Biographical Info

Dr. Barrett is an Associate Professor in the Rutgers University School of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology. She received an A.B. in Biology and English from Amherst College and a Ph.D. in Biological Anthropology from Harvard University. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of California-Los Angeles. Before coming to Rutgers, she was on the faculty at the University of Rochester, where she remains an Adjunct Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Public Health Sciences.

Research Areas

Dr. Barrett studies the early origins of health and disease, or how exposures early in life shape our subsequent health and developmental trajectories.  Because gestation is a particularly sensitive period when body systems are first forming, insults or exposures during this period may have profound downstream effects. Much of Dr. Barrett’s research focuses on prenatal exposure to endocrine disruptors, agents which interfere with the normal activity of hormones in the body. Phthalates are a class of endocrine disrupting chemicals that are found widely in food and consumer products. Nearly 100% of Americans have measurable levels of phthalate metabolites in their bodies, yet our current understanding of how these chemicals affect our bodies is limited. In The Infant Development and the Environment Study (TIDES), Dr. Barrett and colleagues are studying how prenatal exposure to these chemicals impacts reproductive and neuro-development, and whether the effects may differ in boys and girls.

Other exposures, such as psychosocial stress, disrupt early development as well. Numerous studies have examined how stress during pregnancy may alter cortisol activity and “program” neurodevelopmental, metabolic, and immune outcomes. Much less is known about the extent to which prenatal stress (and related constructs, like anxiety) may also act through other pathways and mechanisms to affect the fetus. For example, evidence from animal models and humans suggests that prenatal stress may alter in utero androgen activity, thereby affecting sex-dependent development in the offspring. Dr. Barrett and collaborators are exploring this hypothesis in the Understanding Prenatal Signals and Infant Development (UPSIDE) Study, with an eye towards better understanding the early origins of sex differences. Concurrent work in this cohort will examine how maternal inflammation during pregnancy contributes to infant and child development. One of the major themes of this research is understanding the role of the placenta in communicating messages about stressors from mother to fetus (and vice versa).

In addition to her work on prenatal exposures, Dr. Barrett is also interested in factors that impact fertility in adulthood, particularly in women. She is involved in projects focused on how psychosocial stress and environmental chemical exposures affect reproductive hormone concentrations and pregnancy outcomes. Additional ongoing work examines possible biomarkers of the prenatal hormonal milieu that can be assessed postnatally, and their relationship to measures of adult reproductive health.

Dr. Barrett’s work is funded by the National Institutes of Health (R01HD083369; R01ES016863; UG3OD023349; UG3OD023271; P30ES001247) and the Mae Stone Goode Foundation.

Research Highlights

• Assessment of exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals during pregnancy in relation to reproductive and neurodevelopment in childhood
• Examination of maternal stress in relation to sex differences in the offspring
• Investigation of novel biomarkers of the prenatal hormonal milieu in humans
• Exploration of placental morphology and function in relation to prenatal exposures and postnatal outcomes
• Identification of factors contributing to reproductive health and ovarian function in fertile and infertile women

Scholarly Activities

• Editorial Board: Hormones and Behavior, Fertility and Sterility (Top 3 reviewer, 2015-2016)
• Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH) Scholar (NIH K12; 2011-2014)
• Environmental Health News Science Communications Fellow (2009-2010)
• Community Advisory Board, URMC Environmental Health Sciences Center (2009-2016)
• Board of Directors, Healthy Baby Network (2015-2016)

