The NIEHS Superfund Research Program (SRP) 2023 Annual Meeting, which took place Dec. 4-6 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, brought together more than 580 researchers, administrators, trainees, and partners from across the nation.

This special edition e-Posted Notes provides a recap of sessions, photos, and other moments throughout the meeting. Thanks to everyone involved in the annual meeting, and a special thanks to everyone who helped organize the event!

For a broad overview of the meeting, see this NIEHS Environmental Factor story.

(Photo: Participants gather to kick off the SRP Annual Meeting.)

NIEHS Director Rick Woychik and University of New Mexico (UNM) President Garnett Stokes kicked off the event and provided opening remarks.

Woychik highlighted the remarkable science SRP is doing to improve the quality of health, emerging scientific priority areas, and SRP’s history with environmental justice and the importance of community engagement. Stokes reflected on the importance of indigenous inclusion for the culture of the state and the University of New Mexico, and how SRP funding has allowed the institution to respond to the needs of communities.

(Photo: Throughout the meeting, SRP-funded small businesses had their technologies on display)

On the first day of the meeting, Johnnye Lewis, former director of the UNM SRP Center, led a panel discussion about how art can be used to translate research and convey environmental health risks to Native American communities. The panel featured Mallery Quetawki, artist-in-residence at UNM, De Haven Chaffins, of Laguna Pueblo, and Manuela Well-Off-Man, of the Institute of American Indian Arts Museum of Contemporary Native Arts.

Highlighting the theme of the meeting, keynote speakers Clifford Villa, of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and Mark Gilfillan, of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, stressed the importance of Indigenous community engagement.

(Photo: Quetawki and Chaffins highlighted the importance of multidirectional communication with Indigenous communities.)

• Francisco Léniz, a former trainee at the University of Kentucky, shared his work developing membranes engineered to remediate PFAS and metals.
• Louisiana State University trainee Avinash Kumar explained how exposure to particulate matter containing environmentally persistent free radicals affects the metabolism of neonatal mice. Kumar conducted his externship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC).
• University of Iowa trainee Laura Dean discussed her research with the National Center for Toxicology Research to identify enzymes that metabolize the environmental pollutant polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) 11.

(Photo: Léniz conducted his externship at the Harvard SRP Center.)

• Martine Mathieu-Campbell, of Louisiana State University, described spatial predictive dispersion modeling of air pollutant concentrations using the AERMOD modeling system.
• Melissa Woodward, of the University of Rhode Island, explained the application of novel passive samplers for the detection of persistent organic pollutants in indoor air. Woodward traveled to Duke University for her externship.
• UNC trainee Eric Brown Jr. described his research with Harvard researchers to model the health effects of prenatal exposure to chemical mixtures, including preterm birth.

(Photo: Mathieu-Campbell traveled to the University of Iowa for her externship.)

• Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham talked about the effects of metals on lung health. Jessy Deshane discussed how exposure to heavy metals can worsen asthma by dysregulating signaling molecules in the immune system. Jennifer Larson-Casey explained the effects of heavy metals on mitochondria dysfunction and its impacts on lung injury.
• Tracy Zacher, of Missouri Breaks Industries Research, introduced an intervention to reduce arsenic exposure via drinking water in Native American communities.
• UNM researcher Debra MacKenzie featured the Thinking Zinc clinical trial, which is testing whether zinc supplementation can mitigate the adverse health effects caused by uranium exposure.
• Lidia Appell, also of UNM, discussed the effects of uranium-bearing dust on gastrointestinal health.
• Wil Lieberman-Cribbin, a trainee at Columbia University, described his work to reveal the effects of lead exposure on cardiovascular disease and mortality in Native American communities.

(Photo: Zacher is a member of the Community Engagement Core at the Columbia University SRP Center.)

