News from the Lawrence Lab

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"25 Years Later, Studying the Health Effects of 9/11"

Thursday, September 10, 2026

The September 11, 2001, World Trade Center (WTC) disaster created unprecedented environmental and public health challenges. In the immediate aftermath of the attack, first responders, workers, and Lower Manhattan residents were exposed to a complex mixture of dust, smoke, and debris from the collapsed buildings and fires. Over the past quarter-century, University of Rochester Medicine has contributed to efforts to understand and address those risks through environmental health research, community education, and long-term occupational health care.

“The World Trade Center research is part of a long legacy of environmental health research at URochester, where scientists have worked for decades to understand how environmental exposures—including air pollution and other airborne toxicants—affect human health,” says Paige Lawrence, PhD, chair of the Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health Sciences. “One of the challenges in environmental health is that the effects of an exposure are not always immediate or straightforward. This is a powerful example of why sustaining research matters and how environmental health research connects laboratory science, population health, clinical care, and community needs.”

Team Science Showcase: The People and Partnerships Moving Microplastics Research Forward

Monday, February 9, 2026

How a small project between a university lab and a city water system grew into a national model

Public concern about microplastics and health has grown sharply over the past several years. Questions like “Are plastic cutting boards safe?” and “Should I drink out of plastic water bottles?” are prevalent, but straightforward answers to these seemingly simple queries are not.

While new research on levels of microplastics found in the human body has recently raised flags for many, scientists at the University of Rochester have been asking questions, building teams, and uncovering how environmental exposures impact human health for decades. With the knowledge, partnerships, and systems they’ve put in place through the University’s Environmental Health Sciences Center (EHSC), now celebrating its 50th year of funding from the National Institutes of Health, they’re poised to provide answers.

“The EHSC was built on the idea that the biggest environmental health challenges require teams that cross disciplines, institutions, and communities,” said Paige Lawrence, PhD, chair of the department of Environmental Medicine at the University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry. “Our microplastics work is a perfect example of how that model accelerates discovery. By bringing engineers, toxicologists, ecologists, and local partners together, we’re able to ask deeper questions and develop solutions that matter for people’s daily lives.”

The long-standing collaborative culture fostered by the EHSC led to the launch of the Lake Ontario MicroPlastics Center (LOMP) in April 2024. One of six federally funded Centers for Oceans and Human Health in the nation, LOMP marked the culmination of a decade of collaborative work among University of Rochester and Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) researchers, community organizations, and local and state government to understand and reduce microplastic pollution in local waterways.

“Microplastics research in Rochester didn’t start with a single project—it started with relationships,” said Katrina Korfmacher, PhD, professor of Environmental Medicine at the University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry. “For years, our faculty have worked alongside community and government partners who are deeply invested in water quality. LOMP is an extension of the EHSC’s long-standing commitment to doing science in partnership with communities.”

Korfmacher co-directs LOMP with Christy Tyler, PhD, professor in the Thomas H. Gosnell School of Life Sciences at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Today, their teams are working to understand how microplastics move through the Lake Ontario ecosystem and how they may affect human health under varied environmental conditions—research made possible by a discovery that connects back to the EHSC.