DECEMBER 15, 2022
THE LATEST

Focus on Philanthropy: Student Travel to India Supported by Gift from Girish and Himangi Rishi

Through a generous donation from Girish and Himangi Rishi, GKII offers support for 6-7 students to travel to India each year. Awarding up to $5,000 per student, these funds leverage the strengths of existing Johns Hopkins University research programs, with two pipelines offered: Public Health & Social Equity, and Health Equity.

Mr. Rishi, an alumnus of SAIS, is an accomplished tech executive, now CEO of the industrial software company Cognite. He hopes the gift will connect his and his wife’s passion for business and technology with the challenges of urban hunger, sustainable diets, and health inequity by creating an executive roundtable at SAIS and supporting student travel prizes in the form of fellowships.
MOUs with Ashoka University, Apex Kidney Foundation, Pave the Way for Collaborative Work

Johns Hopkins University recently finalized two memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with Apex Kidney Foundation (AKF), Mumbai, and Ashoka University with the goals of conducting joint research, expanding educational exchanges of students, and providing training opportunities. The partnership with Apex Kidney Foundation also aims to strengthen and expand health science training and education, contribute to regional efforts to improve health, and establish scholarship grants and awards and clinical trials in nephrology and transplantation.
End of Year Giving: Support a TB Patient in Gorakhpur

Help us reach our goal of $10,000!
 
Tuberculosis (TB) can have devastating long term impacts on personal health that affect the ability to work and earn money for basic survival. And India accounts for the largest burden of TB globally. Our JHU team in Uttar Pradesh is partnering with AIIMS Gorakhpur to better understand and address barriers to improved health indicators—including TB—in the state. That is why we are working with Ni-kshay Mitra, a government program that, among other services, offers nutritional and vocational support and diagnostic testing for at least six months to registered TB patients. Your donation will help us reach our goal of supporting 100 people living with TB in Gorakhpur. 
 
You can target TB by donating today!  
CONGRATULATIONS
World’s Largest Clinical Trials Network Taps JHU-India Partners for Committee Memberships 

With studies in 12 countries, the AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) is the largest and oldest HIV clinical trials network in the world. The network sponsors research for prevention and treatment, and for coinfection with other diseases including tuberculosis and hepatitis. The Johns Hopkins Baltimore-India Clinical Trials Unit (JHUBI CTU), a partnership among JHU in Baltimore, BJGMC in Pune, and YRG Care in Chennai, has clinical research sites in all 3 locations, and the BJGMC site is among the top enrolling clinical research sites internationally.
 
ACTG recently announced elections to its esteemed committees, which provide strategic guidance for the entire network. Congratulations to the following CTU members on their appointments, which run from December 1, 2022 through January 1, 2025. 
 
  • Data Management Committee: Sameer Khan, Byramjee Jeejeebhoy Medical College CRS, International Data Management 
  • Hepatitis Transformative Science Group: 
  • Amrose Pradeep, YRG CARE, Investigator 
  • Mark Sulkowski, JHU CRS, Investigator 
  • Neurology Collaborative Science Group: Leah Rubin, JHU School of Medicine, Investigator 
  • Reservoirs Remission and Cure Transformative Science Group: Francesco Simonetti, JHU CRS, Investigator 
  • Scientific Agenda Steering Committee: Richard Chaisson, JHUBI CTU, TB Advisor 
  • Site Management and Clinical Care Committee: 
  • Smita Nimkar, Byramjee Jeejeebhoy Medical College CRS, Representative to AEC 
  • Sameer Khan, Byramjee Jeejeebhoy Medical College CRS, Representative to PEC 
  • Protocol Development and Implementation Subcommittee: 
  • Smita Nimkar, Byramjee Jeejeebhoy Medical College CRS, Field Representative 
  • Sadaf Inamdar, Byramjee Jeejeebhoy Medical College CRS, Pharmacy 
  • Tuberculosis Transformative Science Group: Elisa Ignatius, JHU CRS Baltimore-India, Investigator 
  • Communications Subcommittee: Molly Bowen, JHUBI CTU, Committee Member 
RECENTLY PUBLISHED
Publication Date: November 15, 2022

Artificial intelligence is part of our daily lives. How can we address its limitations and guide its use for the benefit of communities worldwide?

