Columbia’s Public Health School launches Climate & Health Center

The Center for Achieving Resilience in Climate and Health (C-ARCH) will serve as a “solutions lab” to build resiliency to health impacts of climate change

Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health

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In response to the worsening climate crisis, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health is launching the Center for Achieving Resilience in Climate and Health (C-ARCH) to be a global solutions lab for responding to and mitigating the manifold detrimental health impacts of climate change while building adaptive capacity.

C-ARCH’s team of climate and health scientists will forge partnerships with governments and communities worldwide to pursue rigorous research to identify the specific ways climate extremes harm health; design, deploy, and evaluate evidence-based solutions to prevent and respond to these harms; and train generations of scientists across sectors to lead this response. They will assess how current solutions—such as early warning systems and cooling centers for communities vulnerable to heat extremes or drought-resistant crops to help protect food security—map onto specific situations; they will then collaborate with local partners to devise new tailored approaches.

Leaders in Climate and Health

C-ARCH builds on 20 years of leadership on climate and health at Columbia Mailman, whose scientists have documented links between climate change and unwanted health outcomes—from extreme weather to food insecurity, wildfire smoke, mental health impacts, and more. Columbia Mailman researchers have studied solutions like low-emissions stoves and controlled burning to lower wildfire risk, and provided research assessing the health benefits of steps to cut CO2 emissions like low-emissions buses.

In 2008, Columbia Mailman was the first U.S. school of public health to create a climate and health program to support research and education in the nascent field. In 2017, the School launched the Global Center for Climate and Health Education (GCCHE), which has grown to have a membership of more than 200 health professions schools and programs worldwide today. In 2024, Columbia Mailman launched CHART (Climate and Health: Action and Research for Transformational Change), a National Institutes of Health-funded center to build research capacity and catalyze and coordinate climate and health research.

C-ARCH is co-led by Kiros Berhane, PhD, the Cynthia and Robert Citrone-Roslyn and Leslie Goldstein Professor and Chair of Biostatistics and a leader in developing new scientific methods in environmental health research, and Darby Jack, PhD, professor of Environmental Health Sciences, who has studied the health effects of air pollution and policies to accelerate clean household energy transitions in New York City, Ghana, and elsewhere around the world. Berhane and Jack are both principal investigators on a research capacity building effort in Eastern Africa focused on the health impacts of climate change and other environmental hazards.

An Urgent Need for Solutions

The launch of C-ARCH comes as Copernicus, the European Union’s climate monitoring service, recently concluded(link is external and opens in a new window) that 2024 was the first year global temperatures exceeded 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

“There is overwhelming evidence to support the reality of climate change and its many deleterious effects on human health, direct and indirect. What is far from clear is how can societies most effectively safeguard and ultimately improve health in the face of climate change,” says Berhane. “C-ARCH is interested in practical solutions. We will be identifying specific ways to build resilience even as climate change intensifies and our understanding of what the coming years may bring.”

“We envision a world where every community—regardless of location or wealth—thrives in the face of a changing climate. Through rigorous research and long-term partnerships, C-ARCH will help build a future where the health impacts of climate change are understood and overcome,” Jack adds. “We will prioritize marginalized communities who bear the brunt of climate impacts and are at the forefront of resilience efforts.”

Research, Training, Collaboration

C-ARCH will initially focus on several key research areas: uncovering causal pathways linking climate stressors to health; addressing behavioral, mental health and worker productivity impacts; leveraging AI and other advanced data science tools; developing tangible solutions, including policies; and expanding global reach—particularly in low-income countries where climate impacts are severe and adaptive capacity is limited.

This year, C-ARCH will roll out a series of core activities, including a seminar series, a pilot grants program, and monthly convenings of faculty to foster collaboration across Columbia Mailman, CHART, GCCEH, the Columbia Climate School, and beyond.

“By combining cutting-edge science with deep community engagement, we aim to not only understand the health impacts of climate change but also to equip policymakers and communities with the tools they need to build a healthier, more resilient future,” Berhane says.

 

How air pollution and wildfire smoke may contribute to memory loss in Alzheimer’s disease

Scripps Research scientists discovered how a chemical modification of a key brain protein—potentially triggered by climate change-induced air pollution, pesticides, wildfires and processed meats—disrupts normal brain cell function.

Scripps Research Institute

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Brain cells (green) derived from people with Alzheimer’s disease (center) show far fewer projections than healthy neurons (left). Blocking S-nitrosylation of CRTC1, however, restores the cells to a healthier state (right).

