The microbiome is the collection of all microbes, such as bacteria, fungi, viruses, and their genes, that naturally live on our bodies and inside us. Although microbes are so small that they require a microscope to see them, they contribute in big ways to human health and wellness. A person’s core microbiome is formed in the first years of life but can change over time in response to different factors including diet, medications, and environmental exposures. The Canadian Institutes of Health Research funded three projects to consider the interaction between the environment and the microbiome and its impact on human health. In this webinar, learn what this research has discovered and where the investigators plan to go next.

About the Projects

Elucidating the Gene-Environment Interactions that drive Autoimmune Disease among South Asian Canadians – The GEMINI Program

The GEMINI project (Generational differences in Environmental exposures caused by Migration: Impact on Incidence of inflammatory disease) studies a growing concern in South Asian Canadian communities – these communities are experiencing an increase in incidences of chronic inflammatory disease upon exposure to the North American environment.

Programmatic research to understand how modifiable environmental factors interact with the genome in the development of asthma

It isn’t clear why some people get asthma and others don’t, but it’s probably due to a combination of environmental and genetic (inherited) factors. The goal of this research program is to understand these environmental and genetic factors that cause asthma. This new understanding is expected to give us better tools to predict who will get asthma and to develop ways to prevent asthma developing in the first place.

The impact of the gut microbiome and environment on the development of colorectal cancer

This team of international recognized researchers investigates the role of bacteria that reside in the gut in the development of colorectal cancer. The previous and proposed research from this team show that gut bacteria is at the root of colorectal cancer; its manipulation of dietary nutrients such as complex carbohydrates and the subsequent impact on metabolic processes within the gut promotes the development of colorectal cancer in mice and humans that are genetically-predisposed to develop this disease. The research has the capacity to develop diagnostics if a specific bacterial species is identified as the causative agent in colorectal cancer. In addition, the research will lead to the development of preventative protocols for colorectal cancer using alterations in diet or specific antibiotics that displace or out-compete “pathogenic” strains.

About the Speakers

Elucidating the Gene-Environment Interactions that drive Autoimmune Disease among South Asian Canadians – The GEMINI Program

Jen Gommerman, PhD, is Professor and Canada Research Chair in Tissue-specific Immunity Department of Immunology, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. Jen received her Ph.D. (Immunology) at the University of Toronto in 1998. She went on to do a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School studying the complement pathway and then joined Biogen Inc. as a Staff Scientist in 2000. During her tenure at Biogen, she became interested in B cells, Multiple Sclerosis and the TNF superfamily of molecules. After 3 years in Industry, she returned to Academia as an Assistant Professor (Immunology) at the University of Toronto in 2003, in 2015 was promoted to full Professor, and in 2020 was awarded a Tier I Canada Research Chair in Tissue Specific Immunity. Jen’s basic research continues to focus on how members of the TNF superfamily of molecules regulate immunity and autoimmunity, particularly in the mucosae. Her team has uncovered a novel gut-brain axis that regulates neuroinflammation. With respect to translational work, Dr. Gommerman has been examining the role of B lymphocytes in Multiple Sclerosis patients and in animal models of MS and how environmental factors shape the microbiome.

Programmatic research to understand how modifiable environmental factors interact with the genome in the development of asthma

Stuart Turvey, MBBS, DPhil, FRCPC is a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of British Columbia where he holds both the Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Pediatric Precision Health and the Aubrey J. Tingle Professorship in Pediatric Immunology. He is a Pediatric Immunologist and clinician-scientist based at BC Children’s Hospita. Prior to coming to Vancouver, Dr Turvey completed both his Pediatric Residency and Allergy/Immunology Fellowship at Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston. He holds a medical degree (MB BS) from the University of Sydney, Australia and a doctorate (DPhil) in Immunology from Oxford University where he was a Rhodes Scholar. Dr Turvey is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and a Diplomate of the American Board of Pediatrics.

The impact of the gut microbiome and environment on the development of colorectal cancer

Dr. Alberto Martin is Professor of Immunology at the University of Toronto. His research interests are in adaptive immunity, cancer immunology and B cells. His lab conducts research in three main areas, each of which is supported by external research funding: AID in antibody diversification, The molecular basis for germinal center selection & The molecular mechanisms of cancer development (i.e. specifically colon cancer and lymphoma).

Health is influenced by resource development through interrelated socioeconomic, ecological, cultural, and political pathways, which demand upstream, intersectoral responses. For example, both oil and gas production and the process of consumption (as it relates to climate change) have large impacts, both positive and negative, on social, economic and environmental systems that affect people’s mental health and overall wellbeing. These relationships are especially important in Canada, where the economy remains tightly coupled with the development of natural resources and where the rate and scale of social and environmental change occurring in resource-rich regions is fueling debate regarding health impacts, especially for rural, remote and Indigenous communities. To better understand these connections, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research funded three projects to look at how to understand and respond to the health impacts of climate change, and the relationship between a healthy natural world and healthy people. In this webinar, learn what researchers have discovered and where they plan to go next.

About the Projects

The ECHO (Environment, Community, Health Observatory) Network: Strengthening intersectoral capacity to understand and respond to health impacts of resource development

The ECHO Network is focused on working together across sectors to take notice of – and respond to – the influence of resource extraction on health and well-being, with specific emphasis on rural, remote and Indigenous communities and environments. ECHO brings together researchers and knowledge-holders across health, environment and community sectors who have identified the need to better understand and address the cumulative health, equity and ecological challenges of resource extraction and climate change. The ECHO Network is anchored in knowledge exchange partnerships in New Brunswick, Alberta, and British Columbia, with connections across Canada and Oceania. ECHO has developed a platform of integrative tools and processes to strengthen intersectoral capacity, and to connect people to information, practices and shared perspectives across generations and contexts. By focusing on integrative and collaborative responses to cumulative impacts of resource extraction and climate change, the ECHO Network has also identified new pathways of connection and co-benefits for health, including collective efforts that prioritise Indigenous leadership, champion equity and eco-social approaches to public health.

