|
|
PIC 2017: The 15th International Congress on Combustion By-Products and Their Health Effects
 Participants in the 15th International Congress on Combustion By-Products and Their Health Effects in front of Gyeonghuigung Palace. Photo courtesy of Sang-Hyuk Kwak and Dae-Hong Lim.
The 15 th International Congress on Combustion By-Products and Their Health Effects (PIC 2017) was held June 27-30 in Seoul South Korea. The theme for this year’s Congress was “Coping with Expanding Regulations: Health and Environmental Effects of Combustion By-products from Newly Recognized Sources of Pollution”. PIC 2017 was co-hosted by The Korean Society of Combustion ( http://www.kosco.or.kr/) and the PIC Congress Office at Louisiana State University ( www.lsu.edu/piccongress) and sponsored by National Institute of Environmental Health Science ( NIEHS).
 Left: Dr Sunho Park, the Local Organizing Committee Chair, gives part of the welcome address. Right: Dr. Slawo Lomnicki (left) and Dr. Stephania Cormier (right) present Dr. Angela Violi (center) with the Adel Sarofim award, which recognizes outstanding advancements in understanding combustion processes, formation of combustion by-products and mechanisms of their health effects. Photos courtesy of Sang-Hyuk Kwak and Dae-Hong Lim.
LSU SRP researchers played a major role at this year’s PIC Congress. Dr. Slawo Lomnicki and Dr. Stephania Cormier served as Executive Committee Co-Chairs. Dr. Cormier also gave part of the welcome address and served as the chair for the session “Combustion-Derived Nanomaterials I.” LSU SRP researchers, trainees and alumni also contributed to the following presentations at PIC 2017:
- “Reduced lung function in adult mice after exposure to environmentally persistent free radicals is preceded by vascular injury” (Tammy Dugas).
- “Inhaled environmentally persistent free radical particulate matter produce toxicity and adjuvant effects following house-dust mite induction of asthma in mice” (Alexandra Noël, Ashlyn C. Harmon, Balamurugan Subramanian, Zakia Perveen, Kurt Varner, Kelsey Legendre, Daniel B. Paulsen, Tammy R. Dugas and Arthur L. Penn).
- “Radical containing combustion derived particulate matter activate aryl hydrocarbon receptor and enhance pulmonary Th17 inflammation (Sridhar Jaligama, Vivek Patel, Asmaa Sallam, Pingli Wang, Jeffrey Harding and Stephania A. Cormier)
- “Persistent free radicals from pyrolysis of lignin and lignin model compounds” (L. Khachatryan, M. Barekati-Goudarzi, M. Xu, R. Asatryan and D. Boldor).
- “The effect of particulate matter mineral composition on environmentally persistent free radical (EPFR) formation (Elisabeth E. Feld-Cook, Lisa Bovenkamp-Langlois and Slawo M. Lomnicki).
- “Mechanisms for formation of PCDD/F via surface-assisted coupling of precursors (Hantarto Widjaja, Bogdan Z. Dlugogorski, Jakub Skut, Slawomir M. Lomnicki and Mohammednoor Altarawneh).
- “Gas-to-particle partitioning constants of volatile organic compounds (Eric P. Vejerano, Guiying Rao, Hannah M. Rogers and Linsey C. Marr)
- “Application of the continuous ambient particulate monitor in the long-term assessment of atmospheric dioxins (Meng-xia Xu, Jun He, Neng-bin Xu, Li-bo Zhu, Ying-guo Fan, Jie Yu, Bing-jian Yang, Shen-jie Li, Wei-feng Wang and Dan-dan Xu)
To learn more about PIC 2017, the host institution, and see the full agenda please visit http://www.pic2017.kr/. Pictures from PIC 2017 are also available on the LSU SRP Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pg/LSUSRP/photos/ and on the LSU SRP blog. |
|
|
|
|
|
The LSU SRP Research Translation Core is "Shining Light on Pollution!"
 The “Shining Light on Pollution” activity involved building a pollution detector from basic electrical components and connecting the components to a programable microcontroller (Arduino) with code that tells the Arduino to light up LEDs based on the number of particles detected.
The LSU SRP RTC hosted a Louisiana 4-H University Clover College track and the Big Buddy program for summer enrichment activities again this year. This year’s Clover College session was entitled “Tracking Toxins: Shining Light on Pollution” and was held June 21-22 at LSU. One of the highlights of the track was giving students the opportunity to build and test their own particulate matter (PM) detectors using a programmable microcontroller (Arduino), a simple dust sensor, and basic electronics (LEDs, resistors, wire, and breadboards). The activity and code for the Arduinos were developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the supplies were purchased using a grant from SPIE, the International Society for Optics and Photonics.
