About

Dr. Andréa Aguiar is a research associate faculty member at the Department of Comparative Biosciences and an affiliated faculty at the Illinois Global Institute, Lemann Center for Brazilian Studies. She is a developmental psychologist with expertise in cognitive functioning from infancy to adolescence. Since 2004, she has been conducting team science research in epidemiology and environmental health with birth cohorts followed prospectively. Her work includes the Illinois Kids Development Study (IKIDS) in Champaign-Urbana, which began enrolling pregnant women in 2010 and became part of the NIH national consortium ECHO (Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes) in 2016. ECHO aims to understand the effects of various environmental factors on children's health and development by collecting observational data and biospecimens from 60,000 mother-child pairs across diverse backgrounds. IKIDS recruits pregnant women, especially those most vulnerable to environmental impacts, through collaborations with local health districts and clinics, with data collection starting early in pregnancy and continuing until children reach 19 years of age.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Psychiatry
• Biology
• Developmental psychology
• Psychology
• Internal medicine
• Audiology
• Clinical psychology
• Bioinformatics
• Obstetrics
• Genetics
• Social psychology
• Demography
• Chemistry
• Cognitive psychology

Selected publications

• International fluoride symposium: effects of fluoride on human health and its mechanisms of action – a meeting report

  BMC Proceedings · 2025-09-28 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Fluoride prevents dental caries in a dose-response manner, leading some countries to adjust fluoride levels in water or table salt, as well as to promote the widespread use of topical fluoride. Recent studies have found associations between prenatal fluoride exposure levels of < 1.5 mg/L in water and urine and adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes. Although high fluoride levels have been recognized as neurotoxic in the past, a large body of contemporary evidence derived from retrospective analyses of birth cohort studies suggests fluoride may be neurotoxic to children at lower levels, highlighting the need for further, prospective research and multidisciplinary collaborations. The International Fluoride Symposium, held from April 29 to 30, 2024, brought together 20 researchers from the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Spain to discuss the impacts of fluoride on human health and its mechanisms of action. The primary goals of the symposium were to address challenges related to assessing fluoride exposure, share findings from cohort studies, develop a comprehensive research agenda, and foster international research partnerships. Key discussions included the dental caries preventive and toxic effects of fluoride, sources of fluoride exposure, biomarkers, dietary intake assessment methods, and analytical challenges. Presentation of results from cohort studies highlighted research on prenatal fluoride exposure and its association with neurodevelopmental outcomes and presented perspectives for future analyses. The symposium emphasized the need for customized dietary fluoride intake assessment tools, the development of high-throughput analytical methods for fluoride analysis, and research on the combined effects of fluoride with other chemical elements commonly found in the environment and the human diet. Additionally, there was a call for the harmonization of cohort data from diverse populations to address urgent questions about the impact of fluoride on human neurodevelopment and other health outcomes beyond oral health. It was agreed that prospective longitudinal cohort studies intentionally designed to assess fluoride exposure and neurodevelopment are essential, as none of the existing birth cohorts were designed to specifically study fluoride exposure (e.g., selection of biomarkers, collection intervals, diet exposure assessment). Furthermore, broader environmental health cohort studies that incorporate high-quality biomonitoring of waterborne neurotoxicants (such as fluoride, arsenic, lead, mercury), repeated measures of exposure, and inclusion of key covariates (e.g., socio-economic status, diet, iodine) are encouraged. Finally, developing effective communication strategies among scientists and the public was considered crucial for advancing fluoride research and mitigating potential health risks.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Examining the association between gestational phenol exposure and infant non-nutritive suck in two Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes cohorts

  Environmental Epidemiology · 2025-06-13 · 2 citations

  articleOpen accessCorresponding

  Background: Non-nutritive suck (NNS) is a measure of neurofunction sensitive to environmental exposures in utero. This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between gestational phenol exposure and NNS patterning. Methods: Mother-infant pairs from two diverse prospective cohorts were enrolled in the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes Program. Phenols were measured in prenatal maternal urine samples and adjusted for specific gravity. NNS was sampled in 1-8-week-old infants using a custom pacifier for ~5 minutes. Associations of 11 phenols and triclocarban with 5 NNS outcomes were assessed individually and as a mixture using generalized linear models adjusted for cohort, child sex and assessment age, and maternal age and education. Results: Altogether, 215 mother-infant pairs were included. Bisphenol-F was related to a lower NNS frequency. Triclosan was associated with a higher NNS frequency. Propylparaben, 2,4-dichlorophenol, and 2,5-dichlorophenol were associated with lower NNS amplitude. Benzophenone-3, 2,4-dichlorophenol, and 2,5-dichlorophenol were related to more NNS bursts/minute. Propylparaben was associated with more NNS cycles/bursts. Seven phenols were included in mixture analyses: 2,4-dichlorophenol, 2,5-dichlorophenol, benzophenone-3, bisphenol-A, bisphenol-S, methylparaben, and propylparaben. Both Bayesian kernel machine regression and quantile g-computation showed that higher concentrations of the mixture were associated with lower amplitude but more bursts/minute and cycles/burst. Propylparaben was important in the overall mixture effect on amplitude, whereas benzophenone-3 was important in the relationship with bursts/minute. Conclusions: Gestational phenol exposure is linked to altered NNS patterning in neonates. Future work should further investigate phenol mixture effects, potential mechanisms, and the association of altered NNS with neurodevelopment.

