Congratulations to Erin Madeen from Project 1, the first recipient of a Trainee-Initiated Collaboration (TrIC) grant.

Erin will receive $2500 for travel and lodging to work with Ulrike Luderer MD, PhD, a Reproductive Toxicologist and expert in polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) Benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) induced female infertility at UC Irvine.

Dr. Luderer will train Erin on methods to histologically analyze ovaries and testes from mice treated prenatally with the PAH, dibenzo[def,p]chrysene (DBC), in a Project 1 study. This unique training opportunity will help further research exploring how exposure of pregnant mothers to PAHs induces reproductive effects in their offspring.

This area of research is valuable as several individual PAHs are well documented to cause reproductive effects that include abnormal morphology, reduced fertility, infertility, and cancers. DBC has not previously been studied as a reproductive toxicant.

A comparison of BaP and DBC reproductive effects could be useful for risk assessors and modelers as PAHs occur in dynamic mixtures.

This is an exciting new collaboration with the Luderer Lab.