Postdoctoral Fellow 2018-2022
Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University
mm2463@cornell.edu LinkedIN ORCID

Melisa Medina-Rivera, PhD ‘22

Lecturer, Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University

Current Focus: Dr. Melisa Medina-Rivera is a lecturer in the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University (July, 2022). She earned her Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences, major in Biochemistry, from the SUNY at Buffalo, NY, and a B.S. degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Puerto Rico at Cayey, PR. She has also completed coursework towards a M.S. in Translational Science Investigation from Weill Cornell Medicine, NY.

MRG Focus: Dr. Medina-Rivera joined the Mehta Research Group in 2018 as a post-doctoral associate and later became a fellow through a TL1 training grant from the Clinical Translational Center at Weill Cornell Medicine. Within our research group her role was focused on two main areas: (1) developing state-of-the art technologies to improve the diagnostic of infectious diseases and (2) conducting systematic reviews to assess the risks of mother-to-child transmission of infectious pathogens through breast milk and breastfeeding practices.

MRG Publications:

1. Centeno-Tablante E, Medina-Rivera M, Finkelstein JL, Rayco-Solon P, Garcia-Casal MN, Rogers L, Ghezzi-Kopel K, Ridwan P, Peña-Rosas JP, Mehta S. Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 through breast milk and breastfeeding: a living systematic review. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2021 Jan;1484(1):32-54. doi: 10.1111/nyas.14477. Epub 2020 Aug 28. PMID: 32860259; PMCID: PMC7970667.

2. Medina-Rivera M, Centeno-Tablante E, Finkelstein JL, Rayco-Solon P, Peña-Rosas JP, Garcia-Casal MN, Rogers L, Ridwan P, Martinez SS, Andrade J, Layden AJ, Chang J, Zambrano MP, Ghezzi-Kopel K, Mehta S. Presence of Ebola virus in breast milk and risk of mother-to-child transmission: synthesis of evidence. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2021 Mar;1488(1):33-43. doi: 10.1111/nyas.14519. Epub 2020 Oct 28. PMID: 33113592; PMCID: PMC8048832.

3. Centeno-Tablante E, Medina-Rivera M, Finkelstein JL, Herman HS, Rayco-Solon P, Garcia-Casal MN, Rogers L, Ghezzi-Kopel K, Zambrano Leal MP, Andrade Velasquez JK, Chang Asinc JG, Peña-Rosas JP, Mehta S. Update on the Transmission of Zika Virus Through Breast Milk and Breastfeeding: A Systematic Review of the Evidence. Viruses. 2021 Jan 18;13(1):123. doi: 10.3390/v13010123. PMID: 33477428; PMCID: PMC7830280.

4. Medina-Rivera M, Cárdenas WB, Erickson D, Mehta S. Gold Nanoshells-Based Lateral Flow Assay for the Detection of Chagas Disease at the Point-of-Care. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2022 Jun 27;107(2):323–7. doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.21-1119. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35895419; PMCID: PMC9393437.

Postdoctoral Fellow 2018 - 2021
Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University

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Laura S. Hackl, PhD ‘21

Specialist, Nutrition Science, Nestlé Research Center

MRG Focus: Postdoctoral fellow in International Nutrition with the Division of Nutritional Sciences, Dr. Hackl has led research aimed at investigating the contribution of iron fortified rice to the absorbed iron requirement in Ghanaian school children in hopes of finding new ways to fight iron deficiency around the globe.

Current Focus: My goal is to contribute to sustainable solutions that improve micronutrient supply in populations vulnerable to malnutrition. I enjoy collaborating across different disciplines and translating research into easily understandable concepts. My main interests include food fortification/micronutrient supply, infant and young child feeding, food safety, developing plant-based alternatives to meat/dairy, and strategy board games.

MRG Publications:

1. Ruth CJ, Huey SL, Krisher JT, Fothergill A, Gannon BM, Jones CE, Centeno-Tablante E, Hackl LS, Colt S, Finkelstein JL, Mehta S. An Electronic Data Capture Framework (ConnEDCt) for Global and Public Health Research: Design and Implementation. J Med Internet Res. 2020 Aug 13;22(8):e18580. doi: 10.2196/18580. PMID: 32788154; PMCID: PMC7453324.

