Research Accelerators
Rollins Experts Are Moving Research Forward
Six teams of renowned researchers are collaborating in research accelerators to meet the moment's critical needs and create impact across top priority areas in public health. Each group convenes faculty experts from across the school to design and implement projects that drive innovation in vital areas of public health research.
“These are areas where we already have excellence. By pushing it to the next level and bringing together faculty from different departments and disciplines, we hope they can identify opportunities for unique and transformational projects.”
Carmen Marsit, PhD, Executive Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Research Strategy
Aging
In the past several years, Rollins has grown its research on aging and health, with large programs focusing on the biological underpinnings of dementia and cognitive decline as well as on policies and structures that can promote healthy aging. This group aims to understand the state of aging across Georgia and promote healthy aging across the state.
Co-leads:
Digital Health
This group brings together faculty interested in leveraging wearable devices and mobile applications to measure health behaviors and outcomes, including sleep, physical activity, heart rate, blood pressure, environmental exposures, digital phenotyping, ecological momentary assessment, and continuous glucose monitoring.
Co-leads:
Exposome
Rollins researchers are leaders in exposomics. They have developed the laboratory and analytical pipelines to characterize exposures to thousands of chemicals in thousands of human biological samples, utilize AI and large datasets to model the external environment experienced by communities, and incorporate new technologies to understand an individual’s environment.
Co-leads:
Maternal and Child Health
Our interdisciplinary maternal and child health researchers want to understand the root causes of the maternal health crisis and the growing epidemic of chronic disease amongst children. They can use that knowledge to inform policies and interventions that can impact women’s and children’s health.
Co-leads:
Mental Health
Research in mental health is a growing strength at Rollins and is multidisciplinary and cross-cutting. This group aims to identify new data resources, opportunities to include mental health services in routine clinical care, and analytical tools to better understand the etiology of conditions such as autism in children.
Co-leads:
Nutrition
Rollins nutrition research spans work from cells to society, understanding how nutrients and eating patterns impact metabolic pathways, highlighting how pathogens and highly processed foods can lead to poor health, and identifying barriers to access to safe, healthy food for communities and populations.
Co-leads: