Project 2: Postnatal Complications & Interventions against Halogenated Organics during Pregnancy

Goal: Investigate lifestyle strategies (nutrition-based approaches or exercise) in order to reduce the impact of exposure to PCBs and related insults. Our experiments will offer innovative new insights to understanding the role of exercise in mitigating the health impacts of in utero PCB exposure and will help us to better understand the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the toxicity of persistent halogenated organic pollutants. In the future, research findings using cells from babies may provide proof of concept to understand the effects of various in utero environmental exposures on metabolic outcomes in children. Future work can also apply this model to investigate new preventative and intervention approaches targeting the identified pathways.

Expected Outcomes: New insights about the role of exercise in mitigating the health impacts of in utero PCB exposure to better understand the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the toxicity of persistent halogenated organic pollutants. Model-derived new preventative and intervention approaches targeting the identified pathways.