Karilyn E. Sant

Karilyn E. Sant is an Associate Professor at the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Michigan State University. Her research focuses on environmental toxicology, specifically investigating how developmental exposures to water pollutants affect embryonic and juvenile health, with a particular emphasis on endocrine disruption and metabolic diseases like diabetes and obesity.

• University of Michigan - B.S., Biology and Program in the Environment (2008)
• University of Michigan - M.P.H., Environmental Health Sciences (2010)
• University of Michigan - Ph.D., Toxicology (2014)

Her work utilizes the zebrafish model to study the impact of contaminants such as perfluorinated compounds, phthalates, and microplastics on pancreatic development, lipid metabolism, and aquatic ecosystems. She leads interdisciplinary collaborations examining pollution in diverse contexts including cannabis crop runoff, heated tobacco products, and border water contamination.

Scientific trends in her publications show a focus on environmental toxicants (PFOS, MEHP, PCBs), pancreatic developmental toxicity, redox dynamics, and ecotoxicological assessments in aquatic systems. Recent work involves machine learning applications to model chemical toxicity and metagenomic analysis of microbial contamination.