Emily Bonner

What is the goal of your research?

Firefighters are prone to developing various cancers and cardiovascular disease, raising concerns about the chemicals they are exposed to on the job. We ask firefighters to wear silicone wristbands and dog-tags that capture their chemical exposures so we can learn more about them. Understanding which chemicals are present could inform decontamination procedures after a fire and more effective design of firefighters' personal protective equipment.

Research Project(s):

Kyle Burns

What is the goal of your research?

The goal of my research is to utilize an in vitro model that combines 3D lung epithelial cells with macrophages to incorporate an immune component into the model used by the Tilton lab. This model will be used to evaluate toxicity of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon mixtures which are commonly found in air pollution following incomplete combustion processes such as the burning of gasoline or wildfires.

Research Project(s):

Alison Clark

What is the goal of your research?

Legacy contaminants such as PAHs, or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, can continue to persist within the environment long after they are no longer used. Over time, these chemicals can change form into degradation products, but their chemical properties and movement can still be harmful. My work focuses on the sources of personal exposure and how these change with personal habits, temporal and temperature patterns, and proximity to legacy sources of concern. To do this we use both gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to find what chemicals an environment may have been exposed to, and we've begun to use gas chromatography isotope ratio mass spectrometry to separate out specific sources of exposure via their isotope ratio signatures. The overall goal of my work is to find where specific exposure sources in the environment are and how they relate to local populations, so that they can be better informed about their risk.

Research Project(s):

Victoria Colvin

What is the goal of your research?

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are commonly found in air pollution due to incomplete combustion processes. Typically, these chemicals need to be metabolized in the body to cause adverse effects in humans, and most established cell lines lack sufficient expression of appropriate metabolizing enzymes to observe PAH toxicity in vitro. We are working to characterize the metabolic capacity of primary human bronchial epithelial cells and describe their appropriateness for observing PAH toxicity in vitro. This information will allow us to more accurately describe the toxicity of PAHs in the human lung.

Research Project(s):

Dante Perone

What is the goal of your research?

My research focuses on how genetic differences present between individuals alters their susceptibility to environmental contaminants. Small alterations in the genetic code may have a significant impact on protein production and function. This affects how we process chemicals and whether we experience toxicity.

Chloe Fender

What is the goal of your research?

My current research uses high-resolution mass spectrometry as a tool to characterize chemical contaminants in natural and human-made aqueous systems, including irrigation canals, rivers, and drinking water. Chemical information, combined with in silico and in vitro toxicological approaches is used to evaluate potential toxic effects and to prioritize chemicals for further monitoring and regulation based on their risk for ecosystems health and affected human populations.

Annika Gehl

What is the goal of your research?

I'm interested in exploring the effects of various environmental stressors (ie. light, thermal, and auditory stress) on early-stage development and how exposure to these stressors may change how toxic compounds affect the body. My research uses zebrafish as a model organism: because their development is similar to that of a human's, we can use data collected on zebrafish to potentially inform how similar environmental stressors may affect human development.

Francesca Germano

What is the goal of your research?

Marginalized communities are disproportionately exposed to environmental contaminants of different types all over the world- the goal of my research is to work directly with different environmental justice communities in order to better their understanding of exposures, potential health outcomes and exposure mitigation with a focus on community-based approaches to public health toxicology. This will include report-back of results, research translation and community outreach to ensure exposure science and environmental health be accessible for all communities concerned.

Research Project(s):

Juliana Huizenga

What is the goal of your research?

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are common and widespread environmental contaminants that are produced from many daily activities such as burning fuel. My research aims to use microorganisms to clean up sites contaminated with PAHs while also ensuring that the overall toxicity associated with the sites is reduced by the clean up process.

Miranda Jackson

What is the goal of your research?

My research focuses on the effects of chemical and particle components of tires and roadway runoff. Tires are a complex mixture of thousands of chemicals that can leach from the surface into the air or aquatic environment. Tire rubber can also break down into micro- and nano-sized particles that can be ingested and absorbed by organisms. Tire chemical additives like 6PPD-quinone have been implicated in salmon mortalities in the PNW, contributing to the loss of culturally and ecologically important species of fish.

Mackenzie Morshead

What is the goal of your research?

My research is focused on Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs these are a common environmental pollutant resulting from the incomplete combustion of organic materials. PAHs occur in complex mixtures in the environment, making hazard assessment difficult. I am focused on finding links between structural features and the activity of these compounds to inform more precise and timely regulatory policy.

Kelly O Malley

What is the goal of your research?

The occurrence of wildfires and their associated chemicals is a growing concern in the Cascadia region. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are one of the chemical classes produced during wildfire events and they can pose a health risk. It is unknown how PAHs move between air and soil during wildfire events, which I am trying to determine if PAHs deposit to soils during a wildfire and if they re-volatilize afterwards to understand potential routes of exposure.

Research Project(s):

Christian Rude

What is the goal of your research?

I am interested in understanding the reasons why some PAHs are very harmful and others are not so bad. Zebrafish are a great tool for this because we can use them to answer questions about the whole organism and about very specific molecular mechanisms. How much of the PAH do the fish absorb? Where does it go in the fish? What molecular process are being turned on and off in the fish because of the PAH? When we know these we will have a better shot at dividing the toxins from the mostly benign chemicals. That's what I'd like to solve.

Lindsey St Mary

What is the goal of your research?

There are approximately 80,000 commercialized chemicals with only about 1% of the chemicals thoroughly tested for toxicity so my project aims to screen and categorize 6,000 distinct chemicals found in the environment, consumer products, or used in manufacturing processes in order to assess phenotypic and transcriptional changes relevant to human disease. Additionally, I am collaborating with AsedaSciences to integrate their high throughput in vitro screening system (SYSTEMETRIC®) and the Tanguay Lab's zebrafish screening assay (ZBEscreen ™) to predict chemical developmental/neurotoxicity.

Spencer Stinson

What is the goal of your research?

My research has focused on understanding the roles of the Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor Interacting Protein (AIP) in physiological development and resistance to toxicants. The AIP is thought to not only influence the conformational shape change of the Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor (AHR), further affecting what ligands can bind to it, but is also thought to play a role in various developmental processes such as cardiac and pituitary development. Investigating these processes furthers our understanding of the AHR complex and associated AIP-linked diseases.

Reese Valdez

What is the goal of your research?

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are chemical contaminants formed by incomplete combustion processes. While there is a lot of ongoing research about the effects of a variety of PAHs in healthy individuals, there is little work done that attempts to understand how the presence of pre-existing conditions, like asthma, change the way PAHs induce toxicity. My research focuses on how the presence of asthmatic inflammation in human lung cells impacts the way cells respond to PAH exposure.

Research Project(s):