related to Critical Race Theory (CRT). This past spring, many Missouri school board meetings were marred by heated arguments over the appropriateness of CRT-related teaching in the state’s public schools, with Gov. Parson proclaiming, “Critical Race Theory has no business being taught in Missouri Classrooms.”

Similar findings were found for U.S. Representative Vicky Hartzler with 48.7% answering “Not sure,” while 9.3% gave her a “very favorable” rating and 18.3% said “somewhat favorable” 278

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APPENDIX In the SLU/YouGov Poll we asked half of our sample of Missouri’s likely voters if they agree schools should be allowed to teach CRT. Fifty-one percent of likely voters indicated they disagree when explicitly asked about teaching CRT, 37% indicated agreement, and 12% indicated they are unsure (margin of error ± 5.8%). We asked the other half of respondents if they agree schools should be allowed to teach about societal and institutional racism. Forty-eight percent of likely voters indicated agreement, 38% indicated disagreement, and 14% indicated they were unsure (margin of error ± 6.0%).

Unsurprisingly, support for CRT is heavily divided along political lines. Nearly three-quarters (74%) of Democrats agree with allowing the teaching of CRT in schools. Conversely, 81% of Republicans disagree with allowing the teaching of CRT. When asked about teaching about institutional racism, support among Democrats increases to 85%. Republicans still disagree with schools teaching about institutional racism, but the proportion who disagree falls to 63%. Self-identified political Independents indicated strong disagreement with allowing the teaching of CRT in schools, as 59% disagree, 29% agree, and 12% are unsure. However, when asked whether schools should be allowed to teach about institutional racism, Independents’ opinions reverse: 54% agree, 36% disagree, and 11% are unsure.

Findings from our SLU/YouGov Poll indicate that some respondents likely misunderstand what CRT entails, suggesting concern with CRT may be more in its name than its actual substance. The difference in opinion based on question wording is important, as CRT teaches that race is a social construct embedded in policies and systems. While the idea of CRT is unpopular among Missourians, especially among Republicans, the core concept of allowing the teaching of CRT garners more support among Democrat and Independent voters. The increased uncertainty among Missourians when presented CRTrelated concepts rather than the explicit identification of CRT indicates likely misapprehension of the academic concept.

Missouri’s Republicans and Democrats View Issues Very Differently

they see the State of Missouri or the United States moving in the right or wrong direction. Unfortunately, these divisions are wide and deeply rooted, offering no hope that Missouri’s Republicans and Democrats can come together in bipartisan efforts to resolve problems that Missourians face, including getting vaccinated to help end the pandemic.

Electoral behavior scholars have noticed a widening gap between Republicans and Democrats over socio-economic, political issues since the 1990s. Our poll simply helps confirm the reality that polarized political views on issues are intensifying. We polled Missourians on a variety of issues.

Below are some of the highlights on how Republicans and Democrats see issues. Since most Missouri Democrats are found in the metro areas of St. Louis and Kansas City, while rural Missouri counties are dominated by Republicans, our findings also show the pronounced “opinion divide” between rural and metro Missourians.

Our poll indicates why Republican-dominated Missouri has often been considered a pandemic hot spot, as compared to more Democratic states with lower cases, hospitalizations, and death rates per 100,000. Almost half of Missouri Republicans are still uncertain about getting vaccinated (13.3% compared to 4.4% for Democrats) or said in our poll, “I will not get vaccinated” (36.5% compared to only 6.3% for Democrats). As expected, while only 11.1% of Republicans gave Biden a positive approval score for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, 95.1% of Democrats did. In sharp contrast, 80.8% of Republicans approved of Governor Parson’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, while just 21.9% of Democrats did.

On highlighted issues from our poll, partisan perceptions were pronounced. Ratings were as follows: 11.3% of Republicans rated as “good” or “excellent” the condition of the economy in the U.S., while 44.1% of Democrats did; 36.3% of Republicans rated as “good” or “excellent” the economy of Missouri, while 19.3% of Democrats did; only 8.2% of Republicans agreed that the U.S. “is on the right track and headed in a good direction,” while 65.9% of Democrats agreed; yet 62.1% of Republicans agreed that Missouri “is on the right track and headed in a good direction” compared to only 14% for Democrats.

