My name is Eva Nee, and I will be starting my third year at Penn, majoring in biology with intended minors in chemistry and Asian American studies. I am also following the pre-med track. Since July 2021, I have worked in the Blair Lab with my mentor, Dr. Clementina Mesaros. In the STEER program, I had an amazing opportunity to continue working in the lab and start my own research project. 

What is your summer research project?

This summer, I explored the connection between exposure to pesticides and neurodegeneration. The aim of my project was to work towards a therapeutic approach for neurodegeneration by analyzing the lipid levels in cells. Previous studies have shown that environmental exposures— specifically pesticides— are strongly associated with Parkinson’s disease, although the exact intracellular mechanism by which this occurs remains unknown. In my experiment, I cultured human neuroblastoma cells that are commonly used as a model for Parkinson’s disease. Then, I exposed these cells to the pesticide rotenone. After 24 and 48 hours, I quantified and analyzed the lipids extracted from the cell samples, and I compared these results with the control cell samples. 

What are the implications of your research?

Neurodegenerative diseases affect millions of people across the world. However, not much is known about the environmental mechanisms that may lead to neurodegenerative disease. After Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease is the most common neurodegenerative disease. Because Parkinson’s disease has been associated with pesticide exposure, some cases of Parkinson’s disease may be preventable, and there may be new avenues for therapeutic approaches. Also, the pesticide rotenone is a commonly used insecticide, herbicide, and fish toxin. Based on the results of this study, we may be able to apply these findings to other neurodegenerative diseases and pesticides. 

What new skills have you gained through your research?

Through my research this summer, I learned many new technical lab skills. For example, I learned how to conduct Pierce protein assays; plate, culture, and split cells; and use the lab’s high resolution-liquid chromatography mass spectrometer. I also had the opportunity to further refine my everyday lab techniques, such as pipet work, using the sonicator, and managing the nitrogen evaporator. Outside of the lab, I learned several new data processing systems. I became familiar with the programs that the lab frequently uses to analyze samples, specifically lipid and mass spectrometry software. Finally, I became more educated in neurodegenerative diseases as I read through numerous journal articles for background information and experimental design ideas. Overall, the STEER program helped me develop and strengthen crucial research skills. 

My name is Kamalini Sengupta. I’m a rising senior at Bryn Mawr College, majoring in neuroscience and minoring in philosophy. I’ve been working in Dr. Nirinjini Naidoo’s lab at the Perelman School of Medicine since the summer of 2021, exploring the effects of sleep loss and circadian rhythm shifts in mice. The STEER program has allowed me to expand on this project, and my research skills in general. 

What is your summer research project?

Studies show that repeated sleep loss can lead to cellular stress and cause proteins to misfold. Our cells have a troubleshooting mechanism in place to deal with these misfolded proteins, called the unfolded protein response (UPR). As we age, the UPR becomes weaker and proteins start to accumulate, causing neurodegeneration. My project this summer has been studying whether sleep depriving young mice increases UPR activity later in life. I have been looking for a UPR marker protein called CHOP between control mice and mice that have been sleep deprived for 8 weeks. The mice were collected at different timepoints to determine temporal progression in UPR activity. This data will then be compared to results of cognitive-behavioral testing to see if there is a link between memory impairment and cellular stress.   

What are the implications of your research? 

Loss of sleep is incredibly prevalent in the US, especially among shift workers. Shift work has been shown to create problems with safety, performance, and overall well-being. These problems can be dangerous in certain settings, such as healthcare. Being a college student, I also know that sleep loss is common among my peers. Results from this study could stress the importance of sleep hygiene to prevent the early onset of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. 

What new skills have you gained through your research?

Through my work at the Naidoo lab, I have learned how to perform immunohistochemistry staining, which is a method of localizing and semi quantifying specific proteins in tissue using antibodies. Working on this project has also taught me how to problem solve and create plans to get somewhat daunting tasks completed efficiently. I am incredibly grateful to the STEER program and my mentors at the Naidoo lab for teaching me skills that will not only be useful in future research, but in other academic and extracurricular pursuits, as well.

