Past Events

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EaRTH Center Kickoff Meeting

September 20, 2020

 

EaRTH Center Quarterly Meeting

December 20, 2020

 

Environmental Justice and Human Health: Creating Systemic Solutions

Every Tuesday, February 23 - March 30, 2021. Recordings on UCTV.

 

EaRTH Series: Environmental chemical exposures and mechanisms underlying human placental dysfunction and disease

Joshua Robinson, PhD & Hao Chen, PhD
March 30, 2021; 12-1 pm. Watch the recording.

 

EaRTH Center Quarterly Meeting

News and presentations by our Integrated Health Sciences Facility Core (IHSFC). Other guest speakers include a presentation by EaRTH Pilot Project awardee, Dr. Amy Padula, and IHSFC consultant, UCSF DREAM Lab. Drs. Salma Shariff-Marco and Debby Oh of the DREAM Lab will provide an overview of services and studies.
Wednesday, April 7, 2021; 1-2 pm

 

EaRTH Series: Count Down: How Our Modern World Is Threatening Sperm Counts, Altering Male and Female Reproductive Development, and Imperiling the Future of the Human Race

Dr. Shanna Swan
Wednesday, April 28, 2021; 12-1pm. Watch the recording.

 

EaRTH Series: Taking Charge of Pregnancy

Dr. Susan Fisher
Thursday, May 27, 2021; 12-1pm. Watch the recording.

 

EaRTH Series: Suspect Screening and Chemical Exposures in Pregnant Women

Dr. Dimitri Abrahamsson and fellow researchers from UCSF's Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment used new technology to detect 109 chemicals in pregnant women and newborns, including 55 chemicals never before reported in people and 42 “mystery chemicals,” whose sources and uses are unknown. The 109 chemicals researchers found in the blood samples from pregnant women and their newborns are found in many different types of products: 40 are used as plasticizers, 28 in cosmetics, 25 in consumer products, 29 as pharmaceuticals, 23 as pesticides, 3 as flame retardants, and 7 are PFAS compounds, which are used in carpeting, upholstery, and other applications. The researchers say it’s possible there are also other uses for these chemicals.
Wednesday, June 30, 2021; 1-2 pm. Read the paper. Watch the recording.

 

Columbia University's Environmental Justice Boot Camp: Theory and Methods to Study Environmental Health Disparities

August 2-3, 2021

 

EaRTH Series: Connecting lipid composition to individual characteristics using matrix linear models for high-throughput data

Dr. Saunak Sen
Tuesday, August 17, 2021; 12-1 pm.

 

EaRTH Series: Environmental Scholars Present!

The Environmental Scholars Program (ESP) is a 3-year community-based clinical and research program designed to build the next generation of environmental health leaders. Our first group of scholars will be presenting their projects, what they’ve learned about environmental health from a community perspective, and how their experiences have informed their careers as health professionals.
September 23, 2021; 12-1 pm PST. Watch the recording.

 

EaRTH Series: Beyond Journals: How to Leverage Media & Comms to Elevate Your Work

Please join us and three media and communications experts to learn how to get your study covered in the media; what institutions need from you to help promote your work (with a UCSF lens); and which communications vehicles (blogs, visuals, infographics, social media) are best to share your research and how to use them. Our speakers include Rebecca Fuoco, M.P.H. (Science Communications Officer, Green Science Policy Institute), Laura Kurtzman (Senior Public Information Representative, UCSF), and Susan Lamontagne (President, Public Interest Media Group, Inc.). This presentation is sponsored by the UCSF EaRTH Center, UCSF Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment, and Green Science Policy Institute.
October 21, 2021; 1-2 pm PST.

 

EaRTH Center Annual Research Forum

November 2, 2021; 12-4 pm PST

 

EaRTH Quarterly Meeting

April 6, 2022; 12 pm

 

EaRTH & UCSF Office of Sustainability Event: Experts Review “Don’t Look Up”

Using the Academy Award-nominated film “Don’t Look Up” as a springboard, our panel of climate experts will be discussing the many ramifications of climate change, including mental health, misinformation and science communication, industry influence and government failure, and more.
April 21, 2022; 5:30-7:30 pm PT. Watch the recording.

