University of Pennsylvania

Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology

Trevor M Penning, Ph.D.
penning@pharm.med.upenn.edu
http://www.med.upenn.edu/ceet/

Project Description

The Center for Excellence in Environmental Toxicology (CEET) is the single entity that coordinates, facilitates, synergizes and integrates all environmentally related health research and outreach at the University of Pennsylvania. The CEET has 50 faculty members in 16 Departments from 5 Schools as Center members. These members are dedicated to the CEET mission to improve the health of the public living in urban environments with an aging industrial infrastructure, through basic, translational and clinical research, and outreach. The investigators relate environmental exposures, to molecular/cellular effects, to health outcomes, with the vision that diseases with environmental etiology can be largely eliminated by effective prevention or intervention strategies and/or changes in environmental policy. The mission is accomplished via four integrated Research Cores, three Facility Cores, and a vibrant Community Outreach and Education Program (COEP). The Research Cores are led by investigators with international reputations. These Cores are in Oxidative Stress and Oxidative Stress Injury (co-Directors: Drs. Blair and Ischiropoulos), Endocrine and Reproduction Disruption (co-Directors: Drs. Strauss and Manson), Lung and Airway Disease (co-Directors: Drs. Panettieri and Albelda), and Genes and the Environment (co-Directors: Drs. Rebbeck and Whitehead). These Cores address environmental health issues important to our urban region. Adverse reproductive and pregnancy outcomes, developmental disorders, and diseases of the lung and airway are common, and are addressed in the organ-based Cores. The Cores in Oxidative Stress and Genes in the Environment elucidate key mechanisms by which environmental exposures can lead to toxicity in these and other organ systems leading to an integrated Center structure.

The Facility Cores are in Toxicogenomics, Toxicoproteomics and Biomarkers, and provide investigators with services that would otherwise be unattainable and will propel investigators into the new era of predictive toxicology. The COEP disseminates research findings and utilizes the expertise of CEET investigators: to enhance K-16 education in environmental health; to conduct community outreach in four environmentally challenged Southeastern Pennsylvania communities, and to enrich the education of health care professionals. The COEP has forged relationships with community partners for outreach. The COEP goal is to reduce the risk of harmful exposures and improve the public health of vulnerable populations within these communities.

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Program Highlights

Center for Environmental-Gene Interactions in Lung Cancer

Steve Whitehead, Co-Director of the CEET Genes and Environment Core, is being funded by the Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH) to establish a Center for Environmental-Gene Interactions in Lung Cancer. The grant is supported by Pennsylvania Tobacco Settlement Fund. This CEET initiative will use a candidate gene approach to identify single-nucleotide polymorphisms in genes that may predispose individuals to lung cancer following exposure to carcinogens common to tobacco and the environment. Patients enrolled in the study will be phenotyped for exposure using established biomarkers for nicotine and benzo[a]pyrene. The study will draw on faculty from the CEET Lung and Airway Disease Core and will use the Toxicogenomics and Biomarker Facility Cores of the CEET. The application also transcends institution and includes collaborations with the Penn State Hershey Medical Center and Lincoln University.

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Environmental Carcinogenesis Program

The CEET has worked with the new leadership of the Abramson Cancer Center (NCI-funded Comprehensive Cancer Center), Drs. Craig Thompson (Director) and Caryn Lerman (Deputy Director) to launch a new Core Program in Environmental Carcinogenesis. The program was developed by consultation with basic and clinical scientists in the CEET and the Cancer Center, which culminated in a Lung Cancer Retreat in May 2006. The co-directors of the Environmental Carcinogenesis Program are Dr. Trevor Penning (CEET, Director) and Dr. Steve Albelda (Co-Director of the Lung and Airway-Disease Research Core).

The new program will foster untapped collaborations among Cancer Center and CEET investigators studying carcinogenesis, tobacco use/cessation, airway cancer pathobiology, and biomarkers of risk. It will provide a marriage between basic, translational and clinical and population-based scientists. It will increase our ability to recruit outstanding scientists interested in airway and aerodigestive cancers. It will position the Cancer Center and CEET investigators to respond to new opportunities in environmental toxicology, lung cancer pathobiology, and tobacco control.

The scientific goals of the Environmental Carcinogenesis Program are to: (a) elucidate the mechanistic basis of environmental carcinogenesis; (b) study gene-environment interactions in cancer risk; (c) develop and evaluate interventions to prevent cancer through exposure reduction; and (d) develop novel methods for early detection, diagnosis, and prognosis of environmentally caused cancers. The initial focus of this program will be on tobacco smoke (mainstream and environmental) and asbestos-related cancers e.g., lung cancer, head and neck cancer, and mesothelioma. As the program develops, other organ targets of environmental carcinogens will be incorporated.

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