Christopher J Martyniuk, PhD

Dr. Martyniuk is a Professor in the Department of Physiological Sciences. His expertise is in environmental toxicology and animal physiology. He uses animal models to understand the biological effects of emerging environmental contaminants. Dr. Martyniuk is the Editor-in-Chief of Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part D: Genomics and Proteomics.

We study how environmental contaminants impact a broad range of biological systems such as the nervous system, endocrine system, and gut-microbiome axis. We use neuronal cell models (dopaminergic rat and human cells) and zebrafish in vivo toxicity assays to determine the mechanisms of environmental toxicants, focusing on pesticides that have been associated with neurodegenerative diseases and the mitochondria. We are also using CRISPR gene editing approaches to understand the functional significance of genes during pesticide exposures. Specialties: Molecular toxicology, omics, environmental science, neurodegeneration, high throughput in vitro screening, neurotoxicology