Development of a predictive two-generation model to characterize prenatal and postnatal exposure to chemicals and their metabolites

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Several chemicals, like polychlorinated biphenyls and bisphenol A, are routinely detected in cord blood and breast milk from the general population. This indicates that children are exposed to chemicals in the womb and postnatally through breastfeeding. These early-life exposures occur at a time of extensive development (e.g., brain development, immune system maturation) during which the fetus/child is particularly vulnerable to toxic insults. The assessment of children’s exposure to the wide variety of existing chemicals is a huge task. Indeed, more than 85,000 chemicals are currently on the market. In addition, multiple new chemicals enter the market each year. Current approaches to estimate exposure to chemicals, like measuring chemical levels in samples of blood and milk, are too costly and time-consuming to tackle this long list of chemicals. It is therefore paramount to develop novel versatile tools to rapidly evaluate children’s exposure to existing and emerging chemicals. My research program aims to develop predictive mathematical models to estimate mothers’ and children’s exposure to a large array of chemicals based on their chemical structure. These predictive models will allow identifying chemicals that are likely to transfer from the mother to the child across the placenta or through breastfeeding. These models will also be used to quantify the dose to which the developing child is exposed compared to the maternal dose. In addition, decision trees will be developed for non-specialists wishing to rapidly screen chemicals for their potential to reach the developing organism during pregnancy and lactation. The novel tools developed in my laboratory will help circumvent the limitations of current approaches to exposure assessment and inform risk assessors and decision makers in establishing safe exposure levels of existing and emerging chemicals. My research program will fill an important knowledge gap and help protect children from toxic insults.