List of Cehs Standard Pilot Projects Awards

In this application, we propose to examine the cross-talk between environmental exposures and infectious diseases, which represents a current void in toxicological and environmental health research. The motivation and significance stem from the fact that humans are constantly exposed to not only a vast number of environmental chemicals, but also many disease-causing infectious agents or other inflammation-inducing factors. However, historically, research on environmental exposures and infectious/inflammatory diseases have seldom been conducted within the same toxicological paradigm. The overall goal of this proposal is to understand the complex infection-exposure interaction and define altering effects of inflammation on the hepatic toxicity of environmental chemicals. Specifically, this study will reveal the functional impact of hepatic inflammation on mediating arsenic-induced capillarization of sinusoidal endothelial cells, arsenic metabolism/microbiome and nitrosylation signaling pathways using innovative systemslevel approaches. Success in this proposal will significantly improve our understanding of interaction between infectious diseases and chemical exposures, a current gap in toxicological research. It will also improve our capability of addressing individual response and identifying susceptible populations, critical determinants and/or windows of exposures for human health.