2. Finkelstein JL, Fothergill A, Hackl LS, Haas JD, Mehta S. Iron biofortification interventions to improve iron status and functional outcomes. Proc Nutr Soc. 2019 May;78(2):197-207. doi: 10.1017/S0029665118002847. Epub 2019 Jan 30. PMID: 30698117.

Sudha Venkatramanan, PhD ‘17

Nutritionist, USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP)

MRG Focus: Sudha received her Doctoral degree in Human Nutrition from McGill University, Canada. She has extensive research experience in conducting feeding trials in resource limited settings. She joined MRG in 2014 as Postdoctoral Research Associate and was involved in the implementation of the bio-fortified pearl millet trial in young children from the urban slums of Mumbai. Her research experience and interests includes dietary interventions, maternal and child nutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, fortification, bio- fortification, biomarkers, and cognitive functions.

Current Focus: Dr. Venkatramanan is part of the Nutrition Evidence Systematic Review (NESR) team, Office of Nutrition Guidance and Analysis, Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP), Food and Nutrition Service, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA); Panum Group

MRG Publications:

1. Mehta S, Finkelstein JL, Venkatramanan S, Huey SL, Udipi SA, Ghugre P, Ruth C, Canfield RL, Kurpad AV, Potdar RD, Haas JD. Effect of iron and zinc-biofortified pearl millet consumption on growth and immune competence in children aged 12-18 months in India: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial. BMJ Open. 2017 Nov 14;7(11):e017631. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-017631. Erratum in: BMJ Open. 2018 Jan 9;8(1):e017631corr1. Erratum in: BMJ Open. 2018 Oct 2;8(10):e017631corr2. PMID: 29138201; PMCID: PMC5695508.

2. Huey SL, Venkatramanan S, Udipi SA, Finkelstein JL, Ghugre P, Haas JD, Thakker V, Thorat A, Salvi A, Kurpad AV, Mehta S. Acceptability of Iron- and Zinc-Biofortified Pearl Millet (Dhanashakti)-Based [corrected] Complementary Foods among Children in an Urban Slum of Mumbai, India. Front Nutr. 2017 Aug 25;4:39. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2017.00039. Erratum in: Front Nutr. 2018 Oct 18;5:92. PMID: 28971097; PMCID: PMC5609630.

Jinsu Kim, PhD ‘18

Senior Scientist, Product Support, Ortho Clinical Diagnostics

Jinsu received his Doctoral degree in Chemical Engineering from University of Houston. He has experience with development of Point-of-Care diagnostics for infections and diseases. Currently, his research focuses on developing a filed-portable lateral flow immunoassay to detect Malaria for epidemiological study in Ecuador.

Current Focus: Dr. Kim currently works to develop and commercialize in vitro diagnostics for testing infectious diseases in the biotechnology industry. Currently, he am leading several projects to develop Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) rapid antibody test kit, and HIV rapid test with all-in-one platform.

MRG Publications:

1. Kim J, Cao XE, Finkelstein JL, Cárdenas WB, Erickson D, Mehta S. A two-colour multiplexed lateral flow immunoassay system to differentially detect human malaria species on a single test line. Malar J. 2019 Sep 18;18(1):313. doi: 10.1186/s12936-019-2957-x. PMID: 31533756; PMCID: PMC6749696.

Rathina Kumar Shanmugakani, PhD ‘19

IVDR Assessor for DNV, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

MRG Focus: Dr. Kani received his Ph.D. in Medical Sciences from Osaka University, Japan. He has experience on the diagnosis and molecular epidemiology of multidrug-resistant pathogens. At Cornell, he focused on the development of point-of-care diagnostics for infectious diseases including development of isothermal amplification-based rapid diagnostics for MDR-TB and point of care and sample sparing technique for assessing the functionality of immune cells.

MRG Publications:

1. Shanmugakani RK, Bonam W, Erickson D, Mehta S. An isothermal amplification-based point-of-care diagnostic platform for the detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis: A proof-of-concept study. Curr Res Biotechnol. 2021;3:154-159. doi: 10.1016/j.crbiot.2021.05.004. Epub 2021 May 21. PubMed PMID: 34308334; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8301208

2. Shanmugakani RK, Srinivasan B, Glesby MJ, Westblade LF, Cárdenas WB, Raj T, Erickson D, Mehta S. Current state of the art in rapid diagnostics for antimicrobial resistance. Lab Chip. 2020 Aug 7;20(15):2607-2625. doi: 10.1039/d0lc00034e. Epub 2020 Jul 9. PubMed PMID: 32644060; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7428068.

