WINTER 2024
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Research towards the EcoToxChip GAPP project and the NSERC Alliance Grant "Indigenization of New Approach Methods" are ramping up. Nil teaches PARA515 (Water, Health and Sanitation) this term. Nil is serving as Guest Editor for a Special Issue of New Approach Methods in the SETAC Journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.
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FALL 2023
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Congratulations to Sophie and Yanan for both completing their MSc (thesis) degrees!!! Several team members travel to Ottawa for the Canadian Ecotoxicity Workshop, Nashville for the 62nd Annual Meeting for the Society of Toxicology, and to Louisville for the 44rd Annual SETAC North America meeting. Nil teaches NUTR450 this term. Nil is invited to Duke University to give a talk at their ITEHP Fall Symposium (Global Environmental Health and Environmental Justice), and to also give a virtual presentation to the GMOS group in Europe. Congratulations to Maxime Leger for receiving funds to travel to the International Symposium on Alternatives Assessment in Tacoma (Washington, USA) to present an oral talk concerning his undergraduate honours research concerning alternatives assessment of lithium ion battery technologies.
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SUMMER 2023
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Team, including partners in Environment and Climate Change Canada (co-lead Dr. Rebecca Dalton), McGill professors, and QIAGEN, receives $4.7M from Genome Canada's GAPP Program for the project "Validation of the use of the EcoToxChip test system for regulatory decision-making". Some from the team travel to Dublin for the 33rd Annual SETAC Europe Meeting.
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WINTER 2023
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In collaboration with partners at Kanesatake Environment and TerraHumana Solutions (as well as McGill Professors Head, Bayen, Hickey), we receive $1.25M from the NSERC Alliance Program for a project titled "Indigenization of new approach methods for contaminated sites assessments in Indigenous communities: A community-based case study in the Kanien'kéha:ka community of Kanesatake". This term Nil taught PARA515 (Water, Health and Sanitation). Nil participates in a "Fast Talk on Environmental Racism" through the Canadian Human Rights Commission.
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FALL 2022
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With in-person meetings ramping back up, several team members travel to Winnipeg for the Canadian Ecotoxicity Workshop as well as to Pittsburgh for the 43rd Annual SETAC North America meeting. Nil teaches NUTR450, and contributes to NRSC671 this term. Dr. Iris Xu enters the group as a postdoctoral research fellow. Nil gives a presentation on the Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health to the webinar series hosted by EcotoQ and Chapitre Saint-Laurent. Congratulations to Yanan Zhang for receiving the Clifford C.F. Wong Fellowship, and Katie Chong for the Sustainable Agricultural Fellowship!! We receive $675K from Genome Quebec's PRE-GIPP program to advance our work on transcriptomics approaches for human health risk assessment.
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SUMMER 2022
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Congratulations to Jessica Ewald and Iris Xu for submitting and defending successfully their PhD theses. Several team members travel to Copenhagen for the 32nd annual SETAC Europe meeting. We also host the 6th annual EcoToxChip project meeting at Fiddler Lake Resort, bringing together 20 key researchers to share and discuss project results. Nil worked as an expert consultant for the Minamata Convention Secretariat's office and help produce the Monitoring Guidance Document in support of effectiveness evaluation.
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WINTER 2022
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Congratulations to Ashley for finishing her MSc thesis, and also to Gwen for her honours research project which resulted in a publication. This term Nil taught PARA515 (Water, Health and Sanitation). Nil attended the 61st Annual Society of Toxicology Meeting (San Diego) where he delivered a presentation on the Minamata Convention (in the One Health session) and another one on the EcoToxChip project (in the eco-NAMs session).
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FALL 2021
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We welcome to the team Katie Chong (PhD student), Sophie Emberley-Korkmaz (MSc student), and Gwen Aubrac (honours student), and to Katie and Sophie for receiving fellowships from the PURE CREATE Program!!! Congratulations to JP for securing a Faculty position at the University of Winnipeg!!! Nil Basu teaches NUTR450, NRSC333, and contributes to NRSC671 this term. Nil gives a presentation to Minamata Convention stakeholders as part of the Minamata Online series, and the video is available here: https://youtu.be/Ys94Q5Xvww8, and also gives a presentation at the Minamata Convention's Conference of Parties (COP) 4.1 side event concerning his work on the Article 22 Effectiveness Evaluation Guidance Document. Congratulations to Veronica Saldana-Rodriguez for successfully defending her PhD thesis!!!