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Credit: Scripps Research

LA JOLLA, CA—Air pollution contributes to nearly 7 million premature deaths each year, and its effects go far beyond the lungs. Breathing in wildfire smoke or automobile-related city smog doesn’t just increase the risk of asthma and heart disease—it may also contribute to brain diseases as diverse as Alzheimer’s and autism.

Scientists at Scripps Research have discovered how a chemical change in the brain—which can be triggered by inflammation and aging as well as toxins found in air pollution, pesticides, wildfire smoke and processed meats—disrupts normal brain cell function. Known as S-nitrosylation, this chemical change prevents brain cells from making new connections and ultimately results in cellular death, the team discovered.

The research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on February 27, 2025, showed that blocking S-nitrosylation in a key brain protein partially reversed signs of memory loss in Alzheimer’s mouse models and in nerve cells produced from human stem cells.

“We’ve revealed the molecular details of how pollutants can contribute to memory loss and neurodegenerative disease,” says senior author and professor Stuart Lipton, MD, PhD, the Step Family Foundation Endowed Chair at Scripps Research and a clinical neurologist in La Jolla, California. “This could ultimately lead to new drugs that block these effects to better treat Alzheimer’s disease.”

More than two decades ago, Lipton first discovered S-nitrosylation, a chemical process whereby a molecule related to nitric oxide (NO) binds to sulfur (S) atoms within proteins (producing “SNO”), altering their function and forming what Lipton has called a “SNO-STORM” in the brain. NO is found naturally within the body and produced in response to electrical stimulation or inflammation—but it also forms in excess in response to small particulate material and nitrate-related compounds (designated PM2.5/NOx) present in or triggered by climate change and automobile-related air pollution, wildfire smoke, pesticides, and processed meats. Lipton’s research group and colleagues have previously demonstrated that aberrant S-nitrosylation reactions contribute to some forms of cancer, autism, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and other conditions.

In the new study, Lipton’s group investigated the effect of S-nitrosylation on the protein CRTC1, which helps regulate genes that are critical for forming and maintaining connections between brain cells, an essential process for learning and long-term memory.

Using cultured brain cells from mice and humans, the researchers first confirmed that excess NO leads to S-nitrosylation of CRTC1. They then discovered that this chemical modification prevented CRTC1 from binding to another critical brain regulatory protein, CREB. As a result, other genes necessary for forming connections between neurons failed to be stimulated.

“This is a pathway that affects your memory and is directly implicated in human Alzheimer’s disease,” says Lipton.

Indeed, the team observed high levels of S-nitrosylated CRTC1 at an early stage of disease in Alzheimer's mouse models and in human neurons derived from stem cells of Alzheimer’s patients, further supporting the idea that the chemical change plays a key role in the development of disease symptoms.

Next, the research team genetically engineered a version of CRTC1 that could no longer undergo S-nitrosylation, as the protein now lacked the sulfur-containing amino acid (called cysteine) required for the chemical reaction. In a petri dish, introducing this modified version of CRTC1 into human nerve cells derived from Alzheimer’s patient stem cells prevented signs of disease, including withering of nerve cell connections and decreased nerve cell survival. In Alzheimer’s mouse models, the re-engineered CRTC1 restored the activation of genes required for memory formation and synaptic plasticity—the brain’s ability to strengthen connections between neurons.

“We could nearly completely rescue molecular pathways involved in making new memories,” says Lipton. “It suggests that this is a druggable target that could make a real difference in treating Alzheimer’s and potentially other neurological diseases.”

Given that environmental toxins, including automobile pollution and wildfire smoke, can result in elevated NO levels in the brain, the new study strengthens the hypothesis that these toxins can accelerate brain aging and Alzheimer’s through S-nitrosylation. Preventing S-nitrosylation of CRTC1 could be a viable pathway toward slowing or preventing this type of Alzheimer’s-related brain damage, says Lipton.

The findings may also help explain why Alzheimer’s risk increases with age, he adds. Even without exposure to environmental toxins, aging leads to increased inflammation and higher NO levels, while the body’s antioxidant defenses weaken—making proteins more susceptible to harmful S-nitrosylation reactions.

"We’re learning that S-nitrosylation affects numerous proteins throughout the body, but reversing just some of these changes—like those on CRTC1—could have a significant impact on memory function," explains Lipton.

His research group is now working to develop drugs that can selectively block certain S-nitrosylation reactions, including those affecting CRTC1.

In addition to Lipton, authors of the study, “S-Nitrosylation of CRTC1 in Alzheimer’s disease impairs CREB-dependent gene expression induced by neuronal activity,” are first author Xu Zhang, and contributing authors Roman Vlkolinsky, Chongyang Wu, Nima Dolatabadi, Henry Scott, Andrew Zhang, Mayra Blanco, Nhi Lang, Juan Piña-Crespo, Tomohiro Nakamura and Marisa Roberto of Scripps Research; and Olga Prikhodko, formerly of the UC San Diego Graduate School in Neurosciences.