Amit Kumar Barui, PhD ‘20

Postdoctoral Research Scientist, Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue University

MRG Focus: Dr. Barui received his PhD in Dairy Chemistry in 2018 from the National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, Haryana, India. His research work focuses on assessment of food safety and quality in resource limited settings. While at Cornell, Dr. Barui worked on smartphone-based point-of-need method development for food safety and aflatoxin assay development. His has experience in SELEX, aptamer, lateral flow assay and food analysis.

Current Focus: Dr. Barui builds field deployable (bio/chemical) sensors for the detection of various analytes in complex biological matrices such as food, saliva, blood and urine.

Serge Ongagna Yhombi, PhD ‘18

MRG Focus: Serge’s research project spans two departments (Nutritional Sciences and Mechanical Engineering, Cornell University) and focuses on the development of a rapid diagnostic platform FeverPhone for Point-Of-Care (POC) detection of pathogens responsible of Acute Febrile Illnesses in humans. His previous research work at New York University focused on the development of rapid tests for POC detection of HIV/AIDS, Malaria, Ebola, and other infectious diseases.

MRG Publications:

1. Cao XE, Ongagna-Yhombi SY, Wang R, Ren Y, Srinivasan B, Hayden JA, Zhao Z, Erickson D, Mehta S. A diagnostic platform for rapid, simultaneous quantification of procalcitonin and C-reactive protein in human serum. EBioMedicine. 2022 Feb;76:103867. doi: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.103867. Epub 2022 Feb 8. PMID: 35149284; PMCID: PMC8841998.

2. Wang R, Ongagna-Yhombi SY, Lu Z, Centeno-Tablante E, Colt S, Cao X, Ren Y, Cárdenas WB, Mehta S, Erickson D. Rapid Diagnostic Platform for Colorimetric Differential Detection of Dengue and Chikungunya Viral Infections. Anal Chem. 2019 Apr 16;91(8):5415-5423. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.9b00704

Camille Jones, Class of 2023 PhD in Nutritional Sciences
LinkedIN ORCID

Elizabeth Centeno-Tablante, PhD ‘24

Kripa Rajagopalan, PhD ‘24

Pratiwi Ridwan, PhD ‘24

Camille Elyse Jones, PhD ‘23

Epidemic Intelligence Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Camille joined the Division of Nutritional Sciences as a Dean’s Excellence Graduate Fellow, then became a Trainee with the National Institute of Health in Maternal and Child Nutrition. Before attending Cornell University, she earned a Bachelor of Science from Howard University with a major in biology and minors in chemistry and business administration. She earned a Masters in Public Health from Tulane University’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine while working as a Masters International Peace Corps Volunteer in Mochudi and Gaborone, Botswana. Continuing her Peace Corps service with the U.S. Agency for International Development, Camille pioneered program design in supply chain management, working with local health professionals to provide antiretroviral medications and health commodities to patients throughout the country. As a result of her time working in communities, Camille became increasingly interested in investigating the determinants of maternal and child health outcomes, and sought avenues to take an epidemiological approach to investigate relationships between nutrition and disease. Her dissertation research was nested within a parent feeding trial in South India (ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT02648893). She is passionate about reproductive health justice and served as a Global Racial Justice Graduate Fellow with the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies.

Susannah Colt, Class of 2020
PhD in International Nutrition, Epidemiology, Immunology and Infectious Diseases

Samantha L. Huey, Class of 2020
PhD in International Nutrition with minors in Epidemiology and Immunology & Infectious Diseases

slh277@cornell.edu LinkedIN ORCID

Elaine Yu, Class of 2017
PhD in Nutrition

Mochammad Rizal, Class of 2023

MS in Nutrition

Heather Falise, Class of 2021

MS in Nutrition

Meghan Trumbull-Kennedy, Class of 2020
MS in Nutrition and Epidemiology

Saiful Islam, Class of 2024
MS in Nutritional Science

si243@cornell.edu LinkedIN ORCID

Susannah Colt, PhD ‘20

Postdoctoral Research Associate, Rhode Island Hospital

MRG Focus: Prior to joining MRG, Dr. Colt obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology and Anthropology and a Postgraduate Diploma in Public Health and was involved in sero-surveillance and basic research of infectious diseases. At Cornell her work focused on the relationship between vitamin A status and the immune response to acute febrile illnesses in resource-limited settings. Dr. Colt developed a rapid point-of-care assay to assess vitamin A levels in whole blood. ect Malaria for epidemiological study in Ecuador.

