Current and Past Pilot Projects

Round 1

1. Aris, Izzuddin (Assistant Professor, Population Medicine, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute) and Oken, Emily (President, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute) “Early life exposure to nephrotoxic mixtures and kidney function in childhood and adolescence”
2. Chen, Zunwei (Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) and Lu, Quan (Professor of Environmental Genetics and Pathophysiology, Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) “Brain-derived extracellular vesicles and their application as biomarkers in neurodegenerative diseases related to environmental exposure”
3. Cradock, Angie (Principal Research Scientist, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) “Novel methods to characterize drinking water lead testing initiatives in early education and care settings to promote environmental health equity”
4. Haber, Adam (Assistant Professor, Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) “National indoor allergen exposure mapping to track climate change’s asthma impact”
5. Huttenhower, Curtis (Professor, Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) and Spengler, Jack (Akira Yamaguchi Professor of Environmental Health and Human Habitation, Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) “Rapid and efficient microbial community viability assessment using marker gene targeting”
6. Kelly, Rachel (Assistant Professor, Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital) and Laden, Francine (Professor of Environmental Epidemiology, Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) “The metabolic effects of chemical exposure: Integrating data from wearable chemical monitors and targeted metabolomics in the Nurses Health Study 3”
7. Park, Jin-Ah (Associate Professor, Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) “Toxicological profiles and biological impacts of 6PPD and 6PPD-Q, and tire and road wear particles (TRWPs) on primary human airway epithelial cells”
8. Patel, Chirag (Associate Professor, Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School) “Identifying environmental inequalities and secular trends in the chemical exposome in the United States between 1999 and 2018”

Round 1

1. Delaney, Scott (Research Associate, Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) “Air pollution, climate change, greenspace, and neurodegenerative diseases: in search of health equity-promoting strategies in Medicare” [Funded by Biogen]
2. Patel, Archana (Assistant Professor of Neurology, Boston Children’s Hospital) “Understanding interactions of malaria and environmental lead exposure on neuronal injury and neurodevelopment in Zambia”
3. Powers-Tomasso, Linda (Research Fellow, Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) “Development of visualization tools for sharing climate cooling strategies with impacted urban communities”
4. Tec, Mauricio (Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) “Projecting the climate penalty on air pollution and environmental injustice: developing deep learning methods to estimate the effects of climate change on PM2.5 exposure and disparities across racial/ethnic and income groups.”
5. Wang, Zifan (Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) “Nail product use, chemical exposures, and menstrual cycle characteristics among nail salon workers: an internet-based pilot study with multimodal recruitment”

Round 2

1. Alahmad, Barrack (Research Fellow, Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) “Heat and Renal Diseases: Assessing Vulnerabilities in Migrant Workers of the Middle East”
2. Bargagli Stoffi, Falco (Research Associate, Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) “The Environmental and Health Inequities of Bitcoin Mining in the U.S.”
3. Disney, Jane (Associate Professor of Environmental Health, MDI Biological Laboratory) “A Community-Engaged Research Approach to Address Impacts of Rural School PFAS Contamination on Neighborhood Wells”
4. Topriani, Sneh (Research Associate, JBL Centre of Radiation Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) and Nagel, Zachary (Associate Professor of Genomics and Cancer Biology, Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) “Determining the Biological Effects of Occupational Exposures in Firefighters”
5. Zilli Vieira, Carolina (Research Associate, Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) “A pilot study to examine relationships between exposures to radionuclides from the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant and reactive oxygen species and DNA damage in blood and urine samples”

Round 1

1. Harder, Jessica (Instructor in Psychiatry, Brigham and Women’s Hospital) “The relationship between environmental endocrine disrupting chemicals and neuropsychiatric outcomes in depression”
2. Minguez-Alarcon (Visiting Scientist, Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) “Exposures to phthalates, serum metabolome and reproductive health”
3. Nassikas, Nicholas (Instructor in Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center) “Effects of climate and neighborhood context on adult lung function”
4. Spengler, Jack (Akira Yamaguchi Professor of Environmental Health and Human Habitation, Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) “Characterizing viable microbial communities in childcare environments”
5. Wei, Yaguang and Schwartz, Joel (Research Associate, Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) “Differential effects of ambient multipollutant exposures on cancer mortality, recurrence, and comorbidities by contextual characteristics: A pilot analyses of SEER-Medicare”

