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

该奖项是作为NSF社会、行为和经济学博士后研究奖学金(SPRF)计划的一部分提供的。SPRF计划的目标是为学术界、工业界或私营部门和政府的科学职业生涯培养有前途的、早期职业博士水平的科学家。SPRF奖项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。国家科学基金会致力于促进科学界所有阶层的科学家参与其研究方案和活动，包括那些来自代表性不足的群体的科学家；博士后阶段被认为是实现这一目标的专业发展的一个重要水平。每个博士后研究员都必须解决推动各自学科领域向前发展的重要科学问题。在圣路易斯华盛顿大学伊丽莎白·马洛特博士和特蕾莎·吉尔德纳博士的赞助下，这一博士后奖学金奖项支持一位研究儿童时期农药暴露、社会因素和人类生物学之间关系的早期职业科学家。一些杀虫剂含有会扰乱内分泌系统并影响新陈代谢功能的化学物质。当这种干扰发生在关键的发育时期，如儿童时期，它可能会对人类生物学和健康产生短期和长期影响。此外，并不是所有的人都有同样的风险。这个项目的结果将有助于我们理解个人、家庭、社区和社会因素之间的相互作用，因为它们与农药暴露有关。这个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群相关的理解。通过这样做，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学途径的了解。这一NSF博士后奖学金将检验农药暴露影响儿童新陈代谢发育的假设，包括肠道微生物群影响杀虫剂暴露与甲状腺功能之间的关系的预测。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群的变化有关？2)环境中的结构性因素，包括污水和饮用水基础设施，是否有助于环境暴露和代谢发展的差异？3)密西西比州农村地区的其他环境暴露除了杀虫剂外，还有哪些影响健康的因素，如每种和多氟烷基物质(PFAS)？为了验证这一假设，我们将测量儿童时期接触杀虫剂、甲状腺激素水平、身体成分和微生物组组成。通过在不同的分析范围内调查环境暴露，并确定这些暴露影响儿童生长发育的新的生物学途径，该项目将加深我们对儿童时期杀虫剂影响的理解。总而言之，这些发现将推动对美国儿童发展的社会和生物影响的研究。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.