Environmental Health Sciences Research Center

University of Iowa College of Public Health

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Introducing the 2024-2025 CERT Fellows

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The EHSRC Community Engagement Core is pleased to announce the 2024-2025 Community Engagement and Research Translation Fellows.  The CERT fellowship funding will facilitate developing relationships and solving environmental health challenges in collaboration with audiences appropriate to the Fellow’s research, including community members, community-based organizations, clinicians, or others, to create new outputs of their research that are produced in collaboration with these stakeholders.

 

Selected projects:

Improving Environmental Health Literacy and Dissemination within the Latino Community; Principal Investigator: Olivia Croskey DNP, ARNP, Clinical Assistant Professor, UI College of Nursing

Manufactured Home Residents Advocacy and Organizing for Environmental Health Concerns; Co-Principal Investigators: Jessica Andino, MPH, PhD Candidate in Community and Behavioral Health and Sophia Wilson, Masters of Public Affairs Student

 

For more info about the CERT fellowship visit https://ehsrc.public-health.uiowa.edu/member-resources-opportunities/cert-fellowship/

 

Announcing Community Engagement and Research Translation Fellowship

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The EHSRC is pleased to announce funding available of up to $10,000 available to facilitate community engaged and translational research related to environmental health.

Due date: June 1, 2023

Effective research translation and community engagement that result in new products or knowledge are iterative processes developed over time.  The CERT fellowship funding will facilitate developing relationships and solving environmental health challenges in collaboration with audiences appropriate to the Fellow’s research, including community members, community-based organizations, clinicians, or others, to create new outputs of their research that are produced in collaboration with these stakeholders.  Eligible applicants include faculty of any track, postdoctoral researchers, and graduate students completing a masters or doctoral thesis at the University of Iowa with interests in issues related to environmental contamination, environmental practices, community health and wellbeing, the effects of climate change on health, and community engaged research.

 

Fellows are strongly encouraged to utilize the resources of the EHSRC to enhance their work. This could include regular consultations with Community Engagement Core staff or use of the Integrated Health Sciences Facility Core (IHSFC) resources (e.g. Use of Clinical Research Unit Resources, Pulmonary Function Test Laboratory, Coordinator support, Advanced Pulmonary Physiomic Imaging Laboratory (APPIL))

 

Activities as part of the Fellowship must be relevant to the mission of the EHSRC and may include:

  • Relationship development, such as creating a stakeholder advisory board or working with community collaborators to identify research questions
  • Conducting a needs assessment to identify community needs related to environmental health
  • Conducting translational research to develop and implement clinical practices
  • Collaboratively developing report-back materials to share environmental data with community members

 

Funding Available

Funds of up to $10,000 will be awarded directly to an investigator for a one-year period.  Up to half of the proposed budget may be devoted to combined salary and fringe of the principal investigator. We anticipate making 1-2 awards to meritorious applications.

 

The application should include the following components

  • Cover page that includes project title, name and contact information of principal investigators, and 250 word abstract (1 page)
  • Project description/research strategy (up to 2 pages)
    • The aims of the project and the research methodology (if appropriate)
    • Anticipated outcomes and deliverables of the project.
    • Describe how this project will engage with/utilize the resources of the EHSRC, such as the Community Engagement Core staff, the IHSFC, or others.
  • Project justification (up to 2 pages)
    • How will community engagement improve long-term or future research outcomes?
    • Why are the community members identified in the proposal appropriate collaborators for this work?
    • What unique elements of the collaboration will contribute to the project’s success
    • What will be the next steps after the project is successfully completed?
  • Budget and budget justification (up to 2 pages)
    • Allowable expenses include salary and fringe (up to half of the proposed budget), travel expenses for investigators and community partners, compensation for community partners, and most expenses related to community events.
  • CV or Biosketch for project PI(s) (up to 2 pages)

Email application as one document to Jacqueline-curnick@uiowa.edu

 

PDF of this RFP: CERT RFP 2023

 

 

EHSRC investigators receive NIEHS award to develop Cationic CAMKIIN nanoparticles that reduce chlorine-induced airway oxidative stress

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Congratulations to EHSRC member Aliasger Salem for a recent R21 award from NIEHS. This proposal will develop a CaMKIIN-loaded nanoparticle-based therapy that can rapidly mitigate the ROS species in the lung following chlorine exposure. Other researchers participating in this project include Peter Thorne, Andrea Dodd, and Isabella Grumbach. The Pulmonary Toxicology Facility of the EHSRC will provide support for the animal studies under this project.

