Cusick Lab for Global Nutrition Research

Dr. Cusick’s research aims to elucidate micronutrient and infectious disease interactions, with an ultimate goal of optimizing the health and neurobehavioral development of children living in resource-poor settings. She has conducted clinical trials in Tanzania and Uganda and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before coming to the University of Minnesota. Dr. Cusick’s research approach integrates laboratory, field, analytical, and policy components to investigate how nutritional interventions translate into improved child health and achievement of full developmental trajectory.

Dr. Cusick’s current work is based in Kampala, Uganda, where she oversees randomized clinical trials that aim to determine how to safely provide iron to children with chronic or recurrent infections, including HIV and malaria. Iron is frequently withheld from children in malaria-endemic regions or in the context other infections for fear that it may increase the risk of subsequent infection. This withholding of iron may be at the expense of the developing brain, which requires iron during the fetal period and throughout early childhood.

Supplemental choline to prevent and treat learning and memory deficits of early childhood: The SupCHO study (Thrasher Research Fund, with Dr. Ezekiel Mupere):

Randomized, placebo-controlled trial of 300 six-month-old infants with iron deficiency anemia that tests the effect of choline supplementation along with standard iron therapy on hippocampus-specific and global neurobehavioral outcomes at age 15 months. Based in Kampala, Uganda.

Optimizing Iron in Malaria-Endemic Areas: the Optim Study (R01, NIH/NICHD, with Dr. Ezekiel Mupere):

Randomized, placebo-controlled trial to assess the effect of iron given concurrently with vs. 28 days after antimalarial treatment in children with uncomplicated malaria and anemia on iron status, frequency of infections, and neurobehavioral development after 12 months. Based at Mulago Hospital in Kampala, Uganda.