Please contact Michelle Daoud at Lowdenm@umich.edu for items you would like
included in our M-LEEaD Newsletter
Community Engagement Core
The Community Engagement Core (CEC) has been compiling a list of COVID 19 Resources that are available on the Lifestage Environmental Exposures and Disease (M-LEEaD) Center website, http://mleead.umich.edu/Covid19_Resources.php. This resource includes fact sheets that have been translated to other languages, when available. This has all been done with the help of the CEC's new Project Manager, Alison Walding!
The violent killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery, Rayshard Brooks and countless other Black lives have reminded the nation yet again how far we have to go in dismantling systemic racism. The protests continuing across the nation and the world in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have demonstrated loud and clear that our words are not enough - action is needed by those who benefit from privilege.
To that end, the M-LEEaD Center is committed to being responsive in ways that implement meaningful and effective change. Our mission to, “improve our understanding of the contribution of environmental exposures toward the etiology of chronic diseases and conditions like asthma, neurodegenerative diseases, metabolic syndrome and prematurity” is amplified due to the systemic and structural racism, health disparities, and inequities present in society.
We encourage you to educate yourself and find ways to work towards the world you want to see. There are resources available through the School of Public Health, https://sph.umich.edu/fphlp/statement_of_solidarity.html and Michigan Medicine, https://ohei.med.umich.edu/anti-racism-support-and-tools. The M-LEEaD website, http://mleead.umich.edu/Multimedia.php , includes recordings of past events including a recent Community Engagement Core panel discussion on the film, “Cooked: Survival by Zipcode.” A documentary chronicling the deadly 1995 Chicago heat wave that disproportionately affected underserved neighborhoods due to the legacy of racist housing policies which have denied African Americans home ownership and basic public services.
Please continue to participate in upcoming dialogues and events, as we create more space for such conversations in our community.
– Dr. Dolinoy, M-LEEaD Director
Gilbert S. Omenn, M.D., Ph.D., Joins the FNIH Board of Directors
The Board of Directors of the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH) on May 21, 2020, elected as its newest member Gilbert S. Omenn, Leader of the the M-LEEaD Career Development Program. The Foundation for the National Institutes of Health creates and manages alliances with public and private institutions in support of the mission of the NIH, the world’s premier medical research agency. The Foundation, also known as the FNIH, works with its partners to accelerate biomedical research and strategies against diseases and health concerns in the United States and across the globe.
Our M-LEEaD Research Assistant, Megan Laffoon has graduated from the University of Michigan with an MPH in Environmental Quality, Sustainability, and Health. She is moving on to work on her PhD in Occupational and Environmental Health at the University of Iowa. Returning to her agricultural roots, with plans on focusing on the health and safety of agricultural workers in emergency scenarios. She has been an asset to the M-LEEaD Center during this renewal application year.
"I am so grateful for my time working for M-LEEaD-- it has been an absolute pleasure and an excellent learning experience I will carry with me as I continue my journey in academia. Thank you so much!"- Megan Laffoon
Study finds PFAS exposure may cause early menopause in women
New publication from Sung Kyun Park, Bhramar Mukherjee, Stuart Batterman, and Siobán Harlow on PFAS exposure has been featured in many news sources. The paper, "Associations of Perfluoroalkyl Substances with Incident Natural Menopause: the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation" can be found here, https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgaa303. And is a great example of how using the collaborative data portal through SWAN has led to environmental ancillary studies producing new knowledge.
Register now for the Summer Omics Learning Seminar Series.
The M-LEEaD Omics and Bioinformatics Core is hosting a Summer Omics Learning Seminar Series for summer 2020. All events will be held virtually.
The first event in the series is, “Implications of human microbiome research for epidemiology and public health,” with Dr. Betsy Foxman, University of Michigan on June 30, 2020 at 12:00 PM — 1:00 PM EST. A small group discussion will also take place after the lecture at 1:00 PM EST. Please indicate your interest in the registration form if you are interested in participating.
Please contact Katie Zarins (kmrents@umich.edu) with questions.
Summer 2020 CHE Webinars includes a two-part webinar series, "Agents of Change: Amplifying voices of future leaders in environmental health and justice." Dr. Ami Zota, Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental & Occupational Health at the George Washington University Milken School of Public Health and founder and director of Agents of Change, will lead a discussion with participating fellows, Max Aung, PhD, MPH, Ashley Gripper, MPH, Deniss Martinez, MS, and Brianna VanNoy, MPH. Agents of Change is an ongoing series featuring the stories, analyses and perspectives of next generation environmental health leaders who come from historically under-represented backgrounds in science and academia. Please RSVP for the first of these two webinars on July 30.
Recent Publications citing M-LEEaD:
Ding N, Harlow SD, Randolph JF, Loch-Caruso R, Park SK. Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and their effects on the ovary. Hum Reprod Update. 2020 May 29;. doi: 10.1093/humupd/dmaa018. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 32476019; NIHMSID:NIHMS1602365.
Nguyen VK, Kahana A, Heidt J, Polemi K, Kvasnicka J, Jolliet O, Colacino JA. A comprehensive analysis of racial disparities in chemical biomarker concentrations in United States women, 1999-2014. Environ Int. 2020 Apr;137:105496. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2020.105496. Epub 2020 Feb 26. PubMed PMID: 32113086; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7137529.
Ashrap P, Watkins DJ, Mukherjee B, Boss J, Richards MJ, Rosario Z, Vélez-Vega CM, Alshawabkeh A, Cordero JF, Meeker JD. Predictors of urinary and blood Metal(loid) concentrations among pregnant women in Northern Puerto Rico. Environ Res. 2020 Apr;183:109178. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2020.109178. Epub 2020 Jan 23. PubMed PMID: 32007748; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7167342.
Elkin ER, Bridges D, Harris SM, Loch-Caruso RK. Exposure to Trichloroethylene Metabolite S-(1,2-Dichlorovinyl)-L-cysteine Causes Compensatory Changes to Macronutrient Utilization and Energy Metabolism in Placental HTR-8/SVneo Cells. Chem Res Toxicol. 2020 Jun 15;33(6):1339-1355. doi: 10.1021/acs.chemrestox.9b00356. Epub 2020 Jan 30. PubMed PMID: 31951115; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7299793.
Dou JF, Puttabyatappa M, Padmanabhan V, Bakulski KM. Developmental programming: Transcriptional regulation of visceral and subcutaneous adipose by prenatal bisphenol-A in female sheep. Chemosphere. 2020 Sep;255:127000. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.127000. Epub 2020 May 7. PubMed PMID: 32417515; NIHMSID:NIHMS1594819.
Click here for a PDF with useful information about NIH Public Access Policy regarding citing the center grant.
Per NIH grants policy, all publications, press releases, and other documents relevant to research funded by the center must include a specific acknowledgement of support. For the EHS Core Center, this statement may read:
“Support for this research was provided by grant P30ES017885 from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.”
