February 2024| Center for Human Health and the Environment

A Note from the Director

Hello there,

As an update, your new CHHE leadership team and RIG co-leads have worked tirelessly during January to develop a first draft of the Center grant renewal that was reviewed by our External Advisory Board last week. Thank you to the two dozen or so CHHE PIs, staff and trainees that presented posters at the EAB review. Very impressive showing!! The Proposal Development Unit within the Office of Research and Innovation has helped us develop a new systems biology approach banner (shown above) and a new logo that we will soon be rolling out. We are making much progress in tracking the types of data needed for the renewal and if you are a recent (2022-2023) PPP award recipient, you will be getting surveys from us that will help us obtain critical data needed for annual reports and the renewal - please complete them. In other news - please join us at Talley Student Union on February 20th for our 8th Annual CHHE Symposium. Registration is full but you may email jrhall@ncsu.edu to be added to the waitlist. And a huge congratulations to Dr. Nadine Kotlarz on her recent hire as a tenure track PI at NC State University!!

Last - if you didn't see me at the EAB review poster session, it is because I ducked out briefly to go meet my grandson who was born that morning - Jan 30th. James Steven Fenton and mom are doing great!

Sue Fenton

sefenton@ncsu.edu

Toxicology Bldg. rm 1104E

Upcoming Events

Feb. 15: Deadline for Pilot Project Applications, Email chhepilotprogram@ncsu.edu

Tuesday, February 20, 2024

8th Annual CHHE Symposium

Perinatal Environmental Exposures and Later Life Disease:

Biological Targets and Mechanisms

Talley Student Union 9:00AM - 5:00PM

Feb. 28: Environmental Health Disparities RIG Monthly Meeting 3:00pm Zoom

Add the CHHE Google Calendar to your calendar to never miss an event or opportunity!

News

2024 CHHE External Advisory Board Review

On January 30 and 31, 2024, the CHHE External Advisory Board met in the Toxicology building to review the first draft of the Center grant renewal. Drs. Ken Ramos (TAMU), B. Paige Lawrence (Univ of Rochester), Erin Haynes (Univ of Kentucky), and Dana Dolinoy (Univ of Michigan - virtual) listened to presentations from our RIG and Core leads and provided constructive comments to the CHHE leadership team. This incredibly useful interaction with our EAB will be an annual event that we anticipate being more focused on the research conducted within the CHHE next year.

Nadine Kotlarz Promoted to Tenure Track Assistant Professor

Dr. Kotlarz was recently hired as a tenure track Assistant Professorin the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering, where she will work on toxicological assessment of drinking water, among other research topics.

Her anticipated start date is on March 1, 2024.

Nafion Byproduct 2 Found in Blood of Well Users Near Fayetteville, N.C.

Jane Hoppin, Nadine Kotlarz, and other researchers from the GenX Exposure Study detected PFAS originating from a fluorochemical manufacturing plant – including Nafion byproduct 2 and GenX – in nearby private wells in Bladen and Cumberland Counties, N.C. PFAS refers to a group of chemicals called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.

Article

Randy Jirtle Interview by Dr. Chris Magryta for his Dr. M’s Women and Children First Podcast Entitled, "The Imprintome and Hope"

Dr. Jirtle joined the show for the second time to discuss his new research on the imprintome, the regulatory regions that at the earliest stages of fetal development control our epigentic and thus our genetic outcome. This is the Hope locus.

Podcast

Uchechukwu Chimeh Presented in Thursdays at the Bureau

Uchechukwu Chimeh, from David Aylor's lab, presented on 01/11 in Thursdays at the Bureau, a new College of Sciences event series to foster community in COS. She gave a 5-minute talk titled "Inferring toxicant susceptibility in global populations from gene-by-environment interactions" and she briefly discussed her non-research role and mission with the department.

Share the Good News!

Have you or someone in your research interest group or lab; received an award, served on a special committee, given an invited lecture, published a paper and/or completed a project recently? Please share the good news by completing this form. An announcement may be included in the newsletter and/or posted on the website.

Core and RIG Updates

Community Engagement Core Co-sponsoring Teacher Workshop

Let's Keep it Real: Real Teaching with Real Data

This workshop will guide teachers through best data practices and how to train their students to work with messy data. They will learn how data-infused lessons can enrich content and increase student engagement. This workshop is designed for grades 8-12 and will focus on PFAS water contamination, but they will look at other CHHE datasets and learn how to apply best data practices to any dataset or lesson.

Date/Time: Saturday, March 16, 2024 from 9am to 4pm

Location: The Science House, Cherry Bldg, 715 Barbour Dr, Raleigh, NC 27606

Website: Https://go.ncsu.edu/dsak12

Contact: Taryn Shelton, tshelto3@ncsu.edu

Reminders

Cite and acknowledge NIH award support and the CHHE’s P30 grant in future publications and presentations by including this –

“Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number P30ES025128. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.”

Publications citing the Center grant in the acknowledgements of a manuscript and in the deposit of the manuscript in NIEMS are the currency for the P30 renewal!

CHHE Resources and Facilities Page for NIH Grants is available on the CHHE website .

PINS: When submitting your grants, be sure to select "Center for Human Health and the Environment" as the center in PINS.

Click here to check out CHHE cited publications!