BY: KENNETH WARREN, PH.D.

Our July 2021 SLU/YouGov reveals that Missouri’s Republicans and Democrats view issues in a very stark, politically polarized fashion. Republicans and Democrats are deeply divided on how they view virtually every issue we asked in our poll from gun laws to abortion rights to Critical Race Theory to Medicaid expansion to the economy to getting vaccinated to whether APPENDIX

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continued Other highlighted differences we found in our SLU/YouGov poll on how Republicans and Democrats stand on key issues: 79% of Republicans support a recent Missouri law not to enforce federal gun laws compared to 16.4% for Democrats; 79.3% of Republicans agreed that the State of Missouri “should prohibit abortions after 8 weeks of pregnancy,” while 32.5% of Democrats agreed; only 7.9% of Republicans agreed that schools be allowed to teach Critical Race Theory, while 73.8% of Democrats agreed.

In 2020, Missouri voters voted to expand Medicaid to more low-income adults, but the Missouri legislature refused to fund Medicaid expansion. We asked voters how they felt about this.

Again, Republicans and Democrats were very divided. Almost all Democrats polled who answered this question (96.8%) believed that the State of Missouri should fund Medicaid expansion (76.3% strongly believed so, while another 20.5% believed so). But also, a significant percentage of Republicans believed strongly (17.1%) or believed (21.8%) that Missouri should fund Medicaid expansion.

We also asked whether the State of Missouri should spend more to aid the poor. Again, extreme partisan polarization is seen. While 86.4% of Democrats agreed with the statement that Missouri should spend more to aid the poor, only 26.1% of Republicans agreed.

We polled quite extensively on issues, finding sharp partisan divisions between Republicans and Democrats on how they perceive various issues. To see more, please consult our poll data.

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Missourians Support New Private School Choice Program, but Desire Greater Regulation and Accountability BY: EVAN RHINESMITH, PH.D., AND J. CAMERON ANGLUM, PH.D.

During the 2021 Legislative Session, Missouri passed HB 349 to establish the state’s first private school choice program, the Missouri Empowerment Scholarship Accounts Program. While the program will not go into effect until the fall of 2022, its passage represents a watershed moment in Missouri education.

Now that government commitment to private school choice in Missouri has moved from a hypothetical to a reality, we used the SLU/YouGov poll to ask likely voters a variety of questions related to the new private school choice program. Overall, Missourians support the new program, with 54% of likely voters indicating their support. Twenty-seven percent of voters were unsure if they support the program and 19% indicated opposition.

Throughout the 2020-21 school year, school choice gained traction as a major plank in the Republican platform. Fiftyeight percent of Republicans in Missouri said they support or strongly support the new private school choice program, 28% remained unsure, and 14% expressed some level of opposition.

Self-identified Independent political voters were like Republican voters with 53% expressing support, 29% unsure, and 18% opposed. Thirty-three percent of Democrats expressed some level of support of the program, including 15% indicating they strongly support, while 28% expressed opposition to the new program and 24% were unsure.

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Student priority Along with general support for the program, we asked a variety of questions pertaining to program design. As the program currently stands, students with disabilities are granted priority to receive a scholarship, followed by students who qualify for Free or Reduced-Price Lunch, and, finally, families that earn up to 200% of the federal poverty level. Fifty-three percent of Missourians supported low-income students receiving priority.

However, only 35% of Missourians supported students with disabilities receiving priority, while 41% of voters said they believe no students should receive priority.

