November 2022| Center for Human Health and the Environment

Upcoming Events

Nov. 1: CHHE & PFAS Superfund Center seminar: Geoff Gisler, "Emerging contaminants under aging laws: how the 50 year old Clean Water Act is designed to protect communities from today's toxins." 4:00pm Tox 2104/Zoom

Nov. 4: Behavior & Neuroscience RIG meeting: Dr. Javier Lopez Soto, "Calcium dynamics and peripheral plasticity in nociceptors" 12:00pm Tox 2104/Zoom

Nov. 8: Pulmonary RIG seminar: Dr. Rachel Roper, "Detection of SARS-CoV2 in air HVAC systems-addressing stability and sensitivity" 4:00pm Tox 2104/Zoom

Nov. 9: CHHE & CNR DIRE seminar: Dr. Kenneth Olden,“Role of NIEHS in validating environmental justice as a legitimate area of scientific inquiry" 1:30pm Witherspoon Student Center 201

Dr. Olden is a former director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences; he led the institute from 1991-2005. He was the first African American to lead an NIH institute. During his tenure at NIEHS, he started seminal work on Gene-Environment interaction that helped shift the conversation from just genetic basis for disease. He has famously said "Genetics loads the gun, the environment pulls the trigger." A large portion of his NIEHS' research continues to focus on how genes and the environment interact to cause disease.

Nov. 15: CHHE seminar: Dr. B. Paige Lawrence, " Environmental influences on antiviral immunity" 4:00pm Tox 2104/Zoom

Nov 18: Find out Friday: Liam O’Fallon, “Research to Action: Advancing authentic community engaged research” 12:00pm Zoom

Program Officer O'Fallon is the coordinator for NIEHS's Research to Action funding mechanism, which encourages multidisciplinary, community-engaged projects to address environmental exposures. R2A projects are partnerships between EHS researchers and community-based organizations. Come learn more about the program and how our Community Engagement Core can help you forge new partnerships that extend your research.

Nov. 29: Toxicology Seminar Series: Dr. Fred Wright, "Issues in supervised classification and prioritization for chemical substances" 4:00pm Tox 2104/Zoom

SAVE THE DATE

Feb. 21: 7th. Annual CHHE Symposium, "Sex differences in response to environmental exposures"

Add the CHHE Google Calendar to your calendar to never miss an event or opportunity!

Core Updates

Community Engagement Core

The Community Engagement Core organized a field trip for 50 middle school students to visit and interact with CHHE labs last month. Afterwards, the students reported learning about PFAS, water filtration, toxicology, and model organisms. One student said the trip changed his perception of what a scientist is, and who can become one. Many thanks to the Cowley, Harris, Knappe, and Planchart labs, especially the wonderful grad students, for taking the time and helping grow the next generation of environmental health scientists!

Career Development Core

The Career Development Core helps CHHE members to develop and refine their grant proposals. Email chhe-ncstate@ncsu.edu to setup up a brainstorming session, pitch your specific aim, or get critical feedback on all your proposals.

Comparative Pathology Core

Would you like to do immunohistochemistry or immunofluorescence to demonstrate the presence of a specific tissue marker but are not sure where to start? The Comparative Pathology Core (CPC) can help!

The CPC can assist with sample preparation, selection and processing as well as data collection and lesion interpretation. Through a partnership with the UNC Pathology Services Core (PSC) we can even assist in antibody selection and automated validation of new markers for immunohistochemistry or immunofluorescence.

Earlier this year, Dr. Jamie Bonner worked with the Comparative Pathology Core and UNC PSC to select a pSTAT3 antibody and stain sections of mouse lungs to answer a reviewer's question on a submitted manuscript. Dr. Bonner's project demonstrated the suppressive effect of GenX on the pulmonary innate immune response and the reviewer requested to see the distribution of pSTAT3-positive cells. After the samples were stained with pSTAT3, Dr. Atkins characterized the location, relative staining intensity, and density of pSTAT3-positive cells in mouse lungs exposed to carbon black nanoparticles, GenX, or a combination of both. The results satisfied the reviewer's critique and aided in the manuscript's acceptance for publication. You can read more about Dr. Bonner's findings (Lee et al., 2022) and see examples from the Comparative Pathology Core here.

