Postdoctoral Fellowship: SPRF: Structural Determinants of Exposure and the Gut Microbiome

该奖项是NSF社会、行为和经济科学博士后研究奖学金（SPRF）计划的一部分。SPRF计划的目标是为学术界，工业或私营部门和政府的科学事业准备有前途的早期职业博士级科学家。SPRF的奖励包括在知名科学家的赞助下进行两年的培训，并鼓励博士后研究员进行独立研究。NSF致力于促进来自科学界各部门的科学家，包括来自代表性不足的群体的科学家参与其研究计划和活动;博士后期间被认为是实现这一目标的专业发展的重要水平。每个博士后研究员必须解决推进各自学科领域的重要科学问题。在圣路易斯华盛顿大学的Elizabeth Mallott博士和Theresa Gillit博士的赞助下，该博士后奖学金支持早期职业科学家研究儿童时期农药暴露，社会因素和人类生物学之间的关系。有些杀虫剂含有能扰乱内分泌系统和影响新陈代谢功能的化学物质。当这种干扰发生在儿童等关键发育时期时，它可能对人类生物学和健康产生短期和长期影响。此外，并非所有人都受到同样的影响。该项目的结果将使我们了解与农药暴露有关的个人、家庭、社区和社会因素之间的相互作用。该项目还将提高我们对农药暴露如何与儿童时期的代谢功能和肠道微生物组相关的理解。在这样做的过程中，它将扩大我们对美国低资源社区社会环境相互作用的生物途径的了解。这个NSF博士后奖学金将测试农药暴露影响儿童代谢发育的假设，包括肠道微生物组影响农药暴露与甲状腺功能之间关系的预测。该项目将回答以下问题：1）随着时间的推移，更多的农药暴露是否与身体成分，青春期甲状腺激素水平的变化以及肠道微生物组的变化有关？2)环境中的结构性因素，包括污水和饮用水基础设施，是否会导致环境暴露和代谢发展的差异？3)密西西比农村地区除杀虫剂（如全氟烷基和多氟烷基物质）外，还有哪些其他环境暴露会影响健康？为了验证这一假设，我们将测量儿童农药暴露、甲状腺激素水平、身体组成和微生物组组成。通过调查不同分析尺度的环境暴露，并确定这些暴露影响儿童生长和发育的新生物途径，该项目将加深我们对农药在儿童期影响的理解。这些发现将共同推动对美国儿童发展的社会和生物影响的研究。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award was provided as part of NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) program. The goal of the SPRF program is to prepare promising, early career doctoral-level scientists for scientific careers in academia, industry or private sector, and government. SPRF awards involve two years of training under the sponsorship of established scientists and encourage Postdoctoral Fellows to perform independent research. NSF seeks to promote the participation of scientists from all segments of the scientific community, including those from underrepresented groups, in its research programs and activities; the postdoctoral period is considered to be an important level of professional development in attaining this goal. Each Postdoctoral Fellow must address important scientific questions that advance their respective disciplinary fields. Under the sponsorship of Drs. Elizabeth Mallott and Theresa Gildner at Washington University in St. Louis, this postdoctoral fellowship award supports an early career scientist studying the relationship between pesticide exposure, social factors, and human biology during childhood. Some pesticides contain chemicals that can disrupt the endocrine system and influence metabolic function. When this disruption occurs during key periods of development, such as childhood, it may have both short- and long-term effects on human biology and health. Furthermore, not all individuals are equally exposed. The results from this project will inform our understanding of the interaction between individual, household, community, and societal factors as they relate to pesticide exposures. This project will also improve our understanding of how pesticide exposure may be related to metabolic function and the gut microbiome during childhood. In doing so, it will expand our knowledge of the biological pathways that underlie socioenvironmental interactions in low-resource communities of the United States. This NSF postdoctoral fellowship will test the hypothesis that pesticide exposure influences childhood metabolic development, including the prediction that the gut microbiome affects the relationship between pesticide exposure and thyroid function. The project will answer the following questions: 1) Is greater pesticide exposure over time associated with body composition, changes in thyroid hormone levels during adolescence, and changes in the gut microbiome? 2) Do structural factors in the environment, including sewage and drinking water infrastructure, contribute to differences in environmental exposures and metabolic development? 3) What other environmental exposures in rural Mississippi influence health beyond pesticides, such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)? To test this hypothesis, we will measure childhood pesticide exposure, thyroid hormone levels, body composition, and microbiome composition. By investigating environmental exposures across varying scales of analysis and identifying new biological pathways by which these exposures affect child growth and development, this project will deepen our understanding of the effects of pesticides during childhood. Together, these findings will advance research on the social and biological influences on childhood development in the United States.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.