Kaku So-Armah, PhD
Assistant Professor, Medicine
Biography
Kaku So-Armah is a Research Assistant Professor at Boston University School of Medicine. His training is in epidemiology and his doctoral research focused on the role of co-morbid diseases and immunologic alterations in HIV-related cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk.
He is currently funded on a research supplement from the National Institutes of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) to study the impact of liver injury on innate and adaptive immune dysfunction in HIV. This work is ongoing and uses data from the Russian cohort of the Uganda Russia Boston Alcohol Network Alcohol Research Collaboration on HIV/AIDS (URBAN ARCH).
His long-term goal is to translate our growing understanding of the mechanisms of excess HIV-related CVD risk into effective, sustainable CVD risk reduction strategies for HIV populations in resource-limited settings. He specializes in HIV-related cardiovascular disease risk, HIV and liver disease, and HIV, alcohol use, and immune alterations.
Other Positions
- Faculty, Clinical Addiction Research and Education Unit, Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine
Education
- University of Pittsburgh, PhD
- Amherst College, BA
Publications
- Published on 6/1/2020
Stewart JC, Polanka BM, So-Armah KA, White JR, Gupta SK, Kundu S, Chang CH, Freiberg MS. Associations of Total, Cognitive/Affective, and Somatic Depressive Symptoms and Antidepressant Use With Cardiovascular Disease-Relevant Biomarkers in HIV: Veterans Aging Cohort Study. Psychosom Med. 2020 Jun; 82(5):461-470. PMID: 32282648.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 5/1/2020
Freiberg MS, Cheng DM, Gnatienko N, Blokhina E, Coleman SM, Doyle MF, Yaroslavtseva T, Bridden C, So-Armah K, Tracy R, Bryant K, Lioznov D, Krupitsky E, Samet JH. Effect of Zinc Supplementation vs Placebo on Mortality Risk and HIV Disease Progression Among HIV-Positive Adults With Heavy Alcohol Use: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Netw Open. 2020 May 01; 3(5):e204330. PMID: 32383748.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 4/21/2020
Chichetto NE, Polanka BM, So-Armah KA, Sung M, Stewart JC, Koethe JR, Edelman EJ, Tindle HA, Freiberg MS. Contribution of Behavioral Health Factors to Non-AIDS-Related Comorbidities: an Updated Review. Curr HIV/AIDS Rep. 2020 Apr 21. PMID: 32314325.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 4/1/2020
So-Armah K, Benjamin LA, Bloomfield GS, Feinstein MJ, Hsue P, Njuguna B, Freiberg MS. HIV and cardiovascular disease. Lancet HIV. 2020 Apr; 7(4):e279-e293. PMID: 32243826.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 2/27/2020
White LF, Jiang W, Ma Y, So-Armah K, Samet JH, Cheng DM. Tutorial in Biostatistics: The use of generalized additive models to evaluate alcohol consumption as an exposure variable. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2020 Apr 01; 209:107944. PMID: 32145664.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 2/15/2020
So-Armah KA, Lim JK, Lo Re V, Tate JP, Chang CH, Butt AA, Gibert CL, Rimland D, Marconi VC, Goetz MB, Ramachandran V, Brittain E, Long M, Nguyen KL, Rodriguez-Barradas MC, Budoff MJ, Tindle HA, Samet JH, Justice AC, Freiberg MS. FIB-4 stage of liver fibrosis is associated with incident heart failure with preserved, but not reduced, ejection fraction among people with and without HIV or hepatitis C. Prog Cardiovasc Dis. 2020 Mar - Apr; 63(2):184-191. PMID: 32068085.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 2/13/2020
Bailin SS, McGinnis KA, McDonnell WJ, So-Armah K, Wellons M, Tracy RP, Doyle MF, Mallal S, Justice AC, Freiberg MS, Landay AL, Wanjalla C, Koethe JR. T Lymphocyte Subsets Associated with Prevalent Diabetes in Veterans with and without HIV. J Infect Dis. 2020 Feb 13. PMID: 32052044.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 2/7/2020
Liang X, Justice AC, So-Armah K, Krystal JH, Sinha R, Xu K. DNA methylation signature on phosphatidylethanol, not on self-reported alcohol consumption, predicts hazardous alcohol consumption in two distinct populations. Mol Psychiatry. 2020 Feb 07. PMID: 32034291.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 2/3/2020
Chen J, Huang Y, Hui Q, Mathur R, Gwinn M, So-Armah K, Freiberg MS, Justice AC, Xu K, Marconi VC, Sun YV. Epigenetic Associations With Estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate Among Men With Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection. Clin Infect Dis. 2020 Feb 03; 70(4):667-673. PMID: 30893429.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 12/31/2019
So-Armah K, Freiberg M, Cheng D, Lim JK, Gnatienko N, Patts G, Doyle M, Fuster D, Lioznov D, Krupitsky E, Samet J. Liver fibrosis and accelerated immune dysfunction (immunosenescence) among HIV-infected Russians with heavy alcohol consumption - an observational cross-sectional study. BMC Gastroenterol. 2019 Dec 31; 20(1):1. PMID: 31892306.
Read at: PubMed
View 38 more publications: View full profile at BUMC