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SUMMER 2021
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Nearly 1,000 EcoToxChips have now been run by the team, including for all 3 model species!!! With the Minamata Convention Secretariat's office, Nil continues to help develop a guidance document on how parties (countries) can do human biomonitoring as part of intersessional activities. Congratulations to our colleagues from Cameroon, Brian Nfor and Dr. Patricia Fai, for publishing research to document that e-waste contaminated soils can affect earthworm growth and reproduction in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.
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WINTER 2021
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Congratulations to Dr. Andrea Santa-Rios for defending her PhD research! Nil Basu received a CRP Fellowship from the OECD to spend time with colleagues at the University of Sydney (Australia) as part of his sabbatical, but the effort is on hold given COVID-19. Nil participates in the government Chemicals Management Plan (CMP) Science Committee meeting concerning the evolution and future of risk assessment in the country. Congratulations to Jessica Ewald for a solid presentation of fastBMD to HESI's Emerging Systems Toxicology for the Assessment of Risk (eSTAR) group, and to Jean-Pierre Desforges for widespread and international news coverage of his research on mercury levels and climate change using narwhal tusks. Two papers from our team are among the top-10 "exceptional" publications in the SETAC journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry for the year 2021 (Farhat et al., 2020 on a novel avian toxicity testing system; Barst et al., 2020 on a novel dried bloodspot method to study mercury and stable isotopes in fish).
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FALL 2020
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Congratulations to Andrea for passing her Oral PhD Defence, and one step away from being Dr. Andrea Santa-Rios. The team participates in the virtual SETAC North America conference and co-authors 22 presentations. Nil assumes a consultancy position for the Minamata Convention Secretariat's office to help formulate a guidance document on how parties can do human biomonitoring in support of Article 22 (Effectiveness Evaluation). Veronica's paper on a novel method to measure lead (Pb) in dried blood spots is published in Environmental Research.
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SUMMER 2020
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Congratulations to Iris for passing her Comprehensive Exam and becoming a PhD candidate!! Nil participates in the virtual AMAP Mercury Experts Working Group meeting (as co-lead of the Human Health Report). The EcoToxChip project Year 4 annual meeting is held remotely and draws nearly 70 participants. Mariana Llanos' undergraduate honours research project within the MSSI Sustainable Materials program yields a peer-reviewed paper in the journal Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. Congrats also to Jessica Ewald for creating www.fastBMD.ca including publication of the introductory paper in the journal Bioinformatics.
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WINTER 2020
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Welcome new members Dr. Jean-Pierre Desforges (Postdoctoral Fellow split between our group and Prof. Melissa McKinney's), Ashley Bastiansz (MSc Student working on a review of mercury in skin lightening cosmetics and creams) and Tianai Zhou (Research Assistant engaged with the GEOHealth and EcoToxChip projects). Brian Nfor (PhD student, University of Dschang, Cameroon) and Prof. Elizabeth Oloruntoba (University of Ibadan, Nigeria) visit our labs as part of the GEOHealth program. During the start of the COVID-19 lock downs, Nil assumed an interim position of Acting Associate Dean of Academics in the Faculty to help instructors and courses transition to a remote format. Our paper "State of the Art Review of Indigenous Peoples and Environmental Pollution" comes out and receives a range of media attention including this podcast interview by Nil.
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FALL 2019
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The Macdonald Environmental Toxicology Research Cluster (METRC) group is launched that brings together scholars on campus with an interest in toxicology, environmental chemistry, risk - check out the website: https://www.mcgill.ca/metrc/. The 2018 UN Global Mercury Assessment is now out (check out our leadership over the Human Exposures chapter). Nil gives presentations in Kyoto, Japan (National Institute of Minamata Disease Forum), Copenhagen (AMAP Hg Experts Group), Geneva (Science panel as part of the 3rd Conference of Parties for the Minamata Convention), Washington DC (US National Academies of Sciences panel in the ASTMH conference), and Toronto (SETAC conference).
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SUMMER 2019
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Congratulations to Mariana Llanos for receiving a NSERC USRA Summer Fellowship to help continue her MSSI-sponsored work on an alternatives assessment of solar cells. Nil co-leads a new NSERC CREATE concerning Pollution in Urban Environments and is part of the newly funded FRQNT Strategic Network EcotoQ. Nil gives the keynote talk at the 5th World Congress on Risk (joint by Society of Risk Analysis and Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry), and chairs/speaks at the SETAC Europe meeting in Helsinki.
