Courtney Roper, assistant professor of environmental toxicology, and Shayla Victoria, a 2025 graduate from the pharmaceutical sciences doctoral program, published their research on the impact of urban pollution on the behavior and development of zebrafish in Neurotoxicology and Teratology.

“The current status of scientific literature is that autism spectrum disorder in humans is caused by a variety of factors that may involve a connection between genetics and the environment,” Roper said. “While we didn’t see a clear connection between particulate matter in every assay, it’s still a model that we can use to start to look at gene-environment interactions.

“It gives us a new tool to study autism spectrum disorder.”