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A new review of existing evidence proposes eight hallmarks of environmental exposures that chart the biological pathways through which pollutants contribute to disease: oxidative stress and inflammation, genomic alterations and mutations, epigenetic alterations, mitochondrial dysfunction, endocrine disruption, altered intercellular communication, altered microbiome communities, and impaired nervous system function.
The study by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, Ludwig Maximilian University, and Hasselt University is published in the journal
Cell. Every day we learn more about how exposure to pollutants in air, water, soil, and food is harmful to human health, says senior author Andrea Baccarelli, MD, PhD, chair of Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia Mailman School. Less understood, however, are the specific biological pathways through which these chemicals inflict damage on our bodies. In this paper, we provide a framework to
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Extreme weather driven by climate change is making power outages more commonplace even as the need for electricity-dependent home health equipment grows. In this context, battery storage can help protect medically vulnerable households, according to researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. The article is published in the journal
Futures.
For the millions reliant on electricity for home medical equipment, even short-term power outages can lead to a potentially life-threatening situation. Society s most vulnerable populations elders, the ill, and the poor face the greatest risks. Only a fraction of individuals who rely on medical equipment like oxygen concentrators, nebulizers, ventilators, dialysis, and sleep apnea machines has an alternative source of power to use in the event of an outage. During outages related to the 2019 Camp Fire in Northern California, vulnerable residents reported complications, including one man who awoke when his sleep
Scientists to develop highly sensitive antibody tests for infection caused by all coronaviruses
Scientists at the Center for Infection and Immunity (CII) at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and SunYat-Sen University in China have set the stage for the development of highly sensitive antibody tests for infection with all known human coronaviruses, including new variants of SARS-CoV-2.
These tests should also allow differentiation of immune responses due to infection and vaccination. The research is published in
Communications Biology, a Nature journal.
The HCoV-Peptide array developed by CII scientists consists of 3 million immune markers on a glass chip, covering proteins of all known human coronaviruses, including the SARS-CoV-2. In collaboration with a team at Sun Yat-Sen University, the CII researchers identified 29 immune signatures specific to SARS-CoV-2.
Study demonstrates the lasting effects of redlining
Historically redlined neighborhoods are more likely to have a paucity of greenspace today compared to other neighborhoods.
The study by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and the University of California, Berkeley and San Francisco, demonstrates the lasting effects of redlining, a racist mortgage appraisal practice of the 1930s that established and exacerbated racial residential segregation in the United States. Results appear in
Environmental Health Perspectives.
In the 1930s, the Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) assigned risk grades to neighborhoods across the country based on racial demographics and other factors. Hazardous areas often those whose residents included people of color were outlined in red on HOLC maps.
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Researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health developed an infectious disease early warning system that includes areas lacking health clinics participating in infectious disease surveillance. The approach compensates for existing gaps by optimally assigning surveillance sites that support better observation and prediction of the spread of an outbreak, including to areas remaining without surveillance. Details are published in the journal
Nature Communications.
The research team, including Jeffrey Shaman and Sen Pei, have been at the forefront of forecasting and analyzing the spread of COVID-19. Their highly cited paper in the journal
Science Advances estimated the number of lives saved had physical distancing and other measures taken effect one week earlier. They have also led the development of methods to forecast other infectious diseases, including seasonal influenza.