Faculty researchers keeping you and your family healthy
May 22, 2025
Dr. Jean Kerver and Dr. Mat Reeves are making progress finding real-world solutions that help families live their healthiest lives. From MSU Today
Whether raising children, caring for aging parents or navigating a personal health challenge, everyone deserves answers that make life better. Spartan researchers are finding those answers, turning federal research funding into everyday solutions that help families live longer, healthier lives.From the first signs of childhood health risks to the realities of chronic illness and elder care, MSU researchers partner with communities to study what keeps us well. With support from federal agencies, their work is advancing treatments, providing actionable health advice, making care more accessible and training the next generation of health care professionals. It’s research that doesn’t stay in the lab — it meets people where they are at every stage of life.
Protecting children’s development
Thousands of families are helping MSU researchers understand how environmental factors like air pollution, chemical exposure and inadequate nutrition impact children’s health and how early interventions can change lives.
In Michigan, 2,000 families are enrolled in ECHO, or Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes, a study created by the National Institutes of Health and led by Dr. Jean Kerver. The associate professor of epidemiology and biostatistics works to understand how these factors affect children from different backgrounds.
Research in this area is urgent because much is still unknown about how children grow and develop. Studies like ECHO, which began in 2016 and received a $26 million federal grant in 2023 to continue with its second phase, rely on volunteer participants to make progress possible.
Rita Strakovsky, an associate professor in MSU’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, enrolled her toddler in the study. As a participant and an investigator on the ECHO project, Strakovsky is uniquely involved in its mission. “Our ultimate goal is to protect children’s health by understanding the factors that influence how kids grow and develop,” she says. “To learn more, we need to research, not just assume.”
Various studies within ECHO help individuals take targeted actions that positively impact children’s development. An ongoing study headed by Kerver found that one-quarter of pregnant women in mid-Michigan lacked sufficient iodine, a nutrient essential for babies’ brain development. As a result, doctors, including those in rural Michigan, began recommending prenatal supplements that contain iodine because not all prenatal supplements include the chemical element.
Another ECHO study examines the hurdles some women face in maintaining an exclusive breastfeeding practice, which is widely recommended because it provides important maternal and child health benefits. The study aims to develop specific training that could lead to better health for children and mothers.
Recent federal funding cuts threaten studies like ECHO. The long-term nationwide program is conducted by 30 researchers at MSU, the University of Michigan, Wayne State University, Henry Ford Health and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and employs nearly 20 full-time staff statewide.
Reduced funding would hinder efforts to collect data, identify health patterns and develop better treatments that improve children’s lives, says Kerver. “The key to research and science is that progress happens by taking small steps,” she explains.
Read more on MSUToday.
Preventing silent diseases before they strike
Good health later in life relies on prevention, treatment and education, especially for diseases like stroke that develop slowly and disproportionately affect certain populations.
Stroke in women is one example. In the U.S., approximately one in five women will experience a stroke in her lifetime, compared to one in six men. Yet, one of the first papers addressing the topic wasn’t published until 2008 — and it had a sizeable role in the subsequent explosion of research on stroke in women.
MSU researcher Mat Reeves is the author of that pivotal study, which has been cited over 1,000 times and has led to the development of clinical treatment guidelines.
“There is no doubt that there is now much more awareness of the impact of stroke on women, its greater burden and the unique sex-specific factors related to pregnancy and menopause that are important for prevention,” says Reeves, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics who received an NIH award to organize a conference in Washington, D.C., last April, the first dedicated to the topic in almost 20 years.
Reeves and colleagues, including those at the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association, have laid the foundation for stroke prevention in the U.S. — the most effective way to reduce stroke-related deaths. While national data on reduced incidence remains limited, studies show positive trends, underscoring the need to continue this critical work.