Director: Patrick T. O’Shaughnessy, PhD
Occupational & Environmental Health
Analytical Chemistry Specialist: Hans- Joachim Lehmler, PhD
Occupational & Environmental Health
Bioaerosol Exposure Specialist: Jin Pan, PhD
Occupational & Environmental Health
Metallomics Specialist: Jong Sung Kim, MS, PhD
Occupational & Environmental Health
The primary goal of the Exposure Science Facility (ESF) is to facilitate the research efforts of EHSRC investigators by the exposure science infrastructure and expertise needed to advance their research as they work to characterize environmental stressors that negatively impact human health.The ESF accomplishes this goal by offering EHSRC investigators:
- A cost-effective exposure assessment instrumentation lending and service model,
- State-of-the-art equipment for quantifying individual contaminants and complex mixtures to link external exposures with internal dose, biological responses, and health outcomes,
- Consultation in the design and implementation of field- and lab-based exposure studies with appropriate quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) procedures, and
- Mentoring and technical support to early-stage investigators (ESIs) building their research careers.
PDF Presentation about the Exposure Science Facility
Specific Aims:
EHSRC investigators conduct rigorous, reproducible, and transformative multidisciplinary research in exposure science, toxicology, biomedicine, and population health. Ranging from fundamental mechanistic research to population-based, translational studies, many of these studies explore rural and agricultural exposures that affect the health of populations in America’s agricultural heartland. To advance their studies, there is a critical need for state-of-the-art exposure assessment methods and modeling techniques to accurately link exposures to health outcomes and assess health risk. The ESF addresses the Center’s needs to characterize the rural exposome through the following Specific Aims:
- Provide state-of-the-art resources for assessing environmental toxicant exposures;
- Provide expertise in the continuum of exposure assessment and health-based investigation; and
- Facilitate pre-doctoral, post-doctoral, Associate Member, and Member training in exposure assessment methods.
Services and Equipment:
ESF services broadly consist of:
- Exposure assessment
- Plume dispersion modeling
- Analysis of environmental contaminants
- Equipment lending
- Method development
The ESF’s Exposure Science Laboratory (ESL) has a wide variety of instruments used to sample gases, vapors, and aerosols as well as instruments for analyzing chemicals in various matrices. Additional instruments used for sampling and analysis of organic dusts, microbes, endotoxins and glucans are jointly administered by this facility and the PTF. General categories of instruments, associated equipment, and software models available to Center investigators include:
- Aerosol measurement – particle counters, gravimetric samplers, size-distribution analyzers
- Airflow calibrators and pressure sensors
- Gas and air measurement – temperature, humidity, H2S, NH3, multi-gas meters
- Recording devices and computers – PCs, cameras, camcorders, dataloggers
- Sampling pumps – personal and high-volume
- Modeling software – MATLAB, AERMOD, LabVIEW
- Refrigerators and freezers for sample storage.
Several instruments are available in the ESF’s Analytical Toxicology Laboratory (ATL) directed by Dr. Lehmler to analyze various chemical compounds in complex matrices, including water, food, air, blood and tissue samples. These include:
- SCIEX Triple Quad 7500 System – QTRAP Ready (AB SCIEX, California) with an LC system (Agilent, Santa Clara, California) consisting of a High-Speed Pump solvent delivery system, Multicolumn Thermostat column oven, and Multisampler with Thermostat autosampler.
- Agilent Technologies 8890 gas chromatograph with 7693A Autoinjector and a 7000E Quadrupole MS/MS. This GC-MS/MS instrument is installed with Masshunter software on a dedicated, networked personal computer.
- Agilent Technologies 7890 gas chromatograph with 5975 single quadrupole mass spectrometer, inert EI ion source, and a CombiPAL sampler with SPME capability and an SPME fiber conditioning station. This instrument is operated with Masshunter software installed on a dedicated, networked personal computer.
- Agilent Technologies 6890N gas chromatograph with 5975 inert mass selective detector with EI or NCI ion sources, a micro electron capture detector, and a Gerstel MPS MulitPurpose Sampler with SPME capability. The instrument is operated with Masshunter software installed on a dedicated, networked personal computer.
- Shimadzu high pressure-liquid chromatography system consisting of a DGU-14A degaser, LC-10ATvp liquid chromatograph, SIL-10ADvp auto injector, SCL-10Avp system controller, CTO-20AC column oven, SPD-10Avp UV-VIS detector and FRC-10A fraction collector. This instrument operates with LabSolutions software and is installed on a dedicated personal computer.
