We had a successful 8th Annual Society Meeting this past week at the Rizzo Center in Chapel Hill, NC. The meeting theme was “Exploring Translational DOHaD Science: from Cells to Communities.” We had 158 registered attendees, nearly half of which were trainees! We were pleased to have been joined by members and guests from 27 different states and four countries! In addition, we had a representative from the Latin America DOHaD Society, Dr. Antonio Marcus de Andrade Paes, who joined us as part of our collaboration that aims to foster scientific exchanges between the US and LA DOHaD Regional Societies.
A record number of trainees (65!) participated in Trainee Day this year! This is a testament to the outstanding program organized by US DOHaD Leadership Council trainee representatives, Dr. Megan Beetch and Kyle Siemers. The trainee day program included engaging sessions on NIH grant writing presented by Dr. Kurt Albertine (Children’s Mercy), Peer Review and Publishing by Dr. Kim Gaetz (NIEHS), Public Health and DOHaD Advocacy by Dr. Sarah Verbiest (UNC), and Professional Branding by Dr. Vanessa Doriott Anderson (UNC). Another exciting feature was the DOHaD CONNECT session that featured small group discussions on topics ranging from collaboration to funding and transitions. We thank the many outstanding faculty and participants who engaged in this session to make it a meaningful interaction for the trainee participants.
This year’s scientific program was excellent and well organized – many thanks to the heroic efforts of Dr. Linda Adair (ECHO Representative), Dr. Kaela Varberg (Vice President) and Dr. Danielle Christifano (President). We kicked off the meeting with two DOHaD champions, Dr. Jerry Heindel and Dr. Matthew Gilman. We then had a packed poster session accompanied by heavy Hors d’oeuvres and drinks in the evening of Trainee Day. This was an engaging poster session with competition for the top prize in three categories of trainees.
The meeting theme, “Exploring Translational DOHaD Science: from Cells to Communities” included keynote and abstract-selected oral presentations that were organized into five sub-themes: 1) Early Nutrition and Developmental Outcomes, 2) Prenatal Origins of Child Health, 3) Developmental Impacts of Toxicant Exposures, 4) Metabolic Origins of Health, and 5) Maximizing Translational Impact of DOHaD. The topics covered by the keynote and abstract presentations represented the breadth of DOHaD research and resulted in engaging, multi-disciplinary discussions from participants across the US.
The success of our 8th Annual Society Meeting was made possible by the tireless efforts of our Trainee Representatives (Dr. Megan Beetch and Kyle Siemers), ECHO representative (Dr. Linda Adair), Faculty Representatives (Alina Maloyan and Satish Kumar Natarajan), our Secretary (Dr. Erin Madriago), our Treasurer (Serena Gumusoglu), our Vice President (Dr. Kaela Varberg), and our President (Dr. Danielle Christiafno). Importantly, we are grateful and acknowledge the NIEHS R13/U13 (1R13ES034643) award, financial support from the ECHO program, and additional funding through a generous grant from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. We thank our members, who served as session chairs and poster judges who energetically engaged in the research presented by our trainees, junior faculty, and keynotes. We extend a special thanks to Nicole Mathis and Lara Bennett (Dr. Christifano’s lab member) for their generous support in event coordination and administration. Finally, this year we recognized Dr. Phu Tran as a recipient of the US DOHaD Leadership Recognition award, Dr. Suzanne Fenton as a recipient of the inaugural US DOHaD Scientist Award, and Project Viva as the first awardee of the US DOHaD Team Science Award. We continued the tradition of providing all society members with a collar pin reflective of the 2022 rebranding efforts. In addition, we continued the tradition of a meeting attendee group photo (attached). We look forward to seeing you at our next 9th Annual Meeting which will be held July 30-August 1, 2025 at the Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, OR. Lastly, please continue to engage in the US DOHaD community by registering as a Society member to receive newsletter news and updates throughout the year.