Round 1

1. Hacker, Michelle (Associate Professor, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center) “Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances Biomarkers of Preterm Birth”
2. Lin, Xihong (Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) “Discovering Factors Associated with Protective Behaviors and Emotional Well-Being of Individuals in the U.S. during the COVID-19 Pandemic Using a Mobile App”
3. Nagel, Zac (Associate Professor of Genomics and Cancer Biology, Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) “Compromised Genome Integrity as a Mechanism Linking Airway Exposures and Respiratory Disease Susceptibility”
4. Zilli-Vieira, Carolina (Research Associate, Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) “Exploration of relationships between solar and geomagnetic activity, melatonin biomarkers, and particulate air pollution health effects for COPD patients”

Round 2

1. Mahalingaiah, Shruthi (Assistant Professor of Environmental Reproductive and Women’s Health, Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) “Engaging Science Communication of the Intersection of Environmental and Women’s Health”
2. Phung, Thien-Khoi (Research Fellow, Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) “Patient specific characterization of human airway epithelial cell wound healing impairment from particulate matter exposure”

Round 1

1. Allen, Joseph G. (Assistant Professor, Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) “Cell Assays to Quantify Hormonal Potencies of Chemical Mixtures Collected on Silicone Wristband Personal Samplers of Global Cohort of Office Workers”
2. Golden, Christopher (Assistant Professor, Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) “Does the Gut Microbiome Mediate Human Exposure to Methylmercury?”
3. Haber, Adam (Assistant Professor, Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) “Healthy homes: statistical surveillance of emergency departments for early identification of dangerous housing conditions”
4. Panganiban, Ronald (Research Scientisit. Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) “Extracellular Vesicle (EV) Protein Cargo, Metal Exposure, and Atherosclerosis”
5. Papatheodorou, Stefania (Lecturer, Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) “Effects of particle exposures on fetal growth”
6. Shoaff, Jessica (Research Fellow, Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital) “Assessing contextual environmental measures in a longitudinal birth cohort and associations with neurobehavior”
7. Zhang, Xuehong (Assistant Professor, Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital) “A Pilot Study of Circulating Levels of Perfluoroalkyl Substances (PFASs) and Non-viral Liver Cancer Risk”

Round 2

1. Birmann, Brenda M. (Assistant Professor, Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital) “Association of geospatially modeled (non-occupational) exposure to dioxins and other hazardous air pollutants with lymphoid malignancies and lymphoma-related biomarkers: a pilot study”
2. Blomberg, Annelise (Post-Doctoral Fellow, Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) “A pilot study of associations between early-life exposures to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances and lipoprotein subspecies”
3. Dominici, Francesca (Professor, Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) “Air pollution, race, and health outcomes for COVID-19 in the United States: data science methods and dissemination”
4. James-Todd, Tamarra (Assistant Professor, Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) “The Role of Uncertainty in Environmental Health Literacy: Exploring the Relationships Among Phthalate Knowledge, Risk Perception, Risk Acceptability, and Protective Behaviors in Perinatal Mothers“
5. Moon, Michelle (Community Organizer, Civic Space Collaborative) “Heat Island Art: Research + Development”
6. Rawson, Jeff (Post-Doctoral Fellow, Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences) “Free radicals from electronic cigarettes for consuming extracts of cannabis”
7. Schwartz, Joel (Professor, Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) “Estimating Causal Effects of Multipollutant Mixtures on Hospital Admissions and differential effects on disadvantaged”

Round 1

1. Joanne Sordillo: Exposure to air pollutants and upper airway microbial communities in project via, a pre-birth cohort study
2. Jin-Ah Park: Apoptosis priming in primary human airways epithelial cells in response to environmental exposures
3. Johan Spetz, Chris Sarosiek: Dynamic regulation of apoptosis as a driver of cardiovascular disease caused by environmental lead exposure
4. Carmen Messerlian: The role of environmental chemicals and ribosomal DNA age clock in female fertility
5. Gary Adamkiewicz: Validating City Scanner: A low cost mobile air quality platform for cities
6. Sneh Toprani, Zachary Nagel: Assessing DNA damage and repair capacity in airline flight crew

