New SEC Logo We are so excited to announce that the Social Exposome Cluster now has a new logo, designed by Sam Talbot. There are multiple options - white, blue, and transparent backgrounds in PNG or JPG formats. Additionally, we have square versus rectangular (banner) logo formats. If you would like to include the original version of the logo in SEC related work, contact esha.gill@bcchr.ca or kim.schmidt@bcchr.ca | | Research Projects Webpage The SEC website has had a new webpage addition! There is now a page on the site which highlights collaborative research projects being conducted by SEC members. We are happy to include any study that is a collaboration by 2 or more members! Read about current collaborative SEC projects. If you would like your study or project to be included on the site, please email esha.gill@bcchr.ca or kim.schmidt@bcchr.ca Research Projects Webpage | | Trainee Journal Club The Social Exposome Cluster will be holding our first trainee journal club session on October 14th at 3PM. Our first presenter will be Kelsey Cochrane and the paper she has chosen is Human Milk Oligosaccharide Profiles and Allergic Disease up to 18 Years. If you are interested in presenting at the next session, please email esha.gill@bcchr.ca with your chosen paper. - We welcome anyone to present from all disciplines
- Interdisciplinary perspectives are especially encouraged
- We ask that chosen articles be related to the SEC’s overarching goal to “uncover the relationships among the cellular, environmental, and social factors that impact children’s short and long-term development, health, and well-being.”
| | Trainee Research Day The Social Exposome Cluster will be holding our third annual Trainee Research Day on November 9th at 9:30am. Attendees can look forward to research presentations from our trainees, speaker awards, and a social event with prizes! The goals of the Trainee Research Day are: - To showcase our talented trainees, including undergraduate, Masters, PhD, and Postdoctoral fellows
- To create opportunities for trainees to spark innovative research avenues that involve all four SEC themes that affect child health and development:
- Extrinsic Factors
- Intrinsic Responses
- Technological Development
- Policies and Interventions
- To offer an opportunity for trainees to gain knowledge translation experience
| | Faculty Rapid Research Update The SEC Research Working Group will be holding a “Rapid Research Update” session on November 1st at 1pm. The goal is to help members, especially new ones, learn about the research being conducted by faculty, allow presenters to get feedback, and continue to foster collaboration. We invite all SEC faculty members to give a short 10 min presentation about a research project you are currently conducting or planning. We especially encourage presentations on collaborative projects that involve two or more SEC members, or that have the potential to spark new collaborations. Trainees may also present on behalf of faculty as well! If you are interested in attending or presenting, please fill out the qualtrics survey and register on eventbrite! | | RAISING CANADA CONTRIBUTIONS | | SEC Key Contributors Children First Canada has released its annual Raising Canada report that tracks the top 10 threats to childhood in Canada. Social Exposome Cluster members, including Dr. Michael Kobor and Dr. Joelle LeMoult, were key contributors and advisors to this year's report, which reveals alarming statistics about the health and well-being of children, confirming that the pandemic has accelerated and amplified each of the threats. Read the full report here. You can help spread the word to to encourage change that will support children and youth in Canada. For tips, check out Children First Canada's Social Media Tool Kit. | CLYDE HERTZMAN MEMORIAL FELLOWSHIP RECIPIENTS | | Clyde Hertzman Memorial Fellowship Recipients It is our pleasure to announce the recipients of the ’Society to Cell’ Clyde Hertzman Memorial Fellowship: Desiree Seib, Randip Gill, Ying Chen, Alejandra Wiedeman, Karlie Edwards, Salima Kerai, Lea Separovic, and Tebby Leepile! This fellowship is funded by the Social Exposome Cluster and the Human Early Learning Partnership to financially support UBC trainees who are conducting research projects that are related to child health and well-being. This fellowship is in honour of the late Dr. Clyde Hertzman, the Founding Director of the Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP), who passed away suddenly in 2013. Dr. Hertzman was a world-leading researcher in early childhood development and health, a champion for social justice, and a tireless advocate for all children. He was the Canada Research Chair in Population Health and Human Development and Professor in the School of Population and Public Health at UBC. Read more here | | Recruiting participants for the UBC Baby Tooth Study! The purpose of this study is to determine if we can use teeth to understand an individual’s early life environments and experiences, in particular exposure to substances found in our environment, like lead. We are recruiting parents and their children who are interested in participating in this study. Any child who is 5 to 10 years of age, currently living in British Columbia can participate if they have had a tooth fall out, or had a tooth pulled by their dentist. Even teeth that fell out or were pulled a few years ago can be used for this study. Participation will involve filling