Zorimar Rivera-Nunez
Rutgers University-New Brunswick, NJ·Public Health & Epidemiology
Mycotoxins are chemicals made by fungi that contaminate crops worldwide, and they may become more common as climates grow warmer and wetter. One of the most common is zearalenone (ZEN), made by Fusarium fungi.
- Fields
Public Health & Epidemiology
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
mycotoxins
mycoestrogens
zearalenone
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Sep 2029
What they work on
- Measure prenatal exposure to zearalenone (ZEN), a fungal estrogen-like contaminant, and its metabolites in TIDES pregnant women, and relate it to estrogen production and metabolomic profiles during pregnancy.
- Examine whether prenatal and childhood ZEN exposure is linked to child growth from birth through age 14 in 494 TIDES mother-child pairs.
- Test whether links between mycoestrogen exposure, maternal hormones and child growth differ by child sex, using existing TIDES data and biospecimens.
More about the research
It is found in grains, grain products, meat, milk, wine, beer, dried fruit and spices. ZEN and its breakdown products bind estrogen receptors, so they act like the hormone estrogen and are called mycoestrogens. In livestock and lab animals, ZEN disrupts hormones in mothers and offspring, changes pregnancy weight gain, and alters offspring growth and puberty. Almost everyone is exposed, yet little is known about its effects on human health.
Why it matters
Zearalenone contaminates much of the food supply, but its effects on human health are largely unknown. Evidence linking prenatal and childhood exposure to hormone disruption and altered child growth could help identify harms to pregnant women and children. It could also inform ways to reduce exposure and support efforts to regulate mycoestrogens in food, in the U.S. and elsewhere.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
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The school
Rutgers University-New Brunswick: 57 labs on PI Pages, $837M a year on research, 713 research doctorates a year.
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