Chemicals of Emerging Concern: Implications for Human Health

Join UL Research Institutes’ Chemical Insights team for the next installment in its webinar series on Sept. 30, “Chemicals of Emerging Concern: Implications for Human Health.”

Moderated by Russell (Rusty) Thomas, Ph.D., this session will feature Jin-Ah Park, Ph.D., Bevin Engelward, Ph.D., and Sangita Choudhury Ph.D., in a discussion on how different exposures may affect human health at the cellular and genetic levels. Together, they will explore topics ranging from DNA damage and mutation to changes in how cells function in response to chemicals.  

The first presentation will highlight Dr. Sangita Choudhury‘s work on genomic alterations that occur in response to toxic exposure. Environmental toxicants can leave persistent genomic changes that provide a molecular record of exposure and its biological consequences. In this talk, Dr. Choudhury will use cigarette smoking as a model toxic exposure to discuss how high-accuracy single-cell and duplex sequencing technologies can be used to detect rare somatic mutations and define exposure-associated mutational signatures in human tissues. 

Following the first presentation, Dr. Bevin Engelward will describe her research regarding DNA damage, which can promote aging, cancer, and neurological disorders. Certain exposures, including compounds generated from fossil fuel combustion as well as NDMA, a pervasive water contaminant, can produce a type of DNA damage known as DNA adducts. Because adducts can give rise to cancer-driving mutations, the ability to screen chemicals of concern for their capacity to produce this type of damage is a critical strategy for identifying potential carcinogens. At MIT, Dr. Engelward’s lab has created “AdductChip”, a novel platform for identifying the capacity of chemicals to form DNA adducts. In this presentation, Dr. Engelward will describe how the platform works and present data demonstrating its efficacy. 

Dr. Jin-Ah Park’s presentation will conclude the webinar session. She will focus on the airway epithelium, as it serves as the first line of defense against inhaled exposures. Disruption of epithelial homeostasis can impair this function, potentially contributing to respiratory disease and broader health effects. Dr. Park will describe how her lab uses human-relevant new approach methodologies (NAMs) to investigate how inhaled environmental exposures affect airway epithelial homeostasis and respiratory health. Using recently published studies as examples (PMID: 41604877 and PMID: 41925769), Dr. Park will show how these models can uncover early molecular and cellular responses to environmental exposures, including effects that occur in the absence of cytotoxicity. 

Register now to save your spot and learn why chemical safety matters for human health.