 

Welsh wins 2022 Shaw Prize in Life Sciences and Medicine

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University of Iowa professor and EHSRC Member Michael J. Welsh, MD, has won the 2022 Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine together with Paul A. Negulescu, senior vice president and site head for San Diego research with Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc.

The prize was awarded for landmark discoveries of the molecular, biochemical, and functional defects underlying cystic fibrosis and the identification and development of medicines that reverse those defects and can treat most people affected by this disorder.

The Shaw Prize is considered one of the most internationally prestigious awards in science and its application, and it carries a shared monetary award of $1.2 million. It honors individuals who have made “discoveries in the biomedical sciences and innovations in clinical medicine that have led to significant victories in our longstanding war against illness and suffering.” Welsh and Negulescu will receive the prize in fall 2022.

Welsh is a professor in the UI Department of Internal Medicine and its pulmonary, critical care, and occupational medicine division. He also is a professor in the neurosurgery, neurology, and molecular physiology and biophysics departments. Welsh also serves as director of the Pappajohn Biomedical Institute at Iowa. He has been leading groups of scientists studying lung biology and cystic fibrosis (CF) for 40 years.

Brooks Jackson, MD, vice president for medical affairs and the Tyrone D. Artz Dean of the UI Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine, says Welsh’s steadfast pursuit of answers to the fundamental questions underlying cystic fibrosis disease has never wavered in that time.

“As a physician-scientist, Dr. Welsh has remained focused on how his work in the lab would improve the medical care he and colleagues could offer their patients,” Jackson says. “His commitment to discovery and innovation has dramatically changed the lives of people with CF.”

Working with colleagues from the University of California, San Francisco, in the mid-1980s, Welsh first demonstrated that CF disrupts chloride ion movement across the sheet of cells that line the lung’s airways. Chloride, a component of salt, is present in secreted body fluids such as sweat, saliva and mucus, which are vital for the proper function of organs. In the lungs of people with CF, these secretions become thick and elastic and, rather than acting to clear inhaled matter from the lungs, they clog the passageways. Affecting more than 80,000 people worldwide, CF was long considered a lethal disease in childhood. Today, Welsh can point to young people with CF who compete in varsity-level athletics. Life expectancy and health have increased dramatically thanks in part to discoveries made by Welsh and Negulescu.

After the identification of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene in 1989, Welsh and his team made key discoveries toward understanding the role the product of this gene—the CFTR protein—plays in allowing chloride to move in and out of cells. They showed how mutations in the gene and the CFTR protein cause cells to malfunction and fuel disease development. Importantly, they showed that defects in the mutated CFTR can be repaired in cells. These insights provided a roadmap for the subsequent quest toward targeted therapies to repair the function of the CFTR protein.

Building on these key discoveries, a team of scientists at Vertex, led by Negulescu, initiated research in 1998 into compounds that modulate the function of the CFTR protein. The research led to the development in 2012 of the first compound that corrects the underlying protein defect responsible for disease symptoms. The drug restored cells’ ability to transport chloride and ushered in a new era of CF treatment, sparking the development of combination-drug therapies.

“The combined contributions of Welsh and Negulescu represent the complete biomedical arc from basic discovery to application to the saving of lives,” said the Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine selection committee in announcing the shared award.

Welsh was quick to share the credit for this work.

“I am honored to receive this award, which would not have been possible without so many other people who contributed: terrific mentors, talented and creative students and trainees, my tireless and innovative assistants, my cherished colleagues,” he says. “The support and environment of the University of Iowa made this possible. The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Carver Trust, and Pappajohn Biomedical Institute provided crucial support along the way. I am deeply grateful.”

The Shaw Prize consists of three annual awards: the Prize in Astronomy, the Prize in Life Science and Medicine, and the Prize in Mathematical Sciences. The award is managed and administered by The Shaw Prize Foundation, based in Hong Kong.

This article was first published by the University of Iowa College of Medicine

Dr. Field recognized as National Radon Hero

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The Conference of Radiation Control Program Directors (CRCPD) has selected Bill Field, University of Iowa professor emeritus of occupational and environmental health and member of the EHSRC, to receive the organization’s 2022 Radon Hero Award. The award recognizes an individual who has demonstrated leadership in reducing the health effects of radon exposure, the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States. The award is based on the recipient’s contributions to this effort, the breadth and scope of their services, and sustained commitment to mitigating radon risk.  He was previously awarded Honorary Membership to CRCPD in 2010.

