New dissertation within One Health: We congratulate Jennifer Nyström-Kandola!
Last changed: 15 May 2024
Recently, Jennifer Nyström-Kandola successfully defended her thesis. We took the opportunity to ask some questions about her research and future plans.
Who are you? Could you give a short presentation of yourself and your research area?
"My name is Jennifer Nyström-Kandola, and I have a B.Sc. in environmental sciences and a M.Sc. in environmental toxicology. I just received my PhD in biomedical sciences, with a focus on environmental epidemiology and toxicology. More specifically, I work with evaluating exposure patterns of highly fluorinated substances (PFAS) in Swedish adolescents. The focus has been on exposure predominantly from food and drinking water. I work also on evaluating how these chemicals, along with other persistent organic pollutants (POPs), affect child- and adolescent health".
How did you become interested in your field of research?
"I have always had a large interest in environmental sciences and the impact humans have on our environment, but also the impact the environment has on us. Having a personal interest in food and agriculture, as well as chemistry, the step into food-related toxicology was very simple – and fun one."
What research results do you expect/hope to achieve within two years?
"To not find any associations between POPs and child- and adolescent thyroid health."
Why is a One Health approach necessary for your study?
"One Health and interdisciplinary approaches are the very core of our research; we integrate biomonitoring data of both environmental and human matrices, as well as human dietary and demographical patterns in order to deduce how humans have been exposed to PFAS, as well as other POPs. The same applies to our studies, where we instead focus on health outcomes. This involves toxicology, analytical chemistry, biology and as well as policies".
After your PhD, what are your future plans?
"I will continue with our current research here at SLU for some time onwards. I am also working on a project where we are mapping the presence of PFAS in certain foods and animals used for the production of said foods."
We wish Jennifer the best of luck in her future career!