LSU and Our Lady of the Lake Health: Collaboration in Action on Athletes’ Health, Cancer, Obesity and More

The Championship Health Partners award $1.2 million to five winning teams in an inaugural round of research funding.

LSU and Our Lady of the Lake Health, LSU’s Championship Health Partner, are working together to fight heart disease, cancer, accidents and chronic respiratory diseases, all leading causes of death in Louisiana that impact its citizens disproportionately.

“This first investment demonstrates how top-notch university research combined with strong and strategic hospital partnerships bring better health to the people of Louisiana and beyond,” said Robert Twilley, vice president of research and economic development at LSU. “Our shared commitment to building and supporting winning research teams will translate to many new discoveries and solutions in years to come.”

In an inaugural round of research funding—part of Our Lady of the Lake Health’s $170 million investment in LSU announced in 2022—the partners’ Collaboration in Action research program is investing a total of $1.2 million in five collaborative LSU research teams who will advance basic, clinical and translational science in five critical areas: cardiovascular disease and care; comprehensive cancer care; trauma and neuroscience; chronic respiratory disease; and sports medicine and performance.

Athletes’ Health—

Neil Johannsen, Robert and Patricia Hines Endowed Professor in the LSU School of Kinesiology and researcher at Pennington Biomedical, will lead an interdisciplinary team to better understand the long-term health of LSU athletes and the role competitive circumstances of collegiate athletics and known social determinants of health—such as disparities in social conditions and resources from an early age—have on retired athletes’ cardiometabolic, immune and mental health. This research will offer evidence to policymakers, clinicians and athletes about vulnerabilities and risks, helping to improve training and care and better preparing athletes for life after competition. 

“The results from this research could be applied to all levels of athletes in our community and around the world,” Johannsen said. 

Johannsen’s team includes Shelly Mullenix, senior associate athletic director with LSU Athletics; Dr. Hollis O’Neal, associate professor of medicine at LSU Health New Orleans and medical director of research at Our Lady of the Lake Health; Guillaume Spielmann, associate professor in the LSU School of Kinesiology and adjunct associate professor at Pennington Biomedical; Tiffany Stewart, professor, clinical psychologist and director of the Behavior Technology Laboratory at Pennington Biomedical; Samuel Stroope, professor in the LSU Department of Sociology; and Dr. Robert Zura, professor and chair of orthopedic surgery at LSU Health New Orleans and orthopedic surgeon at Our Lady of the Lake Health. 

Earlier this year, this team, led by Spielmann, was granted $250,000 in support through the LSU Provost’s Fund for Innovation in Research to establish the first center for athletic research in Louisiana, the Center for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine.

Genevieve Palardy, associate professor in the LSU Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, will lead an interdisciplinary team to develop digital twins of athletes—computer models to assess personalized risk based on in-game impact sensing, post-game concussion evaluations, and head injury simulations—to reduce mild traumatic brain injury and prevent long-term brain damage in American football players. While there is sensing technology to measure impact severity in helmets and mouthguards on the field and advancements in head injury modeling, the link between sensor measurements, brain deformation and actual injury is not strong enough to make real-time assessments of player health. 

“An integrated sensing–modeling framework with personalized digital twins for players should result in faster and more accurate decisions and better health outcomes,” Palardy said. 

This research builds on previous work to design safer football helmets, for which Palardy’s team received support from the LSU Board of Supervisors with a LIFT2 grant and from the Louisiana Board of Regents with a proof-of-concept, prototyping grant. 

Palardy’s team includes Associate Professor Hunter Gilbert, Assistant Professors Robert Herbert and Kshitiz Upadhyay and Senior Instructor Andrew Becnel in the LSU Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, as well as Dr. Shannon Alwood, associate professor at LSU Health New Orleans and emergency medicine physician at Our Lady of the Lake Health; Greggory Davis, research scientist at Our Lady of the Lake Health and academic research director of the emergency medicine residency program at LSU Health New Orleans; Dr. Richard Lewis, trauma surgeon at Our Lady of the Lake Health and clinical assistant professor in the Department of Surgery at LSU Health New Orleans; and Dr. Michael Truax Jr., assistant professor at LSU Health New Orleans and emergency medicine physician at Our Lady of the Lake Health. 

Cancer—

Jian Zhang, associate professor in the LSU Division of Computer Science and Engineering, is part of a research team that is developing a new cancer detection device and improving the assessment of clear margins during tumor removal. Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the U.S., and ensuring the complete removal of a tumor during surgery is vital for patient outcomes. However, current methods for assessing clean margins often fail to detect remaining cancerous tissue. 

