Lea, a 10th grade student who during the summer of 2019, was granted the opportunity to conduct research through the CEET’s Teen Research and Education in Environmental Science (TREES) program, won the Presidential Award for research focused on “Effective Repeated Filtration of Amoxicillin from Wastewater Using Activated Charcoal Filters”. For more information, click the link below.
https://www.epa.gov/education/presidents-environmental-youth-award-peya-winners
Dr. Marilyn Howarth, Director of the CEET’s Community Engagement Core, talks about the closing of the South Philadelphia refinery and its impact on air quality and health. Copy and paste the link below for more info.
https://www.inquirer.com/business/energy/philadelphia-air-quality-pollution-refinery-pes-curious-philly-20191226.html
As a part of the CEET’s monthly seminar series, Dr. Bethany Wiggin, Founding Faculty Director, Penn Program in Environmental Humanities, recently presented on connections between environmental humanities, public health, and toxicology. Copy and paste the link to find out more.
https://preview.mailerlite.com/i6o9l2
Dr. Marilyn Howarth, Director of the Community Engagement Core for the CEET, recently spoke at the Futures Beyond Refining Event, coordinated by the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities. The focus of the program was to bring together stakeholders who have the common goal of making the South Philadelphia community which surrounds the oil refinery site clean and healthy for residents. Copy and paste the link below to find out more about the event and to hear Dr. Howarth’s presentation.
https://ppeh.sas.upenn.edu/index.php/experiments/futures-beyond-refining
Dr. Ian Blair, who is the Vice Chair of Pharmacology at the University of Pennsylvania and also head’s the Environmental Exposures and Cancer Thematic Area for the CEET, was recently featured on NBC Philadelphia for his work on asbestos detection and testing. Dr. Blair’s research focuses on how blood tests can be used to detect if a person has been exposed to asbestos and the probability that they will be diagnosed with cancer, years in the future. For more information and to view the actual television segment, click the link below.
https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/health/could-a-blood-test-determine-if-youll-get-cancer-from-asbestos/2308935/
Penn Almanac * April 23, 2019 * vol 65 * Issue 32
The Division of Chemical Toxicology of the American Chemical Society (ACS) has given Trevor Penning, the Thelma Brown and Henry Charles Molinoff Professor of Pharmacology and the director of the Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology, the 2019 Founders’ Award. Dr. Penning will be honored at the ACS annual meeting in San Diego in August with a symposium in his honor.
He is also a professor of biochemistry and biophysics and of obstetrics/gynecology. Dr. Penning has performed research in the areas of chemical toxicology and environmental science with over 500 publications. He studies the role of aldo-keto reductases (AKR) in hormone biosynthesis as it relates to prostate and breast cancer, as well as the development of inhibitors for AKR enzymes as chemical probes and therapeutics.
Dr. Penning is cited for providing outstanding and sustained service to the ACS for his many professional volunteer positions, such as chair of chemical toxicology division, a member of the executive committee and an ACS symposium organizer and regular speaker. He has also been a member of the Cancer Etiology Study Section at the National Institutes of Health and a senior editor for Cancer Research for Population and Prevention Science, as well as a member of two working groups at the International Agency for Research on Cancer, which re-assessed the cancer-causing properties of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and diesel exhaust.
The CEET has been awarded two administrative supplements from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. The supplements are intended to provide funds to P30 Environmental Health Sciences Core Centers to enhance interactions across Centers to address emerging issues and to advance research, translational research, and community engagement.
John Essigman, PhD (MIT- Lead Institution) and Trevor Penning, PhD, and Ian Blair, PhD (CEET)
HMGB1 as Early Onset Biomarkers of Stress Response to Toxicants
Trevor Penning, PhD and Sara Pinney, MD, MS (CEET – University of Pennsylvania, Lead Institution) and Drs. Shuk-Mei Ho, Lueng and Ouyang (University of Cincinnati)
Gestational Exposure to PFOA and the Development of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in the Offspring
Dr. Bansal is a basic science enthusiast. After graduating in 2009 from the University of Abertay Dundee, Scotland, Dr. Bansal started her diabetes related journey as a PhD candidate in Professor Frank Bloomfield’s laboratory at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.
Using sheep as a model, she researched whether preterm babies with high blood sugar levels have impaired pancreatic development and function. She discovered that lambs born preterm had a greater likelihood of developing impaired glucose tolerance later in life.
Dr. Bansal’s PhD training prompted an in-depth understanding of pancreatic development, and introduced her to the emerging field of developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD). Dr. Bansal began to appreciate that not only our adult life habits, but also the events that occur early in life modify our risk of later life metabolic diseases. Knowing she wanted to continue as a postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Bansal commenced postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Professor Rebecca Simmons at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Bansal’s postdoc research provided exposure to yet another exciting area of research- the endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDC) field. In her primary project, using a mouse model, Dr. Bansal explored whether maternal exposure to a common environmental chemical, Bisphenol A (BPA), alters pancreatic function across three generations: Mother to children to grandchildren and to great-grandchildren.
Her research was the first to show that a mother’s BPA exposure impairs pancreatic ß-cell mitochondrial function as well as decreases pancreatic ß-cell mass across two generations in mice. This new discovery shed light on mechanisms underlying abnormal offspring metabolic function following a developmental exposure to BPA.
At Penn, Dr. Bansal is utilizing her combined scientific skills to make ground-breaking discoveries and provide new evidence to unravel the mysterious mechanisms by which early life exposures such as exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals, poor nutrition, or growth restriction in utero impact our later life health and health of our future generations.
