News
Michigan Epidemiology Department Internship Poster Session!
Master's student Yike Liu shines as she culminates her internship experiences and presents her findings on "Predictors of Acute Kidney Injury in Cirrhosis Patients after Paracentesis" at the University of Michigan Department of Epidemiology Poster Session. November 17, 2023.
Gene-environment interaction study funded by the ALS Association
Dr. Stephen Goutman and Dr. Bakulski received an Investigator-Initiated Research Grant from the ALS Association. The new funding will allow them to jointly consider genetic factors and environmental exposures in risk of ALS over the next three years.
Read the story in the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH) or the Michigan Medicine News.
Can segregated neighborhoods change people's genes?
Dr. Bakulski is a collaborator on Dr. Maggie Hicken's newly funded NIMHD grant proposal (1R01MD013299) to investigate racial inequalities in health throughout adulthood. In the Americans Changing Lives cohort, they will study the cumulative impact of neighborhood chemical and non-chemical stressors on epigenomic pathways. See the write up in the University of Michigan News and the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH).
Michigan Epidemiology Department Internship Poster Session!
Master's students Daniel Brandt, Mingzhou Fu, and Allyson Gregoire shine as they culminate their internship experiences and present their findings at the University of Michigan Department of Epidemiology Poster Session. November 3, 2018.
Dr. Weiye Wang defends dissertation and earns NIEHS extramural paper of the month!
Congratulations to Dr. Weiye Wang on the successful defense of her dissertation in August 2018! Her most recent publication on cumulative lead exposure linked to glaucoma was awarded National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) paper of the month for October 2018 and featured on EHP news.
Wang W, Moroi S, Bakulski KM, Mukherjee B, Weisskopf MG, David Sparrow D, Vokonas PS, Hu H, Park SK. 2018. Cumulative Lead Exposure and Risk of Incident Primary Open-Angle Glaucoma: the VA Normative Aging Study. Environmental Health Perspectives. PMID: 30102601
University of Michigan Environmental Epidemiology Reunion!
Dozens of current members and alums of the Michigan environmental epidemiology program came together for a reunion at the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology (ISEE)/International Society for Exposure Science (ISES) joint meeting. Michigan investigators and trainees presented outstanding research during the conference in Ottawa, Canada (August 2018).
Lab Kayak Outing
Members of the Bakulski and Ware labs kayak the beautiful Huron River!
Recommendations from the NIH Alzheimer's Research Summit 2018
The goal of the 2018 AD Summit was to feature progress toward achieving the AD research implementation milestones and to continue the development of an integrated multidisciplinary research agenda necessary to enable precision medicine research and accelerate the development of successful therapies for AD. Dr. Bakulski contributed to the strategic plans around "Understanding the Impact of the Environment to Advance Disease Prevention."
Read the full list recommendations here. Watch the videocast of Day 2 featuring collaborator Dr. Jennifer Manly (1:31-1:46) and Dr. Bakulski (2:00-2:12) here.
Congratulations 2018 UM Public Health Graduates!
Extra special congratulations to Bakulski Lab graduates: Harita Vadari, MPH; Kyle Campbell, MPH; Brad Petrowicz, MPH; and Sonia Robinson, PhD. You all have bright futures ahead of you and I can't wait to see the positive impacts you make on public health.
Michigan Alzheimer's Disease Core Center (MADCC) Symposium: Beyond Amyloid
The annual joint Alzheimer's disease symposium between the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, and Wayne State University was held on Monday May 7th 2018 in Detroit. Dr. Bakulski presented on "Metals exposure and genetics on dementia risk." Please click here to view and download each speaker’s presentation.
Cord buffy coat DNA methylation comparable to whole blood
In a new paper published in Epigenetics, John Dou showed that DNA methylation measured in whole cord blood and cord blood buffy coat can be successfully harmonized. Differences in methylation and cell composition between buffy coat and whole cord blood are much lower than inter-individual variation, demonstrating that both sample preparation types can be analytically combined and compared in epidemiologic studies.
