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Margaret Rita Karagas, PhD

Title(s)
Chair and Professor of Epidemiology
Professor of Community and Family Medicine
James W. Squires Professor

Additional Titles/Positions/Affiliations
Director, Center for Biomedical Research Excellence, Center for Molecular Epidemiology
Director, Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research Center

Department(s)
Epidemiology
Community and Family Medicine

Education
University of Washington, PhD 1990

Programs
Dartmouth Cancer Center
Quantitative Biomedical Sciences
SYNERGY

Websites Margaret Karagas - Epidemiology Faculty Profile
Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research Center
Center for Molecular Epidemiology
Cancer Epidemiology
Dartmouth Toxic Metals Superfund Research Program
Graduate Program in Quantitative Biomedical Sciences
The Dartmouth Institute
Dartmouth SYNERGY
View Publications

Contact Information

Department of Epidemiology
1 Medical Center Drive
Williamson Building, 7th floor
Lebanon NH 03756

Office: 760 Williamson Bldg Lebanon, NH
Email: Margaret.Karagas@dartmouth.edu

Assistant:
Asst. Phone:


Professional Interests

Professor Karagas is the inaugural chair of the Department of Epidemiology at the Geisel School of Medicine and director of the Centers for Molecular Epidemiology and Children’s Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research at Dartmouth College. As part of her deep commitment to interdisciplinary training, Professor Karagas collaboratively established an innovative, cross-disciplinary postdoctoral and graduate program in the quantitative biomedical sciences (QBS) that integrates epidemiology, bioinformatics, and biostatistics and mentors diverse investigators at all stages of their career. Her research interests encompass interdisciplinary studies that seek to illuminate the causes of human disease by investigating emerging environmental exposures, host factors, and mechanisms -- that impact health from infancy to adult life. Her studies focus on under-studied, rural populations while contributing to large multi-center efforts such as the NIH-funded Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Study, which includes over 90,000 participants across the USA. Her work incorporates high-dimensional analytic tools along with biomarkers and sensors of the exposome, genetic susceptibility and biologic response. These efforts have helped to uncovered adverse cardiometabolic, neurodevelopmental and immune-related pregnancy-child health outcomes as well as carcinogenic effects of drinking water contaminants, food-borne toxicants including in infant first foods, and exposures from woodstoves along with other environmental threats and have led to practice and policy changes. She collaborates globally and has served on international consensus panels and committees for the United Nations, World Health Organization, International Agency for Research on Cancer, European Food Safety Authority, US National Institute of Health and National Academies of Science, and Engineering and Medicine among others.


Selected Publications

 

Maternal diet quality and circulating extracellular vesicle and particle miRNA during pregnancy.
Muse ME, Wang Y, Gilbert-Diamond D, Armstrong DA, Hoen AG, Romano ME, Gui J, Palys TJ, Kolling FW, Christensen BC, Karagas MR, Howe CG
Eur J Nutr. 2025 Feb 1;64(2):75. doi: 10.1007/s00394-025-03589-x. Epub 2025 Feb 1.
PMID: 39891736

A Latent Trait-based Measure as a Data Harmonization and Missing Data Solution Applied to the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes Cohort.
Knapp EA, Kress AM, Ghidey R, Gorham TJ, Galdo B, Petrill SA, Aris IM, Bastain TM, Camargo CA Jr, Coccia MA, Cragoe N, Dabelea D, Dunlop AL, Gebretsadik T, Hartert T, Hipwell AE, Johnson CC, Karagas MR, LeWinn KZ, Maldonado LE, McEvoy CT, Mirzakhani H, O'Connor TG, O'Shea TM, Wang Z, Wright RJ, Ziegler K, Zhu Y, Bartlett CW, Lau B, program collaborators for Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes*
Epidemiology. 2025 Jan 30; doi: 10.1097/EDE.0000000000001832. Epub 2025 Jan 30.
PMID: 39884749

Changes in urinary concentrations of contemporary and emerging chemicals in commerce during the COVID-19 pandemic: Insights from the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program.
Romano ME, Buckley JP, Li X, Herbstman JB, Kannan K, Lee S, Schantz SL, Trasande L, Karagas MR, Perera F, ECHO Cohort Consortium
PLoS One. 2025;20(1):e0317358. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0317358. Epub 2025 Jan 24.
PMID: 39854307

Transcriptome-wide association study identifies genes associated with bladder cancer risk.
Li S, Gui J, Karagas MR, Passarelli MN
Sci Rep. 2025 Jan 9;15(1):1390. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-85565-3. Epub 2025 Jan 9.
PMID: 39789109

