Wadsworth Center's Human Health and Exposure Analysis Resource (WC-HHEAR)

Wadsworth Center, Menands NY

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT The overall objective of this supplement proposal is to provide the Wadsworth Center’s Human Health and Exposure Analysis Resource (WC-HHEAR) the resources to support unanticipated additional work associated with five additional new Analysis Concepts (projects) for the Environmental Contributors to Children’s Health Outcomes (ECHO) program. These projects comprise multi-cohort-based studies of children’s exposure to environmental chemicals. WC-HHEAR provides ECHO with access to state-of-the-art analyses for exploring the effects of environmental contaminants on children’s health. WC-HHEAR’s extensive infrastructure, expertise, and reputation as a world-class biomonitoring laboratory is located in the NY State Department of Health’s Wadsworth Center. Within the Center’s Division of Environmental Health Sciences (DEHS), two analytical lab groups analyze biospecimens for environmental contaminants: the Trace Elements Lab (TREL) and the Biomonitoring Organic Analytical Chemistry (BOAC) Lab. Dr. Patrick Parsons is the Director of DEHS overseeing the TREL, while Dr. Kurunthlachalam Kannan is Deputy Director of DEHS overseeing the BOAC. Together, Drs. Parsons and Kannan (the MPIs of this supplement proposal) have more than 75 years of combined experience in analytical chemistry applied to measuring environmental contaminants in human tissues and fluids. The BOAC analyzes biospecimens for 30 classes of trace organic contaminants totaling hundreds of analytes including polychlorinated biphenyls, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, perfluorinated compounds, brominated flame retardants, pesticides, phthalates (including metabolites, replacements and emerging chemicals), drugs (e.g., opioids), biomarkers of stress (e.g., oxidative stress markers of DNA, protein and lipids), life style biomarkers (e.g., tobacco smoke) and nutritional biomarkers (e.g., phytoestrogens, micronutrients). The TREL group analyzes biospecimens for up to 22 trace elements that include toxic (lead, cadmium, mercury, and arsenic) and essential (copper, selenium, zinc) elements in whole blood, urine, and serum/plasma, plus the 16 rare earth elements, which includes the lanthanides series. Both BOAC and TREL have extensive expertise analyzing non- traditional matrices such as placenta, cord blood, baby teeth, dried blood spots, hair, nails, amniotic fluid, breast milk, saliva, and other tissues. This supplement leverages Wadsworth’s capacity and capability to provide high complexity laboratory analyses to support five new ECHO projects: ECHO Project EC0655 – Impact of early childhood exposures to novel chemicals on neurodevelopmental outcomes; ECHO Project EC0656 – Early life exposures to melamine, melamine analogs, and aromatic amines in relation with neurodevelopment; ECHO Project EC0661 – Maternal Folate Status During Pregnancy, Arsenic Metabolism, and Birth Outcomes; ECHO Project EC0669 – Prenatal exposure to arsenic and lung function in children: An ECHO program study; and ECHO Project EC0668 – Pre-and postnatal arsenic exposure, arsenic methylation efficiency, and childhood neurodevelopment: An ECHO program study.