• Lauren Eaves, of UNC, introduced a new geospatial modeling approach to identify regions of public health concern based on climate change and chemical and social stressors. 
• Jenny Rempel, a trainee at the University of California, Berkeley, described her work to model how historical redlining increases the risk of contaminated drinking water in Los Angeles.
• Oregon State University (OSU) researcher Sara Gosline showcased the center’s Analytics Portal, an automated data analysis platform used to share research findings.
• Brian Johnson, of Michigan State University (MSU), discussed the use of new approach methodologies, such as artificial intelligence, to model how chemicals disrupt thyroid hormone synthesis.

(Photo: Johnson is a project leader at the MSU SRP Center.)

• Audrey Bousquet, a trainee at UNC, described her team’s work to report results of lead contamination in the university’s drinking water sources to UNC students and staff.
• Texas A&M University (TAMU) trainee Ruby Hernandez discussed her efforts to communicate health risks to Houston communities impacted by environmental contamination and extreme weather events.
• Nobel Hernandez-Otero, a trainee at the University of Puerto Rico, shared how his team adopted online platforms to report back results and engage community members during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Lyke Thompson, of Wayne State University (WSU), shared preliminary results from efforts to report back air pollution monitoring results in Detroit, Michigan.

(Photo: “This work would not be possible without our strong engagement with study participants and partnerships with trusted community liaisons, such as nurses,” said Hernandez-Otero.)

• WSU trainee Sarah Black introduced a novel approach that uses plant galls to detect environmental contaminants.
• Samantha McFall, of the University of Louisville, explained how human-derived cells can reveal the cardiovascular health effects of benzene.
• Emily Green, of Duke University, discussed using killifish to understand how the microbiome reacts to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) trainee Lindsay Volk introduced a new methodology to study the carcinogenic effects of N-nitrosamines in mice.

(Photo: Green is a Duke trainee mentored by Nishad Jayasundara.)

• Xiara Day, of TAMU, highlighted the Joppa Environmental Health Project, which aims to address the air pollution concerns of Dallas, Texas residents by working with residents to install low-cost sensors.
• Alexis Slade, a trainee at the University of Iowa, described the center’s partnership with community organizations to measure and predict the dispersion of PCBs in the Portland Harbor Superfund Site in Oregon.
• UNC’s Andrew George talked about Well Empowered, a community-engaged study to address private well water contamination in North Carolina.
• Chrystal Galan Rivera, of the University of Puerto Rico, shared how her team developed videos to educate mothers in Puerto Rico about harmful contaminants.
• Yoshira Ornelas Van Horne, of Columbia University, discussed the center’s summer program to engage and train Indigenous high school students in research.

(Photo: Day is a TAMU SRP Center trainee mentored by Natalie Johnson.)

• Richa Srivastava, of the University of Massachusetts, shared her research using plants to remove arsenic from soil.
• University of Arizona trainee Susan Perez introduced new synthetic molecules to remove metals, including nickel, lead, and zinc, from the environment.
• Alireza Farsad, of Harvard University, shared her carbon-based technology to remove arsenic and various toxic arsenic-derived ions from drinking water.
• Nadia Adam, of the SRP-funded small business Biomineral Systems, showcased her technology that uses nanoparticles to remove metals from soils and aqueous systems.
• Baylor College of Medicine trainee Sara Denison discussed a strategy that uses clay to lower the temperature needed, and thus lower the energy requirements needed, to remediate PAHs via thermal treatment.
• Juliana Huizenga, of OSU, described her research to improve and speed up the ability of bacteria to degrade PAHs.

(Photo: Srivastava is a trainee in an SRP-funded individual research project.)

• Melissa Suter, of Baylor College of Medicine, highlighted the link between proximity to Superfund sites and metabolic dysregulations in samples of mothers’ placenta.
• WSU trainee Annie Nguyen also studied the placenta and described how benzene exposure before birth may impact the fetal neurological and immune systems.
• Seonyoung Park, of Northeastern University, shared her research that found that in utero exposure to phthalates, chemicals used in the production of plastics, decreased the number of signaling molecules that play a role in immune response.
• Harvard trainee Francesca Macaluso discussed her community-engaged project to characterize the impact of maternal exposure to metals on their babies’ exposure levels and future cognitive health risks.