 Ozone detector deployed near a photocopier (left). Students spraying ozone-detecting filter paper with water to observe results (right).
Clover College participants also learned about ozone (O3), another and recreated a simple ozone test developed in the 1840’s by the German-Swiss chemist Christian Friedrich Schönbein, the scientist credited with discovering ozone. LSU SRP RTC staff showed students how to find real-time ozone and PM data on the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality’s (LDEQ) Air Quality Data and Air Quality Index (AQI) and the EPA’s AirNow.gov webpages.
The LSU SRP has partnered with Big Buddy, an organization that provides positive role models and quality learning experiences for the underserved children and youth of Baton Rouge, for several years. This year our summer enrichment activities were part of summer camp program called “ Teen Get Out,” a partnership between Big Buddy and the Recreation and Park Commission for the Parish of East Baton Rouge ( BREC). One group of our Big Buddy students also got to build particulate matter detectors and learn about PM pollution. Our other group of Big Buddy students learned about lead poisoning by using a hands-on kit from Science Take-Out and discussed how the media portrayed the water crisis in Flint, Michigan.
Big Buddy/ BREC Teen Get Out participants at the LSU Hill Farm Teaching Facility (left) and posing with their completed PM detector (right).
To see more pictures from “Tracking Toxins: Shining Light on Pollution,” please visit our Facebook album Clover College 2017 and the LSU SRP blog. To see more pictures from our activities with Big Buddy, please visit our Facebook albums: Big Buddy and BREC Teen Get Out June 9, 2017 and More Big Buddy/BREC Teen Get Out! June 15.
LSU SRP Researchers Receive Grant to Study P450 System Proteins
Congratulations to Dr. Wayne Backes (PI) and Dr. James Reed (Co-PI) for their grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences entitled “Interactions among P450 System Proteins and Their Distribution into Endoplasmic Reticulum Microdomains.” The goal of their project is to understand how cytochrome P450 system proteins are organized in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), and how the ER influences their distribution and function. The ER is a membrane network that is present inside the cells, and serves as a scaffold for organizing proteins as well as governing the transport of proteins.
Cytochrome P450s are enzymes that convert drugs and environmental chemicals into substances that are more easily removed from the body. Previous studies by Dr. Backes and colleagues showed that P450 enzymes can form complexes with other P450s, and that these P450-P450 complexes can change the way that the enzymes behave. Dr. Backes’ research group has also found that environmentally persistent free radicals (EPFRs) disrupt the formation of many of these complexes, which can affect our ability to breakdown foreign compounds. To learn more about EPFRs click here and to learn more about the research being conducted in the Backes Lab click here.
LSU SRP Researcher, Staff and Trainee Highlights
|
|
|
Dr. Lis Feld-Cook Defended her Dissertation
Congratulations to Dr. Elisabeth Feld-Cook who successfully defended her dissertation! She was the last trainee to enter the program under the mentorship of Dr. Barry Dellinger and is pictured (center) with her advisors Dr. McCarley (left) and Dr. Lomnicki (right).
|
LSU Team Placed 1st at Air & Waste Management Association Competition
Congratulations to the LSU team, the 1st place winners in the Air & Waste Management Association Environmental Challenge International Competition.
|
|
|
Ansonia Badgett Selected for Industry Conferences
Ansonia Badgett, a graduate student with Professor McCarley, was selected to participate in both the BEST Symposium hosted by The Dow Chemical Company in Midland, Michigan in August and the Procter & Gamble FIRST Conference held in Cincinnati, Ohio in September.
|
Dr. Cook Received Grant for Instrument Time at Department of Energy Lab
Dr. Robert Cook’s proposal "Fundamental Studies of the Sorption of Organic Molecules within Engineered Soil Surrogates” was funded for nearly $50,000-worth of instrument time at Environmental Molecular Science Laboratory of DOE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
|
|
|
Dr. Jagila Wesley Received a Trainee Development Scholarship
Congratulations to Dr. Jagila Wesley for receiving a Minority Trainee Development Scholarship from the American Thoracic Society. Dr. Wesley completed her fellowship in Dr. Cormier’s lab at University of Tennessee Health Science in June.
|
LSU SRP RTC Coordinator Attended Science Standards Workshop
LSU SRP RTC coordinator, Jen Irving, attended the Louisiana Student Standards for Science (LSSS) workgroup meeting on August 2nd. The event was hosted by the Louisiana Environmental Education Commission.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