Dou J, Schmidt RJ, Benke KS, Newschaffer CJ, Hertz-Picciotto I, Croen LA, Iosif AM, LaSalle JM, Fallin MD, Bakulski KM. 2018. Cord blood buffy coat DNA methylation is comparable to whole cord blood DNA methylation measures. Epigenetics. PMID: 29451060
Dr. Sonia Robinson defends her dissertation!
Sonia Robinson, PhD presented her dissertation research to a packed house. Her thesis was titled: Nutrition in Middle Childhood and Externalizing and Internalizing Problems in Adolescence: Results from the Bogota School Children Cohort. Congratulations on the excellent research linking nutrition to neurodevelopment and behavior! March 13, 2018
Alzheimer's Disease Summit 2018
The 2018 NIH Alzheimer's Disease Research Summit will be held March 1-2 at the NIH campus, in Bethesda, Maryland. The NIH AD Research Summits are key strategic planning meetings tied to the implementation of the first goal of the National Plan to Address Alzheimer's: to treat and prevent Alzheimer's disease by 2025. They bring together a multi-stakeholder community including government, industry, academia, private foundations, and patient advocates to formulate an integrated, translational research agenda that will enable the development of effective therapies (disease modifying and palliative) across the disease continuum for the cognitive as well as neuropsychiatric symptoms of Alzheimer's disease.
Dr. Bakulski is a speaker in Session 5: Understanding the Impact of the Environment to Advance Disease Prevention.
Watch the Summit on videocast
Follow our activities: #ADSummit18
Interested in pursing an Epidemiology MPH at Michigan?
Check out this informational webinar hosted by Drs. Belinda Needham and Kelly Bakulski. We talk about social and environmental epidemiology. Then we answer all kinds of questions from prospective students, from courses, to funding, to our favorite parts of living in Ann Arbor!
Windows into pregnancy: Shedding light on placental health
The 2017 MCubed Symposium was a dynamic showcase of research and scholarship at the University of Michigan, from snake robots and the human microbiome to big data and public art. More than 250 interdisciplinary faculty and student teams, or “cubes,” presented their work through storytelling, demonstrations, and posters. Our faculty cube members (Rita Loch-Caruso, Steve Domino, Kelly Bakulski) and team (Sean Harris, Kyle Campbell, Anthony Su) were honored to present a TED-style talk on the main stage. We felt like popstars with our fancy microphones.
Check out the video of our talk on the utility of placental exosomes as a pregnancy biomarker! Windows into Pregnancy: Shedding Light on Placental Health
Celebrating successes in 2017
Thanks to the hard work of the group, we've had a great fall semester full of presentations, publications, and new grants!
"The Tissue Issue" in M-LEEaD Environmental Research Seminar
Curious about the tissue issue in environmental epigenetics? Watch Kelly's talk at the Michigan-Lifestage Environmental Exposures and Disease (M-LEEaD) Center Environmental Research Seminar series to learn more.
click here to watch the lecture
December 5, 2017
Blood-based epigenetic research may hold clues to autism biology, study suggests
Shan Andrews' outstanding analysis of mQTLs in 4 tissues, which shows enrichment of autism spectrum disorder genetic loci in blood and brain, is now published!
Andrews SV, Ellis SE, Bakulski KM, Sheppard B, Croen LA, Hertz-Picciotto I, Newschaffer CJ, Feinberg AP, Arking DE, Ladd-Acosta C, Fallin MD. 2017. Cross-tissue integration of genetic and epigenetic data offers insight into autism spectrum disorder. Nature Communications
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-10/jhub-ber102017.php
PACE Consortium & DOHaD meetings
October 14-18, 2017 Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Follow our activities @PACE_Consortium
Members of the Pregnancy and Childhood Epigenetics (PACE) consortium had a fun reunion and an exciting meeting to discuss best practices, planned projects, and recent accomplishments. Kelly presented on cell type analyses and the integration of genetic and epigenetic data. Rotterdam was a great location to meet up with PACE leader and collaborator Dr. Stephanie London. The PACE workshop kicked off the international Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) meeting, which featured many works by PACE members. John gave a great talk on exploring methylation findings in other tissues.
