Halting the Rise of Parkinson’s
Monday, April 24, 2023
Quality of life, health, and longevity are being increasingly tied to someone’s zip code rather than their genetic code. Cancer, heart disease, neurodegenerative disorders, and even our ability to fight infection are linked to the myriad of chemicals we are exposed to, often unwittingly, over the course of our lives. The University of Rochester’s leadership in the field of environmental medicine stretches back to toxicology research programs developed at the University under the Manhattan Project. These programs also served as the basis for the formation of a NIEHS Center of Excellence in environmental toxicology and health that is one of the oldest in the country celebrating 50 years of sustained funding. This foundation and the decades of work that followed—coupled with the recognition that the public health threat requires a collaborative commitment to research, education, and community engagement—led to the creation of the new Institute for Human Health and the Environment.
Paige Lawrence, PhD, the Wright Family Research Professor and chair of the Department of Environmental Medicine, is the founding director of the new Institute. “Genetics only explaining 10 to 15 percent of human health, which leaves the rest to the environment,” said Lawrence. “If we really want to have an impact on health, environmental influences need to be front and center.”
The new Institute will help power a team of neurologists, neuroscientists, toxicologists, epidemiologists, and researchers at the University of Rochester who are examining the impact of environmental chemical exposure on the brain. One disease in particular stands out. Parkinson’s is the fastest growing neurodegenerative disease in the world, outpacing even Alzheimer’s, and a growing number of scientists are linking the disease’s rise to air pollution, pesticides, and a ubiquitous chemical pollutant.
Up the nose it goes
Air pollution is associated with many health problems, including asthma, heart disease, stroke, low birth weight, and inflammation. While epidemiological studies have hinted at the link between air pollution and neurological disorders like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, the route these chemicals use to make their way into the brain, and the damage caused once there, was until recently poorly understood.
“We’ve known that air pollution has effects on the heart and the lung for a very long time, but it's really only been in about the past ten years that attention has been directed to its effects on the brain,” said Debbie Cory-Slechta, PhD, a professor of Environmental Medicine, Neuroscience, and Public Health Sciences. Cory-Slechta’s colleagues at the University of Rochester, Guenter Oberdoerster, PhD, and Alison Elder, PhD, were among the first to show that ultra-fine air pollution particles, called PM0.1, are able to hitch a ride directly into the brain via the nasal passage and olfactory nerves, bypassing the brain’s normal defenses.
Read More: Halting the Rise of Parkinson’sMeet Five Inspiring Women in Science
Friday, February 11, 2022
URMC Researchers Reflect on International Day of Women and Girls in Science.
Be curious and inquisitive. Cultivate relationships with mentors. Never limit yourself. Follow your heart.
These are just a few pieces of advice that women researchers from across the University of Rochester Medical Center have for young women and girls interested in science.
Despite progress in recent years, women and girls from around the world are still less likely to enter and advance in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. According to the United Nations, female researchers are typically awarded smaller research grants, are less likely to have their work published by high-profile journals, and have shorter careers than their male colleagues.
And the COVID pandemic has only exacerbated these disparities as the burden of care in the home fell disproportionately to women.
To combat these disparities, the United Nations General Assembly declared February 11 the International Day of Women and Girls in Science in 2015. Today, we celebrate the work and achievements of women in STEM and promote full and equal access to STEM for women and girls the world over.
Read More: Meet Five Inspiring Women in SciencePaige Lawrence Awarded the Outstanding Senior Immunotoxicologist Award at SOT
Monday, April 5, 2021
Dr. B. Paige Lawrence
At this year's Society of Toxicology meeting, Dr. B. Paige Lawrence was awarded the Outstanding Senior Immunotoxicologist Award presented by the Immunotoxicology Specialty Section (ISS). The award is given to a Senior Investigator whose work has made significant contributions to the field of Immunotoxicology. Dr. Lawrence is Professor and Chair of the Department of Environmental Medicine and Director of the Environmental Health Sciences Center. Her research addresses problems of human health and how our environment influences our health. Much of her work focuses on the impact of pollutants on our ability to fight infections, such as influenza viruses. Other work centers on understanding how signals from the environment affect proper development in early life, and how these developmental changes adversely impact health later in life.