Program regulations With Missouri’s private school choice program set to go into effect in the fall of 2022, important considerations remain concerning program design and the regulation of schools that opt to participate. Our SLU/YouGov Poll asked voters whether they support the following potential regulations: • Accept any scholarship to fully cover the costs of attendance • Follow all Missouri testing and public reporting requirements • Waive admissions requirements for scholarship students • Allow students to opt out of religious activities Voters were most supportive of requiring schools to participate in and publicly report standardized test results like public schools, with 35% indicating they strongly support and 38% indicating support. Thirteen percent of voters expressed some level of opposition and 14% were unsure. Additionally, 59% of voters believe schools should accept the scholarship to fully cover the cost of attendance, 14% were opposed to this regulation, and 27% were unsure. Voters were more divided over the final two regulations. Thirty-seven percent of voters supported mandating schools waive admissions requirements for scholarship students and a similar percentage indicated opposition. Forty-four percent of voters supported mandating scholarship students be able to opt out of religious activities (at religiously affiliated participating private schools) and 41% of voters opposed this potential regulation.

One of the final regulations we examined is directly tied to the existing program. To be eligible to receive a scholarship, Missouri students must live in areas with a population of 30,000 or more. This effectively limits eligibility to students in the St. Louis and Kansas City regions and a few other large areas throughout the state like Springfield, Columbia, and Jefferson City. This geographic limitation was a crucial compromise to gain sufficient legislative support. When asked about their support for this regulation, voters voiced clear opposition: 16% of voters expressed some level of support, while a clear majority, 55% of voters, opposed the geographic limitation, and 29% were unsure. This result was fairly consistent across party lines, but was weakest among Democrats, where 46% opposed, 32% were unsure, and 22% supported geographically limited access.

According to our poll’s findings, most likely voters support the state’s new tax credit scholarship program. While support is strongest among Republican and Independent voters, the state’s Democratic voters are not consistently opposed to the program either. As the program evolves, it will be important to understand the nuances of its design and the regulations placed on participating private schools. Voters have shown a desire to hold participating schools to similar test-based and reporting accountability to that of the state’s public schools, along with requiring private schools admit scholarship students absent customary school admissions requirements. As policymakers refine the program over the coming months, it will be interesting to see if public opinion influences any of these design elements. The difficulty will lie in weighing program attractiveness among prospective families with regulatory considerations, which may disincentivize schools from making seats available to scholarship students.

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The School of Law, the Albert Gnaegi Center for Health Care Ethics COVID-19: Scholarship and Outreach ANA SANTOS RUTSCHMAN, S.J.D.

The following is a selection of pandemic-related publications authored or co-authored by Ana Santos Rutschman, S.J.D.: - An Institutional Solution to Build Trust in Pandemic Vaccines, 31 HARVARD PUBLIC HEALTH REVIEW (2021) (with Yaniv Heled and Liza Vertinsky) (peer-reviewed) - Viral Sovereignty, Vaccine Diplomacy, and Vaccine Nationalism: The Institutions of Global Vaccine Access, __ EMORY INTERNATIONAL LAW REVIEW (forthcoming) (with Sam Halabi) - Regulatory Reactivity: A Case Study on the Approval of the Alzheimer’s Disease Drug Aducanubam (Aduhelm), REGULATORY REVIEW (2021) (with Yaniv Heled and Liza Vertinsky) - Vaccine Clinical Trials and Data Infrastructure, __ UTAH LAW REVIEW __ (2021) (invited symposium) - Social Media Self-Regulation and the Rise of Vaccine Misinformation, __ UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA JOURNAL OF LAW & INNOVATION __ (2021) (invited symposium) - Intellectual Property as a Determinant of Health, 54 VANDERBILT JOURNAL OF TRANSNATIONAL LAW 413 (2021) Selected (by invitation from convener) as the feature article at the Fifth Annual Detlev F. Vagts Roundtable at the annual meeting of the American Society of International Law. Proceedings of the

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Roundtable have been published in 114 Am. Soc’y Int’l L. Proc. 311 (2020) as Fifth Annual Detlev F. Vagts Roundtable on Transnational Law: Conceptualizing Intellectual Property as a Social Determinant of Health: Introductory Remarks.

