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- Up next we have Brie Ellison 

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from Interdisciplinary Studies with a talk titled, 

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“Challenges and Opportunities in Human Subjects Research: 

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“Assessing Glyphosate Exposure in Pregnant Women.” 

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Brie, take it away.

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- Good morning, everyone. 

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Many of you are probably familiar with weed killers like RoundUp, 

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a common herbicide that my own parents used on their farm. 

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Glyphosate is the main ingredient in products like RoundUp, 

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and its usage rose 1200% worldwide in the last two decades. 

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It's great at destroying weeds, but what's it doing to our health? 

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A few previous studies have suggested 

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that glyphosate exposure during pregnancy may lead to preterm birth, 

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but much more research is needed to understand if this is true 

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and how exposure is occurring. 

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We designed a robust study to follow 40 women throughout pregnancy, 

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collecting weekly, and sometimes daily, 

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urine samples during a two-week dietary intervention, 

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to compare glyphosate levels when eating organically versus conventionally. 

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We are currently awaiting results from the CDC 

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regarding the glyphosate measurements. 

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In the meantime, I'd like to share our discoveries 

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about human subjects research, 

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and how we were successful despite many challenges. 

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One of the challenges was the COVID-19 pandemic. 

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Recruitment and informed consent is a vital step in human subjects research, 

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and it's typically done in-person. 

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Instead, we created YouTube videos to better connect with the participants. 

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We would park outside their house, 

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drop the forms on the doorstep, 

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send them links to the videos, 

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and phone them to go over the paperwork. 

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Then, we would drop off the urine cup 

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and pick it up when it was filled, all in real time. 

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That allowed us to maintain social distancing, 

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but keep a more personal feel, 

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which ended up being a key part of our success in participant retention. 

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And participant retention was a major concern throughout our study. 

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We had to keep the women engaged 

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on a weekly and sometimes daily basis 

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to get the kind of in-depth data that's missing from this area of research. 

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On top of that, many of the women were dealing with difficulties 

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that impacted their availability. 

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One of our participants was homeless for the duration of the study. 

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I once had to pick up a sample outside a Hobby Lobby. 

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Many of them dealt with food and housing insecurity, 

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irregular job schedules, and children with disabilities. 

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But despite these challenges, 

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we collected 1,395 samples from 40 women 

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over a nine month period, 

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for a 97% compliance rate. 

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How do we do it? 

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By building a personal connection with these women. 

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In research, it's easy to say 

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that we give back to our participants retroactively, through results. 

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But through our study, we were able to immediately impact these women 

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and help improve their quality of life. 

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We built personal connections, 

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we texted them updates and reminders, 

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compensated them with gift cards, 

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and provided each with $360 in groceries. 

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We knew them by name, knew what they were dealing with, 

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and worked with their unique situations as much as possible. 

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Throughout the study, we had many women express their gratitude 

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for the help we provided them, 

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as well as excitement for our research. 

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If you'd like to hear more 

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about this important stepping stone in glyphosate research, 

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please feel free to check out my poster and ask me any questions.