Lauren Charles, chief data scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), will be presenting at the Forum on Microbial Threats for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

The topic, Advancing Data Sharing to Strengthen One Health Effectiveness: Relevance and Intersections with Climate Change, will be live streamed Aug. 29, 2024, at noon-1 p.m. PT.

This presentation will address the need for transdisciplinary collaboration, data sharing, and harmonization to improve the ability to address health threats to humans, animals, plants, and the environment, while connecting data considerations to pressing climate change topics.

“Climate is a key driver of One Health and, therefore, changes to climate can greatly affect the balance of One Health Security,” said Charles. “Negative impacts, such as increasing infectious disease emergence and destabilization of food systems, can only be effectively mitigated by applying a One Health approach.”

Charles leads PNNL’s Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Driven One Health Security team, which focuses on disrupting health threats and their impacts. Leveraging PNNL’s leadership in operational AI and One Health, the team is working at the local, regional, national, and global levels to achieve optimal health and national security results.

In 2023, Charles joined the editorial board of Scientific Reports, the largest open access journal published by Nature Research. She also serves as an associate editor for CABI One Health; serves as an editorial board member for Pathogens; and is a joint appointment with the Washington State University’s Paul Allen School for Global Health.