NAU News

Oct. 24, 2019

What is health equity, anyway?

Researchers from Northern Arizona University’s Center for Health Equity Research (CHER) are helping listeners find that out through a new podcast series, “Fairness First,” which debuts today.

The podcast is a project of the Community Engagement Core (CEC) of the Southwest Health Equity Research Collaborative (SHERC), which is a grant initiative under CHER. One of the objectives of SHERC is to work with the local community about health equity matters.

“The overall goal of the Community Engagement Core is to develop innovative tools and methods of dissemination to build more collaboration with the community,” said Alexandra Samarron, a senior program coordinator with CHER and one of three Fairness First podcast hosts.

In the first episode, Samarron interviews Olga, a Flagstaff resident who experienced housing inequality issues. She owned a mobile home but not the land and was forced to evacuate and leave her home behind. With Samarron translating Olga’s Spanish, the host describes how Olga began experiencing headaches and other stress-related issues due to her housing issues. 

The team also talks to Julio Quezada, manager of North Country Health Care Integrated Clinic, Darrell Marks, an academic adviser at Flagstaff High School dedicated to working with Native American students, and Samantha Sabo, the CEC co-lead and an associate professor of health sciences at NAU.

“It has been a learning process on how to conduct interviews, especially since I hosted the first episode,” Samarron said. “I am starting to feel more comfortable with talking on the mic.”

The researchers partnered with NAU’s Media Innovation Center to help with the podcast recording and editing. They designed the episode’s structure with Brian Rackham, an associate professor in NAU’s School of Communication. Communication student Aldric Meints recorded and edited the podcast.

“Brian has been very helpful in guiding us in the process,” Samarron said. “He also introduced us to Aldric, who helped us with thinking about the interviews and all of the technical parts that were challenging to learn.”

The group plans to release two more episodes this semester. In the next episode, Kelly McCue, a senior program coordinator with CHER, will interview students pursuing the Master of Public Health Indigenous Health Track. Carmenlita Chief, a senior program coordinator with CHER, will host the episode that features SHERC’s Community-Campus Partnership Support (CCPS)—a program that partners community practitioners and leaders with university investigators.

Chief said she thinks exploring health equity will be helpful to listeners.

“Storytelling is an essential part of our work as public health advocates because it’s a personal and meaningful way of communicating information,” Chief said. “In a previous chapter of my life, I was a journalist, so I loved the aspect of being back in my creative element and crafting narratives that make research relatable to a broader audience.”

McCue said she hopes the podcast will help northern Arizona learn more about the center’s work to promote health equity in the region.

In addition to Fairness First, the group is also developing a video series and a webinar that highlights a few SHERC health equity programs with partnerships in the community.

“We also hope to really challenge more researchers to start thinking about building relationships in the community and to start thinking about how their science needs to be more applicable to community needs,” Samarron said.

New CHER podcast series tackles health equity issues, builds community collaboration. The podcast is available on iTunes and also on the SHERC website.

Oct. 24, 2019

Amid a national opioid crisis, chemistry major Noelle Waltenburg is finding ways to help people move on from their addiction. She and other students in assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry Naomi Lee’s lab are researching an opioid vaccine that could be administered in rehabilitation facilities.

Studies have shown that vaccines may be an effective way to blunt the effects of drugs by triggering a patient’s immune system to generate antibodies to attack opioids. When a patient ingests an opioid, these antibodies would prevent molecules of the drug from crossing the blood-brain barrier in the central nervous system, preventing the patient from getting high.

Because opioid molecules do not naturally produce an immune response, however, they need to be attached to carrier proteins. In the lab, Waltenburg attaches a molecule of an opioid such as oxycodone to a carrier protein, in this case a virus-like particle, or VLP, to generate antibodies that will allow the body to recognize the opioid and trigger an immune response.

“If that opioid comes in contact inside the body, the body knows to reject it to avoid having any of that blood-brain barrier contact, so the addict would never feel that high,” she said.

Making your own decisions and making a difference

The opportunity to make a difference on a national crisis is significant for the undergraduate researcher, both academically and personally. 

“When I heard about the project that Dr. Lee was doing, I knew I really wanted to join, not just for the organic chemistry part but also because I have people in my life who have struggled with addiction,” Waltenburg said. “Being part of a project whose goal was to help these people was very important to me.”

She credits Lee’s approach to running a lab with improving her skills as a leader and a chemist. Lee, whose research focuses on novel vaccine development using VLPs and self-assembling peptides, encourages students to be responsible for decision-making, not just following a lab manual’s instructions.

“My mentor has definitely become one of the most influential people that I have met in my three years at NAU,” Waltenburg said. “This is a whole new setting, and you have to learn from your mistakes. She’s really trying to show me that it’s okay to make mistakes, to try new things. She’s always there. When I’ve messed up, even the little things, she’s like, ‘It’s OK.’ She’s helping me learn from those mistakes.”

Such confidence helps Waltenburg persevere and make a difference in the world.

“It’s good to know that I could help these people who are addicted,” she said.

Waltenburg plans on pursuing a Ph.D. in synthetic chemistry, with hopes of continuing with a career in vaccine development for those suffering from substance abuse.