Speakers


Alika Maunakea 

John A Burns School of Medicine

Epigenomics Research Program 

Biography

Native Hawaiian born and raised in Waiʻanae, Hawaiʻi, Dr. Maunakea received his B.Sc. degree in Biology at Creighton University (2001) and Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco (2008). He completed Postdoctoral training at the National Institutes of Health (2012) and has since joined the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaiʻi, Mānoa (UHM). In studying epigenetics for over 20 years, Dr. Maunakea has made several important contributions that have helped advance the field. In particular, he has developed and applied novel high-throughput, genome-wide technologies that survey DNA methylation and histone modifications, both central components of epigenetic processes, and has discovered novel roles for DNA methylation in regulating alternative promoter usage and in pre-mRNA splicing with implications in disease development.

Having been continously supported with several productive NIH grants throughout his career, Dr. Maunakea is currently a Professor in the Department of Anatomy, Biochemistry, and Physiology, where he applies epigenomic information toward understanding the mechanistic relationships of gene-environment interactions that underlie the development of diseases of health disparities as well as promotes diversity in the research workforce. He leads and collaborates with a cadre of clinical, behavioral, economic, and health disparities researchers on various community-based biomedical research projects while simultaneously mentors underrepresented minority students in multidisciplinary research careers.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, he led efforts to develop infrastructure for community testing and vaccine education to mitigate the adverse impacts of COVID-19 in underserved Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) populations in Hawaiʻi as part of the NIH-funded Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics of Underserved Populations (RADxUP) initiative. Notably, he led the development of the first CLIA-certified molecular diagnostics laboratory at a Federally Qualified Health Center in Hawaiʻi serving the largest population of NHPIs in the state. In addition, he established and oversees the Epigenomics Core Facility of Hawaiʻi, the state’s only next-generation sequencing service that integrates this technology with epigenome-wide data of DNA methylation, chromatin structure, histone modifications, and transcriptomic analyses, and bacteria metagenomics for microbiome research. He also directs the Consortium of Research Advancement Facilities and Training (CRAFT), a NIH COBRE-funded resource in the Integrative Center for Precision Nutrition and Human Health at UHM that includes a suite of multiomics core facilities and bioinformatic resources. 

By integrating these multiomic approaches, Dr. Maunakea seeks to better understand the socioecological determinants that influence epigenomic and gut microbial pathways that regulate inflammatory states that appear to underlie progression of diabetes, the prevalence of which are disproportionately higher among the NHPI population, to identify novel biomarkers that enable prevention in a recent R01-funded study called the Hawaiʻi Social Epigenomics of Early Diabetes (HI-SEED.org). Finally, Dr. Maunakea initiated and leads the Maui Wildfire Exposure Study (www.mauiwes.info), a longtitudinal cohort to better understand the immediate and long-term health impacts of those recovering from the mental/emotional and physical trauma of the wildfires in Lahaina and Kula in August 2023.


Donald Warne 

John Hopkins University - Centre for Indigenous Health

Co-Director

Biography

Donald Warne, MD, MPH (Oglala Lakota) serves as the Co-Director of the Center for Indigenous Health and as a tenured, Full-Professor at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD where he also serves as the Provost Fellow for Indigenous Health Policy. Dr. Warne is also the Senior Policy Advisor to the Great Plains Tribal Leader’s Health Board in Rapid City, SD. Dr. Warne is a member of the Oglala Lakota tribe from Pine Ridge, SD and comes from a long line of traditional healers and medicine men.

Donald Warne received his MD from Stanford University School of Medicine in 1995 and his MPH from Harvard School of Public Health in 2002. His work experience includes: several years as a primary care physician with the Gila River Health Care Corporation in Arizona; Staff Clinician with the National Institutes of Health; Indian Legal Program Faculty with the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University; Health Policy Research Director for Inter Tribal Council of Arizona; Executive Director of the Great Plains Tribal Chairmen’s Health Board; Chair of the Department of Public Health at North Dakota State University; and Indigenous Health Department Chair and Associate Dean of the School of Medicine & Health Sciences at the University of North Dakota. Dr. Warne is also a member of the Stanford University Alumni Hall of Fame.


Satupaitea Viali 

Oceania University of Medicine

Vice Chancellor & President

Dr Satupaitea (Satu) Viali is a Specialist Physician and Cardiologist in Samoa. From 2002 to 2008 he was OUM's Professor and Dean, and in 2007, he was on hand to congratulate OUM’s first graduates. Professor Viali rejoined OUM as Interim Dean of Samoa and the Asia Pacific and Professor of Medicine in May 2023. In addition to his new roles at OUM, Professor Viali is Professor of Medicine, National University of Samoa (NUS) School of Medicine; Cardiologist & Consultant Physician in the Medical Specialist & Cardiologist Practice, Tuloto, Togafuafua, Apia, Samoa; and Visiting Cardiologist and Consultant Physician in the Medical Ward, Cardiology Clinics, and the National Rheumatic Fever and Rheumatic Heart Disease Program at TTM Hospital. He has published in peer-reviewed journals on rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease, non-communicable diseases, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and other topics. Dr. Viali earned both his Bachelor of Human Biology and his medical degree at the Auckland Medical School, University of Auckland, New Zealand.



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