 

EaRTH Series: Fossil Fuels Drive Plastic Proliferation

Co-sponsored with the UCSF Office of Sustainability. Join EaRTH Director, Tracey Woodruff, and Marty Mulvihill, co-founder and partner of SaferMade, who will talk about the strong connection between the fossil fuels industry, climate change, and the many environmental chemical exposures we are enduring as a result of petrochemicals, the by-products of fossil fuels.
May 10, 2022; 12 pm PT. Watch the recording.

 

EaRTH Series: Historical Redlining Data in the UCSF Health Atlas

Under the direction of Dr. Debby Oh, the UCSF Population Health Data Initiative has incorporated historical redlining data into the UCSF Health Atlas. This includes census tract level redlining data alongside 100+ other area attributes including demographic, socioeconomic, community, neighborhood, and health and health care data. The practice known as redlining has its roots in a neighborhood ranking system sponsored by the federal government in the 1930s. A four-point scale was intended to guide financial investment decisions by assigning neighborhoods rankings from A (“best” = green) to D (“hazardous” = red). Neighborhoods with higher proportions of African American and immigrant families were consistently ranked lower (redlined). Research shows a strong link between historic redlining and present-day health disparities. Learn how you can use the UCSF Health Atlas to better understand redlining data in context.
June 22, 2022; 1 pm PT. Watch the recording.

 

Environmental Justice Boot Camp: Theory and Methods to Study Environmental Health Disparities

This is a two-day intensive course featuring seminars and applied analytical sessions on key concepts, exposure assessment techniques, epidemiologic methods, community engagement and health policy applications, and statistical analytic approaches for conducting effective and solution-driven environmental justice research. Hosted by the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health's SHARP Program, the Columbia NIEHS Center for Environmental Health in Northern Manhattan (CEHNM), the Harvard Chan NIEHS Center for Environmental Health, the UCSF Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment, and the UCSF EaRTH Center.
August 15-16, 2022. 7 am – 2 pm PDT. Details.

 

EaRTH Series: Environmental Scholars Present!

The Environmental Scholars Program (ESP) is a 3-year community-based clinical and research program designed to build the next generation of environmental health leaders. Join us to learn about our first-year medical students' community-based clinical and research internships with Bayview Hunter's Point Community Advocates and the Western States Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit. Our second group of scholars will be presenting their projects, what they’ve learned about environmental health from a community perspective, and how their experiences have informed their careers as health professionals.
October 27, 2022; 12-1 pm PST. Watch the recording.

 

EaRTH Center Annual Research Forum

Mission Bay Conference Center at UCSF, Robertson Auditorium 1 (1675 Owens St.)

We are excited to be holding our first in person Center meeting! Join us to get new ideas, find new collaborations, and learn about the latest research methods in environmental health. We will have fascinating presentations from your EaRTH Research colleagues, a poster session and networking opportunities. We will also have special guest, Dr. Robyn Tanguay, from Oregon State University. Dr. Tanguay is an internationally recognized scholar whose work on zebrafish models has advanced the world’s understanding of how chemicals impact the biological development of humans. Forum-related materials.

Schedule:

130 pm – Poster Session
2 pm – Presentations
4 pm – Networking Session

Our flash talk speakers include:

Kaveh Ashrafi, PhD (UCSF School of Medicine, Physiology)
Ethan Brown, MD (UCSF School of Medicine, Neurology)
Aras Mattis, MD, PhD (UCSF Department of Pathology)
Rosemarie de la Rosa, PhD, MPH (Environmental Health Sciences, UC Berkeley)
Helena Archer, MPH (PhD student at UC Berkeley)

Robyn Tanguay, PhD, Oregon State University

Using Multidimensional Zebrafish Data to Protect and Improve Human Health. We are well into the 21st century and the environmental health sciences discipline remains challenged to systematically identify the legacy, newly created, and chemical mixtures that pose tangible human health risks. We have maintained that multi-dimensional zebrafish assays provide rapid pathways to discover and compare the bioactivity of chemicals for a multitude of decision making contexts. This presentation will provide examples where high throughput screening and systems approaches are being used to advance environmental health.

Wednesday, November 2, 1:30-5 pm. Watch the recording.

 

Environmental Health Grand Rounds: 3rd Annual Herb Needleman Lecture

Join us for the UCSF Occupational and Environmental Health Grand Rounds. The speaker is Brenda Eskenazi, MA, PhD, Emeritus Professor at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, and Director, Center for Environmental Health Research and Children’s Health. Her lecture is titled “Lessons from the fields: 25 years of working with agricultural families in California.”

