DETECTION AND MODELS OF TOXICANT EXPOSURE

  The Superfund Research Center (SRC) at the University of California, San Diego will be active for an additional five years (2017-2022), thanks to another round of renewed funding from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Started in 2000, UC San Diego’s SRC was the first major multidisciplinary research initiative at the university to study the impact of environmental toxicants on human health. The UCSD-SRC brings together investigators with complimentary expertise in the health sciences, physical and life sciences, engineering and social sciences from multiple UC San Diego divisions, departments and centers. The $12M in renewed funding will be used to conduct research on the molecular and genetic consequences of fatty liver disease and cancer, following exposure to uncontrolled toxicants originating from consumer products and hazardous waste sites. The central concern of the UCSD-SRC is fatty liver disease and its complications. Cirrhosis and cancer has increased dramatically in the U.S., exhibiting a 3 – fold increase in the past 20 years. Environmental exposure to chemical toxicants statistically worsens liver disease in susceptible populations, such as the obese or those with diabetes, resulting in very similar liver pathophysiology as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and the more serious condition nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). With clinical studies showing environmental toxicants can lead to NAFLD/NASH in the absence of overt obesity, called Toxicant Associated Steatohepatitis, the UCSD-SRC will be investigating the cumulative risk of toxicant exposure, obesity and diabetes towards the development of liver cirrhosis and cancer. Also included in the UCSD-SRC are efforts to bioremediate and detect environmental toxicants, with additional support coming from sophisticated research cores, graduate student and postdoctoral training, and university community engagement efforts.

A schematic representation of the UCSD-SRC is outlined below.

Article contributed by:
Dr. Robert H. Tukey
Director, UCSD Superfund Research Center

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