MRG Publications:

1. Ruth CJ, Huey SL, Krisher JT, Fothergill A, Gannon BM, Jones CE, Centeno-Tablante E, Hackl LS, Colt S, Finkelstein JL, Mehta S. An Electronic Data Capture Framework (ConnEDCt) for Global and Public Health Research: Design and Implementation. J Med Internet Res. 2020 Aug 13;22(8):e18580. doi: 10.2196/18580. PMID: 32788154; PMCID: PMC7453324.

2. Finkelstein JL, Colt S, Layden AJ, Krisher JT, Stewart-Ibarra AM, Polhemus M, Beltrán-Ayala E, Tedesco JM, Cárdenas WB, Endy T, Mehta S. Micronutrients, Immunological Parameters, and Dengue Virus Infection in Coastal Ecuador: A Nested Case-Control Study in an Infectious Disease Surveillance Program. J Infect Dis. 2020 Jan 1;221(1):91-101. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiz427. PMID: 31428794; PMCID: PMC6910873.

3. Wang R, Ongagna-Yhombi SY, Lu Z, Centeno-Tablante E, Colt S, Cao X, Ren Y, Cárdenas WB, Mehta S, Erickson D. Rapid Diagnostic Platform for Colorimetric Differential Detection of Dengue and Chikungunya Viral Infections. Anal Chem. 2019 Apr 16;91(8):5415-5423. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.9b00704. Epub 2019 Mar 29. PMID: 30896928; PMCID: PMC7719054.

4. Mehta S, Colt S, Lee S, Erickson D. Rainer Gross Award Lecture 2016: A Laboratory in Your Pocket: Enabling Precision Nutrition. Food Nutr Bull. 2017 Jun;38(2):140-145. doi: 10.1177/0379572117709157. PMID: 28513261.

5. Lee S, O'Dell D, Hohenstein J, Colt S, Mehta S, Erickson D. NutriPhone: a mobile platform for low-cost point-of-care quantification of vitamin B12 concentrations. Sci Rep. 2016 Jun 15;6:28237. doi: 10.1038/srep28237. PMID: 27301282; PMCID: PMC4908584.

Samantha L. Huey, PhD ‘20

Research Associate, Center for Precision Nutrition and Health, Cornell University

MRG Focus: During her graduate work with MRG, Dr. Huey spent several semesters and summers in the urban slums of Mumbai, India to prepare for and coordinate the iron-biofortified pearl millet trial (ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT02233764). Her dissertation focused on determinants of nutritional status, the gut microbiota, and immune response to measles in children participating in this trial. Dr. Huey subsequently served as the 2022-2023 Maternal and Child Nutrition Research Fellow and Postdoctoral Associate at Cornell University where she continued to examine the Mumbai trial data, focusing on nutritional status, microbiome and immune function.

Current Focus: In her current role as Research Associate, Dr. Huey supports the NIH Nutrition for Precision Health (NPH) Initiative as part of the Data & Analytics Team for the Research Coordinating Center (RCC), co-led by Cornell (Co-PI: Dr. Saurabh Mehta) and RTI International (Co-PI: Dr. Marie Gantz). Additionally, Dr. Huey leads efforts to synthesize evidence on micronutrients, biofortification, obesity, precision nutrition, diagnostic test accuracy, the gut microbiome, and maternal and child health to enable translation to action and guidelines such as for the World Health Organization.

Select MRG Publications (Link to complete published work):

1. Huey SL, Mehta NH, Konieczynski EM, Bhargava A, Friesen VM, Krisher JT, Mbuya MNN, Monterrosa E, Nyangaresi AM, Boy E, Mehta S. Bioaccessibility and bioavailability of biofortified food and food products: Current evidence. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2022 Nov 17:1-23. doi: 10.1080/10408398.2022.2142762. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36384354.

2. Huey SL, Krisher JT, Morgan D, Mkambula P, Gannon BM, Mbuya MNN, Mehta S. A review of portable quantitative and semi-quantitative devices for measurement of vitamin A in biological samples. Curr Res Biotechnol. 2022 May 12;4:253-274. doi: 10.1016/j.crbiot.2022.04.003. PMID: 36033130; PMCID: PMC9407042.

