Rutgers Health researchers receive $4 million grant to study wildfire smoke’s impact on fertility and reproductive health
Rutgers Health researchers have received a $4 million grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to launch a multi-institutional research program examining how wildfire smoke exposure may affect fertility and reproductive health.
The project builds on prior Rutgers-led studies analyzing the health and air quality impacts of the Los Angeles wildfires and the 2023 Canadian wildfires, expanding the university’s focus into an emerging area of public health concern.
The new program will be led by Philip Demokritou, Henry Rutgers Chair and professor of nanoscience and environmental bioengineering at the Rutgers School of Public Health and the School of Engineering, and Shuo Xiao, associate professor at the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy. The two will collaborate with Audrey Gastkins, associate professor at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health.
Demokritou, who also serves as founding director of the Rutgers Environmental Health Nanoscience and Advanced Materials Center (NAMC), said the team’s goal is to better understand how wildfire smoke exposure affects fertility and reproductive health.
“Wildfires are no longer rare events – they are increasing in frequency and intensity, fueled by extreme weather,” Demokritou said. “Beyond the devastating destruction of homes and ecosystems, wildfire smoke contains a complex mixture of ultrafine particles, toxic gases and combustion by-products from human-made structures. These exposures have been linked to respiratory diseases, cardiovascular problems, adverse birth outcomes and now – emerging evidence suggests – fertility and reproductive health impacts.”
The program will integrate laboratory toxicology, exposure science, and epidemiology to study how ultrafine particles, gases, and combustion by-products influence reproductive outcomes.
“This program is a natural extension of our ongoing research at NAMC and the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute,” Demokritou said. “Previously, we focused on respiratory health and air quality impacts, including ongoing studies of the Los Angeles 2025 wildfires and the Canadian wildfires in the summer of 2023.”
According to Demokritou, the new program differs from earlier wildfire studies in three ways: it is multi-institutional, transdisciplinary, and focuses specifically on fertility, a health outcome that has received little attention in wildfire research.
“To address emerging environmental pollutants and their impact on health, we need to put together transdisciplinary research teams across institutions and develop the necessary tools to address the physicochemical complexity of those pollutants and study them across the exposure-disease continuum,” Demokritou said. “This project achieves this, and the combination of scope, methods and focus is unprecedented in the environmental health science field.”
Researchers will use laboratory-generated wildfire simulations to study the physicochemical properties of particulate matter and its reprotoxic effects through cellular and animal models. Epidemiological studies will then examine reproductive outcomes among exposed populations in California, supported by satellite-based geospatial modeling to measure variations in wildfire exposure.
“By understanding the links between wildfire smoke and reproductive health, we can provide evidence-based guidance to public health officials, policymakers, and community leaders,” Demokritou said. “The research may inform interventions, advisories and preparedness strategies, ensuring that reproductive health is considered alongside respiratory and cardiovascular risks during wildfire events.”
The collaboration between Rutgers and Emory will help translate laboratory findings into actionable public health strategies, ensuring that reproductive health is part of the broader discussion of wildfire-related risks.