- Re-examining Vaccine Staggering Within Hesitancy Frameworks, FRONTIERS IN IMMUNOLOGY 12:662814 (2021) (with Timothy Wiemken) (peer-reviewed) - The Case Against Monetary Behavioral Incentives in the Context of COVID-19 Vaccination, 27 HARVARD PUBLIC HEALTH REVIEW (2021) (with Timothy Wiemken) (peer-reviewed) - Associations of Presidential Voting Preference and Gubernatorial Control with County-Level COVID-19 Case and Death Rates in the Continental United States, PUBLIC HEALTH (forthcoming, 2021) (with Jason Eden et al.) (peerreviewed) - The Need for the Tort Law Privilege of Necessity in Intellectual Property Law, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LEGAL FORUM (forthcoming, 2021) (with Yaniv Heled and Liza Vertinsky) (symposium) - Development of Vaccines for Influenza Disease: Opportunity Costs of the COVID-19 Pandemic, 39 VACCINE 1025 (2021) (with Timothy Wiemken) (peer-reviewed) - Excess Mortality in the United States in 2020: Forecasting and Anomaly Detection, AMERICAN JOURNAL OF INFECTION CONTROL (2021) (with Timothy Wiemken, Samson Niemotka and Chris Prenner) (peer-reviewed)

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IMPACT REPORT 2021

- Regulatory Reactivity: FDA and the Response to COVID-19, FOOD AND DRUG LAW JOURNAL (forthcoming, 2021) (with Yaniv Heled and Liza Vertinsky) (peer-reviewed) - The COVID-19 Vaccine Race: Intellectual Property, Collaboration(s), Nationalism and Misinformation, 64 WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF LAW AND POLICY 167 (2021) (invited symposium) Selected for inclusion in the World Health Organization’s database on “Global literature on coronavirus disease.”

- Is There a Cure for Vaccine Nationalism?, 120 CURRENT HISTORY 9 (2021) (invited) - The Problem with Relying on ProfitDriven Models to Produce Pandemic Drugs, 7 JOURNAL OF LAW AND THE BIOSCIENCES lsaa060 (2020) (with Yaniv Heled and Liza Vertinsky) (peer-reviewed) - The Reemergence of Vaccine Nationalism, GEORGETOWN JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS ONLINE (Jul. 3, 2020) - The Intellectual Property of Vaccines: Takeaways from Recent Infectious Disease Outbreaks, 118 MICHIGAN LAW REVIEW ONLINE 170 (2020) - Portugal’s Response to COVID-19, THE REGULATORY REVIEW (2020) Selected by the Regulatory Review for inclusion in Top Contributor Essays of 2020 (Dec. 28, 2020).

- Vaccines and IP Preparedness in the Coronavirus Outbreak,

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NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW OF NOTE (May 18, 2020) - The Mosaic of Coronavirus Vaccine Development: An Illustration of Systemic Failures in Vaccine Innovation, COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS ONLINE (Mar. 21, 2020) - Comments on the Preliminary Framework for Equitable Allocation of COVID-19 Vaccine, Submission to the National Academies of Science (Sept. 4, 2020) (with Julia Barnes-Weise, Robert Gatter, and Timothy Wiemken) - The COVID-19 Vaccine Patent Waiver: The Wrong Tool for the Right Goal, Bill of Health (May 5, 2021) (with Julia Barnes-Weise) - The Intellectual Property Framework of the COVID-19 Vaccine Race, COVID-19 Law and Human Rights Observatory (Mar. 23, 2021) - Can Employers Require Workers to Take the COVID-19 Vaccine? 6 Questions Answered, The Conversation (Dec. 22, 2020) - Why Paying People to Get the Coronavirus Vaccine Won’t Work, The Conversation (Dec. 11, 2020) (with Robert Gatter) - Why the Government Shouldn’t Pay People to Get Vaccinated Against COVID-19, Bill of Health (Dec. 1, 2020) - Facebook’s Latest Attempt to Address Vaccine Misinformation—And Why It’s Not Enough, Health Affairs Blog (Nov. 5, 2020)

