Sema Sgaier Explained
Sema K. Sgaier (born 1975) is a scientist, global health expert, and documentary photographer. Sgaier’s expertise includes molecular biology, genetics, genomics, neuroscience, epidemiology, disease surveillance, monitoring & evaluation of programs and policy development.
Sgaier was an assistant adjunct professor at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health[1] and an affiliate assistant professor of global health at the University of Washington.[2] While she was working for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation she and Mala Gaonkar co-founded the Surgo Foundation to better understand how data and behavior can influence public health outcomes.[3]
Early life
Sgaier was born in 1975 in Tripoli, Libya to a Libyan father and Turkish mother. Sgaier studied molecular biology and genetics at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, Turkey, where she graduated with her Bachelor of Science in 2005, ranking first of her class. Sgaier later obtained her Masters in Art in neuroscience from Brown University in 1999 and Masters in Science and Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD) in cellular and molecular biology (Developmental Genetics) in 2005 from New York University. She conducted her postdoctoral training in human genomics in the lab of Dr. Christopher A. Walsh at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center at Harvard Medical School.
Sgaier is the recipient of New York University, Brown University fellowships and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center fellowships.
Sgaier studied Documentary Photography at the International Center of Photography.
Career
Sgaier was the first to fine tune and apply the technique of Genetic Inducible Fate Mapping (GIFM)[4] to understand how the complex 3D cerebellum develops from early-undifferentiated neuronal cells of the anterior hindbrain.[5] With Tim Yu and colleagues, she discovered that mutations in the gene WDR62 causes microcephaly.[6]
At the Center for Global Health Research, Sgaier designed and developed the Sample Registration Health Check-Up Survey to study the underlying risk factors of various diseases in India. She has published on the epidemiology of HIV and sexually transmitted diseases.
From 2008, Sema was a Program Officer with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She led a portfolio on voluntary medical male circumcision for HIV prevention across eastern and southern Africa. As part of BMGF’s India Country Office, Sema led the scale-up of the foundation’s HIV prevention program (Avahan) in several states, managed its transition to the government of India, and developed data platforms for decision-making. She worked closely with the Indian National AIDS Control Program to assist in the design of their program and strengthen their analytic efforts.[7]
She, Mala Gaonkar, and Malcolm Gladwell, co-founded the Surgo Foundation. They invested in public health projects, by listening to local needs. She founded Surgo Health.[8]
Selected publications
Articles
- 10.1016/j.neuron.2004.12.021 . Morphogenetic and Cellular Movements that Shape the Mouse Cerebellum . 2005 . Sgaier . Sema K. . Millet . Sandrine . Villanueva . Melissa P. . Berenshteyn . Frada . Song . Christian . Joyner . Alexandra L. . 17199408 . Neuron . 45 . 27–40 . 15629700 . 1. free .
- 10.1016/j.ydbio.2006.04.449 . Β-catenin activation is necessary and sufficient to specify the dorsal dermal fate in the mouse . 2006 . Atit . Radhika . Sgaier . Sema K. . Mohamed . Othman A. . Taketo . Makoto M. . Dufort . Daniel . Joyner . Alexandra L. . Niswander . Lee . Conlon . Ronald A. . Developmental Biology . 296 . 164–76 . 16730693 . 1.
- 10.1186/1471-2458-6-199 . 2006 . Nagelkerke . Nico JD . Bernsen . Roos MD . Sgaier . Sema . Jha . Prabhat . BMC Public Health . 6 . 199 . 16884541 . Body mass index, sexual behaviour, and sexually transmitted infections: An analysis using the NHANES 1999-2000 data . 1559603 . free .
- 10.1242/dev.000620 . Genetic subdivision of the tectum and cerebellum into functionally related regions based on differential sensitivity to engrailed proteins . 2007 . Sgaier . S. K. . Lao . Z. . Villanueva . M. P. . Berenshteyn . F. . Stephen . D. . Turnbull . R. K. . Joyner . A. L. . Development . 134 . 12 . 2325–35 . 17537797 . 2840613.
- 10.1371/journal.pone.0001001 . Sexual Risk Factors for HIV Infection in Early and Advanced HIV Epidemics in Sub-Saharan Africa: Systematic Overview of 68 Epidemiological Studies . 2007 . Siegfried . Nandi . Chen . Li . Jha . Prabhat . Stirling . Bridget . Sgaier . Sema K. . Daid . Tina . Kaul . Rupert . Nagelkerke . Nico . PLOS ONE . 2 . 10 . e1001 . 17912340 . International Studies of HIV/AIDS (ISHA) Investigators . 1994584. 2007PLoSO...2.1001C . free .
