Research

I am interested in how environmental chemicals shape the biology of organisms.

Much of my research has focused on poison frogs, where I studied how naturally occurring toxins in their diets affect their bodies and the communities of microbes living on their skin.

Now, I am a postdoctoral researcher at the United States Environmental Protection Agency, developing new laboratory tests to identify environmental chemicals that may disrupt the immune system.

Publications

Phelps DW, Barbo N, Caty SN, Harrill JA, Slentz-Kesler K. A high-throughput chemotaxis assay for assessing immunotoxicity using multiple human immune cell types. NAM Journal. 2025. DOI: 10.1016/j.namjnl.2025.100066

Fischer MF, Xue KS, Costello EK, Dvorak M, Raboisson G, Robaczewska A, Caty SN, Relman DA, O’Connell LA. Effects of parental care on skin microbial community composition in poison frogs. eLife. July 2025. DOI: 10.7554/eLife.103331.3

Caty SN, Alvarez-Buylla A, Vasek C, Gonzalez M, Fukami T, Weber P, Mayali X, Coloma LA, Morris MM, O’Connell LA. Alkaloids are associated with increased microbial diversity and metabolic function in poison frogs. Current Biology. January 2024. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.10.069

Caty SN, Alvarez-Buylla A, Byrd GD, Vidoudez C, Roland AB, Tapia EE, Budnik B, Trauger SA, Coloma LA, O’Connell LA. Molecular Physiology of Chemical Defenses in a Poison Frog. Journal of Experimental Biology. June 2019. DOI: 10.1242/jeb.204149

Sadilek A, Caty SN, DiPrete L, Mansour R, Schenk T, Bergtholdt M, et al. Machine-learned epidemiology: real-time detection of foodborne illness at scale. npj Digital Med. November 2018. DOI: 10.1038/s41746-018-0045-1

Gupta V, Mason-Sharma A, Caty SN, Kerry V. Adapting global health aid in the face of climate change. The Lancet Global Health. Feb 2017. DOI: 10.1016/s2214-109x(17)30002-5

Roland AB, Santos JC, Carriker BC, Caty SN, Tapia EE, Coloma LA, O’Connell LA. Radiation of the Polymorphic Little Devil Poison Frog (Oophaga sylvatica) in Ecuador. Ecology and Evolution. November 2017. DOI: 10.1002/ece3.3503

McGugan JR, Byrd GD, Roland AB, Caty SN, Kabir N, Tapia EE, Trauger SA, Coloma LA, O’Connell LA. Ant and Mite Diversity Drives Toxin Variation in the Little Devil Poison Frog. Journal of Chemical Ecology. June 2016. DOI: 10.1007/s10886-016-0715-x