Environmental Toxicology
Environmental toxicology examines the harmful effects of various chemical, biological and physical agents on living organisms at molecular, cellular, organism and population levels. This involves the adverse effects of environmental pollutants in air, soil, and water, and includes both natural and anthropogenic agents.
Our faculty has extensive expertise in both aquatic and pulmonary toxicology with a focus on phthalates, PFAS, nanomaterials, asbestos, secondary organic aerosols, PM and metals. Our work focuses on fish and rodent models and human populations and field sampling in both domestic and global environments including Haiti and several countries in Africa.
Computational Toxicology
Computational Toxicology studies computational approaches to predict toxicokinetics and toxicity of xenobiotics in living organisms at the cellular, organ, individual, and population levels. These computational approaches include physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK), quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR), and dose-response models. To build more robust models, we incorporate advanced mathematical methods, such as Bayesian-based Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulation, machine learning, and artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms into our models.
Our faculty has extensive expertise in computational toxicology, especially in PBPK modeling of drugs, environmental chemicals, and nanoparticles in laboratory animals, food-producing animals, and humans. We apply our models to support human health risk assessment of environmental chemicals and nanoparticles, and food safety assessment of animal-derived food products, such as meat, milk, and eggs.
Learn more about our faculty members working in environmental and computational toxicology by visiting their profiles below.
Interplay of Chemicals, Microplastics and Viruses
“We need to consider multiple environmental exposures and how they may collectively contribute to adverse health outcomes.”
Investigating Links Between Chemical Exposure and Obesity
“Fish are excellent models for uncovering mechanisms driving priority public health outcomes.”
Contaminants Affecting Human and Animal Health
“We are continually contaminating our waterways and ecosystem, and it is critical to understand the resultant underlying adverse health endpoints and provide insights into environmentally-induced disease in humans and animals.”
Using Wastewater-Based Epidemiology to Understand Community Health
“Knowledge gained from understanding what’s in sewage can play a critical role in protecting communities from emerging pathogens, opioids and pesticides”
Integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) with Physiologically Based Pharmacokinetic (PBPK) Modeling
“Our goal is to develop AI-assisted computational models to support decision-making in human health, animal health, and environmental health (i.e., one health approach).”