“Our research focuses on developing an advanced, AI-assisted approach to more accurately assess surgical margins in real time, dramatically improving the chances of complete cancer excision and reducing the risk of recurrence,” Zhang said. 

The current standard for assessing clean margins during cancer surgery is frozen section analysis, which involves sampling tissue from a few selected points. This is costly and time-consuming and risks missing critical spots. Zhang and the team will conduct a pilot clinical study to evaluate the effectiveness of their new device during pancreatic cancer surgeries. 

Other team members include Dr. Michael Dunham, professor and section head of pediatric otolaryngology at LSU Health New Orleans; Dr. John Lyons, surgical oncologist at Our Lady of the Lake Health; and Jian Xu, associate professor in the LSU Division of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Obesity—

Senlin Chen, Helen “Bessie” Silverberg Pliner Professor in the LSU School of Kinesiology, leads an interdisciplinary team to combat childhood obesity. The state of Louisiana has one of the highest obesity rates in the nation with 40 percent among adults and 22 percent among children. Chen’s research team has already developed an innovative and cost-effective strategy by incorporating artificial intelligence into a program called ProudMe, an acronym for “preventing obesity using digital-assisted movement and eating,” which combines education and technology. Earlier this year, Chen was awarded $450,000 by the National Institutes of Health to implement ProudMe in Louisiana schools. Now, the team will use geographic information systems, or GIS, to map disparities in childhood obesity risk across Louisiana communities and conduct a clinical trial with Louisiana teenagers to test the effectiveness of ProudMe beyond the school setting. 

“This project will produce strategies to optimally mitigate childhood obesity disparities and significantly improve lives in Louisiana,” Chen said. 

Chen’s team includes Amanda Staiano, associate professor in LSU’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center; Fahui Wang, professor in the LSU Department of Geography and Anthropology; David Shepherd, associate professor in the LSU Division of Computer Science and Engineering; and consultants Dr. Stewart Gordon with Louisiana Healthcare Connections and Dr. Katie Queen, pediatrician at Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Health.

Respiratory Health—

Alexandra Noël, associate professor of comparative biomedical sciences in the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine and director of its Inhalation Research Facility, will lead an interdisciplinary team to study the social and behavioral factors associated with maternal vaping, as well as vaping’s impacts on birth outcomes and, using in vivo models, the development of asthma in offspring. 

“In Louisiana, the use of vaping products or electronic cigarettes has a high prevalence among women of reproductive age,” Noël said. “We already know maternal smoking negatively impacts neonatal respiratory health, but we don’t know if this also holds true for maternal vaping.” 

One of her team’s hypotheses is that intended pregnancies lead to a higher rate of vaping cessation and more favorable birth outcomes.  

“Understanding the effects of maternal vaping is of critical relevance for the health of Louisiana citizens, as behaviors like vaping during pregnancy ultimately impact neonatal respiratory health, including chronic lung diseases like asthma,” Noël said. 

Noël’s team includes Heather Rackin, associate professor of sociology at LSU. Their study will provide a framework to identify high-risk populations of pregnant women and their children in Louisiana and develop targeted preventive and interventional strategies. 

About Collaboration in Action

Our Lady of the Lake Health and LSU have developed a first-of-its-kind, long-term, healthcare-focused partnership to set a new standard for healthcare delivery, research and education that improves health and well-being, supports athletic excellence, fosters research to stimulate economic growth and development, and transforms healthcare and education for the future. Learn more about the transformative partnership: lsu.edu/healthcare-partnership

About Our Lady of the Lake Health

Our Lady of the Lake Health is a not-for-profit Catholic healthcare ministry based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, that has been committed to serving the Capital Region and building a healthy community through excellence in patient care and education for 100 years. With more than 7,500 employees, a 900-bed Regional Medical Center, a dedicated 99-bed Children’s Hospital, a 78-bed hospital in Gonzales, Louisiana, two freestanding emergency rooms in outlying parishes, and a 650+ provider Physician Group, Our Lady of the Lake Health provides comprehensive healthcare services for common to complex conditions. Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center is a primary teaching site for graduate medical education programs in partnership with LSU and is recognized in the areas of heart and vascular, trauma and emergency care, stroke, cancer care, minimally invasive procedures, and more. Our Lady of the Lake is part of the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System and is driven by its mission to serve all God’s people, especially those most in need. For more information, visit ololrmc.com