This work was supported by funding from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (EDUC4-12811), and the National Institutes of Health (R01 AG061845, R61 NS122098, RF1 NS123298, R01 AA021491, U01 AA013498, AA029841, P60 AA006420 R01 AA027700, R35 AG071734, RF1 AG057409, R56 AG065372, R01 AG078756, R01 AG056259, R01 DA048882, DP1 DA041722).

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Journal

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Article Title

S-Nitrosylation of CRTC1 in Alzheimer’s disease impairs CREB-dependent gene expression induced by neuronal activity

Article Publication Date

27-Feb-2025

 

Violence alters human genes for generations, researchers discover

University of Florida

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The study design allowing comparison of violence exposure and epigenetic marks in genomes.

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Credit: Connie Mulligan

In 1982, the Syrian government besieged the city of Hama, killing tens of thousands of its own citizens in sectarian violence. Four decades later, rebels used the memory of the massacre to help inspire the toppling of the Assad family that had overseen the operation.

But there is another lasting effect of the attack, hidden deep in the genes of Syrian families. The grandchildren of women who were pregnant during the siege — grandchildren who never experienced such violence themselves — nonetheless bear marks of it in their genomes. Passed down through their mothers, this genetic imprint offers the first human evidence of a phenomenon previously documented only in animals: The genetic transmission of stress across generations.

“The idea that trauma and violence can have repercussions into future generations should help people be more empathetic, help policymakers pay more attention to the problem of violence,” said Connie Mulligan, Ph.D., a professor of Anthropology and the Genetics Institute at the University of Florida and senior author of the new study. “It could even help explain some of the seemingly unbreakable intergenerational cycles of abuse and poverty and trauma that we see around the world, including in the U.S.”

While our genes are not changed by life experiences, they can be tuned through a system known as epigenetics. In response to stress or other events, our cells can add small chemical flags to genes that may quiet them down or alter their behavior. These changes may help us adapt to stressful environments, although the effects aren’t well understood.

It is these tell-tale chemical flags that Mulligan and her team were looking for in the genes of Syrian families. While lab experiments have shown that animals can pass along epigenetic signatures of stress to future generations, proving the same in people has been nearly impossible. 

Mulligan worked with Rana Dajani, Ph.D., a molecular biologist at Hashemite University in Jordan, and anthropologist Catherine Panter-Brick, Ph.D., of Yale University, to conduct the unique study. The research relied on following three generations of Syrian immigrants to the country. Some families had lived through the Hama attack before fleeing to Jordan. Other families avoided Hama, but lived through the recent civil war against the Assad regime. 

The team collected samples from grandmothers and mothers who were pregnant during the two conflicts, as well as from their children. This study design meant there were grandmothers, mothers and children who had each experienced violence at different stages of development.

A third group of families had immigrated to Jordan before 1980, avoiding the decades of violence in Syria. These early immigrants served as a crucial control to compare to the families who had experienced the stress of civil war.

Herself the daughter of refugees, Dajani worked closely with the refugee community in Jordan to build trust and interest in participating in the story. She ultimately collected cheek swabs from 138 people across 48 families. 

“The families want their story told. They want their experiences heard,” Mulligan said. “I think we worked with every single family who was eligible to participate in the study.”

Back in Florida, Mulligan’s lab scanned the DNA for epigenetic modifications and looked for any relationship with the families’ experience of violence.

In the grandchildren of Hama survivors, the researchers discovered 14 areas in the genome that had been modified in response to the violence their grandmothers experienced. These 14 modifications demonstrate that stress-induced epigenetic changes may indeed appear in future generations, just as they can in animals.

The study also uncovered 21 epigenetic sites in the genomes of people who had directly experienced violence in Syria. In a third finding, the researchers reported that people exposed to violence while in their mothers’ wombs showed evidence of accelerated epigenetic aging, a type of biological aging that may be associated with susceptibility to age-related diseases. 

Most of these epigenetic changes showed the same pattern after exposure to violence, suggesting a kind of common epigenetic response to stress — one that can not only affect people directly exposed to stress, but also future generations.

“We think our work is relevant to many forms of violence, not just refugees. Domestic violence, sexual violence, gun violence: all the different kinds of violence we have in the U.S,” said Mulligan. “We should study it. We should take it more seriously.”

