Exploring How Everyday Foods Could Hide Fungal Risks for Mothers and Children

Rutgers Health researchers receive a federal grant to examine how contaminants may influence pregnancy outcomes and child development

Zorimar Rivera-Núñez, an assistant professor with the Rutgers School of Public Health, will help lead a collaborative, multi-institutional project to examine how exposure to zearalenone - a mycoestrogen produced by mold with estrogen-like activity - may affect pregnancy outcomes and children's growth.

The effort - coheaded by Emily Barrett, George G. Rhoads Endowed Legacy Professor and vice chair of the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology at the school - is backed by over $2 million in funding from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences(NIEHS).

Building on her previous workthat linked zearalenone exposure to shifts in pregnancy hormones, Rivera-Núñez and members of the research team aim to deepen understanding of how these harmful foodborne substances influence maternal and child health.

The project brings together a multidisciplinary team that includes Rutgers faculty members Lauren Aleksunes (toxicology), Ellen Francis (epidemiology), Brian Buckley (Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute) and Pamela Ohman-Strickland (biostatistics). The team will collaborate with the larger, multi-site group, The Infant Development Environmental Study (TIDES), led by Sheela Sathyanarayana, a pediatrician at Seattle Children's Research Institute and the University of Washington.

Rivera-Núñez discusses the goals of the project and how the findings could inform public health guidance and food-safety efforts.

What are you hoping to explore through this new research?
This project focuses on zearalenone, a chemical produced by fungi that grow on foods like corn, wheat and cereals as well as in animal products. Because zearalenone is heat-stable and resistant to common food-processing steps, it contaminates many of the foods Americans eat every day, including ultra-processed foods such as cereal bars, breads and corn products.

Zearalenone acts like estrogen in the body and in animal models, and it disrupts normal pregnancy and fetal development. In this new project, we will look at how zearalenone exposure impacts human pregnancy and childhood growth using data and biospecimens from the long-standing study, The Infant Development Environmental Study (TIDES).

We will explore how zearalenone exposure during pregnancy and childhood relates to maternal hormones and weight gain during pregnancy and children's growth from birth through age 14.

What methods will you use to investigate zearalenone's health impacts?
The research team will apply our in-house, validated analytical protocol to quantify zearalenone and its metabolites in urine samples from TIDES participants.

This cohort is an ideal population to study endocrine mechanisms of child growth. TIDES was designed to study hormone-sensitive outcomes in childhood and has rich data and biorepositories extending from the perinatal period until age 10, with ongoing funded visits to collect data at 12 and 14 years.

We will combine these lab results with health and growth information to see how zearalenone exposure and health outcomes are connected.

These findings can help public health agencies and clinicians offer practical guidance to pregnant women and families, support food-safety monitoring and target resources to communities that may face higher risks.

Zorimar Rivera-Núñez

Assistant Professor, Rutgers School of Public Health

How does this project build on your previous work and existing research?
Although mycoestrogen exposure has been documented all across the world, its association with human health outcomes is an emerging field.

Our team has shown that mycoestrogen exposure is common among pregnant women and children in the U.S. We have seen early signs that these chemicals may shift pregnancy hormones and lead to greater weight gain in pregnancy. Our preliminary evidence also shows that prenatal exposure may be linked to differences in children's height and weight at early school ages, sometimes differently for boys and girls.

This new project expands that work to a larger group of mothers and children, follows them into their teen years, and looks more closely at the "how" and "why."

What implications could your study have for public health agencies and families?
The study will provide a clearer picture of how exposure matters, when it matters most and which potential biological mechanisms are involved.

These findings can help public health agencies and clinicians offer practical guidance to pregnant women and families, support food-safety monitoring and target resources to communities that may face higher risks, ultimately helping reduce harmful exposures and improve maternal and child health.

Explore more of the ways Rutgers research is shaping the future.