Official presentation of the CRCPD Radon Hero Award will occur during the organization’s annual radon meeting in October 2022.

Field is recognized as one of the foremost authorities on radon, not only for his research into the radioactive gas, but because of his advocacy and outreach efforts. He helped identify radon as the leading environmental cause of cancer deaths in the United States, and remains dedicated to educating the public about the health risks of radon and ways to reduce exposure in homes, schools and at work.

 

This post was originally posted on the UI College of Public Health website. 

Lehmler Receives 2021 John Doull Award

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EHSRC Director Dr. Hans-Joachim Lehmler was presented the 2021 John Doull Award at the annual Central States Society of Toxicology (CSSOT) Meeting, held virtually this year.  As part of the award ceremony, Dr. Lehmler delivered a presentation titled, “PCB metabolism and neurotoxicity: highlights from a transatlantic journey.”

The John Doull award is presented each year by the CSSOT to honor the contributions of its members to the discipline of toxicology and the chapter.  Each year there is a call for nominations prior to the Fall meeting. The winner of the award receives a medal.

Lehmler joined the University of Iowa in 2003 and currently leads a productive chemical toxicology laboratory linking the metabolism of current and emerging environmental contaminants, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), pesticides, and environmental bisphenols, to their adverse health effects. He is internationally recognized for his studies on the disposition and toxicity of chiral PCBs. His current NIEHS-funded research employs novel animal models, including germ-free mice, transgenic animals, and population-based animal models, to characterize how the metabolism of chemical hazards affects toxic outcomes.

Dr. Lehmler serves as the Director of the NIEHS-funded Environmental Health Sciences Research Center (EHSRC) at the University of Iowa. In addition to his role as EHSRC Director, Dr. Lehmler is among the leadership team of the Exposure Science Facility and serves as the director of the Career Development Program of the EHSRC.

He also is the Deputy Director of the Iowa Superfund Research Program. Under this program, Dr. Lehmler leads a new Research Project investigating the neurotoxicity of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in adolescence. This Research Project brings together a multidisciplinary research team to study how local PCB metabolism in the brain affects neurotoxic outcomes in an adolescent rat model. Dr. Lehmler also leads the Synthesis Core of the Iowa Superfund Research Program and is a member of the leadership team of the Analytical Core.

He serves as Academic Editor of PLOSone and on NIH and DoD grant review panels. In addition, he is actively involved in the Central States Chapter of the Society of Toxicology and previously served as the Chapter’s secretary/treasurer for six years.

Dr. Ashutosh Mangalam received a Merit Award from the Department of Veteran Affairs

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Dr. Ashutosh Mangalam, member of the EHSRC, received a four-year VA Merit Award entitled, “Effect of Gut Microbiome Dysbiosis in the Pathobiology of Multiple Sclerosis”. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the central nervous system and affects around one million people in the US. The proposed studies will build upon recent findings from Dr. Mangalam’s laboratory showing that patients with MS have gut dysbiosis (altered gut microbiome compared to healthy controls). This study will test the hypothesis that gut dysbiosis promotes MS through enrichment of pathobionts which leads to leaky gut syndrome in addition to depletion of Equol producing gut bacteria. The latter are an important class of gut bacteria responsible for metabolizing phytoestrogen into beneficial compounds. Dr. Mangalam will utilize samples from MS patients and healthy control as well as from animal models of MS, to determine the mechanism(s) through which gut microbiome plays a role in the pathobiology of MS. Dr. Deema Fattal, a neurologist at the Iowa City VA and Dr. Kai Wang, a biostatistician in the College of Public Health are the co-investigators participating in the study. The focus of Dr. Mangalam’s team is to better understand the role of the gut microbiome in MS with a long term goal of manipulating the gut microbiome as a treatment option for MS patients.
This notice was first published by the University of Iowa Department of Pathology.

Newly Awarded Pilot Grants

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The EHSRC has awarded the most recent round of Pilot Grants. There are four awarded projects. Congrats to the investigators!  See the list here 

The goals of the pilot program are to:

  • Provide initial support for junior investigators to establish new lines of environmental health research
  • Provide services of state-of-the-art facility cores to pilot grant investigators to enhance their research
  • Facilitate exploration of innovative new directions in environmental health for established investigators
  • Stimulate investigators from other disciplines to apply their expertise to environmental health research
  • Foster new interdisciplinary collaborations through awarding of pilot projects to investigators that have not previously worked together

University of Iowa Receives $1.07 Million for Water Quality from EPA

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Article by Ashley Murdie
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

(Lenexa, Kan., Aug. 14, 2019) – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the University of Iowa will receive a $1.07 million EPA Farmer to Farmer Cooperative Agreement to fund a project that improves water quality, habitat, and environmental education.

