Professional Profile
Dr. Chloe Fender is an ecotoxicologist in ToxStrategies’ Exposure Sciences practice who is passionate about supporting ecosystem and community health. She specializes in assessing emerging contaminants in aquatic systems and interpreting their impact on environmental health.
Dr. Fender’s projects have involved developing and implementing mass spectrometry-based nontarget analysis and suspect screening to determine and prioritize emerging contaminants in surface water, including in irrigation canals and rivers. Dr. Fender has conducted nontarget mass spectrometry-based metabolomics for many studies, including on salmon tissues to elucidate the toxicity mechanisms of 6PPD-quinone, a toxic chemical byproduct formed from the 6PPD compound commonly added to tire rubber to prevent degradation. Proficient with in vivo and in vitro toxicological approaches, Dr. Fender has also conducted effects-directed analysis studies and performed acute toxicity experiments.
Dr. Fender’s laboratory and sampling skills include field sampling and field operations management, stakeholder collaboration, SOP development, extraction techniques, liquid-chromatography, and mass spectrometry. She also has experience with data management, multivariate analysis, data visualization, R studio, and ArcGIS.
Before joining ToxStrategies, Dr. Fender served as a consultant to Salmon-Safe in Portland, OR. There she evaluated ecological risk assessments of pesticides to determine hazard based on persistence, mobility, and aquatic toxicity, and provided technical review of agricultural pesticides, with a focus on their impacts on salmonids, other aquatic life, and terrestrial insects. She also managed several projects at Oregon State University, including designing and conducting field studies and developing protocols and methods for water quality and ecotoxicity experiments using hydrological techniques, multivariate data analysis, and tissue dissection.