Collaborative research in environmental health sciences

在2012-2013财政年度期间，在该项目中与校内和校外研究人员就广泛的主题开展了几次合作。 这些合作产生了几份手稿，目前正处于不同的出版阶段。合作的一些例子如下。 1.婴儿肠道微生物组的研究：除了外部（化学）环境外，内部（微生物）环境对人类健康起着重要作用。近年来，研究人员对了解微生物组对各种健康状况和疾病（如肥胖，哮喘，IBD，抑郁症等）的影响有相当大的兴趣，在这个项目中，我们与挪威公共卫生研究所的研究人员合作，试图了解婴儿肠道微生物组与一些早期儿童健康结果之间的关联。正在开发新的统计方法来绘制这种关联。 2.在怀孕期间吸烟的母亲的新生儿中的DNA甲基化研究：已知怀孕期间的母亲吸烟与婴儿的各种健康结果有关。我们与Stephanie伦敦（EB）博士合作，正在研究孕妇怀孕期间吸烟对新生儿脐带血DNA甲基化的影响。 在Joubert等人（EHP，2012）中，我们鉴定了26个表观基因组范围内具有统计学显著性的CpG，它们映射到10个基因上。 除了AHRR和CYP 1A 1之外，我们还发现了几个以前不知道与烟草烟雾相关的新基因（例如GFI 1，MYO 1G和RUNX 1）。我们现在正在对这26个CpG位点进行进一步的研究，以了解整个怀孕期间持续宫内暴露于吸烟的影响以及吸烟相关修饰的表观遗传。

Several collaborations have been carried out in this project with intramural as well as extramural researchers during the FY 2012-2013 on a wide range of topics. These collaborations have led to several manuscripts that are currently at various stages of publication. Some examples of collaborations are as follows. 1. Study of infant gut microbiome: In addition to the external (chemical) environment, the internal (microbial) environment plays an important role in human health. In recent years there has been considerable interest among researchers to understand the effect of microbiome on various health conditions and diseases, such as obesity, asthma, IBD, depression etc. In collaboration with researchers at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, in this project we are trying to understand the associations between infant gut microbiome and some early childhood health outcomes. Novel statististical methods are being developed for drawing such associations. 2. Study of DNA methylation in newborns of mothers who smoked during their pregnancy: Maternal smoking during pregnancy is known to be associated with a variety health outcomes in babies. In collaboration with Dr. Stephanie London (EB), we are investigating the effect of maternal smoking during pregnancy on DNA methylation in cord blood obtained from newborns. In Joubert et al. (EHP, 2012) we identified 26 epi-genome wide statistically significant CpGs that mapped onto 10 genes. In addition to AHRR and CYP1A1, we identified several novel genes (e.g. GFI1, MYO1G and RUNX1) that were not previously known to be associated with tobacco smoke. We are now conducting further investigation of these 26 CpG sites to understand the effect of sustained in-utero exposure to smoking throughout pregnancy and epigenetic inheritance of smoking-related modifications.