Sarah Cusick

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Credentials

PhD

Bio

Sarah E. Cusick, PhD, is Assistant Professor of pediatrics in the School of Medicine, a member of the public health nutrition faculty in the School of Public Health, a faculty member of the Center for Neurobehavioral Development, and a member of the University's Nutrition and Epidemiology graduate faculties. She holds a Ph.D. in Nutrition and International Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Her research, based in Uganda, aims to elucidate iron deficiency and infectious disease interactions, with a goal of improving the neurobehavioral development of children living in resource-poor settings. She leads an NIH-funded clinical trial that aims to identify the optimal timing of iron therapy in iron-deficient children with malaria and a study to determine the role of iron deficiency in the neurodevelopment of children exposed to HIV.

Research Summary

Research Interests
Dr. Cusick's research focuses on international maternal and child nutrition, the interaction between nutritional deficiencies and infectious disease, and the effect of these interactions on child health and long-term cognitive development.

Research Projects
Currently funded research include several NIH-funded studies: one on the effect of acute vs. delayed iron therapy in severe malaria on anemia, iron status, and neurobehavioral development in Ugandan children (PI: Chandy John, M.D.) and an investigation of red blood cell iron incorporation in severe malaria.