Sponsored by the Western States Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit (PEHSU), the Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment (PRHE), and the UCSF EaRTH Center, the lecture is presented annually in honor of Dr. Needleman’s groundbreaking work on the hazards of environmental lead on children’s neurodevelopment, and his perseverance despite fierce opposition from industry.

Thursday, January 26, 2023; 8 am.

 

UCSF Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences Grand Rounds

Join Dr. Joshua Robinson, 2022 Environmental Health, Nutrition & Obesity Pilot Awardee for "Experimental and translational approaches to elucidate toxic effects of environmental chemical exposure on human pregnancy" during UCSF Ob/Gyn & RS Grand Rounds.

Dr. Joshua Robinson is an Assistant Professor in the Center for Reproductive Sciences and Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences at UCSF. Since Fall of 2016, he has led a research laboratory aimed at studying the effects of environmental chemical exposures on human development. For his presentation, he will highlight his group’s recent work, investigating the impact(s) of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) exposures on human placental development/function using in vitro and in vivo approaches.

Tuesday, January 31, 2023; 9:10 am.

 

Environmental Health Disparities in Maternal/Child Health

Join Stephanie Eick, PhD, MPH from the Gangarosa Department of Environmental Health, Emory University. Pregnant people are exposed to a variety of environmental chemicals and non-chemical stressors every day, many of which adversely impact health. Many studies have examined individual exposures, but few have examined chemical and non-chemical stressors together. This seminar will review recent research in this topic area and will discuss how environmental health disparities impact perinatal health. Dr. Eick used EaRTH Seedling Award funds with the IHSFC, was recently awarded the JPB Environmental Health Fellowship, and is currently an Assistant Professor in the Gangarosa Department of Environmental Health at Emory University.

April 4, 2023; 12-1 pm.

 

Strategies to Maximize Your Science - How EaRTH Can Help You Amplify Your Work

What does the media look for? How can you craft a clear and compelling message? What can we learn from others in promoting our research? And how can the EaRTH Center help to amplify your work? Please join us as Susan Lamontagne, PRHE's Communications Director and consultant for the EaRTH IHSFC, walks us through some communications case studies. What works? What doesn't? And real-time feedback on messaging your work.

Tuesday, May 2, 2023; 11:15 am - 12:45 pm. Hybrid: UCSF Mission Hall and Zoom. Watch the recording.

 

Examining physical housing factors and disaggregated race and ethnic groups to better understand the association between wildfire smoke exposure and preterm birth in California

EaRTH Seedling Awardee and Center member, Dr. Rachel Sklar, will discuss disparities in wildfire smoke related preterm birth (PTB) outcomes in California. In particular, she will discuss how physical housing characteristics such as the size of a home and the age of the building contribute to PTB disparities in certain racial and ethnic groups. In this body of research, Dr. Sklar uses disaggregated race and ethnicity variables and will discuss the importance of using disaggregated data to better inform policy interventions to protect vulnerable populations.

Wednesday, July 12, 2023; 1-2 pm. Watch the recording.

 

Environmental Justice & the Human Right to Water: Research to Advance Clean Drinking Water Access in California

California became the first state to statutorily guarantee the human right to water in 2013, and yet roughly a million Californians are still served by water systems that are out of compliance with drinking water standards, and households with private wells face disproportionate exposure risks. Dr. Lara Cushing from UCLA will share the findings from recent research on social inequalities in exposure to drinking water contaminants and contamination threats in California.  

Thursday, August 10, 2023; 12 pm PT. Watch the recording.

 

Environmental Justice Boot Camp: Theory and Methods to Study Environmental Health Disparities

This is a two-day intensive course featuring seminars and applied analytical sessions on key concepts, exposure assessment techniques, epidemiologic methods, community engagement and health policy applications, and statistical analytic approaches for conducting effective and solution-driven environmental justice research. Hosted by the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health's SHARP Program, the Columbia NIEHS Center for Environmental Health in Northern Manhattan (CEHNM), the Harvard Chan NIEHS Center for Environmental Health, the UCSF Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment, the UCSF EaRTH Center, and the University of Washington.
August 17-18, 2023. 7 am – 2 pm PDT. Details.