A SHARED Future: Achieving Strength, Health, and Autonomy through Renewable Energy Development for the Future

This research program, the only EHSI program that leads with Indigenous Ways of Knowing, focuses on bringing forward stories of reconciliation and healing in the context of intersectoral partnerships in renewable energy projects. The program’s research goal is to bring to light new and restored understandings of energy and integrative health. We examine how these partnerships may offer opportunities for a new era of nation-to-nation collaborations between Indigenous Peoples, organizations, and governments, with proponents, consultants, utilities, and state governments. Our program examines how Indigenous knowledge systems have the potential to lead us towards reconciling, healing, and decolonizing our relations with each other as well as the land, air, and water around us.

Patterns of Resilience Among Youth in Contexts of Petrochemical Production and Consumption in the Global North and Global South

This project assesses how young people adapt across the carbon cycle and use what we learn about their patterns of resilience to improve the lives of all youth. Both oil and gas production and the process of consumption (as it relates to climate change) have large impacts, both positive and negative, on social, economic and environmental systems that affect young people’s mental health and overall wellbeing. To better understand these complex relationships at both ends of the carbon cycle, a multidisciplinary and multisectoral team of researchers and community and industry partners in two communities in Canada (Drayton Valley in Alberta, Cambridge Bay in Nunavut) and two communities in South Africa (Dunoon in the Western Cape, Secunda in Mpumalanga) studied the resilience of young people and the systems with which they interact.

About the Speakers

The ECHO Network (Environment, Community, Health Observatory): Strengthening intersectoral capacity to understand and respond to health impacts of resource development

Margot Parkes is professor in the UNBC School of Health Sciences and co-lead of the UNBC Health Research Institute. She also co-leads the Environment, Community, Health Observatory (ECHO) Network, focused on the cumulative health, equity and ecological challenges of resource extraction and climate change. Drawing on her background in clinical medicine, public health, human ecology, ecohealth, Margot’s research focuses on integrative, partnered and Indigenous-informed approaches that connect social and ecological influences on health. Margot prioritises working and learning with others – across regions, cultural contexts, disciplines and sectors – to foster better understanding of land, water and living systems (ecosystems) as foundational for health, equity and well-being; to strengthen collaborations that reflect these connections, and that amplify co-benefits for people, place and planet.

Dr. Sandra Allison is Medical Health Officer at Vancouver Island Health Authority, Past President of the Public Health Physicians of Canada and Clinical Assistant Professor at the UBC School of Population and Public Health. She previously was Chief Medical Health Officer at Northern Health, and served as a regional medical health officer in Manitoba. She has extensive experience working with Indigenous people and rural and remote settings. In addition, she continues to work in primary care as a family physician. Dr. Allison was the Principal Knowledge User Applicant for the ECHO Network, founding co-chair of the ECHO Network Steering Committee between 2017-2019, and has remained an active knowledge exchange partner with the network since then.

Dr. Raina Fumerton is a public health physician and the Northwest Medical Health Officer at Northern Health. In addition to her generalist MHO responsibilities, Dr. Fumerton is the physician lead for the health protection portfolio and has a keen interest in environmental health, climate change, as well as the ecological and health/mental health/social/economic/cultural impacts of industrial development on the health of northern rural and remote communities. Since 2019, Dr. Fumerton contributed as the co-chair of the ECHO Network Steering Committee, as co-lead for the Northern BC regional case, and is actively involved as a knowledge exchange partner in the transition from the EHSI-funded ECHO Network to an ongoing pan-Canadian ECHO collective.

A SHARED Future: Achieving Strength, Health, and Autonomy through Renewable Energy Developments for the Future

Dr Heather Castleden (she/her) is a Professor and the President’s Impact Chair in Transformative Governance for Planetary Health at the University of Victoria. She is a white settler scholar, trained as a geographer, and she has been doing community-based participatory research in solidarity with Indigenous Peoples for over two decades. She is a former Canada Research Chair, Fulbright Scholar, and is now an elected member of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists. Dr Castleden is the Co-Director of the ‘A SHARED Future’ research program and is the Scientific Director of the HEC Lab.

Dr Diana Lewis (she/her) is a member of the Sipekne’katik Mi’kmaq First Nation in Nova Scotia. She is an Assistant Professor and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Environmental Health Goverance at the University of Guelph. Dr Lewis is a Co-Director of A SHARED Future. Her research interests are to foster a wider understanding of Indigenous worldviews and how Indigenous worldviews must inform environmental decisions, specifically as Indigenous peoples are impacted by resource or industrial development. She is a strong advocate for Indigenous data sovereignty and Indigenous-led decision making, and she is currently working with Indigenous communities across Canada to develop an Indigenous-led environmental health risk assessment approach.

Patterns of Resilience Among Youth in Contexts of Petrochemical Production and Consumption in the Global North and Global South

Michael Ungar, Ph.D., is the founder and Director of the Resilience Research Centre at Dalhousie University where he holds the Canada Research Chair in Child, Family and Community Resilience. In 2022, Dr. Ungar was ranked the number one Social Work scholar in the world in recognition of his ground-breaking work as a family therapist and resilience researcher. That work has influenced the way human adaptation in stressful environments and organizational processes are understood and studied globally, with much of Dr. Ungar’s clinical work and scholarship focused on the resilience of marginalized children and families, and adult populations experiencing mental health challenges at home and in the workplace.