Children's executive functioning and health behaviors across pediatric life stages and ecological contexts.
Kelly NR, Kosty D, Bodovski Y, Blackwell CK, Ganiban JM, Neiderhiser JM, Dabelea D, Gilbert-Diamond D, Aschner JL, Bastain TM, Breton CV, Bush NR, Calub CA, Camargo CA, Camerota M, Croen LA, Elliott AJ, Enlow MB, Ferrara A, Hartert T, Joseph RM, Karagas MR, Kelly RS, Lyall K, Magee KE, McEvoy CT, Merced-Nieves FM, O'Connor TG, Santarossa S, Schantz SL, Schmidt RJ, Stanford JB, Straughen JK, Stroustrup A, Talge NM, Wright RJ, Zhao Q, Leve LD, program collaborators for Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes
J Behav Med. 2025 Jan 9; doi: 10.1007/s10865-024-00543-w. Epub 2025 Jan 9.
PMID: 39786706

Demographic Correlates of Autism: How Do Associations Compare Between Diagnosis and a Quantitative Trait Measure?
Lyall K, Dickerson AS, Green AM, Frndak S, Croen LA, Ames JL, Avalos LA, Aschner JL, Bush NR, Camargo CA Jr, D'Sa V, Dager SR, Dunlop AL, Ferrara A, Ganiban JM, Gern JE, Gissandaner TD, Graff JC, Hertz-Picciotto I, Hipwell AE, Ma T, Miller M, Murphy L, Karagas MR, Kelly RS, Margolis A, Koinis-Mitchell D, McEvoy CT, Messinger D, Nguyen R, Oken E, Ozonoff S, Page GP, Schantz SL, Schmidt RJ, Shuster CL, Schweitzer JB, Sheinkopf SJ, Stanford JB, Trevino CO, Weiss ST, Volk HE, Joseph RM, program collaborators for Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes
Autism Res. 2025 Jan 8; doi: 10.1002/aur.3296. Epub 2025 Jan 8.
PMID: 39778060

A descriptive examination of rurality in the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes Cohort: Implications, illustrations, and future directions.
McCormack LA, MacKenzie DA, Deutsch A, Beene D, Hockett CW, Ziegler K, Knapp EA, Kress AM, Li ZR, Bakre S, Habre R, Jacobson L, Karagas MR, LeWinn K, Nozadi SS, Alshawabkeh A, Aris IM, Bekelman TA, Bendixsen CG, Camargo C, Cassidy-Bushrow AE, Croen L, Assiamira F, Fry R, Gebretsadik T, Hartert T, Hirko KA, Karr CJ, Kloog I, Loftus C, Magee KE, McEvoy C, Neiderhiser JM, O'Connor TG, O'Shea M, Straughen JK, Urquhart A, Wright R, Elliott AJ, ECHO Cohort Consortium
J Rural Health. 2025 Jan;41(1):e12908. doi: 10.1111/jrh.12908.
PMID: 39731317

Comparison of Race-neutral Versus Race-specific Spirometry Equations for Evaluation of Child Asthma.
Non AL, Li X, Jones MR, Oken E, Hartert T, Schoettler N, Gold DR, Ramratnam S, Schauberger EM, Tantisira K, Bacharier LB, Conrad DJ, Carroll KN, Nkoy FL, Luttmann-Gibson H, Gilliland FD, Breton CV, Kattan M, Lemanske RF Jr, Litonjua AA, McEvoy CT, Rivera-Spoljaric K, Rosas-Salazar C, Joseph CLM, Palmore M, Ryan PH, Wegienka G, Sitarik AR, Singh AM, Miller RL, Zoratti EM, Ownby D, Camargo CA Jr, Aschner JL, Stroustrup A, Farzan SF, Karagas MR, Jackson DJ, Gern JE, ECHO Cohort Consortium
Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2024 Dec 6; doi: 10.1164/rccm.202407-1288OC. Epub 2024 Dec 6.
PMID: 39642347

A Call for Pediatric Clinicians to Address Environmental Health Concerns in Rural Settings.
Criswell R, Gleason K, Abuawad AK, Karagas MR, Grene K, Mora AM, Eskenazi B, Senechal K, Mullin AM, Rokoff LB, Fleisch AF
Pediatr Clin North Am. 2025 Feb;72(1):65-83. doi: 10.1016/j.pcl.2024.07.030. Epub 2024 Sep 2.
PMID: 39603727

Prenatal and Early-Life Anti-Infectives and Obesity at Age 7 Years.
Gribsholt SB, Szepligeti SK, Sorensen HT, Mueller NT, Karagas MR, Ehrenstein V
Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf. 2024 Nov;33(11):e70055. doi: 10.1002/pds.70055.
PMID: 39533505

View more publications on PubMed