At the end of June, the NIEHS Center for Environmental Health in Northern Manhattan at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health hosted its annual retreat at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. The meeting brought together over 90 attendees from across the P30 community for a meeting focused on collaboration and advancing the Center’s overarching goals.
The retreat began with a presentation by Center Director Dr. Matt Perzanowski. His remarks set the stage for the day highlighting achievements of the Center including recent publications, conferences, participation in programs such as FRESH: Future Researchers in Environmental Health Sciences Early Stage Investigator Speakers Exchange Program, along with the eleven full pilots that were funded this year. Dr. Perzanowski also outlined the key goals center around research, career development and community engagement to help frame the day’s discussions.
The retreat featured a poster session centered around the themes of Advancing the Exposome, Environmental Data Science, and Biological and Molecular Mechanisms. NEXUS presented a poster discussing the goals, leadership, and ways to connect and collaborate. This provided a great opportunity to share the work that NEXUS is doing with a new community in the field of environmental health sciences.
The Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health Center for Innovative Exposomics also presented a poster highlighting their ongoing exposome research including key projects, instrumentation, and workflows. Center lab members were also in attendance, contributing to discussions on ongoing research efforts.
The second half of the retreat featured four breakout sessions where attendees discussed:
- Microplastics/Emerging Exposures led by Dr. Steven Chillrud – Co-Director of Translational Research Support Core, Dr. Ami Zota – Director of Community Engagement Core, and Dr. Beizhan Yan – Leader of the TRACE organics lab.
- Omics-Signatures of Environmentally Related Outcomes led by Dr. Diane Ré – Co-Director of Pilot Project Program, Dr. Allison Kupsco – Pilot Project Program award recipient, and Dr. Maya Deyssenroth – past Career Development Program award recipient.
- Health Across the Life Course led by Dr. Pam Factor-Litvak – Co-Director of Pilot Project Program and Study Design and Data Science Facility Core, Dr. Ana Navas-Acien – EHS Department Chair and Director of Superfund Research Program, and Dr. Sen Pei – Co-Director of Study Design and Data Science Facility Core.
- Bringing Scientists into EHS Research and Supporting Their Research Development led by Dr. Julie Herbstman – Director of Career Development Program, Dr. Stephanie Lovinsky-Desir –Director of Division of Pulmonary Medicine in CUIMC Department of Pediatrics, and Dr. Diana Hernandez – Deputy Director of the P30 Center.
These breakout sessions facilitated meaningful discussions resulting in the development of actionable objectives for the P30 in the coming year. The structure of the breakout groups allowed for all voices to be heard and incorporated.
The retreat concluded with an engaging fireside chat with Dr. Kiros Berhane, Chair of the Biostatistics Department and the P30 Internal Advisory Committee. The discussion was moderated by Dr. Darby Jack, Professor of Environmental Health Sciences at the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health.
Their discussion covered Dr. Berhane’s career which spans decades of groundbreaking research at the intersection of environmental, global and climate impacted health and is well-known for his pivotal role as lead biostatistician on the landmark Children’s Health Study, which produced foundational evidence that long-term exposure to ambient and traffic-related air pollution impairs lung development in children. Dr. Berhane co-directs Columbia’s Center for Achieving Resilience in Climate and Health (C-ARCH).
Overall, this retreat provided a great opportunity to engage with many different members of the P30 community, and to learn more about the work occurring by the NIEHS Center for Environmental Health in Northern Manhattan P30 Center. Thank you to the organizing committee for putting together such a great event!