3. Huey SL, Krisher JT, Morgan D, Mkambula P, Srinivasan B, Gannon BM, Mbuya MNN, Mehta S. Portable Devices for Measurement of Vitamin A Concentrations in Edible Oil: Field Readiness of Available Options. ACS Omega. 2022 May 17;7(21):17502-17518. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.1c07181. PMID: 35664625; PMCID: PMC9161250.

4. Huey SL, Krisher JT, Bhargava A, Friesen VM, Konieczynski EM, Mbuya MNN, Mehta NH, Monterrosa E, Nyangaresi AM, Mehta S. Review of the Impact Pathways of Biofortified Foods and Food Products. Nutrients. 2022 Mar 12;14(6):1200. doi: 10.3390/nu14061200. PMID: 35334857; PMCID: PMC8952206.

5. Mehta S, Huey SL, Ghugre PS, Potdar RD, Venkatramanan S, Krisher JT, Ruth CJ, Chopra HV, Thorat A, Thakker V, Johnson L, Powis L, Raveendran Y, Haas JD, Finkelstein JL, Udipi SA; Project Sabal. A randomized trial of iron- and zinc-biofortified pearl millet-based complementary feeding in children aged 12 to 18 months living in urban slums. Clin Nutr. 2022 Apr;41(4):937-947. doi: 10.1016/j.clnu.2022.02.014. Epub 2022 Feb 24. PMID: 35299084.

6. Huey SL, Finkelstein JL, Venkatramanan S, Udipi SA, Ghugre P, Thakker V, Thorat A, Potdar RD, Chopra HV, Kurpad AV, Haas JD, Mehta S. Prevalence and Correlates of Undernutrition in Young Children Living in Urban Slums of Mumbai, India: A Cross Sectional Study. Front Public Health. 2019 Jul 12;7:191. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2019.00191. PMID: 31355176; PMCID: PMC6639755.

7. Huey SL, Jiang L, Fedarko MW, McDonald D, Martino C, Ali F, Russell DG, Udipi SA, Thorat A, Thakker V, Ghugre P, Potdar RD, Chopra H, Rajagopalan K, Haas JD, Finkelstein JL, Knight R, Mehta S. Nutrition and the Gut Microbiota in 10- to 18-Month-Old Children Living in Urban Slums of Mumbai, India. mSphere. 2020 Sep 23;5(5):e00731-20. doi: 10.1128/mSphere.00731-20. PMID: 32968008; PMCID: PMC7568645.

8. Huey SL, Acharya N, Silver A, Sheni R, Yu EA, Peña-Rosas JP, Mehta S. Effects of oral vitamin D supplementation on linear growth and other health outcomes among children under five years of age. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2020 Dec 8;12(12):CD012875. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD012875.pub2. PMID: 33305842; PMCID: PMC8121044.

9. Huey SL, Yu EA, Finkelstein JL, Glesby MJ, Bonam W, Russell DG, Mehta S. Nutrition, Inflammation, and the Gut Microbiota among Outpatients with Active Tuberculosis Disease in India. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2021 Oct 18;105(6):1645-1656. doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.21-0310. PMID: 34662867; PMCID: PMC8641345.

10. Mehta S, Huey SL, McDonald D, Knight R, Finkelstein JL. Nutritional Interventions and the Gut Microbiome in Children. Annu Rev Nutr. 2021 Oct 11;41:479-510. doi: 10.1146/annurev-nutr-021020-025755. Epub 2021 Jul 20. PMID: 34283919.

Elaine Yu, PhD ‘17

Assistant Investigator at Vitalant Research Institute, Sacramento, CA; Assistant Adjunct Professor, UC San Francisco

MRG Focus:

Current Focus: Dr. Yu is an Epidemiologist with the long-term goal of improving the burden of disease from nutrition-related diseases, particularly diabetes. Her approach focuses on biomarkers, including high-dimensional metabolomic data, in translational and precision health studies especially in resource-limited settings.

MRG Publications:

1. Yu EA, John SH, Tablante EC, King CA, Kenneth J, Russell DG, Mehta S. Host transcriptional responses following ex vivo re-challenge with Mycobacterium tuberculosis vary with disease status. PLoS One. 2017 Oct 4;12(10):e0185640. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0185640. PMID: 28977039; PMCID: PMC5627917.

