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medicine fellowship. “In science,” says Dr. Jay, “I believe that the best way to have a lasting impact is to inspire other people. I’ve been very lucky to have my own mentors at NYU, and now my students make me incredibly proud. I think that’s one of our most important traditions at NYU School of Medicine: Our commitment to mentorship and to bringing people together is how we increase the odds of making important discoveries.” TACKLING TECHNOLOGY: DATABRIDGE Dr. Elbel, who serves as director of the Comprehensive Program on Obesity, is tackling another critical part of 21st-century science. As part of the program, he is managing an institution-wide initiative at NYU Langone Health called DataBridge, a powerful big-data platform that integrates data from basic science, clinical medicine, and population health research. Soon, investigators will be able to look at large amounts of data—from biological samples, clinical studies, and environmental research—in order to address long-standing questions from completely new perspectives using advanced machine learning and other techniques. “Data is at the core of what most scientists do,” Dr. Elbel says. “They collect it, they analyze it, they draw inferences from it. But in many cases, different groups or silos or disciplines think about data in their own way. That doesn’t work when you’re trying to solve a problem like obesity, which is big and multifaceted and determined by multiple factors. In this case, we really need the various players— and their data—to talk to each other.” The first project to utilize DataBridge is a pediatric obesity study that will draw on the electronic health records of more than 52,000 children from NYU Langone Hospital–Brooklyn to create a series of models predicting which children will be affected by childhood obesity. Understanding the broader predictors early in life—perhaps in children as young as 5—can help scientists learn how to prevent and better treat obesity. “WE REALLY NEED THE VARIOUS PLAYERS—AND THEIR DATA—TO TALK TO EACH OTHER.” Brian Elbel, PhD, MPH GLOBAL IMPACT NYU SCHOOL OF MEDICINE CONDUCTS OBESITY STUDY IN ABU DHABI DR. SCHMIDT HAS TRAVELED to the emirate of Abu Dhabi more than 20 times over the past eight years. She has been part of a research team that is testing RAGE hypotheses in clinical samples and using epidemiology to understand why in one generation people have become more substantially obese and insulin-resistant. This is the first mechanism-seeking study on the biochemical and molecular risk factors that contribute to the pathogenesis of obesity, metabolic dysfunction, and diabetes in citizens of Abu Dhabi. The ultimate goal is to develop and prospectively study a large cohort of subjects, with the target set at 20,000 citizens between the ages of 18 and 40, by 2020, to identify risk factors and propose novel targets for therapeutic intervention in Abu Dhabi. Already, more than 5,000 participants have been enrolled and monitored. Photo: Richard Splash / Alamy 17 | GRAPEVINE ALUMNI MAGAZINE SPRING 2018 By ultimately linking data on public school students—for example, their obesity rates and their environment, along with their health records from NYU Langone Hospital–Brooklyn—plus the soluble RAGE measurements that Dr. Schmidt is collecting and the clinical interventions that Dr. Jay is studying, scientists may be able to make groundbreaking new discoveries. “Our vision,” Dr. Elbel explains, “is to think about DataBridge as a model for how such work can be adopted at an institutional level.” Outside his work on DataBridge, Dr. Elbel—who joined the NYU Langone faculty in 2007 after receiving his PhD in health policy from Yale—has focused his own behavioral economics research in two areas: how people make decisions about their health, and how public policy and the environment affect obesity and related chronic diseases. He also uses statistical and econometric methods and diverse data sources to inform policy and science on obesity prevention. “NYU recognizes that a broad, collaborative approach is the best way [forward],” Dr. Elbel says. “We have great depth in related research areas. We have a very broad clinical network that we are increasingly tapping into. On top of all that, we’re using our strengths in data and technology to make a sustained impact.” In less than two years, the Comprehensive Program on Obesity has made great strides in fostering team science. Looking ahead, DataBridge will help take the science even farther, helping to better predict outcomes in a wide array of research areas, including, for instance, which patients might do better with self-achieved weight loss, which with bariatric surgery, and which with orthopedic surgery. “Science is hard,” Dr. Schmidt admits. “When it comes to complex diseases like obesity, transformative things take time. So what I try to do every day is remember the patients, work toward my goals, and think creatively with our team.” INSTRUCTIONAL REVIEW Obesity and symptomatic osteoarthritis of the knee M. S. Sridhar, C. D. Jarrett, J. W. Xerogeanes, S. A. Labib From Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, United States n M. S. Sridhar, MD, Chief Resident n C. D. Jarrett, MD, Assistant Professor n J. W. Xerogeanes, MD, Associate Professor n S. A. Labib, MD, Assistant Professor Emory University, Department of
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