Torkjel M Sandanger
Job description
I am currently the head of the department and have been functioning in this four year term position since the first of january 2022. As the head of the department I focus on communication within the department, supporting all efforts to strenghten reserach and teaching activities at the department. I alos emphasise reserach communication and the fact that we should be a preferred partner when developing public health policies. I am proud to be the head of a department with novel and relevant reserach, education and dissemination. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions about our department.
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Research interests
Currently I am focusing on the use of different “omics” to better study the effects of environmental stressors, as a link between exposure and health endpoints. Right now we are in the preparation of a paper on smoking and DNA methylation in two European Cohorts. We are also planning to combine gene expression data and DNA methylation data in order to improve our understanding of the observed effects and the possible biological understanding.
Before this my research focus the last 10 years has been on environmental contaminants and human health. Through my research I have been trying to merge environmental chemistry and epidemiology, where my students have been involved both in the laboratory and the statistical analysis.
Cross sectional and prospective designs have been utilised at both the smaller community based surveys and larger national as well as international populations based investigations.
Through this unique combination of research fields I have considerable insight into the chemistry of molecules and how contaminants potentially influence human health and at the same time keeping the public health perspective as an important and even essential part of the projects.
My major scientific contribution has been the development and combination of environmental chemistry and human epidemiology into new fields of research that more easily integrates the environmental exposure (both short term and long term) component in larger epidemiological studies. When including “omics” in these projects we are more likely to be able to study causality and not only associations in studies of risk factors and human health. Through the close collaboration with colleagues at the department we have also included the nutritional aspect in studies on diet and contaminants. This has been especially important in our projects on benefits and disadvantages with seafood.