It’s not clear what, if any, effect these epigenetic changes have in the lives of people carrying them inside their genomes. But some studies have found a link between stress-induced epigenetic changes and diseases like diabetes. One famous study of Dutch survivors of famine during World War II suggested that their offspring carried epigenetic changes that increased their odds of being overweight later in life. While many of these modifications likely have no effect, it’s possible that some can affect our health, Mulligan said.

The researchers published their findings, which were supported by the National Science Foundation, Feb. 27 in the journal Scientific Reports. 

While carefully searching for evidence of the lasting effects of war and trauma stamped into our genomes, Mulligan and her collaborators were also struck by the perseverance of the families they worked with. Their story was much bigger than merely surviving war, Mulligan said. 

“In the midst of all this violence we can still celebrate their extraordinary resilience. They are living fulfilling, productive lives, having kids, carrying on traditions. They have persevered,” Mulligan said. “That resilience and perseverance is quite possibly a uniquely human trait.” 

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Journal

Scientific Reports

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Epigenetic signatures of intergenerational exposure to violence in three generations of Syrian refugees

Article Publication Date

27-Feb-2025

 

The cost of domestic violence to women's employment and education

A new report quantifies for the first time the employment and educational impacts of domestic violence on Australian women.

University of Technology Sydney

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A new report reveals how domestic violence impedes women’s employment, often forcing them out of the workforce altogether. In many cases they work fewer hours, for less pay, than employed women who have not experienced domestic violence.

This ‘employment gap’ can be as large as 9.4 per cent: 72 per cent of women who have endured economic abuse in the past five years are in employment compared with 81.4 per cent of women who have not been subject to such abuse.

The report, The Cost of Domestic Violence to Women’s Employment and Education, draws on data that enables, for the first time, a quantification of the employment and educational impacts of domestic violence on Australian women. 

The research was led by renowned feminist and journalist Dr Anne Summers AO, Professor of Domestic and Family Violence at the University of Technology Sydney, with support from the Paul Ramsay Foundation.

Altogether over 60 per cent of women who currently endure domestic violence are in employment. In 2021-22 this amounted to more than 704,000 women aged 18 to 64 who had experienced partner violence, partner emotional abuse or partner economic abuse in the past five years. 

Many of these women face continuous pressure from their partners to quit their job or to at least reduce their hours. Such pressure is worse from former partners, with the 2021-2022 Personal Safety Survey showing that 451,000 women had a previous partner who controlled or tried to control them from working or earning money. 

Women still living with an abusive partner also experienced such pressure, with 30,700 reporting that their partner has controlled or tried to control them from working or earning money.

The report also found an ‘education gap’. Data from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health reveals that, for young women, by the time they are 27, there is a nearly 15 per cent difference in the rates of university degree attainment between victim-survivors and other women. 

The consequences of this are severe, with lifetime earnings likely to be as much as 41 per cent lower than a woman who has a degree. This sabotage of their study by a violent partner often creates feelings of depression, shame, and stress, which leads them to drop out.

Both the employment gap and the education gap are severe setbacks to the enormous progress that women have been making in workforce participation and university attainment in recent decades. 

The new report, which is a sister study to The Choice: violence or poverty, details how large numbers of women have not joined the labour force, have reduced their working hours, or quit their jobs altogether – all because of domestic violence. 

As a result of domestic violence, women’s individual progress, and the historical advancement of women, are both jeopardised. This has significant repercussions for Australia’s economic and social progress. 

Among the key findings from the report are: 

• Domestic violence impacts women’s long-term earnings, with significant declines in full-time employment often lasting at least five years.
• For young women, domestic violence reduces rates of full-time employment by 9.1 per cent. 
• Domestic violence leads to a stark 9.7 per cent reduction in university degree attainment. 
• Victim-survivors report significantly higher rates of financial distress, with 44 per cent unable to meet household expenses and 28 per cent seeking financial assistance from family or friends, compared to just 7 per cent of women who have not experienced violence.
• In 2021–22, women who experienced partner violence or abuse in the past five years had a 5.3 per cent lower employment rate compared to those who had not. For women who recently experienced economic abuse, the gap was even greater at 9.4 per cent.
• Nearly 35 per cent of women who were working when they experienced domestic violence took time off work, with an average of 31 days off following the abuse.

Professor Summers said the data showed that women of all ages who experienced domestic violence often pay a severe economic price.

“Domestic violence isn’t just a private matter – it’s also a workplace and university issue that demands immediate action,” she said. “Too many women are being forced to choose between enduring violence or leaving and facing severe economic consequences.”

Professor Summers said domestic violence actively prevents women from participating fully in the economic life of the country. 

“Women are forced out of their jobs, made to work fewer hours, earn less money, and are less able to provide for themselves and their children if they leave the violent relationship,” she said. “Employment and education are not just tools for empowerment – they’re lifelines.”

