Laura Vandenberg
Professor of Environmental Health Sciences
Endocrine disruptors, hazard assessment, developmental biology, endocrinology
Contact details
Location
Goessmann Building
686 North Pleasant Street
Amherst, MA 01003
United States
About
My research explores how early life exposures to chemicals and chemical mixtures can predispose individuals to diseases that manifest later in life. Classical toxicology often focuses on how fetal chemical exposures can produce birth defects, an important part of chemical safety. My work instead addresses how low doses of chemicals during critical windows of development can alter gene expression, cell differentiation, and tissue organization in subtle ways that can lead to adult diseases such as cancer, obesity, and infertility. I am specifically interested in the class of chemicals termed "endocrine disruptors" and have worked extensively with chemicals used as plasticizers and flame retardants. My work also focuses on how traditional toxicology assays have failed to identify a number of ubiquitous endocrine disruptors, and how current risk assessment practices can be improved in the study and regulation of this class of chemicals.