School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and the Bristol Medical School successfully held a webinar on March 31. The webinar was moderated by Professor Pan An from the School of Public Health of HUST and Associate Professor Liang-Fong Wong from Bristol Medical School. Nicholas Timpson, Professor of genetic epidemiology at the University of Bristol, Professor Li Yuanyuan, Director of Department of Health Toxicology of HUST SPH, and Professor He Meian, Department of Occupational Health and Environmental Health at the School of Public Health of HUST, introduced their research fields with the participants. Haikun Wang, Manager of Division for Medical Exchange and Collaboration of HUST Office of International Affairs, and Gabrielle Osborne, member of the Foreign Relation Department of Bristol University, attended the meeting.
Professor Nicholas Timpson is the chief researcher of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) cohort in the School of Medicine, University of Bristol. He introduced the ALSPAC cohort in terms of the cohort origin, recruitment, follow-up, biological sample library, and development prospects. He also showed multiple research results of the cohort. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the platform resources have been fully utilized by researchers, and their research results have also significantly contributed to government policymaking. Researchers are currently engaged in integrating the cohort resource with other institutional resources, aiming at further utilizing the cohort resources in the long term.
Presentation by Professor Nicholas Timpson
Professor Li Yuanyuan introduced Wuhan Health Baby Cohort (HBC). The cohort consists of a prenatal and birth cohort that aims to assess the association between exposure to environmental pollutants during pregnancy and adverse health outcomes. She further introduced the recruitment of the baseline population, physical examination, and five-year follow-up strategies and methods. She shared the research findings of the cohort on the associations between exposure to environmental pollutants and pregnancy complications, birth outcomes, child growth and development, neurodevelopment, and the incidence of allergic diseases. She also presented their studies on metabolomics, amino acidomics, lipidomics, and genomics in the cohort.
Presentation by Li Yuanyuan
Professor He Meian introduced Dongfeng-Tongji Cohort (DFTJ). She introduced the background and objective of establishing the Dongfeng-Tongji cohort, the recruitment and follow-up of baseline populations. She presented several scientific research outcomes based on the cohort, including studies on GWAS detection, DNA methylation, plasma metal, and persistent organic pollutants (POPs). In addition, she introduced the molecular epidemiological research results based on the cohort on cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, tumors and diabetes, etc.
Presentation by He Meian
Professor Nicholas Timpson and Professor Liang-Fong Wong thanked both professors for their wonderful sharing. Professor Timpson mentioned that there are multiple research topics worth discussing with HUST scholars, such as themes on environmental pollutants and health, air pollution exposure, and cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, and he looked forward to furthering cooperation in the future.
Professor Pan An expressed thanks to all the speakers and participants of the webinar. He mentioned that both colleges had extensive experience in terms of cohort construction and significant achievements in relevant research, and there are multiple potential areas for further cooperation. He hoped that the event would promote more exchanges between the two institutions.
The School of Public Health of HUST-Tongji attaches great importance to international exchanges and has made great efforts to open international collaboration channels. The school has steadily increased its level of internationalization in terms of high-end lectures, international conferences, student exchanges, and joint training. In May 2021, Tongji Medical College of HUST signed multiple partnership agreements with the University of Bristol, including a joint talent training project for postgraduates of HUST SPH.