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WINTER 2019
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New Genome Canada grant awarded from the Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (BCB) call with Prof. Jeff Xia to build www.omicsanalyst.ca as a portal to support comprehensive trans-omics data analyses for 12+ key ecological species covering mammals, fish, birds, and invertebrates. Nil gives a keynote talk at the U.S. National Academies of Sciences "Emerging Sciences for Environmental Health Decisions" workshop in January in which he reflects upon his evolving views on how to do inter-disciplinary and translational research. Nil launches a new course this term - PARA515 (Water, Sanitation, and Health). We welcome 3 new students into the team who are conducting directed research studies (Mariana Llanos, Honours Study, McGill School of the Environment; Joannie Richer, School of Human Nutrition; Sevrenne Sheppard, IWRM MSc Program). Congratulations to Jessica Ewald and Veronica Saldana for passing their Comprehensive Exams and becoming PhD Candidates!
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FALL 2018
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We welcome into the lab Sylvie Dasne (MSc student, Natural Resource Sciences), Ke (Iris) Xu (PhD student co-supervised with Prof. Saji George's lab) and Isra'a Haj (PhD student, School of Nutrition). As part of our work towards the 2018 UN Global Mercury Assessment, our chapter on worldwide human exposures to mercury has been published in Environmental Health Perspectives entitled "A State-of-the-Science Review of Mercury Biomarkers in Human Populations Worldwide between 2000 and 2018". At SETAC 2018 (Sacramento) we had 19 presentations delivered by team members.
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SUMMER 2018
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Congratulations to Krittika Mittal (for defending her PhD!) and Jessica Pawly (for submitting her MSc thesis). We welcome to the lab Yuber Palacios Torres as a Visiting Professor from the University of Cartagena (Colombia), as well as Joanna Griffin as a summer NSERC USRA student. Our group delivers 15 presentations at the 2018 ISES/ISEE Meeting in Ottawa including talks by Andrea, Veronica, and Nil. Nil delivers a keynote presentation at the 2018 Tribal Environmental Health Symposium (TEHS) at Oregon State University, helps organize the International Council of Chemical Associations’ Long-Range Research Initiative (ICCA-LRI) meeting in Ottawa, participates in a Health Canada Workshop concerning mercury in traditional country foods.
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WINTER 2018
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We welcome two PhD Scholars (Sylvia Akpene Takyi from the University of Ghana; Karel Houessionon from the University of Abomey-Calavi in Benin) from West Africa to our group this term as part of the GEOHealth program. Nil gives talks at Health Canada and the Harvard School of Public Health, and also participates in the Workshop on the Global Burden of Disease-Pollution and Health Initiative in Seattle. The EcoToxChip project team is taking a roadtrip to the US EPA and Qiagen, as well as hosting a variety of workshops related to bioinformatics and GE3LS. Congrats to Jessica Ewald for receiving a NSERC Fellowship.
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FALL 2017
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We welcome Jessica Ewald and Verónica Rodríguez Saldaña to the group as new PhD students!! As a Commissioner on the Global Alliance on Health and Pollution, Nil co-authored the Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health which received widespread media coverage for documenting that pollution is the largest environmental cause of death and disability - 3x more than AIDS, TB, and malaria combined. Nil gave interviews to CBC and NPR for the Lancet piece (click here for an interview with Ana Maria Tremonti on CBC's The Current; click here for an interview with PRI's the Takeaway ). Our first paper on dried bloodspots is published - LINK. At SETAC2017 (Minnesota) we had 16 presentations, and also gave talks at the UNEP 2018 Global Mercury Assessment meeting (Slovenia), and annual GEOHealth PI meeting (Washington DC). Nil spends time this term in Boston as a Visiting Scientist at the Harvard School of Public Health. Nil is invited onto Canada's Chemicals Management Plan (CMP) Science Committee for a three year term, and is also the Co-Lead of McGill Sustainability Systems Initiative (MSSI) group on Materials with Profs. Audrey Moores (Chemistry) and George Demopoulos (Materials Engineering). Our research on prenatal fluoride exposure and childhood IQ is published in EHP.
