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DEPARTMENT: Environmental Health COURSE NUMBER: EH 527 CREDIT HOURS: 2 COURSE TITLE: Biomarkers in Environmental Public Health SEMESTER: Spring 2016 INSTRUCTOR NAME Dana Boyd Barr, Ph.D. INSTRUCTOR CONTACT INFORMATION EMAIL: [email protected] PHONE: 404-727-9605 SCHOOL ADDRESS OR MAILBOX LOCATION: Rm 2007 CNR OFFICE HOURS M, Wed, Th 9:00-5:00 (best 9-11am and 2-4pm), drop-in or by appointment TEACHING ASSISTANTS N/A BRIEF COURSE DESCRIPTION Assessing exposure to chemical exposures is considered the “Achilles’s Heel” of environmental epidemiology. If exposure is not correctly classified, the results of epidemiologic studies can be invalidated. Biomarker measurements are increasingly used to estimate or assess exposure to a variety of chemical toxicants resulting from both occupational and environmental (background) exposures. These data are used to understand predictors of exposure such as demographic parameters and to evaluate outcomes related to exposures. In addition, they provide information to be implemented in environmental health policy. This course will cover through a series of lectures and case studies when, where and why biomarkers may be useful for exposure assessment and advantages and limitations of biomarker measurements. LIST SCHOOL LEVEL, DEPARTMENT, AND/ OR PROGRAM COMPETENCIES 1. Describe environmental conditions, including biological, physical and chemical factors, which affect the health of individuals, communities and populations (From Core Competencies for all MPH/MSPH students) ACADEMIC HONOR CODE The RSPH requires that all material submitted by a student in fulfilling his or her academic course of study must be the original work of the student. LIST LEARNING OBJECTIVES ASSOCIATED WITH THE COMPETENCIES EH 527 is a course designed to introduce the concept and appropriate use and interpretation of biomarkers in environmental health. Upon completion of the course, students will be able to: 1. Understand when, why and how biomarkers may be used in environmental health research. 2. Explain the differences in how biomarkers are used for assessing chemical exposures and for evaluating adverse health effects. 3. Specify approaches for quantitative assessment of environmental hazards that pose risks to human health in both occupational and environmental settings. 4. Describe current research programs utilizing biomarkers, including the types of biomarkers, limitations, and sources of uncertainty and variability. 5. Develop research protocols including biomarkers for exposure assessment. 6. Formulate research hypotheses for conducting environmental public health studies using biomarkers. EVALUATION Class participation: 25 points Group Case study: 20 points Individual Article Critique: 10 points Final project: 45 points Grading: ≥ 95 points 78 – 84 points 70 – 74 points A B+ B- 85 – 94 points 75 – 77 points 50 – 69 points AB C < 50 points F EH 527: Biomarkers in Environmental Public Health Syllabus – Spring Semester 2016 WHERE AND WHEN: GCR115; Thursdays, 10:00 – 11:50AM COURSE DIRECTOR: Dana Boyd Barr, Ph.D.; email: [email protected]; telephone: 404-727-9605 Office hours: M, W, Th 9:00-5:00 (best 9-11am and 2-4pm), drop-in or by appointment COURSE TEACHING ASSISTANTS: N/A COURSE BLACKBOARD SITE: http://classes.emory.edu/; course title is EH527: Biomarkers in Environmental Public Health – Spring 2016; course announcements will be posted at the Announcements link TEXT: None required. Electronic readings will be provided. COURSE LEARNING OBJECTIVES: EH 527 is a course designed to introduce the concept and appropriate use and interpretation of biomarkers in environmental health. Upon completion of the course, students will be able to: 1. Understand when, why and how biomarkers may be used in environmental health research. 2. Explain the differences in how biomarkers are used for assessing chemical exposures and for evaluating adverse health effects. 3. Specify approaches for quantitative assessment of environmental hazards that pose risks to human health in both occupational and environmental settings. 4. Describe current research programs utilizing biomarkers, including the types of biomarkers, limitations, and sources of uncertainty and variability. 5. Develop research protocols including biomarkers for exposure assessment. 