On the Heights: February 2026
February highlights include faculty expertise on AI-driven cancer research, youth violence prevention, farmworker housing policy, epigenetics and ultra-processed foods, and a new state advisory appointment.
Epigenetics Results
Epigenetics: Making sense of nutritional triggers
Dana Dolinoy discusses her work on the Michigan Minds podcast
Epigenetics, the study of how environmental and behavioral factors modify gene expression, helps explain how what we eat influences our health.
Pioneering social epidemiology: CSEPH marks 25 years of transformative research
A quarter century of breaking boundaries in public health
The Center for Social Epidemiology and Population Health (CSEPH) at the University of Michigan School of Public Health recently celebrated a remarkable milestone—25 years of groundbreaking research that has fundamentally changed how we understand the social determinants of health.
Study: Chronic stress caused by racial discrimination is accelerating biological aging in Black women
Anti-discrimination efforts could reduce health disparities, researchers say
African American women who experience higher levels of perceived racial discrimination in everyday life have accelerated levels of biological aging, according to a recent study led by University of Michigan School of Public Health researcher Edward Ruiz-Narváez.
Researchers study epigenetic changes with PFAS exposure in mother-infant pairs
New research from Michigan Public Health
A team of University of Michigan researchers from the School of Public Health DoGoodS-Pi Environmental Epigenetics Lab and Michigan Medicine are working to understand how behaviors and environments during pregnancy can cause changes to the way genes work in offspring. This emerging field is known as toxicoepigenetics.
Dana Dolinoy Awarded Grant from NIEHS RIVER Program
Dana Dolinoy, NSF International Chair and professor of Environmental Health Sciences and professor of Nutritional Sciences, was awarded a $6.9 million R35 award from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) for the expansion of epigenetic science.