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SUMMER 2017
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Nil is on sabbatical starting July 1st, and will spend time with Prof. Marc Weisskopf at Harvard. Our Genome Canada EcoToxChip project now has a twitter handle (@ecotoxchip) so send us a tweet! Also, we hosted the first annual EcoToxChip Project Meeting here in Montreal (McGill's Thomson House) and drew a great crowd of scientists, regulators, and private sector partners for 2 full days of discussions. 11 team members go to Providence (Rhode Island) for the 13th International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant where we give 13 presentations as well as Nil's participation on the Health Plenary Panel. Congrats to Andrea and Krittika for wining Graduate Mobility Fellowships from McGill. Congrats also to Marie Perkins for successfully defending her PhD thesis!!!
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WINTER 2017
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Our West Africa GEOHealth hub is covered by a NIEHS Newsletter article, and we officially launch our website (click here), as well as host our community entry event at Agbogbloshie which is highlighted in this news article. Nil is leading the WHO Mercury Human Report for the 2017 UNEP Global Mercury Assessment, is a member of the Biota Sub-Group for the UNEP Global Mercury Assessment, and will also serve as a plenary member of the Human Health Panel at the 2017 International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant this summer. Nil is speaking in the One Health session at the NCSE2017 Conference in Washington DC. Team members go to Bigstone Cree community in Alberta to return results from a study concerning contaminants in country foods. In May we are working with Health Canada and HESI to co-organize a 2-day workshop at McGill's Faculty Club to discuss the use of genomics technologies on cancer risk assessment for environmental chemicals and drugs.
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FALL 2016
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Our team secures a large $9.7M grant from Genome Canada to develop "EcoToxChips" - click here, here, here, and here for more information... much more coming soon on this 4-yr project. We welcome Hugo Marchand and Hao Zhang as undergraduate honours students for the year. Congrats to JP for receiving a CIHR Fellowship, and Krittika for a SETAC Travel Award. Phylicia's time with us is covered in a write-up by the Canadian Government. 7 members from the lab go to the SETAC World Congress (Florida) and deliver 15 presentations. Nil participates in the UNEP Minamata Convention Fate and Transport Partnership Advisory Group meeting in Portland (Maine) in October, and in November participates in meeting in Ottawa with the government's Chemicals Management Plan (as an ad hoc member of the CMP Science Committee) as well as Northern Contaminants Program Human Health group. Nil goes to Ghana to launch the e-waste study as part of our GEOHealth project. In December Nil delivered presentations at Jinan University in Guangzhou, China.
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SUMMER 2016
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Our GEOHealth team holds planning meetings in Benin and Ann Arbor. Much of the summer is spent writing up papers, pushing forward student proposals, and cleaning out the lab's Annex. Our annual mega lab ("Re-Orienteering Ourselves") meeting brings together 16 of us for a full day of research talks and updates, and a scavenger hunt that takes us through the Morgan Arboretum. Several team members spend time at the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center.
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WINTER 2016
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Welcome to Dr. Matt Alloy as a new postdoc in the group! Our lab is officially a member of the UNEP Global Mercury Partnership, attends the 7th session of the intergovernmental negotiating committee on mercury (INC-7) in Jordan, and participates in the Partnership Advisory Group meeting. Nil and team members gave talks at the University of Rochester Environmental Health Seminar Series, Dartmouth College's Superfund Seminar Series, McGill's Cutting Edge Lecture Series, UNEP Partnership Advisory Group side event, Canadian Newborn and Child Screening Symposium, and the Society of Toxicology Annual Meeting. Our NIH-Fogarty GEOHealth Hub in West Africa participates in the grantees meeting in Bethesda, Maryland.
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FALL 2015
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Our $3M USD US NIH Fogarty / Canada IDRC GEOHealth grant focused on environmental and occupational health capacity strengthening (focus on e-waste) in West Africa is funded as a full project for the next 5 years!!! Basu teaches NRSC670 (Principles of Environmental Health Sciences) this fall with colleagues from Epidemiology, Medicine, and Pharmacology, as well as NUTR450 and NRSC333. Congratulations to Bekki Tutino for successfully defending her PhD!!! We welcome several new members to the lab - Dr. Benjamin Barst as a postdoc, Nasrin Golzadeh and Andrea Santa-Rios as PhD students, Jessica Pawly (MSc Student), and Phylicia Ricketts (University of West Indies) as a visiting scholar. We are involved in the inaugural Cells to Society Symposium at McGill which highlights the breadth of environmental health research here. With Prof. Ghoshal (McGill Engineering) and others, we received a 3 year NSERC Strategic Grant to study engineered nanoparticles. We present findings at CEW, SETAC, University of British Columbia and more... Nil participates at the "Miners, Minerals, and Minamata" workshop by giving talks and charing a roundtable.
