Barbara Hales, Ph.D. (PI)
I have played a leadership role in a number of CIHR team grants, served as Director of the International聽Union of Toxicology Societies and as President of the Society of Toxicology of Canada and of the聽Teratology Society. I co-edited a Teratology Society 鈥淧rimer鈥�, designed to answer everyday questions聽about birth defects and their causes. I served on a working group of the Canadian Congenital Anomalies聽Surveillance Network (Public Health Agency of Canada) and am currently Co-Chair of the Chemical聽Management Plan Science Committee and a member of the recently appointed NAS Committee on聽Endocrine-Related Low Dose Toxicity.
The overall goal of research in my own lab is to elucidate the mechanisms(s) by which chemical聽exposures induce developmental and reproductive toxicity. Birth defects occur in 2-4% of liveborn聽babies worldwide. The rate of infertility in Canada has nearly doubled since 1992; today up to 16% of聽heterosexual couples in which the woman is 18-to-44 experience infertility. Yet the etiologies of most聽malformations (鈮� 60%) and of this increase in infertility are unknown. We investigate the mechanisms聽by which in utero exposure to environmental chemicals or model drugs disrupts development, with the聽possibility of long term adverse effects. We utilize in vivo and in vitro/ex vivo models to elucidate the聽key pathways and targets associated with the adverse effects of chemicals on development and聽reproduction. Our research has resulted in over 130 high quality articles in leading journals in聽toxicology, birth defects research and reproduction.