UWI researchers confronting the global crises

by Karel Mc Intosh

“Through the TMRI, research is being done in areas relevant to the major health problems of the region, especially when they coincide with international priorities,” says Professor Terrence Forrester – a three-time winner of the UWI’s Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Research, who also helped to spearhead the Institute’s establishment in 1999. “We have received funds from grant-giving agencies such as The Wellcome Trust, National Institutes of Health, the European Commission, Nestle Nutrition Foundation, the Medical Research Council, the Inter-American Development Bank, USAID, the Ford Foundation, Pan American Health Organization, Carnegie Corporation, the US Department of Agriculture, and the International Atomic Energy Agency.”

Professor Forrester has also been at the forefront of other important research thrusts. He has served as an adviser to a number of international health organizations, including the World Health Organization, the Medical Research Council (UK) and the United States Center for Disease Control. Focusing on the causes of hypertension and other cardiovascular diseases, his work has been especially significant in the Caribbean context, given the region’s prevalence of hypertension, and high death rate due to coronary heart disease. He is one of the many UWI researchers making sterling contributions to international issues. His colleague, Professor Susan Walker, Professor of Nutrition at the TMRI, has fixated her research on the effects of early life experiences – including nutrition, health and psychosocial factors – on children’s development and behaviour, and the design and evaluation of sustainable interventions to improve children’s cognitive and behavioural outcomes. Her work has been used by UNICEF, WHO and the World Bank to demonstrate the need to integrate child development services with nutrition and health programmes.

In Barbados, Director of the TMRI’s Chronic Disease Research Centre (CDRC), Professor Anselm Hennis, has been a lead investigator for national, health initiatives such as the Barbados Eye Studies Project – which highlighted high rates of glaucoma in Barbados and identified new risk factors, and the Barbados National Cancer Study of breast and prostate cancer – which investigates the incidence and related environmental factors of the illnesses. He also led the Barbados Centre in the global study of Hyperglycemia and Adverse Pregnancy Outcome. His associate Dr. Ian Hambleton, in collaboration with colleagues at CDRC, is implementing the Barbados National Registry for chronic non-communicable diseases, developing a Geographical Information System infrastructure for mapping health conditions in Barbados, and designing a population-based study of wound-healing in people with diabetes.

At present, the CDRC is also collaborating with Barbados’ Ministry of Health to establish the Barbados National Registry of Stroke, Cardiovascular Disease and Cancer. To say that the units of the Tropical Medical Research Institute are busy is an understatement. UWI has long adopted an intraregional approach to problem solving. Through an Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) technical assistance grant, the University has undertaken a project to establish research and surveillance programmes for Non Communicable Diseases (NCD), and is collaborating with the Caribbean Epidemiology Centre / Pan American Health Organization (CAREC/PAHO). Entitled “Regional Non Communicable Diseases (NCD) Surveillance System”, the project will improve the Caribbean region’s capacity to deliver cost-effective health services associated with NCD, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, cancer and respiratory diseases. The six IDB-member countries from the region – The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago – are all participating in the project.

With all of these ongoing activities, the TMRI’s contribution to Caribbean countries’ wellbeing is incontestable. Through their researchers, UWI continues to make great strides in the region’s health sectors. Senior lecturers such as Dr. Christine Carrington and Dr. Dave Chadee of the St. Augustine Campus – who are focused on virus evolution and the epidemiology of diseases, respectively – are two more names on the long list of researchers who are making a difference in their respective countries. For instance, one of Dr. Chadee’s breakthroughs included the detection and eradication of two malaria outbreaks in Trinidad and Tobago.

Feeding the Caribbean

Undoubtedly, UWI has been doing its part to become an integral part of the solutions the Caribbean needs. In the face of rising food prices, and the search for self-sufficiency for food sources, the issue of food security sits squarely on the priority list for countries. UWI researchers’ focus on areas such as food safety and food product development, as well as the economics of food production, has positive implications for the wellbeing of the region’s people.

“My research into yams, which originated in Nigeria and was fostered in Germany, became buttressed in Jamaica and has since radiated out to many parts of the world, resulting in many UWI-trained PhD scholars,” explains Professor Helen Asemota – Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Mona, Jamaica Campus’ Department of Basic Medical Sciences – who is on joint appointment with UWI Mona and Shaw University in North Carolina, USA. “With its strategic location and active research framework, UWI has served as a most suitable hub for the enhancement of this research.”

Professor Asemota’s research interests in biochemistry, biotechnology, molecular biology, and nanotechnology are directly linked to the issue of food security. For instance, her research on the bioengineering of Caribbean yams (for quality improvement), the production of disease-free yam planting materials for farmers’ use (for increased yield), and the screening of Caribbean food crops for anti-nutritional factors (for quality control) seek to ensure the sustainability of a core, Caribbean crop.

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