News & Update
2023
February 28
Sabrina Chow just received one of her dream offers and made it into the highly competitive EHS PhD program at Emory! Please join us in congratulating Sabrina for this amazing achievement!
January 18
Haoran Cheng just received his dream offer and made it into the super competitive Duke-NUS Medical School program! Please join us in congratulating Haoran for this amazing achievement!
January 23
In the past year of 2022, all EMERGE team members have worked hard and made substantial progress. We are very product to lead and participate in a total of 33 publications along with 30+ abstracts and presentations in the field of environmental omics, exposomics, environmental health, epidemiology and maternal and child health. Additionally, many EMERGE team members received awards, honors, and scholarships in 2022. Congratulations to all EMERGE members for achieving these wonderful professional and personal goals!
2022
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December 02
Congratulationsto Sabrina Chow, who has been selected as RSPH’s Outstanding APE Award finalists 2023! Sabrina will receive her certificate and attend the event “Posters on the Skybridge” from 12-1pm on Monday April 10, 2023, with Dean Fallin–please mark your calendar and be there to support her if you are available during that time!
November 29
Congratulations to Zhenjiang Li, who has been selected to receive the 2022 Air and Waste Management Association’s (A&WMA) scholarship for his abstract titled “Metabolome-wide Association Study of Prenatal Exposure to Ambient PM 2.5 with Pre and Early-term Births in the Atlanta African American Maternal-Child Cohort.”! This is another great achievement for Zhenjiang after winning the best US DOHaD student abstract in October.
October 11
Huge congratulations to Zhenjiang Li who won the Outstanding Trainee Abstract Award at the US DOHaD Annual Meeting for his work entitled “Metabolome-wide Association Study of Prenatal Exposure to Ambient PM2.5 with Pre- and Early-term Births in the Atlanta African American Maternal-Child Cohort “
Congratulations to Kaitlin Taibl who received an abstract award from the ISEE Student New Researcher Network. The award was for the work she conducted during her second research rotation with Dr. Stephanie Eick! She was only ONE OF TWO students from the North America Chapter to receive an award!
Congratulations to Susan Hoffman who received an amazing award from ISEE– the prestigious travel award from the Wartenberg Memorial Fund!
We have four publications this month in Environment International, Fertility and Sterility and Environmental Research. Congratulations to Dr Donghai Liang, Dr Robert Hood, Youran Tan and our alumni Rachel Tchen.
1. “Using follicular fluid metabolomics to investigate the association between air pollution and oocyte quality“—Higher exposure to NO2 during ovarian stimulation was associated with many metabolites and biologic pathways involved in endogenous vitamin metabolism, hormone synthesis, and oxidative stress that may mediate the observed associations with lower oocyte quality. Full text link
2. “Characterizing the follicular fluid metabolome: quantifying the correlation across follicles and differences with the serum metabolome“— They compared the variability in metabolomes between the serum and follicular fluid, as well as across 3 dominant follicles. Full text link
3. “Use of high-resolution metabolomics to assess the biological perturbations associated with maternal exposure to Bisphenol A and Bisphenol F among pregnant African American women.”—Exposure to BPA and BPF in pregnant women is associated with the perturbation of aromatic amino acid metabolism, xenobiotics metabolism, steroid biosynthesis, and other amino acid metabolism closely linked to stress responses, inflammation, neural development, reproduction, and weight regulation. Full text link
4. “Metabolome-wide association study of the relationship between chlorpyrifos exposure and first trimester serum metabolite levels in pregnant Thai farmworkers“—In this study, they measured a urinary chlorpyrifos metabolite and used high-resolution metabolomics (HRM) to identify biological perturbations associated with chlorpyrifos exposure among pregnant women in Thailand, who are disparately exposed to high levels of OP insecticides. Full text link
August 13
Check out a new publication of “Postnatal exposure to ambient air pollutants is associated with the composition of the infant gut microbiota at 6-months of age” by Dr.Donghai Liang and Dr.Jeremy A Sarnat. This study provides the first evidence of significant associations between exposure to ambient air pollution and the composition of the infant gut microbiota, which may have important implications for future infant health and development. Full text link
May 27
Congratulations to our member Dr. Donghai Liang, Zhenjiang Li and Ziyin Tang and our alumni Xiaoyue Zhang for their publication in Bioinformatics-“Metapone: a Bioconductor package for joint pathway testing for untargeted metabolomics data“.
