The Light Institute is thankful for all our partners and communities here at WashU, in the United States, and globally. We appreciate your continued investment, engagement, and support of Light Institute's mission to connect, collaborate, and impact health. 

The Light Institute was honored to recently host Distinguished Visiting Scholar, Oliver Ezechi, MD, PhD, FNAMed!  While in St. Louis, Dr. Ezechi was able to meet with leaders, researchers, students, and members of the community from WashU’s Global Health Center, Institute for Public Health, Brown School, and School of Medicine, as well as the recently launched Midwest Developmental Center for AIDS Research (D-CFAR), the International Center for Child Health and Development (ICHAD), Siteman Cancer Center, and across the greater St. Louis public health community.

Dr. Ezechi’s visit included the following five signature speaking events, each of which were open to the public and addressed an area of public health importance globally.

As you have seen in our recent editions, the Youth 4 Health team has been working to raise awareness and participation in COVID-19 self-testing among adolescents and young adults. The testing campaign was initially limited to eligible individuals in Missouri, New York, and Texas, but after further discussion, the campaign is now open to eligible individuals in all of the 50 United States! Please see more information listed below and share with anyone you know who may meet study criteria.

Dr. Juliet recently presented a plenary at the 36th International Papillomavirus Conference on implementation science for cervical cancer control. She stressed the importance of evidence and implementation science and encouraged everyone to have a plan and  eliminate missed opportunities by using what we already know and have to help eliminate cervical cancer diagnoses. 

The WashU Medicine Marketing & Communications team has been diligently working with members of the Light team to get our website up and running so please check it out to learn more about our team and the work we do.

The Midwest D-CFAR is working to foster collaborations between academics, public health practitioners, and people affected by HIV to end the epidemic locally. Missouri was identified as one of seven priority states in the Ending the HIV Epidemic in the US (EHE) initiative coordinated by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and Partners 4 Health wants you to join this important work! Now through January 17, Partners 4 Health is accepting your bold ideas for creating a future free of HIV through the strength of partnerships! 

Ideas can be submitted in any creative format and will be evaluated by a panel of judges to identify exceptional ideas based on innovation, relevance to ending the HIV epidemic goals in Missouri, and feasibility to implement. The top five exceptional ideas will be integrated into existing D-CFAR programming to take proposals from the ideation to design phase with opportunity for seed funding for the top ideas. 

To learn more about this contest, idea generation and refinement, co-designing innovations alongside other advocates, experts, and leaders, please visit https://www.midwestdcfar.org/co-designing-innovations to work together and create a future without HIV in the state of Missouri.

The Light Institute is gearing up to start clinical trials in the next couple of months for the following projects: ACCESS, I-TEST BPSTROKE, S-ITEST, and C3RISE. These trials will have sites in the six geopolitical Zones in Nigeria, where trained teams of Nigerian research facilitators and supervisors will actively engage our communities of mothers, daughters, youth, adult caregivers, and families and enroll them to receive the different community-driven interventions that they co-designed with the Light team during our designathons and bootcamp events. Depending on the specific project, trial participants will be followed for 6 to 24 months. Leading up to the clinical trials, our research teams at NIMR and the Light Institute have and will continue to train research facilitators and supervisors, located at the different study sites to recruit participants, implement the interventions, collect data and follow up with participants over the study duration. 

Members of the Light team at the WashU at the recent 2024 Infectious Diseases Annual Research Symposium

From left to right: Onyekachukwu Anikamadu, Emily Haglin, Dr. Juliet Iwelunmor, Chidi Okafor, Ekenechukwu Kokelu, Nkiruka Obodoechina, Dr. Temitope Ojo, Dr. Olufunto Olusanya

4 Communities By Communities

US-Nigeria Cancer Control Center for Research on Implementation Science and Equity (C3-RISE) Grant | U54 NIH/NCI #U54CA284110

The work of 4 Communities By Communities is focused on raising both awareness and vaccine uptake of two cancer-preventing vaccinations: the Human Papillomavirus vaccine to prevent cervical cancer and the Hepatitis B vaccine to prevent liver cancer.

