CHDS: People: Barbara A. Cohn

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Barbara A. Cohn. Ph.D.

Barbara A Cohn is an epidemiologist who earned her PhD at the University of California, Berkeley in 1984. She became Co-Director of the Child Health and Development Studies in 1997 and Director in 2001.

In addition to her responsibility as Director of the Child Health and Development studies, Dr. Cohn directs an active research program that addresses these questions:

How pregnancy protects mothers against breast cancer.
How exposures in the womb affect the risk of cancer and other diseases.
How exposures to environmental chemicals before birth affect the growth and reproductive health of men and women.

Dr. Cohn's current research examines how pregnancy protects against breast cancer. She is searching for natural protective mechanisms that can be used to prevent or treat breast cancer in collaboration with Dr. Pentti Siiteri, Professor Emeritus, University of California San Francisco, School of Medicine, and CHDS staff scientists, Piera Cirillo, Robert Sholtz, Richard Cohen, Roberta Christianson, and Barbara van den Berg.

Dr. Cohn also studies the health effects of exposures to hormonally active environmental chemicals in collaboration with Dr. Mary Wolff, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine and Dr. Pentti Siiteri. She is investigating effects of environmental chemicals on breast cancer in CHDS mothers. She is also investigating the effects of exposures to environmental chemicals before birth on the reproductive health of CHDS daughters and sons who are now having children of their own.

Selected CHDS Publications:

Cohn, B.A., P.M. Cirillo, M.S. Wolff, P.J. Schwingl, R.D. Cohen, R.I. Sholtz, A. Ferrara, R.E. Christianson, B.J. van den Berg, and P.K. Siiteri, DDT and DDE exposure in mothers and time to pregnancy in daughters. The Lancet, 2003. 361: p. 2205-2206. [http://www.niehs.nih.gov/dert/profiles/hilites/2003/ddt-dde.htm]
Cohn, B.A., M.S. Wolff, P.M. Cirillo, R.I. Sholtz, R.E. Christianson, B.J. van den Berg, and P.K. Siiteri, Timing of DDT Exposure and Breast Cancer Before Age 50 (Abstract). International Society of Environmental Epidemiology, Vancouver, British Columbia, July 2002.
Siiteri, P.K., P.M. Cirillo, R.D. Cohen, R.I. Sholtz, R.E. Christianson, B.J. van den Berg, W.R. Hopper, and B.A. Cohn, Prospective study of pregnancy estrogens and risk of breast cancer. in Era of Hope Department of Breast Cancer Research Program Meeting. 2002. Orlando Florida.
Cohn, B.A., P.M. Cirillo, R.E. Christianson, B.J. van den Berg, and P.K. Siiteri, Placental characteristics and reduced risk of maternal breast cancer. Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 2001. 93(15): p. 1133-40 [http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/breastcenter/artemis/200109/feature12.html.]