From: Bernadette Boden-Albala, MPH, DrPH - Director and Founding Dean, Program in Public Health zotmail@uci.eduSubject: Update: We are Public Health Newsletter | December 2020

Date: December 17, 2020 at 5:01 PMTo: All UCI Employees (Campus, Medical Center, and College of Health Sciences) zotmail@uci.edu

Bernadette Boden-Albala, MPH, DrPH

Director and Founding Dean

Dear UCI Community,

With the holidays upon us, I would like to take this opportunity to express how grateful I feel to be part of such a special community. It is true that this time of year

brings no greater joy than to offer my sincerest gratitude for your service to our campus community and beyond, especially in light of the challenges that this past

year has presented.

Almost instantly, we were forced to alter our habits and adapt to new realities at work, school, and home. The global pandemic required us to make sacrifices that we

never have before, from isolating and physical distancing to relying on Zoom for nearly all social interaction.

It has been a long and arduous road -- one that will continue into the new year and

call on us to maintain our strength as we forge ahead in our work to reduce the burden of the virus.

Despite its challenges, in many ways, the pandemic has brought us together.

This collective experience has rallied our community around the common goal of protecting one another on campus and beyond. I have every confidence that we willcontinue to come together in the new year, stronger (and hopefully after the holidays,

more rested) than ever. Wishing you and your loved ones a safe and happy holiday season. On behalf of the

Program in Public Health, thank you again for all that you do.

Santa Ana Surveillance Study

The UCI Program in Public Health is partnering with the city of Santa Ana toconduct COVID-19 antibody testing of 8,000 residents to determine exposure

throughout the community.

throughout the community.

Santa Ana has been disproportionately burdened by the public health threat ofCOVID-19 with a significant impact of social determinants of health on disparities inincidence and severity. The city is home to a large proportion of essential workers,

including first responders like healthcare workers.

The study is being conducted by members of the research team who also conductedthe Orange County-wide seroprevalence study (actOC) in Summer 2020 and

utilizes the same innovative protein microarray technology, which was developed bythe university’s Vaccine Research and Development Center. The project is

integrated, in part, into Santa Ana CARES, the city’s existing infrastructure ofCOVID-19 mobile resource units, which visits neighborhoods and parks to provide

free testing, masks, information, and other resources to residents. Testing concludesthis month.

Learn more by watching KTLA's coverage of the study here.

Pacific Symphony Consultancy Project

To develop safety protocols and a plan to produce safe live events, The PacificSymphony turned to UCI experts in infectious diseases, including faculty from the

Program in Public Health. Learn more by watching ABC7's coverage of theproject and interview with Dr. Karen Edwards here.

"The problem of course are the wind and brass players, like trumpets and the flutes,and the clarinets. They cannot wear a mask and play their instrument. So we've had

to work with the symphony to come up with a plan to keep everybody safe," Dr.Edwards says.

12/11/20: UC Irvine researchers launch COVID-19antibody study in Santa Ana

WATCH NOW

antibody study in Santa Ana

12/10/20: Thanksgiving Surge Begins. OC Hospitals Toldto Add Space, Cancel Surgeries

(Andrew Noymer)

12/09/20: UCI Santa Ana CARES Antibody Testing(Daniel Parker)

12/09/20: Ciudad de Santa Ana lanza programa depruebas de anticuperos / City of Santa Ana Launches

Antibody Testing Program

12/08/20: As cases rise, college students take COVID-19prevention into their own hands

(Anteater Ambassadors)

12/04/20: The Virus Is Devastating the U.S., and Leavingan Uneven Toll - Front page story

(Andrew Noymer)

12/04/20: As the pandemic tears through California,some counties begin shutdowns

(Andrew Noymer)

12/02/20: OC Health Officials Report Jump in COVID-19Hospitalizations; Cases Surpass 80K

(Andrew Noymer)

(Andrew Noymer)

11/29/20: Massive coronvirus vaccine effort facesenormous challenges in California

(Andrew Noymer)

11/18/20: More than 3 million people in U.S. estimated tobe contagious with the coronavirus

(Andrew Noymer)

Department of Environmental andOccupational Health

Congratulations to Dr. Michael Kleinman, whose vaping study was just named oneof the top 10 UC studies in 2020! This study was done in collaboration with Dr.Robert Kloner, Vice President of Translation; Scientific Director, CardiovascularResearch, and Chief Science Officer at Huntington Medical Research Institute.