out a short questionnaire and mailing the tooth and questionnaire to the BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute. You will be mailed the questionnaire, a tube for the tooth, and a stamped and addressed return envelope. If you are interested in participating, please check out our website www.bcchr.ca/babyteethstudy or contact the research coordinator at esha.gill@bcchr.ca | | Faculty of Medicine Distinguished Researcher Award Dr. Michael Kobor was recently recognized for his outstanding basic science research in the health and life sciences field. Dr. Kobor is a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in social epigenetics and has made pioneering contributions to understanding the impact of social and environmental factors on health and aging. The Kobor Laboratory has also made fundamental improvements to technologies and tools used in the study of DNA methylation in humans and used these approaches to gain valuable and unique insight into the causes and consequences of variation in DNA methylation. Read the full article here | | Impact of loneliness on diurnal cortisol in youth A recent publication by Dr. Joelle LeMoult and PhD student Ellen Jopling assessed levels of loneliness in early adolescent youth during the height of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and then measured levels of diurnal cortisol in the same youth approximately two weeks later. They found that levels of loneliness predicted higher levels of cortisol at waking and a blunted cortisol awakening response, a pattern of responsively that increases risk for adverse mental and physical health outcomes. The paper reveals that loneliness gets “under the skin” in ways that may have long-term consequences for youth’s health and development. Read the full paper here | | Early childhood social-emotional profiles associated with middle childhood internalizing and wellbeing In a recent publication by Dr. Kimberly Thomson, disparities between teacher-rated social-emotional functioning at school entry (age 5) and child self-reported internalizing and wellbeing in Grade 4 (age 9) were examined. The study found that children from backgrounds of relative vulnerabilities self-reported higher social-emotional internalizing and lower wellebing in grade 3. The results of the study suggest early childhood entry into school is an opportuntity to address vulnerabilities and promote positive future mental health outcome interventions. Read the full paper here | | Continuities in maternal substance use from early adolescence to parenthood Congratulations to Dr. Kimberly Thomson whose paper, "Continuities in maternal substance use from early adolescence to parenthood: Findings from the Intergenerational Cohort Consortium" was recently accepted by Psychological Medicine. The study used prospective maternal preconception binge drinking, tobacco use, and cannabis use during adolescence and early adulthood to predict substance use during pregnancy and 1 year post-childbirth. Read the full paper here | | Tao Huan Dr. Tao Huan, assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry at UBC Vancouver and key member of the SEC Steering Committee was selected as a 2021 Emerging Investigator by ASMS in September! In the past month, Dr. Huam also published a paper on Analytical Chemistry describing a deep learning model that can assess the quality of metabolic feature in liquid-chromatography-mass spectrometry-based metabolomics. Read the full paper here | | Sarah Henderson This past summer, BC was ravaged by wildfires and a record-breaking heat wave. One of the Social Exposome Cluster’s members, Dr. Sarah Henderson, the lead environmental health scientist at the BC Centre for Disease Control has been investigating the effects of wildfires on children’s health. In an interview with CBC news this summer, Dr. Henderson explained that smoke caused by wildfires is dangerous, especially to pregnant women. In an ongoing study, Dr. Henderson and colleagues’ are assessing the health of pregnant women and their babies who lived in the B.C. interior during forest fires in 2017. Watch the full interview here | | | | Desiree Seib Desiree has received a postdoctoral fellowship from the German Research Foundation and a NARSAD Young Investigator Grant from the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation. | | | | Anamaria Richardson Dr. Richardson has joined the SEC as a faculty member. She is a community-based pediatrician who has been welcomed by the autism community, specializing in severe autism, especially those with intellectual impairment and self injury. | | | | William Casazza William Casazza is a PhD Candidate in the Bioinformatics Training Program at UBC. | | | | | Lea Separovic Lea is a graduate student at the School of Population and Public Health, supervised by Dr. Anne Gadermann and Dr. Michael Kobor. | | | | Marco Antonio Tello Palencia Marco is a Bioinformatics graduate student at UBC in Dr. Keegan Korthauer's research group. | | | | Ning Shen Ning is a Ph.D. student and a research assistant supervised by Dr. Keegan Korthauer in the Department of Statistics at the University of British Columbia. | | | | Raihan Hassen Raihan Hassen is a Master’s of Science in Human Nutrition student and a dietitian who is pursuing research around Vancouver school meal programs under the supervision of Dr. Jennifer Black. | | | | | | |
.jpg?1588257134061){kind=logo}
.png?1633712370251)
.JPG?1634028213648)
.jpg?1634024501034)