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SUMMER 2015
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Findings from our Integrated Assessment of ASGM in Ghana are presented to 35+ stakeholders in Ghana, including the Minister of the Environment, Deputy Minister of Mining, and various agency/unit heads - thank you to all team members who participated in the dissemination! Our IJERPH special issue on ASGM is growing! This summer we present our findings in Korea (International Congress of Mercury as a Global Pollutant; Nil sits on the Human Health Plenary Panel and Co-Chairs a session on "Health Impacts of ASGM"), Montreal (International Neurotoxicology Association meeting), Toronto (Canadian Society of Epidemiology and Biostatistics), and Sherbrooke (SETAC Laurentian Chapter). Nil participates in the WHO/NIEHS Workshop on Electronic Waste (E-Waste) in Indonesia (click here for NIEHS summery of meeting which features Prof. Julius Fobil).
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WINTER 2015
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Welcome to Carolina Salas Rojas visiting us from Costa Rica! Nil Basu teaches the NRSC Topical Graduate Seminar this term and will provide a series of modules entitled "Money, Management, and Me". We welcome the addition of two Tekran analyzers to our group - Tekran 2600 (total mercury) and 2700 (methylmercury), as well as the PicoFox TXRF. We are helping organize a number of meetings in West Africa including the 4th meeting of the Integrated Assessment of Small-Scale Mining Project (Accra, April 21-22) to discuss how our findings can feed into the UNEP Minamata Convention, and a joint meeting between the West Africa NIH-funded GEOHealth team and the IDRC-funded ECOHealth COPEH-AOC group March 16-17 in Benin. Some of our findings this term are covered in the press: Bald eagles full of flame retardants; Autoimmune disease risk increased with mercury exposure. Our ASGM activities in Ghana are being published in a special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health being co-edited by Nil Basu, Susan Keane, and Paleah Black Moher.
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FALL 2014
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Nil Basu teaches NRSC333 and NUTR450 this term, and Marie teaches the Department's Ornithology course. Nil assumes an Associate Member position in McGill's Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health. Congrats to Mozhgon for winning the Warren Cook award (for outstanding contribution to Industrial Hygiene)! 7 lab members go to the Aquatic Toxicity Workshop in Ottawa and give several (9) presentations; same for SETAC annual meeting in Vancouver where we have 10 presentations. Grants obtained from the Northern Contaminants Program (NCP) and First Nations Environmental Contaminant Program (FNECP) to study issues concerning toxicant exposure and risk in First Nations communities. We welcome to the lab Rajendra Parajuli (postdoctoral fellow), Jessica Pawly (Research Associate) and Gordana Martincevic (Research Associate). We congratulate Professors Stephan Bayen and Jessica Head for establishing complementary labs at Macdonald Campus. CONGRATULATIONS to Mark Bradley for winning first prize in the inaugural 3-Minute Thesis (3MT) competition in the McGill School of Dietetics and Human Nutrition!!!
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SUMMER
2014 |
Congratulations to Deena Thomas for successfully defending her PhD dissertation! Also, Congrats to Bekki and Mozhgon for successful PhD data meetings. Andrea Santa Rios and Sean Phipps join the group for the summer. Our CREATE Environmental Innovation grant is funded to help train the next generation of natural resource consultants, managers, landuse planners, and policy makers so they are market-ready to enhance Canada's reputation as a country that efficiently develops its natural resources while maintaining rigorous environmental standards. As indicated below, several highly successful meetings are held in Ghana: 3rd meeting of our Integrated Assessment of Small-Scale mining, 3rd meeting of the GEOHealth team, and a reunion meeting of our PARTNER members. Also, in Accra, Ghana we conduct a successful field study at the Agbogbloshie e-waste site. Several members of the group presented results at the Ecohealth conference (Montreal, Canada; Nil gave a plenary talk) and International Society of Environmental Epidemiology conference (Seattle, USA; Nil invited to speak in a special morning session on fish consumption advisories) this August.
