This week Hao Wang successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis, titled "Cadmium exposure impairs adult neurogenesis, cognition, and olfactory memory in mice." Dr. Wang is a trainee of Dr. Zhengui Xia's and has contributed to UW SRP Project 2 through his investigation of the role of cadmium exposure in the development of neurodegenerative disease.
Center Updates
Each September, the American Geophysical Union (AGU) honors people who have made outstanding contributions to its mission of promoting discovery in Earth and space science for the benefit of society.
University of Washington Superfund Research Program Director, Evan Gallagher, was interviewed on two separate occasions in August by King 5 News about work done in his lab demonstrating that exposure to contaminants can lead to loss of olfaction in fish. The first piece aired on August 8th, 2018, as part of a story about the effects of ocean acidification on salmon's sense of smell.
Through the long, twisting course of evolution, mammals have returned to the ocean on at least three separate occasions- once to become whales and dolphins (from an ancestor of the hippopotami), once to become manatees and dugongs (from an ancestor of the elephants), and once to become seals an
On July 19th seven students from the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded SURE-EH program and two interns from the Center for Disease Control (CDC)-funded BRANCH program toured labs in the University of Washington (UW)’s Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS), engaging with a variety of presenters about how to find, apply to, and fund their ideal graduat
At top international conferences on Alzheimer’s disease, you’ll often find a select group of star neurobiologists who focus on the mechanics of disease development. You won’t find very many people looking at the role of environmental exposure.
Hao Wang, a graduate student with Zhengui Xia in the University of Washington’s Toxicology Program, recently provided the first direct evidence of cadmium’s adverse effects on cognition and olfaction by using an animal model. Cadmium is a common toxic heavy metal pollutant produced by burning fossil fuels, smelting metals and using phosphate fertilizer. Plants readily take up cadmium from the soil and can introduce it to the food chain. When people ingest cadmium, it tends to stay in the body for a long time, having toxic effects on the kidneys, liver, bones, lungs, and testes.
The 2018 Annual Meeting of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Superfund Research Program (SRP) National Network will be held November 28-30 in Sacramento, California. This annual meeting allows researchers from around the country to share what they've learned while researching sites contaminated by a variety of hazardous pollutants. The University of California (UC) Davis SRP will host this year's meeting with help from UC Berkley and UC San Diego.
Join us at the Annual Summit of the Northwest Toxic Communities Coalition at the University of Washington on April 28th to learn about risks from local contaminants and what you can do to help improve the health of our region. Registration is only $10 and meals are included. Travel scholarships are available to help cover lodging.
On April 3rd, 2018 the University of Washington Superfund Research Program co-hosted a workshop titled “Fish and Future: An Inter-Generational Dialogue on Food, Health, and Environment in the Pacific Northwest.” The free event brought together members of Indigenous communities, students, and academics from the US and Canada to share perspectives on issues related to climate change, pollution, and the management of local fisheries.