Metal Mixtures and Developmental Kidney Function
Alison Sanders, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Environmental and Occupational Health
University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health
She/Her/Hers
Description: The pregnant kidney and developing kidney are uniquely susceptible to environmental exposures compared to the mature adult kidney. Environmental exposure to nephrotoxicants (e.g., metals, air pollution and endocrine disrupting chemicals) in the periconceptional and prenatal periods may alter structure and functional changes. Exposures to environmental chemicals may be preventable and represent potentially intervenable risk factors to preserve kidney health. This talk will highlight exposures to metal mixtures common among U.S. populations, dose-response applications of mixtures in toxicological models, and potential applications of the joint epidemiologic and toxicologic findings for risk assessment among pregnant populations.
About the speaker: Dr. Alison Sanders is Assistant Professor and Vice Chair of Research in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health. Dr. Sanders earned her PhD in Environmental Sciences and Engineering from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, an MS in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Wisconsin – Madison and a BS in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Virginia. She completed postdoctoral work at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai where she held her first faculty position jointly in the Department of Pediatrics as well as Environmental Medicine and Public Health. At the University of Pittsburgh, Dr. Sanders directs the laboratory for Environmental Nephrotoxicology and Molecular Epidemiology and her research program employs molecular epidemiology, toxicological, and computational approaches to investigate the effects of environmental exposures and their mixtures that may predispose susceptible populations including pregnant women and children to poor kidney function, chronic kidney disease (CKD) or CKD of unknown origin (CKDu). Dr. Sanders’ work is funded in part by the NIEHS and NIDDK. In addition to her commitment to toxicology and environmental health research, Dr. Sanders is a certified professional coach from Duquesne University (2023). She has founded, developed, and directed training and education programs for postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, undergraduates, and 5th graders, and has a strong commitment to fostering professional and career development of early career scientists.
The Symposium will be held on Thursday, April 4, 2024, from 11:30am – 5:45pm Eastern.
Location: Field Auditorium Room 1112, Grainger Hall, (9 Circuit Drive, Durham, NC)