Placental and immune cell DNA methylation reference panel for bulk tissue cell composition estimation in epidemiological studies.

To distinguish DNA methylation (DNAm) from cell proportion changes in whole placental villous tissue research, we developed a robust cell type-specific DNAm reference to estimate cell composition. We collated new and existing cell type DNAm profiles quantified via Illumina EPIC or 450k microarrays. To estimate cell composition, we deconvoluted whole placental samples ( = 36) with robust partial correlation based on the top 30 hyper- and hypomethylated sites identified per cell type.

Body dissatisfaction widens the racial disparities of Benzophenone-3, a chemical biomarker of personal care and consumer product usage.

Background: Body dissatisfaction can drive individuals to use personal care products, exposing themselves to Benzophenone-3 (BP3). Yet, no study has examined the link between body dissatisfaction and elevated chemical exposures.

Objectives: Our study examines how body dissatisfaction impacts the racial differences in BP3 exposures.

Applying cell painting in non-tumorigenic breast cells to understand impacts of common chemical exposures.

The general population is exposed to many chemicals which have putative, but incompletely understood, links to breast cancer. Cell Painting is a high-content imaging-based in vitro assay that allows for unbiased measurements of concentration-dependent effects of chemical exposures on cellular morphology. We used Cell Painting to measure effects of 16 human exposure relevant chemicals, along with 21 small molecules with known mechanisms of action, in non-tumorigenic mammary epithelial cells, the MCF10A cell line.

Exposome-wide association study of cognition among older adults in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Cognitive impairment among older adults is a growing public health challenge and environmental chemicals may be modifiable risk factors. A wide array of chemicals has not yet been tested for association with cognition in an environment-wide association framework. In the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999-2000 and 2011-2014 cross-sectional cycles, cognition was assessed using the Digit Symbol Substitution Test (DSST, scores 0-117) among participants aged 60 years and older.

Random survival forest for predicting the combined effects of multiple physiological risk factors on all-cause mortality.

Understanding the combined effects of risk factors on all-cause mortality is crucial for implementing effective risk stratification and designing targeted interventions, but such combined effects are understudied. We aim to use survival-tree based machine learning models as more flexible nonparametric techniques to examine the combined effects of multiple physiological risk factors on mortality. More specifically, we (1) study the combined effects between multiple physiological factors and all-cause mortality, (2) identify the five most influential factors and visualize their combined influence on all-cause mortality, and (3) compare the mortality cut-offs with the current clinical thresholds.