- The Case for Face Shields: Improving the COVID-19 Public Health Policy Toolkit, Bill of Health (Sept. 3, 2020) (with Timothy Wiemken and Robert Gatter) - FDA is Departing from Long-Standing Procedures to Deal with Public Health Crises, and this May Foreshadow Problems for COVID-19 Vaccines, The Conversation (Aug. 27, 2020) (with Liza Vertinsky and Yaniv Heled) - Playing Tennis During a Pandemic: From Social Distancing to the Possibility of Mandatory Vaccination, Tennis Life Magazine (Jul. 17, 2020) - How ‘Vaccine Nationalism’ Could Block Vulnerable Populations’ Access to COVID-19 Vaccines, The Conversation; republished by PBS News Hour and other news outlets; translated into Hungarian and republished by Coronavirus News Live (Jun. 17, 2020) - Stay-at-home Order Isn’t Religiously Biased, Saint Louis Post-Dispatch op-ed (Jun. 4, 2020) (with Chad Flanders) - 3D Printing: How an Emerging Technology May Help Fight a Pandemic, IPR Info (Finland) (May 25, 2020) (with Dinusha Mendis and Rosa Ballardini) - From Misinformation to Hidden Economic Agendas: The Coronavirus Lawsuit Against China, Duke FinReg Blog (May 7, 2020) (with Robert Gatter) - Lawsuits as Conduits for Misinformation During COVID-19, Bill of Health (Apr. 30, 2020) (with Robert Gatter) - Smoke Screens: An Initial Analysis of the Coronavirus Lawsuits in the United

States against China and the World Health Organization, Protego Press (Apr. 22, 2020) (with Robert Gatter) - Require Court Orders for All Quarantines, Saint Louis Post-Dispatch op-ed (Mar. 15, 2020) (with Robert Gatter) - Mapping Misinformation in the Coronavirus Outbreak, Health Affairs Blog (Mar. 10, 2020) (listed number 2 on Ten Most-Read Health Affairs Blog Posts of 2020 (Dec. 31, 2020) ALBERT GNAEGI CENTER FOR HEALTH CARE ETHICS

The following contributions have been made in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic by Gnaegi Center faculty, graduate students, and alumni: - A nationwide survey of ventilator triage policies spearheaded by Gnaegi Center Director, Professor Jason T. Eberl, published in Annals of Internal Medicine: “Ventilator Triage Policies During the COVID-19 Pandemic at U.S. Hospitals Associated With Members of the Association of Bioethics Program Directors” - An article co-authored by Tenet Endowed Chair Jeffrey P. Bishop and a current HCE graduate student, Martin Fitzgerald, in the highly-regarded Heythrop Journal “Norming COVID‐19: The Urgency of a Non‐Humanist Holism” - Co-authored article by Professor Jason T. Eberl in the Catholic Health Association’s journal Health Progress: “Is It Ethical to Unilaterally Withdraw Life-Sustaining Treatment in Triage Circumstances?”

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COVID-19: Scholarship and Outreach continued

- Co-authored article by Professor Jason T. Eberl as a member of an Association of Bioethics Program Directors Task Force in American Journal of Bioethics: “Ethical Challenges Arising in the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Overview from the Association of Bioethics Program Directors (ABPD) Task Force” - Accompanying Commentary: “Ethics as Usual? Unilateral Withdrawal of Treatment in a State of Exception” - Tenet Endowed Chair Jeff Bishop authored two essays for online journals: “What’s the Real Problem at the Core of the COVID-19 Pandemic?” Church Life Journal (May 8, 2020) and “Imagining the (Theological) Whole: States of Exception” Political Theology (April 29, 2020) - Assistant Professor Kimbell Kornu authored an essay for an online journal: “COVID-19 and the Race That Nobody Sees” Church Life Journal (July 30, 2020) - Co-authored article by Tenet Endowed Chair Jeff Bishop and Professor Jason T. Eberl concerning reallocation of ventilators within crisis standards of care in the journal CHEST (2021): “POINT: Is It Ethically Permissible to Unilaterally Withdraw Life-Sustaining Treatments During Crisis Standards of Care? Yes” - Associate Professor Erica K. Salter is lead investigator on a nation-wide study of pediatric triage policies (in process) - Associate Professor Harold Braswell conducted a three-week online seminar series concerning Jewish ethics in response to COVID-19 - Associate Professor Tobias Winright was interviewed by National Catholic Reporter concerning COVID-related ethical issues: “Triage and ventilator rationing not the only ethical issues in pandemic bioethicists say”