  PublisherDOI

• Associations of prenatal maternal urinary concentrations of triclosan and benzophenone-3 with cognition in 7.5-month-old infants

  Environmental Research · 2024-09-10 · 9 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Oxidative stress as a potential mechanism linking gestational phthalate exposure to cognitive development in infancy

  ISEE Conference Abstracts · 2024-07-31

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Host factors are associated with vaginal microbiome structure in pregnancy in the ECHO Cohort Consortium

  Scientific Reports · 2024 · 8 citations

  • Biology
  • Demography
  • Medicine

  Using pooled vaginal microbiota data from pregnancy cohorts (N = 683 participants) in the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program, we analyzed 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequences to identify clinical and demographic host factors that associate with vaginal microbiota structure in pregnancy both within and across diverse cohorts. Using PERMANOVA models, we assessed factors associated with vaginal community structure in pregnancy, examined whether host factors were conserved across populations, and tested the independent and combined effects of host factors on vaginal community state types (CSTs) using multinomial logistic regression models. Demographic and social factors explained a larger amount of variation in the vaginal microbiome in pregnancy than clinical factors. After adjustment, lower education, rather than self-identified race, remained a robust predictor of L. iners dominant (CST III) and diverse (CST IV) (OR = 8.44, 95% CI = 4.06-17.6 and OR = 4.18, 95% CI = 1.88-9.26, respectively). In random forest models, we identified specific taxonomic features of host factors, particularly urogenital pathogens associated with pregnancy complications (Aerococcus christensenii and Gardnerella spp.) among other facultative anaerobes and key markers of community instability (L. iners). Sociodemographic factors were robustly associated with vaginal microbiota structure in pregnancy and should be considered as sources of variation in human microbiome studies.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Associations between oxidative stress biomarkers during pregnancy and infant cognition at 7.5 months

  Developmental Psychobiology · 2024-01-29 · 7 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Oxidative stress has been identified as an important biological pathway leading to neurodevelopmental delay. However, studies assessing the effects of oxidative stress on cognitive outcomes during infancy, a critical period of neurodevelopment, are limited. Our analysis included a subset of those enrolled in the Illinois Kids Development Study (N = 144). Four oxidative stress biomarkers (8‐isoprostane‐PGF 2α , 2,3‐dinor‐5,6‐dihydro‐8‐iso‐PGF 2α , 2,3‐dinor‐8‐iso‐PGF 2α , and prostaglandin‐F 2α ) were measured in second and third trimesters urine and were averaged. Infant cognition was measured using a visual recognition memory task consisting of five blocks, each with one familiarization trial (two identical stimuli) and two test trials (one familiar and one novel stimulus). Outcomes measured included average run duration (a measure of information processing speed), novelty preference (a measure of recognition memory), time to reach familiarization, and shift rate (measures of attention). Linear regression was used to estimate associations between individual oxidative stress biomarkers and each outcome. Increasing 8‐isoprostane‐PGF 2α , 2,3‐dinor‐8‐iso‐PGF 2α , and prostaglandin‐F 2α were associated with a decrease in novelty preference ( β = −0.02, 95% confidence interval [CI] = −0.03, 0.00; β = −0.02, 95% CI = −0.04, 0.00; β = −0.01, 95% CI = −0.02, 0.00, respectively), as well as a modest increase in shift rate. These findings suggest that oxidative stress may be associated with poorer recognition memory in early infancy.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Cross-sectional associations between prenatal maternal per-/poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and bioactive lipids in three Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes cohorts

  ISEE Conference Abstracts · 2024-07-31

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Oxidative stress as a potential mechanism linking gestational phthalates exposure to cognitive development in infancy

  Neurotoxicology and Teratology · 2024-10-02 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Associations of gestational phthalate and phenol exposure with infant cognition

  ISEE Conference Abstracts · 2024-07-31

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Cross-Sectional Associations between Prenatal Per- and Poly-Fluoroalkyl Substances and Bioactive Lipids in Three Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Cohorts

  Environmental Science & Technology · 2024-05-01 · 9 citations

  articleOpen access

  < 0.2) in one linear mixed model. The strongest signature revealed doubling in PFOA corresponding with PGD2 (cyclooxygenase pathway; +24.3%, 95% CI: 7.3-43.9%) in the combined cohort. Mixture analysis revealed nine positive associations across all pathways with the PFAS mixture, the strongest signature indicating a quartile increase in the PFAS mixture associated with PGD2 (+34%, 95% CI: 8-66%), primarily driven by PFOS. Bioactive lipids emerged as prenatal PFAS exposure biomarkers, deepening insights into PFAS' influence on pregnancy outcomes.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• The Illinois Kids Development Study ECHO Pregnancy and Pediatric Cohort

  NIH · $16.6M · 2016–2030

Frequent coauthors

• Susan L. Schantz

  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  26 shared

• Susan Korrick

  16 shared

• Megan Woodbury

  Northeastern University

  16 shared

• Sarah Dee Geiger

  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  13 shared

• Francheska M. Merced‐Nieves

  Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

  12 shared

• Antonia M. Calafat

  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

  12 shared

• Rachel Morello‐Frosch

  Berkeley Public Health Division

  11 shared

• Renée Baillargeon

  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  10 shared

Labs

• Comparative BiosciencesPI

Awards & honors

• 2023 Beckman research seed grant recipients