6. Formulate research hypotheses for conducting environmental public health studies using biomarkers. EVALUATION: Evaluation will be based on your class participation, a group case study, an individual article critique, and a final project. These exercises are designed to assess your understanding of lecture materials and readings and to enable you to synthesize the concepts discussed. Class participation: Because this class is relatively small, it will be very interactive. We will have active discussion about certain topics and frequent examples that we will work through as a class. Participation is necessary to glean content from the course. Through active participation and critical discussion, you will be able to develop and/or evaluate studies using biomarkers. Group Case Study: Each group, established randomly, will be assigned two article to read and critique. The BEES-C tool will be made available as well as a Power Point template. The group should read the article, discuss the merits and limitations of the research from a biomarker perspective and develop a descriptive Power Point presentation. The presentation will be given during a class period and the group will facilitate discussion of the articles merits and limitations, alternative ways of conducting the research and other pertinent information related to the article. I am happy to meet with your group individually to discuss the article and to offer a critique of your presentation prior to presenting. Article Critique: An article of importance using biomarkers will be selected for class critique. Each student will be responsible for reading the article outside of class and establishing some critique points for discussion. Although we will critique the article as a class, you will be expected to turn in the written critiques you prepared via the Blackboard Assignment tool before the class begins. This will give us additional content to discuss. Final Project of Biomarker Assessment: The final project is an individual project. Students will self-select a paper that addresses a research question of importance to them that could benefit from the inclusion of biomarkers. You will redesign or augment the design of the study to include biomarkers and to argue of the value added to the study by the use of biomarkers. You can assess the pros and cons of using biomarkers in this study. This project is designed to help you consider all factors that will go into developing a study that involves biomarker assessments. This project will be presented during a 15 min class presentation and discussion session. Final Grade Group case study Article critique Class participation Final project 20 points 10 points 25 points 45 points ≥ 95 points 85 – 94 points 78 – 84 points 75 – 77 points 70 – 74 points 50 – 69 points < 50 points A AB+ B BC F EH 527 - COURSE SCHEDULE Spring 2016, Thursday, 10:00 – 11:50 am, GCR 115 Week 1 2 Date 1/14 1/21 Speaker(s) N/A (instructor ill) Dana Boyd Barr, Ph.D. 3 1/28 Dana Boyd Barr, Ph.D. Environmental Health 4 2/4 Dana Boyd Barr, Ph.D. Environmental Health 5 2/11 6 2/18 7 2/25 Article Critique (Colon et al. 2000) Laboratory tour and demonstration (2 groups, 1 hr each) John R. Barr, Ph.D. Chief, Clinical Chemistry Branch Director, Biological Mass Spectrometry Dana Boyd Barr, Ph.D. 8 3/3 Group 1 Group 2 Dana Boyd Barr, Ph.D. Topic(s) Required Reading Course Overview Introduction to biomarkers None Major chemical classes/ Toxicokinetics/ Matrix selection Methodologic considerations/Study design/Biomarker Initiatives Case Study: Serum phthalates as a biomarker How a biomarker lab operates Barr et al. 2005 Needham et al. 2007 Groopman et al. 2005 Colon et al. 2000 Barr et al. 2003 None Article critique due in blackboard None Biomarkers of chronic and infectious disease None None Biomarkers of Lead and Persistent Organic Pollutants BEES-C Tool Case Study: Lead None Case Study: Persistent Organic Pollutants Biomarkers of Perfluorochemicals and Alkylated phenols Ettinger et al. 2014 Eun et al. 2014 Barr et al. 2006 Eskenazi et al. 2014 None Assignment None Article for critique assigned: Colon et al. 2000 None None Final project topic due in Blackboard Week 9 10 Date 3/10 3/17 11 3/24 12 3/31 Speaker(s) Topic(s) SPRING BREAK – NO CLASS Group 3 Case study: PFOA Exposure from acute contamination Group 4 Case Study: Bisphenol A exposure Dana Boyd Barr, Ph.D. Biomarkers of exposure to tobacco and pesticides Group 5 Case Study: ETS exposure (cotinine) Group 6 Case Study: Organophosphate pesticides Required Reading Assignment Frisbee et al 2010 Taylor et al. 2014 Eng et al. 2013 Brent 2013 None None Yuan et al. 2014 Dove et al. 2010 Engel et al. 2011 Rauh et al. 2011 None Dana Boyd Barr, Ph.D. None Group 7 Dana Boyd Barr, Ph.D. Biomarkers in extant data sets including NHANES Case study: NHANES data 13 4/7 Final Project Presentations Exposomics: The wave of the future 7 presentations (15 min) 14 15 4/14 4/21 Final Project Presentations Final Project Presentations 7 presentations (15 min) 7 presentations (15 min) Bouchard et al. 2010 Bouchard et al. 2011 Miller and Jones 2014 Final project written report due None Final Project Power Points due None None None None