In Can We Trust AI?, Dr. Rama Chellappa, a researcher and innovator with 40 years in the field, recounts the evolution of AI, its current uses, and how it will drive industries and shape lives in the future. Leading AI researchers, thought leaders, and entrepreneurs contribute their expertise as well on how AI works, what we can expect from it, and how it can be harnessed to make our lives not only safer and more convenient but also more equitable.
IN THE NEWS
By Rina Agarwala
Source: The Washington Post

Rina Agarwala, Associate Professor of Sociology at JHU, analyses Indian migration. "Rishi Sunak credits his hard-working family for the foundations of his career. But government policies may play a bigger role in immigrant successes."

GKII Faculty Co-chair Amita Gupta is named among the list of honored guests at Vice President Harris’s Diwali celebration.
EVENTS
GKII December Webinar Available
The GKII December Webinar "Post-Pandemic Lessons: From India's Perspective" is now available on Youtube.

This Q&A style webinar with author and political strategist Priyam Gandhi-Mody focused on topics will ranging from India's pandemic management by adopting early intelligence and response strategies; details on the vaccines and vaccination program; prudent economic policies to take care of most vulnerable populations; observations during the Delta wave; and an outlook for the future in the context of pandemic preparedness.
GKII Webinar Rescheduled
The Nov. 17 webinar featuring Dr. Sheela Magge has been rescheduled for Friday, Jan. 20, 2023. Please join us and register!

Sheela Magge, Chief of Division of Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes, Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Lawson Wilkins Endowed Chair of Pediatric Endocrinology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, will speak on the topic: Diabetes and CVD Risk Among South Asians.

Dr. Magge will be discussing her NIH funded research related to ancestry-related differences in body composition and the impact on cardiometabolic risk.
OPPORTUNITIES
Grant Opportunities from the Gates Foundation and Partners
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has launched two requests for proposals through the Grand Challenges Global Call-to-Action initiative. This new member of the Grand Challenges family of initiatives supports locally led research, including funding this year for five malaria projects and five data science projects. In addition, there are requests for proposals launched by Grand Challenges Africa, by Grand Challenges Senegal, and by Grand Challenges Canada. All are listed below and still open for applications.

Simons – Ashoka Fellowship Programme
Application Deadline: Jan. 1, 2023
The Simons Fellowship Programme at Ashoka University is a unique model of collaborative research in the quantitative biomedical sciences and allied fields with the following vision: 
  • To build an innovative and multidisciplinary research environment for analysis of health data
  • To extend the impact of the Simons Foundation to address health-care needs in low and middle-income countries.
  • To incubate pioneering initiatives in the field of personalised medicine, as a model for similar efforts in institutions across the world.

The Simons Fellowship Programme, housed at the Trivedi School of Biosciences at Ashoka University, is a first-of-its-kind initiative by the Simons Foundation, outside the United States in a developing country. The Fellowship will support outstanding interdisciplinary post-doctoral researchers working towards obtaining quantitative insights in biomedical sciences and related areas, including mathematical and computational biology and big data analysis for health.

Simons-Ashoka fellows will benefit from the experience of Ashoka’s talented faculty in the sciences, also linking to research in one of our growing list of partner international institutions. They will also be able to leverage the rich ecosystem of scientific research in and around the National Capital Region of India, which houses several leading universities and laboratories and hospitals including Jawaharlal Nehru University and Delhi University, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT), Institute of Genome and Integrative Biology, Indraprastha Institute for Information Technology (IIIT), All India Institute of Medical Sciences, and Max Healthcare.

A cohort of 6 selected fellows will be mentored by 6 Senior Fellows recruited from amongst accomplished scientists in India. Simons-Ashoka Fellows will receive an annual compensation of 18 lakhs INR for a maximum of 3 years, along with other academic allowances.
Looking for Student Support?
Johns Hopkins faculty who are seeking student support for India-related projects can now submit position descriptions. We will post them online and share in our email updates!