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WINTER
2014 |
WELCOME three new lab members to our team - Dr. Kimmo Mäenpää (University of Eastern Finland) visits us for 6 months through an Academy of Finland fellowship, Krittika Mittal joins the lab as a PhD student (Department of Natural Resource Sciences), and Flavie Bidel (PhD student, Universite de Caen, France) wins a Society of Experimental Biology Fellowship to come and study with us for a few months. Nil is invited to give talks at the 2014 Society of Toxicology meeting, Gordon Research Conference on Endocrine Disruptors, among others. We wind up for several meetings in Ghana in March: 3rd meeting of our Integrated Assessment of Small-Scale mining, 3rd meeting of the GEOHealth team, and a reunion meeting of our PARTNER members.
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FALL
2013 |
Our McGill lab is now officially open in the CINE Building (Center for Indigenous Peoples's Nutrition and Environment) - to find us, click on Contact and Opportunities. Our work at Aamjiwnaang is covered by CBC News Radio's Ontario Morning, Environmental Health News, Scientific American, Global News, Huffington Post, and other news outlets. Nil travels to Ghana for various project meetings, and presents at the Institute for African Studies conference. Lab members (Nil, Mark, Marie, Adeline) go to Nashville to present findings (12 presentations) at SETAC-Nashville. We welcome Jenny Eng to the group as our Chief Research Technician. Check out this video (LINK HERE) of Marie talking about her PhD work on grebe feathers.
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SUMMER
2013 |
This summer we are winding down the University of Michigan-based lab and moving our operations to McGill University. It is bittersweet; we will sorely miss Ann Arbor but are excited at re-positioning ourselves and continuing to grow at McGill!!! Report on our "Biomarkers of Chemical Exposure at Aamjiwnaang" is released. CONGRATULATIONS to Marie Perkins for receiving a Fulbright Canada-STEM Fellowship to conduct her PhD research and to Mark Bradley for receiving a Freeman Fellowship for his PhD work. Lab members (Nil, Mozhgon, Rachel, Marie) go to Scotland to present findings at the 11th International Congress of Mercury as a Global Pollutant; Bekki and Deena go to Switzerland to present findings at the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology (ISEE) meeting.
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WINTER
2013 |
Congratulations to Diana Cryderman for defending her PhD thesis, entitled "Metals Contamination and Chemical Exposures in Canada's Chemical Valley: Implications for the Aamjiwnaang First Nation". The lab welcomes Dr. Adeline Arini as a new postdoctoral fellow, Kathrine Pedersen (Univ of Copenhagen) as a visiting Masters student, and Doug Crump (Environment Canada) as a brief, visiting guest. Nil Basu presents upon hydraulic fracturing work to decision makers in Lansing (LINK). Meetings in Ghana concerning GEOHealth and the Integrated Assessment of Mining are held in April, 2013.
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FALL
2012 |
Congratulations to Jennifer Rutkiewicz for defending her PhD thesis, entitled "Neurochemical Biomarkers to Assess Mercury's Health Impacts in Birds". Congrats also to Mozhgon Rajaee for winning best student presentation at the ISEE (International Society of Environmental Epidemiology Meeting), and to Diana Cryderman for assuming a Faculty position at Bay Mills Community College. 10+ presentations at the Annual SETAC meeting in California. Nil Basu teaches EHS801 this term, as well as EHS500 (Principles of Environmental Health Sciences) to both residential and certificate students.
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SUMMER
2012 |
NEWS: Basu Lab will be moving next summer (2013) back to Canada. Nil has accepted a Professorship at McGill University, his alma mater. He will have a joint appointment in the Department of Natural Resource Sciences and the School of Human Nutrition, and the laboratory will be based in CINE (Center for Indigenous Peoples’ Nutrition and Environment). Students interested in pursuing graduate degrees at McGill should contact Nil ([email protected]) to discuss possibilities.
Congratulations to Peter Dornbos for a Risk Sciences Fellowship, and to Diana and Jen for delivering superb Oral Presentations during the Michigan Society of Toxicology Meeting! This summer we begin our three year Integrated Assessment of Small-Scale Mining in Ghana (CLICK HERE). Nil Basu gives a TED Talk, and also is highlighted in the promo video for the School'sCFPH program. More to come soon... |
WINTER
2012 |
Cover Art and Focus review article "Epigenetics for Ecotoxicologists" published byEnvironmental Toxicology and Chemistry - LINK. Congratulations to Peter for receiving a 2012 Summer Risk Sciences Fellowship and Jen for 2nd prize at the Toxicology Symposium. CONGRATULATIONS to Dong-Ha Nam for his new Faculty appointment (Assistant Professor) at Chonnam National University in Korea. Nil Basu's interview concerning the proposed US EPA's MATS ruling is covered on NPR Radio, among other outlets. Lab members have formed the "MetalHeads" team that is participating in UM's ActiveU. Six papers published from our Dental studies!
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FALL
2011 |
Congratulations to Jackie Goodrich for defending her PhD thesis, entitled "The influence of genetic polymorphisms on mercury toxicokinetics - evidence from epidemiological and in vitro studies". We are still recruiting mother-child participants for our Aamjiwnaang Study -CLICK HERE. 10+ presentations at the Annual SETAC meeting in Boston. Diana presents at theEnvironmental Justice meeting in Detroit. 4-yr effort concerning "Mercury in the Great Lakes" will be unveiled via manuscripts in dedicated issues of "Ecotoxicology" and "Environmental Pollution", as well as a new Mercury Connections piece. Nil Basu teaches EHS801 this term, as well as EHS500 (Principles of Environmental Health Sciences) to both residential and certificate students.
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SUMMER
2011 |
Congratulations to Yi Wang for defending his PhD thesis! Diana attains PhD candidacy, and Mozhgon enters the lab as a PhD student and successfully passes her Qualifying Exam. Lisa wins another NARCH fellowship. Our Guatemala study is covered in the SPH Finding magazing -click here. This summer we have 7 students spending 2-3 months in Ghana (they were joined the first week by Profs. Renne, Wilson, Robins, and Basu). Lab members will deliver 8-10 presentations during the International Congress of Mercury as a Global Pollutant in Halifax this July. Documentary (British Channel 4's "Inside Nature's Giants") concerning our recent field research trip in East Greenland is available on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBsggj9t7VM
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WINTER
2011 |
Nil Basu teaches EHS509 this term. PhD Student Goodrich presents findings at Society of Toxicology Meeting. Lab participates in, and helps co-organize Aamjiwnaang Community Forum on Pollution and Action - click here. New egg-injection studies underway. Ghana trip for summer being planned. Nil Basu conducts field work with International team of scientists in Kap Tobin, East Greenland in February & March ---click here for trip blog maintained by Danish colleagues - http://www.dmu.dk/en/blogs/dietz/. Nil Basu serves as external PhD examiner for Karin Berg at the University of Bergen, Norway.
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FALL
2010 |
10+ presentations at the Annual SETAC meeting in Portland. Nil Basu teaches EHS801 this term, as well as EHS500 (Principles of Environmental Health Sciences) to both residential andcertificate students. Nil Basu presents results at the 2010 Hawaii Seafood Symposium - Making Sense of Seafood Health Benefits and Risks. Here's a YouTube link to a French documentary covering our polar bear dissections with Danish Colleagues.
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SUMMER
2010 |
Congratulations to Jen for attaining PhD candidacy and for publishing her work on herring gulls. Ellen and Lisa win summer undergraduate research fellowships from UROP and NARCH, respectively. Nil presents results to community members and publishes report entitled 'Toxic Metals and Indigenous Peoples near the Marlin Mine in Western Guatemala' with Physicians for Human Rights - LINK. Eight students go to Ghana this May-June to conduct 2nd year of mercury exposure study among small-scale gold miners in the Upper East region. We co-host the Great Lakes Mercury workshop 2010 in Ann Arbor this July. Aamjiwnaang environmental health study is underway and we are recruiting mother-child pairs. Several lab members will run the Dexter-Ann Arbor ½ marathon. Our publication on lemon sharks is highlighted during the Discovery Channel's Shark Week.
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WINTER
2010 |
Getting ready for epidemiological studies with the Michigan Dental Association (MDA) and in Sarnia. Nil Basu teaches EHS509 this term. PhD Student Goodrich presents findings at Society of Toxicology Meeting, and also receives second place prize at the University of Michigan's Annual Toxicology Symposium. Jen's bald eagle monitoring network continues to grow. Nil Basu goes to Ghana to present research findings back to community members. Arctic research highlighted in The Scientist magazine: http://www.the-scientist.com/2010/4/1/50/1/
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FALL
2009 |
Ecotoxicology lab has several planned presentations at upcoming meetings this term: 5 presentations planned for Michigan-SOT in Lansing and 14 presentations at the Annual SETAC meeting in New Orleans. Results from the UM Mercury study with the Michigan Dental Association (MDA) will be mailed out and communicated to MDA membership. Nil Basu teaches EHS801 this term. Nil Basu participates in the AMAP Mercury Expert Panel meeting in Ottawa.
