“I think that medicine is a great intersection of science and humanities,” she said.

A University of Louisville School of Medicine alumna, Caster is a physician scientist who specializes in nephrology (kidney diseases), specifically glomerular diseases, which are autoimmune kidney diseases. She serves as an associate professor and the co-director of research for the UofL Division of Nephrology and Hypertension. Caster is a recognized researcher in the field of glomerular diseases, with a translational lab that is focused on identifying novel biomarkers in lupus nephritis and evaluating mechanisms of inflammation in lupus nephritis.

Many components inspired Caster’s motivation to pursue clinical medicine. Her mother was a teacher who encouraged her from a young age to pursue an education and a career. Her decision to specialize in nephrology was motivated by both her mother’s diagnosis of kidney disease and the many strong role models and mentors in the division.

“I was fortunate to have exposure to many amazing female faculty members,” Caster said.

Caster highlighted Eleanor Lederer (former interim chair of medicine at UofL School of Medicine and former president of the American Society of Nephrology) and Rosemary Ouseph (chief of the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension) as faculty who directly inspired her to pursue academic medicine. 

The passion for research came to Caster later from a patient interaction during her training. During her nephrology fellowship, she encountered a young patient with lupus nephritis who ended up in kidney failure at 18 years old.

“I was frustrated with the outcome and wanted to understand more about the disease,” Caster said.

Soon after, she became involved in a research project on lupus nephritis and the project evolved into her scientific career. 

Caster hopes to make a difference for young girls pursuing a career in science or medicine. She highlighted the importance for young girls to have role models in their chosen career fields, as she did.

“It is critical for girls and young women to see successful women in science so that they can know this is possible for them,” Caster said.

Caster hopes to see more young women and girls taking up space in the science and medical fields.

“When I was younger, I was often worried about making the ‘wrong’ choice or failing at something,” Caster said. “I also hope that they will be inspired to speak up more, ask more questions and not be afraid of failure.”

“Everyone sleeps and it’s fascinating to me. We know so little about sleep scientifically that it really piqued my interest, and my project is right at the intersection of cardiovascular health and neurodevelopment, so it is kind of the perfect niche for my interest,” said Sears, assistant professor of environmental medicine, a researcher in the University of Louisville’s and a UofL alumna.

Sears is leading a project to discover how exposure to mixtures of common chemicals and pollutants during gestation and infancy affects sleep health in adolescence. Ultimately, she believes the exposures may be linked to cardiovascular issues later in life. Her work is part of research at the Envirome Institute to understand relationships between the environment and human health.

“Sleep is increasingly recognized to be central to cardiovascular health. We know that a variety of lifestyle choices and environmental factors affect sleep, but we know little about the effects of chemical exposure and pollutants,” said Aruni Bhatnagar, professor of medicine and director the Envirome Institute. “Clara’s work could provide new knowledge about factors that affect sleep, particularly in adolescents, so that we can improve their quality of sleep and future cardiovascular health.”

Sears’ team is examining exposure to combinations of phthalates (common components of plastics), metals and per-/polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS – known as “forever chemicals”). People are frequently exposed to these toxicants through their diet, as well as use of consumer goods and household products. Sears said they chose to study mixtures rather than individual chemicals because most people in the U.S. are exposed to them in combination.

“We know pregnant women and children are exposed to these chemicals in mixtures and sometimes they can affect similar biological pathways, or they can interact in ways that may magnify an effect on a health outcome,” Sears said. “So, if we study them in isolation, it is hard to get the real-world relevance of how they interact with each other to affect health.”

The work is funded by a five-year, $2.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to determine whether there are connections between these early exposures and poor sleep quality and increases in allostatic load in adolescents. Allostatic load is the cumulative burden of “wear and tear” on the body resulting from stressors that eventually can disrupt an individual’s immune, cardiovascular and metabolic functions. A person’s allostatic load can be assessed through biomarkers and other measures such as inflammation and body composition.

Sears is working with experts in pediatric environmental health, sleep and cardiometabolic health to analyze data from two long-term studies that track prenatal and early life exposures and other health information. The Health Outcomes and Measures of the Environment Study and the Maternal-Infant Research on Environmental Chemicals Study have documented exposures and other health measures in more than 550 children from before birth through pre-teen and teen years, along with sleep health in adolescence.

Sears hopes the study will lead to understanding the link between early life environmental factors and cardiovascular health later in life, informing efforts to improve the environment for infants and children so that they can be healthier into adulthood.

“Sleep impacts every aspect of your health and your day-to-day functioning, so if we can find ways to improve sleep it can have huge impacts on health overall.”

See previous sleep research from the Envirome Institute: Reduced sleep linked to environmental factors | UofL News.

These individuals are making discoveries that contribute to UofL’s achievement as a “Research 1” doctoral university, with very high research activity by the . Women faculty, students and alumni are innovating, building unique STEM careers and mentoring other women and girls to pursue their own careers in these fields.

Olfa Nasraoui, professor of computer science and engineering, leads a campus-wide initiative that promotes success for women faculty in STEM fields. Since its launch in 2019, (ATHENA), has served nearly 1,000 UofL employees through faculty mentoring, education and awareness, as well as a new data capture process and workshops to improve inclusion and equity in the recruitment process.

Igniting excitement about STEM fields is a mission for , associate professor and co-lead of the Advanced Heart Failure Research Program, which is world-renown for developing and testing artificial hearts and mechanical circulatory support devices. Monreal founded Heartwheels! with Steven Koenig to bring fun and interactive heart-related exhibits into the community to give young people hands-on experiences with cardiovascular technology. In February, the team shared heart-related exhibits with more than 2,500 kids and their families at the Kentucky Science Center’s 2024 Engineering Day event where the children got to work with a mock circulatory loop. In November, Monreal and Koenig took Heartwheels! to Central High School and Sacred Heart Academy, teaching the students about healthy and diseased hearts and allowing them to interact with a pig heart and mechanical circulatory support devices used to treat end-stage heart failure patients. 

“We love sharing the awesome research we get to do here every day with members of the community,” Monreal said.

UofL News will commemorate Women’s History Month by highlighting just a few of the women at UofL who are making history and changing the world. Follow along on our  throughout the month as we recognize exceptional women in STEM.

“There is such a huge disparity of women in the STEM fields” Olinger says, “so we see this camp partly as a matter of economic justice.”

See more from the recent Digital Media Academy in the video below: 

The Digital Media Academy’s objective is to interest the rising 6th graders in STEM fields while also empowering the campers. 

“Our goal with them at the beginning of camp is always building confidence,” said Michelle Day, a UofL grad student, adding that middle school is typically when girls start being “pushed away” from STEM fields.  

This was the third year for the academy. More information is available here: