Research Overview

• Our research is at the intersection of toxicology, analytical chemistry, and data science.

• Our goal is to identify environmental contaminants and assess their risks to human health and the ecosystem.

Research Areas

Non-Target Analysis of Environmental Samples

• Humans and wildlife are constantly exposed to chemical mixtures, which could trigger adverse health outcomes at ppb levels.

• To understand the harmful chemicals we are exposed to, we use high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) and cheminformatics to perform non-target analysis (NTA).

• Coupling NTA with in vitro bioassays and chromatography, we assess the risk of contaminants, and pinpoint the causal pollutants for observed toxicities.

Crumb Rubber: Tires and Artificial Turf

• Tian et al. previously identified 6PPD-quinone, a toxicant derived from tire rubber particles, or crumb rubber, that causes acute mortality of coho salmon. (DOI: 10.1126/science.abd6951)

• Crumb rubber, can enter waterways from urban road runoff causing contamination. Additionally, crumb rubber is used as infill for artificial turf in athletic fields.

• Due to human exposure from playing on artificial turf, it is of critical interest to assess the potential human toxicity of 6PPD-quinone.

Micro/Nano-Plastics Analysis

• Over time plastics in the environment will degrade, which can release toxic additives and impurities.

• To determine the risk of plastics to human and wildlife health, chemical characterization will be performed using FTIR/Raman spectroscopy, GC-MS and HR-MS.  

• Environmental behavior of plastics will be studied to understand what compounds are released during degradation and how transformation products are formed in the environment.  

• Toxicity will be assessed using in vitro bioassays and then correlated to particle size and degradation time.