Director: Andrea Adamcakova-Dodd, PhD
Occupational & Environmental Health
Co-Director: Peter S. Thorne, PhD
Occupational & Environmental Health
Toxicologist and Environmental Chemist: Jong Sung Kim, MS, PhD
Occupational & Environmental Health
The overarching goal of the Pulmonary Toxicology Facility (PTF) is to provide the space, resources and expertise for EHSRC investigators to enhance the productivity and rigor, reproducibility and transparency of their pulmonary toxicology research and to assist them in exploring new investigative areas in acute lung injury, aerosol science, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), or pulmonary biology. Investigators are supported by expertise in all aspects of inhalation toxicology research, as well as by assays to evaluate exposures to rural and other airborne toxicants, including asthma, chemical threat agents, COPD triggers, metals, particulate matter, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and microorganism-associated molecules such as endotoxin and fungal glucans.
The PTF provides services free of charge to recipients of EHSRC pilot grants and Associate Members receiving salary support from the CEP. Other EHSRC Members, NIEHS intramural researchers, and members of NIEHS-funded Centers at other institutions receive discounted rates.
PDF Presentation about the Pulmonary Toxicology Facility
Specific Aims:
The Specific Aims for the Pulmonary Toxicology Facility are to:
- Provide state-of-the-art facilities and expertise to perform pulmonary toxicology studies to elucidate adverse outcome pathways of xenobiotics or to test novel inhalation therapies;
- Develop novel generation systems for airborne atmospheres of environmentally relevant exposures;
- Design and perform in vitro and in vivo inhalation exposures under rigidly controlled exposure conditions;
- Assess biomarkers of exposure and effect;
- Provide support for environmental epidemiology studies through validated exposure assessment; and
- Facilitate pre-doctoral, post-doctoral, Associate Member, and Member training.
Services and Equipment:
The PTF provides state-of-the-art equipment and assays to generate atmospheres for inhalation exposures, conduct acute-to-chronic toxicological studies, process and store biospecimens, assess exposures, and evaluate biological response profiles associated with exposure to airborne environmental toxicants. Services include:
Generation and Characterization of Test Compounds for Exposures
- Preparation of nanomaterials, dusts and powders for aerosolization
- Physicochemical and microbiological characterization of bulk and airborne materials
- Development of aerosol generation and real-time size-separation methods for defined exposures
- Generation of gases, vapors, aerosols, bioaerosols or mixtures for inhalation toxicology experiments
- Characterization of concentration and particle size distribution of aerosols in real time (7 nm-30 µm)
- Real-time monitoring of gases
- Sampling of vapor for determination of exposure and chemical profiling
- Development and validation of field-applicable exposure assessment methodology
- Quantitation and speciation of bacteria and fungi from air and surface sampling
Toxicity Assessment after Inhalation Exposure
- Inhalation exposures using whole body, nose-only or insufflation exposure protocols
- Intratracheal or intranasal instillations and oropharyngeal aspirations
- Acute, subacute, subchronic, and chronic inhalation exposure protocols for individual or multipollutant mixtures
- Other than inhalation routes of exposures: oral gavage, intraperitoneal, subcutaneous, intravenous administrations
- Dosimetry assessment for inhalation exposures
- Measurements of pulmonary functions and mechanics in mice
- Whole body or organ perfusions
- Animal models requiring surgical preparation or biotransmitter implants
- Collection and analysis of lung lavage for markers of cytotoxicity, inflammation, or oxidative stress
- Animal necropsy and tissue processing for histopathology, RNA isolation,
- Bioluminescence imaging for luciferase-marked gene expression
- Airborne exposures of pulmonary cells and multi-cell in vitro systems at the air-interface (ALI)
Analysis of Environmental Contaminants and Biomarkers of Exposure
- Endotoxin assays using the rFc and kinetic chromogenic LAL assays
- β(1-3)-D-Glucan assay by LAL-based assays
- Multiplex immunoassays of environmental samples for inhalant and food allergens
- Total and differential cell counting for blood and lung lavage
- Cell identification using flow cytometry technique
- Multiplex immunoassays for >24 cytokines/chemokines (from humans, rats or mice)
- Multiplex hormone profiling
- ELISA, ELISA inhibition, SDS-PAGE and Western Blot assays for aeroallergens and specific antibodies
- Light, confocal, and electron microscopic analysis and ICP-MS analysis of nanoparticles, aerosols and bioaerosols
- Gene expression analyses using rtPCR and advance metagenomics
- Digestion of biological or environmental specimens for elemental analysis
- Isolation of extracellular vesicles from biological samples followed by their characterization and miRNA profiling
Director: Alejandro Comellas, MD
