Karen E. Peterson

About

Karen E. Peterson is the Stanley M. Garn Professor and inaugural Chair of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, where she also holds joint appointments as Professor of Environmental Health Sciences and Professor of Global Public Health. Her research considers the effects of diet and toxicants, such as metals and endocrine disrupting chemicals, on physical growth, maturation, and the development of cardiometabolic risk across the life course via epigenetic mechanisms. She also focuses on the design and evaluation of health behavior interventions aimed at reducing obesity in multi-ethnic women and children. Dr. Peterson has served as Contact Principal Investigator for the U-M Children's Environmental Health and Disease Protection Center and is currently the Contact PI for the project 'E3Gen,' which investigates multigenerational influences of social structure on toxicant exposures and health in the ELEMENT Cohort, following three generations of women and their offspring in Mexico City. She is also the Associate Director of the Michigan Nutrition and Obesity Research Center and directs the MNORC Nutrition Assessment Lab. Her expertise includes the validation of self-report instruments for dietary assessment, relative to unbiased nutrient biomarkers such as metabolomics. Additionally, she is the founding Director of the Momentum Center at the University of Michigan, which fosters transdisciplinary research to end child obesity.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Internal medicine
• Psychiatry
• Gerontology
• Artificial Intelligence
• Machine Learning
• Biology
• Demography
• Computer Science
• Physiology

Selected publications

• Exposure to Phenols, Phthalates, and Parabens and Development of Metabolic Syndrome Among Mexican Women in Midlife

  Frontiers in Public Health · 2021 · 47 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  We found EDCs measured in 2008 were marginally predictive of hypertriglyceridemia and hypertension 9 years later. Results suggest that lower exposure to certain toxicants was related to lower markers of metabolic risk among midlife women.

  DOI

• Healthier dietary patterns are associated with better sleep quality among midlife Mexican women

  Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine · 2020 · 35 citations

  DOI

• Diet Quality Scores and Cardiometabolic Risk Factors in Mexican Children and Adolescents: A Longitudinal Analysis

  Nutrients · 2022 · 33 citations

  = 0.0034] compared to the reference quartile. Higher diet quality was associated with a better cardiometabolic profile among Mexican youth.

  DOI

• Dietary Patterns in Relation to Prospective Sleep Duration and Timing among Mexico City Adolescents

  Nutrients · 2020 · 32 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Adult studies show that healthy diet patterns relate to better sleep. However, evidence during adolescence, when sleep may change dramatically, is lacking. Within a cohort of 458 Mexican adolescents, we examined whether consumption of three dietary patterns was associated with sleep duration and timing measured 2 years later, as well as changes in sleep timing and duration. Dietary patterns (identified a posteriori in a prior analysis) were assessed with a baseline food frequency questionnaire,…

  DOI

• Neonatal Lead (Pb) Exposure and DNA Methylation Profiles in Dried Bloodspots

  International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · 2020 · 32 citations

  -value. In addition to increases/decreases in methylation, we also demonstrate that Pb exposure is related to increased variability in DNA methylation at 16 CpG sites. More work is needed to assess the accuracy and precision of metals assessment using bloodspots, but this study highlights the utility of this unique resource to enhance environmental epigenetics research around the world.

  DOI

Recent grants

• E3Gen: Multigenerational Effects of Toxicant Exposures on Life Course Health and Neurocognitive Outcomes in the ELEMENT Birth Cohorts

  NIH · $1.5M · 2017–2022

• NIH Grant R01HD037368

  NIH · $3.4M · 2006

• Administration Core

  NIH · $10.9M · 2010–2030

Frequent coauthors

• Martha María Téllez‐Rojo

  Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública

  249 shared

• Howard Hu

  Keck Hospital of USC

  183 shared

• Alejandra Cantoral

  Ibero American University

  158 shared

• Brisa N. Sánchez

  Drexel University

  123 shared

• John D. Meeker

  University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

  102 shared

• Adrienne S. Ettinger

  Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

  85 shared

• Erica C. Jansen

  78 shared

• Dana C. Dolinoy

  76 shared

Similar researchers at University of Michigan

• Ana Baylinh-56
• Kendrin Sonnevilleh-44
• Peter Mancusoh-41