The OSU SRP – DOSE partnership in 2011 in front of a traditional smoking tipi includes SRP trainees Andres Cardenas and Oleksii Motorykin, and CEC Co-leaders Dr. Barbara Harper and Stuart Harris.
In June 2014, DOSE recruited nine Tribal members to help with a study that would measure how people metabolize and eliminate polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) that can attach to food when it is smoked.
PAHs are produced by burning wood and other materials. Salmon, a first food, is important to the subsistence of Native Americans living in the Pacific Northwest. The salmon run in spring and fall. Smoking salmon is one of the traditional ways to preserve this seasonally abundant food and make it available year round.
The study team first conducted a community educational forum for study volunteers that described the purpose of the study and get informed consent. Each participant was asked to refrain from eating any foods containing PAHs for two days. Then they were asked to eat a small serving of traditionally smoked salmon. After eating the salmon they provided urine samples to help researchers understand how the PAH residues produced during smoking events are processed by the body.
SRP Trainee Oleksii Motorykin (Project 5) is involved in this study and is working with CORE E and DOSE Scientists to interpret the data.
The Community Engagement Core has a wealth of resources shared on the web site related to working with Tribes. Be sure to check it out!
Cory Gerlach hanging out with the zebrafish at the Sinnhuber Aquatic Research Laboratory (SARL)
Cory Gerlach is an undergraduate student in the Tanguay lab and will be graduating this spring with an Honors Bachelor of Science in Bioresource Research. Besides winning awards, Cory has transformed his career with valuable research experience gained over the last two years.
In 2013, Cory won the best undergraduate research presentation at the PANWAT meetingin Seattle. The title of his PANWAT poster was “Mono-substituted isopropylated triaryl phosphate, a major component of flame retardant mixture Firemaster 550, is an AHR agonist that exhibits AHR-independent cardiac toxicity”.
In 2014, Cory won the best undergraduate poster presentation at the OSU EMT Research Day, and he received a Pfizer SOT Undergraduate Student Travel Award for the 2014 Annual Meeting of the Society of Toxicology (SOT) in Phoenix, AZ to present his recent findings.
Reflection of Experience by Cory Gerlach
My experience in the Tanguay lab has completely changed my career path.
Before I began my undergraduate research, I thought I would get a masters
in public policy or shift my focus from science to policy or law in some
graduate program. However, in the Tanguay lab I discovered my passion for
bench research, found that I was good at it, and learned that these basic
discoveries are crucial in order to affect policy and therefore improve
public health. Having Dr. Tanguay as a mentor has also helped me to keep
in mind the big picture of my research, and he has taught me that there is
always room for innovation and improvements to how we answer big research
questions. Continue reading →
Picnic Day is an annual open house event held in April at UC Davis. It typically draws more than 50,000 visitors to the campus to learn about the research and engage in family fun activities.
The ‘toxin hunt’ activity organized by the UC Davis Superfund Research Program
We appreciated the invitation from the UC Davis Superfund Research Center to our Trainees to come down and participate with them in outreach. Dr. Craig Marcus, Training Core Leader, traveled with two trainees, Erin Madeen (Project 1) and Andrea Knecht (Project 3).
OSU SRP Trainee Erin Madeen (Project 1) spent time chatting with Michael Denison, (PI, Project 5) of the UC Davis Superfund Center.
UC Davis invited us to display posters about our Center within their display area. Having the OSU SRP there was great, because UC Davis could direct their attention to our work to learn specifically about PAHs; how people are exposed and how they affect human and environmental health.
Besides research posters, the booth had over 125 children engaged in a ‘toxin hunt’ activity. The game was an excellent way for them to understand how SRP research can impact their health. The parents became very interested in the toxins that are being studied with the Superfund Research Program.
OSU SRP Trainee Andrea Knecht (Project 3) chats with visitors about her zebrafish research
Picnic Day was a great opportunity for Erin and Andrea to gain more experience in outreach by sharing posters with attendees and researchers. Dr. Marcus and the trainees also had opportunities to interact individually with the leadership and project leaders of several projects in the UC Davis Superfund Center to make additional connections and establish new collaborations. We look forward to hosting UC Davis trainees for our Research Day and other exchange opportunities.
By Erin Madeen, Ph.D. candidate and Project 1 Trainee
Erin Madeen working at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Using new technology at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Oregon State University researchers are able to perform a controlled study of the human metabolism of environmental contaminate PAHs for the first time.
The Williams Laboratory has studied PAHs(polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) for over a decade, traditionally relying on animal and in vitro models of metabolism and toxicity. PAHs are produced by the burning of carbon-containing materials, for example forest fires, charcoal grilling, and engine combustion. After production, PAHs cling to foods such as vegetables, cereal grains, or smoked meats. Some of these compounds cause cancer at high doses in animal models.
As a graduate student in the Williams Lab, one of my projects is to relate PAH data to human health. With our partners at LLNL, a sensitive tool known as an AMS (accelerator mass spectrometer) is used to detect very small doses of PAHs in urine or blood plasma. We gave a model PAH called DBC [Dibenzo (def,p) chrysene] to human volunteers in doses less than what can be found in a charbroiled burger. This research has not been possible until now because of potential toxicity risks. Traditional non-AMS methods need a larger dose of DBC which could pose too high of a risk to study participants.
With the support of LLNL staff and the OSU Superfund Research Program, I received a K.C. Donnelly Externship Supplement through the NIEHS Superfund Research Program. This award supported my travel to LLNL for this project. My experience at LLNL greatly solidified my understanding of and appreciation for AMS. Maintaining and continuously developing unique instrumentation, such as AMS, requires a highly specialized, dedicated, and flexible team. The environment of a national laboratory is different from that of university research. Most notably this difference is in the concentration of specialists in a particular field and the team approach to problem solving. It was humbling to observe the amount of time, resources, and effort that the LLNL AMS staff dedicated to training and to progress on our DBC project. This externship allowed me to experience being part of the AMS team and to process my own samples, providing valuable insight that will help guide further work on our projects.
Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) is an instrument traditionally used for carbon dating. It has been modified to detect stable isotopes in biological samples. The AMS at LLNL is unique because it is able to use liquid samples. The liquid biological samples are separated according to the changes the body makes to DBC, known as DBC metabolites. The carbon isotope added to the DBC chemical structure was used to identify several different metabolites in human urine and plasma. This project is ongoing as we continue to develop a profile of the human metabolism of DBC over time.
A new monthly seminar series will be held on the third Thursday of each month to highlight the research of the trainees. The presentations begin at 12 noon and will be in the Hallie Ford Center room 115 on the OSU Campus. Our partners at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) will participate via video conferencing. All are welcome to the presentations.
