Dr. Aparna Zama’s Research on Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals

    My researcher's name is Aparna Zama and she is my professor for my Careers in Animal Science class. Before becoming a full time teacher Zama did research in the genetics field, specifically in epigenetics which is the study of how altered genes are expressed. Being a genetics major made this type of research really rewarding for her. As a research assistant she spent a lot of her time getting foundations to give her grants in order to keep the research up and running. This was the biggest obstacle that she faced and it sometimes and analyzing data in the lab, which is what she enjoyed the most. Specifically, her main research focus was on the epigenetic effects of endocrine disrupting chemicals in the female reproductive system. Her research consisted of in vivo methods only and she watched the effects in real time in mice and rats. Her article talks about a variety of chemicals that can do some major damage to the female reproductive system. After conducting my interview with her she seemed to really emphasize the diethylstilbestrol (des) chemical. This chemical was given to many pregnant women to prevent problems in pregnancy, meanwhile it was doing the exact opposite. These chemicals specifically target the ovaries and their growth, causing irreversible follicular atresia (death). The main takeaway from her research is that everyday we are continuously exposed to chemicals that can be very harmful to our bodies. These chemicals can be found anywhere, even in our food and it is these researchers' jobs to find out what these chemicals are. In order to really make sure we do this though we need to stop the problem at its root. To accomplish this we must stop the distribution of any products containing these chemicals. If there's even one doubt about a product, there shouldn’t be any sort of distribution of it. 


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