Carrie Breton is an environmental epidemiologist whose work centers on how early-life environmental exposures impact lifelong health. Her research examines how factors such as air pollution, tobacco smoke, heavy metals and chemical exposures — combined with social and environmental stressors — affect birth outcomes, child growth, and risk for chronic diseases such as obesity and cardiovascular conditions.

Before joining WashU, Breton co-directed the Maternal and Developmental Risks from Environmental and Social Stressors (MADRES) Center at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine. Her studies use epigenomic approaches to understand how environmental exposures influence health across generations, with a focus on reducing health inequities and improving outcomes for vulnerable populations.

Areas of Focus:

• Environmental health inequities
• Early-life chemical and non-chemical exposures
• Epigenomics and chronic disease risk
• Maternal and child health
• Air pollution impacts on child health

Featured Publications

• Association between ambient air pollution and birth weight by maternal individual- and neighborhood-level stressors
  JAMA Network Open
  October 2022
• Childhood air pollution exposure associated with self-reported bronchitic symptoms in adulthood
  American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine
  October 2024
• Effect of parental adverse childhood experiences on intergenerational DNA methylation signatures from peripheral blood mononuclear cells and buccal mucosa
  Translational Psychology
  February 2024
• Analysis of pregnancy complications and epigenetic gestational age of newborns
  JAMA Network Open
  February 2023