Pilot Project Recipients Year 13
How Chemicals from Everyday Products Could Make Breast Cancer Harder to Treat
Study Title: Engineered Cells to Study Obesity, Epigenetics and Environmental Risks for Breast Cancer Mortality
PI: Karmella Haynes
Summary:
Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a fast-growing cancer that is harder to treat and more likely to return. This is especially true for African American and Latina women. We also know that obesity can make this cancer worse, but it’s still unclear how. One possible reason may be linked to certain chemicals like BPA and phthalates, which are “obesogens” found in many plastics and personal care products. Obesogens can change how fat cells behave and may affect how nearby cancer cells grow and respond to treatment. In this study, we are exposing lab-cultured fat cells to BPA and pthalates. When exposed to these chemicals, the fat cells release “signal” messages to communicate to nearby cells. We will collect these signal messages and add them to specially engineered breast cancer cells and see how they respond. Our goal is to better understand how environmental chemicals, such as those found in plastics, can contribute to cancer treatment resistance.
How this study advances exposome science: This study explores how environmental chemicals like obesogens may influence cancer indirectly, not by acting on tumor cells themselves, but by changing the way fat cells communicate with breast cancer cells. This knowledge could help explain why obesity alone doesn’t always predict cancer outcomes and could lead to more targeted therapies for the most affected communities.
Mapping Hidden Environmental Clues for Healthier Pregnancies
Study Title: Using Imageomics to Assess External Exposome with High-resolution Remote Sensing Images: A Proof-of-concept Study in Atlanta African American Women Maternal-Child Cohort
PI: Longxian Li
Summary:
Expectant parents are exposed to countless, often untracked environmental factors. Traditional monitoring misses many emerging risks, leaving scientists with incomplete pictures of how neighborhoods affect pregnancy health. We need a new way to see those invisible exposures. To do this, we will apply “imageomics” (advanced computer vision using AI) to routine aerial photographs of metro Atlanta. By turning each picture into over 4,000 descriptive features of roads, vegetation, and buildings, we will build a time-stamped “external exposome” for 200 Black pregnant participants in an ongoing Emory study. We will then link these features to thousands of chemicals already measured in the participants’ blood to see which neighborhood patterns mirror internal exposures. This project will test a new method to reveal which neighborhood characteristics contribute to chemical burdens, creating a low-cost tool health researchers can reuse. If successful, imageomics will fill critical data gaps and guide interventions—from zoning to green-space investment—that support safer pregnancies.
How this study advances exposome science: This project translates everyday imagery into actionable exposure data, bridging satellite technology and metabolomics for public-health action. This new method has the potential to uncover hidden environmental risks in communities, especially those of historically underserved mothers and babies.
Studying How Air Pollution Affects Different Brain Cell Types
Study Title: Investigating Cell-Type-Specific Impacts of Air Pollutants on the Aging Brain Using Single-Cell and Bulk Transcriptomics
PI: Chang Su
Summary:
Air pollution is a major environmental risk that has been linked to cognitive decline and brain disorders (such as memory loss and Alzheimer’s) in older adults. Yet, we still know little about how air pollutants, specifically PM2.5 (fine particulate matter), affect specific types of brain cells.
This study aims to fill that gap by using cutting-edge sequencing and computational tools, which map patterns in gene activities, to examine how different brain cell types respond to air pollution. By analyzing these patterns for changes in these cells, the researchers hope to learn how pollutants might change the way the brain functions and possibly lead to disease. These findings will be especially important for communities exposed to high levels of air pollution.
How this study advances exposome science: This research will deepen our understanding of how air pollution, one of the most common environmental exposures, affects brain health, helping to guide future efforts in the intervention and treatment of brain-related diseases.
Do Common Household Chemicals Increase Prostate Cancer Risk?
Study Title: Metabolic Effects of Exposome-Level Endocrine Disruptors on Prostate Cancer Progression
PI: Jianhua Xiong
Summary:
Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers in men. However, we still don’t fully understand what causes it or how it may develop into a more aggressive cancer. This study looks at whether certain chemicals in our environment may play a role.
