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Mònica Guxens

Mònica Guxens

ICREA Research Professor Environment and Health over the Lifecourse | Environment and Health over the Lifecourse

Mònica Guxens is a Medical Doctor specialized in Preventive Medicine and Public Health. She obtained the PhD degree in 2008 and several Spanish competitive contracts: Río Hortega (2008), Miguel Servet I (2013), and Miguel Servet II (2018). She is ICREA Research Professor since 2024. In 2016 she won the prestigious Walter A. Rosenblith New Investigator Award from Health Effects Institute, USA.

She is the Director of the INMA Project, a unique multi-site birth cohort in Spain. She established herelf as an international researcher (i.e., Adjunct Professor at Erasmus MC University Medical Centre; visiting scientist at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health) and an internationally and nationally recognized expert (e.g., Scientific Advisory Board member of the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research Leipzig; Associate Editor of European Journal of Epidemiology; member of several Spanish scientific and advisory committees; consolidated research group by the Catalan Governement).

Lines of research

She is carrying out pioneering research in the field of environmental epidemiology and child health, in particular brain development. Her major innovative contribution has been the findings on how air pollution impairs cognitive and motor function, mental health, brain morphology and connectivity, as well as the extension of this research to other environmental exposures such as temperature. Another unique signature has been the application of a novel assessment of radiofrequency electromagnetic fields in children and the study of its relationship with neurodevelopment and sleep. Her group also applies state-of-the-art statistical methods to understand the potential causal neuropsychological effects of different environmental exposures. This is particularly important for exposome research, where multiple exposures are assessed simultaneously and causal reasoning is usually not taken into account. She also has substantial expertise on cohort studies.

Main publications

  • Guxens M, Botella N, Stafoggia M, Canto M, Petricola S, Valentin A, Lertxundi A, Fernandez-Somoano A, Freire C, Garcia-Altes A, Diez E, Mari-Dell'Olmo M, Iniguez C, Lopez MJ, Ramis R, Binter AC. Particulate matter exposure during pregnancy and birth outcomes: exposure windows of susceptibility and socioeconomic inequalities. Eur J Epidemiol. 2025;40(9):1105-1121. DOI: 10.1007/s10654-025-01274-1
  • Essers E, Kusters M, Granes L, Ballester J, Petricola S, Lertxundi N, Arregi A, Ballester F, Vrijheid M, El Marroun H, Iniguez C, Tiemeier H, Guxens M. Temperature Exposure and Psychiatric Symptoms in Adolescents from Two European Birth Cohorts. JAMA Net Open. 2025;8(1):e2456898. DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.56898
  • Granes L, Kusters M, Ballester J, Essers E, Petricola S, Lopez-Vicente M, Iniguez C, Tiemeier H, Muetzel R, Soriano-Mas C, Guxens M. Exposure to Ambient Temperature and Functional Connectivity of Brain Resting-State Networks in Preadolescents. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2025;64(11):1317-1328. DOI: 10.1016/j.jaac.2024.11.023
  • Kusters MSW, Binter AC, Muetzel RL, Lopez-Vicente M, Petricola S, Tiemeier H, Guxens M. Outdoor residential air pollution exposure and the development of brain volumes across childhood: a longitudinal study. Environ Pollut. 2025;373:126078. DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2025.126078
  • Kusters MSW, Granes L, Petricola S, Tiemeier H, Muetel RL, Guxens M. Exposure to residential air pollution and the development of functional connectivity of brain networks throughout adolescence. Environ Int. 2025;196:109245. DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2024.109245
  • Mou Y, Kusters MSW, Robinson O, Maitre L, McEachan RRC, Yuan WL, Hjertager Krog N, Andrusaityte S, Bustamante M, de Castro Pascual M, Dedele A, Wright J, Grazuleviciene R, Aasvang GM, Lepeule J, Nieuwenhuijsen M, Tiemeier H, Vrijheid M, Thomson EM, Guxens M. Outdoor air pollution, road traffic noise, and allostatic load in children aged 6-11 years: evidence from six European cohorts. Eur J Epidemiol. 2025;40(5):537-548. DOI: 10.1007/s10654-025-01227-8
  • Brennan Kearns P, van den Dries MA, Julvez J, Kampouri M, Lopez-Vicente M, Maitre L, Philippat C, Smastuen Haug L, Vafeiadi M, Thomsen C, Yang TC, Vrijheid M, Tiemeier H, Guxens M. Association of exposure to mixture of chemicals during pregnancy with cognitive abilities and fine motor function of children. Environ Int. 2024;185:108490. DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2024.108490
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