 

Environmental Exposures and Multigenerational Disease: Why Our Lifestyle Before Conceiving Matters

It is becoming accepted that environmental exposures at critical windows of development can lead to long-lasting effects not only in individuals directly exposed, but also in future unexposed generations via epigenetic mechanisms of regulation of gene expression. However, little is known about the initial alterations that trigger multigenerational responses and the mechanisms through which those alterations are propagated across generations. Join Dr. Raquel Chamorro-Garcia from UC Santa Cruz as she presents findings on how her lab's current model proposes that parental preconception exposure to environmental factors alter molecules carried in the gametes which will subsequently alter chromatin architecture in the developing embryo shortly after fertilization.

Wednesday, August 30, 2023; 1 pm PT. Watch the recording.

 

PFAS, Phenols, and Parabens: Links to Hormone-Mediated Cancers

A number of cancers are hormone-mediated. These include prostate, breast, ovarian, endometrial, testicular, and thyroid cancer, as well as melanoma. Many industrial chemicals found in consumer products and in the environment are endocrine disruptors, and could influence risk of hormone-mediated cancers. EaRTH Pilot Project awardee, Dr. Max Aung, shares the results of a recent study that examined the relationship between certain chemicals and risk of hormone-mediated cancers. The study found a relationship between exposure to these chemicals and increased likelihood of a past diagnosis of one of the cancers. This project was jointly funded by the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and the UCSF EaRTH Center. Presentation facilitated by our friends at the Collaborative for Health & Environment.

Wednesday, October 19, 2023; 10 am PT. Watch the recording. Download the fact sheet.

 

CATCHA Launch & Quantitative In Vitro to In Vivo Extrapolation for Developmental Toxicity Potency of Valproic Acid Analogues

We are thrilled to announce the launch of the new Center to Advance Toxicology and Chemical Hazard Assessment (CATCHA), led by Joshua Robinson , PhD (EaRTH IHSFC consultant and Assoc. Prof., Ob/Gyn & RS) and supported by EaRTH Director, Tracey Woodruff, PhD, MPH, and Bioassay Facility Core co-Director, Jennifer Fung, PhD. The goal of CATCHA is to develop and advance new science strategies for chemical hazard identification and risk assessment. CATCHA aims to bring together UCSF EaRTH Center Members and investigators from multiple disciplines to establish systems that enable more-rapid identification of toxic chemicals and generate science-based information regarding risks to help decision makers act more quickly to prevent harmful chemical exposure and disease.

 

To mark the launch of CATCHA, we are co-hosting a series of webinars with the new Center. We invite you to join us for the official launch and a special presentation with special guest speaker, Dr. Xiaoching Chang, who will be presenting her work in a talk titled, "Quantitative In Vitro to In Vivo Extrapolation for Developmental Toxicity Potency of Valproic Acid Analogues." Using the prototypical teratogen valproic acid and its structural analogues as example chemicals, Dr. Xiaoching Chang will demonstrate how an in vitro to in vivo extrapolation (IVIVE) approach can help put in vitro assay data into in vivo context. Specifically, she will show how IVIVE can be applied to predict rat developmental toxicity lowest effect levels (LELs) from human stem cell-based assay data.

 

Thursday,  November 2, 2023; 11 am PT via Zoom.

 

 

EaRTH Center Annual Research Forum

We are excited to be holding our third UCSF Environmental Research and Translation for Health (EaRTH) Center Annual Forum! Join us to get new ideas, find new collaborations, and learn about the latest research methods in environmental health. We will have fascinating presentations from your EaRTH Research colleagues, networking opportunities and special guest speakers. The theme of this year's forum is: From the Laboratory to the Legislature: Science’s Role in Reducing Environmental Impacts on Health and Health Equity. Our keynote speaker is California Assemblymember Phil Ting (D-San Francisco).

Wednesday, November 15, 2023; 1-5 pm PT. UCSF Parnassus Campus, Millberry Union Conference Center (Golden Gate + City Lights Rooms). Full schedule and talk titles can be found here.