She is a member of the Society of Toxicology, American Association of Immunologists, and American Association for the Advancement of Scientists, and currently serves on the Editorial Boards for Toxicological Sciences, Toxicology, The American Journal of Physiology - Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology, The Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, and The American Journal of Reproductive Immunology and in 2020 was named one of three deputy editors of Environmental Health Perspectives. She provides peer review service to the National Institutes of Health and to other research organizations and agencies.
Congratulations, Paige!
Paige Lawrence Named Deputy Editor at Environmental Health Perspectives
Thursday, July 2, 2020
On 16 June 2020, EHP welcomed three Deputy Editors, Dana Boyd Barr, Manolis Kogevinas, and Paige Lawrence, on their first official day of service in their new positions. Editor-in-Chief (EIC) Joel Kaufman, MD, MPH, introduced the new Deputy Editor role and named the appointees in a recent webinar with the Board of Associate Editors.
As recognized leaders in their respective disciplines of exposure science, environmental epidemiology, and experimental toxicology, the Deputy Editors will act as ambassadors to colleagues in their scientific communities to ensure that EHP continues to publish the most influential environmental health research. With a wealth of leadership, editorial, and peer review experience at EHP and other journals, the new Deputy Editors are expected to complement existing editorial workflows.
Working closely with the EIC and EHP Science Editors, they will evaluate new and revised manuscripts, participate in triage and interim editorial decisions, and collaborate with Associate Editors to oversee peer review. The Deputy Editors will also provide leadership for the consideration of submissions in their areas of expertise.
The new Deputy Editor role represents the next step in changes to the journal's operating structure that began when Joel assumed the EIC role in February 2020. As the first offsite EIC, Joel maintains his faculty position at the University of Washington while serving the journal.
Read More: Paige Lawrence Named Deputy Editor at Environmental Health PerspectivesHow environmental toxins impair immune system over multiple generations
Thursday, October 17, 2019
New research shows that maternal exposure to a common and ubiquitous form of industrial pollution can harm the immune system of offspring and that this injury is passed along to subsequent generations, weakening the body's defenses against infections such as the influenza virus.
The study was led by Paige Lawrence, Ph.D., with the University of Rochester Medical Center's (URMC) Department of Environmental Medicine and appears in the Cell Press journal iScience. The research was conducted in mice, whose immune system function is similar to humans.
"The old adage 'you are what you eat' is a touchstone for many aspects of human health," said Lawrence. "But in terms of the body's ability to fights off infections, this study suggests that, to a certain extent, you may also be what your great-grandmother ate."
While other studies have shown that environmental exposure to pollutants can have effects on the reproductive, respiratory, and nervous system function across multiple generations, the new research shows for the first time that the immune system is impacted as well.
This multigenerational weakening of the immune system could help explain variations that are observed during seasonal and pandemic flu episodes. Annual flu vaccines provide some people more protection than others, and during pandemic flu outbreaks some people get severely ill, while others are able to fight off the infection. While age, virus mutations, and other factors can explain some of this variation, they do not fully account for the diversity of responses to flu infection found in the general population.
"When you are infected or receive a flu vaccine, the immune system ramps up the production of specific kinds of white blood cells in response," said Lawrence. "The larger the response, the larger the army of white blood cells, enhancing the ability of the body to successfully fight off an infection. Having a smaller size army — which we see across multiple generations of mice in this study — means that you're at risk for not fighting the infection as effectively."
In the study, researchers exposed pregnant mice to environmentally relevant levels of a chemical called dioxin, which, like polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), is a common by-product of industrial production and waste incineration, and is also found in some consumer products. These chemicals find their way into the food system where they are eventually consumed by humans. Dioxins and PCBs bio-accumulate as they move up the food chain and are found in greater concentrations in animal-based food products. The scientists observed the production and function of cytotoxic T cells — white blood cells that defend the body against foreign pathogens, such as viruses and bacteria, and seek out and destroy cells with mutations that could lead to cancer — was impaired when the mice were infected with influenza A virus.
Environmental Toxins Impair Immune System over Multiple Generations
Wednesday, October 2, 2019
New research shows that maternal exposure to a common and ubiquitous form of industrial pollution can harm the immune system of offspring and that this injury is passed along to subsequent generations, weakening the body's defenses against infections such as the influenza virus.
The study was led by Paige Lawrence, Ph.D., with the University of Rochester Medical Center's (URMC) Department of Environmental Medicine and appears in the Cell Press journal iScience. The research was conducted in mice, whose immune system function is similar to humans.