Round 2

1. Peggy Lai: Environmental chemicals, lung function, and the gut microbiome
2. Shruthi Mahalingaiah: Menstrual Blood Metabolomics: Assay Development and Optimization
3. Lindsay Jaacks: Cross validation of methods for measuring urinary metabolites of organophosphate pesticides in India 

Round 1

1. David Itiro Kasahara, Ph.D., Research Scientist, Department of Environmental Health, Harvard Chan School of Public Health. “Transfer of Enhanced Responses to Air Pollution from Obese to Lean Mice via Gut Microbiota Transplant.”
2. Emma Preston, M.P.H., Ph.D., Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “Assessing Consumer Product Chemical Exposures in Daycare Facilities: Portable Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) as a Novel Forensic Tool.”
3. Mary B. Rice, M.D., M.P.H., Assistant Professor, Division of Pulmonary & Critical Care, Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, “Sampling the Nasal Epithelial Lining Fluid as a Non-Invasive Indicator of Metal and Microbial Exposures and Immune Response sin People with COPD.”

Round 2

1. Joseph Allen, Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Health, Harvard Chen School of Public Health “Impact of healthy material interventions in offices on reductions in fluorinated chemicals and endocrine-disrupting potency of indoor dust”.
2. Jaime Hart, Assistant Professor, Channing Research Laboratory, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, “A pilot study of associations of multipollutant exposures on risk of anovulation”
3. Ross Osgood, Post Doctoral Fellow, Dr. Stephanie Shore’s Laboratory, Department of Environmental Health “The role of sex hormones in microbiome-dependent effects on pulmonary response to ozone”
4. Sneh Toprani, Post Doctoral Research Fellow, Dr. Zachery Nagel’s Laboratory, Department of Environmental Health “Assessing DNA damage and repair capacity in airline flight crew”.

Round 1

1. Punyaganie de Silva, MBBS, MPH, Instructor, Dept of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endoscopy, Brigham’s & Women’s Hospital “The association between environmental endocrine disruptors and inflammatory bowel disease – A pilot study.”
2. Francine Laden, ScD, Professor and Associate Chair, Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “Total organofluorine concentrations in drinking water samples from the Nurses Health Study cohort.”
3. Maitreyi Mazumdar, MD, MPH, MS; Assistant Professor, Department of Neurology, Boston Children’s Hospital. “Building capacity for childhood lead poisoning prevention in Bangladesh.”
4. Drew Michanowicz, DrPH, MPH, CPH; Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Health and the Global Environment, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “Piloting sensors without a pilot: A 3D gas-sensing system using drones and stationary monitoring to measure plume dispersion.”
5. Kristopher Sarosiek, PhD, Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “Assessment of Apoptosis and DNA Repair: Bridging the Gap Between Cell Assays and Intact Animals/Humans.”

Round 2

1. Jaime Hart, ScD, Assistant Professor of Environmental Health, Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School. “High-Resolution Metabolomics in COPD: Elucidating Biological Responses to Multipollutant Indoor Air Exposures.”
2. Joseph G. Allen, ScD MPH, Assistant Professor of Exposure Assessment Science, Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “Emission reductions and climate/health co-benefits from energy use reductions in Harvard‘s buildings.”
3. Quan Lu, PhD, Associate Professor of Environmental Genetics and Pathophysiology, Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “Extracellular Vesicle (EV) MicroRNAs, Metal Exposure and Alzheimer’s Disease.”
4. Tamarra James-Todd, PhD MPH, Mark and Catherine Winkler Assistant Professor of Environmental Reproductive and Perinatal Epidemiology, Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “Phthalates, PPAR-ϒ target gene expression, and maternal obesity measures in the perinatal period.”

