Symposia: soap, health and the environment; bugs and breast milk

The potential downsides of fragrances in personal care products, and microbes, milk and the infant gut, will be the topics of two student-run symposia at UC Davis in September. Both events, including nationally recognized experts, are the outcomes of yearlong collaborative research projects by student teams.

On Monday, Sept. 12, undergraduates in the CLIMB program will hold a workshop on “The infant gut microbiome: prebiotics, probiotics and establishment” from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in room 1022 of the Life Sciences Addition on the UC Davis campus.

Recent research shows that healthy gut microbes are important for healthy babies. In fact, UC Davis scientists recently showed that one of the major components of breast milk does not directly nourish the baby but feeds a type of gut microbe, Bifidobacteria, which in turn produces nutrients that feed other microbes.

Speakers will include Ruth Ley, assistant professor of microbiology at Cornell University, and Professor David Relman of Stanford University as well as professors Jonathan Eisen, Bruce German and Mark Underwood from UC Davis.

The following Friday, Sept. 16, graduate students in the REACH training program will present a workshop on “Fragranced personal care products and environmental change” from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., again in 1022 Life Sciences.

Use of fragrance chemicals in soaps, shampoos and lotions has become widespread in the past decade, but research on their impact on health and the environment has lagged behind. As part of their training, the students in the program have conducted a yearlong research project on how people in the U.S. perceive these products.

At the workshop, the trainees and experts from academia, government agencies, nonprofits and the private sector will discuss their perspectives on fragrance chemicals in personal care products and how to investigate other nascent environmental issues.

Speakers include Anne Steinemann, professor of civil and environmental engineering, and public affairs, University of Washington; Professor David Epel, Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University; Dan Schlenk, professor of aquatic ecotoxicology, UC Riverside; Rik Rasmussen, Water Resources Control Board; and Rebecca Sutton, Environmental Working Group. Representatives from the Personal Care Products Council and Research Institute for Fragrance Materials are also expected to attend.

Funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation, the CLIMB (Collaborative Learning at the Interface of Mathematics and Biology) program exposes a small group of undergraduates in mathematics and biology to a wide range of tough scientific problems that draw on both disciplines.

The REACH program is an Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) program, also sponsored by the National Science Foundation. It supports UC Davis graduate students studying scientific and social issues related to rapid environmental change.

Both workshops are free and open to the public. For more information, contact Carole Hom, clhom@ucdavis.edu.

About UC Davis

For more than 100 years, UC Davis has engaged in teaching, research and public service that matter to California and transform the world. Located close to the state capital, UC Davis has more than 33,000 students, more than 2,500 faculty and more than 21,000 staff, an annual research budget of nearly $750 million, a comprehensive health system and 13 specialized research centers. The university offers interdisciplinary graduate study and more than 100 undergraduate majors in four colleges — Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Biological Sciences, Engineering, and Letters and Science. It also houses six professional schools — Education, Law, Management, Medicine, Veterinary Medicine and the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing.