We are studying whether certain “forever chemicals” such as nanoplastics and microplastics might be found in children.  Our lab is interested in ideal ways to measure these chemicals.  We also seek to understand if these chemicals might pose any health risk to the immune system or the endocrine system.

Graves’ disease (GD) is the most common cause of hyperthyroidism in children and adolescents and one of the two major autoimmune thyroid diseases. The incidence of autoimmune thyroid disease in youth is increasing, likely secondary to various genetic, epigenetic, and environmental influences (pollutants, virus exposure, microbiota). Of the current GD treatments, none are ideal. The mainstay of treatment is with antithyroid drugs, but these have potential side effects and high rates of relapse after withdrawal. Definitive therapy options, radioactive iodine and thyroidectomy, necessitate lifelong hormone replacement and have procedural risks. Current treatment options target the final steps of the pathology, at the level of thyroid hormone production. There are no treatment options which target further upstream in the pathway. Given the limitations of the current treatments for GD, it is essential that novel therapies are developed to provide better management of the disease. Our goal is to better characterize the immunophenotype of pediatric GD patients by utilizing spatial transcriptomics to understand the role of the thyroid in GD. This is a first step in developing novel treatments and forming schema for precision-based therapies.