The Environmental Impact on Reproductive Health & Early Development (eLIFE) Research Interest Group is focused on reproductive health and the developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD). The DOHaD paradigm postulates that exposures during vulnerable windows of fetal development impact adult-onset diseases. In eLIFE, we aim to advance our understanding of how the timing of toxicant exposures, either as single chemicals or mixtures of chemicals, of both male and female partners can affect various health outcomes including reproductive success, early embryo development, and the health trajectory of offspring. Through strong study design, excellent exposure measurement, and cutting-edge statistics and computational techniques of a broad range of omics data, we can begin to understand these complex exposure-health relationships and use this information to design disease prevention approaches.
Members
| Name | Research Interests |
|---|---|
| J. Richard Pilsner (Leader) | Sperm epigenetics; biomarkers of reproductive success; endocrine-disrupting chemicals |
| Andrea Cassidy-Bushrow | Psycho-biological determinants of birth outcomes; racial disparities; epidemiology |
| Alan Dombkowski | Functional genomics and bioinformatics |
| Stephen Krawetz | Male contribution to reproductive success; sperm RNAs |
| Francesca Luca | Genetic and molecular basis of inter-individual differences in pediatric asthma |
| Gil Mor | Maternal and fetal components of pregnancy; immunology; preterm birth |
| Roger Pique-Regi | Computational/bioinformatic methods and statistical models of large genomics datasets |
| Jayanth Ramadoss | Perinatal and obstetric medicine; alcohol exposure; e-cigarette vaping |
| Daniel Rappolee | Environmental factor effects on embryonic development |
| Douglas Ruden | Early-life exposures on epigenetics dysregulation |
| Jennifer Straughen | Prenatal exposures and pregnancy outcomes; epidemiology; role of placenta |
Research Highlights
Mor/Ruden/Ramadoss (other non-elife CURES members: Stemmer/Petriello/Sadagurski),Maxwell, A., Adzibolosu. N., Hu, A., You Y., Stemmer, P.M., Ruden, D.M., Petriello, M.C., Sadagurski, M., Debarba, L.K., Koshko, L., Ramadoss, J., Nguyen, A., Richards, D., Liao, A., Mor, G., Ding, J., Intrinsic Sexual Dimorphism in the Placenta Determines the Differential Response to Benzene Exposure. iScience 26, 106287 21, 2023.
Pilsner Highlights:
- Invited speaker at the NIH Workshop on Multigenerational Nutrition and Influences on Health and Disease. https://www.scgcorp.com/nutrition-wksh-2023/
- Pilsner’s research featured in June 2023 NIEHS newsletter, Environmental Factor. https://factor.niehs.nih.gov/2023/6/feature/3-mens-reproductive-epigenetics?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery