Transferable Skills

“The substances we studied in the CELSPAC-FireExpo project with firefighters are all around us, and the population is commonly exposed to them,” says environmental epidemiologist Nina Pálešová.

Text/Photo: Sabina Vojtěchová

Nina Pálešová is an environmental epidemiologist and a recent PhD graduate. She started at the Faculty of Science as a student of experimental biology, planning to focus primarily on microbiology. However, after learning about RECETOX in one of the lectures, she quickly changed her mind. She chose her thesis supervisor at the center, where she also completed her dissertation. In the interview, we explored how the young scientist transitioned from studying wastewater treatment to researching the impact of chemicals on the cardiovascular system of firefighters, what both topics have in common with her interest in the environment, and where everyone can come into contact with toxic substances.

Nina, what brought you to RECETOX?
During the first semester of my experimental biology studies as an undergraduate, various research directions at the Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, were presented. The RECETOX lecture impacted me so much that I quickly changed my plan and focused on ecotoxicology instead of microbiology. I remember the lecture was about a study on crayfish that couldn’t reproduce due to contraceptive residues in rivers. I’ve always been drawn to environmental protection, and when I found out there was a field based on biology and chemistry that also focused on environmental protection, I knew I wanted to continue there.

In your thesis, you focused on filtration technologies for wastewater treatment, but in your dissertation, you worked on epidemiological research. How did that shift happen?
The topic I chose for my thesis was very engaging, but when I decided to pursue a PhD, I felt a lot of energy that I wanted to use to broaden my horizons with a new topic. Associate Professor Pavel Čupr had a topic on studying chemical exposure at the population level and biomonitoring. During my master’s, it became clear that the technique of screening and measuring chemicals directly in human matrices, such as blood or urine, would be very appealing to me. The researcher looks inside the body, finding out what is where, what levels of substances we have in blood, urine, or even breast milk. I always found that very interesting.

Changing the focus of your research topic must have brought about a change in research methods as well. How was that for you?
It was also a leap, but a fairly smooth one. The change for me started at the level of population studies, where I had to work with statistics. Fortunately, during my master’s studies, I had some statistical courses, so I wasn’t completely unfamiliar with it; I just started using it practically. The rest were laboratory methods that I had already used in my thesis or learned about during my master’s studies.

Your dissertation eventually evolved into the CELSPAC-FireExpo project, which focused on the firefighter population. What was it about?
It is a population study in which we worked with more than a hundred firefighters primarily from the South Moravian Region. The aim was to assess the chemical exposure of firefighters during work or training. Everyone can imagine that firefighters are exposed to many chemicals, such as smoke. We were interested in four groups of substances that everyone is exposed to in smaller amounts and are suspected of having negative health effects. These were PFAS, sometimes known as forever chemicals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), benzotriazoles, and toxic metals. Specifically, we were interested in how these substances could affect cardiovascular health. The incidence of cardiovascular diseases is higher among firefighters, and exposure to chemicals could play a role in this. Whole article.