My name is Helena Blobel and I am a rising junior at Cornell University, studying biological sciences with a concentration in ecology and evolutionary biology. I participated in the STEER program in Philadelphia, as I am from the suburbs nearby in Lower Merion. After college, my plans include either graduate school or medical school. 

What is your summer research project? 

This summer, I worked with Dr. Corlett Wood. My research project was to study root-knot nematodes, a common, detrimental crop parasite that infects the roots of plants. My aim was to refine methods for harvesting and observing the infectious juvenile nematodes in a sterile environment in order to study them. This meant that I worked with hydroponics to grow them without soil, and pluronic gel plate experiments to examine their behavior. 

What are the implications of your research?

The hydroponics allowed me to create a source of nematode juveniles in a more controlled environment than in soil, streamlining the process of studying them and reducing potentially harmful disinfectant usage. The plate experiments allowed me to observe nematode attraction to various types of plants. These methods are useful for understanding their infectivity and therefore finding solutions to the significant agricultural losses they cause every year. The methods are widely applicable and could be used to study other agricultural pests.

What new skills have you gained through your research?

In addition to my individual work with hydroponics and gel plates, I contributed to several other projects in the lab. These projects studied various predictors of nematode infection, including the presence of nitrogen-fixing bacteria, age of plant at infection, and plant genotype. Through these projects, I gained many skills, such as plant care in growth chambers and greenhouses, harvesting of plants, and recognizing nematode colonies and bacterial colonies with microscopy. Additionally, with the help of my principal investigator, I have gained experience with understanding scientific literature in the ecology field and effectively presenting data.

My name is Aurora Yuan, and I am from a small town in New Jersey called Cranbury. I am a rising sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania studying Neuroscience and Chemistry. I am interested in the intersection of the environment, health, and neuroscience. Throughout the STEER program, I have had the exciting opportunity to work with Dr. Jianghong Liu of the Nursing School here at Penn, and we were broadly interested this summer in studying air pollution exposure and its effects on human health across the lifespan. 

What is your summer research project? 

My summer research project primarily focused on a systematic review on the association between air pollution and cognition, as mediated by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) outcomes. Systematic reviews are robust ways of gathering and synthesizing previous data and literature on a topic to answer questions of interest, and are also important in making recommendations for future work. I conducted an extensive search of previously published literature on this topic using several search engines like PubMed, Cochrane, PsycInfo, etc. We ended up including 11 papers in the review that met the inclusion criteria. Air pollution was identified as the environmental exposure for this systematic review, and within our sources all types of air pollution ranging from PM10 to nitrogen oxides were included. Measurements of exposure of air pollutants varied but often included land use regression models and geocoding of residential addresses. 

We stratified our results by children and adolescents, and compared this to adults and seniors who are more prone to cognitive decline and dementia diagnoses. Some papers measured MRI outcomes through volumes of different structures of the brain such as the prefrontal cortex, and others looked at the functional connectivity between different important networks with the brain such as the Default Mode Network (DMN). The third facet of this project focused on cognitive outcomes, which were diverse in the methods of measurement but included tests on cognitive domains like memory, attention, and processing speed. Information from these papers was then dissected and organized, and results were presented in tables and synthesized in the discussion.

What are the implications of your research? 

This research has far-reaching implications in several fields of study spanning environmental science, public health, and neuroscience. We chose this topic because it was a novel systematic review as no previous one had looked at cognitive effects from air pollution exposure based on MRI findings.

Air pollution is an important environmental exposure, especially because the incidence of air pollution is increasing in most places around the world. Because of this, it is imperative for us to understand the mechanisms and how air pollutant exposure ranging from childhood to adulthood exposure, can impact different areas and connectivity of the brain. From there, we can also understand how this impacts cognition and how it may have an impact on future medical diagnoses such as dementia and Alzheimer’s. Many people around the world are impacted by air pollution, so it’s incredibly important to synthesize previous literature and understand these relationships, and also provide some direction for future research, public health, clinical, and policy decisions. For example, we might consider for clinical purposes, assessing individuals with known high or medium levels of air pollution exposure with MRI scans of the brain as well as cognitive testing in order to identify and/or prevent future decline. 

What new skills have you gained through your research? 

