Eva Harris

Eva Harris is an Associate Professor in the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley, and the founder and president of the Sustainable Sciences Institute. Harris has been described as an “activist researcher” because she focuses her research efforts on combating diseases that primarily afflict people in developing nations.

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Education

Harris received a BA in Biochemical Sciences from Harvard University in 1987 and a PhD in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley in 1993.

Career

After a post-doctoral fellowship and Assistant Adjunct Professorship at the University of California, San Francisco, Harris joined the faculty at UC Berkeley where Harris developed a multidisciplinary approach to study virology, pathogenesis, and epidemiology of dengue fever, the most prevalent mosquito-borne viral disease in humans. Harris’ lab studies the mechanism of dengue virus infection of human dendritic cells. The Harris Lab is also developing a mouse model to study viral tropism and the immune response to dengue virus infection to generate a better model of disease. Harris’ fieldwork focuses on molecular and field epidemiological studies of dengue in endemic Latin American countries, particularly Nicaragua. Ongoing fieldwork projects include clinical and biological studies of severe dengue, a pediatric cohort study of dengue transmission in Managua, and a project on evidence-based, community-derived interventions for prevention of dengue via control of its mosquito vector. Harris is currently initiating studies of dengue pathogenesis in humans, focusing on functional characterization of antibodies and B cell memory response, host gene expression profiling, and viral factors such as quasispecies. Harris is also collaborating with investigators at the UC Berkeley College of Engineering to develop the ImmunoSensor, a novel, rapid, low-cost diagnostic device for point-of-care diagnosis of dengue and other infectious diseases. Harris served as co-director of the “International Training and Research in Emerging Infectious Diseases” program at the Fogarty International Center from 1997 to 2003.

Humanitarian work

It was while volunteering overseas that Harris was first struck by the lack of resources available to her local peers. Knowing that the technologies and resources these scientists needed existed in the developed world but were unavailable where they were most needed inspired Harris to introduce state-of-the art molecular diagnostic techniques and scientific literacy in resource-poor settings. In 1997, Harris received a MacArthur Fellowship for her pioneering work over the previous ten years developing programs and working to build scientific capacity in developing countries to address public health and infectious disease issues. To continue and expand this work, 1998 Harris founded the Sustainable Sciences Institute a San Francisco based international nonprofit organization that works to improve public health in developing countries by building local capacity for scientific research on infectious diseases. The Sustainable Sciences Institute partners with promising researchers in developing countries, offering long term assistance and mentoring to help them excel in their fields of research and make a difference in the health of their communities.

Awards and Honors

• 2002 Pryytanean Faculty Award for outstanding women faculty • 2002 Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum • 2002 national recognition award from Minister of Health in Nicaragua for contribution to scientific development • 2001 Pew Scholar for her work on dengue pathogenesis • 1997 MacArthur Fellowship for her scientific capacity building work

Publications

Harris has published over 65 peer-reviewed articles, as well as a book ("A Low Cost Approach to PCR: Appropriate Transfer of Biomolecular Techniques") on her international scientific work.