Azmoun, Somaiyeh

sazmoun@fiu.edu

http://www.linkedin.com/in/ somaiyeh-azmoun-ph-d-01788164

biography

Dr. Somaiyeh Azmoun is a postdoctoral fellow at Florida International University specializing in environmental neuroscience, neurotoxicology, exposomics, and neuroimmune mechanisms underlying neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders. Her research focuses on understanding how environmental toxicants, particularly heavy metals and industrial pollutants, influence immune pathways, cognitive function, and neurological health across the lifespan through integrative multi-omics and translational approaches.

Dr. Azmoun is currently a trainee in the NIH-funded Training in Environmental Neuroscience (TENS) program at FIU, an interdisciplinary research training program designed to advance translational neuroscience and environmental health research. Through this program, she has received advanced training in environmental neuroscience, epidemiology, neurodegeneration, biomarker discovery, data integration, and translational approaches linking environmental exposures to neurological disease outcomes.

Her current research centers on the Taranto cohort, an adolescent population residing near one of Europeâs largest steel and ferroalloy industrial complexes in Southern Italy. This work investigates the association between chronic metal exposure, immune dysregulation, and neurobehavioral outcomes, including intelligence quotient (IQ) and Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) measures associated with autism-related social-behavioral function. Her studies integrate environmental exposure assessment, immune profiling, and advanced statistical and exposomic approaches to identify biological pathways linking industrial pollution to neurodevelopmental alterations. Her work focuses on identifying immune and inflammatory signatures associated with neurotoxicity, cognitive dysfunction, and early indicators of neurological disease susceptibility.

Dr. Azmounâs research also extends to occupationally exposed workers and elderly populations with Parkinsonism, aiming to identify shared biomarker pathways connecting environmental exposures, neuroinflammation, neurodevelopment, and neurodegeneration. Her interdisciplinary work bridges pediatric environmental health and aging-related neurological disease through the framework of developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) and exposome science.
Prior to her current position, Dr. Azmoun served as a Research Scholar at the Markey Cancer Center, University of Kentucky, where she conducted translational cancer biology research focused on oxidative stressâinduced DNA damage and repair, glioblastoma, hepatocellular carcinoma, and molecular mechanisms involved in cancer progression. Her work at the University of Kentucky strengthened her expertise in molecular and cellular biology, translational biomedical research, and mechanistic disease investigation.

Dr. Azmoun holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Toxicology from Florida International University and a masterâs degree in Genetics. She also previously served as a faculty member in genetics and molecular biology, where she taught and mentored students in genetics, molecular biology, and biomedical sciences.
In parallel with her laboratory expertise, Dr. Azmoun has interdisciplinary expertise and computational skills in environmental epidemiology, biostatistics, and exposomics research. Her analytical approaches include weighted quantile sum (WQS) regression, mediation analysis, exposome-wide association studies, integrative multi-omics modeling, biomarker discovery, and high-dimensional data analysis using R and Python. Her current research emphasizes identifying immune and molecular pathways linking environmental toxicant exposure to neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative outcomes across diverse populations.

Through her multidisciplinary research and NIH-supported training in environmental neuroscience, Dr. Azmoun seeks to identify early biomarkers and mechanistic pathways linking environmental toxicant exposure to neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders. Her long-term research goal is to advance precision environmental health strategies that improve disease prevention, early detection, and public health outcomes in environmentally vulnerable populations.

research interests

Environmental neuroscience, neurotoxicology, exposomics, neuroimmunology, environmental epidemiology, heavy metal exposure, neurodevelopmental disorders, neurodegeneration, Parkinsonism, autism-related behavioral outcomes, biomarker discovery, multi-omics integration, immune dysregulation, molecular toxicology, environmental health, and precision environmental health.