Molly F

Molly Forrest Franke, SD

Professor, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Associate Professor, Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Epidemiologist, Global Health Research Core

Molly F. Franke, ScD, completed undergraduate studies in Sociology and Spanish at Colby College and doctoral training in Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Prior to joining the Department, she worked for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health Epidemiology & Immunization Surveillance Program and Partners In Health in Peru and Rwanda. She is a long-time volunteer with the Elm Project, which supports underserved youth affected by chronic illness.

Professor Franke serves as Co-Director of Harvard University Centers for AIDS Research Developmental and Mentoring Core and is an active mentor in the Harvard Medical School Masters of Medical Sciences in Global Health Delivery (MMSc-GHD) program, serving on the Curriculum and Admissions Committees. Throughout her career, Professor Franke has contributed to the learning of dozens of students and trainees within the Harvard community, at other institutions of higher learning, and in the places where she conducts research. She has been recognized for excellence in mentoring: in 2017, she received the Jo Rae Wright Award for promising contributions to pulmonary research along with outstanding mentoring and professional leadership qualities, and in 2020, she was awarded the Young Mentor Award by Harvard Medical School.

Professor Franke is a global health researcher whose work brings the rigor of epidemiology to intractable infections (tuberculosis, cholera, HIV, SARS-CoV-2) and chronic diseases (diabetes, hypertension, depression). Her work has spanned a range of settings including Peru, Haiti, Rwanda, Lesotho, Papua New Guinea, and the United States.

Franke’s current work has two broad objectives. The first is to improve the health of children and adolescents affected by TB and HIV. She leads intervention work in Peru that aims to improve the treatment outcomes and overall well-being of adolescents and young adults living with HIV through the provision of community-based support and through youth-friendly modalities, such as social media. The second objective of her work is to ensure that care and treatment of health conditions that disproportionately affect the poor and socially marginalized are guided by the highest possible quality of evidence. To this end, she seeks to identify and apply the best epidemiologic methods for addressing critical knowledge gaps related to interventions and treatment.  Examples of her work in this area include the design of robust studies to assess the effectiveness of cholera interventions, including vaccination, and the use of causal inference-based approaches to study treatment for drug-resistant tuberculosis.