Nicotine, THC, and Vitamin E oil were previously thought to contribute to the serious

Nicotine, THC, and Vitamin E oil were previously thought to contribute to the seriouslung injuries associated with e-cigarette use. Early results from Drs. Kleinman andKloner's study indicate that the culprit could instead be the nickel-chromium alloy

heating elements in e-cigarettes. Learn more here.

Revised 12/17/20 4:00pm PT

The Air Pollution Health Effects Lab (APHEL), which is co-directed by Dr. MichaelKleinman, is gearing up for a 1-year exposure experiment to study the effects ofultrafine, fine and coarse PM on the development and progression of Alzheimer's

disease-related brain cellular and biochemical changes.

Department of Epidemiology andBiostatistics

Dr. Beth Thomas, Researcher in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatisticsand faculty member of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Salivary Bioscience Research

(IISBR), will be overseeing the launch of a new COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2)Nucleocapsid Protein (N-protein) specific IgG antibody assay as part of the IISBR

service center.

This assay has been authorized by the FDA under Emergency Use Authorization tosupport researchers’ seroprevalence studies related to the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 infection. The easy-to-collect, non-invasive nature of saliva sampling facilitates theidentification of prior COVID-19 exposure, enabling seroprevalence research studies

to occur at a population-based level. Visit here or contact Beth Thomas ateathoma1@uci.edu for additional information.

The Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics has had strong representation thisyear with graduate students presenting their research at the American Society of

Human Genetics (ASHG) virtual conference in October. ASHG is the world’s largesthuman genetics conference.

Tulika Kakati (Fulbright-Nehru visiting scholar, Computer Science; PI: Trina Norden-

Krichmar) presented her research poster entitled “Classification of DifferentiallyExpressed Genes using a Convolutional Neural Network”. Tulika also received an

ASHG Developing Country Award for her poster.

Stanislav Listopad (Computer Science, PI: Trina Norden-Krichmar) presented hisresearch poster entitled “Comparison of Differential Expression, Information Gain,

and Random Forest for Feature Selection with RNA sequencing data”.

and Random Forest for Feature Selection with RNA sequencing data”.

Xiaochen Liu (Epidemiology, PI: Trina Norden-Krichmar) presented her researchposter entitled “Single-cell RNA sequencing reveals transcriptional heterogeneity of

viral and alcohol-associated hepatitis”.

Rachel Lucia (Epidemiology, PI: Hannah Lui Park) presented her research posterentitled “Epigenome-wide association study of mammographic density”.

Chloe Thangavelu (Biological Chemistry; PI: Trina Norden-Krichmar) presented her

research poster entitled “Meta-analysis of ATAC-seq data to explore chromatinaccessibility during iPSC reprogramming”.

Department of Health, Society andBehavior

On December 10, Dr. Annie Ro delivered a presentation titled "PersistingInequalities and Paths Forward: A Report on the State of Undocumented Students at

California's Public Universities" as part of a project with the UC Collaborative toPromote Immigrant and Student Equity (UC PromISE).

During this presentation, Dr. Ro gave a briefing on a new report from UC PromISEwhere she offered in-depth coverage of the findings and a discussion of what

where she offered in-depth coverage of the findings and a discussion of whatstakeholders need to know to advance equity and inclusion for undocumented

students. The briefing featured conversation with some of the report's authors aboutkey findings and offer specific steps that educational institutions can take to combatpersisting inequalities and forge pathways toward equity and inclusion. Learn more

about UC PromISE here.

Department of Population Health andDisease Prevention

Congratulations to Drs. Guiyun Yan and Oladele Ogunseitan who were recentlyidentified as top 2% scientists in the world! Both are ranked in the top 1% of theirfields, according to a Stanford University report released in November 2020. The listrepresents the top 3% of the most-cited scientists in various disciplines and includes

159,683 persons.

Dr. Oladele Ogunseitan recently presented an award for non-toxic neighborhoodsto the City of Irvine and met with incoming Mayor of Irvine Farrah Khan, outgoing

Mayor Christina Shea, and youths.

