Superfund Research Program

Armijo, a postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) SRP Center, unravels the mechanisms behind NDMA’s carcinogenic effects. (Photo courtesy of Amanda Armijo)

Superfund Research Program trainee, Amanda Armijo, winner of the 2022 Karen Wetterhahn Memorial Award, delivered an award lecture about her research on the genetic effects of exposure to carcinogenic n-nitrosodimethylamine, or NDMA, through drinking water.

“NDMA is found in over 20 different Superfund sites, and most people are exposed at low doses over a long period of time,” said Armijo. “There’s so much we still need to know about how NDMA affects the body, and what levels are considered safe in our drinking water.”

In her August 2 talk, Armijo discussed detecting damage by looking for a signature sawtooth pattern of mutations in the DNA of exposed mice. She also shared her investigations using boosted levels of the body’s natural repair enzymes to fix DNA mutations, before the damage can cause cancer.

Read more in the NIEHS Environmental Factor Newsletter.