Faculty
Primary Faculty
Defining the impact of environmental chemicals (e.g., metals and air pollution) on brain development and behavior, with emphasis on attributable risk to neurodevelopmental disorders.
Toxicology of inhaled particulate matter on the lung, cardiovascular, and central nervous systems
Community engagement, policy, and reporting of research results around environmental health (e.g. healthy housing, lead, microplastics, air quality).
Defining the impact of environmental exposures on immune system development and function, with emphasis on how early life exposures shape health and disease later in life.
Developing and coordinating a wide variety of science education and outreach programs for students (elementary through high school), teachers, and the general community.
Environmental lung diseases COPD and IPF pathogenesis and therapeutic targets: effects of lung cellular mitochondrial dysfunction, senescence, and molecular clock.
Cellular and molecular mechanisms of methylmercury metabolism and toxicity in development of neural and muscular systems using invertebrate, mammalian and human models.
Develop a research program concentrating on identifying genetic modifiers of environmental factors in disease etiology using a combination of Drosophila genetics, cell culture, and rodent models.
Neurotoxicology, behavioral analysis, endocrine-epigenetic mechanisms, cumulative risk.
Exploring the mechanisms underlying gene-environment interactions in pregnancy; exploring the role of tryptophan catabolism in pregnancy and on the metabolic health of mother and offspring.
Research Faculty
My research focuses on whether premature lung aging is a cause or a consequence of environmental exposures. I am interested in studying how lifestyle and environmental factors—such as smoking, vaping, air pollution, and occupational hazards—predispose individuals to pulmonary disorders including COPD, IPF, and lung cancer. Using in vivo and in vitro toxicology alongside single-cell and spatial technologies, I aim to uncover mechanisms of smoke-induced senescence and impaired tissue repair, identifying early biomarkers and therapeutic targets for COPD.
Science communication, community outreach and engagement.
Effects of exposure to perfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) on antiviral immunity
Secondary Faculty
Environmental epidemiology on the effect of air pollution on respiratory health
Defining molecular pathways by which inhaled allergens and particulates activate lung mucosal immunity.
Defining the impact of environmental toxicants on maternal and child health, with a focus on persistent organic pollutants (PCBs and PFAS), metals, and their mixtures, and immune system development and function.
Genetic and environmental susceptibility to developmental lung injury.
Environmental Medicine and Medical Ecology; Public Health implications of endocrine disrupting compounds, social determinants of academic success, and program evaluation
Medical Toxicology and Emergency Medicine education, with interest in novel psychoactive substances and adulterated drugs of abuse
Defining how gene environment interactions shape alveolar lung development and the risk for lung disease over the lifespan.
Elucidate the molecular mechanisms of divalent metal neurotoxicity and mitochondrial dysfunction in Alzheimer's disease pathogenesis.
Multiple molecular modality identification of lung cell types, subtypes and states in health and disease with focus on diseases of children.
Cardiovascular, respiratory, and pregnancy health effects of exposure to environmental agents, including ambient air pollution; accountability studies.
Experimental platform using the amphibian Xenopus for research in immunotoxicology, fundamental and medical immunology.
Environmental health applications, models for multiple outcomes, multiple exposure models, measurement error, Bayesian inference.
Investigating the influence of exposures (environmental, dietary, dental materials) on oral health and neurodevelopment in children.
Investigating how environmental exposures influence molecular pathways driving inflammation and fibrosis in and around the eye.
Refugee community-led environmental research involving healthy choices, eating local fish, and improvement of air quality in kitchens in multifamily dwellings
Environmental and nutritional influences on cognitive and neurodevelopmental outcomes.
Emeritus Faculty
Understanding the toxicities, mechanisms of action, and dose-response relationship for methyl mercury and other heavy metals.
Delineating the role of alveolar epithelium in modulating the pulmonary injury response to physiological and toxicological stimuli, including oxidant induced signaling in the pulmonary epithelium and macrophages, and epithelial production of mediators that regulate inflammatory functions of macrophages.
Biokinetics, Effects, Mechanisms and Risk of Inhaled Particles: Dosimetry; Neuronal Nano-Particle Translocation Nose to Brain; Translation Human to Rodent and vice-versa.
Adjunct Faculty
Chemical characterization of ambient aerosol samples; source/receptor relationships for ambient air pollutants; Indoor air quality; Exposure and risk assessment.
Identify new targets susceptible to environmental perturbation in relevance with neurodevelopment or neurodegenerative diseases by utilizing functional genetics/genomics (RNAi and CRISPR screens and Next-Generation sequencing), and molecular benchwork. Discover the link between genetic polymorphism of the targets and neurological diseases. Explore novel roles of extracellular vesicles (EV) in receptor signaling and cell communication. Identify EV-encapsulated biomolecules released by the placenta in response to environmental perturbation. Explore the roles of placenta-derived EVs on neurodevelopment or neurodegeneration