Nobles, Rabeya, and Johnson Unveil Findings on Environment's Impact on Reproductive Health

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From left to right: Gabrielle Johnson, Kaniz Rabeya, and Carrie Nobles

Assistant Professor of Environmental Health Sciences Carrie Nobles and her team of doctoral students, Gabrielle Johnson and Kaniz Rabeya, had a successful summer sharing their research with colleagues at two major meetings.

In June, Rabeya and Johnson had the opportunity to present their findings in talks and poster sessions at the Society for Epidemiologic Research (SER) and the Society for Pediatric and Perinatal Epidemiologic Research (SPER) Annual Conferences. SER is dedicated to advancing epidemiologic research and methods, while SPER is dedicated to advancing research on reproductive, maternal, and child health.

Nobles' research group focuses on the impact of air pollution and reproductive health. Ultimately, her group aims to produce policy-relevant findings on how acute and chronic exposure to this pollution impacts paternal and maternal reproductive health during the preconception period and early pregnancy, including the risk of pregnancy loss. At SPER, Nobles delivered a talk entitled “Air pollution exposure across spermatogenesis and sperm DNA methylation." These findings add to the emerging evidence suggesting that men’s air pollution exposure may be associated with differential methylation of genes linked to spermatogenesis.

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Gabrielle Johnson at the SPER annual meeting

Johnson’s talk and posters, entitled “Using cycle-timed air pollutant estimates to model fecundability" were presented at both events. Her findings, which SPER awarded 2nd place for poster presentation, account for sensitive windows of reproduction and suggest that ambient air pollution may impact fecundability among women trying to get pregnant. In addition to her talk, Johnson also received the Kathy Rose Travel Scholarship at SER.

Rabeya’s talk at SPER titled “Air pollution exposure and reproductive hormonal levels across the menstrual cycle in a time-to-pregnancy cohort” highlighted that ambient air pollution is associated with reproductive hormone levels across the menstrual cycle, suggesting that hormones may be a susceptible pathway for impacts on women’s reproductive health. Her posters, presented at both conferences and titled “Examining early gestational susceptibility to ambient air pollutants and risk of pregnancy loss in a time-to-pregnancy cohort," suggested that exposure to air pollution during the earliest gestational weeks may be associated with pregnancy loss in a preconception time-to-pregnancy cohort.

Both conferences are an annual effort by SER and SPER to bring together researchers from academia, government, and industry to promote scientific collaboration, education, and the application of epidemiology to improve public health.

Kaniz Rabeya presenting at the SPER Annual conference.