Round 1

1. Diana Ceballos: Assessing Dermal Exposures to Reproductive Toxic Chemicals on Nail Salon Workers ($24,980)
2. Wafaie Fawzi: Prevalence of aflatoxin contamination among pregnant women in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and subsequent effects on selected infant, child, and maternal health outcomes ($24,932)
3. Qi Sun: Feasibility and reproducibility of glyphosate and 2,4-D (2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid) assessments in 24-hr urine samples ($24,962)
4. Akira Tsuda: ARDS mouse model for in vivo imaging of the lung’s gas exchange region ($25,000)
5. Vishal Vaidya: Detection of Kidney Injury in Mexican Children Exposed to Environmental Toxicants ($25,000)
6. Mahsa Yazdy: Temperature and humidity and the risk of preterm birth ($10,000)

Round 2

1. David Christiani: Exposures to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and risk of Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma in Uganda ($20,000)
2. Russ Hauser: Association between Dibutylphthalate and thyroid hormones in men in a crossover-crossback prospective study ($20,000)
3. Peggy Lai: Effect of small-scale chicken farming on the indoor environmental and human microbiome: A Randomized controlled trial($20,000)
4. Zachery Nagel: Exploratory DNA repair analysis using FM-HCR technology in crossover study of individual exposed to metal fumnes($20,000)
5. Hadi Shafiee: A Smartphone-based sperm analyzer to facilitate studies on the effect of air pollution on semen quality ($20,000)
6. Punyanganie de Silva: The association between environmental endocrine disruptors and inflammatory bowel disease – A Pilot Study ($20,000)

Round 1

1. Andrea Baccarelli – DNA Conformational Changes and Arsenic Exposure
2. David Christiani – Genetic Variants of Maternal DNA and Maternal Urinary Arsenic Methylation Species during Pregnancy in a Population Exposed to Inorganic Arsenic from Drinking Water
3. Phil Demokritou – Systems and Methods for the Physico-Chemical & Toxicological Characterization of Emissions from Electronic Cigarettes
4. Philippe Grandjean – Early life exposure to environmental persistent pollutants and blood concentrations of adipocytokines from birth through adolescence: Identification of relevant windows of exposure and susceptibility
5. Elsie Sunderland and Francine Laden – Drinking water exposures to Per and Poly Fluorinated Alkylated Substances (PFASs) in the Nurses Health Study Cohort

Round 2

1. Jorge Chavarro – Pesticide residues in food: validation of an exposure assessment tool and relation to male fertility
2. Alexey Fedulov – Effects of female hormone on talc phagocytosis
3. Bernardo Lemos – rDNA copy number: a novel epigenetic modulator and marker of responses to environmental exposures?
4. Ryan McCarthy: The role of iron in apolipoprotein E mediated clearance of amyloid-beta by microglia ($17,370)
5. Chrystal North – Fine particulate matter and chronic HIV infection co-exposure: environmental determinants of pulmonary function in southwestern Uganda
6. Joanne Sordillo: Environmental Triggers of Asthma Exacerbation and Gene Expression in an Airway In Vitro Model: Identification of common pathways and unique expression signals for individual exposure stimuli and exposure combinations ($25,000)
7. Paula Tejera: Circulating extracellular vessicles-associaed microRNAs as novel biomarkers in acute lung injury ($25,000)

Round 1

1. David Christiani et al, Genome-wide microRNAs expression profiles and birth weight in umbilical cord serum among women and infants exposed prenatally to inorganic arsenic. ($22,500)
2. John Godlleski and Alex Carll, Does Inhalation of Traffic-Related Particulates Impair Cardiac Performance? ($22,500)
3. Mi-Sun Lee et al, Cardiac Autonomic Effects of Secondhand Exposure to Electronic Cigarettes (ECigarettes). ($20,000)
4. Alex Lu et al, The interplay of sub-lethal neonicotinoids exposure, mitochondrial epigenetics, and Parkinson’s disease. ($22,500)
5. Ronit Machtinger et al, BPA and Phthalate exposure, FF exosomes, and IVF outcome. ($15,000)
6. Marc Weisskopf et al, Assessment of a novel portable x-ray fluorescence device to measure bone lead. ($17,500)

Round 2

1. Gary Adamkiewicz: Pilot Development of a Dorchester Air Quality Surveillance System (DAQSS). ($22,000)
2. Joe Allen: Evaluation of inhalation exposure to diacetyl and other flavoring compounds in e- cigarette. ($22,000)
3. Jennifer Bobb: A statistical approach for estimating the health effects of air pollution mixtures on multiple outcomes simultaneously. ($22,000)
4. Rama Krishnan: Assessment of Environmental Toxins: Bridging the Gap Between Cell Assays and Intact Animals/Humans. ($22,000)
5. Jim Shine: Assessment of heavy metals levels in soil and among a human population living near a copper smelter in Chile. ($22,000)

