ASD Researchers at UNC

Professor of Epidemiology and Maternal and Child Health, UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health

Julie Daniels, Ph.D., is a professor in the Departments of Epidemiology and Maternal and Child Health in the Gillings School of Global Public Health.

Dr. Daniels’ research focuses on prenatal environmental and nutritional exposures that may impact children’s growth, neurodevelopment and overall health. She has created a platform for studying early life exposure to brominated and organophosphate flame retardants, persistent organic pollutants and long-chain fatty acids as they relate to children’s health in the Pregnancy, Infection & Nutrition Kids Study.

She also has directed the North Carolina sites of the Study to Explore Early Development and the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, where she has been heavily invested in programs to better understand the epidemiology of autism spectrum disorder. She is specifically interested how gene expression and environmental exposures interact to alter neurodevelopment. She works toward improved understanding and balanced communication of the role the environment may play in the children’s health.