Many everyday products like plastics, personal care items, and food packaging contain chemicals called endocrine disruptors. These chemicals can interfere with the normal function of hormones in the body. We want to know if these hormone-disrupting chemicals affect how prostate cancer cells grow and use energy. In this study, we will expose prostate cancer cells to these chemicals and then use untargeted metabolomics to measure any change in how the cells respond.
Our goal is to better understand how these endocrine disruptors may cause prostate cancer to grow or become more aggressive. This research may lead to new ways to prevent the disease or create better treatments by focusing on how the environment can influence cancer. This work is important to advance men’s health and understand the impacts of environmental exposures.
How this study advances exposome science:
This study connects real-world, everyday chemical exposures—a key part of the “exposome”—to changes inside the body’s cells. It helps us understand how the environment affects health and disease and could help to prevent harmful exposures in our daily lives.
Air pollution and inflammation: Developing personalized real-time exposomic tools
PI: Matt Flavin
Summary:
People can be exposed to air pollution, including gases like volatile organic compounds (VOCs), from a variety of sources such as traffic and industrial facilities. These exposures have been found to cause a broad range of negative health outcomes. However, current methods to measure a person’s individual exposure along with the related health impacts aren’t sensitive enough to detect small changes in immune response (e.g., inflammation). This creates challenges for evaluating the individual-level risks experienced by local communities. Our project aims to pilot test new sensing tools for monitoring the impact and threat of VOCs in real time. We will test the feasibility of using miniature electronic wearable devices to measure gases, and at-home finger-prick blood tests to measure inflammation (cytokine activity). By developing electronic systems to measure VOCs in the environment as well as immune response we can provide a personalized platform to inform people about harmful exposures in their environment.
How this study advances exposome science: By testing this new system of wearable gas monitoring sensors and a finger-prick blood test we will be able to establish relationships between exposures and specific health endpoints. This integrated exposure and response network will empower stakeholders, including local community-members and their healthcare providers, with actionable, real-time information about silent hazards in their environment through an accessible user interface.
Understanding the Role of Air Pollution on Coronary Artery Disease Progression
Study Title: Impact of Air Pollution Related Proteins on Coronary Artery Disease Prognosis
PI: Chang Liu
Summary:
Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a leading cause of death in the U.S., and air pollution is a key environmental factor that may make it worse. Pollutants such as fine particulate matter (PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and carbon monoxide (CO) can worsen cardiovascular health and increase the risk of adverse cardiovascular events like heart attacks and strokes. The goal of this study is to explore how exposure to these air pollutants impacts the progression of CAD. In this study, we will analyze blood proteins from individuals with CAD to identify changes linked to air pollution exposure. We will also examine how these protein changes might predict major adverse cardiovascular outcomes.
How this study advances exposome science: This research could provide new insights into how air pollution worsens cardiovascular disease. By identifying specific proteins that serve as early warning signs of pollution-related adverse cardiovascular events, we hope to develop strategies for earlier intervention, more targeted prevention strategies, and improved patient care. Moreover, by examining how environmental factors alter blood proteins, this study helps us understand the complex relationship between the environment and human health, particularly in the context of cardiovascular disease.
How do light and temperature affect brain and body health?
Study title: HERCULES pilot Public Health Impact Statement – Tracking Rhythms and Chrono-Health during Ambulatory Electro-encephalography (TRaC EEG)
PI: Danielle Wallace
Summary:
Light and temperature are types of environmental exposures that we often take for granted, but they are important parts of the exposome. Light, in particular, is the main signal that our brain and body use to sense what time of day it is (to set our “body clocks” or biological rhythms), which can affect sleep patterns, brain activity, and overall health. This pilot study includes adult participants undergoing ambulatory electro-encephalography (EEG) as part of their standard clinical care. Ambulatory EEG can measure things like sleep stages (such as rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, when dreaming most often occurs), as well as events such as seizures, while in the regular home environment. Participants will also wear activity trackers, temperature sensors, and light sensors and answer questionnaires to assess their usual sleep and activity patterns, experiences, and environment. We will analyze these data to understand how everyday environmental exposures like light and temperature affect brain activity and sleep. Summary results will be shared with participants.
How this study advances exposome science: Understanding how everyday environmental exposures like light and temperature affect brain activity and sleep is important because we can modify our behaviors and light exposure. For example, knowing how the timing and brightness of our light exposure affects brain and overall health could inform health recommendations and guidelines.