The University of Iowa will receive $1,064,926 for its project, “Connecting Rural and Peri-Urban Farmers to Demonstrate and Disseminate Innovative Nutrient and Sediment Reduction Practices.” The university will partner with rural farmers and urban consumers in Johnson and Iowa counties to demonstrate innovative nutrient and sediment reduction practices. To maximize the ability to demonstrate how practices perform through intensive water quality monitoring, this project will focus on oxbow lake restorations, alternative tile intakes, and nitrogen-removing wetlands and ponds. These practices also provide flood storage, which watershed residents have identified as a high priority.

“These Farmer to Farmer grants will promote innovative, market-based solutions for monitoring and improving water quality throughout the Gulf of Mexico watershed,” said EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler. “These grants are an important part of our efforts to support America’s farmers in a manner that strengthens both American agriculture and the protection of our nation’s vital water resources.”

“Farmer to Farmer Cooperative Agreements directly support science and technology-based water quality initiatives needed to protect our watersheds, while also maintaining a vital agricultural economy,” said EPA Region 7 Administrator Jim Gulliford. “Here in Region 7, a combined $3.15 million in funding will support Iowa in the restoration and installation of wetlands, as well as the use of cover crops, to help provide measurable water quality improvement to waterways across Iowa and further downstream in the Gulf of Mexico.”

“The College of Engineering, Iowa Flood Center, and IIHR-Hydroscience & Engineering at the University of Iowa are excited to partner with rural farmers and urban consumers in Johnson and Iowa counties to demonstrate innovative nutrient and sediment reduction practices in Iowa,” said University of Iowa Vice President for Research Marty Scholtz. “This grant recognizes the university’s national leadership in water research. The $1.07 million from EPA will leverage watershed restoration funds from the $97 million Iowa Watershed Approach project to create measurable water quality improvements in stream segments within the Lower Iowa River watershed.”

A ceremony honoring the Iowa recipients took place today at the Iowa State Fair and was led by EPA Region 7 Administrator Gulliford. EPA anticipates awarding seven Gulf of Mexico Division cooperative agreements totaling more than $7.5 million to fund projects that improve water quality, habitat, and environmental education in the Gulf watershed.

EPA Region 7 Administrator Jim Gulliford (center) and Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig (fourth from left) pose with 2019 Farmer to Farmer Cooperative Agreement recipients and EPA staff. Pictured, left to right: Danny Wiegand, EPA; Doug Jones, EPA; Jerry Binninger, EPA; Naig, Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship; Gulliford, EPA; Alisha Bower, Practical Farmers of Iowa; Sarah Carlson, Practical Farmers of Iowa; Dr. Craig Just, University of Iowa; Troy Pierce, EPA; and Tripp Boone, EPA.

Background

Since 2018, approximately $9.5 million has been awarded to support novel or innovative agricultural techniques, methods or approaches through EPA’s Farmer to Farmer Cooperative Agreements. These projects support farmer-led and/or farmer-focused organizations with experience implementing programs and demonstration projects through collaboration with farmers. The projects will center around innovative monitoring systems that will measure and report field-scale water and nutrient dynamics to farmers in support of informed crop management decisions. The program supports science and technology-based water quality initiatives needed to protect watersheds while also maintaining a vital agricultural economy.

The Clean Water Act provides authority and resources that are essential to protecting water quality in the Gulf of Mexico and larger Mississippi River Basin. EPA’s regional offices and the Gulf of Mexico Division work with states to continue to maximize the efficiency and utility of water quality monitoring efforts for local managers by coordinating and standardizing state and federal water quality data collection activities in the Gulf region. Enhanced monitoring and research are needed in the Gulf Coast region to make data more readily available.

 

 

See article as posted on EPA website

EHSRC Member Dr. Gregory LeFevre Wins NSF CAREER Award

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Congratulations to Dr. Gregory LeFevre for winning the prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER award.  Dr. LeFevre is an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and a researcher a the IIHR- Hydroscience & Engineering Research Center.

The $500,000 project is titled “Toward Resilient Stormwater Quality Practices: Biotransformation for Sustained Removal of Emerging Contaminants” and it will be funded through 2024.

For more about this award, view the write up on the University of Iowa website and the project abstract.

 

Photo courtesy of UI College of Engineering