Dr. Michael Bloom, associate professor of environmental health sciences at the SUNY Albany School of Public Health has received a one year NIH grant in the amount of $303,365 to conduct a pilot study called “The Study of Metals and Assisted Reproductive Technologies (SMART).”
[Photo: Dr. Michael Bloom]
This study is to be the first step in designing a definitive method to identify modifiable risk factors to maximize in vitro fertilization (IVF) success rates and to minimize racial reproductive disparities. Working in conjunction with co-investigators from the University of California at San Francisco, the University at Buffalo, and the Wadsworth Center at the New York State Department of Health, Dr. Bloom and his team will identify the relationship between exposure to toxic metals including arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury as well as activity levels of six key anti-oxidant enzymes in order to determine their impact on IVF. Asian women are less likely to have successful IVF compared to their white counterparts and according to recent CDC data they are more likely to have higher body burdens of toxic metals. A study of this nature addresses the 2020 NIH Office of Women’s Health 2020 Strategic Plan to “identify and validate sex-specific biomarkers for infertility and IVF prognosis” and to “examine reproductive health disparities.”