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Spotlighting a Unique ORD Research Enterprise
Available Spotlights
2005
2004
2003
Breaking the Mold: Problem Solving Through Teamwork
(June, 2004) In technologically developed societies, most people spend more than 90 percent of their time indoors and that means they breathe a lot of indoor air. The "2003-2008 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Strategic Plan" contains a work objective for "Healthier Indoor Air" by 2008. This Spotlight feature focuses on work by a unique team of researchers within EPA's Office of Research and Development (ORD). This team is addressing in a comprehensive way a common component of our indoor air: molds.
Dr. Stephen Vesper, leader of the EPA Mold Team, has been with NERL in Cincinnati since 1998
Today most homeowners and apartment dwellers are concerned about molds in the household. This makes molds a big concern for builders, insurers and the medical community. All of their concerns revolve around both property damage and potentially adverse health effects that might arise from exposure to molds.
Two recent articles in the Science and Technology Section of Chemical and Engineering News (Volume 82, Number 7: 57-58; February 16, 2004) examined some issues surrounding indoor mold growth including the health risks of exposure to molds and the role of new construction materials that favor mold growth. Generally, molds grow when the indoor environment is abnormally moist. When they grow and multiply, molds can have the potential to cause health problems.
In hospitals, patients with compromised immune systems are highly susceptible to dangerous mold infections. For typically healthy people, molds can cause allergic reactions and irritations. For others, asthma symptoms are exacerbated by exposures to moldy environments. Furthermore, a newly emerging connection is developing between mold exposures and a condition called chronic rhinosinusitis. This condition afflicts more than 37 million people in the U.S. alone. Mayo Clinic researchers have demonstrated that molds colonizing our sinuses may be the culprit. Perhaps the most troublesome issue is the possibility that some molds produce toxins (mycotoxins) that affect people. Mycotoxins are a well known problem for domesticated animal production. So there are many reasons to be concerned about exposures to indoor molds. But, which molds are the culprits? One of the first tasks faced by the mold research team was to find out just which molds were present.
There are perhaps 100 to 200 molds that can be found indoors. Researchers from the National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL) in Cincinnati have developed and patented an innovative technology for identifying and enumerating the populations of indoor molds. This application of science to solving people's problems with indoor mold growth is based on recent advances in what is known as the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). PCR technology offers significant advantages in the speed, accuracy and ease of analyses.
The U.S. EPA has licensed—and continues to license on a non-exclusive basis—this technology to companies that are now performing this service for a wide range of clients. The value of the patented technology is comprehensive as it incorporates thorough education of users about the best available DNA sequences to use for over 130 species of mold found in indoor air. Arguably, the best part of the technology is that it is fast. The time for analysis by a licensed company—from sampling to result—is only a few hours. The technique eliminates the need for plating and culturing molds as well as for identifying and counting them.
In addition to addressing a significant need for an improved detection method for fungi in indoor environments, this technology-developed through ORD teamwork-is being used in research studies to gain a better understanding of the effects of molds on human health. The leader of this exceptional team is Dr. Stephen Vesper; he has been with NERL in Cincinnati since 1998. As this feature's title says, problem solving through team work has been driving Steve Vesper's scientific career, whether in industry or now. Initially, he was reluctant to be the focus of a Spotlight as he believes that all accomplishments are a result of a group effort and not that of any single individual. A year of cajoling has finally resulted in this Spotlight that highlights teamwork's value and the responsibilities of leading a productive team.
The team includes members from most of ORD's Laboratories and Centers. The National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory (NHEERL) members, Mary Jane Selgrade and Marsha Ward, are addressing allergy and asthma. Marc Menetrez and collaborators from the National Risk Management Research Laboratory (NRMRL) are testing control technologies, many under Cooperative Research and Development Agreements with various industries. Bob Frederick and colleagues from the National Center for Environmental Assessment (NCEA) are developing models of the process using the Risk Assessment/Risk Management Paradigm.