(Photo: Nguyen is a doctoral student mentored by Gil Mor.)

• North Carolina State University (NCSU) trainee Hannah Starnes introduced a machine learning method to model the toxicity of PFAS that lack the experimental data needed for current modeling techniques.
• Also from NCSU, Sarangi Joseph described a technology that uses activated carbon to remove PFAS from drinking water.
• Shan Niu, of the University of Pittsburgh, shared the results from sampling for PFAS in tap water from different sources, including the kitchen, bathroom, and laundry sinks, in houses in Pennsylvania.
• Jane Hoppin, of NCSU, highlighted the results of a new international evaluation on the carcinogenicity of two widely used PFAS.

(Photo: University of Rhode Island SRP Center Director Rainer Lohmann asks a question during the PFAS session.)

• Mary Haley, UNM – “Characterization of Organo-Metallic Fine Fractions from the Jackpile Mine and Village of Paguate.”
• Nicolette Bugher, MIT – “Evaluation of Solid Phase Extraction Techniques for Trace-Level Analysis of Multiple N-Nitrosamines in Drinking Water.”
• Rayna Vue, UNM – “Longitudinal Analysis of Carcinogenic Metal Exposures in the Navajo Birth Cohort Study.”
• Breandon Taylor, University of Louisville – “Effect of Inhaled Benzene Exposure on Vascular Inflammation.”

(Photo: Bugher presenting her research during the poster competition.)

The Research Translation and Community Engagement Core satellite meeting kicked off with opening remarks from Pueblo of Laguna Governor Wilfred Herrera and Tribal members and UNM collaborators David Begay and Nancy Maryboy. Their remarks highlighted the importance of preserving Indigenous ways of knowledge in contemporary research.

(Photo: Herrera kicked off the satellite session.)

• Sebastian Medina, of New Mexico Highlands University, highlighted educational outreach activities and restoration efforts following a wildfire that struck a primarily Hispanic, low-income community in New Mexico.
• Carmenlita Chief, of the University of Arizona, highlighted her team’s work to understand community health risks following the Gold King Mine spill.
• Chris Shuey, of UNM, explained the importance of translating technical information when communicating with communities about uranium waste spills.
• Natalie Johnson, of TAMU, described her team’s efforts to conduct air quality monitoring following a train derailment in Ohio.

(Photo: Chief describes the post-disaster impacts on Native American communities.)

During the Individual Research Grants satellite session, grant recipients had a chance to explain their sustainable remediation technologies and share their overall goals and research updates. The grant recipients are creating technologies that combine materials science and engineering approaches to optimize conditions that accelerate natural degradation processes.

The flash talks were followed by a discussion that allowed researchers to share roadblocks they have experienced and how to address them. Participants also discussed strategies to scale up their remediation technologies so they can be applied to contaminated sites. Some of the best practices identified include obtaining the necessary permits for introducing biological materials to ecosystems, building trust with communities, and collaborating with engineering firms to facilitate site access.

To learn more about these activities, see the Individual Research Projects booklet.

(Photo: Project leaders, collaborators, and trainees gathered to discuss their research.)

The satellite session of the Data Management and Analysis Core (DMAC) brought together grant recipients working on data management and sharing to discuss common challenges and best practices toward making SRP data more FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable).

During a moderated discussion, participants shared strategies and considerations for using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). Researchers explained that while AI/ML can help advance data harmonization, standardization, analysis, modeling, visualization, and communication, training is needed to prevent limitations that may arise from not using tools correctly. Later discussions focused on using Geographic Information Systems to model, visualize, and communicate data; establishing platforms for managing and sharing data; and best practices to protect sensitive data, such as Tribal data.

(Photo: In a joint session with the Training Core, participants discussed science communication.)