Abstracts

Kathrin Schilling, Ph.D., Columbia University

Title: Isotope Metallomics: A New Approach for Health Monitoring and Metal Exposure Assessment (7MB) 

Abstract: Our body’s isotope metallomics is the fingerprint of our health. Metal isotopic signatures in our body can vary depending on endogenous and environmental factors such as redox reactions, adsorption, and ligand coordination of metalloproteins. Metabolic reaction rates and binding strength of lighter isotopes differ from that for heavier isotopes. This difference is reflected in the isotopic composition of blood, urine, and tissue. Thus, natural metal isotopic biomarker has a vast potential to help characterize sources of exposure, pharmacokinetics of metals in the human body, mechanisms of toxicity, and minute changes of metabolic processes caused by disease development and progression. Thanks to recent rapid technological and instrumental progress, isotope ratio analysis is at least 100 times more sensitive than concentration measurements.

In this seminar, Schilling will review examples of how metal stable isotopes can be used as diagnostic and prognostic tool for cancer and will discuss future potential in of isotope metallomics in environmental health sciences.

EHS Core Center Affiliation: Columbia University Health Science, Center for Environmental Health in Northern Manhattan

Allison Kupsco, Ph.D., Columbia University

Title: Mitrochondriomic Approaches to Children's Environmental Health (4MB)

Abstract: As the powerhouse of the cell, the mitochondrion is integral to cellular and human health and development. However, mitochondria are particularly susceptible to environmental exposures that can disrupt homeostasis and lead to mitochondrial dysfunction. Disruption of mitochondrial health is associated with numerous pathologies, including cardiometabolic diseases and neurologic effects. Mitochondriomic biomarkers, which are based on the measurement of mitochondrial DNA, hold promise as indicators of mitochondrial health in human population studies. In this presentation, Kupsco will discuss ways in which we can leverage mitochondriomic and other epigenetic biomarkers to understand the role of mitochondria in children with obesity.

EHS Core Center Affiliation: Columbia University Health Science, Center for Environmental Health in Northern Manhattan