Patricia A. Hunt is Meyer Distinguished Professor in the School of Molecular Bioscience at

Washington State University Washington State University (Washington State, WSU, or informally Wazzu) is a public land-grant research university with its flagship, and oldest, campus in Pullman, Washington. Founded in 1890, WSU is also one of the oldest land-grant unive ...

. Her primary research interest lies in human

aneuploidy Aneuploidy is the presence of an abnormal number of chromosomes in a cell, for example a human cell having 45 or 47 chromosomes instead of the usual 46. It does not include a difference of one or more complete sets of chromosomes. A cell with any ...

, mammalian

germ cell Germ or germs may refer to: Science * Germ (microorganism), an informal word for a pathogen * Germ cell, cell that gives rise to the gametes of an organism that reproduces sexually * Germ layer, a primary layer of cells that forms during embry ...

s and

meiosis Meiosis (; , since it is a reductional division) is a special type of cell division of germ cells in sexually-reproducing organisms that produces the gametes, such as sperm or egg cells. It involves two rounds of division that ultimately resu ...

.Faculty page of the Washington State University
/ref> She is best known for showing the adversary effect of

Bisphenol A Bisphenol A (BPA) is a chemical compound primarily used in the manufacturing of various plastics. It is a colourless solid which is soluble in most common organic solvents, but has very poor solubility in water. BPA is produced on an industrial s ...

(a common substance in plastics) on the reproductive system of mammalians. In 2018, her team discovered that replacement Bisphenols ( BPS, BPF, BPAF,

Diphenyl sulfone Diphenyl sulfone is an organosulfur compound with the formula (C6H5)2SO2. It is a white solid that is soluble in organic solvents. It is used as a high temperature solvent. Such high temperature solvents are useful for processing highly rigid pol ...

) also affects reproductive health, and this over generations.

Career

Patricia Hunt did her undergraduate studies at

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...

. She graduated in 1983 from the

University of Hawaii A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

with a thesis on reproductive biology under the supervision of Patricia Jacobs. She completed a two-year Postdoc with Paul Burgoyne at the MRC Mammalian Development Unit and a one-year Postdoc with Eva Eicher at the Jackson Laboratory. She began her tenure track with a faculty position at Emory University from 1988 to 1992, then moved to Case Western Reserve University. In 2005, she moved to Washington State University where she is now a Meyer Distinguished Professor in the School of Molecular Biosciences. Her current work centers on the reproductive effects of exposure to chemicals with estrogenic activity.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunt, Patricia A. American women academics American ecologists Women ecologists Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Michigan State University alumni University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa alumni Washington State University faculty 21st-century American women