![Dr. Rick Wochik](https://factor.niehs.nih.gov/sites/niehs-factor/files/2023/05/feature/directors-corner-mentoring-body3.jpg)
In this month’s column, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Heather Patisaul, who will serve as the new scientific director of the NIEHS Division of Translational Toxicology (DTT) on March 24. Our conversation delved into her vision for the department, her vision for advancing toxicology, and the innovative scientific and leadership approaches she will advocate for.
Dr. Patisaul is a distinguished neuroendocrinologist at North Carolina State University, where he served as associate dean for research in the College of Science. She leads a laboratory focused on the health effects of endocrine disruptors, exploring how these compounds alter neuroendocrine pathways and how this change varies by gender.
Her appointment marks a key moment for NIEHS and reflects our continued commitment to advancing environmental health science through cutting-edge research and strategic collaborations. I am confident that Dr. Patisaul’s scientific expertise and leadership skills will guide DTT toward exciting horizons that help address critical health challenges and research gaps.
As we welcome Dr. Patisaul to her new role, I invite you to join me as we explore her goals for DTT, her strategies for promoting scientific excellence, and her insights into the important role of translational toxicology in improving public health outcomes. She also shared her scientific interests and discussed what inspired her to become a researcher.
Environment and brain development
Rick Wochik: You are internationally recognized for your pioneering research on how endocrine disruptors affect brain development. Can you talk more about that?
![Dr. Heather Pattisall](https://factor.niehs.nih.gov/sites/niehs-factor/files/2024/02/feature/heather-patisaul-advance-translational-toxicology-body1.jpg)
Heather Pattisauer: certainly. I have always been interested in how the brain forms and shapes during development, why male and female brains are different, and what factors influence brain development, both positively and negatively. So I’m interested in all of that, and my research focuses on the effects of the environment on brain development.
In my graduate work, I started by studying lemurs, where we tried to understand how environmental factors, such as soy phytoestrogens, which are naturally occurring compounds, affect the breeding season and reproductive success. Later, I began using rodent models to better understand how exposure affects key biological mechanisms. I’m focusing more on man-made chemicals like bisphenol A (BPA), and I’m leading a team that’s now doing a lot of research on different flame retardants.
Collaboration sheds light on BPA
RW: Interesting. Can you expand your BPA efforts?
life value: Yes, we started looking at BPA, which is an estrogen endocrine disruptor, because we wanted to figure out what exactly it does in the brain. We have found in a variety of rodents that exposure can promote puberty in females, disrupt the development of circuits that control ovulation, and affect parts of the brain that control sex-specific behavior.
One of the most exciting projects we are involved in is the Consortium for Academic and Regulatory Insights on Bisphenol A Toxicity (also known as CLARITY-BPA). This is a collaboration between NIEHS, the National Toxicology Program, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and academic scientists, including our team at North Carolina State University.
Through these studies involving rodent models, we found that exposure to BPA changes the number of estrogen receptors in the brain and the size of certain sexually dimorphic brain regions, which we believe contributes to behavioral changes.
Building partnerships is the key to success
RW: As you prepare to take the helm at DTT, what are you most excited about?
life value: I am excited about working at DTT because it is a center for top-notch scientific research conducted as a team by an exceptional group of researchers, who often collaborate across disciplines, fields, and platforms. I am a strong proponent of collaborative research and team science because, in my view, it is the only way we can address some of our major challenges, including how to collect toxicity data for the hundreds of thousands of chemicals in the world. We must better strategize to do this more effectively, and an interdisciplinary approach is needed to succeed.
For me, translational toxicology is about developing methods to transform research data into human-relevant knowledge to inform decision-making at the individual and group levels. As part of this work, we need to understand the needs of regulators, policymakers, and others so that we can provide them with the highest quality science to advance public health. The work of DTT is a form of preventive medicine because that is the ultimate goal—preventing disease. Therefore, it is crucial to develop collaborative relationships with other institutions, scientific organizations and academic researchers.
![Pictured here is Dr. Heather Patisaul speaking at the 2016 NIEHS Science Day celebration. (Photo by Steve McCaw/NIEHS)](https://factor.niehs.nih.gov/sites/niehs-factor/files/2024/02/feature/heather-patisaul-advance-translational-toxicology-body2.jpg)
Expanded Toxicology Toolkit
RW: What are your other goals for DTT?
life value: Our research should continue to be predictive, reliable and designed to provide a deeper understanding of the environmental factors that influence disease. For example, I often think about how developmental neurotoxicity testing might be coupled with actual neurodevelopmental disorders that we worry about, such as autism and ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). These diseases are defined behaviorally, which is a challenge for classical toxicological approaches, which look more for pathological changes. We must make it easier to understand the different features in the brain that can reveal disease.
Beyond neurotoxicity testing, wider toxicology innovation requires working within traditional models, but also developing and using computational tools and things like New Methods Approaches (NAMs), which I believe are the future of toxicology. NAMs are emerging tools and methods, such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and cell-based systems, that promise to complement traditional animal models.
Another area of opportunity is systematic reviews, which involve synthesizing existing data and risk-specific studies. For example, there is a lot of data on BPA, but how can the scientific community better integrate it? How do we determine which research is of high quality? DTT’s well-done systematic review can help us address these issues.
Effective training and mentoring are also crucial. I believe DTT can become a centerpiece of our education of early career scientists on how to do translational toxicology. It’s difficult to go from generating data in the lab to converting it into useful knowledge, and I think our department can serve as a model for how to conduct this type of research. I want us to build a dynamic training program.
Prairie vole offers insights
RW: Earlier, you have noticed that before researchers start solving a scientific problem, they need to first ask what are the right tools or toolsets that they should use. In some cases this may be NAM, while in other cases it may involve traditional methods or even model systems like prairie voles. Can you give an example to illustrate what you mean?
life value: Absolutely. In some of my team’s previous studies, where we looked at the effects of the environment on brain development, we included prairie voles. They are unique in that they are socially monogamous animals, so males and females remain bonded throughout their lives. Neuroscience dating back decades has exploited this species to understand the evolution of sociality and to understand the neuroendocrinology of social behavior. As such, they are well-established research models in the neuroscience community.
I adopt them to ask toxicological questions about whether there are chemicals that can disrupt the systems and circuits that underlie attachment. In our research on flame retardants, we really see the disruption of these social circuits. Our goal is to try to understand how the social brain is at risk from these exposures, and prairie voles are a great way to do that because they exhibit pair bonding. Dads showed paternal care, whereas rats and mice did not. Siblings also help raise newborns, whereas rats and mice do not. These animals exhibit many key behaviors seen in humans but not in rats and mice.
Therefore, I strongly believe in what is the right tool to solve a given scientific problem. Sometimes this may require us to try different approaches or step outside our comfort zones, but in my opinion, doing so will lead to higher quality science and greater innovation.
Inclusive culture inspires innovation
RW: Any final thoughts you’d like to share with our readers?
life value: I want to cultivate an inclusive culture at DTT. Are people excited to go to work? Do people feel valued and that their ideas are valued? I want an atmosphere of open dialogue so that we can be as innovative as possible in the way we work and collaborate. Our goal should be to attract the best talent to the culture so that they are willing to bring their differences, ideas, and unique experiences to the table. I am honored to join DTT and excited to get started right away.