Assistant Professor, Director, Aging Research Centre-Newfoundland and Labrador

Program: Environmental Science, General Science

Phone: (709) 639-4800

Email: karen.doody@mun.ca

Social Media/LinkedIn: LinkedIn

 

Credentials

B.Sc. Hons (Dalhousie), Ph.D. (McGill), Postdoc (La Jolla Institute for Immunology)

 

Research interests/expertise

• Impacts of environmental factors on human health and aging
• Health benefits of marine biomass and bioactives
• Autoimmune disease (focus on rheumatoid arthritis)
• Translational medicine
• Community engagement

Teaching

Current teaching:

• CHEM2440
• BIOC1430
• BIOL3053

 

Representative scholarly contributions

For full list of publications:

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=uRSL1ucAAAAJ&hl=en

 

Selected Publications:

Westcott JR, Bowden JJ, Savage J, Doody KM. Rapid Northward Expansion of the Blacklegged Tick, Ixodes scapularis, in Response to Climate Change. (2025) Global Change Biology. 2025 Nov;31(11):e70591. 

Fillier TA, Doody KM, Pham TH, Aubry I, Tremblay ML, Cheema SK, Blundell J, Thomas RH. Brief exposure of neuronal cells to levels of short chain fatty acids observed in human systemic circulation impair the cell lipid metabolism resulting in associated cell death by apoptosis. (2022) Scientific Reports. 12(1): 14355.

Svensson M, Zoccheddu M, Yang S, Nygaard G, Secchi C, Doody KM, Mizoguchi F, Humby F, Hands R, Santelli E, Sacchetti C, Wakabayashi K, Wu DJ, Barback C, Zi R, Wang W, Sims GP, Mydel P, Kasama T, Boyle DL, Galimi F, Vera D, Tremblay ML, Raychaudhuri S, Brenner MB, Firestein GS, Pitzalis C, Ekwall A-K, Stanford SM, Bottini N. Synoviocyte-targeted therapy synergizes with TNF inhibition in arthritis reversal. (2020) Science Advances 6(26):eaba4353. 

Svensson M, Doody KM, Schmiedel B, Bhattacharyya S, Panwar B, Wiede F, Yang S, Santelli E, Wu DJ, Sacchetti C, Gujar R, Seumois G, Kiosses WB, Aubry I, Kim G, Mydel P, Sakaguchi S, Kronenberg M, Tiganis T, Tremblay ML, Ay F, Vijayanand P, Bottini N. Loss-of-function of PTPN2 promotes pathogenic loss of FoxP3+ in RORgt+ Tregs. (2019) Journal of Clinical Investigation. 129(3):1193-1210. *Paper highlighted in Nature Reviews Rheumatology. 2019 15:127.

Bottini A, Wu DJ, Ai R, Le Roux M, Bartok B, Bombardieri M, Doody KM, Zhang V, Sacchetti C, Zoccheddu M, Lonic A, Li X, Boyle DL, Hammaker D, Meng TC, Liu L, Corr M, Stanford SM, Lewis M, Wang W, Firestein GS, Khew-Goodall Y, Pitzalis C, Bottini N. PTPN14 phosphatase and YAP promote TGFβ signalling in rheumatoid synoviocytes. (2019). Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases. 78(5): 600–609.

Pham TH, Vidal NP, Manful CF, Fillier TA, Pumphrey RP, Doody KM, Thomas RH. Moose and Caribou as Novel Sources of Functional Lipids: Fatty Acid Esters of Hydroxy Fatty Acids, Diglycerides and Monoacetyldiglycerides. (2019) Molecules. 24(2).

Doody KM, Bottini N, Firestein GS. (2017) Epigenetic alterations in rheumatoid arthritis fibroblast-like synoviocytes. Epigenomics. 9(4):479-492.

Doody KM, Stanford, SM, Sacchetti, C, Svensson, MND, Coles, CH, Mitakidis, N, Kiosses, WB, Bartok, B, Fos, C, Cory, E, Sah, R. L, Liu-Bryan, R, Boyle, D. L, Arnett, HA, Mustelin, T, Corr, M, Esko, JD, Tremblay, ML, Firestein, GS, Aricescu, AR, and Bottini, N. (2015) Targeting phosphatase-dependent proteoglycan switch for rheumatoid arthritis therapy. Science Translational Medicine. 7(288):2. *Paper highlighted in Nature Reviews Rheumatology 2015 11(7):381; this work was awarded the 2016 Lee C. Howley Sr. Prize for Arthritis Scientific Research

 

Current research projects and grants

“Repurposing Marine By-Products or Raw Materials for the Development and Production of Functional Foods and Bioactives to Improve Human Health and Coastal Community Sustainability” (Funded by New Frontiers in Research Fund – Transformation Grant; Co-Applicant); https://mbiproject.ca/

“Characterization and Comparison of Sea Cucumber Species to Obtain a Higher Value Commercial Industry in Atlantic Canada” (Atlantic Fisheries Fund; Principal Applicant) 

“Cultivating Interdisciplinary Research Teams at the Aging Research Centre-Newfoundland and Labrador” (CIHR Planning and Dissemination Grant; Principal Applicant)

 

Awards and recognitions

Lee C. Howley Sr. Prize for Arthritis Scientific Research (Arthritis Foundation) (2016)

 

Memberships and affiliations

Canadian Nutrition Society, Science Atlantic Nutrition and Foods Division, Canadian Association on Gerontology, Gerontological Society of America.