Institute of Medicine to hold seminar on air pollution during pregnancy March 25

The University of Maine Institute of Medicine will host a free webinar, “Air Pollution Exposure During Pregnancy and Maternal/Child Health,” from noon–1 p.m. on March 25.

The webinar will feature Abby Fleisch, associate professor of pediatrics at Tufts University School of Medicine, attending physician of pediatric endocrinology and diabetes at Maine Medical Center and researcher at the Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluationat the Maine Medical Center Research Institute.

Fleisch will describe her research examining the health impact of prenatal exposure to air pollution, and studies nested within two prebirth cohorts: the Boston-based Project Viva cohort and the New Hampshire Birth Cohort Study. The studies examine the impact of exposure to air pollution from outdoor sources like traffic and indoor sources like wood stoves on maternal and child cardiometabolic health.

Fleisch’s research is focused on the extent to which early life exposures to environmental toxicants such as air pollution and household chemicals are associated with childhood obesity and bone health. Fleisch is the principal investigator of an Outstanding New Environmental Scientist R01 award from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. She received the Academic Pediatric Association Michael Shannon Research Award in 2012 and an Endocrine Society Early Career Investigator Award in 2016.

Fleisch is also a peer mentor for the Harvard Medical School-Harvard Catalyst Grant Review and Support Program, and an affiliated faculty member and advisor to the New England Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit. She sees endocrinology patients at the Pediatric Subspecialty Clinic at Maine Medical Center.

Registration is required; register online here.