Caroline Smith
Boston College, MA·Neuroscience·Early-career
Air pollution exposure before birth has been linked to autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other conditions marked by social difficulties. ASD affects about 1 in 59 U.S.
- Fields
Neuroscience
Microbiology & Immunology
Psychology
- Topics
autism spectrum disorder
air pollution
diesel exhaust particles
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Dec 2026
What they work on
- Test whether cross-fostering mouse pups exposed prenatally to diesel exhaust particles and maternal stress prevents shifts in their gut microbiome, measured by metagenomic sequencing.
- Use in vivo optogenetics, light-based control of neurons, to test whether activating the mesolimbic dopamine reward pathway restores social behavior in male offspring after combined pollution and stress exposure.
- Determine whether gut microbiome changes cause the social behavior and dopamine signaling deficits in exposed offspring, and identify candidate metabolites or molecular mechanisms involved.
- Test whether microglia, the brain's resident immune cells, mediate the microbiome-driven changes in social circuits and behavior.
More about the research
children, mostly boys. Marginalized communities carry the heaviest pollution burden. How pollution changes the developing brain's social circuits is unknown. This project asks how pollution and maternal stress together disrupt the gut-brain axis, the two-way link between gut microbes and the brain, to produce social deficits.
Why it matters
Air pollution is one of the world's largest public health burdens and is tied to higher risk of autism and other neuropsychiatric disorders. By showing how pollution and maternal stress act together through gut microbes and brain immune cells, this work could reveal mechanisms behind social dysfunction. It could eventually inform ways to protect children in highly exposed communities.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Howard Gritton
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, IL·Neuroscience
Test whether developmental phthalate exposure reduces anatomical and functional connectivity among frontal, sensory and limbic brain regions in mice, using whole-brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
Susanne Brummelte
Wayne State University, MI·Neuroscience
Compare how buprenorphine and morphine, given to female rats from before conception through early postpartum, alter the endogenous opioid system and neurochemistry of the maternal brain network.
Anna Wallisch
University of Kansas, KS·Psychology·Early-career
Examine physiological synchrony, how closely parent and child body arousal track each other, using wearable biosensors during home mealtimes for children with autism and typically developing children.
The school
Boston College: 11 labs on PI Pages, $96M a year on research, 161 research doctorates a year.
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