Victoria Valdivia, SEAS ’28, Miramar, FL
The world of toxicology and epidemiology is an influential and ever-evolving one. Over the last year, I have been diving deeper into some of the most pressing issues related to American health and toxic chemical exposure through coursework and community outreach but wanted to be involved “behind the scenes” of what your typical academic reader sees. I was honored to be accepted into Dr. Aimin Chen’s biostatistics lab to study the effects of two “forever chemicals,” more formally known as PFHxS and PFOS, on elevated glucose levels in pregnant women. This condition affects approximately 10% of American pregnancies and can lead to a wide array of complications in both the mother and child, such as stillbirth, preeclampsia, and type 2 diabetes.
I first approached my task by delving into the most recent literature on these chemicals to see what other scientists and doctors have found thus far. I was met with a diverse set of study populations and a variety of results. The overall consensus seemed to be that the associations of interest were inconsistent and required greater investigation to help clarify their findings, furthering the importance I placed on my work. I decided to analyze the differences across these studies to see what could be causing these inconsistencies and took note of the challenges they faced in their processes. I also developed a matrix outlining the different routes of exposure and analyzed their respective bioavailabilities to contextualize PFHxS/PFOS exposure.
Then, I got to coding. After an in-depth data cleaning process, I used the R programming language to build and run several simple and multivariate logistic regression models, subgroup evaluations, and interaction analyses. I found that there is a complex relationship between these two chemicals and elevated glucose levels that can change when seen through different lenses of demographics and may be affected by the interactions of other chemicals. Through this work, I realized just how much effort goes into research publications and the pursuit of scientific understanding. With toxic chemical exposure being an increasingly important topic in our concerningly processed society, I am now even more impassioned to fight for chemical reform in order to improve the health of vulnerable communities.
This is part of a series of posts by recipients of the 2025 Career Services Summer Funding Grant. We’ve asked funding recipients to reflect on their summer experiences and talk about the industries in which they spent their summer. You can read the entire series here