2. Wood MR, Yu EA, Mehta S. The Human Microbiome in the Fight Against Tuberculosis. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2017 Jun;96(6):1274-1284. doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.16-0581. PMID: 28719264; PMCID: PMC5462560.

3. Murphy RA, Yu EA, Ciappio ED, Mehta S, McBurney MI. Suboptimal Plasma Long Chain n-3 Concentrations are Common among Adults in the United States, NHANES 2003-2004. Nutrients. 2015 Dec 9;7(12):10282-9. doi: 10.3390/nu7125534. PMID: 26690213; PMCID: PMC4690086.

4. Mehta S, Yu EA, Ahamed SF, Bonam W, Kenneth J. Rifampin resistance and diabetes mellitus in a cross-sectional study of adult patients in rural South India. BMC Infect Dis. 2015 Oct 26;15:451. doi: 10.1186/s12879-015-1204-5. PMID: 26496855; PMCID: PMC4620627.

5. McBurney MI, Yu EA, Ciappio ED, Bird JK, Eggersdorfer M, Mehta S. Suboptimal Serum α-Tocopherol Concentrations Observed among Younger Adults and Those Depending Exclusively upon Food Sources, NHANES 2003-20061-3. PLoS One. 2015 Aug 19;10(8):e0135510. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0135510. PMID: 26287975; PMCID: PMC4546010.

Mochammad Rizal, ‘23

Rizal completed his Diploma III and Bachelor Degree in Nutritional Sciences at Politeknik Kesehatan Surabaya and Universitas Airlangga, Indonesia, respectively. Before attending Cornell University, he worked in multiple nutrition-related fields, from national sports institutions to non-governmental organizations. Additionally, he loves to share nutrition tips engagingly through authoring books, blog writing (rizalnutritionist.com), and social media content (@rizalnutritionist). With MRG he obtained his MS in Nutritional Sciences with a specialization track in Human Nutrition Evidence for Policy Making to gain perspectives on how policy plays a role in nutrition interventions.

Heather Falise, RD, MS ‘21

Registered Dietitian and Research Nutritionist, Columbia University

MRG Focus: Heather completed her undergraduate training in nutrition and dietetics at Syracuse University, and her dietetic internship and Masters at Cornell University. While at Cornell, Heather’s research interests included micronutrient status and it's application to disease prevention and progression . She worked on a Cochrane Diagnostic Test Accuracy review of Vitamin A biomarkers. Heather also volunteers with New York State Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics on projects related to nutrition policy and currently serves as NYSAND Student Public Policy Coordinator.

Meghan Trumbull-Kennedy, MS ‘20

Clinical Data Associate, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)

MRG Focus: Meghan obtained her M.S. in Nutrition with a minor in epidemiology from Cornell University. She supported Cochrane Systematic Reviews and supported work in micronutrient deficiency in dengue virus infection

Saiful Islam, MS ‘24

Saiful completed his MSc in Human Nutrition Evidence for Policy Making at Cornell. He additionally holds a Master’s degree in Implementation Science from King’s College London, England and a Bachelor’s in Nutrition and Food Science from University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Saiful is interested in evidence synthesis methodology and implementation research in nutrition and he aspires to utilize his knowledge for effective real-world implementation of nutrition interventions in resource-limited settings.

Juhi M. Purswani, Class of 2014
College of Human Ecology
Major: Human Biology and Society
Minor: Global Health

@juhi_purswani

Blake Barr, Class of 2016
College of Human Ecology
BS in Human Biology, Health, and Society

Madeleine R. Wood, Class of 2016 College of Human Ecology Major: Human Biology, Health and Society Minor: Biomedical Science

Sundus Ahmed, Class of 2015
College of Arts and Sciences
Major: Biological Sciences (Molecular and Cell) 
Minors: Global Health, Near Eastern Studies 

Juhi M. Purswani, MD ‘14

Chief Resident, Radiation Oncology, NYU Langone Health

MRG Focus: As a Hunter R. Rawlings Presidential Research Scholar at Cornell University, I joined the Mehta Research Group (MRG) as one of it’s first undergraduate research students in 2012. My interests broadly focused on the intersection between micronutrients and pregnancy-induced hypertensive disorders. One of the highlights working with the MRG was traveling to South India (Summer 2013) to design primary data collection tools and screening case-report forms for a randomized control trial of vitamin D supplementation among adult patients with Tuberculosis and HIV. Upon graduation, this experience inspired me to work as a full-time clinical research coordinator in Medical and Radiation Oncology so that I could expand upon my experience designing and conducting innovative clinical trials within resource-limited settings. 