I gained a lot of skills throughout my time in the lab working on my project. I learned how to conduct thorough and extensive literature searches for both my systematic review, and also on previous topics that we considered such as lead exposure and behavior, and air pollution and Parkinson’s disease. Another important skill that will be very valuable in the future is understanding how to analyze and synthesize sources, and being able to draw conclusions from this. This is a huge part of writing a systematic review and was a skill I applied a lot when writing my paper. Writing a good systematic review takes critical thinking, creativity, and questioning of scientific ideas as well as developing novel ideas for implications and future research. These were all skills I felt I gained throughout my work this summer in my independent project research as well as my contributions to a few other projects in the lab. I helped a bit with a few other projects that Dr. Liu was contributing to, like editing manuscripts and addressing comments from reviewers on manuscripts. These contributions and mentorship helped me to gain invaluable skills and knowledge about the research process.

My name is Alana Schreibman, and I am a rising junior at the University of Pennsylvania from Sarasota, Florida. I am majoring in Earth Science and minoring in Chemistry and Chinese Studies. My academic interests are at the intersection of human health, environmental science, and social justice.

What is your summer research project? 

This summer, I worked in the Himes Lab under Dr. Blanca Himes on predicting geospatial adult asthma exacerbation risk in Philadelphia using electronic health record (EHR) data, with a focus on comparing EPA-derived ground-level pollution to remotely-sensed pollution. This project required leveraging large amounts of data to model exacerbation risk for a cohort of asthma patients. We set exacerbation counts over the study period as the outcome of interest, and used two approaches: a proportional odds model and a generalized additive model with two-dimensional smoothing based on latitude and longitude from de-identified patient addresses. EHR-derived data was from University of Pennsylvania Hospital System 2017-2019 patient encounters. We also integrated socioeconomic variables, namely Area Deprivation Index (ADI) and three nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) measures: in situ EPA AirData, TROPOMI satellite tropospheric column density, and satellite-derived ground estimates.

What are the implications of your research? 

Philadelphia asthma prevalence rates are consistently higher than national rates, and exacerbations are still large contributors to asthma-related mortality. NO₂ (independently and as part of a pollutant mixture) and socioeconomic disadvantage have been associated with asthma exacerbations. Past work has demonstrated that these variables are spatially heterogeneous across Philadelphia; therefore, we aimed to understand their correlation with exacerbations. 

Our choice to use EHR-derived data and multiple different NO₂ measurements are both important to the implications of our research. EHR is a valuable alternative to traditional epidemiologic research that has limitations, but captures large, diverse cohorts, including vulnerable populations. These cohorts live in geographically diverse areas, allowing for a strong assessment of spatial risk. Additionally, EPA pollutant monitors are sparse and cannot completely capture variation within urban areas. Accordingly, we incorporated NO₂ data derived from TROPOMI, which has a very fine spatial resolution. In short, we aimed to use these methods for a fine-scale assessment of spatial asthma risk across Philadelphia. We hypothesized that this is important for understanding factors underlying the city’s health disparities and for evaluating the utility of our methods for future research.

What new skills have you gained through your research?

This project has deepened my understanding of working with large data sets, including benefits, inherent biases, and best practices for analysis. Specifically, understanding how to clean and analyze EHR-derived data is a skill that I will use frequently in future research. I also improved my skills in R and working in high-performance computing environments, and gained a better understanding of biomedical and environmental informatics literature.

Eva-Maria Collins, PhD, is an Associate Professor in Biology at Swarthmore College, an Adjunct Associate Professor in Neuroscience at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and an Adjunct Associate Professor in Physics at the University of California San Diego. She is also an Affiliate Member of the Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology and is part of the Environmental Neuroscience Core. Dr. Collins is a valuable member of CEET due to her influential work in and outside the lab.

A trained physicist, Dr. Collins uses a multi-disciplinary approach to study emergent properties of biological systems. Her research is funded by the NSF, the NIH, and private foundations and focuses on three major areas: Biomechanics, Neuroethology, and Neurotoxicology. Her lab has pioneered rapid chemical screening in the freshwater planarian Dugesia japonica (patent pending). By using non-mammalian organisms in their research, Dr. Collins and her team can study the developmental effects of various toxins more efficiently and reduce the use of mammals in research.

