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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

 

Time-Varying Exposure to Element Mixtures and Children's Cognition at 5 Years of Age: Findings from the New Hampshire Birth Cohort Study.
Notario Barandiaran L, Bauer JA, Laue HE, Signes-Pastor AJ, Jackson BP, Peacock JL, Madan J, Bellinger DC, Korrick S, Karagas MR
Environ Health Perspect. 2026 May 5;134(1):41-52. doi: 10.1021/EHP.6c00030. Epub 2026 Apr 13.
PMID: 42148044

Challenges Associated With Rural-Urban Stratification for Generalizing Birth Outcomes: Insights From the ECHO Cohort.
Beene D, MacKenzie DA, Camargo CA Jr, Chehab RF, Elliott AJ, Gao G, Hirko KA, Karagas MR, Keim S, McCormack LA, Peterson AK, Sadeghi H, Towe-Goodman N, Kress AM, ECHO Cohort Consortium
J Rural Health. 2026 Mar;42(2):e70163. doi: 10.1111/jrh.70163.
PMID: 42117321

Prenatal exposure to gas stoves, mold, and water damage: Associations with gestational duration and fetal growth in the ECHO cohort.
Oh J, Quiros-Alcala L, Burjak M, Ross AJ, Croen LA, Dickerson AS, Ferrara A, Habre R, Hertz-Picciotto I, Karagas MR, Loftus CT, Schmidt RJ, Schweitzer JB, Stroustrup A, Zhu Y, Bennett DH, ECHO Cohort Consortium
Environ Pollut. 2026 Jun 15;399:128219. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2026.128219. Epub 2026 Apr 27.
PMID: 42055209

Maternal History of Weight Loss and Prospective Gestational Weight Gain.
Muse ME, Gilbert-Diamond D, Madan J, Peacock JL, Karagas MR, Howe CG
JAMA Netw Open. 2026 Apr 1;9(4):e267931. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2026.7931. Epub 2026 Apr 1.
PMID: 42008266

Enhancing a job exposure matrix with subject-specific information to assess combined exposure to benzene, toluene, and xylene in a case-control study.
Friesen MC, Xie S, Locke SJ, Baris D, Schwenn M, Rothman N, Johnson A, Karagas MR, Koutros S, Silverman DT
Ann Work Expo Health. 2026 Mar 12;70(3) doi: 10.1093/annweh/wxag014.
PMID: 41886428

Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances During Pregnancy and Gestational Diabetes: The Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Cohort.
Starling AP, Burjak M, Nzegwu AW, Xun X, Adgate JL, Barrett ES, Bennett DH, Chatzi L, Colicino E, Dabelea D, Dunlop AL, Eick SM, Farzan SF, Ferrara A, Fleisch AF, Geiger SD, Hedderson MM, Kahn LG, Karagas MR, Kelly RS, Liang D, Lin PI, O'Connor TG, Padula AM, Peterson AK, Romano ME, Sathyanarayana S, Zhu Y, Valvi D, ECHO Cohort Consortium*
Diabetes Care. 2026 May 1;49(5):852-860. doi: 10.2337/dc25-1340.
PMID: 41875060

Effects of maternal arsenic exposure on birth outcomes using harmonized data across three birth cohorts.
Feric Z, Beene D, Signes-Pastor AJ, Watkins DJ, Gao G, Karagas MR, MacKenzie DA, Kaeli DR, Manjourides J
Toxicol Environ Health Sci. 2026 Jan 29; doi: 10.1007/s13530-025-00292-6. Epub 2026 Jan 29.
PMID: 41737443

Adherence to the EAT-Lancet Planetary Health Diet during pregnancy and associations with preterm birth and infant size: a prospective analysis from the New Hampshire Birth Cohort.
Barandiaran LN, Bui LP, Madan JC, Peacock JL, Khatchikian C, Karagas MR
Am J Clin Nutr. 2026 Apr;123(4):101241. doi: 10.1016/j.ajcnut.2026.101241. Epub 2026 Feb 19.
PMID: 41722780

Optimizing protocols for microRNA profiling of infant and toddler stool.
Armstrong DA, Soucy SM, Muse ME, Kolling FW 4th, Trask HW, Howell AL, Laue HE, Hoen AG, Gui J, Christensen BC, Madan JC, Karagas MR, Howe CG
RNA Biol. 2026 Dec;23(1):1-15. doi: 10.1080/15476286.2026.2634198. Epub 2026 Mar 4.
PMID: 41715892

Association of Maternal Smoking During Pregnancy With Childhood Blood Pressure and Hypertension in the ECHO Cohort.
Shorey-Kendrick LE, Ladd-Acosta C, Zhao H, Aschner JL, Breton CV, Camargo CA Jr, Cassidy-Bushrow AE, Colicino E, Dabelea D, Dunlop AL, Farzan SF, Ferrara A, Gern JE, Hertz-Picciotto I, Karagas MR, Karr CJ, Lester B, Leve LD, Moore BF, Neiderhiser JM, Oken E, O'Shea TM, Sanderson K, Stanford JB, Trasande L, Weiss ST, Wright RJ, Zhao Q, Zhu Y, McEvoy CT, Spindel ER, ECHO Cohort Consortium
Circulation. 2026 Feb 17;153(7):536-539. doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.125.076520. Epub 2026 Feb 16.
PMID: 41697983

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