October 10, 2025 | Erin Bluvas, bluvase@sc.edu
Manufactured chemicals and medications can impact maternal and child health well beyond pregnancy, and Pengfei Guo is using environmental and perinatal epidemiology to better understand and mitigate these impacts. She applies cohort study design and causal inference methods to study how environmental and pharmaceutical exposures affect women’s and children’s health – all the way from immediate birth outcomes to long-term cardiometabolic and mental health.
“Much of my work has focused on PFAS, a group of synthetic chemicals widely used in everyday products like food packaging, non-stick cookware, and waterproof fabrics,” the tenure-track assistant professor of epidemiology says. “Because they persist in the environment and in the human body, PFAS have been called ‘forever chemicals,’ and they have raised major concerns for reproductive and developmental health.”
Guo remembers the moment she first became interested in these areas. The first-generation college student was studying preventive medicine at Sun Yat-sen University in China when she learned about fetal programming – the theory that environmental factors experienced during fetal development can determine health trajectories across the lifespan.
“I was fascinated by the idea that we can prevent disease and promote health before a child is born,” says Guo, who went on to complete a Ph.D. in Environmental Epidemiology and postdoctoral fellowship in the field at Yale University. “Then I started thinking more about women themselves, not just the babies, and I realized pregnancy is a critical moment that shapes health across the life course for both the woman and the child.”
Recognizing that women of reproductive age often face difficult decisions without clear evidence or support, Guo became committed to generating knowledge they could trust and to supporting policies that promote safe, informed pregnancy-related decisions and better long-term health outcomes for both women and children.
Working with collaborators around the world (e.g., Denmark, Poland, Ukraine, Greenland, China, U.S.), Guo has built a research portfolio that investigates and uncovers the health outcomes experienced by women and children exposed to PFAS during pregnancy. The impacts are wide-ranging, including perinatal outcomes, behavioral difficulties, sleep problems, and metabolic alterations.
“I feel grateful to be part of a scientific community that cares about environmental and population health,” Guo says. “I’m excited to join a highly collaborative department and school with strong community engagement to continue this journey. I also really look forward to fostering a supportive learning environment for students and helping to train the next generation of epidemiologists.”
“Pengfei is a multi-talented, committed researcher whose focus on the impact of environmental and pharmaceutical exposures on the health of pregnant women and children is a very timely public health topic for which high quality evidence is needed,” says Anthony Alberg, chair of the department of epidemiology and biostatistics. “Her presence significantly enriches the quality and breadth of research in our department.”
Alongside her education and research milestones, Guo can trace her vocational path by looking at American television series and films that bolstered her interests in each step in her journey. Back in high school, Grey’s Anatomy first sparked her interest in medicine while Dark Waters and Erin Brockovich offered role models for fighting against environmental crises. She says that more recent films, like Mulan and Young Woman and the Sea, have inspired her to stay strong and resilient as she builds her career as a woman in science.
“I still sometimes think of the faces in those movies when I need a reminder of why this work matters,” Guo says.