Newsletter The newsletter, distributed quarterly, highlights opportunities, initiatives, events, and success stories within the Social Exposome Cluster (SEC). We are always looking for additional content, so feel free to email treeve@bcchr.ca if you have any announcements that you would like included. | Call to Join Working Groups We are pleased to announce the initial formation of SEC working groups, open to SEC Faculty and Trainees! The working groups, outlined below, are based on the goals of the Strategic Plan and are intended to foster collaboration and sustained engagement. While our Strategic Plan provides the blueprint for these working groups, there will be plenty of flexibility and opportunities for members to shape the agenda moving forward. 1. Research - Fostering collaboration between projects, method development including technological and analytical advances, and building and sustaining capacity through diverse revenue streams and funding opportunities. 2. Knowledge Translation and Dissemination - Enable the dissemination of knowledge through diverse channels and contribute to policy in an effective and sustainable way. 3. Engagement - Create meaningful collaborations and partnerships along the spectrum, from researchers, to community groups, to policy makers, locally and globally. Including underrepresented groups & geographical areas, alongside children and youth, are also key engagement strategies for this group. 4. Training - Maintain a high-quality environment for Trainees that fosters strong Trainee leadership and enables their diverse career aspirations. Bring together a diverse group of Trainees and mentors to facilitate cross-disciplinary training. We are also committed to supporting career development and successful networking between prospective, current and past trainees. SEC Members are of course more than welcome to contribute to more than one working group if they wish. At this early stage, we would like to include 3-5 Trainees per group; as the working groups become established, we will ensure additional opportunities for Trainee participation. Please email Tiffany at treeve@bcchr.ca to indicate which working group you would like to contribute to by June 19th, 2020. If you are interested in taking on a leadership role (i.e., chair of the group), please also indicate that in your email to Tiffany. | Trainee Knowledge Translation Video Competition - $500 Travel Award!!! SEC Trainees are invited to create a short video that summarizes their research and how it relates to one or more of the Social Exposome Cluster themes (i.e., Extrinsic factors that contribute to healthy development, Intrinsic factors, Technological Development, and/or Policies and Interventions) . Videos should be no longer than 5 minutes in length, and with a focus on translating research to the public. Videos should therefore describe the research in a manner that is understandable, interesting and engaging to a non-scientific audience, including familes, children and policymakers. We particularly welcome and encourage joint submissions from Trainees from different academic backgrounds and programs. Joint submissions will be limited to 3 Trainees per video and all participating Trainees will be required to be in labs led by an SEC Investigator. All submissions will be featured on the Cluster website and the top three videos, voted on by Cluster Trainees, will each be awarded a $500 Travel Award (to be spent by March 2022). Please email your video submissions to Tiffany at treeve@bcchr.ca. The competition will close July 31st, 2020. | Welcome to the Team! We would like to welcome Ruanne Vent-Schmidt, who will be working with the Social Exposome Cluster on knowledge translation projects. Ruanne completed a PhD in Cell and Developmental Biology at UBC in 2019. Previously, she worked as a Research Communications Specialist and Peer Support and Advocacy Specialist at the Canadian National Institute for the Blind. We are thrilled to have her as part of the team! | | Congratulations Dr. Tao Huan, et al.! Drs. Tao Huan, Trevor Campbell, and Martin Guhn (with Drs. Anita DeLongis and Michael Kobor, Collaborators) were awarded the New Frontiers in Research - Exploration Fund. The interdisciplinary project titled, "Metabolomics-Guided Social Exposome Study to Identify Critical Environmental Exposures for Child Health and Development in Canada" will use state-of-the-art mass spectrometry techniques developed in the Huan lab, to examine how environmental factors lead to child disease status. | | Congratulations Dr. Martin Guhn, et al.! Drs. Martin Guhn, Tao Huan, Yvonne Lamers, Anne Gadermann, Michael Kobor, Eva Oberle and Brett Finlay as well as Randip Gill were awarded an Interdisciplinary Team Teaching Grant to develop an undergraduate and graduate-level module to be offered to students in the School of Population and Public Health at UBC. The material will be beneficial in terms of helping students understand how social and economic factors during early childhood modulate biological systems – and thus set the foundation for life-long health trajectories. | | | | The Worst Time for Food Banks to Raise Barriers to Food Dr. Jennifer Black Even without the economic calamity caused by COVID-19, over 4.4 million Canadians and one in six children had to worry or reduce the food they eat in 2017 and 2018 because they couldn’t afford it. This is particularly concerning, given that one of Canada’s largest food bank organizations, the Greater Vancouver Food Bank, announced a new registration process that will make it much harder for those in greatest need to access food. Jennifer, Associate Professor in the Faculty of Land and Food Systems at UBC, and a growing group of concerned food bank clients, volunteers, food security advocates and community organizations are asking the Greater Vancouver Food Bank to overturn their new policy, re-evaluate their registration process and change how they make decisions to better include those affected. Read the article here | | | | UBC Researchers Warn of Dangers of Air Pollution During COVID-19 Outbreak Drs. Christopher Carlsten and Sarah Henderson Dr. Christopher Carlsten, Professor of Medicine and Canada Research Chair in Occupational and Environmental Lung Disease at UBC, and Dr. Sarah Henderson, Associate Professor at the School of Population and Public Health at UBC, believe it’s time to consider the dangers of air pollution during the COVID-19 outbreak. In a UBC Q&A, they explain how air pollution can make infections of the respiratory tract—such as those caused by the virus that causes COVID-19 disease—even more severe and why it is more important than ever to ensure our air is kept as clean as possible to protect everyone, especially the most vulnerable, and to lessen the strain on our hospitals. Read the article here | | | Early Love from Mothers can Lead to Many Positives Later in Life for Kids Drs. Michael Kobor, Sarah Merrill and Sarah Moore In an interview with CTV News Drs. Michael Kobor (Professor and Canada Research Chair in Social Epigenetics at UBC), Sarah Merrill, and Sarah Moore, (Postdoctoral Fellows in Medical Genetics at UBC) discuss how a mother's early nurturing behaviour influences her child's health into adulthood and can also buffer the effects of negative life experiences, like childhood poverty. Read the article here | | New DNA Test that Reveals a Child’s True Age has Promise, but Ethical Pitfalls Drs. Michael Kobor and Martine Lappé Drs. Michael Kobor, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Social Epigenetics at UBC and Martine Lappé, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Science, Technology, and Society at California Polytechnic State University, were featured in an article that highlights the potential benefits and risks of the epigenetic clock, a fascinating yet controversial new technology for identifying an individual's "true" age. Read the article here | | COVID-19 Research Discussion Session The Cluster's first virtual event will be an informal discussion session for members regarding research related to COVID-19. This will be an opportunity for members to discuss their ideas, plans, and current projects related to COVID-19. Thursday June 4th, 2020 from 1:00pm - 2:30pm Join Zoom Meeting Here Zoom Meeting ID: 868 5687 7956 | | Virtual Seminar with Dr. David Rehkopf David Rehkopf, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Health Research and Policy at Stanford University Monday June 29th, 2020 from 11:00am - 12:00pm Join Zoom Meeting Here Zoom Meeting ID: 873 5581 0171 | | | | | |
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