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.
Prenatal exposure to wildfire fine particulate matter and fetal growth outcomes in the United States: Findings from the ECHO Cohort. Associations between a mixture of trace elements and bladder cancer occurrence: A study of possible reverse causation. Multi-population GWAS meta-analysis identifies bladder cancer susceptibility loci and highlights genetic regulation of smoking-related risk. Prenatal Organophosphate Exposure and Autism-Related Traits in Children. Impact of sample mass on the reliability of toenail fluoride for exposure assessment. Prenatal exposure to fluoride in public water and child cognition in the US ECHO cohort, 2006-2019. Corrigendum to '2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans in Pregnancy: Adherence Shortfalls and Associations with Gestational Weight Gain' [J. Nutr. 2026; 156: 101198]. Exposure to Organophosphate Ester Flame Retardants and Plasticizers during Pregnancy and Autism-Related Outcomes in the ECHO Cohort. Evaluation of the United States' Permitless Concealed Carry Laws and Child Health in the ECHO Cohort. Prenatal Air Pollution Exposure and Autism Spectrum Disorder in the ECHO Consortium. |
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