URI_Research_Magazine_2010-2011_Melissa-McCarthy

Angela Slitt and her son, Benjamin

To help answer this question, Slitt is involved in multidisciplinary research with Ingrid Lofgen, URI assistant professor of nutrition and food science, who conducted a weight loss study in 2009 involving approximately 35 women. Using samples taken from these women, Slitt is studying their BPA levels to see if there is a link between calorie restriction and BPA. “We know that calorie restriction changes transporter expression,” said Slitt. But more research is needed on how BPA and other chemicals that are regulated by transporters are disrupting the endocrine system, she said. A research assistant professor at URI since 2006, Slitt earned a Ph.D. in pharmaceutical science from the University of Connecticut, which was followed by a four-year post-doctorate fellowship at the University of Kansas Medical Center. As a graduate student, she studied the effects of Tylenol overdoses on the liver, and has continued her research into liver disease at URI. In addition to her research into BPA, Slitt has received funding from the National Institutes of Health to study the relationship between transporter expression, cholesterol transportation and gallstone

formation and how liver disease and antioxidants variously affect transporter expression. One of the pleasures of being at URI is collaborating with researchers in other disciplines, she said. “Early exposure to BPA, either as an infant or in the womb, has been shown to affect fat cells, which in turn might explain why childhood obesity is now a national epidemic.”

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Research & Innovation 2010-2011