Ngozi Ezike

Biography

Dr. Ngozi Ezike, a board-certified internist, received her medical degree (MBBS) from the College of Medicine, University of Nigeria.  She completed internal medicine residency training at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine Affiliate North General Hospital in New York.  In addition, she was served as Chief Resident and Junior Attending at North General Hospital.  Dr. Ezike joined the Clinical Research Branch of the National Institute on Aging’s Intramural Research Program in January 2003 as a staff clinician for the Healthy Aging in Neighborhoods of Diversity across the Life Span (HANDLS) study.  She is a certified clinical densitometrist working on the densitometry acquisition and analyses for the HANDLS study.

Research topics

Her initial work with the HANDLS study was to identify the challenges affecting the recruitment and retention of vulnerable nontraditional research participants. She facilitated the implementation of various strategies to ameliorate the challenges identified and improved the number recruited into the study. Her work has been central to phenotype identification that provides the basis for laboratory-based investigations of key areas in health disparities research including the association between oxidative DNA damage and C-reactive protein in women at risk for cardiovascular disease the role of BDNF in C-Reactive Protein-induced inflammation in women. In the future, Dr. Ezike plans to examine the influence of socioeconomic status and race on sarcopenic obesity and longevity among the HANDLS cohort as well as investigation of dietary factors that influence bone density among low SES participants. 

Selected Publications 

Zonderman AB, Mode NA, Ejiogu N, Evans MK. Race and Poverty Status as a Risk for Overall Mortality in Community-Dwelling Middle Aged Adults. JAMA Intern Med.1;176(9):1394-5, 2016. PMID: 28070189

Noren Hooten N, Ejiogu N, Zonderman AB, Evans MK. Protective effects of BDNF against C-Reactive Protein-induced inflammation in women. Mediators Inflamm. 2015;516783

Zonderman AB, Ejiogu N, Norbeck J, Evans MK. The influence of health disparities on targeting cancer prevention efforts. Am J Prev Med. 2014 Mar;46(3 suppl 1)

Ejiogu N, Norbeck JH, Mason MA, Cromwell BC, Zonderman AB, Evans M K. Recruitment and Retention Strategies for Minority or Poor Clinical Research Participants: Lessons From the Healthy Aging in Neighborhoods of Diversity Across the Life Span Study. Gerentology 51 S33-S45

Hooten NN, Ejiogu N, Zonderman AB, Evans MK. Association of Oxidative DNA Damage and  C-Reactive Protein in Women at Risk for Cardiovascular Disease Arteriosclerosis Thrombosis and Vascular Biology 32 2776-2787 

Trzeciak AR, Mohanty JG, Jacob KD, Barnes J, Ejiogu N, Lohani A, Zonderman AB, Rifkind JM, Evans MK. Oxidative damage to DNA and single strand break repair capacity: Relationship to other measures of oxidative stress in a population cohort. Mutation Research-Fundamnetal and Molecular Mechanisms of Mutagenesis 736 SI 93-103