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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

 

Early-life and concurrent predictors of the healthy adolescent microbiome in a cohort study.
Laue HE, Willis AD, Wang F, MacDougall MC, Xu Y, Karagas MR, Madan JC, Fleisch AF, Lanphear BP, Cecil KM, Yolton K, Chen A, Buckley JP, Braun JM
Genome Med. 2025 May 8;17(1):50. doi: 10.1186/s13073-025-01481-1. Epub 2025 May 8.
PMID: 40340756

Maternal Cardiometabolic Risk Factors in Pregnancy and Offspring Blood Pressure at Age 2 to 18 Years.
Niu Z, Ako AA, Geiger SD, Howe CG, Perng W, Singh R, Karagas MR, Elliott AJ, Cassidy-Bushrow A, Camargo CA, Sanderson K, McEvoy CT, Oken E, Dabelea D, Hartert TV, Carter B, Stroustrup A, Lampland A, O'Connor TG, Gogcu S, Hudak ML, Shorey-Kendrick LE, Zhao Q, Ni Y, VanWormer J, Ferrara A, Hedderson M, Zhu Y, Alshawabkeh A, Cordero J, Koinis-Mitchell D, Carnell S, Breton CV, Bastain TM, Farzan SF, ECHO Cohort Consortium
JAMA Netw Open. 2025 May 1;8(5):e259205. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.9205. Epub 2025 May 1.
PMID: 40338548

Association of Deep Learning-Derived Histologic Features of Placental Chorionic Villi with Maternal and Infant Characteristics in the New Hampshire Birth Cohort Study.
Anderson EC, Srinivasan G, Howe CG, Zhang E, Jeon C, Paruchuri GSG, Zhang L, Hwang L, Sengar A, Reddy N, Karan A, Chen A, Shen J, Owo O, Caraballo-Bobea Z, Khatchikian C, Palys TJ, Vaickus LJ, Madan JC, Karagas MR, Bentz JL, Levy JJ
medRxiv. 2025 Apr 23; pii: 2025.04.22.25325465. doi: 10.1101/2025.04.22.25325465. Epub 2025 Apr 23.
PMID: 40313259

Prenatal per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance mixtures and weight for length from birth to 12 months: The New Hampshire Birth Cohort Study.
Yim G, Howe CG, Gallagher LG, Gilbert-Diamond D, Calafat AM, Botelho JC, Karagas MR, Romano ME
Sci Total Environ. 2025 Jun 10;980:179446. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2025.179446. Epub 2025 Apr 30.
PMID: 40311330

Optimizing Protocols for MicroRNA Profiling of Infant and Toddler Stool.
Armstrong DA, Soucy SM, Muse ME, Kolling FW, Trask HW, Howell AL, Laue HE, Hoen AG, Gui J, Christensen BC, Madan JC, Karagas MR, Howe CG
bioRxiv. 2025 Apr 3; pii: 2025.04.01.646630. doi: 10.1101/2025.04.01.646630. Epub 2025 Apr 3.
PMID: 40236248

The Association between Tea Consumption and Bladder Cancer Risk Based on the Bladder Cancer Epidemiology and Nutritional Determinants (BLEND) International Consortium.
Zhang YX, Albers R, Chen YT, Steineck G, Kellen E, Johnson KC, Lu CM, Pohlabeln H, Vecchia C, Porru S, Carta A, Polesel J, Bosetti C, Jiang X, Tang L, Marshall J, Karagas MR, Zhang ZF, Taylor JA, Zeegers MPA, Wesselius A, Yu EY
Nutr Cancer. 2025 Apr 8;:1-12. doi: 10.1080/01635581.2025.2488063. Epub 2025 Apr 8.
PMID: 40200560

Dietary Glycemic Index, Glycemic Load, Sugar, and Fiber Intake in Association With Breast Cancer Risk: An Updated Meta-analysis.
Pomares-Millan H, Saxby SM, Al-Mashadi Dahl S, Karagas MR, Passarelli MN
Nutr Rev. 2025 Apr 3; pii: nuaf038. doi: 10.1093/nutrit/nuaf038. Epub 2025 Apr 3.
PMID: 40181593

The Association of Prenatal Dietary Factors with Child Autism Diagnosis and Autism-Related Traits Using a Mixtures Approach: Results from the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes Cohort.
Bragg MG, Rando J, Carroll KN, Eick SM, Karagas MR, Lin PI, Schmidt RJ, Lyall K, ECHO Cohort Consortium
J Nutr. 2025 Mar 17; pii: S0022-3166(25)00165-8. doi: 10.1016/j.tjnut.2025.02.025. Epub 2025 Mar 17.
PMID: 40107454

Prenatal per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances and blood pressure trajectories in the New Hampshire Birth Cohort Study.
Wang Y, Anderson EC, Howe CG, Gui J, Gallagher LG, Heggeseth B, Botelho JC, Calafat AM, Karagas MR, Romano ME
Int J Hyg Environ Health. 2025 May;266:114556. doi: 10.1016/j.ijheh.2025.114556. Epub 2025 Mar 8.
PMID: 40058195

Exposure to a mixture of arsenic species and growth indicators in 6-12-year-old children from the cycles 2007-2020 NHANES.
Garcia-Villarino M, Fernandez-Iglesias R, Garcia AV, Villa-Fernandez E, Fernandez-Arce L, Riaño-Galan I, Lambert C, Martin V, Karagas MR, Delgado-Álvarez E, Fernandez-Somoano A, Signes-Pastor AJ
Environ Int. 2025 Mar;197:109347. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2025.109347. Epub 2025 Feb 21.
PMID: 40015175

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