NIEHS highlights outstanding environmental health career of Fry

September 26, 2024

— Story by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

Rebecca Fry, PhD, has dedicated her career to understanding how environmental exposures affect children’s health. As a postdoctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), she collaborated with researchers in Thailand to investigate how in utero exposure to arsenic from abandoned tin mines affects gene activity in infants.

Working with the NIEHS (National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences)-funded MIT Center for Environmental Health Sciences, Fry analyzed gene expression in infants whose mothers were exposed to arsenic-contaminated drinking water during pregnancy and found that arsenic altered genes related to inflammation and stress.

The 2007 study marked the first time researchers documented large, genome-wide changes caused by prenatal environmental exposures, paving the way for more investigations into arsenic exposure by Fry and researchers worldwide.

“That project was transformative for me,” said Fry. “I fell in love with environmental health and public health because of this project based in Thailand.”

Dr. Rebecca Fry

Now a professor at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, Fry directs the NIEHS-funded UNC Superfund Research Program (SRP) Center, which focuses on the health effects of metals, especially arsenic, in drinking water.

“In this time when chemical and other stressors combine to influence the health of our communities, the researchers within the NIEHS Superfund Research Program are among the best to be able to tackle these challenges,” she said.

Tying Arsenic to Adverse Health Outcomes

Early in Fry’s tenure at the Gillings School, with funding from a 2010 NIEHS Outstanding New Environmental Scientist Award, she established the Biomarkers of Exposure to ARsenic (BEAR) pregnancy cohort. Her research with the cohort linked in utero arsenic exposure to adverse birth outcomes, such as low birth weights and shorter gestation periods, and uncovered how arsenic exposure could influence gene expression.

“We found that prenatal exposure to arsenic influenced DNA methylation of several genes, essentially turning genes on or off,” Fry said. “One of the genes we identified was an imprinted gene — where one copy is expressed, and the other is suppressed — tied to diabetes.”

At the time, Fry was also investigating how the prevalence of private well water use in North Carolina correlated with naturally occurring arsenic in groundwater and concerns about diabetes.

Fry and her lab used data from 63,000 well water tests to produce some of the first maps of arsenic contamination in private wells across North Carolina. More than 1,400 tests exceeded drinking water standards for arsenic set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), highlighting a significant public health threat, according to the researchers.

More recently, Fry has been using mice to study how arsenic exposure prior to conception affects pregnancy outcomes and infant health.

“We found that arsenic exposure prior to pregnancy, as opposed to the timing during pregnancy, is what may be tied to health outcomes later in life,” Fry explained.

Focusing on Solutions

As UNC SRP Center director, Fry has prioritized research that can inform efforts to reduce arsenic exposure and prevent disease.

For example, Fry and her colleagues developed NCWELL, a database that compiles 20 years of well water tests for arsenic and other metals in North Carolina. UNC researchers have used NCWELL to show that some North Carolina communities have sustained high levels of arsenic, manganese, and lead exposure for nearly 20 years. Fry hopes that researchers and concerned citizens alike will use the database to develop and implement interventions.

The UNC SRP team also launched NC ENVIROSCAN, a tool that allows users to visualize how contaminant levels in different parts of the state relate to sociodemographic factors, environmental justice indicators, and health outcomes. Community members, government agencies, and clinicians can use the tool to learn about their local health risks and strategies for addressing them.

“This tool is helping us to better protect vulnerable populations who are exposed to variety of environmental and social factors that may impact health,” Fry said.

To broaden the impact of their findings, the UNC SRP Center team collaborates with the UNC Hospital Departments of Pediatrics and Obstetrics and Gynecology. Together, they offer free well water tests for pregnant women and children and provide tabletop water filters if contaminants are found. Their efforts have influenced local policies, leading county health officials to offer similar testing services.

Sharing Knowledge

Fry is also dedicated to cultivating expertise in the next generation of environmental scientists and has mentored more than 50 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. Four years ago, she launched the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program, a 10-week summer research experience for undergraduates focused on equity and environmental justice.

“Our training programs follow a tiered mentoring system where, for example, high school students are mentored by undergraduate students, and the undergraduates are mentored by graduate students,” Fry explained. “This system fosters collaboration and growth, ensuring that values of passion, persistence, and high-quality research are passed on to future researchers.”

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Contact the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health communications team at [email protected].