University of New Mexico
METALS
Superfund Center
Metal Exposure and Toxicity Assessment on Tribal Lands in the Southwest
Welcome to our October 2021 Newsletter!

RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT

Shedding light on the role of environmental metal exposure and UV radiation in cancer

Rachel Speer, Ph.D., a Postdoctoral Fellow in METALS trainee in Dr. Jim Liu’s lab is studying the key role co-exposures to environmental metals play in cancer development. "We are exposed to a wide range of compounds and stressors, and exposures are rarely singular adding to the complexity of studying their effects," says Dr. Speer.

Co-exposure to metals, such as arsenic, enhance the cancer-driving
effects of UV radiation by reducing the body's ability to repair DNA.

Using new DNA sequencing techniques, such as mutational signature analysis and CPD-seq, her research aims to better understand the relationship between DNA damage and repair and mutations in the context of these co-exposures.

Going a step further, Dr. Liu's lab is also evaluating the ability of zinc to ameliorate the cancer-driving effects in arsenic-UV co-exposure.

This work provides crucial knowledge about the complex nature of environmental co-exposures in cancer,
and how to potentially mitigate these effects.

Recent Publications from the Dr. Liu's lab:

Duan M, Speer RM, Ulibarri J, Liu KJ, Mao P. Transcription-coupled nucleotide excision repair: New insights revealed by genomic approaches. DNA Repair (Amst). 2021;103:103126. doi: 10.1016/j.dnarep.2021.103126. 
 
Speer RM, Toyoda JH, Croom-Perez TJ, Liu KJ, Wise JP. Particulate Hexavalent Chromium Inhibits E2F1 Leading to Reduced RAD51 Nuclear Foci Formation in Human Lung Cells. Toxicol Sci. 2021; 181(1):35-46.  doi: 10.1093/toxsci/kfab019
News and Highlights

RECENT WORKSHOPS &PRESENTATIONS

SRP Risk e-Learning Webinar Series:
Risk Communication Strategies to Reduce Exposures and Improve Health
September 24, 2021
Session I: Designing and Tailoring Messages
Esther Erdei, Ph.D. 

This SRP webinar series featured the report back work of Dr. Esther Erdei. The series builds on the initial SRP Risk Communication workshop held in June 2021, co-organized by Dr. Melissa Gonzales (METALS Researcher and Research Translation lead). 
Find more information about upcoming webinars in this series webpage, including registration links and a list of presentations at click here.
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Environmental Health Disparities Webinar Series:
Exploring Metals Exposure to Advance Native Health Equity
September 27, 2021

Characterization of Unregulated Watering Wells in the Tsétah Area and Surrounding Communities to Further Develop Metal Selective Composites as Potential Remedies
Ranalda L. Tsosie, Ph.D.

Water Chemistry and Fungi-plant Symbiosis on Arsenic Uptake and Toxicity
Cherie DeVore, Ph.D.

Determination of Immunotoxicity From Environmental Metal Exposures,
Jodi R. Schilz, Ph.D.

This NIEHS/EPA webinar series featured the research of three METALS Center current and former trainees. The work of Drs. Tsosie and DeVore focus on remediation. The Work of Dr. Schitz focuses on mechanisms of toxicity.
For more information on all the webinar presentation in this series and to register for upcoming webinars, click here.
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UNM Comprehensive Cancer Center
Cancer Control and Population Science Program (CCPS)
Drs. Jim Liu and Laurie Hudson presented their work on biomedical projects within METALS to the CCPS of the UNM Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Liu presented on Arsenic co-carcinogenesis and Dr. Hudson presented an update on the Thinking Zinc clinical trial on Navajo Nation.
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METALS IN THE NEWS

The SRP E-Posted Notes - Photo of the Month
August 6, 2021 Read here8
UNM METALS project leader, Jose Cerrato, and Isabel Meza, a graduate student in Cerrato’s lab, demonstrating the ways they found to safely run laboratory experiments during the SARS COVID-19 pandemic. Cerrato’s SRP-funded research focuses on developing remediation strategies to immobilize metals found in mine waste sites.
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Environmental Health Perspectives Science Selection
September 8, 2021
Center Director Dr. Lewis and the work of METALS is included in this EHP Science Selection by Nate Seltenrich, highlighting Commentary “Cleaning Up after the Cold War: Experts Call for Action on Abandoned Uranium Mines on the Navajo Nation” by Redvers et al. from March 2021). Read here

METALS CENTER MEETINGS
The June 2021 METALS Center meeting hosted guest speakers Megan Eardley and Sipho Shongwe who presented their work on the history and research of mining impacts in South Africa. Discussion at the meeting highlighted the similar uranium-mining related toxicity and environmental issues faced by communities in the Southwestern United States and South Africa.

