Amanda Jurgelewicz’s Environmental Protection Agency Post-Doc is Providing an Important Experience

Like so many who grew up in the Detroit area, Macomb Township native Amanda Jurgelewicz was surrounded by all things automotive.

“As a kid, everyone I knew worked in the auto industry,” she said, adding, “I didn’t really know any scientists.”

But she also knew enough even then where her interests resided – with research and science and understanding the complex issues of disease.

That interest was only reinforced when her grandfather died from glioblastoma, an aggressive and fast-moving brain tumor. When she learned about how her family donated his brain and spinal cord to Wayne State University for research, she was sure of her direction.

“It’s definitely why I became interested in understanding how diseases work,” she said. “It is really important to conduct research to understand how people are affected by certain diseases.”

That interest led her to a BS degree in Biochemistry at Wayne State University and then to the Michigan State University Pharmacology and Toxicology Ph.D. program, where she studied in the lab of Dr. John LaPres in the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department and earned her Ph.D. in 2023.

Her Ph.D. research focused on understanding how a liver enzyme, HMG-CoA reductase, is connected to the harmful effects of dioxin. Her dissertation was the culmination of her long-time study as a trainee at the Superfund Research Center at MSU. Her research interests helped her earn a post-doctoral position at the Environmental Protection Agency’s Center for Computational Toxicology and Exposure (CCTE) in North Carolina.

Amanda works in the lab of Cellular and Molecular Toxicologist Dr. Josh Harrill. Her research uses in vitro high-throughput profiling assays to screen chemicals and help inform risk assessment. Amanda’s project is centered on incorporating metabolism into these assays to help address a limitation of working with cell models.

Rather than focusing on conducting experiments using laboratory animals, the CCTE’s tiered strategy for chemical hazard evaluation uses new cell culture methods to reduce the time and cost required to thoroughly test chemicals. This approach helps evaluate the potential human health and environmental risks due to chemical exposures more efficiently, especially in cases of chemicals that have little or no available toxicity data. Her current research supports the first tier of this strategy.

“I did most of my dissertation work in animals, and now I’m only using cell culture to address how chemicals affect human health. Limiting animal use would be best when working with toxins,” she said.

This post-doc experience has been fulfilling and educational for her and it’s one she, frankly, doesn’t want to move on from.

“The research in CCTE has the potential to make a big impact, and that’s why I really love what I’m doing. Many people who do a post-doc at the EPA seem to end up back here at some point in their career, and I like the environment here,” she said. “We’re still pretty early on in this project, and we’d like to get more data and see how it progresses, but this research is important, and I’d like to continue it as long as I can.”