Dr. Ogunseitan stops for a picture with youths and incoming Mayor of Irvine Farrah Khan.

Outgoing Mayor of Irvine Christina Shea receives an award from Dr. Ogunseitan.

Lunchtime Lecture Series:COVID-19 and Our Campus ft. David Souleles

In last week's Lunchtime Lecture, David M. Souleles, Director of the COVID-19Response Team, provided updates about pandemic response on campus and how

the UCI community can continue to come together to mitigate risks of the virus.Missed the event? Watch it here!

CUGH Tom Hall Education Grant

Congratulations to Dr. Oladele Ogunseitan for being selected to receive the TomHall Education Grant by the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH).

The grant will support his project entitled "Delphi Procedure for Defining NextGeneration Competencies for One Health".

Altshuler, S. L., Zhang, Q., Kleinman, M. T., Garcia-Menendez, F., Moore, C., Hough, M. L.,

Stevenson, E. D., Chow, J. C., Jaffe, D. A., & Watson, J. G. (2020). Wildfire and prescribed

burning impacts on air quality in the United States. Journal of the Air & Waste Management

Association (1995), 70(10), 961–970. https://doi.org/10.1080/10962247.2020.1813217

Previous critical reviews and discussions examined relationships between pollutantconcentrations and health, but they are not specific to biomass burning (BB)

exposures. These exposures occur sporadically so that most general populationhealth effects studies are retrospectively conducted with ecological time seriesanalyses. In this article, Dr. Michael Kleinman reviews an array of outcomes

associated with BB exposure.

Kleinman, M. T., Arechavala, R. J., Herman, D., Shi, J., Hasen, I., Ting, A., Dai, W., Carreno,

J., Chavez, J., Zhao, L., & Kloner, R. A. (2020). E-cigarette or Vaping Product Use-

Associated Lung Injury Produced in an Animal Model From Electronic Cigarette Vapor

Exposure Without Tetrahydrocannabinol or Vitamin E Oil. Journal of the American Heart

Association, 9(18), e017368. https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.120.017368

E-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury was recognized in theU.S. in the summer of 2019 and is typified by acute respiratory distress,

shortness of breath, chest pain, cough, and fever, associated with vaping. It canmimic many of the manifestations of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).Some investigators have suggested that E-cigarette or vaping product use-

associated lung injury was due to tetrahydrocannabinol or vitamin E acetate oilmixed with the electronic cigarette liquid.

In experimental rodent studies initially designed to study the effect of electroniccigarette use on the cardiovascular system, Dr. Michael Kleinman and team

observed an E-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury-likecondition that occurred acutely after use of a nichrome heating element at high

power, without the use of tetrahydrocannabinol, vitamin E, or nicotine.Electronic cigarette users should be cautioned about the potential danger ofoperating electronic cigarette units at high settings; the possibility that certainheating elements may be deleterious; and that E-cigarette or vaping product

use-associated lung injury may not be dependent upon tetrahydrocannabinol,vitamin E, or nicotine.

Ramanathan, G., Craver-Hoover, B., Arechavala, R. J., Herman, D. A., Chen, J. H., Lai, H. Y.,

Renusch, S. R., et al. (2020). E-Cigarette Exposure Decreases Bone Marrow Hematopoietic

Progenitor Cells. Cancers, 12(8), 2292. MDPI AG. Retrieved from

http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cancers12082292

Electronic cigarettes (E-cigs) generate nicotine containing aerosols for inhalation andhave emerged as a popular tobacco product among adolescents and young adults,yet little is known about their health effects due to their relatively recent introduction.Few studies have assessed the long-term effects of inhaling E-cigarette smoke orvapor. Here, Dr. Michael Kleinman and team show that two months of E-cigaretteexposure causes suppression of bone marrow hematopoietic stem and progenitor

cells (HSPCs). Findings of this study reveal that chronic E-cigarette exposure for twomonths alters the bone marrow HSPC populations but does not affect HSC

reconstitution in primary transplants.

Tang IW, Langlois PH, Vieira VM. Birth defects and unconventional natural gas

developments in Texas, 1999-2011. Environ Res. 2020 Nov 24:110511. doi:

10.1016/j.envres.2020.110511. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 33245885.