Internal Medicine – Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Occupational Medicine
Co-Director / Imaging Director: Eric A. Hoffman, PhD
Radiology, Medicine, and Biomedical Engineering
Co-Director / Imaging Director: Eric A. Hoffman, PhD
Radiology, Medicine, and Biomedical Engineering
Disaster Response Facilitator: Vickie Miene, MS, MA, LMHC
Institute for Public Health Practice, Research and Policy
The overarching goal of the TRSC is to advance cross-disciplinary clinical and translational environmental health research from discovery to public health impact. The TRSC serves as the clinical and translational engine of the EHSRC, integrating clinical, imaging, regulatory, and community-engaged infrastructure into a Facility that enables investigators to move efficiently from laboratory-based mechanistic studies or environmental exposure discoveries to clinical and public health impact. It facilitates recruitment, evaluation, and longitudinal assessment of research participants and supports advanced imaging, cardiopulmonary physiology testing, biologic sampling, and tissue and biospecimen procurement. Additionally, it offers assistance with study design, data analysis, and linkages to key resources, such as the Imaging Iowa Bank and large national cohorts, including COPDGene, MESA Lung, SPIROMICS, and SARP. A state-of-the-art imaging facility provides photon-counting CT, xenon MRI, and microCT to define structural and functional consequences of environmental exposures, offering investigators access to cutting-edge imaging technologies.
PDF Presentation on Translational Research Support Core
Specific Aims:
- Build and sustain a Rural Exposomics Translational (RET) Platform that supports rigorous, NIEHS-aligned human and population-based studies, with an emphasis on the rural exposome across the rural-urban continuum;
- Integrate quantitative imaging and advanced physiological phenotyping as shared resources that enhance mechanistic understanding of environmentally influenced diseases and support early detection and precision prevention;
- Strengthen translational capacity through disaster preparedness tools, clinical pathways, a point-of-care algorithm for rural clinicians, and implementation strategies co-developed with rural stakeholders; and
- Facilitate pre-doctoral, post-doctoral, Associate Member, and Member training in translational research.
Services and Equipment
The TRSC has five major service components:
Research Subject Enrollment and Interactions Component. TRSC personnel provide comprehensive support for participant enrollment, retention, assessment, and human-subjects requirements. This component assists investigators, especially those newer to public health, intervention, and patient-oriented EHS research, with study design, protocol development, and applications to the CRU Protocol Review Committee and IRB, with physician members available as clinician of record for basic, non-clinical, and epidemiologic projects.
Imaging Component. This component offers access to the Advanced Pulmonary Physiomic Imaging Laboratory (APPIL), a state-of-the-art imaging facility featuring the NIH-funded Naeotom Alpha dual-source photon-counting CT scanner (Siemens Healthineers). Through the TRSC, investigators also use a Zeiss Versa 520 micro-CT for 1-micron imaging of intact lung samples and customized protocols for quantitative cardiopulmonary assessment. Investigators also have access to advanced CT/micro-CT and an upgraded 3T MRI with a xenon polarizer to measure airspace size, surface area, barrier thickness, and gas exchange.
Cardiopulmonary Physiology Testing Component. This laboratory provides comprehensive physiologic testing for research participants, with updated lung function equipment including whole-body plethysmography, spirometry, diffusion capacity, and a 2024 MGC cardiopulmonary exercise system that delivers breath-by-breath gas exchange, metabolic rate, anaerobic threshold, and related parameters under normoxic and altered gas conditions. The lab supports upright and supine spirometry, hypercapnic ventilatory response testing, impulse oscillometry (used in PFAS and lung transplant CLAD biomarker studies), and autonomic cardiovascular monitoring, providing a versatile platform for mechanistic and translational cardiopulmonary research.
Biological Sampling Component. This component assists with the collection and processing of samples from research subjects. Collection procedures include but are not limited to bronchoscopies, induced sputum and nasal lavage, exhaled gas collection, and blood and urine collection for DNA sampling.
Tissue and Biospecimen Procurement Component. The TRSC assists investigators in obtaining samples for basic science questions by coordinating with the Cells, Tissues, and Models Core; Iowa NeuroBank Core; BioMER; the Women’s Health Tissue Repository; the Decedent Care Center; and other biobanks outside the UI as needed. Particularly valuable is the UI’s Women’s Health Tissue Repository, which provides access to biospecimens and electronic health records to study how environmental exposures during pregnancy affect maternal and child health outcomes.