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SUMMER
2009 |
Results presented at IAGLR and ICGMP meetings; Yasaswi, Amanda + team with U-M Prof. Renne successfully conduct a mercury exposure study in gold miners in Northern Ghana; Jen spends 3 weeks at Environment Canada's National Wildlife Research Center; Mercury/hypoxia study successfully completed at the University of Wisconsin; Nil Basu conducts field epidemiology study in Guatemala; New studies initiated on dolphins, bald eagles, yellow perch, murres, and earthworms...
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WINTER
2009 |
Jackie defends her PhD proposal; Dongha's past research is highlighted by Environmental Health News - click here; Ashley wins a Summer UROP Fellowship; Members of research team conduct study at Michigan Dental Association's Annual meeting in Lansing; Nil Basu attends SETAC Pellston Workshop entitled "A Vision and Strategy for Ecotoxicology in the 21st Century:Defining Adverse Outcome Pathways Associated with Ecological Risk".
Nil Basu teaches two courses this term (EHS509 - Ecological Toxicology; EHS801 - Research and Communication Skills in Environmental Health Sciences). Jessica Head (CILER/NOAA) and Abby DeBofsky (UROP student) initiate fish studies in the SNRE aquatics facility. Also - new findings highlighted in the Journal Environmental Science and Technology -- click here for the article "A New Pulp Fact" |
FALL
2008 |
Jen Rutkiewicz (PhD student), Ashley Maiuri (UM senior) and Matthew Bellefleur (UM freshman) join the laboratory. Nil Basu spends a week in Denmark. Visits collaborators at the National Environmental Research Institute (NERI) and Museum of Zoology to discuss research on arctic mammals. Nil Basu participates in GLAD workshop in Wisconsin concerning mercury in the Great Lakes (click here). Neurochemical biomarker laboratory is now operational. Aurore Aubail, PhD student at the National Environmental Research Institute (NERI) of Denmark, visits the Laboratory to study historical mercury trends using polar bear fur.
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SUMMER
2008 |
Several events and projects this summer - Kelly Bakulski (PhD, EHS - mercury and grebe feathers), Jackie Gaydos (SNPs and mercury in ADA cohort), Yi Wang (mercury risk assessment in ADA Cohort w. Prof Franzblau), Katie Remensnyder (wildlife as sentinels at the Tar Creek Superfund Site, w. Prof Hu), Jessi Carrothers (SROP student - mercury and Florida seatrout), Imraan Allarakhia (guillemots from a contaminated military site). Dr. Dong-Ha Nam (postdoctoral fellow, Ehime University, Japan) will join the lab, and Professor Kyungho Choi will visit us from Seoul National University. Nil Basu will teach the Telluride program with Professor Nriagu - click here
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2007 -
2008 |
The Ecotoxicology Lab at the University of Michigan is officially open! Interested in joining? We have lots of exciting projects available for students (graduate and undergraduate), postdocs, and visiting scholars. The Ecotoxicology Lab obtained its first Major Equipment, the DMA80 for the direct and rapid measurement of mercury. The Ecotoxicology Lab presented results at the Annual SETAC Conference (Milwaukee, USA) and the UM Center for Risk Science's Bernstein Symposium. Nil Basu and Jerry Keeler are running a Science Cafe entitled "Pollution at the Poles" on Feb 13th at Connor O'Neill's Pub in downtown Ann Arbor. Details:http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/r_events/events.php?se=11362
Nil Basu has been chosen to be a 2008 Environmental Health Science Communication Fellow; will communicate and promote new research to the general public. Details:http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/scfellows/2008/2008scicommfellows.html The Ecotoxicology Lab presented results at the Annual Society of Toxicology Meeting (Seattle, USA).D Student Jackie Gaydos wins a Summer Risk Sciences Fellowship. Details: http://fridayletter.asph.org/article_view.cfm?FLE_Index=7112&FL_Index=1512 Laboratory's work on arctic mammals is highlighted in the SPH magazine - click here |
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