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Environmental Medicine

URMC / Environmental Medicine / People / Faculty

 

Faculty

Primary Faculty
Secondary Faculty
Emeritus Faculty

Primary Faculty

Deborah Cory-Slechta
Deborah Cory-Slechta, Ph.D.
Research Interest: Defining the impact of environmental chemicals (e.g., metals and air pollution) on brain development and behavior, with emphasis on attributable risk to neurodevelopmental disorders.
Cristina Demian-Popescu
Cristina A. Demian-Popescu, M.D., M.P.H.

Alison Elder
Alison Elder, Ph.D.
Research Interest: Toxicology of inhaled ultrafine particles (UFPs) on the lung, cardiovascular and central nervous system
Katrina Korfmacher
Katrina Korfmacher, Ph.D.

Research Interest: Community outreach and engagement, role of science in public decision-making
B. Paige Lawrence
B. Paige Lawrence, Ph.D.
Research Interest: Influence of environmental factors on the development and function of the immune system
Dina Markowitz
Dina G. Markowitz, Ph.D.

Research Interest: Developing and coordinating a wide variety of science education and outreach programs for students (elementary through high school), teachers, and the general community.
Hae-Ryung Park
Hae-Ryung Park, Ph.D.
Research Interest:

Identify new targets susceptible to environmental perturbation in relevance with neurodevelopment or neurodegenerative diseases by utilizing functional genetics/genomics (RNAi and CRISPR screens and Next-Generation sequencing), and molecular benchwork. Discover the link between genetic polymorphism of the targets and neurological diseases. Explore novel roles of extracellular vesicles (EV) in receptor signaling and cell communication. Identify EV-encapsulated biomolecules released by the placenta in response to environmental perturbation. Explore the roles of placenta-derived EVs on neurodevelopment or neurodegeneration

Irfan Rahman
Irfan Rahman, Ph.D.
Research Interest: Redox signaling mechanism of Proinflammatory gene expression in pathogenesis of chronic inflammatory lung diseases caused by environmental toxicants.
Matthew Rand
Matthew D. Rand, Ph.D.
Research Interest: Mechanisms of toxicity of the environmental contaminant and neurotoxicant methylmercury (MeHg), defining MeHg effects on early life development of neural and muscular systems at the molecular, cellular, and organismal levels using invertebrate and mammalian models, and detailed characterization of MeHg metabolism and elimination kinetics in humans.
Souvarish Sarkar
Souvarish Sarkar, PhD
Research Interest:

Develop a research program concentrating on identifying genetic modifiers of environmental factors in disease etiology using a combination of Drosophila genetics, cell culture, and rodent models

Marissa Sobolewski-Terry
Marissa E Sobolewski-Terry, Ph.D.
Research Interest:

Neurotoxicology, Etiology of neurobehavioral disease, Endocrine dysfunction, Synergistic Toxicity.

Martha Susiarjo
Martha Susiarjo, Ph.D.
Research Interest:

Our research program focuses on mechanisms underlying gene environment interaction in pregnancy. We are interested in elucidating how environmental factors influence epigenetic regulation of developmental-relevant genes including imprinted genes, and how exposure modulates maternal-fetal health.

Jacqueline Williams
Jacqueline Patricia Williams, Ph.D.

Research Interest: Discovering the effects of high (therapeutic) and low (environmentally-relevant) doses of radiation and their interactions with other toxic elements, such as commonly encountered infections, and better understanding differential effects of radiation in adults versus children.

Secondary Faculty

Jacob Finkelstein
Jacob N. Finkelstein, Ph.D.
Research Interest: Delineating the role of alveolar epithelium in modulating the pulmonary injury response to physiological and toxicological stimuli, including oxidant induced signaling in the pulmonary epithelium and macrophages, and epithelial production of mediators that regulate inflammatory functions of macrophages.
Mark Frampton
Mark Frampton, M.D.

Research Interest: Effects of particle exposure on lung function, airway inflammation, and cardiovascular function.
Steve Georas
Steve Georas, M.D.
Research Interest:

Defining molecular mechanisms for respiratory-virus induced epithelial barrier dysfunction; exploring the use of oscillometry in the diagnosis and management of airways disorders; and determining how race neutral PFT interpretation strategies impact the utility of spirometry

Todd Jusko
Todd A. Jusko, Ph.D.
Research Interest: Environmental and Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology: Defining the impact of environmental chemicals on immunity and immune-mediated diseases and as a mechanism for susceptibility to other disease outcomes, such as neurobehavioral disorders.
Thomas Mariani
Thomas Mariani, Ph.D.
Research Interest:

Genetic mechanisms of susceptibility to congenital and infectious lung diseases, focusing on developmental antecedents and the influence of environmental factors.

Richard Miller
Richard K. Miller, M.D.
Research Interest: Determining the impact of maternal stress and other maternal factors on the birth outcomes and in the children.
Gary Myers
Gary J. Myers, M.D.

Research Interest: Environmental toxins, specifically mercury; methyl mercury exposure
Michael O'Reilly
Michael A. O'Reilly, Ph.D.
Research Interest: Understanding how an aberrant oxygen environment at birth disrupts development of the lung and heart, leading to persistent functional changes over the lifespan.
Gloria Pryhuber
Gloria S. Pryhuber, M.D.
Research Interest: Delineating multifactorial causes of respiratory morbidity in infants and young children, including environmental exposures on lung development, microbial infection and dysbiosis, and pulmonary immune responses; levering unique human lung and immune cell repositories that support the in vitro study of mechanisms of toxicity of environmental agents.
J. Edward Puzas
J. Edward Puzas, Ph.D.

Research Interest: Molecular signals that govern osteoporosis and arthritis
David Rich
David Rich, Sc.D., M.P.H.
Research Interest: Environmental, Cardiovascular, and Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology: Examining associations between air pollution and cardiopulmonary and pregnancy outcomes, examining mechanisms of such cardiopulmonary and pregnancy responses, and developing spatial-temporal models of air pollution to enable field studies of these biomarkers and clinical outcomes associated with residential air pollution exposure.
Jacques Robert
Jacques Robert, Ph.D.
Research Interest: Experimental platform using the amphibian Xenopus for research in immunotoxicology, fundamental and medical immunology
James Tacci
James Tacci, M.D., J.D., M.P.H.

Sally Thurston
Sally Thurston, Ph.D.

Research Interest: Bayesian inference, modeling multiple outcomes, correction for measurement error bias, informative prior specification, latent variable models, and environmental health applications.
Mark Utell
Mark Utell, M.D.

Gene Watson
Gene Watson, D.D.S., Ph.D.

Collynn Woeller
Collynn Woeller, Ph.D.
Research Interest: Understanding the key molecular and cellular pathways involved in eye disease, with a particular focus on Thyroid Eye Disease (TED)
Jeffrey Wyatt
Jeffrey Wyatt, DVM, MPH

Edwin van Wijngaarden
Edwin van Wijngaarden, Ph.D., M.Sc.
Research Interest: Environmental and Neurologic Epidemiology: Defining influences of environmental exposures, in particular toxic metals, on cognitive outcomes in children and adults.

Emeritus Faculty

Thomas Clarkson
Thomas Clarkson, Ph.D.

Research Interest:

Understanding the toxicities, mechanisms of action, and dose-response relationship for methyl mercury and other heavy metals.

Günter Oberdörster
Günter Oberdörster, D.V.M., Ph.D.
Research Interest: Biokinetics, Effects and Mechanisms of Inhaled Micro- and Nano- Particles: Dosimetry, Risk Extrapolation and Risk Assessment