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UNC Superfund Research Program News

SRP trainee brings focus to environmental injustice in eastern NC

A recent study led by Noemi Gavino-Lopez, a UNC SRP trainee and MS candidate in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, highlighted the environmental injustice of toxic metals in private well water in NC. Inspired by the publication of the NCWELL database, which documented high levels of arsenic (As), manganese (Mn), cadmium (Cd)... Read more »

IDEA Learners program brings teachers and researchers together to develop impactful curriculum

Rebecca Fry, PhD, UNC Superfund Research Program (SRP) director, sparked the curiosity of a group of high school science teachers when she introduced systems biology during a professional development institute in summer 2022. Her presentation, alongside others by additional SRP researchers, helped participating teachers think about how to integrate real world data into their instruction.... Read more »

Professorship supports Fry's work toward healthier N.C.

March 16, 2023
Rebecca Fry’s lab is one of the first to study the effects of prenatal exposure to toxic metals as it relates to the epigenome — she has shown how behaviors and the environment can cause changes that affect the way genes function. She launched the Institute for Environmental Health Solutions and is using funds from the Angle Professorship and the UNC Superfund Research Program, which she directs, to work with North Carolina communities that have contaminated drinking water and provide them with cost-effective filters.

UNC students and staff gather for the opportunity to work with real-world data

Over fall break, 20 UNC graduate students, postdocs, and staff members from the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, the Curriculum in Toxicology, and Environmental Medicine gathered on campus for two days of hands-on training with a real-word dataset. The PRogramming for Environmental HEalth And Toxicology (PREHEAT) Retreat was the result of a collaboration between... Read more »

UNC SRP researchers create blueprint for using genomics technologies to understand mechanisms behind environmental exposure and disease outcomes

A new study from Project 1 resulted in a recent publication exploring the mechanisms connecting inorganic arsenic (iAs) and diabetes. UNC SRP trainee and lead author Jenna Todero’s research is at the interface of environmental exposures, diabetes, and genomics, studying the relationship between chronic exposure to iAs, an environmental toxin recognized as a top priority... Read more »

New database shines light on environmental justice

To better understand this vulnerability, collaborative efforts within the UNC Superfund Research Program by Lauren Eaves, PhD, UNC SRP trainee, Julia Rager, PhD, Data Management and Analysis Core (DMAC) co-leader, Andrew George, PhD, Community Engagement Coordinator, and Rebecca Fry, PhD, UNC SRP Director, resulted in a recent publication and creation of the new publicly available... Read more »

The Accidental Geochemist

Growing up in a picturesque environment dotted with some of the oldest rocks in Nigeria was inspiring for me as a young boy and motivated my later professional decisions. During my senior year in college, I was introduced to the field of applied geochemistry by my professor when he suggested the prevalence of cancer in... Read more »