Frederica P. Perera, Dr.P.H.,
Professor of Environmental Health Sciences, Director of the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health (CCCEH)

Dr. Perera's areas of interest include environmental Dr. Perera's areas of interest include environmental causes of disease, disease prevention, molecular epidemiology, environmental risks to children, environment- susceptibility interactions in cancer and developmental damage, breast and lung cancer, cancer prevention, chemoprevention, and risk assessment. Asthma prevention is also a part of the research of the CCCEH.

Molecular epidemiology is a relatively new discipline which merges highly sophisticated laboratory techniques with epidemiologic methods in order to use biomarkers in human tissue as indicators of potential risk of cancer and other diseases -- hence as a tool in disease prevention. Under the direction of Dr. Perera, the program in Molecular Epidemiology has made substantial progress in validating biomarkers in populations with well-defined exposures and/or with those with a defined risk of cancer. The biomarkers include internal and molecular dosimeters of carcinogens such as DNA adducts, alterations in genes and chromosomes such as mutated oncogenes, and genetic susceptibility factors such as polymorphisms in genes controlling the metabolism of carcinogens. Susceptibility due to nutritional deficiencies is also one of her research interests. Her research has significant implications for risk assessment and disease prevention.

As Director of the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health, Dr. Perera leads a team of scientists, researchers, community activists, and other experts in studying the effects of pre and postnatal exposures to common urban air pollutants on children's respiratory health and neurocognitive development. The Center works internationally, including studies in the United States, Poland, and China. As part of the Center's Mothers and Newborns Study, Dr. Perera and her team are currently following a cohort of more than 500 women and their children (from in utero through age 5) in the low-income New York City neighborhoods of Harlem, Washington Heights, and the South Bronx. In addition to establishing widespread exposures to pollutants within the cohort, the study has found an association between prenatal exposures to air pollutants and pesticides, and reduced fetal growth.

Dr. Perera and her colleagues are increasingly focusing their efforts in the areas of prevention of carcinogenic, developmental and asthma risks to the infant and young child, chemoprevention, and environment-susceptibility interactions in breast and lung cancer.

Link to Center for Children's Environmental Health http://www.ccceh.org

Selected Publications

Perera FP, and Weinstein IB. Molecular epidemiology and carcinogen-DNA adduct detection: New approaches to studies of human cancer causation. J Chronic Dis 35:581-600, 1982.

Perera FP, Poirier MC, Yuspa SH, Nakayama J, Jaretzki A, Curnen MM, Knowles DM, and Weinstein IB. A pilot project in molecular cancer epidemiology: Determination of benzo(a)pyrene-DNA adducts in animal and human tissues by immunoassays. Carcinogenesis 3:1405-1410, 1982.

Perera F, Hemminki K, Grzybowska E, Motykiewicz G, Michalska J, Santella R, Young TL, Dickey C, Brandt-Rauf P, DeVivo I, Blaner W, Tsai W-Y, Chorazy M. Molecular and genetic damage from environmental pollution in Poland. Nature 360:256-258, 1992.

Schulte, PA, Perera, FP. (eds.): Molecular Epidemiology: Principles and Practices, New York: Academic Press, NY, 1993.

Crawford FG, Mayer J, Santella RM, Cooper T, Ottman R, Tsai WY, Simon-Cereijido G, Wang M, Tang D, Perera FP. Biomarkers of environmental tobacco smoke in preschool children and their mothers. JNCI 86:1398-1402, 1994.

Perera, FP. Molecular epidemiology and susceptibility to environmental carcinogens. Scientific American, May: 40-46, 1996.

Perera FP. Molecular epidemiology: Insights into cancer susceptibility, risk assessment and prevention. JNCI 88:496-509, 1996.

Perera, FP. Environment and cancer: who are susceptible? Science 278:1068-1073, 1997.

Perera, FP, Whyatt, RM, Jedrychowski, W, Rauh, V, Manchester, D, Santella, RM, and Ottman, R. Recent Developments in Molecular Epidemiology. A Study of the effects of environmental polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons on birth outcomes in Poland. Am J Epidemiol 147: 309-314, 1998.

Rundle, A, Tang, D, Hibshoosh, H, Estabrook, A, Schnabel, F, Cao,W, Grumet, S, Perera, FP. The relationship between genetic damage from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon and in breast cancer. Carcinogenesis 21(7): 1281-89, 2000.

Perera, FP. Molecular Epidemiology: on the Path to Prevention? JNCI 92(8):602-611, 2000.

Tang, D, Phillips, DH, Stampfer, M, Mooney, LA, Hsu, Y, Cho, S, Ma, J, Cole, KJ, She, MN, Perera, FP. Association between carcinogen-DNA adducts in white blood cells and subsequent risk of lung cancer in the physicians health study. Cancer Res 61(18): 6708-12, 2001.

Perera FP, Illman SM, Kinney PL, Whyatt RM, Kelvin EA, Shepard P, Evans D, Fullilove M, Ford JG, Miller RL, Meyer I, Rauh V. The challenge of preventing environmentally related disease in young children: Community-based research in New York City. Environmental Health Perspectives, 110(2):197-204, 2002.

Perera FP, Rauh V, Tsai WY, Kinney PL, Camann DE, Barr DB, Garfinkel R, Tu Y-H, Diaz D, Dietrich J, Whyatt RM. Effects of transplacental exposure to environmental pollutants on birth outcomes in a multi-ethnic population, Environmental Health Perspectives, 111(2):201-6, 2003.

Perera FP, Rauh V, Whyatt RM, Tsai WY, Bernert JT, Andrews H, Ramirez J, Qu L, Tang D. Molecular Evidence of an Interaction Between Prenatal Environmental Exposures on Birth Outcomes in a Multiethnic Population. Environmental Health Perspectives, 2004, In press.

Perera FP, Tang D, Tu YH, Cruz LA, Borjas M, Bernert T, Whyatt RM. Biomarkers in maternal and newborn blood indicate heightened fetal susceptibility to procarcinogenic DNA damage. Environmental Health Perspectives, 2004, In press.