Bryan Williams, Ph.D., an environmental epidemiologist-toxicologist at Le Bonheur Children's, has been named deputy chief at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The new appointment could lay the groundwork for Le Bonheur to be a national leader in studying the effects of environmental toxins on children.

Through the National Center for Environmental Health, Williams will partner with Le Bonheur to study how exposure to toxins through air, water, land and housing affect children - especially their neurological development. Williams expects to concentrate largely on heavy metals (e.g. mercury and lead) dioxins, pesticides and PCBs.

Williams hopes to set the stage for Le Bonheur to be part of the National Children's Study, which examines the effects of environmental influences on the health and development of more than 100,000 children across the United States. The laboratory in which Dr. Williams will serve as deputy chief plays a central role in the National children's study.

"I'd really like to see Le Bonheur become nationally recognized as a leader in children's environmental research," Williams said.

Laying the groundwork
Williams has worked inside the Children's Foundation Research Center at Le Bonheur for the past year, studying exposure to lead, mercury and pesticides. The CFRC represents a partnership with Le Bonheur, the Children's Foundation of Memphis, and the University of Tennessee Health Science Center to sponsor and facilitate pediatric research. In his new role at the CDC, Williams will maintain an adjunct professorship at UTHSC.

"Bryan has a strong science background, great knowledge of the epidemiology side of environmental health and a strong biostatistics background," said Dana Barr, chief of Pesticide Laboratory at the CDC. She added that his access to a new population of children and the resources and knowledge in Le Bonheur's Neuroscience Institute will allow the CDC and Le Bonheur to collaborate on more informative studies in environmental health.

The CFRC will also play an important role, serving as a repository for samples collected through Le Bonheur.

"We have been very lucky to have Bryan based in the CFRC, and we hate to see him move," said Dr. Dennis Black, director of the CFRC and vice president for research at Le Bonheur. "However, Bryan will maintain close ties with us in his new position as we provide facilities for a specimen repository, and we expect to see great progress with collaborative research to help us understand the role of environmental toxins in the neurological development of children, especially for disorders such as autism.
exploring neurological disorders

In his new role, Williams will work closely with Le Bonheur's Neuroscience Institute, which hopes to use his studies to look at childhood neurological disorders - particularly autism. "The concern of an environmental toxin affecting a child's development is a common question of parents," said Dr. James Wheless, director of the Neuroscience Institute. "Nowhere has this been truer than in childhood neurological disorders for which we do not understand the cause. Childhood autism certainly fits into this category."

Wheless said he and his group plan to continue working with Williams to investigate environmental toxins for a potential association with autism. "We also want to look at the possible association of non-toxic levels of multiple environmental agents to see if this can affect brain development in pre-school children," Wheless said. "Historically, only the effect of one toxin was looked at, and no one thought to look at multiple agents to see if they had a combined effect."

Williams will also work with Dr. Tammam R. El-Abiad at the Regional Medical Center's Newborn Center. There, he is studying how trace metals in blood transfusions for babies weighing less than 1,000 kilograms might affect their cognitive and respiratory function.

Dr. Russell Chesney, chairman of the Department of Pediatrics for UTHSC, also anticipates that Williams will benefit from Le Bonheur's wealth of informed physicians interested in early childhood development. "They'll be able to help frame the questions that you would want to ask," Chesney said.

Williams also believes that Le Bonheur will be key to recruiting children to studies, both because of the good image the hospital holds in the community and its access to a large African American population. African Americans are often not represented in adequate numbers in studies like these. "Le Bonheur has such a good image, it really helps with research," Williams said.