Round 1

1. Andrea Baccarelli: Flame retardants, plasma exosomal miRNAs in early pregnancy, and risk of gestational diabetes
2. Christopher Hug: Does environmental arsenic exposure induce a novel form of cystic fibrosis?
3. Peggy Lai: Endotoxin, the airway transcriptome, and asthma
4. Young-Ah Seo: Manganese-induced neuronal cell apoptosis through ER stress
5. Vishal Vaidya: Quantitative High-Throughput Screening Platform for Predictive Kidney Toxicology

Round 2

1. Konstantinos C. Makris: Exposures to thyroid-disrupting chemicals and thyroid nodular disease: the case of Bisphenol A
2. Stephanie Shore: Impact of obesity and ozone on lung microbiota in mice
3. Akira Tsuda: Rapid nanoparticle translocation across the neonatal alveolar air-blood barrier
4. Yongyue Wei: Maternal Metal Exposure, Cord Blood Metabolomics Biomarker, and Birth Outcome

Round 1

1. Jonghan Kim: Influence of FPN and HFE on clearance of manganese
2. Chensheng (Alex) Lu: Metabolomic Profiling for Dietary Pesticide Exposure in Children
3. Quan Lu: Discovery of coding and non-coding RNA transcripts central to lead (Pb) neurotoxicity through Next-Gen deep sequencing
4. Joel Schwartz: Particles, Metals, and changes in 5-OH-mC: a Pathway to Disease?
5. Joanne Sordillo: Development of a Molecular Method to Assess the Fungal Microbiome in Environmental Air and Dust Samples from Observational and Controlled Human Exposure Studies

Round 2

1. Nancy Krieger: Air pollution, racial discrimination, and blood pressure: an exploratory study
2. Francine Laden: Metabolomics to Identify Novel Biomarkers of Exposure to Traffic Exhaust
3. Jessica LaRocca: Elucidating the effects of prenatal exposure to multiple endocrine disrupting chemicals on microRNA and mRNA expression in the human placenta
4. Maitreyi Mazumdar: Neural Tube Defects and Environmental Arsenic Exposure
5. Stephanie Shore: Metabolic profiling of obese and ozone exposed lungs

Round 1

1. Andrea Baccarelli: Metal Exposure and DNA Retrotransposon Activation
2. Catherine Racowsky: Evaluating the Impact of Exposure of Bisphenol A on Human Oocyte Quality
3. Elsie Sunderland: Predicting Cholera Outbreaks Using Global Climate Data
4. Marc Weisskopf: An Economic Approach to Linking Adoption and Use of Improved Cookstoves to Reduced Indoor Air Pollution and its Effect on Cognitive Function

Round 2

1. James Shine: Source-Receptor Assessment of Mercury Exposure in Humans through Mercury Stable Isotope Analysis
2. R. Zhai: Associations of Helicobacter pylori infection with atrophic gastritis and adipokines in relation to esophageal adenocarcinoma
3. E. Zhou: Development of a novel functional wound healing assay to assess the impact of engineered nanoparticles

Round 1

1. Diane Gold: Cardiopulmonary Response to Effective Particle Filtration with CPAP in Patients with Sleep- Disordered Breathing
2. Susan Korrick: Conception with Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART), prenatal phthalate and bisphenol A (BPA) exposure and infant neurodevelopment
3. Paula Leticia Tejera-Alvarez: A Functional Study of Polymorphisms in the PI3 Gene, an inhibitor of Neutrophil Elastase in Inflammatory Lung Diseases
4. Z. Wang: Application of Satellite Aerosol Remote Sensing Technology to Estimate the Health Impacts of Airborne Particles

Round 2

1. Glen Deloid: Novel screening assay for NLRP3 inflammasome activation by engineered nanoparticles
2. John Godleski: Exposure to Traffic Particles and DNA Methylation
3. Eileen McNeely: Flight attendant exposures to flame retardants in airplanes
4. Murray Mittleman: Atrial fibrillation, ambient exposures and epigenetic mechanisms