Epidemiology and Control of Chagas Disease

Dr. Patricia Dorn and a team of undergraduate researchers focus on interrupting transmission of Chagas disease, a leading cause of heart disease in Latin America, caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, and transmitted by kissing bugs. Through investigating the kissing bugs, they improve control methods and prevent people from becoming infected with this deadly parasite. 

Chagas disease is contracted when infected kissing bugs bite humans or animals, opening a wound and producing contaminated waste that enters the wound or mucous membranes and ultimately into the bloodstream. Dorn says reactions to the bite itself can range from slight to extremely severe allergic reactions called anaphylaxis.

Once it enters the bloodstream, the Chagas parasite attacks muscle tissue, especially the heart, and may not be detected for 10 to 20 years. By that time, Dorn says the damage is done and the treatment options are limited.

Dorn and her student researchers have traveled to Guatemala to hunt for the kissing bugs in homes, caves and other locations in order to conduct the groundbreaking research. They've also spent time in Latin America creating educational films to educate villagers with step-by-step instructions for implementing an ecohealth approach to stopping the transmission of the deadly tropical disease. In Latin America, 7 to 8 million people are infected with the Chagas parasite and 30 to 40 percent of those are doomed to life-threatening heart disease.

Recent reserach conducted by the team shows people in the Southwestern U.S. are encountering the “Kissing bugs” that harbor the parasite that causes Chagas disease.

Although the bugs don’t infect humans at the same rate as they do in Latin America, the free-roaming kissing bugs in the desert Southwest frequently feed on humans outside the confines of their homes. For example, in a recent test eight bugs tested had all fed on humans and three of these were also infected with the Chagas-causing parasite Dorn and her team study—something the scientists can tell by looking at the DNA in the bugs’ abdomens. Because some of the bugs harbor the deadly parasite, this could represent an unrecognized potential for transmission of Chagas disease in the U.S.

Student and faculty member collaborate on scholarly review

Philosophy senior Tara Malay and faculty member Dr. Leonard Kahn co-authored a review of Carol C. Gould's Interactive Democracy: The Social Roots of Global Justice for the journal Philosophy in Review. This project was sponsored by the Loyola University Collaborative Scholarship program. You can read the review here.

Malay begins graduate work in linguistics at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland this fall (2016).

Robert Verchick's Recent Publications and Presentations on Environmental Law

This year (2015-16) Robert Verchick a faculty member in the Environment Program has written and published a variety of works on Environmental Law. Robert has also spoke on many important environmental topics here in the US and internationally. See more detailed information below: 

Books

Disaster Law and Policy (WoltersKluwer/Aspen 3d ed. 2015) (with Daniel A. Farber, Jim Chen, & Lisa Grow Sun)

Feminist Legal Theory (NYU Press 2d ed. 2016) (with Nancy Levit and foreword by Martha Minow)

 

Book Chapters

"Environmental Law", in Cuban Legal System, (Thomas Reuters Publishing, José Cot & Rolando Anillo eds., 2016) (in press)

 

"Disaster Law and Climate Change", in Climate Change Law, (Edward Elgar Publishing, Daniel A. Farber & Marjan Peeters eds., 2016)

 

"Natural Disaster and Climate Change", in International Environmental Law and the Global South: Comparative Perspectives, 491-507 (Shawkat Alam, Sumudu Atapattu, Carmen G.Gonzalez, & Jona Razzaque eds., Cambridge University Press 2015) (with Paul Govind)

 

Law Review Article

"Culture, Cognition, & Climate," 2016 University of Illinois Law Review -- (in press)

 

Policy Papers

"Climate Change, Resilience, and Fairness: How Nonstructural Adaptation Can Protect and Empower Socially Vulnerable Communities on the Gulf Coast" (Center for Progressive Reform 2016) (with Carmen Gonzalez, et al.)

 

Op-Eds

"Time for Communities to Face Climate Change," Advocate (New Orleans), Apr. 14, 2016

 

"VW and GM Scandals Show Why Regulation Matters," The Hill (Washington, D.C.), Sept. 30, 2015 (with Rena Steinzor)

 

"Katrina’s Lessons: Learned and Unlearned," Houston Chronicle, Aug. 28, 2015

 

Presentations

Oxford University, All Soul’s College (Oxford, U.K.), Workshop: Regulating the Energy

Transition; presented "Lights Out: Energy, Resilience, & Fairness" (June 2016)

 

Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, panel; presented "Lights Out: Energy,

Resilience, and Fairness" (May 2016)

 

Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, panel; presented "Bridge Under Troubled

Water: Climate Resilience and Fairness" (May 2016)

 

Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, panel, “The Coming Era of Gender Inequality”

(May 2016)

 

University of Kansas (Lawrence, KS), Symposium, "Justice in the Low-Carbon Transition,"

panelist (April 2016)

 

Loyola University New Orleans, Conference on Coastal Resilience (co-sponsored with

Oxfam America), Moderator, "Non-Structural Tools for Adaptation" (April 2016)

 

State of the Coast Conference (New Orleans, LA); presentation: “Climate Change, Resilience,

and Fairness” (April 2016)

 

Loyola University New Orleans (New Orleans, LA), Conference: Beyond the Levees

(sponsored by Loyola Center for Environmental Law, Oxfam America, and Center for

Progressive Reform); presentation: “Climate Change, Resilience, and Fairness” (April 2016)

 

University of Georgia (Athens, GA), Keynote Address at Red Clay Conference; presented

"Bridge Under Troubled Water: Climate Resilience and Transportation" (Feb. 2016)

 

Tulane University (New Orleans, LA), Environmental Law Summit, panelist; presented

"Culture, Cognition and Climate" (Feb. 2016)

 

Tulane University (New Orleans, LA), Environmental Law Summit, Moderator, "Waters of

the United States" (Feb. 2016)

 

University of Florida (Gainesville, FL), lecture "Climate and Coastal Retreat" (Jan. 2016)

 

University of Florida (Gainesville, FL), faculty colloquium "Culture, Cognition, and Climate"

(Jan. 2016)

 

Annual Meeting of Association of American Law Schools (New York, NY), panel,

“International Environmental Law and the North-South Divide: Crossroads of Economic,

Environmental, Human Rights, Energy, Food, Climate, and Sustainable Development Law”

(Jan. 2016)

 

Organic Superconductor Synthesis

Students working under Dr. Qin will have the opportunity to synthesize novel charge transfer complexes based on sulfur-rich, aromatic, heterocyclic molecules; students will then test these compounds as new organic conductors and superconductors that could help form the basis for superconducting power grids.

Nearly one-tenth of all electrical power is lost as it travels from the electric generators to the final consumers. A superconducting power grid would eliminate this wastage and have tremendous economic and environmental benefits. The best intermetallic superconductors have achieved Tc’s (the temperature at which superconductivity occurs) as high as 100 K, which allows them to operate at liquid nitrogen temperatures, but they are brittle, dense solids—a serious shortcoming for power cables. In contrast, organic materials tend to be lighter in weight and more pliable than inorganics, making them promising components of superconducting power grids.

Although inorganic chemists and physicists have dominated the field of superconductor discovery, superconductivity was first observed in organic molecules in the late 1980s. Despite this fact, this field is under explored, and there are very few classes of organic superconductors. Dr. Qin hopes to further the field and help solve the problem of energy waste.