Last year, the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences put out a joint call for applications to support innovative research in new prospective cohorts that addresses knowledge gaps in how environmental exposures cause cancer. A multidisciplinary team of researchers from the University of Michigan was awarded a $13 million grant which supports a project that will quantify the impact of known and suspected environmental exposures on cancer risk in the state of Michigan.
The project, called MI-CARES, or Michigan Cancer and Research on the Environment Study, is led by researchers from both the University of Michigan School of Public Health and Rogel Cancer Center. MI-CARES plans to enroll at least 100,000 healthy individuals into the cohort, following them through time to measure how their environmental exposures may be linked to their risk of developing cancer later in life. The research team will examine cancer risk relating to both well-established carcinogens like air pollution, as well as emerging environmental contaminants like PFAS. The project will measure how Michigan residents are exposed to complex mixtures of chemicals in the environment, quantify how these exposures change over time, and understand routes of exposure across the state. MI-CARES will also test how these exposures are related to cancer by measuring cancer-related biomarkers in the participants, such as inflammation, metabolic alterations, and epigenetic changes.
Notably, this project takes a community engaged research approach. MI-CARES will focus on environmental justice hotspots in the Detroit metropolitan area, Flint, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Lansing, and Saginaw to enroll cohort participants. These cities contain some of the most polluted regions in Michigan due to a long history of manufacturing, hazardous waste disposal, agricultural pesticide usage, and oil and coal-based energy production. Recognition of the disproportionate burden of exposure and disease is a main focus of the project. Engagement with community partners in these affected areas will integrate unique perspectives and expertise will shape the MI-CARES research priorities. Over the course of the study, these partnerships will facilitate bi-directional communication between researchers and the engaged communities.
11/9/2021- 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM - Zoom
M-LEEaD IHSC Webinar Series "Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) and Women's Reproductive Health: Findings from The Study of Women's Health Across the Nation" Ning Ding, MPH, BS Doctoral Student
University of Michigan School of Public Health --
Congratulations to Laurie Svoboda on finishing Ironman Wisconsin on September 12th! At the end of May, Svoboda was hospitalized for a bowel obstruction which required emergency surgery. With the help of Michigan Medicine doctors and nurses and support from friends and family, she was able to make a full recovery and resume her training for the Ironman Wisconsin race, which had been delayed a year due to the pandemic. Less than 4 months after her trip to the ICU, Svoboda completed the race with an outstanding time of 15 hours, 2 minutes, and 36 seconds. Way to go, Laurie! Read the rest of her inspiring story here.
For decades, studies have pointed to the significant hazard that noise can pose to human and environmental health. In a recent radio interview, Rick Neitzel spoke with WNYC Studios to discuss the toll of noise on our bodies and the environment, and what can be done to mitigate the harm. Listen to the full interview here.
A multidisciplinary team of researchers from UMich is undertaking a $3.6 million project funded by the NIH as part of the NIH Common Fund's High-Risk, High-Reward program. They will be intensely exploring the intersection of environmental exposures, genetics, inflammation, and other factors in order to better determine what makes someone more likely to develop ALS. Co-PIs on the project include many of our M-LEEaD members, including Stuart Batterman, Stephen Goutman, Eva Feldman, Maureen Sartor, Kelly Bakulski, and Bhramar Mukherjee. Read more about the project here. Congratulations and good luck to all involved in this exciting project!
Join University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability for a virtual panel on Wednesday, November 10th at 2 pm to hear BIPOC SEAS graduates share about their experiences working for environmental justice across a wide array of job sectors, including grassroots organizing, local government, DEI, academia, policy, and nonprofits.
To receive the Zoom link, submit question for panelists, and indicate your interest in attending a breakout session with a presenter, complete this RSVP form by Friday, November 5th.
Date: Wednesday, November 10, 2021
Time: 2 - 3:30 pm EST
Register here by November 5th
Join Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health NIEHS Center for Environmental Health for their colloquium series on Re-envisioning the Environment: Diverse Voices in Environmental Health. This seminar series is being held from 1-2pm EST on the second Wednesday of every month through May 2022.
The next seminar will be held on November 10th. Rick Woychick, PhD, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, will speak on Climate Change and Health Precision Environmental Health: Emerging New Areas of Focus for NIEHS. Stay tuned for details on upcoming seminars by visiting the Harvard Chan-NIEHS Center for Environmental Health website for additional information.
