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University of New Mexico
METALS
Superfund Center
Metal Exposure and Toxicity Assessment on Tribal Lands in the Southwest
Welcome to our March 2022 Newsletter!
SPOTLIGHT

 UNM METALS Researchers Recognized for Research


METALS Director
Dr. Johnnye Lewis
was selected as the 7th Annual Community-Engaged Research Lecture honoree by the Office of the Vice President for Research and the Faculty Senate Research Policy Committee.


Nominated by community members and her colleagues,
Dr. Melissa Gonzales
(RTC, EP2) was awarded the 13th Annual
Faculty Excellence in Research Award for Scholarship in Community Engaged Research by the UNM Health Sciences Center.



Daniel Beene, METALS trainee, was awarded the 2022 Science for Health of Indigenous Populations Award. This UNM award recognizes a doctoral student who actively promotes indigenous health through interdisciplinary research.

NINR Advisory Councils Welcomes METALS Director
to Working Group on Inclusion

Dr. Johnnye Lewis was invited by the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) Director, Dr. Zenk, to serve as a member of the NINR’s Advisory Council Working Group on Inclusion. Dr. Lewis will advise the working group on strategies to strengthen the inclusion of diverse participants in NINR-supported studies.
TRAINEE HIGHLIGHT:

Thomas DePree, PhD

UNM METALS post-doctoral trainee Thomas DePree, will again be teaching the course Environmental Regulations, this Spring at Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI) in Albuquerque. In addition to designing learning modules on CERCLA and NEPA, he is also working on a module that will focus on climate change policy and regulation.
More about the Environmental Regulations Course
In the course, students will analyze the relationship between environmental health sciences and information, and environmental health policy and regulations. We will also figure out how natural and cultural resource management and planning can be transformed with the inclusion of Indigenous history, knowledge, and sciences (e.g. tribal/traditional knowledge, TEK) of communities impacted by environmental contamination. Photo Source: sipi.edu

In a collaborative case study, the students will research and apply the tools they learn to the Red Water Pond Road Community, a METALS SRP partner community, which has experienced ongoing environmental health disparities and environmental injustices related to legacy uranium mining.
Research on microplastics and immune cells featured in Eos Science News
The Eos article, Microplastics Morph Cell Metabolism, by Alka Tripathy-Lang highlights research by METALS researcher, Dr. Eliseo Castillo on microplastics and immune cells within the gut.

"Microplastics get into our bodies, potentially altering how certain cells convert sugar into energy, especially in the gut. Continued ingestion could cause chronic problems."

https://eos.org/articles/microplastics-morph-cell-metabolism
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
& RESEARCH TRANSLATION

Annual Navajo Nation
Human Research Review Board Conference: Presentations by METALS Researchers and Trainees

  • Update on Thinking Zinc Intervention, presented by Laurie Hudson, Debra MacKenzie and Erica Dashner-Titus.

  • Immune changes associated with metals in the Navajo Birth Cohort Study, presented by Debra MacKenzie and Nicole Thompson.

  • Arsenic and birth outcomes in three U.S. cohorts, presented by Debra MacKenzie and Daniel Beene.

  • ANA testing and metal mixture exposures from uranium mines, presented by Ester Erdei, Chris Shuey, and Johnnye Lewis.
NEW PUBLICATIONS


A Secure and Reusable Software Architecture for Supporting Online Data Harmonization. by Zlatan Feric, Nicolas Bohm Agostini, Daniel Beene, Antonio J. Signes-Pastor, Yuliya Halchenko, Deborah Watkins, Debra MacKenzie, Margaret Karagas, Justin Manjourides, Akram Alshawabkeh, and David Kaeli was accepted for 2021 IEEE International Conference on Big Data.

Nozadi SS, Li L, Luo L, MacKenzie D, Erdei E, Du R, Roman CW, Hoover J, O’Donald E, Burnette C, Lewis J. Prenatal Metal Exposures and Infants’ Developmental Outcomes in a Navajo Population. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2022 Jan;19(1):425.

Miller C. Marginal probabilities and point estimation for conditionally specified logistic regression. Communications in Statistics-Simulation and Computation. 2021 Dec 2;50(12):4338-63. https://doi.org/10.1080/03610918.2019.1643478


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.