UBC Social Exposome Cluster

Please register for the upcoming in-person public panel on pandemics, trauma, and child development on August 28th 3-5pm at the Vancouver Convention Centre. This event will be held in conjunction with the DOHaD World Congress from August 27-31st. For more information and to register, visit:

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Thank you to all the Social Exposome Cluster faculty and trainees who attended the SEC retreat on Galiano Island June 21-23rd! Workshop sessions included research presentations and discussion-based activities, generating interesting ideas for the future direction of the cluster.

Please mark your calendars for the upcoming Social Exposome Cluster renewal celebration and kickoff! To celebrate the recent grant renewal, the cluster will be hosting a research seminar with Dr. Parveen Bhatti followed by lunch and a social networking event!

Registration is mandatory for this in-person event. Please register here: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/ubc-social-exposome-cluster-renewal-celebration-kickoff-tickets-352886341547

Who: Dr. Parveen Bhatti, Professor
Topic: BC Generations Project
When: Tuesday, June 28th, 2022 from 11am-1pm, catered lunch and social networking event to follow
Where: The Nest, Performance Theatre

In a recent article published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, Social Exposome Cluster member Dr. Kimberlyn McGrail examines the excess deaths in Canada, by province, during the pandemic. Through this perspective, we see the indirect impacts of the pandemic on mortality levels via. delayed medical care and surgeries, the summer 2021 heat dome, and the ongoing tainted drug supply issue in BC. Read the full article here: https://bit.ly/3z5mBn3

Congratulations to SEC Lead Dr. Michael Kobor who has been appointed to lead the new UBC research program in healthy aging. The new program will seek opportunities across the entire lifespan to optimize longevity and quality of life.

York University is hosting the LaMarsh Centre's 2022 climate change talk with Dr. Kam Sripada, “Children’s Brain Development in a Changing Climate" on March 24th at 11am. Please register in advance on Eventbrite! https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/childrens-brain-development-in-a-changing-climate-tickets-262610714717

We are pleased to share that SEC trainee steering committee member Paula Littlejohn is a recipient of the UBC 2021 Dean of Science Excellence in Service Award! The winners will be honored at the upcoming Faculty of Science meeting. Please join us in congratulating Paula!

The International Pediatric Association will be holding a virtual seminar on the Effects of Climate Change in Children on Thursday Jan 27th 2022 at 1pm (UTC). Registration is free and e-certificates will be provided for participants! Register here: https://bit.ly/3txHRz4

SEC member Dr. Manish Sadarangani is director of the Vaccine Evaluation Center at the BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute and assistant professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases, UBC Department of Pediatrics. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Sadarangani’s contributions have been instrumental in the efforts to vaccinate children. He has acted as principal and co-principal investigator(s) on multiple recent research studies investigating the health implications of COVID-19 illness, safety, and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccinations in children and youth in Canada. His ongoing study, the SPRING study, looks for antibodies (against the virus that causes COVID-19) in dried blood samples collected from participants.

One of the Social Exposome Cluster’s members, Dr. Sarah Henderson, the lead environmental health scientist at the BC Centre for Disease Control has been investigating the effects of wildfires on children’s health. Dr. Henderson is also an associate professor in the School of Population and Public Health at UBC. In an interview with CBC news, Dr. Henderson explained that smoke caused by wildfires is dangerous, especially to pregnant women. In an ongoing study, Dr. Henderson and colleagues’ are assessing the health of pregnant women and their babies who lived in the B.C. interior during forest fires in 2017.

In a recent Statistics Canada podcast episode, Dr. Kelley Zwicker discussed the impacts of COVID-19 on Canadian families. A primary topic of conversation was the short and long-term effects of school closures on children and parents. Listen to the episode: https://www.statcan.gc.ca/en/sc/podcasts/eh-sayers-ep02

Opportunity for video involvement - pairs of children and parents.

The UBC Social Exposome Cluster is looking for pairs of children ages 5-6 and parents to answer basic health questions in pairs for a research cluster video! Filming will take place on January 21st, 2022 in the morning for one hour. If you are interested in participating, please email [email protected] for more information.