Some Members of the EPA Mold Team LEFT TO RIGHT : Steve Vesper (NERL), Mary Jane Selgrade (NHEERL), Victor DeJesus (NRMRL), Jeanette Van Emon (NERL), Larry Wymer (NERL), and Marsha Ward (NHEERL)
Steve explains that he lives the world of his work with excitement and exhilaration. He says that at the EPA he has found a vast and expanding horizon of issues related to microbiological exposure to apply his energies. Significantly, he has found ". . . an extremely valuable asset at EPA-a ready and willing group of dedicated scientists to be his research colleagues." Within a couple of years of joining EPA, Steve says that he had extended his group of collaborators well beyond the Cincinnati campus of the research facility there and was regularly sharing results of experiments with other EPA researchers around the country. He makes it clear that his group of collaborators does not stop at the borders of EPA. He has built extensive research and collaborative relationships with biomedical researchers at various medical centers in the U.S. These include investigators at such highly-ranked departments as the Environmental Health Department within the University of Cincinnati's College of Medicine, and the Department of Pediatrics at Case Western Reserve University.
Overhearing the myriad contacts Steve makes throughout his generally long workday, its evident that one of his strengths is building those ever-critical collaborative relationships. Although group effort gets good research done, group effort to Steve also means engaging others in the excitement of discovery. "Everyone wins when we have success," Steve says. He should know, he has seen his share of successes, having garnered such EPA recognitions as the Bronze Medal for Commendable Service in 2002, the Gold Medal for Exceptional Service in 2001, and the Scientific and Technology Achievement Award in 2000.
Steve counts as one of his most important collaborations with Rich Haugland their joint development of the abovementioned quantitative PCR (QPCR) technique for accurately identifying and measuring troublesome "molds" in household and building samples. Overnight, with this technique in hand, the decades-old technology of using plate counts to spot problematic indoor fungi became obsolete. The EPA's Technology Transfer Office has already licensed 15 companies in the U.S. and European Union to use this technology. The team's work on QPCR has been awarded the prestigious Federal Laboratory Consortium Award for Excellence in Technology Transfer in 2002.
While developing innovative and more precise techniques to help identify indoor biological contaminants is gratifying to Steve, at heart his focus is-as yet-basic science. He is driven to know the fundamental "why" behind the organisms that are the focus of his work. This type of concentration has led to discovery and isolation of hemolysins-these are proteins produced by certain indoor molds. Here, Steve is intrigued by trying to figure out the "evolutionary psychology" of his research organisms. He says, for example, "Why is it advantageous for an indoor mold to produce a hemolysin at body temperature but not at the temperature at which it normally grows?" Of course, close behind this basic research questions in Steve's research mind are questions relative to Steve's applied research mode. For example, he asks, "How can we harness the knowledge of these hemolysin-producers to help us develop methods to monitor mold exposures, or perhaps improve drug-delivery systems?" No wonder, Steve has even been dubbed by some colleagues as the "Technology Transfer Poster Child" at the EPA.
Working the territory of discovery in the scientific field of indoor molds has led Steve toward many and diverse scientific insights and discoveries. These are attested to in his over 16 peer-reviewed research papers-in just the past four years; and his numerous technical papers and invited presentations at conferences and universities. In summing up the love for his work, Steve admits that it is difficult to rank in order of importance the three most exciting components. For him, they are a delightful mix of working with insightful and dedicated researchers, working with a challenging and "mythical" set of organisms, and delivering useful and relevant scientific discoveries.
Want to catch up with Steve for a chat about molds and fungi? No problem, you must only be ready to move a mile-a-minute with him as he makes his rounds from research laboratory, to his control-central office (complete with the squeaky chair-an original), to the EPA's Technology Transfer Office, and to meetings around the globe with similarly-energized researchers. Keeping pace with him, you will find him delivering an often amusing, but always enlightening, array of facts and peculiarities of those creepy, clandestine, maligned-but very clever "molds." Indeed, the mind of the mold has met a tenacious but respectful set of inquisitors-Steve Vesper and the EPA Mold Team.
The Office of Research and Development is committed to showing the difference the important work its scientists and engineers are making in peoples lives. We welcome your reaction to-and any comments on-this "Spotlight" feature article; please send them to draggan.sidney@epa.gov.