Research projects

Research projects

SRP researchers led four projects until the program ended in 2023: two biomedical projects and two environmental science projects that focused on characterizing the mechanisms of nervous system toxicity and environmental contamination associated with metal exposures.

 

A red salmon swimming underwater
Project 1: Mechanisms and biomarkers of metal olfactory injury in salmon

Salmon rely on smell to survive. Research shows that exposure to metals like cadmium impair that sense, threatening salmon survival.

Three reserachers in white lab coats stand in a lab.
Project 3: Role of paraoxonases (PONs) in modulating cadmium and manganese neurotoxicity

People respond to contaminant exposures in different ways, depending, in part, on the levels of protective enzymes that they produce.

A graduate student in a white lab coat peers into a microscope.
Project 2: Cellular and molecular mechanisms of cadmium neurotoxicity

Exposing mice to cadmium to generate blood levels similar to those found in the general human population resulted in cognitive impairment.

Two researchers look at a laptop together by a lake
Project 4: Arsenic in shallow unstratified and seasonally stratified urban lakes: Mobility, bioaccumulation and ecological toxicity

Contaminated shallow lakes have more arsenic in their water than contaminated deeper lakes, meaning higher risk for humans.