Dou J, Lin N, London SJ, Colacino JA, Bakulski KM. DNA methylation signature of smoking in adult lung tissue is enriched for in utero smoke exposure signature. World Congress of the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease. Rotterdam, The Netherlands. October 17, 2017. Invited Talk
World Congress of Psychiatric Disorders meeting
October 13-17, 2017, Orlando, Florida
Drs. Margit Burmeister and Elisabeth Binder hosted a session of women researchers in the area of "Mechanisms of early adversity for increases in risk of psychiatric disorders." The symposia was packed with outstanding research from Drs. Katri Raikkonen and Sara Jaffee. Kelly presented her work on environmental epigenetics in autism spectrum disorder. April Shu shared her dissertation research in Dr. Brion Maher's lab on epigenetics, injection drug use, and HIV status in the ALIVE cohort. Kelly had a great time catching up with collaborators from Johns Hopkins University.
Presentation extravaganza, fall 2017!
John, Kyle, and Harita did outstanding jobs sharing their research and fielding great questions at conferences on campus.
Campbell KA, Colacino JA, Puttabyatappa M, Domino SE, Padmanabhan V, Goodrich J, Loch-Caruso R, Bakulski KM. Primary term human placental cell type isolation for molecular characterization. UM Reproductive Sciences Program. Ann Arbor, MI. October 6, 2017
Dou J, Schmidt RJ, Benke KS, Newschaffer CJ, Hertz-Picciotto I, Croen LA, Iosif AM, LaSalle JM, Fallin MD, Bakulski KM. Cord blood buffy coat DNA methylation is comparable to whole cord blood DNA methylation measures. UM Developmental Origins of Metabolic Syndrome Symposia. Ann Arbor, MI. October 9, 2017
Vadari H, Ware EB, Bakulski KM. Polygenic risk for Alzheimer's disease and early life head injury on risk of dementia in the Health and Retirement Study. UM Developmental Origins of Metabolic Syndrome Symposia. Ann Arbor, MI. October 9, 2017
US DOHaD meeting 2017
September 25-27 Detroit, Michigan
The second annual US Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) meeting was held at the Detroit yacht club. John shared his recent work comparing sample types for epigenetic analyses. We enjoyed dinner in the Detroit Institute of the Arts (DIA) with many of our collaborators and colleagues including Drs. Vasantha Padmanabhan, Jacklyn Goodrich, Muraly Puttabyatappa, Kemi Rotimi, and Deb Watkins.
Dou J, Schmidt RJ, Benke KS, Newschaffer CJ, Hertz-Picciotto I, Croen LA, Iosif AM, LaSalle JM, Fallin MD, Bakulski KM. Cord blood buffy coat DNA methylation is comparable to whole cord blood DNA methylation measures. US DOHaD society meeting. Detroit, MI. September 25, 2017.
Butler-Williams Scholars 2017
National Institutes of Aging, B-W
July 31- August 4, 2017
Drs. Bakulski and Ware participated in the Butler-Williams Scholars Program, the premier, short-term summer training program sponsored by the NIA. The program includes consultation on the development of research interests and advice on preparing and submitting research grant applications to NIA.
Follow our activities @BWScholars2017
UM Celebrate Research 2017
Dr. Bakulski was featured at a reception honoring all recent first-time U-M sponsored research award recipients and their department chairs. Third annual UM Celebrate Research event. May 4, 2017
Environmental epigenetics in early life: The placenta and beyond
Superfund Research Program, PROTECT study
April 10, 2017
Epigenetic modifications are important drivers of cellular differentiation and development. The placenta plays a key role in fetal programming and experiences vast cellular and epigenetic changes. Exposures in utero to toxicants have reproducible effects on placental and infant epigenetic status at birth. Epigenetic marks may persist into adulthood with consequences for later disease risk. Dr. Bakulski's presentation gives an overview of epigenetic epidemiology in birth cohorts, discusses environmental and genetic effects on the epigenome, and explores future opportunities associated with epigenetic epidemiology.
View the Webinar
Can Nutrition, Stress, and Environmental Exposures Change Your DNA?
March 22, 2017
A discussion on the biological effects of past nutrition, stress, and toxicant exposures on our health and well-being. Are these changes heritable? Can diet and exercise protect our DNA?
Listen to the Podcast
