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Principal Investigator: Jose Manuel Cerrato
Organization: UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO HEALTH SCIS CTR
Fiscal Year: 2024
Award: $1,774,184
Funding agency: National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
OVERALL Summary METALS
The UNM Metal Exposure and Toxicity Assessment on tribal Lands of the Southwest SRP Center
(METALS) focuses on >500 abandoned uranium mines (AUMs) on Navajo Nation, and the Jackpile Mine on
Laguna Pueblo, a legacy of the Cold War now being assessed under CERCLA. They represent >4500 AUMs
in the 15 Western US that are home to >1/2 of our Indigenous population. During the inaugural phase of
METALS, our team worked in close partnership with our Indigenous partners to determine that since mining
began in the 1940s, weathering of metal mixtures in the millions of tons of waste has produced nanoparticles
of varying mineralogy. While these nanoparticles have implications for both mobility and toxicity of the waste,
they are not considered in prioritization or clean-up due to significant data gaps. Our health studies have
shown that exposures to these metal mixtures increase the prevalence of hypertension, multiple chronic
diseases, and immune dysfunction, and autoantibody production. While ~25% of the population shows no
evidence of exposures, biomonitoring confirms an equivalent %age show exposure to clusters of up to 12
metals at significantly higher concentrations than the rest of the US population. Our community-partnered
approach and strong team integration inclusive of community partners has allowed our design of clinical
interventions that are scientifically sound and respectful of culture, in which we have high rates of participation
and compliance. Phase 2 of METALS will build on our strong community partnerships to drive our research by
their needs, and use single atom, state of the science, transmission electron microscopy to both answer
community questions on agricultural safety as impacted by particulate redistribution, and understand the
processes of resuspension, environmental mobility, and plant uptake at a mechanistic scale to inform risk
reduction. Our confirmation of multiple routes of exposures, and evidence of metals-induced inflammation and
oxidative stress lead us to examine contributions of ingestion and inhalation within community exposures.
These studies will explore the potential for high-dose exposures to immune regulatory cells in lung and gut to
alter systemic immune function, informing design of more targeted intervention. Our recognition of the role of
plant/fungi symbiosis in transformation of environmental metal mixtures has led to our collaboration with the
national Sevilleta Long Term Ecological Research program in New Mexico in development and testing of
fungal bioreactors based in the balance of native fungal communities and their interactions with geochemical
variables as a remediation strategy. These remediation approaches provide a novel strategy to overcome the
ineffectiveness of bacterial bioreactors in our oxic environment and produce sustainable, cost-effective
solutions to protect key resources of cultural importance. Our team will build on our strong partnerships to
build common dialogue with communities, researchers, clinicians, tribal and federal policy makers, informed by
our solution-oriented team science to inform risk reduction at community, clinical and policy levels.
Terms: <Address><Age><Agriculture><Arsenic><Autoantibodies><Belief><Bioavailability><Biological><Biological Availability><Biological Monitoring><Bioreactors><Bioremediations><Biotransformation><Body Tissues><Cell Body><Cells><Cellular Immune Function><Chronic><Chronic Disease><Chronic Illness><Clinical><Clinical Trials><Collaborations><Communities><Congresses><DNA Damage Repair><DNA Repair><Data><Development><Dose><Economics><Ensure><Environment><Equilibrium><Exposure to><Family><Funding><Health><Home><Hypertension><Immune><Immune Diseases><Immune Disorders><Immune Dysfunction><Immune System Diseases><Immune System Disorder><Immune System Dysfunction><Immune System and Related Disorders><Immunes><Immunity><Immunodeficiency and Immunosuppression Disorders><Immunologic Diseases><Immunological Diseases><Immunological Dysfunction><Immunological System Dysfunction><Indigenous><Indigenous Population><Inflammation><Inflammatory><Ingestion><Inhalation><Inhaling><Intervention><Intervention Strategies><Investigators><Language><Left><Link><Lung><Lung Respiratory System><Medial><Metabolic Biotransformation><Metal exposure><Metals><Mining><Modeling><Movement><Native People><Native-Born><Navaho><Navajo><New Mexico><Nuclear Weapon><Oral><Oxidative Stress><Particulate><Pathway interactions><Phase><Physiologic Availability><Plants><Policies><Policy Maker><Population><Prevalence><Printing><Process><Production><Property><Pueblo><Pueblo Race><Reference Ranges><Reference Values><Research><Research Personnel><Research Resources><Researchers><Resources><Rest><Risk><Risk Reduction><Role><Route><SRP><Safety><Science><Signal Recognition Particle><Site><Superfund><Suspension substance><Suspensions><Symbiosis><Testing><Thinking><Time><Tissues><Toxic effect><Toxicities><Translations><Transmission Electron Microscopy><Tribes><U element><Universities><Unscheduled DNA Synthesis><Uranium><V element><Vanadium><Vascular Hypertensive Disease><Vascular Hypertensive Disorder><War><Work><Zinc><Zn element><ages><arsenics><autoimmune antibody><autoreactive antibody><balance><balance function><biologic><biomonitoring><body movement><chronic disorder><commensalism><community engaged approach><community engaged approaches><community engaged participatory research><community engaged research><community engaged strategies><community engaged strategy><community partnered approach><community partnered research><community partnered strategy><community partners><community partnership><community-based partners><community-engaged study><community-partnered study><cost effective><cytokine><design><designing><developmental><disease risk><disorder risk><economic><exposure route><exposure to metal><federal policy><fungus><geochemical><geochemistry><high blood pressure><homes><hyperpiesia><hyperpiesis><hypertensive disease><hypertensive disorder><immune function><improved><ingest><intervention design><interventional strategy><metal complex><metal poisoning><metal toxicity><microbioreactor><multi-modality><multidisciplinary><multimodality><nano particle><nano-sized particle><nanoparticle><nanosized particle><new approaches><novel><novel approaches><novel strategies><novel strategy><particle><pathway><physical property><programs><pulmonary><reduce risk><reduce risks><reduce that risk><reduce the risk><reduce these risks><reduces risk><reduces the risk><reducing risk><reducing the risk><remediation><response><risk-reducing><self reactive antibody><social role><sound><therapy design><thoughts><toxic metal><translation><translation strategy><translational approach><translational strategy><treatment design><tribal lands><uptake><vulnerable community><wasting><weapons>