Grants target climate-driven health risks
Two Stanford Medicine assistant professors will explore the impact of climate on health risks ranging from extreme heat to parasitic threats
A parasitic disease in rural Africa and extreme heat health impacts in urban Indonesia are much more closely linked than the distance between them might imply. Two Stanford faculty members will lead interdisciplinary projects investigating how a changing climate shapes each of these risks. Their projects are supported by Human and Planetary Health Early-Career Research Awards, which provide up to $200,000 over two years for high-impact research led by early-career faculty.
"These awards are designed to catalyze solutions at the intersection of health and the environment, while also fostering the next generation of research leadership," said Allison Phillips, managing director of the Center for Human and Planetary Health at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. "We are thrilled to support Nathan and John as they explore new dimensions of climate-sensitive disease threats and translate their findings into solutions that can protect the most vulnerable communities."
Schistosomiasis is a parasitic disease transmitted through freshwater contact. Although it affects more than 150 million people in low- and middle-income countries, the environmental and climate conditions that drive its spread remain poorly understood. Nathan Lo, an assistant professor of medicine (infectious diseases) in the Stanford School of Medicine, will investigate how climate and ecological factors shape the geographic distribution of schistosomiasis transmission, with the goal of developing predictive tools that national disease control programs can use to target their interventions more effectively. The team will collect new field data on climate, ecology, and populations of freshwater snails, the parasite's intermediate hosts, at research sites in Côte d'Ivoire, building on an ongoing U.S. National Institutes of Health-funded study underway there.
"This award will catalyze our research into a new direction," said Lo. “Schistosomiasis is a neglected disease that causes a substantial global health burden, and I hope this research contributes to the development of more effective public health interventions by leveraging climate and environmental data to reduce its impact.”
As global temperatures rise, extreme heat is emerging as one of the most serious threats to worker health and economic security. This is particularly true in low-income urban communities with few resources to adapt. John Openshaw, an assistant professor of medicine (infectious diseases and geographic medicine), will work at an established research site in informal settlements in Makassar, Indonesia, to measure how heat exposure affects indoor and outdoor workers, identify promising solutions, and pilot personal heat-mitigation interventions, such as natural roof insulation, in real workplace settings.
"This funding will let us develop approaches that are effective and affordable and test them directly with outdoor workers at a site that is regularly exposed to high temperatures and humidity," said Openshaw. "My hope is that our work will help ensure that people remain healthy and able to continue earning a living in the face of increasing extreme heat.”
Openshaw’s research has also received funding from the Stanford Sustainability Accelerator.
The Human and Planetary Health Early-Career Research Awards are part of the Environmental Venture Projects program at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. Since 2004, the program has funded high-risk, high-reward environmental research with the potential to generate transformative solutions.
2026 Projects
Using climate and epidemiologic data to find schistosomiasis hotspots to target treatment
Principal Investigator: Nathan Lo, Assistant Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases)
Schistosomiasis is a parasitic disease affecting more than 150 million people in low- and middle-income countries — and climate change is making it harder to control. The disease spreads unevenly, with some communities experiencing far higher infection rates than others. These "hotspots" persist even after mass treatment campaigns, but identifying them requires expensive, labor-intensive monitoring. Researchers don't yet fully understand why some places become hotspots while others don't, or how climate and environmental conditions drive that pattern.
This project will use field data from an ongoing schistosomiasis study in Côte d'Ivoire to investigate how climate and ecological factors — including freshwater snail populations, which transmit the parasite — shape where and when hotspots emerge. The team will develop a predictive modeling tool to help national disease control programs identify high-risk areas more efficiently, and will gather feedback from program staff and policymakers to make the tool as practical as possible. The goal is to give health authorities in affected countries better, more affordable ways to target their resources — reducing the outsized burden this disease places on some of the world's most vulnerable communities.
Protecting workers from extreme heat in urban informal settlements
Principal Investigators: John Openshaw, Assistant Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine); H. Craig Heller, Professor of Biology; Michael Snyder, Professor of Genetics
Extreme heat is one of the fastest-growing threats to human health, and workers in low-income urban communities are among the most exposed. As global temperatures rise, the ability of outdoor and indoor laborers to safely do their jobs is increasingly at risk, yet little research has examined how heat affects workers in informal settlements, or which interventions could realistically protect them.
This project will work within an established research site in informal settlements in Makassar, Indonesia, to measure how heat exposure affects workers in different settings, identify promising solutions, and test personal heat-mitigation interventions in real workplace conditions. The findings will be used to advance scientific understanding, attract investment, inspire entrepreneurs, and raise the visibility of heat as a serious and addressable threat to worker health and economic security in the communities most vulnerable to climate change.
