Virginia A Rauh, ScD, MSW

Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health: This Center is conducting a longitudinal study of the neurotoxic effects of indoor and ambient air pollution on a cohort of mothers and offspring in northern Manhattan and the South Bronx. The study includes an array of biomarkers of exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, environmental tobacco smoke, pesticides, diesel exhaust and allergens, among others. The cohort of inner-city participants has now been followed into the early adult years for possible long-term effects on health and neurodevelopment. The study also includes assessment of exposure to social stressors, such as housing quality and other neighborhood conditions.

Trauma-Free NYC: Trauma-Free NYC is a Columbia University-Community Partnership focused on identifying and promoting trauma-informed practice and policies in New York City that will promote health, resilience, and well-being while working to prevent adverse experiences, buffer the impact of disadvantage, and reduce health disparities. The mission is to bring together New Yorkers who are committed to creating trauma-informed partnerships across sectors and to promote the integration of scientific advances regarding the causes and effects of trauma into the work of local government, education, social services, health care, law enforcement, and faith-based communities of NYC.

Effects of prenatal residential pesticide exposure on young adult brain, physiological and neurobehavioral function : Multiple studies have demonstrated an association between organophosphate (OP) insecticide exposure and Parkinson's Disease (PD) in adults, but virtually no studies have explored the pathogenic process that begins long before the appearance of motor symptoms. In this study we test the novel hypothesis that prenatal CPF exposure has long-term motor consequences, including neurological signs and brain-based biomarkers of PD risk that are measureable early in the pathogenic process, prior to the identification of clinically confirmed symptoms or diagnosis in an urban minority birth cohort that has been followed for 20 years, with a prenatal blood biomarker of exposure to a common OP pesticide, chlorpyrifos (CPF), and regular assessments of neurodevelopment, including multimodal brain scans at 12-14 and 18 years. Aims: (1) conduct a single wave of neurological (extrapyramidal motor dysfunction) and physiological measures (REM sleep behavior disorder, autonomic dysfunction, olfactory deficits); (2) conduct structural MRI for neuromelanin to identify substantia nigra involvement (a biomarker of PD) in these same subjects. (3) employ an innovative statistical procedure using a vast number of functional and structural brain characteristics, based on multi-modal imaging data previously collected at 12-14 and 18 years, to determine whether an exposure-related pattern of neural deficits across modalities (a potential biomarker for PD) can be detected in our young adult cohort. This study has the potential to shift the research paradigm from a focus on neurodegenerative processes in PD to incorporate a neurodevelopmental perspective, with potential implications for future interventions.