The broad goal of Dr. Marsit's research program is to investigate gene environment interactions and their individual and combined impact on human disease, with a particular focus on the impact of the environment and lifestyle on the character of the human epigenome. His research has focused on two distinct, yet highly related biologic processes, that of environmental carcinogenesis and that of human development. In those settings, Dr. Marsit's laboratory studies how epigenetic mechanisms and their alterations are responsible, in a significant part, for cancer, adverse pregnancy outcomes, and common and rare diseases of childhood including behavioral disorders. The laboratory focuses on DNA methylation and miRNA expression as our key epigenetic mechanisms of interest.
