Basic Science
Career Development
Children with Chronic Conditions
Community Pediatrics
Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics
Developmental Biology
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Environmental Health
General Pediatrics
Global Neonatal & Children's Health
Health Equity/Social Determinants of Health
Health Services Research
Medical Education
Neonatology
Gregory Barnes, MD/PhD
Norton Children’s Hospital
Louisville, Kentucky, United States
Lu Cai, MD, PhD
Professor/Director
Pediatric Research Institute, the University of Louisville
Louisville, Kentucky, United States
Session
Description: Essential metals are crucial for tissue development and cellular function. Therefore, it is important to maintain the essential metal homeostasis which not only relies on the appropriate intake of these essential metals, but also is affected by undesirable intake of nonessential metal. Non-essential heavy metals such as cadmium, arsenic and chromium are considered as chemicals of major public health concern by the World Health Organizations because they are increasingly associated with a variety of adverse health outcomes including neurological disorders, birth defects and metabolic syndrome. Nevertheless, the underlying mechanisms by which non-essential metals influence disease initiation, progression, and exacerbation are not well understood. Specially whether and how maternal exposure to these low-level non-essential metals leading to increased risk of developing diseases in children remain understudied. This symposium, composed of speakers with expertise in a variety of epidemiological to clinical and translational bench works, to highlight the risk of maternal exposure to environmental nonessential metals on developmental origins of disease. Overall, the proposed symposium hot topic will present interesting data and strong evidence for the association of prenatal exposure of non-essential metals and pediatric diseases, such as neurological disorders, birth defects, metabolic syndrome and cancer. Nowadays, the causal effects of complex diseases such as autism, type 2 diabetes, heart failure and cancer are still not clear, thus investigation of the impact of early life environmental exposures on diseases development may shed light on their etiology and thus will contribute to disease prevention and therapy.
Speaker: Gregory N. Barnes, MD/PhD – Norton Children’s Hospital
Speaker: Lonnie Sears, PhD – University of Louisville
Speaker: Ke K. Zhang, PhD (he/him/his) – Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine
Speaker: Lu Cai, MD, PhD – Pediatric Research Institute, the University of Louisville