Perinatal epidemiology, health registries, infectious diseases, environmental contaminants and global health

Alexandra's research encompasses biomedical aspects on atherosclerosis development to public health focus with special emphasis on population-based studies for cardiovascular disease prevention. RSince 2008, Alexandra’s research has focused on global health.

My research project is about lead exposure in children and pregnant women in Georgia.

The research will utilize existing data from the Georgian lead surveillance system, Georgian birth registry and other databases, and collect new data with qualitative methods.

I am the member of the Global and Environmental research group. In addition, I am involved in the PhD projects: Teenage pregnancies in the Republic of Georgia (2021-2024) and HCV in Georgia.

Charlotta Rylander is a professor of epidemiology at the Department of Community Medicine, and a member of the Systems epidemiology research group. Charlotta is also serving as the deputy head of research at the department. Her research is mainly in the field of global and environmental health, and cancer epidemiology. 

Charlotta's research interests include:

1.) Lead exposure of children and pregnant women globally. Identification of exposure sources, health effects of exposure, timetrends and surveillance systems for biomonitoring.

2.) Persistent organic pollutants in relation to lifestyle diseases such as type 2 diabetes and obesity. Are elavated POPs in people with the disease a cause or a consequence of the disease?

3.) Life-course changes in body fatness and subsequent cancer risk.

4.) Regsitry-based maternal and child health studies, including quality and validity of registrations.

5.) Environmental impact of food and lifestyle

 PhD student supervision: 

1. 2015-2020: Main supervisor of PhD Marisa da Silva. PhD thesis: Weight change and cancer. The Norwegian Women and Cancer study

2. 2017- 2020: Co-supervisor of PhD Tinatin Manjavidze. PhD thesis: Perinatal mortality and its associationwith antenatal care utilization in the Republic of Georgia

3. 2017-2021: Co-supervisor of PhD Ingvild Hersoug Nedberg. PhD thesis: Cesarean sections in Georgia and Norway - What contributes to too much, too little, or just right? The role of maternal risk factors and efforts to reduce high cesarean section rates

4. 2017-ongoing: Co-supervisor of Natia Skhvitaridze. Topic: Maternal mortality and morbidity in the Republic of Georgia

5. 2017-2023: Main supervisor of PhD Dolley Charles. PhD thesis: Persistent Organic Pollutants and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: Addressing causality with repeated measurements using novel study designs.

6. 2019-2023: Co-supervisor of PhD Giovanni Allaoui. PhD thesis: Blood biomarkers and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Repeated measurements of blood biomarkers in Type 2 diabetes Mellitus cases adn controls; longitudinal assessements and associations

7. 2021- ongoing: Main supervisor of Nia Khachidze. Topic: Teenage pregnancies in the Republic of Georgia

8. 2021- ongoing: Co-supervisor of Ana Aslanikashvili. Topic: Hepatitis C in the Republic of Georgia. 

9. 2021-ongoing: Co-supervisor of Marie Hauan. Topic: Sweet beverage consumption and adverse health outcomes

10. 2022-ongoing: Main supervisor of Marit Busund. Topic: Female sex hormones and molecular subtypes of breast cancer

11. 2022- ongoing: Co-supervisor of Mia Mathisen. Topic: Persistent Organic Pollutants, inflammation markers and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

12. 2022-ongoing: Shared main supervisor of Bahar Kucuk. Topic: In-depth investigation into the environmental sustainability aspects of the northern Norwegian diet:
understanding the sociodemographic associations, co-benefits, and beneficial transformations

13. 2022- ongoing: Co-supervisor of Sophio Sikharulidze, enrolled at the PhD program at University of Georgia. Topic: Lead exposure of pregnant women in Georgia