Karen Phillips Assistant Professor, Faculty of Health Sciences, Health Sciences
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B.Sc.H Biology, 1993 (Queen’s University); Ph.D. Reproductive Physiology, 2001 (University of Ottawa)
Biography
Karen Phillips is an Assistant Professor in the Baccalaureate Program in
Health Sciences in the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ottawa.
She obtained her doctorate at the University of Ottawa specializing in oocyte
maturation, molecular events at fertilization and early embryo development.
During her doctoral training, Dr. Phillips furthered her education at the
Fertility Centre, Ottawa Hospital to become a Clinical Embryologist, trained
in all aspects of assisted reproductive technologies. In collaboration with
leading Canadian researchers in the field of endocrine disruption, Dr. Phillips
developed a highly acclaimed web-based risk communication vehicle for information
on the health risks associated with endocrine disrupters (www.emcom.ca).
Dr. Phillips is currently involved in a collaborative research project with Dr. Andrea Martinez (Institute of Women’s Studies) examining adolescent sexual and reproductive health education in Chilean and Canadian secondary schools. It is hoped this evaluation will provide insight into the role of education in the reduction of adolescent sexually transmitted infections and pregnancy. Public health preparedness is the focus of a second research collaboration targeted to identify social supports for nurses as first responders during an infectious disease outbreak like SARS. Her third research area examines the environmental determinants of reproductive health in both humans and using an animal model. Human health effects associated with exposure to endocrine disrupters have been characterized in a series of overview papers. Endocrine disrupter body burden is currently being correlated with population health characteristics (gender, age, occupation) to determine predictive population characteristics. Finally, Dr. Phillips is developing laboratory models to investigate the effects of endocrine disrupter exposure on spermatogenesis in the mouse.
Research Interests
Infertility
Reproductive Biology
Sexual and Reproductive Health Education
Endocrine Disrupters
Risk Assessment and Risk Management
Emergency Preparedness and Public Health
Selected Publications
A Martinez, A Meneses, KP Phillips. A comparative analysis of sexual and reproductive health strategies in Canadian and Chilean secondary schools, J Epidem Comm Health, Submitted, May 2007
A Martinez, A Meneses, KP Phillips. La promotion de l’équité en éducation sexuelle dans les écoles secondaires de la région de la capitale nationale. La Revue canadienne de l'éducation. Submitted, April 2007
KP Phillips, V Sahni, N Karyakina, M Turner, W Foster, W Leiss, S Kacew, D Krewski. Assessing and managing risks of endocrine disrupting chemicals. J Tox Env Health. Accepted for publication
TL O’Sullivan, CA Amaratunga, J Hardt, D Gibson, KP Phillips, W Corneil. 2007. Are We Ready? Evidence of support mechanisms for Canadian health care workers in multi-jurisdictional emergency planning. Can J Public Health. Accepted for publication.
KP Phillips, MAF Petrunewich, JL Collins and JM Baltz. 2002. The intracellular pH-regulatory HCO3-/Cl- exchanger in the mouse oocyte is inactivated during first meiotic metaphase and reactivated after egg activation via the MAP kinase pathway. Mol. Biol. Cell. 13(11): 3800-3810.
KP Phillips, MAF Petrunewich, JL Collins, RA Booth, XJ Liu and JM Baltz. 2002. Inhibition of MEK or cdc2 kinase parthenogenetically activates mouse eggs and yields the same phenotypes as mos-/- parthenogenotes. Dev. Biol. Dev Biol. 247(1):210-23.
CL Steeves, M Lane, B Bavister, KP Phillips, and JM Baltz. 2001. Intracellular pH regulation in mouse 2-cell embryos by the Na+/H+ antiporter. Biol. Reprod. 65(1):14‑22.
KP Phillips, M-C Léveillé, P Claman and JM Baltz. 2000. Intracellular pH regulation in human preimplantation embryos. Hum. Reprod. 15(4):896‑904.
KP Phillips and JM Baltz 1999. Intracellular pH regulation by HCO3-/Cl- exchange is activated during early mouse zygote development. Dev. Biol. 208:392-405.
KP Phillips, W Zhou and JM Baltz 1998. Are intracellularly-loaded ion-sensitive fluorophores toxic to mouse eggs and zygotes? Zygote. 6:113-123.
Links to Affiliates and Partners
EM-COM
(www.emcom.ca)
Obstetrics & Maternal Newborn Investigation (OMNI)
(http://www.ohri.ca/programs/clinical_epidemiology/omni_research/index.html)
Institute of Women’s Studies
(http://www.socialsciences.uottawa.ca/womenst/eng/)
Ottawa Health Research Institute (OHRI)
(http://www.ohri.ca/centres/ReproductiveTechnologies/default.asp)