July 2021 - Dr. Catherine Bulka from University of North Carolina presented on "Prenatal Exposure to Metal Mixtures and Risk of Bacterial Sepsis in Extremely Low Gestational Age Newborns".
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August 2021 - Dr. Shuguang Leng, Assistant Professor, UNM Department of Internal Medicine and member of the Cancer Control & Population Science Program at the UNM Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Leng presented “Metal exposure and cancer risk biomonitoring in Native Americans”
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September 2021 - Earle Dixon, Senior Hydrologist at McGinnis and Associates, LLC, presented, "Groundwater Geochemical and Isotopic Characteristics Related to Legacy Uranium Mine Discharge, San Mateo Creek Basin, New Mexico".
Trainee Highlights
Welcome Monique Howlett
Environmental Project 2
Mentors: Melissa Gonzales, Adrian Brearley and Mehdi Ali

A senior in the UNM Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Monique will be supporting the research of Environmental Project 2. A native of El Paso, TX, Monique adores geology and science. In her free time she enjoys roller skating and working as a barista/specialty roast curator at a locally owned coffee shop.
Congratulations Taylor Busch
METALS SRP Supplement Award
Environmental Project 1
Mentors: Jose Cerrato, Eliane El Hayek
A Diné woman and a first-year student in the UNM Civil and Environmental Engineering Graduate Program, Taylor will investigate the impact of fungi on uranium and arsenic accumulation, expanding on the work of former METLAS trainee Dr. Cherie DeVore. Taylor is honored to contribute to the collaborative METALS research that will help the Laguna Pueblo community better understand metals in their environment.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Multi-stakeholder program to make safe drinking water available to people on the Navajo Nation
METALS researchers continue their work to make safe drinking water available to homes are not connected to a public water system navajosafewater.org. Through this collaboration, METALS partner Southwest Research and Information Center (SRIC) supported the Navajo Nation Dept. of Water Resources and the Haury Foundation at U of Arizona to hire intern, Kirena Clah Tsosie, Diné (Navajo), to update and revise the Navajo Nation’s Water Management Plan. Ms. Clah Tsosie, who holds a degree in water resource management, is now a full-time SRIC employee working on community-based water issues.
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Manuelito Chapter of the Navajo Nation adopts resolution supporting expansion of the METALS Thinking Zinc clinical trial
The Manuelito Chapter has also requesting to be included if and when Thinking Zinc (Biomedical Project 2, Hudson PI) is expanded beyond the current site at Red Water Pond Road Community/Eastern Agency and Blue Gap-Tachee Chapter. Manuelito Chapter is concerned that water quality problems in the Puerco River Valley in New Mexico and Arizona is potentially linked to discharges of uranium mine dewatering effluent in the early 1960s through the mid-1980s.
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Uranium Fact Sheet
Dr. Jose Cerrato and METALS researchers, in collaboration with New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, are are developing an Uranium Fact Sheet to address the history of community concerns about uranium mining impacts. The collaborators to are producing a concensus draft Fact Sheet to share and evaluate with community members and agency collaborators on the Pueblo of Laguna.
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A People’s Atlas of Nuclear Colorado:
“living digital document”

A partnership among educators, museums, and grassroots organizations, this Atlas expands perspectives about the nuclear legacies of the Colorado Plateau. 
The Atlas contains:
  • Issue briefs, addressing “history, policy, governance, and geological and environmental factors”; 
  • Essays on the “complexity and ongoing controversies”;
  • Personal narratives and artistic responses of the “lived, material, and sensory experience” of the nuclear legacy.

NEW PUBLICATIONS AND FUNDING

El Hayek E, Medina S, Guo J, Noureddine A, Zychowski KE, Hunter R, Velasco CA, Wiesse M, Maestas-Olguin A, Brinker CJ, Brearley A,…& Cerrato J. Uptake and Toxicity of Respirable Carbon-Rich Uranium-Bearing Particles: Insights into the Role of Particulates in Uranium Toxicity. Environ. Sci. Technol. 2021, 55, 14, 9949–9957. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.1c01205.

Chaaban Abdul Amir, Lartiges Bruno, El Hayek Eliane, Kazpard Veronique, Plisson-Chastang Celia, Vicendo Patricia, Caillet Celine (2021) Complexes of humic acid with cationic surfactants support the supramolecular view of extracted humic matter. Environmental Chemistry, Published online: 19 July 2021. https://doi.org/10.1071/EN21031

Duan M, Speer RM, Ulibarri J, Liu KJ, Mao P. Transcription-coupled nucleotide excision repair: New insights revealed by genomic approaches. DNA Repair (Amst). 2021;103:103126.
 
Speer RM, Toyoda JH, Croom-Perez TJ, Liu KJ, Wise JP. Particulate Hexavalent Chromium Inhibits E2F1 Leading to Reduced RAD51 Nuclear Foci Formation in Human Lung Cells. Toxicol Sci. 2021; 181(1):35-46. https://doi.org/10.1093/toxsci/kfab019
  
Zhou X, Speer RM, Volk L, Hudson LG, Liu KJ. Arsenic co-carcinogenesis: inhibition of DNA repair and interaction with zinc finger proteins. InSeminars in Cancer Biology 2021 May 10. Academic Press.
 
The UNM Comprehensive Cancer Center helped to fund pilot studies for METALS Investigators.
Dr. Debra MacKenzie is studying the “Role of vanadium in induction of oxidative stress and inflammatory biomarkers in Thinking Zinc study participants”. Drs. Laurie Hudson and Jim Liu are working on “Defining AUM Metal Mixture Associated Mutation Signatures”.

NIH/NIEHS P42 ES025589 (UNM METALS) This material was developed in part under cited research awards to the University of New Mexico. It has not been formally reviewed by the funding agencies. The views expressed are solely those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect those of the agencies. The funders do not endorse any products or commercial services mentioned in this presentation.