"The old adage 'you are what you eat' is a touchstone for many aspects of human health," said Lawrence. "But in terms of the body's ability to fights off infections, this study suggests that, to a certain extent, you may also be what your great-grandmother ate."
While other studies have shown that environmental exposure to pollutants can have effects on the reproductive, respiratory, and nervous system function across multiple generations, the new research shows for the first time that the immune system is impacted as well.
This multigenerational weakening of the immune system could help explain variations that are observed during seasonal and pandemic flu episodes. Annual flu vaccines provide some people more protection than others, and during pandemic flu outbreaks some people get severely ill, while others are able to fight off the infection. While age, virus mutations, and other factors can explain some of this variation, they do not fully account for the diversity of responses to flu infection found in the general population.
"When you are infected or receive a flu vaccine, the immune system ramps up production of specific kinds of white blood cells in response," said Lawrence. "The larger the response, the larger the army of white blood cells, enhancing the ability of the body to successfully fight off an infection. Having a smaller size army -- which we see across multiple generations of mice in this study -- means that you're at risk for not fighting the infection as effectively."
In the study, researchers exposed pregnant mice to environmentally relevant levels of a chemical called dioxin, which, like polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), is a common by-product of industrial production and waste incineration, and is also found in some consumer products. These chemicals find their way into the food system where they are eventually consumed by humans. Dioxins and PCBs bio-accumulate as they move up the food chain and are found in greater concentrations in animal-based food products.
Read More: Environmental Toxins Impair Immune System over Multiple GenerationsEHSC Faculty Attend 2019 Center Directors Meeting in Iowa City
Friday, June 21, 2019
The 2019 EHSC Center Directors Meeting was hosted by the University of Iowa in Iowa City on June 20, 21, 2019. University of Rochester's Environmental Health Sciences Center faculty, Irfan Rahman, PhD, CEC Director Katrina Korfmacher, PhD, IHSFC Co-Director Steve Georas, MD, Center Director Paige Lawrence, PhD, and new Center member Daniel Croft, MD, MPH, as well as Center Administrator Pat Noonan Sullivan attended the meeting.
Each faculty member played a role in the meeting, contributing expertise of their work. Rahman spoke on Human health studies of E-cigarette use at the meeting. Discussants included Dana Haine, MS from UNC and Judith Zelikoff, PhD, from NYU, moderated by Alejandro Comellas, MD. Katrina Korfmacher facilitated sessions on policy engagement by CECs and report back of research results to participants and communities. At a break out session on translational research in environmental health sciences, Georas shared the centers experience with the highly successful IHSFC Translational Mini-Pilot Program. Croft presented a poster on his research showing an association between air pollution exposure and hospital admissions for respiratory viral infections.
The 2020 EHSC Center Directors Meeting will be hosted by Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan July 22nd- 24th, 2020.
Paige Lawrence and Irfan Rahman Recognized at Opening Convocation
Friday, September 7, 2018
At Opening Convocation on September 6, 2018, Paige Lawrence received the award for Outstanding T32 Program Director. This award is presented to the T32 principal investigator with the best impact score for a new grant or competing renewal in the past year.
Irfan Rahman was also recognized at Convocation for receiving a Dean's Professorship this past year. Dean's Professorships were established in 1982 and are designated by the Dean to be assigned to individuals of outstanding research excellence.
Congratulations to both!
Paige Lawrence, Ph.D.
Irfan Rahman, Ph.D.
Fracking the Immune System
Tuesday, May 1, 2018
Amid predictions of a second fracking boom in the U.S., the first evidence that chemicals found in ground water near fracking sites can impair the immune system was published today in Toxicological Sciences. The study, performed in mice, suggests that exposure to fracking chemicals during pregnancy may diminish female offspring's ability to fend off diseases, like multiple sclerosis.
Fracking, also called hydraulic fracturing or unconventional oil and gas extraction, involves pumping millions of gallons of chemical-laden water deep underground to fracture rock and release oil and gas. About 200 chemicals have been measured in waste water and surface or ground water in fracking-dense regions and several studies have reported higher rates of diseases, like acute lymphocytic leukemia and asthma attacks, among residents in these areas.
"Our study reveals that there are links between early life exposure to fracking-associated chemicals and damage to the immune system in mice," said Paige Lawrence, Ph.D., chair of Environmental Medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center, who led the study. "This discovery opens up new avenues of research to identify, and someday prevent, possible adverse health effects in people living near fracking sites."
Read More: Fracking the Immune System