October 2018: News and Updates A monthly newsletter from the Center of Human Health and the Environment

Upcoming Events 10/16/2018 - CHHE/Toxicology Co-sponsored Seminar, Jessie Buckley, John Hopkins Univ. "Environmental Chemicals as Metabolic Disruptors: from Obesity to Bone Health" See below for more info. on Dr. Buckley Toxicology Building Auditorium 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm 11/09/2018 - Pulmonary Mini Symposium Toxicology Building Auditorium 8:30 am - 1:00 pm Rosalind Wright from Mt. Sinai will be the plenary speaker @ 11 am.

Jessie Buckley , PhD, MPH is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Health & Engineering and Epidemiology (joint) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her research program aims to characterize environmental exposures during early life and determine their effects on child physical growth and development. Her work examining environmental obesogens includes studies of prenatal phthalate and environmental phenol exposures in relation to childhood obesity in several longitudinal birth cohort studies. More recently, she has begun evaluating the hypothesis that environmental chemicals impact bone growth and strength in children. Dr. Buckley received her MPH in Environmental and Occupational Health from the George Washington University and PhD in Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Let Jane Hoppin know if you'd like to meet with Dr. Buckley during her visit.

CHHEK has been Updated! CHHEK is a searchable database where CHHE members can identify research resources, expertise and possible collaborators. If you have not done this yet, please take 5 minutes and complete the survey.  You can access the survey here  or from the CHHE website . You can also search the site from the link provided or from the CHHE website. The new survey was designed to update information about CHHE members for inclusion in the CHHEK and to provide information for the renewal application. Please submit all information even if you filled out the previous version a few years ago.

2018 CHHE Mini Retreat and Social Thanks to all for attending the CHHE Retreat and Social. We had 54 people attend; 6 exciting talks; and 6 fascinating posters. Hope to see you next year!

Let the Comparative Pathology Core Review Your Grants The Comparative Pathology Core ( CPC ) now offers CHHE members the opportunity to receive feedback on pathology-related sections of internal and external grant proposals prior to submission! This may be any portion of research strategies involving analysis of vertebrate animal tissues. The CPC is always delighted to work with you in the development and writing of these areas in grants as well. Center members are highly encouraged to take advantage of a CPC review prior to submission of proposals for the CHHE Pilot Project Program.

Pulmonary Interest Group Mini Symposia We are excited to announce our 1 st CHHE Pulmonary Interest Group Mini Symposia to be held on  November 9, 2018 from 8:30AM-1PM. Our keynote speaker will be Dr. Rosalind Wright from Mount Sinai. Click here for online Registration and abstract submission. Registration is required for associated meals and recommended for all attendees. Registration will close  Thursday, November 1, 2018. Abstracts will not be accepted after  Thursday, October 18, 2018. Abstracts selected for talks will be notified by  October 31, 2018. Poster competition will only be for predoctoral and postdoctoral trainees but any participant can submit an abstract and present a poster. We look forward to seeing you at this event.

Interest Groups News Environmental Epigenetics Interest Group Leaders: David Aylor and Mike Cowley This group will build a community of faculty, staff and students interested in the mechanisms and consequences of interactions between the environment and the epigenome. We will discuss current trends, exchange ideas, share technical knowledge, and foster collaborations with the goal of addressing outstanding questions in the field. Pulmonary Interest Group Leaders: Kym Gowdy and Jane Hoppin Symposia November 9, 2018. See details above.

Neuroscience Group Leader:  Heather Patisaul This group will focus on questions and activities related to neurodevelopment and neurotoxicology. Goals include coordinating research efforts, increasing grant submissions, enhancing our presence at the Society for Neuroscience meeting and working towards becoming nationally recognized as having strength in “Environmental Neuroscience.” Zebrafish Group Leader: Heather Shive The Zebrafish Interest Group will provide a forum for facilitating interactions and collaborations among researchers with an interest in zebrafish work. 

Kudos Jane Hoppin's research group was featured in the NC State News. Check out the article here. Congratulations to Jane Hoppin and the GenX Exposure Study team for receiving a supplement from NIEHS to study the people who are living around the Chemours plant. Field work will occur in January. Check the GenX Exposure study website  https://chhe.research.ncsu.edu/the-genx-exposure-study/   for updates on the study. Congratulations to Michele Balik-Meisner, recent Ph.D. graduate of David Reif for being named one of NIEHS' " Paper of the Month "! Congrats to David Aylor for being included as an outstanding early stage investigator at the annual NIEHS P30 Center Directors Meeting in Davis, CA. Dr. Coby Schal and his collaborator, Dr. Felicia Rabito of Tulane University, jointly received the Healthy Homes Award from Secretary Ben Carson of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Details of the project and award can be found here.

Way to go Nanette Nascone-Yoder for receiving a NIH award for your project: Ahead of the Curve: Mechanisms of Left-Right Asymmetric Stomach Morphogenesis. 8/17/2018 to 4/30/2023 ($1.5M) Congratulations to Michael Bereman for receiving an award from The ALS Association for his project: Development of a protein panel of diagnostic and prognostic value in ALS. 8/1/2018 to 7/31/2019 ($100,000) Heather Patisaul traveled to EFSA's conference on Food Safety and Security on behalf of the Endocrine Society to discuss emerging data from the NIEHS BPA-CLARITY consortium. This is an inter-agency project involving FDA, NTP and NIEHS plus over a dozen academic labs, including hers. The project aims to combine elements of a traditional regulatory guideline study with more mechanistic studies from academic labs to comprehensively assess the health risks of BPA.

We want your good news! Please send it to Jackie Broughton or Jane Hoppin

CEC Update In August, the CEC worked with Reade Roberts (Biological Sciences) and Margareta Thomson (Educational Psychology) to finish the first year of an NIEHS-funded professional development program for high school science teachers. Eight teachers participated in the eight-week session, receiving hands-on lab training in a CHHE research lab four days a week, and spent Fridays listening to guest speakers and developing curricula and lesson plans related to their environmental health science lab work. On August 10, the teachers wrapped up the program by presenting their summer's work at a mock poster session. In addition to providing professional development to local high school teachers from underserved schools, the grant is contributing to Dr. Thomson's educational research on the impact that this kind of program has on teacher's self efficacy. The program is funded in five-year increments; if you are interested in hosting a teacher or otherwise being involved next summer, please reach out to Katy !

Career Development All investigators but particularly Early Stage Investigators are encouraged to work with the   Career Development Core i n development of their grants. Talk to   Nanette Nascone-Yoder   t o set up a chalk talk to help organize ideas for your next proposa l.

Reminders  Remember to cite our CHHE grant P30ES025128 in publications if CHHE has provided you services, facility core use, seed/pilot project funds etc. NIH tracks this as an important CHHE metric.  CHHE Resources and Facilities Page for NIH Grants is available on the CHHE  website. PINS: Remember when submitting your grants, be sure to select "Center for Human Health and the Environment" as a center in PINS. Link to Additional Resources

CHHE Cited Publications  Click here to check them out!

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