Dr. Bansal recently shared her scientific findings with legislators including the office of Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania. Increasing legislators’ awareness and understanding of environmental health science is important to the development of public policy protective of environmental public health.
The CEET, as the only Environmental Health Sciences Core Center in Pennsylvania, takes on the vital role of being an essential regional resource for community health. Through multiple collaborative projects, Dr. Bansal supports CEET’s mission of linking environmental exposures and human health and translating findings to improve the health of vulnerable communities.
In her primary projects, Dr. Bansal closely works with fellow postdocs in both Prof. Marisa Bartolomei’s laboratory and Prof. Rebecca Simmon’s laboratory to research how plasticizers such as BPA and phthalate affect metabolic health across multiple generations. Dr. Bansal also explores the effects of BPA exposure on human fetal cells with A/Prof. Sara Pinney, as well as works to understand and explain the transgenerational effects of paternal BPA exposure with fellow post-doc, Dr. Cetewayo Rashid.
This research confronts health concerns about exposure to environmental endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDC). As described above, BPA is a very common EDC that we are all exposed to.
BPA is a plasticizer that is found in many commonly encountered items; receipts, canned foods, plastic water bottles, plastic bags, lining of water pipes and dental sealants. We know everyone is exposed to BPA through what we eat, drink, and touch and we are trying to understand how this chemical exposure affects the health of multiple generations.
The findings support the hypothesis that exposure to these chemicals is concerning and increases the risk of metabolic ill health. Recommendations for the public include trying to minimize exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals as often as possible, by not consuming products containing BPA (canned foods, plastic water bottles, and microwaving food in plastic containers), washing fruits & vegetables that could be potentially exposed to BPA, and washing hands after handling paper receipts prior to consuming food.
Congratulations to Dr. Marilyn Howarth, Director of the CEET Community Outreach and Engagement Core, for receiving the 2018 Chester Environmental Partnership (CEP) Award. This year, five honorees were distinguished for their commitment to environmental stewardship and close partnership with the CEP.
Exploring Day/Night Patterns in Personal Exposure to Air Pollutants: Asthma and the Human Clock
Residing in Queen Village, a neighborhood in Philadelphia, PA, Dr. Skarke is witnessing how nocturnal asthma —breathing problems typically occurring between 3:00 to 5:00 AM —is taking a toll on some families and their children. The risk to be affected by asthma is much higher in the City of Philadelphia than in other communities of the nation. The Pennsylvania Department of Health reports for 2013, that about 22% of children are asthmatics in Philadelphia versus less than 10% nationwide (National Health Interview Survey, CDC, 2016). For many children and adults, symptom-free days alternate with episodes of asthma, often at night, and missed school or work days, even hospital visits.
Now, in his CEET research project “Air Pollution, Asthma and Circadian Clocks,” Dr. Skarke seeks to collect data to help understand the day/night pattern (circadian), between air pollutants, such as ozone or particulate matter, and asthma. Given that different areas of the city probably have different time courses of personal exposure to air pollutants, Dr. Skarke deploys wearable sensors to measure hyperlocal concentrations of air pollutants. These data at high resolution should allow him and his team to identify temporal associations between exposure and onset of disease symptoms. Understanding these relationships might offer insights which could help predict the next asthma episode. Studies under lab conditions showed, for example, how certain microRNAs, small molecules which fine-tune gene expression, are upregulated in asthmatics as well as after experimental exposure to ozone. Many of these microRNAs are associated with inflammation and circadian control. Future studies might use these microRNAs to shed more light on underlying mechanisms.
“Of course, this is a long way to go. First, we need to start small, field-testing the devices in healthy volunteers and learning how to collect and interpret data, before we ask asthma patients to enroll in our studies. Then we can start looking for mechanisms,” says Dr. Skarke.
This line of work represents a strong new focus for Dr. Skarke’s research. Fostered by Penn’s growing Chronobiology Program, Dr. Skarke incorporates time in his research to elucidate the role of biorhythms (and their disruption) in health and disease. Dr. Skarke studied circadian rhythms in volunteers to begin defining the Human Chronobiome — a collection of a person’s physiological traits over a 24-hour timeframe in the natural settings of a volunteer’s personal lifestyle. “This is a necessary endeavor to understand how the physiology in healthy individuals varies hour-by-hour,” underscores Dr. Skarke. Using this knowledge, the expectation is to better understand which changes in the chronobiome associate with certain diseases.
“I am very excited to launch into this intersection of medicine and environment,” remarks Dr. Skarke. He grew up most of his childhood in Zornheim, Germany, a village of about 3,000 people which is defined by its vineyards and its open space. The growing environmental movement in Germany acted as a driving force for his scientific curiosity, and he took a strong interest in pursuing environmental sciences.
Through Germany’s conscription laws to military or civilian service, Carsten had the unique opportunity to complete his civil service as a paramedic, which put him in close contact with professionals in the medical field. After a year of responding to cardiovascular and respiratory emergencies, Dr. Skarke knew he wanted to go into medicine. He earned his MD (Medicine) from the Johannes Gutenberg University School of Medicine in Mainz, Germany, 1998, with a doctorate (Dr. med.) awarded in 2000.
Dr. Skarke continues, “I went to medical school driven by my experiences as a paramedic. I was pretty much set on doing internal medicine. However, my doctoral thesis work sparked my interest in research.” As a trained MD, Dr. Skarke sought out translational research as a domain with direct impact on understanding and treating disease conditions. This interest led
Dr. Skarke to join the Penn community as an Alexander von Humboldt-Fellow in 2007, followed by his faculty appointment in 2010.
