This core provides analytical services to UK-SRC investigators who are engaged in studies of the sensing, distribution and remediation of environmental toxicants and who are investigating their mechanisms of toxicity approaches to mitigate these toxic effects. This research is important because exposure to these kinds of environmental chemicals contributes to risk of non-communicable diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular disease in humans. The core provides access to state-of-the-art gas and liquid chromatography coupled mass spectrometer systems that are used for measurements of environmental chemicals, their metabolites and degradation products and other biomolecules of interest including biomarkers of diet, nutrition and disease risk. Core services encompass targeted and untargeted analytical methods using liquid chromatography and gas chromatography coupled multistage/high resolution mass spectrometry. The core provides established/routine services and can develop new services or adapt services from literature methods. The core is managed by the Director who works with the Administrative Core to oversee the business operation, scheduling and prioritization of services which are provided by experienced PhD level staff. A Laboratory Information Management System is used for sample tracking, enforcement of standard operating procedures, quality management and data reporting to project leaders and the Data Management and Analysis Core (DMAC). Services are further validated by participation in external proficiency testing programs. The goals of the core will be accomplished by addressing the following specific aims: 1. To provide analytical chemistry services to UK SRC investigators. The core provides services to all the component projects. These include measurements of chemical pollutants in environmental matrices including water and soil for studies of their transport, distribution, sensing and remediation conducted by projects 1 and 2. Services provided to the biomedical projects 1 and 2 include measurements of environmental pollutants in studies using in vitro systems and preclinical models. Untargeted analytical methods using high resolution mass spectrometry will support systems level studies of the effects of diet, nutrition and exercise on biological processes that are proposed to mitigate the deleterious health effects of exposure to environmental pollutants. 2. To conduct biomonitoring measurements for population health studies. The core will enable interactions between UK-SRC investigators and collaborators who have completed or ongoing clinical/population health studies that provide an opportunity to investigate relationships between environmental exposures and health outcomes as a conduit for clinical translation of advances made by the biomedical projects. In coordination with DMAC the core will conduct large scale measurements of environmental chemicals, their metabolites and degradation products and biomarkers of exposure or lifestyle associated stressors using both targeted and untargeted approaches to examine association of environmental exposures and interventions with clinical outcomes.
Exposure to environmental chemicals increases the risk of many non-communicable human diseases. The UK- SRC serves our stakeholders and the broader objectives of the Superfund Research Program by conducting studies to understand mechanisms linking exposure to environmental chemicals with human disease risk, lifestyle based approaches to mitigate these risks and strategies for improved sensing and remediation of toxic environmental chemicals. This core component provides UK-SRC investigators with measurements of these environmental chemicals, their metabolites and degradation products and other biological molecules of relevance to human health.
Showing the most recent 10 out of 255 publications