They developed an innovative R/Bioconductor package: metabolic pathway testing with positive and negative mode data (metapone), which can perform two novel statistical tests that take matching uncertainty into consideration—(i) a weighted gene set enrichment analysis-type test and (ii) a permutation-based weighted hypergeometric test. The package is capable of combining positive- and negative-ion mode results in a single testing scheme. For comprehensiveness, the built-in pathways were manually curated from three sources: Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes, Mummichog and The Small Molecule Pathway Database. Full text link
February 10
Congratulations to our member Dr. Robert Hood, Dr. Donghai Liang and Ziyin Tang for their new publication in Environment Epidemiology–“Length of PM2.5 exposure and alternations in the serum metabolome among women undergoing infertility treatment.
This study identified serum metabolites and metabolic pathways uniquely associated with acute versus chronic PM2.5 exposure. And these different biologic pathways may help explain differences in disease states when investigating different lengths of PM2.5 exposure.
January 25
Check out our latest publication on Environmental Science & Technology–“The oxidative Potential of Fine Particulate Matter and Biological Perturbations in Human Plasma and Saliva Metabolome“, which used metabolomics to examine biological perturbations associated with particulate matter oxidative potential and explore the molecular mechanism underlying air pollution health impacts! Congratulations to our members Ziyin Tang, Zhenjiang Li and Dr. Donghai Liang! Full text link here.
They confirmed pathways/ metabolites directly associated with fine particulate matter oxidative potential, which were implications of perturbations in acute inflammation, nucleic acid damage and repair, and energy perturbation.
2021
December 24
Congratulations to our member Dr. Robert Hood and Dr. Donghai Liang for their new publication in Environment International–“Pesticide residue intake from fruits and vegetables and alterations in the serum metabolome of women undergoing infertility treatment “.This study identified biological pathways and alterations in the serum metabolome associated with pesticide residue intake from fruits and vegetables.
The identified pathways suggest there is a balance between the dietary antioxidant intake associated with fruits and vegetables intake and heightened oxidative stress as a result of dietary pesticide exposure. Full text link
November 01
Congratulations to our member Dr.Che Jung Chang, Youran Tan and Dr.Donghai Liang for their new publication in Environment International–“Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) exposure, maternal metabolomic perturbation, and fetal growth in African American women: a meet-in-the-middle approach outcomes “.
This study identified biological pathways and metabolites associated with both serum PFAS and fetal growth and provided opportunities for future studies to develop early detection and intervention for PFAS-induced fetal growth restriction. Full text link here.
November 18
Congratulations to our graduated master Xiaoyue Zhang, Youran Tan and Dr.Donghai Liang for their new publication in Science of The Total Environment –“Assessment of metabolic perturbations associated with exposure to phthalates among pregnant African American women”.
This study used high-resolution metabolomics to identify biological perturbations associated with phthalates exposures and found that urinary phthalate levels associated with inflammation, oxidative stress, and endocrine disruption related pathways. Full text link here.
October 18
Congratulations to our member Youran Tan, Ziyin Tang, Dr.Che Jung Chang, Dr. Jeremy A.Sarnat and Dr.Donghai Liang for their new publication in Environmental Pollution–“High-resolution metabolomics of exposure to tobacco smoke during pregnancy and adverse birth outcomes in the Atlanta African American maternal-child cohort“.
This study reveals the metabolic perturbations and potential molecular mechanisms underlying the association between tobacco exposure and adverse birth outcomes among pregnant African American women. Full text click here.
August 23-26
Congratulations to our group members Dr.Robert Hood, Dr.Che Jung Chang, Zhenjiang Li, Ziyin Tang, Youran Tan and Dr. Donghai Liang! Their abstracts were selected for platform oral presentations, lightning talks, and e-poster presentations in the 33rd Annual Conference of the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology (ISEE 2021). The detailed information are provided below:
Also great congratulations to Dr. Che-Jung Chang, Ziyin Tang, Youran Tan, and Dr. Donghai Liang for winning registration award in ISEE 2021!
August 30-September 2
Our group members Ziyin Tang, and Youran Tan were selected for oral presentations in the International Society of Exposure Science (ISES) 2021 virtual meeting. They also won the 2021 ISES Conference Awards. Congratulations to them!
June 8
Congratulations to our PhD member Ziyin Tang and Dr.Donghai Liang for their new publication in Environment International–“Periconception air pollution, metabolomic biomarkers, and fertility among women undergoing assisted reproduction“.
