Our Team

Postdoctoral Researcher. University Grenoble Alpes, INSERM, CNRS, Team of Environmental Epidemiology applied to Reproduction and Respiratory Health, Institute for Advanced Biosciences (IAB), Grenoble, France.

Dr. Mustieles’s research background comes directly from the Endocrine Disruption field, and thus his ultimate goal is achieving a better understanding of how low-dose complex mixtures of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) may impact human health throughout lifespan, and how the available toxicological and observational knowledge can be combined to protect public health. He actively collaborates with Dr. Messerlian inside the SEED program investigating how couple’s preconception and maternal prenatal chemical exposures may influence birth and developmental outcomes, as well as measures to reduce exposure and mitigate adverse effects in susceptible populations.

After working in the Human Biomonitoring for Europe (HBM4EU) Project to advance the field of effect biomarkers, his current postdoctoral work focuses on how early-life exposure to mixtures of phenols and phthalates can impact children’s neurodevelopment in the SEPAGES study, a new type of cohort collecting and pooling multiple urine samples to improve the exposure assessment of non-persistent EDCs.

Charleen is a molecular epidemiologist and computational geneticist with a PhD in genetics, MPH in genetic epidemiology, and MA in applied linguistics. She studies everything from molecules (e.g., metabolites, gene expression, and DNA methylation) to behavior, combining cutting-edge causal inference techniques and machine learning. She has expertise in Mendelian randomization, an analytical method that uses genes to study the environment, broadly defined as anything that isn’t a double-helix integrated nucleotide base. She has used Mendelian randomization to study the causes of reproductive cancers, dementia, and aging and is currently using machine learning to develop sex- and organ-specific clocks of aging. See her website for details: https://scholar.harvard.edu/charleenadams/publications.

Dr. Wang started his research career in China, where he made the intriguing discovery that exposure to environmental pollutants, including disinfection byproducts, phthalates, and metals was associated with impaired human semen quality, sperm apoptosis, DNA integrity, and adverse birth outcomes. Dr. Wang also applied up-to-date technology to explore the potential mediating role of seminal plasma metabolome, DNA methylation, and oxidative stress markers, which provided clues of underlying mechanisms. Dr. Wang continued to produce original research as a postdoc at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health since 2019, where he investigated the association of early-life reproductive characteristics (e.g., menstrual cycle characteristics, birth weight, pregnancy complications, spontaneous abortion, and infertility) with the risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and mortality in later life using the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS) and NHS II. These novel findings showed that early-life reproductive characteristics may serve as early markers of future health risk, highlighting the growing literature showing that specific reproductive events and chronic disease risk are intertwined over humans’ life course.

Yang Sun is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She received her MD and MPH degree from Bengbu Medical College and Huazhong University of Science and Technology, respectively, in China.

Her research is focused on the health effect of disinfection by-products, including the effects on fetal birth outcomes, children respiratory health, immunity system, thyroid function, population mortality, and so on. Her current main research work is to explore the epidemiological association between exposure disinfection by-products and various health biomarkers and diseases in the population by using statistical models.

Jaya earned her MPH with a concentration in material-child health from the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health in 2022. Jaya is a medical student at Harvard Medical School working towards her MD.

Honors: Maternal Child Leadership Lab Fellow

Gabriela Rosa (MPH (CLE), MScM (RHHG), BHSc (ND)) is the founder of The Rosa Institute, an organization dedicated to helping couples create healthy babies, despite previous reproductive challenges. Gabriela is a naturopathic medicine and Harvard University-trained fertility specialist, who has worked as a clinician since 2001. She has now treated and educated over 140,000 patients in more than 110 countries with her team. Gabriela is also a bestselling author and the host of TalkSex ™ with Gabriela Rosa podcast.

Gabriela’s area of expertise and research interests include sexuality, psychosocial, lifestyle, nutritional, and environmental medicine research. Her primary focus is identifying exposures and interventions that impact reproductive health to enhance public health education and produce clinical advancements in disease management and prevention.

Yu Zhang is a doctoral student concentrating on environmental and reproductive epidemiology at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. She is interested in studying how environmental chemical exposures influence the reproductive, pregnancy, and perinatal outcomes, and how nutrition interacts with environmental exposures on health outcomes.

Her research aims to utilize advanced statistical and causal inference methods to understand how preconception and prenatal exposures to environmental chemicals, such as phenols, phthalates and per and polyfluoroalkyl substances, can impact pregnancy outcomes and health of the offspring, and if nutrition could mitigate the deleterious health effects of the environmental exposures.

Education

• 2020 – Harvard University, U.S. PhD student

• 2015 – 2020 Peking University, China BA, BEc

Fatima Gunter-Rahman is a doctoral student in the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology program. She is eager to learn more about reproductive & perinatal epidemiology as a part of the SEED group, as her previous training was in computational and molecular biology.

She’s specifically interested in studying the long-term effects of epigenetic changes. She hopes to examine this question by studying A) placental changes associated with maternal obesity, B) the connections of epigenetic aging across organ systems, especially reproductive aging and cognitive decline. She hopes to apply both epidemiological and omics analyses to gain a deeper understanding.

Yuhong Hu is a second-year Master of Science student in Environmental Health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Prior to coming to HSPH, she worked on several projects to conduct exposure assessment in maternal biosamples and explore the bioaccumulation mechanisms of persistent organic chemicals.