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- Associate Professor Erica K. Salter was interviewed by Healthcare Dive on the ethics of institutional triage protocols: “COVID-19 threatens to overwhelm hospitals. They’re weighing how best to ration care.”

- Associate Professor Yolonda Wilson participated in a panel discussion, “The Brave New World of Pandemic Bioethics” at the 30th Annual Association for Practical and Professional Ethics Conference (February 2021)

- Associate Professor Yolonda Wilson was interviewed by Talking Points Memo concerning COVID-19 vaccine distribution within hospitals: “Hospital Administrators, Staff Debate A Crucial Vaccine Question: Who Goes First?”

- Professor Jason T. Eberl and Assistant Professor Kimbell Kornu were each interviewed by St. Louis Public Radio: “The Ethics Of Care During A Pandemic”

- Associate Professor Yolonda Wilson published “Racial Injustice and Meaning Well: A Challenge for Bioethics,” American Journal of Bioethics 12:2 (2021) - Associate Professor Yolonda Wilson delivered the following invited talks: - “Death, Pandemic, and Intersectionality: What the Failures in an End-of-Life Case Can Teach About Structural Injustice and COVID-19,” University of Oxford Medical Ethics, Law, and Discussion Group, Oxford, England (June 2021) - “Re-Thinking Race and Vaccine Hesitancy,” Duke University Department of Philosophy, Durham, NC (April 2021) - “Re-Thinking Bioethics in the Shadow of COVID-19: Lessons from Our Pandemic Experience (Thus Far),” University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) Department of Social Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC (March 2021) - “A Black Feminist Perspective on (So-Called) Vaccine Hesitancy,” Duke University Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies, Durham, NC (March 2021)

SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSIT Y RESEARCH INSTITUTE

IMPACT REPORT 2021

- Professor Jason T. Eberl was interviewed by Neurology Today concerning COVID-related ethical issues: “COVID-19: Prepare for Care-Rationing— Know Your Hospital Policies” - Professor Jason T. Eberl was interviewed by Catholic Health World concerning ethical issues related to COVID-19 vaccine distribution: “Ethicist says COVID vaccines align with Catholic teachings” - Professor Jason T. Eberl was interviewed by the Archdiocesan publication St. Louis Review concerning ethical issues related to COVID-19 vaccine development and distribution: “Catholics must weigh ethical considerations in the development of COVID-19 vaccine” - Professor Jason T. Eberl presented in an online webinar, “Is COVID-19 Vaccination ‘Ordinary Treatment’?” sponsored by the International Association of Catholic Bioethics. March 2021 - Professor Jason T. Eberl was interviewed by Salt+Light TV (Canadian Catholic broadcasting) concerning the ethics of COVID-19 vaccination - Professor Jason T. Eberl has been asked to take on the role of Director of the Bioethics Core of SLU’s new Institute for Vaccine Science and Policy

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- Associate Professor Erica K. Salter is leading the Joint Triage Team for SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital and Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital - Graduate student Kyle Karches involved in COVID-19 response planning for SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital - Alumnus Jay Malone spearheaded the development of the Missouri Hospital Association’s triage policy guidelines - Alumnus Nathaniel Hibner and current graduate student Alec Arnold have been instrumental in devising the Catholic Health Association’s response to the pandemic - Graduate student Christopher Ostertag has been instrumental in developing Ascension Health’s (the largest non-profit healthcare provider in the U.S.) response to the pandemic - Various alumni currently employed

by Catholic health care systems (Ascension, SSM, Mercy, CHRISTUS, CommonSpirit) have been instrumental in developing their respective systems’ pandemic response policies

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