SUMMARY
In 1973, millions of Michigan residents were exposed to polybrominated biphenyls (PBB), a flame-retardant
chemical, in what is considered one of the largest environmental disasters in US history and led to the creation
of the Michigan PBB Registry. At 50 years old, this environmental epidemiology cohort (EEC) is one of the
longest running multigenerational cohorts in the US with over 7,500 participants, making it uniquely situated
for studying the health effects of an endocrine disrupting chemical (EDC) across the lifecourse and across
generations. Since 2011, the Michigan PBB EEC has had strong community-researcher partnerships with the
Pine River Superfund Citizen Task Force, PBB Citizen Advisory Board, and Mid-Michigan District Health
Department. The Michigan PBB EEC primarily consists of rural, White residents who were exposed to PBB as
adults. In this proposal, we seek to expand community engagement and participation in the PBB EEC to
include Detroit residents and the younger generations through community meetings and focus groups. The
expanded and diversified cohort will facilitate future research on the trans-generational impacts of EDCs,
including biological mechanisms, and the role of EDC exposure in combination with other aspects of the
exposome, particularly social factors such as structural racism. To date, the Michigan PBB EEC has produced
>150 scientific contributions with continuous federal research funding since 1996. We now propose to expand
collaboration with participants and scholars from historically underrepresented groups. We will ensure that this
valuable cohort is accessible to trainees and researchers beyond Emory University, especially those at
minority and undergraduate serving institutions. We will update the participants’ health status and link PBB
EEC data to several cancer registries. We will enhance the Researcher and Participant Portals, improving
communication, documentation and metadata, harmonizing standard language and common data elements for
optimal data sharing, building family pedigrees to enable trans-generational research, and disseminating our
continuing medical education course on EDCs to healthcare providers. The Michigan PBB EEC has trained
diverse students since 1996, training 12 postdoctoral fellows and 89 students at multiple colleges and
universities. Finally, we will leverage the Michigan PBB EEC to recruit, train, and partner with scholars from
populations that are historically underrepresented groups within environmental health research. We will
collaborate with Spelman College, a historically Black college in Atlanta, GA, and Alma College, an
undergraduate serving college in rural Michigan, to mentor students in environmental health. To diversify
researchers who work with the Michigan PBB EEC, we will promote the Researcher Portal at scientific
conferences that prioritize scholars from historically underrepresented communities. Overall, this infrastructure
grant will allow the Michigan PBB EEC to continue, expand, and diversify not only its participants, but trainees
and researchers who can learn and generate new scientific knowledge from this unique cohort.
