Prof. Yiallouros’ group has been awarded over 1 million Euros in external funding during the period 2006-2013. The unit has produced the very first epidemiologic data on childhood asthma and allergies and their environmental and lifestyle determinants in Cyprus. They have discovered that, among Cypriot patients, factors such as diet, levels of physical activity, and C-section delivery all play important roles. The group’s work resulted in a series of publications in high-impact journals on the effects of airborne particles (especially dust storms) on hospital admissions and deaths from cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. These studies benefitted tremendously from the guidance of HSPH Professor Petros Koutrakis and the work of Cypriot postdoctoral fellows (Dr. N. Middleton) doctoral students (A. Neophytou and S. Achilleos). Mr. Neophytou, who used these data as the foundation for his doctoral research, has now been awarded his ScD and has taken a postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of California at Berkeley.
Our Harvard collaborators, from Prof. Koutrakis’ research group, have installed and operated an advanced air pollution monitoring station at the Institute. We have used data from this site in a collaborative effort, AIRSPACE, with Prof. Hadjimitsis, to assess the predictive validity of air pollution monitoring from space. This work yielded a book.
Prof. Yiallouros’ group has also been productively examining the role of obesity and low levels of HDL cholesterol on asthma development in Cypriot children. This work was inspired and initiated by collaboration with HSPH Professor Don Milton (currently the Chair of the Environmental Health Department at the University of Maryland) and now continues in a joint effort with Assistant Professor Middleton of CUT’s Department of Nursing. Finally, the group was recently awarded a European Union FP-7 grant in the amount of 260,000 Euro to study ciliated cells in the respiratory epithelium. This project, which is being conducted with Dr. Kyriacou of the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics, has received invaluable advice and input from Harvard Professor Joe Brain, a world-renowned expert on the respiratory epithelium and lung defense mechanisms.
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