The Inhalation Toxicology Facility (ITF) consists of 6,000 square feet of contiguous laboratories and offices located in the northwest quadrant of the Institute of Rural and Environmental Health. It is secured space, with no thoroughfare, which is divided into two sections: a laboratory area and an office suite area, each with separate ventilation. This facility is the only laboratory with bona fide inhalation toxicology capabilities at the University of Iowa. A full array of inhalation toxicology, aerosol science, and bioaerosol assay services are rendered to the Center. The primary goal of the ITF is to provide facilities and expertise for EHSRC investigators with peer-reviewed, funded projects and those funded through the pilot grant program to enhance the productivity and quality of their environmental health research. The facility provides assistance for new investigative efforts in pulmonary biology, inhalation toxicology, and aerosol science. This facility is designed to assist in testing hypotheses in the following areas: pulmonary biology of environmental lung disease, development and prevention of environmental lung disease, and physicochemical properties and behavior of bioaerosols, aeroallergens, and other airborne toxicants. The facility is equipped for generating and quantifying a variety of aerosols, gases, and vapors for exposure by whole-body or nose-only inhalation exposure routes to experimental animals in short-term and long-term exposure protocols. The facility includes a wide range of equipment for exposure, aerosol generation, aerosol monitoring and sampling, pulmonary function monitoring, and necropsy analytical equipment.
Eight specific aims are outlined for this facility: 1. Provide consultation and services to Center investigators interested in using animal models for environmental health research; 2. Perform acute, subacute, and sub-chronic inhalation exposures (and sham exposures) on groups of rodents, with rigidly controlled gases, vapors, aerosols, or combined exposures using nose-only or whole-body exposure systems; 3. Establish animal biomarkers of exposure or biomarkers of effect to identify early biologic responses, low-dose functional changes, and susceptibility or host resistence factors; 4. Expand the capability for measurement of sensitive physiologic end points; 5. Develop innovative animal models for investigating or identifying potential causal agents of disease, for developing novel inhalation therapies, or for studying the behavior of aerosols in vivo; 6. Develop improved aerosol and bioaerosol sampling and analysis methodology using new analysis systems; 7. Develop novel bioaerosol identification and quantification methodology through application of new developments in molecular biology; 8. Facilitate predoctoral and postdoctoral training. In summary, the ITF provides the EHSRC with a facility with expertise in inhalation toxicology and aerosol physics, particularly for organic dusts and bioaerosols.
Showing the most recent 10 out of 1123 publications
