Inês Paciência

PhD
Academy researcher
Public Health, Environmental Health

Research Unit of Population Health
Faculty of Medicine

Academy Postdoctoral Researcher at CERH, Faculty of Medicine

Inês Paciência has started her scientific career in 2011 as a research fellow at the Indoor Air Quality laboratory in IDMEC (Institute of Mechanical Engineering) and later INEGI (Institute of Science and Innovation in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering), where she integrated several national and international projects, whose main objectives were related to the assessment of the impact of exposure to indoor air in different settings on asthma and allergic diseases. In 2015, she was awarded with a PhD grant by Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) with the goal of studying the role of environmental determinants on paediatric asthma.

During the last years, the main contributions are related to the dynamic interaction between indoor environment and neighbourhoods on the development of asthma, allergic sensitization, and allergic rhinitis: i) the association between individual exposure and co-exposure to low levels of endocrine disrupting compounds in classrooms with an increased risk of asthma and the presence of respiratory symptoms; ii) the effect of an extreme indoor environment on the composition and diversity of athletes’ microbiome, as a crucial factor in the development and maintenance of appropriate immune function; iii) the effects of grey, green and blues spaces around schools and residences on lung function (underlying the role of autonomic nervous system balance in the interaction between the environment and lung function) and allergic sensitization on children; iv) novel insights on time-specific critical periods in the life course: early-life may be a critical period for exposure to greenness that affects development of allergic rhinitis during late childhood and early adulthood (underlying the bi-directional role of the season in the effects of exposure to greenspaces on allergic rhinitis); and v) the effect of outer and inner layer biodiversity in the development of asthma, wheezing, or allergic sensitization.

Inês is also the current chair of the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology working group “One Health”, aiming to contribute to designing and implementing programmes, policies, and research in which multiple stakeholders work together to accomplish better public health outcomes.

Research interests

  • The impact of environmental determinants on allergic diseases and asthma, namely the dynamic interaction between indoor environment and neighbourhood (green and built spaces, land use, biodiversity) on the development of asthma and allergy.
  • The effects of environmental exposures at specific time points over the life course and the effect of cumulative exposures to natural environments on asthma development.
  • The effects of climate change-related exposures and loss of biodiversity over the life course on respiratory health.

Researcher information

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Contact information

E-mail

ines.paciencia@oulu.fi

Visiting address

CERH
Faculty of Medicine
Kontinkangas Campus
Aapistie 5 B, 1st floor
Oulu, Finland

Postal address

CERH, Faculty of Medicine
PO Box 5000
FI-90014 University of Oulu
FINLAND

Internal address: 5CERH