Agenda
Times are listed in Eastern Daylight Time. The agenda is subject to change.
DAY 1: Thursday, July 9, 2026
| 8:30 – 9:00 a.m. | Arrival, Registration, and Security |
Welcome and Introductions | |
| 9:00 – 9:20 a.m. | Welcome remarks |
| 9:20 – 9:30 a.m. | Introductions and goals of the workshop Somdat Mahabir, PhD, MPH, Coordinator, Trans-NIH Micro[nano]plastics and Population Health Working Group; Program Director, Environmental Epidemiology Branch, Epidemiology and Genomics Research Program (EGRP), Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS), National Cancer Institute (NCI) |
Session 1: Overview keynote talk | |
| Moderator: Ashley Vargas, PhD, MPH, RDN, FAND, Deputy Director, Division of Extramural Research and Training (DERT), Research Integrity Officer (RIO), National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) | |
| 9:30 – 10:00 a.m. | Current state of the science in micro[nano]plastic measurement techniques for population science research Kurunthachalam Kannan, PhD, Deputy Director, Division of Environmental Health Sciences, Professor, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, College of Integrated Health Sciences, University at Albany |
| 10:00 - 10:15 a.m. | Q & A |
| 10:15 – 10:30 a.m. | Break |
Session 2: Measurement of MNPs in human biological samples | |
| Moderator: Pothur Srinivas, PhD, MPH, Deputy Associate Director, EGRP, DCCPS, NCI | |
| 10:30 – 11:00 a.m. | Measurement of micro[nano]plastics in human biological samples at scale: progress and challenges Douglas Walker, Associate Professor, PhD, Gangarosa Department of Environmental Health Emory University |
| 11:00 – 11:15 a.m. | Q & A |
| 11:15 – 11:45 a.m. | Microplastic measurement in saliva Sanjay K. Mohanty, PhD, Associate Professor, UCLA Samuel School of Engineering |
| 11:45 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. | Q & A |
| 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. | Lunch |
| 1:00 – 1:30 p.m. | Group brainstorming Group 1: Leader: Martin Playford, PhD, Program Officer, Atherothrombosis and Coronary Artery Disease, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Group 2: Leader: Cashell Jaquish, PhD, Division of Cardiovascular Sciences, NHLBI Group 3: Leader: Rao Divi, PhD, Program Director, Environmental Epidemiology Branch, EGRP, DCCPS, NCI |
| 1:30 – 2:00 p.m. | Group leaders report back |
Session 3: Measurement of MNPs in water, food, and air samples | |
| Moderator: Beena G. Sood, MD, MS, FAAP, Program Director, Neonatal and Pediatric Lung Disease, Critical Care Program, Division of Lung Diseases, NHLBI | |
| 2:00 – 2:30 p.m. | Measurement of micro[nano]plastic in water and foods Yusong Li, PhD, Associate Dean for Faculty, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Nebraska, Lincoln |
| 2:30 – 3:00 p.m. | Airborne micro[nano]plastics: challenges in measurement, modeling, and exposure assessment Hosein Foroutan, PhD, Associate Professor, Environmental and Water Resources, Civil & Environmental Engineering, Virginia Tech |
| 3:00 – 3:15 p.m. | Q & A |
| 3:15 – 3:45 p.m. | Group brainstorming Group 1: Leader: Lingamanaidu (Ravi) V. Ravichandran, PhD, Health Scientist Administrator, Exposure, Response, and Technology Branch, DERT, NIEHS Group 2: Leader: Raven Hardy Richard, PhD, Health Science Policy Analyst, Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH) Group 3: Leader: Daniel J. Frank, PhD, Program Director, Division of Blood Diseases and Resources, NHLBI |
| 3:45 – 4:00 p.m. | Group leaders report back |
| 4:00 – 4:15 p.m. | Break |
Session 4: AI-based methods for MNP assessment | |
| Moderator: Ronald Johnson, PhD, Program Director, Division of Cancer Biology, NCI | |
| 4:15 – 4:30 p.m. | Deep learning for efficient characterization and quantification of microplastics Yi Bao, PhD, Associate Professor, Founding Director, Smart Infrastructure Laboratory, Department of Civil, Environmental and Ocean Engineering, Stevens Institute of Technology |
| 4:30 – 4:45 p.m. | Low-cost machine-learning-driven analysis of airborne microplastics Jeong-Yeol Yoon, PhD, Professor, College of Biomedical Engineering, University of Arizona |
| 4:45 – 5:00 p.m. | Q & A |
| 5:00 p.m. | End of Day 1 |
DAY 2: Friday, July 10, 2026
| 8:30 – 9:00 a.m. | Arrival, Registration and Security |
| 9:00 – 9:15 a.m. | Recap of Day 1 Somdat Mahabir, PhD, MPH, Coordinator, Trans-NIH Micro[nano]plastics and Population Health Working Group; Program Director, Environmental Epidemiology Branch, EGRP, DCCPS, NCI |
Session 5: Examples of MNP studies in population science | |
| Moderator: Richard Kwok, PhD, Program Officer, Population Studies and Genetics Branch, Division of Neuroscience, National Institute on Aging (NIA) | |
| 9:15 – 9:30 a.m. | Approaches to study MNPs, obesity and cancer in the Multiethnic Cohort Study Loic Le Marchand, MD, PhD, Professor, Full Member, Population Sciences in the Pacific Program (Cancer Epidemiology), University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center |
| 9:30 – 9:45 a.m. | Q & A |
| 9:45 – 10:00 a.m. | Minding the nanoplastics Matthew J Campen, PhD, MSPH, Director, New Mexico Center for Metals in Biology and Medicine, Regents' Professor, Professor, Pharmaceutical Science |
| 10:00 – 10:15 a.m. | Micro[nano]plastics impact in clinical vascular disease: from carotid to aorta and beyond Ross M. Clark, MD, MBA, RPVI, FACS, FSVS, University of New Mexico Health Science Center |
| 10:15 – 10:30 a.m. | Q & A |
| 10:30 – 10:45 a.m. | Characterizing human exposure to microplastics during pregnancy Whitney Cowell, PhD, MPH, Assistant Professor, Departments of Pediatrics and Population Health, New York University School of Medicine |
| 10:45 – 11:00 a.m. | Q & A |
| 11:00 – 11:15 a.m. | Break |
Session 6: Lessons learned from ongoing studies | |
| Moderator: Elizabeth Barr, PhD, Associate Director for Interdisciplinary Research, ORWH, NIH | |
| 11:15 – 11:30 a.m. | Microplastic measurement lessons learned from the EU-funded Actionable eUropean ROadmap for early-life health Risk Assessment of micro- and nanoplastics (AURORA) L.D.B. (Laurens) Mandemaker, PhD, Assistant Professor, Veterinary Medicine, Department Population Health Sciences, Utrecht University |
| 11:30 – 11:15 a.m. | Q & A |
| 11:15 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. | Lunch |
Session 7: Recommendations for advancing population science research related to MNPs | |
| Moderator: Tram K. Lam, PhD, MPH, Branch Chief, Environmental Epidemiology Branch, EGRP, DCCPS, NCI | |
| 12:15 – 1:00 p.m. | Panel Discussion
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| 1:00 – 1:15 p.m. | Q & A |
| 1:15 – 1:30 p.m. | Closing remarks and next steps Somdat Mahabir, PhD, MPH, Coordinator, Trans-NIH Micro[nano]plastics and Population Health Working Group; Program Director, Environmental Epidemiology Branch, EGRP, DCCPS, NCI |
| 1:30 p.m. | Adjourn |