UPCOMING EVENTS

Holiday Social Event

The SEC will be hosting a holiday social at Koerner's Pub on December 9th at 4pm! Food and beverages will be provided. To attend the event, register for a ticket on Eventbrite. We hope to see you there!

Ticket Registration

 

SEC Trainee Journal Club

The Social Exposome Cluster will be holding our second journal club session in January! 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.” If you would like to lead the session, please email esha.gill@bcchr with your choice of article.

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS

News Webpage

Recent additions to the news announcement webpage summarizing research papers, studies, and how they relate to the Social Exposome Cluster and our work! 

Visit the news announcement page here: https://socialexposome.ubc.ca/news 

 

SEC Social Media

To stay up to date on Social Exposome Cluster events and announcements on our instagram, facebook, and twitter!

Instagram and Twitter: @socialexposome

Facebook: UBC Social Exposome Cluster

 

 

UBC BABY TOOTH STUDY

UBC Baby Tooth Study

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. 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

 

 

FIRST CALL REPORT CARD

BC Child Poverty Report Card

Campaign 2000 is a public education national network of organizations, with the goal of raising Canadian awareness and support for ending child poverty. They release annual national “report cards” with statistics about child poverty in Canada. In collaboration with Campaign 2000, First Call BC has released their 2021 provincial report card on child and family poverty. The report revealed that 1 in 5 children in BC live in poverty, with children of visible minority groups being disproportionately impacted. The risk of poverty was double to triple in groups of visible minority such as Arab, Korean, and West Asian children. Additionally, amongst new immigrant children, there is a significantly higher rate of poverty at 44.9% (Campaign 2000, 2021). The report card also revealed high levels of on-reserve child poverty. Using data from 2019, there was a reported 40.9% child poverty rate on BC First Nations reserves. Interestingly, the statistics looking at rural versus urban reserves showed rural reserves having an 11.9% higher rate of childhood poverty. Not only are these statistics concerning given BC’s rate of poverty is higher than the national average, but with recent extreme weather events such as flooding, childhood poverty has only been exacerbated.

Read the report here: BC Child Poverty Report Card

 

BC FLOODS

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

From the Soma Lab

The Soma lab has recently published two papers; “Glucocorticoid production in the thymus and brain: Immunosteroids and neurosteroids” and “Maternal sucrose consumption alters behaviour and steroids in adult rat offspring”.

Glucocorticoid production in the thymus and brain

The study analyzed glucocorticoid measurements in clinical and research studies. The data was examined for differences between systemic and local GC levels, with focus on local production in the thymus and brain. Additionally, they suggest topics for future research looking more specifically at the roles of immunosteroids and neurosteroids in neonatal programming and the clinical relevance of local GC modulators.

Maternal sucrose consumption alters behaviour and steroids in adult rat offspring

The study involved feeding female rats a sucrose diet or isocaloric control diet before, during, and after pregnancy. After birth, offspring were fed a low-sucrose diet. The major findings of this study indicated different outcomes for offspring that were male or female. Male offspring from maternal sucrose diets had reduced body mass and visceral adipose tissue. Additionally, they preferred high-sucrose and high-fat diets and exhibited higher motivation for sugar rewards. Female offspring of the maternal sucrose diet showed higher basal corticosterone levels.

Read the full papers here: 

Glucorticoid Production in the Thymus and Brain   

Maternal Sucrose Consumption

 

Who Misses Lunch on School Days in Canada? 

The recent study conducted by Claire N Tugault and Jennifer Black, examined the impact of not eating lunch on school days in Canadian children. Data from a 2015 Canadian Health Survey, collected from children 6-17 years old was used and analyzed. The major finding of the study was that more than 1 in 20 students self-reported eating no lunch! Interestingly, sex, ethnicity, income, and weight status were not associated with missing lunch but living in a food insecure household, smoking, or being older was.

Read the full paper here:  

Who Misses Lunch on School Days in Canada?
 

 

NEW MEMBERS

Jasmine Chase

Jasmine is a masters student in the Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences. Her research focuses on environmental pollution as an extrinsic factor to human health by detecting harmful metals in marine biota in order to identify their origins.

 

Taylor Ricci

Taylor is a masters student in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Her current research involves characterizing vascular dysfunction in children at the time of diabetes diagnosis.

Brooke Hoppstock-Wattson

Brooke is a PhD student in the Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences. She studies how inorganic chemicals move through the atmosphere and the hydrosphere by using once living organisms as a means of sampling the environment throughout time.

 

Maram Alkawaja Livermore

Maram is a PhD student in the School of Population and Public Health. She is interested in minimizing inequity in childhood and finding protective factors to set children up for positive long-term trajectories despite sociodemographic disadvantages.

Meingold Chan

Meingold is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Medical Genetics. Her doctoral work focused on cultural differences in emotion socialization and preschoolers’ socioemotional development across China (Beijing and Hong Kong) and the United States.

 

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

Jennifer Black

Dr. Jennifer Black is an associate professor in the department of Food, nutrition, and health. Dr. Black has been quoted for recent articles in Canada’s National Observer, the Vancouver Sun, Theravive, and UBC News.

Dr. Black has recently been a guest on Spice Radio’s “The Morning Buzz” to discuss the heightened food worries linked to worse mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, Dr. Black was a guest on the episode Creating Connections Through Food on the podcast “Ways of Knowing”. She was also featured in a new collaborative art book, "Chromatic: Ten Meditations on Crisis in Art and Letters". 

Listen to the podcast episode here: 

Creating Connections Through Food 

 

MEMBERS IN THE NEWS

Sarah Merrill

Sarah Merrill is a postdoctoral fellow, researching the affect of parenting styles on molecular and genetic composition. In a recent interview with Global News, Sarah revealed that positive parenting styles is associated with differences in molecular composition of genes, specifially genes related to immune and cognitive function. Sarah also discussed the importance of fundraisers like BC Children's Hospital Dream Lottery in supporting research like hers!

Watch the interview here: BC Children's Hospital Dream Lottery