Manuela Orjuela-Grimm is a molecular epidemiologist and pediatric oncologist whose research focuses on vulnerability (including social) to environmental exposures, gene-nutrient/ environment interactions during windows of susceptibility such as pregnancy, early childhood, adolescence and the development of later genetic and epigenetic changes contributing to poorer health outcomes in childhood and adolescence. She leads EpiRbMx, a long-standing case control/ case series study examining exposure to methyl donors, folate pathway metabolism and risk for retinoblastoma in collaboration with a multidisciplinary team of investigators including the Hospital Infantil de Mexico, the Hospital de Pediatria at the Instituto Mexicano de Seguro Social (IMSS), the Instituto Nacional de Salud Publica (INSP), and the University of Toronto. In collaboration with INSP researchers, Dr. Orjuela is involved in multiple studies examining the intersection between food security, folate-related dietary intake, dietary diversity and environmental exposures in central Mexico, and in immigrants in New York.

Interests: social contributors to dietary exposures, gene-nutrient interactions; one carbon donor metabolism; methylation; nutrient and environmental exposures during early life and later genetic and epigenetic effects; dietary assessment in Mexico, in populations on the move in Latin America; effects of acculturation and early life migration on nutrient/ environmental exposures in US Latinos.