Characteristics of children and adolescents with multidrug-resistant and rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis and their association with treatment outcomes: a systematic review and individual participant data meta-analysis.
Authors: Authors: Garcia-Prats AJ, Garcia-Cremades M, Cox V, Kredo T, Dunbar R, Schaaf HS, Seddon JA, Furin J, Achar J, Radke K, Sachs T, Abubakirov A, Ahmed S, Akkerman OW, Al Ani NA, Amanullah F, Ahmad N, Anderson LF, Asfaw M, Bango F, Bauer T, Becerra M, Boeree M, Brinkmann F, Brown R, Brust J, Campbell JR, Carvalho AC, Carvalho I, Cegielski JP, Centis R, Chan ED, Chauhan S, Chiang SS, Chan PC, D'Ambrosio L, Dalcolmo M, Daneilyan N, de Vries G, Draper HR, Fairlie L, Francis JR, Franke M, Gegia M, Restrepo CG, Guenther A, Gureva T, Haecker B, Harausz E, Hewison C, Hicks RM, Huerga H, Hughes J, Isaakidis P, Kadri SM, Khan MA, Kotrikadze T, Kuksa L, Lachenal N, Lange C, Lecca L, Lopez-Varela E, Lucena S, Mariandyshev A, Mattoo S, Mendez-Echevarria A, Migliori GB, Mitnick C, Mohr-Holland E, Mulanda W, Murzabakova T, Myrzalieve B, Ndjeka N, Niemann S, Ozere I, Padayatchi N, Parmar M, Parpieva N, Manzur-Ul-Alam M, Rybak N, Sachdeva KS, Salmon K, Santiago-Garcia B, Schaub D, Shah I, Shah S, Shah V, Sharma S, Shim TS, Shin S, Sinha A, Skrahina A, Solanki H, Solans BP, Soriano-Arandes A, Toktogonova A, van der Werf T, Velásquez GE, Williams B, Yim JJ, Savic R, Hesseling A.
Lancet Child Adolesc Health
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Low body mass index as a predictor of sputum culture conversion and treatment outcomes among patients receiving treatment for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in Lesotho.
Authors: Authors: Oyewusi L, Zeng C, Seung KJ, Mpinda S, Kunda M, Mitnick CD, Kanu M, Tamirat M, Makaka J, Mofolo M, Maime R, Maama L, Senyo N, Oguntoyinbo B, Mayombo L, Franke MF.
Glob Health Action
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The Frequency and Incidence of QT Prolongation with Extended Use of Bedaquiline or Delamanid in a Large, Multi-Country MDR/RR-TB Cohort.
Authors: Authors: Khan U, Rich M, Franke M, Lachenal N, Ahmed S, Bekele A, Isani AK, Hewison C, Sari CYI, Tan CL, Varaine F, Flores EH, Putri FA, Faqirzai J, Beauchamp J, Vo LNQ, Siddiqui MR, Seung K, Bastard M, Nkunkanyirazo P, Kiria N, Khan M, Algozhin Y, Melikyan N, Saki NA, Vilbrun SC, Fatima R, Naing YY, Islam S, Mamsa S, Mitnick C, Huerga H, Khan PY.
Clin Infect Dis
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Plasma proteomics for novel biomarker discovery in childhood tuberculosis.
Authors: Authors: Fossati A, Wambi P, Jaganath D, Calderon R, Castro R, Mohapatra A, McKetney J, Luiz J, Nerurkar R, Nkereuwem E, Franke MF, Mousavian Z, Collins JM, Sigal GB, Segal MR, Kampman B, Wobudeya E, Cattamanchi A, Ernst JD, Zar HJ, Swaney DL.
medRxiv
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Safety and Effectiveness of 3 Novel All-Oral Shortened Regimens for Rifampicin- or Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis in Kazakhstan.
Authors: Authors: Rashitov M, Franke MF, Trevisi L, Bekbolatova G, Shalimova J, Eshmetov G, Bektasov S, LaHood A, Arlyapova N, Osso E, Yedilbayev A, Korotych O, Ciobanu A, Skrahina A, Mitnick CD, Seung KJ, Algozhin Y, Rich ML.
Clin Infect Dis
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Detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis transrenal DNA in urine samples among adults in Peru.
Authors: Authors: Mesman AW, Calderon RI, Hauns L, Pollock NR, Mendoza M, Holmberg RC, Franke MF.
Tuberculosis (Edinb)
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Missing data and missed infections: investigating racial and ethnic disparities in SARS-CoV-2 testing and infection rates in Holyoke, Massachusetts.
Authors: Authors: Sauer SM, Fulcher IR, Matias WR, Paxton R, Elnaiem A, Gonsalves S, Zhu J, Guillaume Y, Franke M, Ivers LC.
Am J Epidemiol
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Sputum culture reversion in longer treatments with bedaquiline, delamanid, and repurposed drugs for drug-resistant tuberculosis.
Authors: Authors: Kho S, Seung KJ, Huerga H, Bastard M, Khan PY, Mitnick CD, Rich ML, Islam S, Zhizhilashvili D, Yeghiazaryan L, Nikolenko EN, Zarli K, Adnan S, Salahuddin N, Ahmed S, Vargas ZHR, Bekele A, Shaimerdenova A, Tamirat M, Gelin A, Vilbrun SC, Hewison C, Khan U, Franke M.
Nat Commun
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Development and Pilot-Testing of an Optimized Conversational Agent or "Chatbot" for Peruvian Adolescents Living With HIV to Facilitate Mental Health Screening, Education, Self-Help, and Linkage to Care: Protocol for a Mixed Methods, Community-Engaged S…
Authors: Authors: Galea JT, Vasquez DH, Rupani N, Gordon MB, Tapia M, Greene KY, Kolevic L, Franke MF, Contreras C.
JMIR Res Protoc
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Impact and cost-effectiveness of the 6-month BPaLM regimen for rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis in Moldova: A mathematical modeling analysis.
Authors: Authors: James LP, Klaassen F, Sweeney S, Furin J, Franke MF, Yaesoubi R, Chesov D, Ciobanu N, Codreanu A, Crudu V, Cohen T, Menzies NA.
PLoS Med
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