CLEAR/CURES Seminar: Dr. Allen J. Wilcox (Nat'l Institute for Env Health Sciences) Oct 9, 2025 скачать в хорошем качестве

CLEAR/CURES Seminar: Dr. Allen J. Wilcox (Nat'l Institute for Env Health Sciences) Oct 9, 2025

October 9, 2025: Dr. Allen J. Wilcox, epidemiologist specializing in the biology of human reproduction, former editor-in-chief of the journal Epidemiology and longtime member of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Dr. Wilcox's talk is titled, "On the Study of Fetal Growth Restriction, Time to Abandon SGA." This is a joint seminar by the Center for Urban Responses to Environmental Stressors (CURES) and the Superfund Research Center for Leadership in Environmental Awareness and Research (CLEAR) at Wayne State University. ABSTRACT Fetal growth restriction (FGR) is defined as the failure of the fetus to reach its growth potential. Fetuses and newborns with FGR have severe wasting and increased risk of morbidity and mortality. The difficulty with studying FGR is that it lacks a gold-standard definition. There is no way to measure “potential” growth, and clinicians have not been able to agree on definitive criteria for FGR. As a surrogate measure, researchers routinely define FGR as the smallest 10% of infants at each gestational age. There are problems with the use of Small for Gestational Age (SGA) to define FGR. Many babies are SGA but constitutionally small and healthy. Conversely, babies destined to be large at birth may suffer from FGR and still be larger than the 10% percentile cut point. It is now apparent that conclusions about FGR using SGA studies are misleading. Recent work exploring FGR without defining it as SGA suggests that FGR is much more rare and far more dangerous than previously realized. Progress in understanding FGR will depend on the development of criteria that do not depend on SGA. ABOUT THE SPEAKER Allen Wilcox is an epidemiologist who studies the biology of human reproduction. His research has addressed infertility, early pregnancy loss, fetal growth restriction, birth defects, and neurologic disabilities. His work is the basis for phone apps used by more than 40 million women to monitor their fertility. He has spent his career at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), one of the National Institutes of Health in Durham, North Carolina, with adjunct professorships at the University of North Carolina, Harvard University and the University of Bergen in Norway. He was the editor-in-chief of the journal Epidemiology for 14 years and has served as president of the Society for Epidemiologic Research and the American Epidemiological Society. Since his retirement in 2019, he has continued research collaborations with scientists in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and Scandinavia. He is the author of a popular textbook in his specialty published by Oxford University Press, with a new edition in 2025. He holds an M.D. from the University of Michigan, a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina, and an honorary doctoral degree from the University of Bergen. ABOUT CLEAR CLEAR is funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Superfund Research Program (SRP). The center is dedicated to understanding and mitigating adverse birth outcomes and serious developmental health problems that have been associated with urban environmental exposure to volatile organic chemicals or VOCs, a special class of pollutants found in the subsurface of post-industrial cities like Detroit MI. Sadly, Detroit has the highest preterm birth rate in the country (15.2%), and up to 37 of the 67 Superfund sites in Michigan must manage VOC contamination. Watch this video to learn more and subscribe to our channel. Check out our website www.clear.wayne.edu, or follow us on X at www.x.com/CLEARWSU.