PGIF Project: Fostering International Networks and Multidisciplinary Research to Promote an Understanding of the Health Effects of Biomass Exposure

Principal Investigator

Jeanine D'Armiento
Jeanine D'Armiento

Project Description

This one-year planning project will explore educational exchange, collaboration and training between faculty of Columbia University and scholars from CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, Dehli in the form of lectures, workshops and collaborative research coordinated at the Columbia Global Center in Mumbai, India. Columbia’s main partner institution in India will be the CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology with a focus on the ill effects of biomass exposure on health. Initial studies will focus on the direct effects of biomass on the lung with expectation to expand into the effects on cardiovascular disease and pediatric illnesses. The project will begin with an exploratory visit by Columbia faculty to Delhi India to the CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, Dehli in the fall of 2018 to meet with scholars, students and university administrators at CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, Dehli, with a follow-up visit in the spring of 2019. In the summer of 2019 a workshop will be organized at the Mumbai, Global Center to bring together local and regional academic communities, institutions, governments, and other partners. The ultimate goal of the project is to establish regular programs of exchange for Indian scholars and students in India and eventually at the Columbia campus in New York. The funding of this project will allow us to establish an interactive network of partnerships between investigators in India and Columbia University across various disciplines that can address the urgent health issues secondary to biomass exposure by bringing together scholars, students, public officials and scientists from multiple fields.