Recent Publications

1. Padula, AM, Ning, X, Bakre, S, Barrett, ES, Bastain, T, Bennett, DH, Bloom, MS, Breton, CV, Dunlop, AL, Eick, SM et al.. Birth Outcomes in Relation to Prenatal Exposure to Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances and Stress in the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program. Environ Health Perspect. 2023;131 (3):37006. doi: 10.1289/EHP10723. PubMed PMID:36920051 PubMed Central PMC10015888
2. Gaylord, A, Barrett, ES, Sathyanarayana, S, Swan, SH, Nguyen, RHN, Bush, NR, Carroll, K, Day, DB, Kannan, K, Trasande, L et al.. Prenatal bisphenol A and S exposure and atopic disease phenotypes at age 6. Environ Res. 2023;226 :115630. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.115630. PubMed PMID:36889565
3. Barrett, ES, Rivera-Núñez, Z, Getz, K, Ohman-Strickland, P, Zhang, R, Kozlosky, D, Doherty, CL, Buckley, BT, Brunner, J, Miller, RK et al.. Protective role of the placental efflux transporter BCRP/ABCG2 in the relationship between prenatal cadmium exposure, placenta weight, and size at birth. Environ Res. 2023;225 :115597. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.115597. PubMed PMID:36863650
4. Moog, NK, Cummings, PD, Jackson, KL, Aschner, JL, Barrett, ES, Bastain, TM, Blackwell, CK, Bosquet Enlow, M, Breton, CV, Bush, NR et al.. Intergenerational transmission of the effects of maternal exposure to childhood maltreatment in the USA: a retrospective cohort study. Lancet Public Health. 2023;8 (3):e226-e237. doi: 10.1016/S2468-2667(23)00025-7. PubMed PMID:36841563 PubMed Central PMC9982823
5. Ladd-Acosta, C, Vang, E, Barrett, ES, Bulka, CM, Bush, NR, Cardenas, A, Dabelea, D, Dunlop, AL, Fry, RC, Gao, X et al.. Analysis of Pregnancy Complications and Epigenetic Gestational Age of Newborns. JAMA Netw Open. 2023;6 (2):e230672. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.0672. PubMed PMID:36826815 PubMed Central PMC9958528
6. Bush, NR, Noroña-Zhou, A, Coccia, M, Rudd, KL, Ahmad, SI, Loftus, CT, Swan, SH, Nguyen, RHN, Barrett, ES, Tylavsky, FA et al.. Intergenerational transmission of stress: Multi-domain stressors from maternal childhood and pregnancy predict children’s mental health in a racially and socioeconomically diverse, multi-site cohort. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2023; :. doi: 10.1007/s00127-022-02401-z. PubMed PMID:36735003
7. Shenouda, J, Barrett, E, Davidow, AL, Sidwell, K, Lescott, C, Halperin, W, Silenzio, VMB, Zahorodny, W. Prevalence and Disparities in the Detection of Autism Without Intellectual Disability. Pediatrics. 2023;151 (2):. doi: 10.1542/peds.2022-056594. PubMed PMID:36700335
8. Rivera-Núñez, Z, Kinkade, CW, Khoury, L, Brunner, J, Murphy, H, Wang, C, Kannan, K, Miller, RK, O’Connor, TG, Barrett, ES et al.. Prenatal perfluoroalkyl substances exposure and maternal sex steroid hormones across pregnancy. Environ Res. 2023;220 :115233. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.115233. PubMed PMID:36621543 PubMed Central PMC9977559
9. Coyte, RM, Darrah, TH, Barrett, E, O’Connor, TG, Olesik, JW, Salafia, CM, Shah, R, Love, T, Miller, RK. Comparison of trace element concentrations in paired formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded and frozen human placentae. Placenta. 2023;131 :98-103. doi: 10.1016/j.placenta.2022.12.003. PubMed PMID:36577279
10. Xun, X, Qin, X, Layden, AJ, Yin, Q, Swan, SH, Barrett, ES, Bush, NR, Sathyanarayana, S, Adibi, JJ. Application of 4-way decomposition to the analysis of placental-fetal biomarkers as intermediary variables between maternal body mass index and birthweight. Front Reprod Health. 2022;4 :994436. doi: 10.3389/frph.2022.994436. PubMed PMID:36545491 PubMed Central PMC9760955