4 Girls & Women

Actions for Collaborative Community Engaged Strategies for HPV (ACCESS-HPV) Grant | R01 NIH/NCI #R01CA271033

4 Girls & Women is driven by the shared belief that empowering the female population in Nigeria to learn about primary and secondary HPV prevention tactics will bring new voices and ideas to get us closer to a reality of widespread HPV vaccination for girls 9 - 14 years old and HPV screening for screen-eligible women to end cervical cancer. 

4 Youth By Youth

The work of 4 Youth By Youth is founded on the belief that young people have innovative and creative ideas for making their communities a healthier and safer place as they develop into adulthood. The two current 4YBY programs are focused on youth-friendly HIV self-testing and high blood pressure/stroke prevention.

Sustaining Innovative Tools to Expand Youth Friendly HIV Self-Testing (S-ITEST) Grant | UG1 NIH/NICHD #UG1HD113156

S-ITEST is a follow-up to the initial I-TEST program that started in 2018 to work with adolescents and young adults to define, evaluate, and implement intervention strategies to address HIV through preventative behavior modifications and youth self-testing. Now almost six years later, the team has added goals to continue developing youth-inspired strategies to sustain the interventions developed and implemented to date and ensure the at-risk youth will remain uninfected with HIV, despite living in a LMIC with resource constraints.

Music4Health | Innovative Tools to Expand Music-Inspired Strategies for Blood Pressure and Stroke Prevention (I-TEST BP/STROKE) Grant | R01 NIH/NHLBI #1R01HL168766-01

Music4Health is addressing the substantial burden of hypertension and stroke in a way Nigerians know and love – through music. By inviting members of the community to share their lyrics, voices, and spirits, we provide them a platform to share their talents while raising awareness and educating the Nigerian public on heart health.

STAR

Stimulating Training and Access to Research Experiences for Minority and Underrepresented Populations (NIAID STAR) Grant | R25 NIH/NIAID #5R25AI170379-04

STAR was developed in partnership with leaders at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Georgia State University, and Northeastern University to address the significant research to practice gap for HIV/AIDS by creating a path for the next generation of global majority implementation researchers.

IREACH

Innovative Rapid Enabling, Affordable, point of care HPV self-testing strategy Grant | U01 NIH/NCI #U01CA279863

The IREACH program is currently developing a single-use self-testing kit for HPV screening to increase screening eligible women in Nigeria for HPV infections. Stay tuned for exciting updates!

INSPIRE

Innovative Network on the Science and Practice of Implementation, Research, and Engagement Center Grant| UM2 NIH/NICHD #UM2HD116395-01

The INSPIRE Center aims to advance D&I science for HIV interventions targeting adolescents and young adults (AYA) in low- and middle-income countries. Through a collaborative network (PATC3H-IN), INSPIRE works to optimize research on adapting, scaling, and sustaining evidence-based HIV prevention and treatment strategies across six African countries, focusing on community engagement, capacity building, and advanced methods. The Center's work will bridge gaps in HIV care for AYA by leveraging implementation science to improve health outcomes, reduce inequities, and inform global efforts to end the HIV epidemic.

LIGHT

Leaders Igniting Generational Healing & Transformation

After recognizing a crucial piece of conversations about public health – the public themselves – was missing, LIGHT was designed to bring the public together to join the conversation, or in other words: Leaders Igniting Generational Healing & Transformation. Through invitations to participate in poetry and writing workshops, submit creative work to ongoing contests, join mindfulness practices, and attend the annual LIGHT Festival, the public is put at the center of public health to ignite change in public health. 

To stay up to date with the Light team, please subscribe to our monthly newsletter using the button below and keep an eye out for our website and social media updates! To learn more about Light or if you have ideas for partnership, please write to us at lightinstitute@wustl.edu.

We can't wait to hear from you! 

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