The Community, Environment and Policy Department presents:

                                                                     

     Classroom Microbial Exposures and Asthma in Elementary School Children
     Wednesday December 6, 2023
     12:00 –12:50 pm
     Drachman Hall A114 and
     Zoom: https://arizona.zoom.us/j/88468400894
     

 

Peggy Lai, MD, MPH

Abstract: Children spend the majority of their day in school and school attendance is mandatory. Exposures to microbes in the indoor built environment, both pathogens and non-pathogens, impact the health of occupants in both positive and negative ways. This talk will focus on the measurement of indoor bacterial, fungal, and viral exposures in elementary schools using molecular techniques including metagenomics sequencing, and the discussion of environmental factors that influence exposure, and health implications.

Bio: Dr. Peggy Lai is a Physician Investigator in the Clinical and Translational Epidemiology Unit, an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, a physician in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. Her research group performs clinical and translational research at the intersection of environmental exposures, the human microbiome, and lung disease. Her work is supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the American Lung Association, the American Thoracic Society, and a Transformative Scholars Award from the MGH Department of Medicine.

Dr. Lai earned her MD at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and an MPH from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She completed her Internal Medicine Residency at New York Presbyterian - Weill Cornell and her Pulmonary and Critical Care fellowship at MGH, BWH, and BIDMC.