Currently her research interest lie in the neurodevelopmental outcomes of prenatal exposure to environmental pollutants. Her master thesis aims to use a population-based cohort to assess the association between ambient air pollution and cerebral palsy in Ontario, Canada.

Leah Martin is currently a first-year SM2 masters student at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (HSPH) to pursue a career in environmental health research.

Before her graduate studies, Leah completed her B.S in molecular biology at California State University, Monterey Bay creating a background in molecular genetics, plant pathology, and cancer biology. Currently she works with Dr. Messerlian on the PIPER study, a preconception intervention study which focuses on phthalate and phenol exposure, and the PREPARE study.

Nikolaos (Nick) Syrigos is currently completing his Master of Public Health in Clinical Effectiveness, specifically in Maternal & Child Health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (HSPH). Nick earned his medical degree (M.D.) from Athens Medical School in Greece.

His research interests encompass women's health, with a particular emphasis on breast cancer, reproductive endocrinology, and female fertility. His research focus during his MPH is on the application of statistical and epidemiological approaches to gain a better understanding of idiopathic infertility and the most effective treatment strategy. As a member of the SEED program, Nick aims to expand our existing understanding of the effects of environmental exposures on female infertility.

Lara Rostomian is a second-year graduate student pursuing a Masters of Science in Reproductive, Perinatal, and Pediatric Epidemiology from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Her previous research centered arounf family planning and sexual health in Middle Eastern and Transcaucasian populations.

Her research interests include examining reproductive, fetal, and maternal health disparities in conflict and crisis affected populations. She currently works as a graduate research fellow at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Department of Newborn Medicine, examining the effects of COVID-19 hospital practices on breastfeeding behaviors.

She works with Dr. Messerlian to complete her Master's Thesis examining the effects of crises on maternal and infant health in Armenia, specifically in the context following the 2020 Nagorno Karabagh war.

Whitney Westhoff is a master’s student in the 80-credit Epidemiology SM program, on the Reproductive, Perinatal, and Pediatric Epidemiology track. Prior to enrolling at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Whitney graduated Magna Cum Laude from Brigham Young University with a B.S. in Public Health – Health Science and a minor in Chinese.

During her undergraduate career, Whitney conducted research on refugee resettlement programs in the United States, executed a program evaluation of the Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics (ALSO) program rollout in Hebei Province, China, and performed data collection and analysis for the Jiangsu Provincial Hospital Bariatric Surgery Department in Nanjing, China. Currently, Whitney is working with the International Registry of Coronavirus (COVID-19) Exposure in Pregnancy (IRCEP), examining cohort drug utilization patterns.

Anosha Meyers is pursuing a Master of Science (MS) in environmental health at Harvard University at the T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Her main research interests have been in water pollution and its health effects. Anosha’s background is in immunology and infectious diseases and has done research on the malaria parasite’s pathophysiology and molecular determinants of invasion prior to her master’s degree. This experience led her to think about environmental exposures that could contribute to different diseases. Therefore, she is currently exploring whether there is a causal link between fluoride in drinking water and asthma in children and adolescents at the SEED program for her master’s thesis using causal inference methods and statistical analysis.

Montana Kekaimalu Hunter is a first year SM80 epidemiology student from Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi. She graduated from Willamette University in 2017 with a B.S. in chemistry and B.A. in public health, focusing her work on chemical exposure of cosmetologists in Hawaiʻi using a novel passive sampling method, silicone wristbands. At Chan, she is working with Dr. Messerlian to better understand the association between occupational chemical exposure of healthcare workers and menstrual cycle irregularities.

Elizabeth Hentschel is a PhD Candidate in the Global Health and Population Department at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. With a specific focus in Early Childhood Development (ECD) in low- and middle-income contexts (LMICs), Elizabeth utilizes both quantitative and qualitative methods to evaluate and develop techniques to better understand measurement pathways that influence children’s early development.

Elizabeth has conducted research in Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Vietnam, India, and Pakistan, holds a Masters of Science in Global Health and Population from Harvard, and a Bachelors of Science in Biomolecular Science and International Studies from the University of Michigan.

Alex Hillcoat is currently completing her B.A. (Hons.) in Psychology at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. Her previous research has ranged from evaluating therapeutic interventions for sleep disorders to examining the role of perfectionism in cognitive processes commonly seen in anxiety and related disorders.

However, her passion lies in identifying the risk factors and clinical sequelae of adolescent suicide to inform its prevention. As part of the SEED program, Alex aims to expand our current understanding of the interplay between mental and reproductive health as well as the impact of environmental exposures on these dimensions of health in adolescents.

Ayah Hamdan received her Bachelor’s degree in Public Health from UC Berkeley and is currently a graduate student at the Harvard School of Public Health, pursuing her Master’s in Epidemiology. She is a proud daughter to Palestinian immigrants, born and raised in the Bay Area.

Ayah is excited about creating solutions that leverage the intersection of health & technology to promote more equitable health care access. She is also the founder of Fatima Connect, a venture leverages digital health solutions to promote health care accessibility among refugee populations.

Kelly Fung is a first-year student pursuing a Master of Science in Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She has a research interest in the role of epigenetic aging in reproduction. The goal of her research is to understand the association between age acceleration and fertility outcomes among individuals seeking infertility treatment.

Prior to Chan, Kelly worked as a life sciences consultant to develop business strategies for new therapeutic products. She completed her undergraduate training in Molecular Biology at Princeton University. In her free time, Kelly enjoys baking and watching movies.