Presenters include:

California Assemblymember Phil Ting
Tracey Woodruff, PhD, MPH
Joshua Robinson, PhD (new CATCHA Center)
Susan Lamontagne (EaRTH communications consultant)

Our flash talk speakers include:

Paige Bracci, PhD, MPH, MS (UCSF School of Medicine, Epidemiology & Biostatistics)
Pam Den Besten, DDS (UCSF School of Dentistry, Orofacial Sciences)
Ayca Erkin-Cakmak, MD, MPH (UCSF School of Medicine, Pediatrics)
Anna Claire Fernández (UCSF medical student)

 

CATCHA Launch + EaRTH Series Continues: A universe of toxicants, universally undertested: higher throughput approaches to birth defect detection in fluorescent zebrafish

Join us for the next webinar in this special series marking the launch of the new Center to Advance Toxicology and Chemical Hazard Assessment (CATCHA), led by Joshua Robinson , PhD (EaRTH IHSFC consultant and Assoc. Prof., Ob/Gyn & RS) and supported by EaRTH Director, Tracey Woodruff, PhD, MPH, and Bioassay Facility Core co-Director, Jennifer Fung, PhD. Dr. Joshua Everson (UT-Austin postdoctoral scholar and recent K99 awardee) will present on his innovative research aimed at elucidating key mechanisms underlying craniofacial malformations using the zebrafish model. Hundreds of thousands of human-made chemicals are present in the environment, but only 10-20,000 have been tested, with even less tested for developmental toxicity. Most birth defects do not have a known cause, and are predicted to arise from difficult to study multifactorial interactions between genetic and environmental factors. To help unravel this knot, Dr. Everson has developed a higher throughput method for detection of birth defects in vivo, that he is now using to identify and characterize environmental toxicants.

Thursday,  December 7, 2023; 12 pm PT. Watch the recording.

 

 

Environmental Health Grand Rounds: 4th Annual Herb Needleman Lecture

Join us for the UCSF Occupational, Environmental and Climate Medicine Grand Rounds. The speaker is Tamarra James-Todd, PhD, MPH, Mark and Catherine Winkler Associate Professor of Environmental Reproductive Epidemiology in the Departments of Environmental Health and Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Her lecture is titled “Consumer Product Chemicals and Pregnancy health: A Reproductive Justice Lens.”

Sponsored by the Western States Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit (PEHSU), the Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment (PRHE), and the UCSF EaRTH Center, the lecture is presented annually in honor of Dr. Needleman’s groundbreaking work on the hazards of environmental lead on children’s neurodevelopment, and his perseverance despite fierce opposition from industry.

Thursday, January 11, 2024; 8 am. Zoom information.

 

EaRTH Hybrid Meeting: Motivating Climate Change Mitigation through Health: The Case of Vehicle Electrification

Please join us for this special hybrid meeting, hosted by the EaRTH Center and co-sponsored by our friends at the Division of Occupational, Environmental, and Climate Medicine (OECM) and the UC Center for Climate, Health & Equity.

Curbing greenhouse gas emissions is key when it comes to reducing the severity of climate change. Many climate change mitigation strategies have the added potential to improve public health across communities, which can serve as a powerful motivator for implementing climate action and policies. Research into the co-benefits of climate change mitigation strategies provides an effective framework to address the urgent need for solutions-oriented climate change health research. Join Dr. Erika Garcia, Assistant Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences at the Keck School of Medicine at USC, as she examines the case study of vehicle electrification, which is an important strategy for climate change mitigation and is also projected to have considerable co-benefits for public health through reductions in tailpipe emissions.

Thursday, February 15th, 2024; 11 am PT. Watch the recording.

 

EaRTHinar: Climate Resilience in the Age of Anxiety

Extreme weather events have raised awareness about the impact climate change is having on people and communities. And a growing body of research shows that climate change is affecting health and mental health. So how can we help people to cope? And how can health care professionals better support their patients?

Speakers:

Jennifer Dhillon of BounceBack Generation (BBG) will present CREST (Climate Resilience and Environmental Sustainability Training), a pilot project to share resilience-building tools to help people and communities prepare, respond, and recover from a climate emergency. (CREST Report and sample course and BBGTV.)

James Nolan of the EaRTH Center and UCSF’s Western States Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit (WSPEHSU) will present two new resources for health care professionals to help their patients: a free online e-Toolkit for Prevention covering more than 30 environmental health topics and Prescriptions for Prevention, which offers simple do’s and don’ts to reduce chemical exposures, plastics, and how to protect children from heat stress and other climate impacts.

Tuesday, February 27, 2024; 12 pm. Watch the recording. Download the slides: BBG slides, WSPEHSU slides.