NIEHS and other agencies within the federal system have a special interest in the possible reproductive and developmental effects of hazardous substances, including those caused by endocrine disrupting agents. Despite increasingly sophisticated work applied to the problem, there is still much to learn before we understand how serious the problem might be.
The Boston University Superfund Basic Research Program is composed of nine projects, organized into two blocks:
In epidemiological studies, the neurotoxic effects of low level prenatal and childhood exposure to perchloroethylene in drinking water are being studied in a community setting. In addition methods for detecting and analyzing patterns of spatial and toxicological data associated with developmental outcomes are being investigated.
In mechanistic studies, the program is exploring the underlying mechanics of xenobiotic/endocrine interactions and their effects to allow better understanding of the implications of perturbations of reproductive, developmental and immunological processes by hazardous substances in the environment.
| Recent MeetingThe 28th Annual New England Membrane Enzyme Group Meeting (NUTMEG) was held at the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole October 7th-9th, 2010. The program was organized by Dr. John Stegeman and Dr. Mark Hahn of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, Dr. Kim Boekelheide of Brown University and Joshua Hamilton of the Marine Biological Laboratory. There were a number of platform presentations of interest to Superfund and the David Kupfer Memorial Nutmeg Keynote lecture was presented by Eva Brittebo, of Uppsala University, Sweden. In addition, students supported by Boston University Superfund (BUSRP) projects and the Training Core presented posters highlighting their research. A session was devoted to an overview of the New England Superfund Research Programs at Boston University (D.Ozonoff, D.Sherr), Dartmouth College (Bruce Stanton/Jennifer Bomberger), Brown University (Kim Boekelheide/Joseph Calo), Harvard University (Quan Lu) and Northeastern University (A. Alshawabkeh). |
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