Chair Department of Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease
Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine
Dr. Ronald Blanton received his BA in English Literature with a concentration in Spanish for Harvard University. He has an MD and an MS in genetic epidemiology from Case Western Reserve University where he was a tenured professor for 25 years. He specializes in infectious diseases and has conducted laboratory and popoulation based research on schistosomisis, echinococcosis, dengue, hepatitis C and NTD skin diseases. I am a physician-scientist with a background in the molecular biology of parasitic diseases. Currently, he is the Chair of the Department of Tropical Medicine and Infectius Disease at the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. Throughout his career, he has integrated my basic laboratory science work with field epidemiology to uncover useful epidemiologic relationships and identities. This includes 30 years of experience in Brazil, 13 years of studies in Kenya, 5 years in Egypt, 3 years with Côte d'Ivoire and most recently Senegal. For schistosomiasis and the flaviviruses dengue and hepatitis C, he identified human genetic determinants of diseases by microsatellite and SNP markers. He identified new microsatellite markers for the dengue vector Aedes aegypti and the parasite Schistosoma mansoni. He see an extraordinary opportunity for placing population genetics at the service of public health by tracing patterns of pathogen and vector distribution, analyzing the current dynamics and influences on these patterns, and projecting their future directions.
Preparing Healthcare Service Delivery for Climate Change Impacts
Tuesday, December 10, 2024
1:30 PM – 2:30 PM