The Superfund Research Center

Molly Kile is an environmental epidemiologist whose research focuses on understanding how exposures to chemicals influence human health. Her expertise is in conducting population-based environmental health studies and often works with communities that are disproportionately impacted by environmental pollutants. She received her doctoral degree from Harvard School of Public Health in 2006 and is currently a Professor at the College of Public Health and Human Sciences at Oregon State University. She is currently the PI on two active NIEHS-funded R01s that are studying the effects of flame retardants on children’s neurocognitive and behavioral growth and private well water stewardship. She is also interim deputy director of the Pacific Northwest Center for Translational Environmental Health Research (P30) and the co-PI of the newly formed ASPIRE Center at OSU (P2C) that is focusing on accelerating the adoption of evidence-based policies, programs, and practices that promote children’s environmental health.

The NLRP3 inflammasome has been identified as a key immune sensor for tissue damage. Although NLRP3 inflammasome assembly/activation leads to the production of inflammatory messengers (called cytokines) that alert the host immune system to initiate inflammatory responses, its dysregulation often results in overt diseases due to uncontrolled inflammation. Unfortunately, exposure to a number of environmental toxicants including PFAS have been shown to induce NLRP3 inflammasome activation that in turn initiates an undesirable inflammatory response, thereby causing numerous pathologies. Although stimulating agents have not been demonstrated to directly bind NLRP3, they are able to trigger mitochondrial damage and subsequent release of mitochondrial contents that somehow signal the activation of NLRP3 inflammasome. We seek to identify the mitochondrial ligand responsible for direct NLRP3 activation and probe the molecular determinants of recognition for this interaction.