Dr. Miller’s research concentrates on the mechanisms for the onset of asthma. One large research focus involves establishing and studying a birth cohort from Northern Manhattan (Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health), determining the importance of environmental allergens, traffic-related pollutants, and phthalate and bisphenol A exposure to the onset of allergies, asthma and allergic immune responses. A major emphasis is on the role of prenatal and early postnatal exposure on later pediatric and adolescent asthma risk. Recent work has been participation in the the NIH Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program.
Additional areas of research include identifying novel genetic by environment interactions important to the onset of asthma. She also has established several mouse models examining the importance of prenatal and postnatal environmental exposures on risk for asthma and other complex diseases. More recent initiatives have been to build a program in environmental epigenetics and asthma by studying DNA methylation in cell, mouse and human systems for which she is now internationally recognized.
Dr. Miller also has launched the Biologics And Clinical Immunology Cohort at Sinai (BACICS) registry of chronic immune-mediated diseases patients receiving biologics in order to apply state-of-the-art approaches to assessing immunological and clinical responses and examine external factors such as environmental exposures, nutrition, and social influences that may drive some of the immunopathogenesis.
Dr. Miller also has joined the TIDES team to examine adolescent airway health in the setting of possible environmental exposures that may alter sex hormones or induce other endocrine disruptions.