Dana C Dolinoy

Dana C Dolinoy, PhD, MSc is the NSF International Chair of Environmental Health Sciences and Professor in both the Environmental Health Sciences and Nutritional Sciences departments at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. She directs the University of Michigan NIEHS P30 Core Center, 'Lifestage Environmental Exposures and Diseases' (M-LEEaD), and serves as Faculty Director of the Michigan Medical Center's Epigenomics Core.

Dolonoy earned her BA from Duke University in 1998, MSc from Harvard Chan School of Public Health in 2003, and PhD from Duke University in 2007. Her educational background provides a strong foundation for her interdisciplinary work bridging environmental health, nutrition, and molecular biology.

Dr. Dolinoy's research focuses on environmental epigenomics and the developmental origins of health and disease, with particular interest in how early-life environmental exposures program long-term health outcomes. She integrates approaches from toxicology, epidemiology, and bioinformatics to characterize effects of environmental factors on the epigenome. Her work has significant implications for understanding metabolic syndrome, neurodevelopmental disorders, and cancer, especially in vulnerable populations exposed during critical developmental windows.

Analysis of her recent publications reveals a strong focus on DNA methylation as a mechanism linking environmental exposures to health outcomes. Her work examines sex-specific and tissue-specific epigenetic responses to toxicants like lead and phthalates, circadian biology, and the interplay between nutrition and environmental exposures. The research increasingly incorporates multi-omics approaches and longitudinal designs to understand how early-life exposures reprogram biological trajectories across the lifespan.

Dr. Dolinoy teaches courses including EHS660: Environmental Epigenetics and Public Health and EHS801: Professional Development In Environmental Health Sciences. She leads significant research initiatives including the Environmental Epigenomics and Precision Environmental Health NIEHS R35 RIVER Project, the Michigan Center on Lifestage Environmental Exposures and Disease (M-LEEaD), and is a member of the NIEHS TaRGET II Consortia. As Faculty Director of the Michigan Medical Center's Epigenomics Core, she provides critical epigenomic research infrastructure and expertise to the broader scientific community.

Her laboratory, the DoGoodS Lab, focuses on advancing precision environmental epigenomics tools for the wider toxicological research and therapeutic communities, with particular attention to sensitive subpopulations vulnerable to early environmental insults that set the stage for adult disease risk.