Emily Griffith, DMAC Interim Director, will be presenting an abstract entitled: CEC and DMAC: Partnering to share data and analyses with impacted community members. One important, and sometimes overlooked, aspect of PFAS research is community impact. Sharing data and analysis directly with impacted community members, including data they helped collect, is one way to build knowledge and empower community members to understand the scope of the impact on their communities. In this poster, we will share a newly developed process for identifying data of interest to community members and how the DMAC can prepare the data and analysis for community use. This DMAC and CEC partnership may facilitate the transfer of knowledge between project researchers and community members.
Emily is working with additional author: Katlyn May, CEC Director
Hannah Starnes, trainee in Scott Belcher‘s lab in Project 3, will be presenting an abstract entitled: In Vitro and In Silico Methods for the Assessment of Serum Albumin Interactions with PFAS. In this study, we use DSF to compare binding affinities of serum albumin from human and animals (bovine, porcine, and rat) to PFAS, to define differences in concentration response relationships and dissociation constants (Kd) for individual compounds across species. This comparison of binding kinetics across species will strengthen the relevance and applicability of non-animal models of PFAS binding and elucidate potential factors involved in differential transport, bioaccumulation, and resulting toxicity. These data will contribute to the improvement of computer-based modeling of PFAS congeners in which no experimental toxicokinetic data currently exists.
Hannah is working with additional authors: Thomas Jackson, Adrian Green, Kylie Rock, Scott Belcher, and David Reif-former DMAC Director
Nnamdi Osakwe, trainee in DMAC, will be presenting an abstract entitled: Building an Integrated Framework for Environmental Health Modeling: An Environmental Integrity Framework (EIF) Use-Case. The Personalized Environment and Genes Study (PEGS) provides an opportunity to explore the relationship between environmental exposures and diseases with a rich source of self-reported health outcomes and exposure (ExHO) data on thousands of participants. We leverage PEGS data using our novel Environmental Integrity Framework (EIF) to identify key environmental stressors affecting communities at various geographic levels (GLs) and assess associations with specific diseases. EIF can serve as an asset in targeting relevant stressors impacting communities. Significance: Studying the relationship between unique environmental exposures and diseases at varying GLs is essential for addressing environmental health/justice needs
Nnamdi is working with additional authors: Farida Akhtari, Janet E. Hall, Charles Schmitt, David Fargo, Alison Motsinger-Reif, and David Reif-former DMAC Director
Sarangi Joseph, trainee Detlef Knappe‘s lab in Project 4, will be presenting an abstract entitled: Mechanisms of PFAS sorption to activated carbon at sorption equilibrium. Granular activated carbon (GAC) adsorption is commonly used to remediate contaminated water, but the mechanisms of PFAS sorption remain poorly understood. The goal of this research is to determine how GAC and contaminant properties affect accessibility of sorption sites within GAC particles in single and multi-solute systems. This research will improve our understanding of PFAS-accessible sites in GAC and adsorption/desorption behavior of PFAS in single and multi-solute systems. Findings are expected to support the development of effective adsorbents for PFAS removal as well as policy regarding the disposal of spent GAC in landfills.
Saranji is working with additional authors: Zunhui Lin, Xiangxing Long, Paul Westerhoff, Detlef Knappe
Matt Farrell, trainee in Antonio Planchart‘s lab in Project 3, will be presenting an abstract entitled: Liver proteome changes in zebrafish in response to chronic low-dose PFAS exposure. PFAS have been connected to a number of human health effects including cancer, metabolic disorder, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. The liver in particular has emerged as a target organ of concern, due to PFAS interactions with the PPARα receptor and evidence of disrupted fatty acid metabolism in response to exposure. This study uses a zebrafish model to examine changes in the liver proteome following long-term PFAS exposure. Proteomics is a powerful tool that have been used to establish biomarkers for a number of human diseases.
Matt is working with additional authors: Antonio Planchart, Qingbo Shu, Taufika Williams, Ria Bakshi
Nathanial Wiecha, an affiliate with Jane Hoppin‘s lab in Project 1, will be presenting an abstract entitled: Evaluation of methods for analyzing nonlinear and counteracting associations of PFAS with health outcomes. Several statistical methods for analyzing chemical mixtures require effects of exposures in the same direction (directional homogeneity). We use data from the GenX Study of PFAS (Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) exposure in North Carolina to evaluate existing methods when this assumption is unmet. All methods showed that PFAS exposure was associated with higher Free T4, driven by PFHpS and PFOS. For the analysis we selected GAMS, which model joint nonlinear relationships, are transparent, and have relatively good hypothesis tests. Linear regression requires specifying nonlinearities manually.
Nate is working with additional authors: Brian Reich, Emily Griffith, Emily Hector, Suzanne Lea, Jane Hoppin