Silvia Balbo

Silvia Balbo is a Professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the University of Minnesota, actively researching complex exposures in cancer formation since 2008. Her work examines interactions between diet, alcohol/tobacco use, microbiome, chemotherapy drugs, and environmental contaminants with cellular targets, using High Resolution Mass Spectrometry to develop tools for cancer prevention, early detection, and treatment prediction. She maintains continuous funding and collaborates with Harvard University and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

Research Interests:

• Carcinogenesis and Chemoprevention
• DNA Damage and Genotoxicity
• Exposure Science (alcohol, tobacco, microbiome, environmental)
• Mass Spectrometry and Metabolomics
• DNA Adductomics
• Mechanisms of Microbial Genotoxins (colibactin)

Publication Trends: Recent work (2023-2025) centers on DNA adducts from gut microbiome and aldehydes, with significant publications in Nature Chemical Biology and Science Immunology. Her research shows increasing interdisciplinary focus—merging toxicology, immunology, and microbiology—to study colibactin-mediated damage in cystic fibrosis, acetaldehyde in oral cancer, and untargeted screening methods for DNA damage biomarkers.

Scientific Awards: No awards, fellowships, or medals are documented in the provided information.

Advising and Grants:

• Principal Investigator on NIH project 'Dissecting the role of acetaldehyde in oral carcinogenesis' (2022-2027)
• Principal Investigator on Fanconi Cancer Foundation grant evaluating aldehydes in oral cavity (2021-2024)
• Principal Investigator on NCI/Harvard University project 'Understanding the Mechanism of a gut microbial genotoxin' (2021-2026)
• Co-Investigator on Cystic Fibrosis Foundation projects related to colibactin and colon cancer (2022-2024, 2025-2028)

Laboratory and Teams: Balbo leads a research group specializing in exposure biomarker development and DNA adductomics at the University of Minnesota, collaborating with Alexander Khoruts' cystic fibrosis microbiome team, Peter Villalta's mass spectrometry lab, and Emily Balskus' Harvard University group on bacterial genotoxin mechanisms. Her team employs advanced analytical chemistry approaches to study pro-oncogenic microbes and aldehyde exposure pathways.