- 10.1126/science.1149157 . Public Health: Biobanks in Developing Countries: Needs and Feasibility . 2007 . Sgaier . S. K. . Jha . P. . Mony . P. . Kurpad . A. . Lakshmi . V. . Kumar . R. . Ganguly . N. K. . 166785291 . Science . 318 . 5853 . 1074–5 . 18006727.
- 10.1242/dev.027045 . The Engrailed homeobox genes determine the different foliation patterns in the vermis and hemispheres of the mammalian cerebellum . 2010 . Cheng . Y. . Sudarov . A. . Szulc . K. U. . Sgaier . S. K. . Stephen . D. . Turnbull . D. H. . Joyner . A. L. . Development . 137 . 3 . 519–29 . 20081196 . 2858911.
- 10.1038/ng.683 . Mutations in WDR62, encoding a centrosome-associated protein, cause microcephaly with simplified gyri and abnormal cortical architecture . 2010 . Yu . Timothy W . Mochida . Ganeshwaran H . Tischfield . David J . Sgaier . Sema K . Flores-Sarnat . Laura . Sergi . Consolato M . Topçu . Meral . McDonald . Marie T . Barry . Brenda J . Felie . Jillian M . Sunu . Christine . Dobyns . William B . Folkerth . Rebecca D . Barkovich . A James . Walsh . Christopher A . Nature Genetics . 42 . 11 . 1015–20 . 20890278 . 2969850. 8 .
- 10.1136/sti.2010.043687 . Prevalence and correlates of Herpes Simplex Virus-2 and syphilis infections in the general population in India . 2010 . Sgaier . S. K. . Mony . P. . Jayakumar . S. . McLaughlin . C. . Arora . P. . Kumar . R. . Bhatia . P. . Jha . P. . 8556425 . Sexually Transmitted Infections . 87 . 2 . 94–100 . 21059842.
- 10.1136/sextrans-2011-050203 . HIV, HSV-2 and syphilis among married couples in India: Patterns of discordance and concordance . 2011 . Arora . P. . Nagelkerke . N. . Sgaier . S. K. . Kumar . R. . Dhingra . N. . Jha . P. . 13820421 . Sexually Transmitted Infections . 87 . 6 . 516–20 . 21865404.
- Engl . E . Sgaier . SK . CUBES: A practical toolkit to measure enablers and barriers to behavior for effective intervention design [version 2; peer review: 2 approved, 1 approved with reservations] . Gates Open Research . 2020 . 3 . 886 . 886 . 10.12688/gatesopenres.12923.2 . 31294419 . 6601426 . free .
- Sgaier . S.K. . Anthony . J . Bhattacharjee . P . Baer . J . Malve . V . Bhalla . A . Hugar . VS . Strengthening government management capacity to scale up HIV prevention programs through the use of Technical Support Units: lessons from Karnataka state, India. . Glob Health Sci Pract . 2014 . 2 . 4 . 444–58 . 10.9745/GHSP-D-14-00141 . 25611478 . 4307860 .
- Njeuhmeli . E . Hatzold . K . Gold . E . Mahler . H . Kripke . K . Seifert-Ahanda . K . Castor . D . Mavhu . W . Mugurungi . O . Ncube . G . Koshuma . S . Sgaier . S . Conly . SR . Kasedde . S . 35785094 . Lessons learned from scale-up of voluntary medical male circumcision focusing on adolescents: benefits, challenges, and potential opportunities for linkages with adolescent HIV, sexual, and reproductive health services. . Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes . 66 . S193-9 . 2014 . Suppl 2 . 10.1097/QAI.0000000000000179 . 24918595 . free .
- Sgaier . S.K. . Reed . JB . Thomas . A . Njeuhmeli . E . Achieving the HIV Prevention Impact of Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision: Lessons and Challenges for Managing Programs . PLOS Med . 2014 . 11 . 5 . e1001641 . 10.1371/journal.pmed.1001641 . 24800840 . 4011573 . free .
- Sgaier . S.K. . Baer . J . Rutz . DC . Njeuhmeli . E . Seifert-Ahanda . A . Basinga . P . Parkyn . R . Laube . C. . Toward a Systematic Approach to Generating Demand for Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision: Insights and Results From Field Studies. . Glob Health Sci Pract . 2015 . 3 . 2 . 209–229 . 10.9745/GHSP-D-15-00020 . 26085019 . 4476860 .
- Gumede-Moyo . Sehlulekile . Kretschmer . Steve . A case study for a psychographic-behavioral segmentation approach for targeted demand generation in voluntary medical male circumcision . eLife. 6 . 2017 . 10.7554/eLife.25923 . 28901285 . 5628013 . free .