Date: Wednesday, November 10, 2021
Time: 1 - 2 pm EST
Register for free here
Join NIEHS Center for Environmental Health in Northern Manhattan, WE ACT for Environmental Justice, and Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health on November 11 for the Moving Towards Beauty Justice: Conversations for Change Conference. People of color are more exposed to toxic beauty products, and this conference is a chance to learn why, how to protect yourself, and how to demand safer products for all. Choose from a selection of sessions covering a variety of topics, including The Crown Act, windows of susceptibility, retailer accountability, hair products in the context of colorism, advocacy strategies, and more. See full session descriptions and a conference itinerary here. The conference will be hosted virtually and registration is free.
Date: Thursday, November 11, 2021
Time: 3 - 6 pm EST Register for free here
Please join Wayne State University Center for Urban Responses to Environmental Stressors (CURES) for their upcoming CURES seminar: "A Tale of Mice and Men: The Function of the Sperm Epigenome in Inheritance and Disease," presented by Sarah Kimmins, PhD, from the University of Rochester Medical Center. The seminar will take place via Zoom on November 18, 2021 at 12:30pm.
Additional information on upcoming seminars can be found on the Wayne State University CURES website here.
Date: Thursday, November 18, 2021
Time: 12:30 - 1:30 pm EST
Join via Zoom here
Do you want to develop and hone your mentoring skills?
Do you have a mentor training requirement you need to fulfill? The 2021 MICHR Mentoring Academy curriculum is based on the widely used Mentor Training for Clinical and Translational Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research (CIMER) and satisfies the new NIGMS guidelines regarding the preparation of mentors involved in training grants.
There is a $50 fee for each session that will be fully refunded if the participant attends the session. Shortcode is required at registration. Participants in the Mentoring Academy will address challenges facing senior postdoc and faculty mentors via case studies, group discussions, and role-plays. The next session will be held Monday, November 15 and offerings run through December.
Register now for the 2021 MICHR Mentoring Academy.
This year, MUSE is pleased to announce the 6th annual MUSE Conference, to be held on February 2 - 4, 2022, at the Michigan League. The conference aims to connect researchers, practitioners, and enthusiasts from across different disciplines engaged in sustainability and environment-related research to foster collaborations and actions beyond research.
This year's conference theme is Sustainability and Environment After Catastrophe. Presentations are encouraged but not required to integrate this theme. The call for abstracts will be open until Tuesday, November 16th, 2021.
Date: Wednesday - Friday, February 2 - 4, 2022
Location: Michigan League Registration form here
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Recent Publications citing M-LEEaD:
Goodrich JM, Calkins MM, Caban-Martinez AJ, Stueckle T, Grant C, Calafat AM, Nematollahi A, Jung AM, Graber JM, Jenkins T, Slitt AL, Dewald A, Botelho JC, Beitel S, Littau S, Gulotta J, Wallentine D, Hughes J, Popp C, Burgess JL. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, epigenetic age and DNA methylation: a cross-sectional study of firefighters. Epigenomics. 2021 Oct 21. doi: 10.2217/epi-2021-0225. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34670402.
Le TT, Gutiérrez-Sacristán A, Son J, Hong C, South AM, Beaulieu-Jones BK, Loh NHW, Luo Y, Morris M, Ngiam KY, Patel LP, Samayamuthu MJ, Schriver E, Tan ALM, Moore J, Cai T, Omenn GS, Avillach P, Kohane IS; Consortium for Clinical Characterization of COVID-19 by EHR (4CE), Visweswaran S, Mowery DL, Xia Z. Multinational characterization of neurological phenotypes in patients hospitalized with COVID-19. Sci Rep. 2021 Oct 12;11(1):20238. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-99481-9. PMID: 34642371; PMCID: PMC8510999.
Omenn GS, Lane L, Overall CM, Paik YK, Cristea IM, Corrales FJ, Lindskog C, Weintraub S, Roehrl MHA, Liu S, Bandeira N, Srivastava S, Chen YJ, Aebersold R, Moritz RL, Deutsch EW. Progress Identifying and Analyzing the Human Proteome: 2021 Metrics from the HUPO Human Proteome Project. J Proteome Res. 2021 Oct 20. doi: 10.1021/acs.jproteome.1c00590. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34670092.
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.”
