During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, epidemiologists tracked the evolution of the virus by sequencing the genome of wastewater samples, allowing public health departments to forecast disease transmission. Subsequent years have seen the continuation of this approach, as health departments use genomic sequencing to gather data on numerous pathogens.

However, a major hurdle remains for those who track disease evolution through genomic sequencing: input from and application by public health professionals and healthcare clinicians.

The Midwest Alliance for Applied Genomic Epidemiology (MAAGE) looks to overcome this hurdle. Using participatory methods to understand the practices of end users and incorporate their experiences and preferences, MAAGE seeks to develop a genomic surveillance tool that can more accurately capture data about disease transmission. The result will be more than just the creation of a tool. The MAAGE team will maximize the likelihood that the surveillance tool is put to use in the field by asking public health professionals and clinicians about their priorities for genomic tools and fashioning trainings for these users.

Organizing the MAAGE team is Dana Eldreth, a newly appointed senior research scientist at the Family Resiliency Center (FRC). Eldreth noted that the participatory methods described above—the solicitation of input from contributors across all project stages—are novel for a genomic biology project with public health applications.

“What really makes the project unique is how the tool will be tailored to meet the needs of public health professionals and the clinicians by pulling in those stakeholders and including their voices,” said Eldreth. “When I share information about MAAGE with other colleagues, they find the project novel and want to learn more about our participatory approach to applied biology.”

Eldreth earned her Ph.D. in cognitive psychology at Rutgers University-Newark after receiving a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Delaware. She subsequently held a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Mental Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where she performed behavioral and neuroimaging data analysis in community dwelling older adults on a T32 training grant funded by the National Institute on Aging. She also served as a Faculty Research Associate at Hopkins before joining the FRC.

“Not only is Dana extremely skilled in project and data management, but she has a passion and facility for seeing how the FRC’s different projects are interrelated,” said FRC Director Jacinda Dariotis. “That versatility is vital for allowing the center to make connections across our research hubs. We are thrilled to have her onboard as Senior Research Scientist to help our team continue to thrive.”

In addition to her work with MAAGE, Eldreth contributes to FRC research projects that strengthen the evaluation capacity of mental health and developmental disability service agencies in Champaign County, investigate how mindfulness practices like breathing and meditation beneficially impact stress physiology among low-income adolescents and develop just-in-time, adaptively tailored communication to encourage mental health and vaccine uptake.

For Eldreth, the MAAGE project ties in nicely with the FRC’s other community-based, participatory research projects.

"One of my interests is patient-centered outcomes research, which aligns with some of the participatory work that I’m doing with community partners and MAAGE,” Eldreth said. “I really like hearing the patients’ perspectives not only to encourage them to be represented in research but also, more fundamentally, to understand the kinds of treatment they would prefer and how they can make more informed decisions about their healthcare options."

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In addition to Dariotis and Eldreth, the MAAGE team consists of Corinne Campbell, an outreach and education coordinator at Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology (IGB), Claudia Lutz, a manager of outreach at IGB, Rebecca L. Smith, FRC Collaboratory member, epidemiologist and professor in the Carle Illinois College of Medicine and the College of Veterinary Medicine at UIUC, Charles Williams, a chief of testing at the Illinois Department of Public Health, and partners at Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont IL.