- Sgaier . Sema K. . Ramakrishnan . Aparajita . Wadhwani . Alkesh . Bhalla . Aparajita . Menon . Hari . Baerg . James . Alexander . Ashok . Achieving scale rapidly in public health: Applying business management principles to scale up an HIV prevention program in India . Healthcare. 2018 . 6 . 3 . 210–217 . 10.1016/j.hjdsi.2017.09.002 . 28943225 . free .
- Sgaier, Sema; Engl, Elisabeth; and Kretschmer, Steve. "Time to Scale Psycho-Behavioral Segmentation in Global Development". Stanford Social Innovation Review, Fall 2018.
- "Design Thinking Without Deep Data Will Fail Our Customers in Global Health". Stanford Social Innovation Review, February 14, 2019.
- Sgaier, Sema. "Why So Many Newborns and Mothers Still Die". Project Syndicate, June 17, 2019.
- "Demystifying Machine Learning for Global Development". Stanford Social Innovation Review, July 24, 2019.
- "Using AI to Understand What Causes Diseases". with Elisabeth Engl and Steve Kretschmer. Harvard Business Review, November 8, 2019
- 10.12688/gatesopenres.13029.2. 31701090. 6820452. Identifying population segments for effective intervention design and targeting using unsupervised machine learning: an end-to-end guide [version 2; peer review: 2 approved]. 2019 . Sgaier . Sema K. . Engl . Elisabeth . Smittenaar . P. . Gates Open Research . 3. 1503. free.
- Engl . E . Kretschmer . S . Jain . M . Sharma . S . Prasad . R . Ramesh . BM . Categorizing and assessing comprehensive drivers of provider behavior for optimizing quality of health care. . PLOS ONE . 2019 . 14 . 4 . e0214922 . 10.1371/journal.pone.0214922. 30995274 . 6469845 . 2019PLoSO..1414922E . free .
Book chapters
- "India: Scaling HIV Prevention through Partnerships – The Avahan Experience in India". with Aparajita Ramakrishnan and Ashok Alexander. in Innovative Health Partnerships: The Diplomacy of Diversity (Global Health Diplomacy: Volume 1). Daniel Low-Beer, ed. World Scientific Publishing Company, 2011.
- "The Concept of Fate Through the Lens of Genetics" with F. Berenshteyn, A. L. Joyner, S. Miller, C. Song, and M. P. Villanueva in Responsive Architectures: Subtle Technologies. Philip Beesley, Sachiko Hirosue, Jim Ruxton, Camile Turner, and Marion Tränkle, ed. Cambridge: Riverside Architectural Press, 2006 pp. 26–29.
Notes and References
- Web site: Sema Sgaier . www.hsph.harvard.edu . https://web.archive.org/web/20211106031231/https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/sema-sgaier/ . November 6, 2021 .
- Web site: University of Washington . Faculty and Staff/Sema Sgaier . globalhealth.washington.edu . https://web.archive.org/web/20230608153246/https://globalhealth.washington.edu/faculty/sema-sgaier . June 8, 2023.
- Meet Mala Gaonkar and Sema Sgaier, the Women Troubleshooting the World’s Crises . Comita . Jenny . May 24, 2017 . .
- 10.1002/dvdy.20884 . Genetic inducible fate mapping in mouse: Establishing genetic lineages and defining genetic neuroanatomy in the nervous system . 2006 . Joyner . Alexandra L. . Zervas . Mark . Developmental Dynamics . 235 . 9 . 2376–85 . 16871622. 24550187 . free .
- 10.1016/j.neuron.2004.12.021 . Morphogenetic and Cellular Movements that Shape the Mouse Cerebellum . 2005 . Sgaier . Sema K. . Millet . Sandrine . Villanueva . Melissa P. . Berenshteyn . Frada . Song . Christian . Joyner . Alexandra L. . 17199408 . Neuron . 45 . 27–40 . 15629700 . 1. free .
- 10.1038/ng.683 . Mutations in WDR62, encoding a centrosome-associated protein, cause microcephaly with simplified gyri and abnormal cortical architecture . 2010 . Yu . Timothy W . Mochida . Ganeshwaran H . Tischfield . David J . Sgaier . Sema K . Flores-Sarnat . Laura . Sergi . Consolato M . Topçu . Meral . McDonald . Marie T . Barry . Brenda J . Felie . Jillian M . Sunu . Christine . Dobyns . William B . Folkerth . Rebecca D . Barkovich . A James . Walsh . Christopher A . Nature Genetics . 42 . 11 . 1015–20 . 20890278 . 2969850. 8 .
- Web site: Home. www.iasociety.org. en-US. 2017-11-16.
- Web site: Althouse . Michaela . 2023-03-02 . New DC startup Surgo Health is using data to help reach healthcare patients . 2024-08-02 . Technical.ly . en.