Edward M. Postlethwait, Ph.D. - Research and academic interests are founded in pulmonary toxicology and free radical biochemistry, with current efforts primarily focused on delineating the mechanisms by which inhaled oxidants interact with the lung surface to initiate epithelial injury, how environmental oxidants impact lung growth and development, and what factors may govern the extent and distribution of exposure-related cellular perturbations.

Carol A. Ballinger, Ph.D. - Effects of environmental exposures, primarily ozone and nitrogen dioxide, on antioxidant kinetics in the lung and on the lung surface; Mechanisms of oxidation and nitration reactions initiated by and potential epithelial cell damage resulting from environmental exposures

Alfred A. Bartolucci, Ph.D.- Dr. Bartolucci has extensive experience in statistical analyses of a variety of biological, and, importantly, environmental health and toxicology-related endeavors, and he developed Bayesian methodologies for clinical and environmental statistical applications.

Giuseppe L. Squadrito, Ph.D. - Development, design and evaluation of dynamic multi-component molecular systems that can be used to understand the effects of oxidants in biological systems of various degrees of complexity. Such systems include reactions of smog, combustion-associated, and naturally produced oxidants and free radicals with biological target molecules, the covalent modifications that they induce and the cellular responses that ensue, and the protection that natural and synthetic antioxidants, antioxidant enzymes, and free radical scavengers.

University of California @ Davis is the site of the Exposure and Animal Core and Project 2. Project 2 focuses on defining the cellular susceptibility, inflammation, intracellular glutathione pools, and site-specific biological indices of cellular stress and their alteration by ozone exposure and airways sensitization in the lower airways. The Exposure and Animal Core provides the ozone/allergen exposure facilities.

Charles G. Plopper, Ph.D. - Pulmonary cellular and developmental biology. Injury and repair responses of lung cells to inhaled toxicants. Lung toxicology, cytochrome P450 metabolism. Lung cellular pathobiology. Cell biology-anatomy.

Gregory Baker, Ph.D.

Alan R. Buckpitt, Ph.D. - Metabolic activation and detoxication of environmental chemicals that produce tissue selective cytotoxicity, particularly of the lung; Mechanisms for cellular degeneration, especially with regard to the role of reactive metabolites.

Michael J. Evans, Ph.D. - Mechanisms of cell adhesion and pulmonary injury and repair stressing cell kinetics. The functions of airway basal cells and the significance of the lateral intercellular space. Basement membrane and fibroblast biology associated with epithelial-mesenchymal interactions. Cell biology.

Michelle V. Fanucchi, Ph.D. - Pulmonary cell biology and toxicology. Cell-to-cell interactions in the developing lung as well as in repair after lung injury and disease in children. The role of biochemical defense mechanisms native to pulmonary cells. Childhood lung disease and its etiology. Drug metabolism.

Dallas M. Hyde, Ph.D. - interaction of leukocytes and epithelial cells in pulmonary cell injury and repair. Pathways of leukocyte migration in the lung. Leukocyte interactions with endothelium, interstitial cells and matrix, and epithelium.

Ruth J. McDonald, M.D. – As a pulmonary neonatologist, Dr. McDonald provides the expertise for harvesting epithelial lining fluid via bronchoalveolar and nasal lavage and tissue brushings.

Lisa A. Miller, Ph.D. - Cellular and molecular mechanisms of pulmonary inflammation. Leukocyte recruitment.

Edward S. Schelegle, Ph.D. - Integrated lung defense mechanisms. Lung vagal afferents in airway and pulmonary injury, repair and immunologic responses. Respiratory and cardiovascular physiology.

Brian K. Tarkington - Supports, designs and conducts the exposure protocols. Mr. Tarkington has several years experience in the Design and Build of multiple national exposure facilities, and expertise in conducting accurate, complicated exposure protocols.

Michigan State University (Project 3) focuses on the nasal cavity. This project will define the baseline anatomical data needed for the mathematical modeling, will quantify the biological time course of nasal inflammation and epithelial responses/stress across age, exposure time, and disease state to provide the comparative data for determining nasal/lung correlations, and will collaborate in defining the factors that govern the distribution of nasal epithelial damage. This project will develop the non-invasive measures that will facilitate using the nose as a sentinel for adverse effects in the lower respiratory tract.

Jack R. Harkema, D.V.M., Ph.D. - The cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in the injury, adaptation and repair of the airway epithelium after exposure to environmental air pollutants (e.g., ozone, particulate matter) and to airborne toxicants found in the workplace (e.g. organic dusts, carbon black, bacterial endotoxin, chemical allergens)

James G. Wagner, Ph.D.

Pennsylvania State University (Project 4) will develop alternative dosimetry models of the lung accounting for differences in respiratory system anatomy as well as in interactions between ozone and ELF substrates. The models will use full computational fluid mechanics analyses of the upper airways based on a 3-dimensional reconstruction of the nasal cavities. An elaborated single-path diffusion model that accounts for heterogeneities of lower airway paths and for potential non-linearities in ELF reaction kinetics will be used to simulate ozone distribution in the lower airways.

James S. Ultman, Ph.D. - Mass transport in biological systems and medical devices, noninvasive clinical measurement of the dose-response of inhaled oxidant gases, mathematical simulation of uptake and distribution of air pollutants in the respiratory tract.

Ali Borhan, Ph.D. – Interfacial transport phenomena, fluid dynamics and hydrodynamic stability of multiphase systems, complex flows, capillary and wetting phenomena, applied mathematics and computational methods.

CIIT Centers for Health Research will provide computational fluid dynamics of the nasal cavity.

Julia Kimbell, Ph.D. -

Environmental Protection Agency will provide mass spectrophotometric stable isotope analysis to assist in the determination of antioxidant flux and O3 reaction kinetics.

Gary E. Hatch, Ph.D. - Research interests include 1) measurement of in vivo oxidation and antioxidant protective mechanisms 2) identifying factors affecting susceptibility, adaptation, and progression from acute to chronic injury, 3) understanding relationships between tissue dose and toxicity, 4) intraspecies comparisons of toxic responses, and 5) use of stable isotopes in biomedical applications.

Louisiana State University as a component of Project 1 will help determine the O3 bioactive reaction products, and the O3 reaction kinetics.

Rafael Cueto, Ph.D.

William A. Pryor, Ph.D.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratories comprises the Respiratory Structure Core which is a component of the BRSC and will provide digitized images of airway casts as well as 3-D geometry of upper and lower airways determined by NMR imaging of nasal cavities and lung lobes.

Richard Corley, Ph.D.

Kevin R. Minard, Ph.D.

Harold E. Trease, Ph.D.

Lynn Trease, Ph.D.

For questions regarding this website contact:

Carol A. Ballinger, Ph.D.
University of Alabama @ Birmingham
Environmental Health Sciences
1665 University Blvd
RPHB 530
Birmingham AL 35294-0022

205-934-7212 (office)
205-934-7061 (lab)
205-975-6341 (fax)