By: Brianna Kreditor, MPH
The first cohort of Mongolian trainees under a Mongolian GEOHealth Center Grant completed three months of professional development training at University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) or Duke University. The trainees will use their newly learned skills to develop interdisciplinary research projects within the Mongolian GEOHealth Center which aims to advance environmental and occupational health using a One Health approach in Mongolia.
Bolor Mandakh, a Masters of Global Public Health student at MNUMS, is also a fellow under the GEOHealth grant. She experienced fellowship training at Duke University. During her three months at Duke, Bolor worked with different cells to learn and practice cell culture techniques and equipment which will be used to study air pollution in Mongolia. “I will be working with a similar custom-designed in vitro exposure chamber in Mongolia,” says Bolor. Bolor learned how to culture the cells, at air liquid interface and expose them to ozone which will be similarly carried out in Mongolia, by culturing nasal epithelial cells and exposing them to particulate matter.
Buyantushig Boldbaatar, another fellow in the Mongolia GEOHealth program and a PhD student and lecturer at MNUMS, was also trained at Duke University. Buyantushig’s training was centered on the collection and calibration of particular matter 2.5 (PM2.5), utilizing a low-cost sensor known as PurpleAir which will be used in the studies in Mongolia. The experience provided the opportunity to expand knowledge to other sensors, including AirAssure and TSI Bluesky.
The cohort expressed their gratitude for the professional development training, their mentors, and the universities. Eelin stated “thank you Dr. Gray, for the opportunity.” Bolor expressed “....it was great learning from amazing people and being part of a community at a respected University. I picked up a lot of lab and other skills so it was a valuable opportunity and an experience that will help me a lot in the future.” Buyantushig emphasized the training “... was a transformative period, equipping me with valuable skills and knowledge that will undoubtedly shape my future endeavors in the field of research.” Together, the trainees will implement their new knowledge within the various Mongolian GEOHealth Center’s research portfolio over the next 12 months.
Eelin Khurelbaatar, a Master of Public Health (MPH) student at the Mongolian National University of Medical Sciences (MNUMS), is one of the first Mongolian fellow cohort members under the Mongolia GEOHealth grant. Through Center support she trained for three months in the UTMB One Health Laboratory in the Division of Infectious Diseases at UTMB where she and her Mongolian PhD student colleague, Odmaa Ganzorig, learned about virological laboratory techniques.
Together, their training focused on characterizing and studying influenza viruses and coronaviruses and using bioaerosol sampling techniques in detecting these viruses. Eelin and Odmaa will use their new laboratory skills in detecting and characterizing respiratory viruses in Mongolia. Eelin plans to use the techniques for her thesis project comparing air pollution in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia’s capital, and the city of Darkhan to learn if increased air pollution leads to a weakened immune system against respiratory viral infection. Together, Eelin and Odmaa will help lead efforts in Mongolia to conduct bioaerosol sampling in the two cities to understand the impacts of air pollution on respiratory disease.