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Division of General Internal Medicine Division of General Internal Medicine
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  2. Research
  3. Golomb Lab

Golomb Research Group

Dr. Golomb’s laboratory focuses on intertwined themes, including the role of free radicals (“oxidative stress” – i.e., the damage that antioxidants help protect against) and cell energy impairment in exposures, health, aging, and disease.  Areas of interest encompass Gulf War illness and other chronic multi-symptom illnesses (like Chronic Fatigue Syndrome), drugs and exposures that mediate harms from these mechanisms (such as fluoroquinolones, statins, pesticides, trans fats, and radiation, including non-ionizing radiation), and potentially favorable substances like vitamin D, omega-3s, coenzyme Q10, and chocolate.  These mechanisms are also germane to autism, obesity, and metabolic syndrome, as well as neurodegenerative conditions like Lou Gehrig’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, among other conditions. 

A further focus is on research methodology including placebos, “effect modification,” conflict of interest and risk/benefit balance.  It is vital to ensure that risks, as well as benefits, are considered for drugs and exposures, particularly for preventive interventions (Studies are typically designed to optimize benefit detection – and for reasons of human subjects protections and cost efficiency, may relatively obviate detection of harm.).  Dr. Golomb was the first to propose and defend in the peer-reviewed literature the now leading hypothesis for the so-called “Havana Syndrome,” that it is due to pulsed radiofrequency radiation. 

Read more about the Golomb Research Group

Research Papers 

  • Golomb BA, Devaraj S, Messner A, Koslik HJ, Han JH, Yik B 2021. “Lower blood malondialdehyde is associated with past pesticide exposure: Findings in Gulf War illness and healthy controls.” Military Med Res (in press). 
  • Tat J, Heskett K, Satomi S, Pilz R, Golomb BA, Boss GR 2021. “Sodium azide poisoning: a narrative review.” Clinical Toxicology  https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15563650.2021.1906888  
  • Golomb BA, Koslik HJ, Han JH, Preger Guida AH, Hamilton G, Kelley RI 2021. “A Pilot Study of Bioenergetic Marker Relationships in Gulf War Illness: Phosphocreatine Recovery vs. Citric Acid Cycle Intermediates.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18(4):1635. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18041635  
  • Golomb BA, Berg BK 2021. “Chocolate Consumption and Sex-Interest.” Cureus (2): e13310. doi:10.7759/cureus.13310 
  • Golomb BA, Nguyen E, Dinkeloo E 2020. “Radiation Exposure Predicts Reported Vaccine Adverse Effects in Veterans with Gulf War Illness.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 17(19):7136,1-14. https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/19/7136  
  • Magno H, Golomb BA 2020. “Measuring the Benefits of Mass Vaccination Programs in the United States.” Vaccines 8(4):561,1-13. https://www.mdpi.com/2076-393X/8/4/561  
  • Tat J, Hays B, Teachworth M, Kuo A, Pilz RB, Golomb BA, Boss GR 2020. “Assessment of High School Students’ Participation in Blood Donation and Registration as an Organ Donor.” JAMA Network Open 3(9):e2016377. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2770732  
  • Naviaux RK, Naviaux JC, Li K, Wang L, Monk JM, Bright AT, Koslik HJ, Ritchie JB, Golomb BA 2019. “Metabolic features of Gulf War illness.” PLoS ONE 14(7): e0219531. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0219531  
  • Golomb BA, Koslik H, Christians U, Ritchie J, Wilson P, Elkins N, Klawitter J, Klawitter J, Smith D, Repine J 2019. “Depressed prostaglandins and leukotrienes in veterans with Gulf War illness.” J Environ Sci Health, Part B. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03601234.2019.1596001  
  • Golomb BA 2018. “Diplomats’ mystery illness and pulsed radiofrequency/ microwave radiation.” Neural Computation 30(11): 1-104. https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/neco_a_01133  
  • Golomb BA, Verden A, Messner AK, Koslik HJ, Hoffman, KB 2018. “Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis associated with statin use: A disproportionality analysis of the FDA’s Adverse Event Reporting System.” Drug Safety 41(4): 403-13. http://doi.org/10.1007/s40264-017-0620-4  
  • Mangin D, Bahat G, Golomb BA, Mallery L, Moorhouse P, Onder G, Petrovic M, Garfinkel D 2018. “International Group for Reducing Inappropriate Medication Use & Polypharmacy (IGRIMUP). Position Statement and Ten Recommendations for Action.” Drugs and Aging 35 (7): 575-87. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30006810  
  • Koslik HJ, Meskimen AH, Golomb BA 2017. “Physicians' Experiences as Patients with Statin Side Effects: A Case Series.” Drug Safety - Case Reports. 4 (1):3. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40800-017-0045-0 
  • Editorials, Invited Papers, Other 
  • Golomb BA 2021. “Golombinatorics.” Foreword to book Golomb SW and Liu A Solomon Golomb’s Course in Undergraduate Combinatorics. Springer (in press).   
  • Golomb SW, Golomb BA 2018. “A Career in Engineering.”  IEEE Transactions on Information Theory 64(4):2805-2838, invited article for a Special Issue in honor of my father, Solomon W. Golomb 
  • Golomb BA 2017 “Effect Modification.” Invited contribution to Edge.org, What Scientific Term or Concept Ought to be More Widely Known?  https://www.edge.org/response-detail/27223  

Books and Book Chapters 

  • Golomb BA. A Review of the Scientific Literature as it Pertains to Gulf War Illnesses, Vol 3: Immunizations RAND. Unreleased. 
  • Golomb BA 2017. “Effect Modification.” In: John Brockman (Ed.) This Idea is Brilliant: Lost, Overlooked, and Underappreciated Concepts Everyone Should Know. Harper Perennial, New York, Pp 440-445  https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062698216/this-idea-is-brilliant/ 

Abstracts 

  • Zuniga Hertz J, Patel H, Golomb BA 2022. “Gulf War Illness Impact on Cellular Membrane Integrity.” 66th Biophysical Society Annual meeting 2022, San Francisco, California, USA.  
  • Magno H, Golomb BA 2021. “Measuring the benefits of mass vaccination programs in the United States.” Euro Vaccines 2021, Valencia, Spain. (Remote) https://europe.vaccineconferences.com/eposter-presentation.php  
  • Fung A, Koslik H, Ritchie J, Dinkeloo E, Golomb BA 2020. “Bioenergetics in veterans with Gulf War Illness versus healthy controls: Replication and expansion.” Gulf War Illness State of the Science Virtual Conference co-hosted by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Research & Development (ORD) and the Department of Defense (DoD) Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (CDMRP) Gulf War Illness Research Program (GWIRP). August 19, 2020, Washington, D.C.  
  • Bui L, Nguyen E, Dinkeloo E, Ritchie J, Golomb BA 2020. “Nuclear and mitochondrial genetics together determine Gulf War Illness severity and symptom profile.” Gulf War Illness State of the Science Virtual Conference co-hosted by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Research & Development (ORD) and the Department of Defense (DoD) Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (CDMRP) Gulf War Illness Research Program (GWIRP). August 18, 2020, Washington, D.C. 

In addition to the above, Dr Golomb has publications under the following categories: 

  1. Technical Reports, RAND Reports, Government Reports 
  2. Letters to the Editor 
  3. Book Reviews