Project Reference: TRG27-PAT-ST1

Project title: Assessing the impact of environmental plastic pollution on human health.

Project outline

Environmental plastic pollution is an emerging global health challenge, with humans continuously exposed to chemicals and particulate matter that impact our health. Often, this occurs without us ever knowing we have been exposed and can result from ingestion, inhalation, and/or dermal absorption. Indeed, all of these routes lead to exposure to micro- and nano-plastics (M/NP), the ubiquitous breakdown products of plastics. In addition to the chronic inflammation that can be initiated by these exposures, the chemical moieties on the surfaces of these particles can affect bodily systems through activities such as endocrine disruption and carcinogenicity. This project aims to determine which chemical entities are present on these particles, to hypothesise how they might affect healthy individuals, and to develop evidence of their impacts on human health. Specifically, we have chemically-functionalised M/NP that can be utilised to assess their impact on model systems representing key aspects of human health. In particular, we are interested in uncovering how these functionalised M/NP interact with the immune system employing both in vitro and in vivo models. The latter includes those that are pre-disposed to the development of cancers of the immune system, so-called lymphomas. Single-cell genomic and transcriptomic profiling will be used to characterise heterogenous cell populations. These data will also inform of the potential impact of MNP on chronic immune conditions. 

The student will will receive interdisciplinary training and conduct research across laboratories in both the UK and Austria, learning methodology to assess the toxicology and impact of M/NP on human health, working with an interdisciplinary team of pathologists, toxicologists and biologists. 

Principal Supervisor

Professor Suzanne Turner

Email address: sdt36@cam.ac.uk

Department / Partner Institute: Pathology

Website: https://www.path.cam.ac.uk/research/cellular-and-molecular-pathology-division/turner-group

BBSRC strategic theme

Bioscience for an integrated understanding of health