PRF CEO Professor Kristy Muir said the report highlighted the need for urgent systemic interventions to safeguard women’s access to economic independence.

“The evidence shows that too many women are paying a huge economic price in addition to the physical, emotional and psychological damage done to them by domestic violence,” she said. 

 “This report is yet another wake-up call. Economic abuse and its impact on women’s livelihoods are forms of violence that must no longer be overlooked.”

The report calls for targeted interventions, including:

• Expanding support for student [and not just staff as is currently the case] domestic violence victim-survivors at universities.
• Increasing awareness of the government’s mandatory 10 days of paid domestic violence leave entitlements and minimising barriers to accessing this leave.
• Amending the Escaping Violence Payment to provide more direct cash support.
• Trialling embedding employment support services within women’s refuges.
• Establishing a virtual resource hub to guide victim-survivors to financial assistance.

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DOI

10.71741/4pyxmbnjaq.28489736 

Method of Research

Data/statistical analysis

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

The Cost of Domestic Violence to Women's Employment and Education

Article Publication Date

28-Feb-2025

Remote work “a protective shield” against gender discrimination

Survey of more than 1000 women shows incidence higher on-site versus out of the office

University of Toronto, Rotman School of Management

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Laura Doering is an associate professor of strategic management at the Rotman School of Management with a cross-appointment to the Department of Sociology, University of Toronto. She received a joint PhD from the sociology department and Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago. Her research examines how interactions shape financial and social outcomes for individuals, groups, and organizations. 

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Credit: University of Toronto

February 27, 2025

Toronto - Having staff physically in the workplace benefits companies and employees through stronger team collaboration and informal mentorship.

But as organizations continue to corral employees back into the office, they should recognize that women pay a price through increased exposure to gender discrimination, says a new study from the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.

In a survey of more than 1,000 professional women in hybrid jobs, Laura Doering, an associate professor of strategic management and András Tilcsik, a professor and the Canada Research Chair in Strategy, Organizations, and Society, found that the workers nearly always experienced less gender discrimination in their everyday interactions when they were working remotely compared to in person. 

Those differences were substantial. Some 31% reported gender discrimination when physically in their workplace, compared to 17% when working remotely. When the researchers ran their own statistical probability analyses based on the survey results, the gap was starker for women who worked only or mostly with men. There, the likelihood of experiencing gender discrimination while on-site was 58%, compared to 26% when working remotely.

Younger women under age 30 were also likelier to experience gender discrimination on-site – 31% compared to 26% for older women – with only 14% of younger women likely to experience it while working remotely. 

“It’s rare to uncover a finding that applies so consistently across so many people working under so many different conditions,” said Prof. Doering, an associate professor of strategic management. “It didn’t matter how we sliced the data.”

Female workers aged 18 to 75 were asked to report their perceptions of how they were treated at work based on 11 different forms of gender-based slights and offenses. These included inappropriate attention, having their ideas ignored or stolen, being assigned tasks unrelated to their job, being excluded by co-workers and being addressed with a sexist name during a meeting.

Given the consistency of results, the researchers concluded that remote work effectively served as a “protective shield” and “a refuge” against gender discrimination for many women.

“Our findings suggest that the higher incidence of everyday gender discrimination on-site could erode women’s job satisfaction and increase burnout,” said Prof. Doering. “Over time, this could make it harder to retain talented employees and could negatively affect team performance.”

Nevertheless, the findings should not suggest that remote work is the ultimate solution to gender discrimination, said Prof. Doering, although they do show the importance of retaining remote work options while leaders try to eliminate workplace bias.

"It’s important to consider why women would be experiencing gender discrimination in the first place,” she said. "I would encourage managers who learn about this research to do the hard work of addressing gender discrimination rather than pushing women into remote roles as a way of trying to get around the issue."

The study appears in Organizational Science.

Bringing together high-impact faculty research and thought leadership on one searchable platform, the Rotman Insights Hub offers articles, podcasts, opinions, books and videos representing the latest in management thinking and providing insights into the key issues facing business and society. Visit www.rotman.utoronto.ca/insightshub.

The Rotman School of Management is part of the University of Toronto, a global centre of research and teaching excellence at the heart of Canada’s commercial capital. Rotman is a catalyst for transformative learning, insights and public engagement, bringing together diverse views and initiatives around a defining purpose: to create value for business and society. For more information, visit www.rotman.utoronto.ca.

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Journal

Organization Science

DOI

10.1287/orsc.2022.16949 

Method of Research

Survey

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Location Matters: Everyday Gender Discrimination in Remote and On-site Work