The promise of this new, large-scale, non-mammalian organismal screening method and the educational work of Dr. Collins has been recognized in the toxicology community. In 2019, Dr. Collins’ postdoctoral researcher Dr. Danielle Ireland won the CAAT Next Generation Humane Science Award, in 2020, Dr. Collins and her team were awarded with the Toxicological Sciences Paper of the Year Award for their comparative research on developmental toxicity in zebrafish and planarians, and in 2021 Dr. Collins was awarded a Society of Toxicology Faculty Research Grant. Her team’s most recent work is part of the special issue Rising Stars in Neurotoxicology: 2021 in the journal Frontiers in Toxicology, Section Neurotoxicology.

Dr. Collins is committed to engaging the public and training the next generation of scientists to identify and understand the effects of chemical pollutants on communities. She has worked with over 80 undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds and majors. Dr. Collins has developed undergraduate courses that incorporate authentic hands-on research experiences, spanning from systems biology to developmental neurotoxicology. Through a collaboration with the Lang Center for Civic & Social Responsibility at Swarthmore College, Dr. Collins has facilitated connections between her students and members of the local community in Chester to discuss waste management programs and environmental justice. She has also mentored two female undergraduates on the development of an environmental justice module for middle school students in the Science for Kids program. This module teaches students to reflect on how the environment and pollution affect aquatic organisms. Students are guided to formulate hypotheses, test their hypotheses through hands-on laboratory experiments using planarians, and record their observations. This module also teaches students about the environmental landscape of Philadelphia by analyzing the location of superfund sites in Philadelphia and how the location of these sites contribute to environmental injustices in our city.  

Dr. Collins’ work is an excellent example of how toxicology research can be translated to younger audiences and how to make connections between laboratory, classroom, and communities. Students and community members can be engaged and empowered to consider and solve problems that they care about. Furthermore, this work can provide young people with skills that will help them succeed in school and demonstrate how scientific research can make a positive impact on their everyday lives.

Hello, my name is Guthrie Buehler. I grew up in Philadelphia, and I am now entering my third year at Penn studying Health and Societies with a public health concentration. One aspect of my time studying public that has particularly captured me is the ecosocial theory of health, which posits that one’s physical health is the embodiment of their environment. This inspired my interest in environmental health and led me to apply to the STEER program. 

What is your research project? 

I worked in Dr. David Jang’s lab, which studies the effects of carbon monoxide poisoning on mitochondrial function. In our study, we expose rats to carbon monoxide gas for a period of time at a concentration similar to that a person would experience in a standard poisoning. After this exposure, blood and tissue samples are taken. This lab tests both brain mitochondria and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) as biomarkers for CO poisoning. 

Both the brain mitochondria and PBMC mitochondria are tested using a respitrometer, which exposes the cells to oxygen, and measures their oxygen consumption. Using a variety of inhibitors, substrates, and uncouplers to the cells, we are able to observe the oxygen consumption of specific complexes in the electron transport system. Through this analysis, it was determined that complex four of the ETS is most affected by carbon monoxide poisoning. 

What are the implications of your research? 

Traditional biomarkers used to diagnose the severity of carbon monoxide poisoning in a clinical setting, such as interleukins, microRNA, and lactate, have implementation issues due to the timescale and cost limitations of tissue biopsies. The eventual goal of this project is to demonstrate that mitochondrial function is a superior biomarker of CO poisoning given the low cost to sample blood, and the rapidity and accuracy with which the severity of poisoning can be determined using respirometry. The secondary objective of this research is to demonstrate that carbon monoxide poisoning is a complex injury, affecting not just oxygen carrying capacity as was traditionally assumed, but also inhibiting mitochondrial function. 

What new skills have you gained through your research? 

During my time in Dr. Jang’s lab, I learned how to work with data sets using a specialized data software developed for the Oroboros O2k respirometer. I also got an introduction to basic science methods such as the western blot and animal handling and dissection through observation. During the initial part of my internship learning the necessary details and context of Dr. Jang’s research, I developed my skills reading and synthesizing scientific literature. Finally, my work developing a final presentation for the project has helped me learn how to explain and present data to other researchers.