Congratulations to Charlotte Wirth, doctoral candidate and Project 2 trainee in Quan Lu's lab at HSPH, on winning a 2022 NIEHS Superfund Research Program KC Donnelly Externship Award. Charlotte's externship will entail research at the University of California, Berkeley SRP Center, with guidance from Christopher Chang, Ph.D. Charlotte studies how lead exposure affects immune cells called microglia. For her externship, she will apply a molecular labeling technique to a culture of microglia to see whether lead exposure increases cellular stress. She hypothesizes that cellular stress may trigger the release of molecular signals from microglia that might contribute to inflammation and neurotoxicity associated with lead exposure. Her findings could help inform the identification of biomarkers, or biological signs, of cognitive disorders.
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SRP KC Donnely Award 2022 Winners
Environmental Factor: Superfund Research Program trainees win prestigious K.C. Donnelly awards