The Cornell Superfund Basic Research and Education Program (SBRBP) under NIEHS sponsorship has sought to enhance our ability to investigate, assess, remediate, and monitor the clean up of hazardous wastes. The Cornell SBREP initially addressed this mission via a comprehensive theme -- identifying and reducing hazards and chronic exposure from low-level substances from Superfund sites with regard to both human health and the environment. These studies and other experiences in the program have directed us to sharpen that theme to studies of: 'Bioavailability And impact of hazardous substances in human health and ecological risk, especially as related to exposure, neurological and immunological effects, and remediation of sites containing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and heavy metals such as lead (Pb).' We will address this theme through studies of biological responses (developmental, immunologic and neurologic/behavioral) in which exposure can be integrated across diverse species, and biodegradation studies and chemodynamics can be integrated via interactive modeling. In addition to the core activities (administration, lab technical services, and training), the program proposes three basic biomedical project (dogs as sentinels for immunologic threats from PCBs, rats and chickens as responding to chelation therapy following Pb exposure, and rats responding to the same stressor, but evaluated with respect to cognitive deficits). A fourth basic biomedical project (immunobiosensors) will link some of the field work to both results in lab animals and wildlife and to success in describing field exposures. The companion notion is that bioavailability may be reflected in biodegradation patterns and successfully modeled as a statistical process of chemodynamic interactions. Three projects propose to examine sequestration as a matter of aging, the role of exopolymers to alter distributions of organics and then inorganics, and the development of visualization methods to characterize microscale forces and locations. Moreover, the Program proposes to provide a variety of sophisticated laboratory services while continuing a comprehensive training program including risk assessment, ethical responsibilities, and quality science.
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