Faculty Spotlight: Dr. Shruthi Mahalingaiah
Dr. Mahalingaiah is the assistant professor of environmental, reproductive, and women’s health in the Department of Environmental Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She serves clinically as a physician specializing in ovulation disorders, reproductive endocrinology and infertility at the Massachusetts General Hospital in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Dr. Mahalingaiah’s research seeks to understand the association of environmental and modifiable risk factors on human reproduction as they pertain to the etiology and prevention of gynecological disease. Through physiology-informed research, she focuses on identifying environmental exposures associated with the development of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and metabolic sequelae. Her research encompasses three distinct areas: 1) Air pollution and gynecologic disease incidence including cardiometabolic risk across the reproductive lifespan; 2) Environmental toxicant exposures in the perinatal, perimenarchal, and adult time window with placental disease and ovulatory disorders; and 3) Creation of diverse cohorts to study women’s health across the reproductive lifespan. She is currently funded by the March of Dimes, National Science Foundation, and is on the leadership team of the Apple Women’s Health study.
Dr. Mahalingaiah is currently working on a research grant entitled, “Climate factors, racial/ethnic disparities, and menstrual cycle health” to study the impact of air pollution, temperature/humidity, and disparity in these exposures with menstrual cycle health, and is exploring the possibility of expanding this in the future to areas in India.