Investigators

University of Michigan

Joseph Eisenberg, PhD, MPH University of Michigan, School of Public Health Oversees the project as Principal Investigator. He has extensive research experience related to the epidemiology of waterborne diseases, both conducting experiments and studying theoretical aspects of disease transmission using mathematical models. Dr. Eisenberg has collaborated with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Environmental Protection Agency, the World Health Organization, among others.

Carl Marrs, PhD University of Michigan Dr. Marrs is a bacteriologist bringing expertise on bacterial pathogenesis to the project. He has spent over 25 years studying the molecular genetics and bacteriology of a wide variety of bacterial pathogens. Dr. Marrs was amongst the first microbiologists to use molecular techniques to study bacterial genetics.

Lixin Zhang, PhD, MS University of Michigan Dr. Zhang’s research interests include genomics and bioinformatics. He has expertise in designing and applying molecular tools to infectious disease studies, and incorporating population genetic and phylogenetic concepts and methods in pathogen analyses. He led the development of the novel Library on a Slide microarray that has been used in studying various bacterial. He will develop detailed protocols for all molecular work.

Betsy Foxman, PhD University of Michigan Dr. Foxman’s research focuses on the molecular epidemiology of several infectious diseases, including urinary tract infection, lactation mastitis, and infections with Group B Streptococcus. She advises on design of the molecular epidemiology component of the research.

Carl Simon, PhD University of Michigan Dr. Simon is the Director of the UM Center for the Study of Complex Systems, and has worked on the development of dynamic population models of the spread of infection (especially HIV and influenza) and of drug resistance.

Universidad San Francisco de Quito

William Cevallos Trujillo, MD MSc Universidad San Francisco de Quito Dr. Cevallos is a co-investigator and serves as Project Director in Ecuador. He has experience working on investigations of tropical diseases such as leishmaniasis and malaria, in both clinical and epidemiological aspects. He received his M.Sc. in Tropical Medicine from Fundao Oswaldo Cruz, Brazil in 2001.

Gabriel Trueba, PhD Universidad San Francisco de Quito Dr. Trueba leads the microbiological analysis in Quito. He received his PhD in Microbiology from Iowa State University and carried out post-doctoral research at the University of Minnesota before returning to Ecuador, where he is a faculty member in the Institute of Microbiology at USFQ. He also has a veterinary degree.

Renato León, PhD Universidad San Francisco de Quito Dr. León is a co-investigator on the dengue project. As a medical entomologist, he has experience with entomological collections, vector competence and vector taxonomy. Dr. León developed expertise in arbovirology during his doctoral studies in Microbiology at the Ohio University Tropical Disease Institute and Postdoctoral training as a National Research Council (NRC) associate at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), Fort Detrick, Maryland, USA. Dr. León is the Director of the Medical Entomology lab at the Institute of Microbiology at USFQ, providing insectary space and assistance with mosquito laboratory work.

Trinity College

James Trostle, PhD MPH Trinity College Dr. Trostle is a Principal Investigator on the project, and is responsible for coordinating the collection of the social and cultural data required for this project. Dr. Trostle has helped to design and implement more than 80 applied diarrheal disease research projects in developing countries, including 40 in Latin America and four in Ecuador. He resided in Ecuador in 1988 and 1994. An expert on research capacity-building, he also consults for the World Health Organization and Pan American Health Organization on designing and evaluating diarrheal disease interventions, and for the WHO on its Reproductive Health Programs in the Americas. Dr. Trostle has written on the history of collaboration between anthropologists and epidemiologists, and recently published the book Epidemiology and Culture.

Emory University

Karen Levy, PhD, MPH Emory University, Rollins School of Public Health Karen Levy is an assistant professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health. In Ecuador she studies household drinking water quality, impacts of climate on the incidence of waterborne disease, and the contributions of village-level animal husbandry operations to the evolution and spread of antibiotic resistance.

UC Berkeley

Alan Hubbard, PhD UC Berkeley, School of Public Health Dr. Hubbard is the project statistician. Dr. Hubbard has taught several graduate-level courses at UC Berkeley and authored several publications on the statistical analysis of epidemiologic data, causal inference, as well as methods for computational biology. His background in epidemiology and his expertise in longitudinal data provide a sound background for developing analytic strategies for this project.

Universidad Central de Ecuador

Manuel Calvopiña Universidad Central de Ecuador Dr. Calvopiña is a parasitologist on the Medical Science Faculty of the Universidad Central de Ecuador. He earned his PhD from the Kochi Medical School in Japan, and also has a masters degree from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He is a collaborating investigator working on molecular analysis of giardia samples.

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