They identified serum metabolites associated with periconception air pollution exposure and evaluated the extent to which these metabolites mediate the association between air pollution and live birth. Full text click here.
May 1
A new study conducted by Dr.Donghai Liang and Dr.Jeremy A Sarnat “Estimating climate change-related impacts on outdoor air pollution infiltration“, published in Environmental Research. They examined associations between particle infiltration and temperature to inform future studies of air pollution health effects. Click here to read the full article.
May 14
Congratulation to our master students–Ziyin Tang, Xiaojie Zhi, Yifan Wang, Xiaoyue Zhang, Youran Tan (From right to left in the picture) and Rachel Tchen!
Congratulations on your graduation and best wishes for your next adventure!
January 12
Our PhD member Zhenjiang Li, along with GDEH faculty Drs. Donghai Liang and Stefanie Ebelt, recently published a paper in Environmental Research on application of high-resolution metabolomics to identify biological pathways perturbed by traffic-related air pollution in the Emory Center for Health Discovery and Wellbeing (CHDWB) cohort. Read the full paper here.
2020
September 25
GDEH Faculty, Donghai Liang, PhD, MPH and Liuhua Shi, ScD, were lead authors on a recent study published in The Innovation, “Urban Air Pollution May Enhance COVID-19 Case-Fatality and Mortality Rates in the United States”. The study was also support by other members of GDEH – Jeremy A. Sarnat, ScD; Yang Liu, PhD; Stefanie T. Ebelt, ScD; Noah Scovronick, PhD; and Howard Chang, PhD.
This study is one of the first nation wide studies on associations between air pollution exposures and COVID-19 death outcomes in the US. Read more at the link here.
September 18
A big congratulations to Rong, an Environmental Health Sciences PhD student in the department, for being named one of the Rollins School of Public Health Livingston Fellows! Given by the trustees of the Livingston Foundation, this fellowship recognizes a student’s outstanding achievements as a doctoral student in the EHS Program. Rong s research focuses on the impact of environmental chemical exposures on prenatal, postnatal, and early childhood health. She is particularly interested in the underlying biological mechanisms of the exposure-outcome relationships using both targeted and untargeted biomarkers. Recently, Rong has been working on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) exposure characterization and their impact on fetal health among the African American pregnant women in Atlanta.
June 20
An independent panel of researchers found that current EPA fine particulate matter standards are not sufficient to protect public health in a recent The New England Journal of Medicine article. “The standards should protect not just the general public, but also populations at increased risk of harm because of factors that include proximity to sources, age, and disease status,” says panel member and Rollins professor Jeremy Sarnat. Learn more here.
May 12
Congratulations to Dr. DongHai Liang, Dr. Jeremy A Sarnat, and other researchers for the publication of the study “Urban Air Pollution May Enhance COVID-19 case-fatality and Mortality Rates in the United States.“
Click here to see the details of the study.
March 10
Congratulations to Dr. Donghai Liang and Dr. Jeremy A. Sarnat for their latest research, published in Atmospheric Environment, which characterizes the impact of mobile source emissions on air quality and exposure in the near-road environment. Extensive field measurements on traffic-related air pollutants (TRAPs) and related data (e.g., meteorology, traffic, regional air pollutant levels), were conducted at two roadside monitors in Atlanta, GA located within 325 m of each other. Overall, the near-road TRAP concentrations at all sites were not as elevated as seen in prior studies, supporting that decreased vehicle emissions have led to significant reductions in TRAP levels, even along major interstates. Further, the differences in the observed levels show that use of single near-road observations will not capture pollutant levels representative of the local near-road environment and that additional approaches (e.g., air quality models) are needed to characterize exposures.
This work was led by collaborators from Georgia Tech and EH faculty members. Funding was provided by the Health Effects Institute (RFA #4942-RFA13-1/14-3) and the Emory HERCULES Exposome Research Center (NIEHS: P30 ES019776).
Click here to see the details of the study.
February 24
Congratulations to our PhD member Che-Jung Chang for her new publication as the 1st author in Environment International.
Serum concentrations of polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in the Michigan PBB Registry 40 years after the PBB contamination incident
Click here to see the details of the publication.
January 21
A big congratulations to our group leader Dr. Donghai Liang who was recently elected as the Academic Councilor of the Board of Directors for the International Society of Exposure Science!