Current Focus: Dr. Purswani 's research focuses on the use of radiation in women with early stage and locally advanced breast cancer. She is interested in investigating the safety and toxicity of hypo-fractionated radiation therapy in patient populations that are under-represented in randomized clinical trials. This work includes investigating the impact of radiation regimens on toxicity and clinical outcomes in women with autoimmune connective tissue diseases and in patients with skin of color. Dr. Purswani is interested in mobilizing innovative digital health technologies in clinical research with the goals of identifying barriers to treatment and evaluating patients' quality of life, treatment related toxicity, and performance status in real time. 

MRG Publication:
1.    Purswani J, Gala P, Dwarkanath P, Larkin M, Kurpad A, Mehta S. The Role of Vitamin D in Pre-Eclampsia: A Structured Literature Review. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth (Manuscript Under Review). 

Blake A. Barr, ‘16

Senior Analytics Engineer, Netflix

MRG Focus: I joined MRG in the Fall of 2013 as a sophomore and continued throughout my time at Cornell.  I focused on both infectious disease and maternal and child health within the MRG. Specifically, I worked in South India the summer after my sophomore year on the Vitamin D and TB clinical trial where I helped with questionnaire design and study preparation.  During my final two years, I primarily did data analysis using SAS where I looked at maternal anthropometry and birth outcomes. I got to present the findings of this analysis at a conference during my junior year, which was an awesome learning experience. I was also a Hunter R. Rawlings Presidential Research Scholar, joining the program in my junior year with Dr. Mehta as my advisor. MRG was very influential on where I am today as it got me very interested in research and gave me tools, specifically data analysis, to succeed in my future career.

Current Focus: After graduating from Cornell Blake worked as a research assistant in economics at the Harvard Kennedy School, Director of Analytics for Insurify, and currently serves as Senior Analytics Engineer at Netflix.

MRG Poster Presentation:
1.     Barr, Natamba, Sumba et al. “Maternal Weight Loss Increases Preterm Birth in Kenya” Oral presentation and Poster att Experimental Biology 2015 Conference. 

Madeleine R. Wood, ‘16

Regulatory and Protocol Development Specialist at Weill Cornell

MRG Focus: I joined the Mehta Research Group (MRG) in the Spring of 2014 and was interested in the role of both micronutrient status and the human microbiome in immunity and infectious diseases. As a member of the MRG, I had the opportunity to travel to South India (Summer 2015) and participate in an ongoing study focused on vitamin D status in adults with Tuberculosis (TB). Additionally, I participated in designing a protocol for a case-control study to examine the relationship between the microbiome and TB status. Upon graduation, these experiences influenced me to work as a full-time research assistant in the Tuberculosis Research Unit at Weill Cornell Medicine, focusing on the development of novel therapeutics to Mycobacterium tuberculosis. I intend to pursue an MD-PhD in the future. 

MRG Publication:
1.     Wood MR, Yu EA, Mehta S. The Human Microbiome in the Fight Against Tuberculosis. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2017 Jun;96(6):1274-1284. doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.16-0581. PMID: 28719264; PMCID: PMC5462560.

Sundus Ahmed, MD MPH ‘15

Anesthesiology Resident, West Virginia University School of Medicine

MRG Focus: I joined the Mehta Research Group in my sophomore year at Cornell (2012). My research interests within the group focused on nutrition and infectious disease, specifically the interplay between micronutrients and a variety of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), including dengue and Chagas disease. Major highlights during my time with this group were spending a summer in Machala, Ecuador (2014) collecting data for the dengue surveillance study as well as publishing a first-authored manuscript on micronutrients and dengue infection.

Current Focus: Obtained an MD from St. George's University School of Medicine, Grenada, 2020 and currently in residency at WV University School of Medicine.

MRG Publication:
1.     Ahmed S, Finkelstein JL, Stewart AM, Kenneth J, Polhemus ME, et al. Micronutrients and dengue. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2014 Nov;91(5):1049-56. PubMed PMID: 25200269; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4228873.