For more information on how the Comparative Pathology Core can help facilitate your tissue-based research, contact Dr. Hannah Atkins.

Research Interest Group Updates

Behavior and Neuroscience RIG

Dr. Javier Lopez Soto will present, "Calcium dynamics and peripheral plasticity in nociceptors" at the monthly Behavior and Neuroscience RIG meeting on Nov 4. Contact Emilie Rissman for details.

Microplastics RIG

The Microplastics RIG will host a virtual journal club on Nov. 10 to discuss recent literature in the field of microplastics and human health. For more information, contact Sid Mitra.

CHHE Seed and Voucher Funds Available - Use it or Lose it

CHHE provides Full Members up to $5,000/year for projects that are related to the mission of the Center. CHHE will provide these funds to defray costs associated with using the Systems Technology Core (STC) (metabolomics, metallomics, proteomics and genomics) and the Comparative Pathology Core (tissue embedding, sectioning, and staining). Seed Funds can also be used at other NC State core facilities including Analytical Instrumentation Facility, Cellular and Molecular Imaging Facility, and the Flow Cytometry and Cell Sorting Lab.

To request Seed Funds or STC Voucher Funds click here.

The budget year is April 01 - March 31. The deadline to use these supplemental funds is March 31, 2023, work in core facilities must be completed by mid-March 2023.

KUDOS

Congratulations to several center-affiliated students and postdocs who won prizes at the recent Society of Toxicology North Carolina chapter meeting. CHHE was a co-sponsor of the meeting.

President Award for Research Competition (PARC)

First Place: Ryan Weeks, NCSU Postdoc - Modeling Neurodegenerative Disease in Zebrafish

Through a CRISPR-Generated TDP-43 Acetylation Mimic

Second Place Postdoctoral Poster

Kylie Rock Title: Companion Animals as Sentinels of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substance

(PFAS) Exposure and Associated Health Biomarkers in Gray’s Creek North Carolina

First place Grad Student Poster competition:

Hannah Starnes in Scott Belcher lab: NC State Toxicology title: Comparative Assessment of PFAS Binding

Affinities for Serum Albumin Across Species Using Differential Scanning Fluorimetry

Announcement and Reminders

CHHE is hiring: Two NIEHS-funded research centers at NC State are looking for a Community Engagement Specialist to support their research translation and public engagement efforts. The scope of work will include planning community-based events, working closely with CHHE members, and communicating research and activities. For more information or to apply, click here.

Job board: The CHHE Website posts job openings in the environmental health sciences field. Send us your postings for new jobs, email Michico (MJ) James . It's a great place for students and post-docs to see new available positions.

Cite the Center: Remember to cite and acknowledge NIH award support and the CHHE’s P30 grant in future publications and presentations by including this –

“Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number P30ES025128. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.”

Publications citing the Center grant in the acknowledgements of a manuscript and in the deposit of the manuscript in NIEMS are the currency for the P30 renewal!

CHHE Resources and Facilities Page for NIH Grants is available on the CHHE website .

PINS: Remember when submitting your grants, be sure to select "Center for Human Health and the Environment" as a center in PINS.

Cleaning out your lab? Updating your equipment?

Local schools can use your old lab supplies!

The CEC is looking to give lab supplies and equipment a new home with local science teachers to help them implement hands-on EHS activities in their classrooms. If you're ever looking to get rid of items email Katy May! There's a good chance that the teachers we work with in Wake and Durham counties will be able to use them in their classrooms, summer camps, and after school programs.

CHHE Cited Publications

Click here to check them out!

Nov. 8: Pulmonary RIG seminar: Dr. Rachel Roper, "Detection of SARS-CoV2 in air HVAC systems-addressing stability and sensitivity" 4:00pm Tox 2104/Zoom

SAVE THE DATE﻿

Announcement and Reminders

SAVE THE DATE