Goals: to promote interdisciplinary research into the mechanisms by which environmental agents affect lung structure and function and lead to or exacerbate disease.
Focus: toxicants that predominate in the Southwestern US, such as exposures to arsenic, particulate matter, and dusts.
A characterization of the immune profiles of Amish and Hutterite schoolchildren. The use of mouse models of asthma to study the effect of the environment on airway responses and to create a mechanistic framework for the interpretation of the observations in humans.
The association between urinary CC16 and soil arsenic may suggest that localized arsenic exposure in the lungs could damage the airway epithelium and predispose children for diminished lung function. The objective was to determine if urinary CC16 levels in children are associated with arsenic concentrations in environmental media collected from their homes.
Investigation of the function and regulation of mucin genes in asthma pathogenesis using both in vivo (gene targeting model, induced mouse model of asthma, as well as tissues and secretions from asthmatic patients) and in vitro (differentiated epithelial culture and cell line) models.
Investigators from the University of Arizona Superfund Research Project (UA SRP) and the Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Center (SWEHSC) are partnering with an Arizona Tribe to develop an Air Quality and Asthma Project.
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Raina Maier |  |
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| Fernando Martinez |  |
María Mercedes Meza Montenegro |  |
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| Ting Wang |  |
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(retired) |
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ASTHMA IN THE AMISH AND THE HUTTERITES