Unconventional natural gas developments (UNGD) may release air and water

pollutants into the environment, potentially increasing the risk of birth defects. In thisstudy, Dr. Veronica Vieira and team conducted a case-control study evaluating

52,955 cases with birth defects and 642,399 controls born between 1999 and 2011to investigate the relationship between UNGD exposure and the risk of gastroschisis,

congenital heart defects (CHD), neural tube defects (NTDs), and orofacial clefts inTexas. Results of this study suggest that UNGDs are associated with some CHDs

and possibly NTDs.

Masri, S., Simolaris, A., Hopfer, S., & Wu, J. (2020). Assessment of Climate Change

Sentiment, Engagement and Adaptation through a Community-Based Outreach Campaign

and Questionnaire across the United States. Earth, 1(1), 75–96. MDPI AG. Retrieved from

http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/earth1010006

This study featuring Drs. Shahir Masri, Suellen Hopfer, Athina Simolaris, andJun Wu described the results from a five-month campaign that included

questionnaires (n = 500) and one-on-one interviews (n = 24) to assess climatechange sentiment, engagement, adaptation, as well as understand who climate

outreach reaches and the observations and concerns such groups report across theU.S. It helps inform elected officials, urban planners, and climate communicators as

it relates to the allocation of resources for climate adaptation and education, andhighlights key knowledge gaps that deserve focus by future outreach efforts.

Widyastuti, H.P., Norden-Krichmar, T.M., Grosberg, A. and Zaragoza, M. (2020). Gene

expression profiling of fibroblasts in a family with LMNA-related cardiomyopathy reveals

molecular pathways implicated in disease pathogenesis. BMC Medical Genetics, 21:152.

Intermediate filament proteins that construct the nuclear lamina of a cell include theLamin A/C proteins encoded by the LMNA gene, and are implicated in fundamental

processes such as nuclear structure, gene expression, and signal transduction.LMNA mutations predominantly affect cell lineages in diseases collectively termed aslaminopathies that include dilated cardiomyopathy with conduction defects, different

forms of muscular dystrophies, and premature aging syndromes as Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome. At present, our understanding of the molecular

mechanisms regulating tissue-specific manifestations of laminopathies are stilllimited.

In this article, Dr. Trina Norden-Krichmar and team conducted deep RNAsequencing and pathway analysis for nine fibroblast samples obtained from three

patients with cardiomyopathy, three unaffected family members, and three unrelated,unaffected individuals. They identified eight significantly differentially expressed

genes between the mutant and non-mutant fibroblasts, that included downregulatedinsulin growth factor binding factor protein 5 (IGFBP5) in patient samples. IGFBP5

may contribute in maintaining signaling pathway homeostasis, which may lead to theabsence of notable molecular and structural abnormalities in unaffected tissues suchas fibroblasts. Their results provide insight into the molecular mechanism of disease

with a possible explanation for the tissue specificity of LMNA-related dilatedcardiomyopathy.

Brandon Osborn and Theresa Duong

Congratulations to Theresa Duong and Brandon Osborn for being selected toreceive a 2020-2021 Public Impact Fellowship Award! The Public Impact

Fellowship supports and highlights academically excellent students whoseresearch demonstrates the potential to significantly improve or enrich the lives

of people in California and beyond.

Brandon also received the Chancellor's Club Fund for Excellence FellowshipAward, which recognizes UCI's most academically excellent doctoral studentswho exhibit outstanding promise as scholars, researchers, and public leaders.

Fellows are selected for academic excellence, accomplishments, andleadership qualities consistent with the mission of the Chancellor's Club to

represent, develop, and support our future leaders.

Please join us in congratulating Theresa and Brandon on these wonderfulachievements!

Xiaochen Liu

Congratulations to Xiaochen Liu, doctoral student in the Department ofEpidemiology and Biostatistics (PI: Trina Norden-Kichmar), for successfully

advancing to candidacy in November!

Copyright © 2020 UC Irvine Public Health. All rights reserved

Our mailing address is:3080 Anteater Instruction and Research Building

653 E. Peltason DriveIrvine, CA 92697-3957