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| Entomologist Bruce Hammock directs the UC Davis Superfund Research Program. (Photos by Kathy Keatley Garvey) |
DAVIS--The UC Davis Superfund Research Program, directed by entomologist Bruce Hammock at the University of California, Davis, has received a $13.2 million, five-year competitive renewal grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS).
The project, “Biomarkers of Exposure to Toxic Substances,” involves chromatographic, biosensor, and cell-based technologies to determine the fate and transport of hazardous materials in groundwater, surface water, and air as chemicals move from toxic waste sites. The investigators also develop biomarkers of human and environmental exposure to these materials.
“I am very proud of the impact that we have had,” said Hammock, distinguished professor of entomology. "The unique concept of NIEHS was to train a new generation of scientists working at the interface of a number of disciplines to address the serious problem of safe disposal and remediation of hazardous chemical wastes.”
Said Neal Van Alfen, dean of the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences: “The Superfund Program represents one of the strengths of UC Davis in fostering interdisciplinary science to address serious problems facing California and the nation. The cutting-edge research being conducted in this program will have positive long-term and large-scale impacts for people, animals, and the environment.”
The interdisciplinary research includes "very basic to applied science," Hammock said.
Co-program director Michael Denison, professor of environmental toxicology, noted that the program reflects a major UC Davis commitment to human and environmental health. The colleges involved commit almost half a million dollars each year in matching funds to cover the research time investigators spend on these issues, in addition to almost $6.5 million in infrastructure support over the last 23 years.
The UC Davis scientists were the first in the nation to receive Superfund Research Program funding. Since the project started in 1986, they have brought in more than $42 million in NIEHS support to the campus.
"We continually bring new scientists and technologies into the program to work on these complex problems,” said Ian Kennedy, a professor of mechanical and aeronautical engineering. “Project leaders Alan Buckpitt, Mike Denison, Shirley Gee, Bruce Hammock, Bill Lasley, Kate Scow and I have worked together on this project for a quarter of a century. I am thrilled that we are funded for another five years on this important work.”
Alan Buckpitt, co-director of the project through the mid-1990s and professor of veterinary molecular biosciences, said that these biomarkers of hazardous chemical exposure and effect are "based on a fundamental understanding of the toxicological processes involved. This mechanistic knowledge is extended in vivo with an emphasis on pulmonary, vascular, and reproductive effects.”
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| Heading the UC Davis Superfund Research Program are (from left) Bruce Hammock, program director; Mike Denison, co-program director; and Kathleen Dooley, program manager. Denison's "helper" is Murphy, a Coton de Tuléar, owned by Denison and Grace Bedoian, assistant program manager of the UC Davis Superfund Program.. |
The research project also has a major training component, said.Bob Rice, professor of environmental toxicology. "We have helped train 375 graduate students over the last 23 years, and we have run summer programs in environmental and health science for undergraduates from around the U.S. We have also supported a program for minority students in these areas.”
Although much of the science carried out in the program is fundamental, some has immediate practical applications. “I got great pleasure from seeing that a park and nature preserve are in the plan for the old Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, which we helped remediate,” said Dan Chang, professor emeritus of civil and environmental engineering.
Chang, an environmental engineer with the program for two decades and in charge of the Superfund Mare Island Project, said that one of the first translation projects of the UC Davis Superfund Program "retrained 400 engineers at the shipyard to do environmental engineering and contribute to the cleanup of Mare Island following its decommissioning as a nuclear submarine port in the 1980s.”
“We have continued the tradition started at Mare Island with our outreach and translational efforts,” said Jim Sanborn who heads the Technology Transfer Core. “We have many projects ranging from translating technologies to removing MTBE (methyl tertiary-butyl ether, chemical compound used as a gasoline additive) from groundwater to supporting a green technology entrepreneurship academy at Lake Tahoe each summer in conjunction with our Graduate School of Management.”
The UC Davis program draws investigators from several UC Davis colleges and schools: College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, College of Engineering, School of Medicine, and the School of Veterinary Medicine. Researchers are also located in the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the UC Davis Center for Health and the Environment.
Hammock, who joined the UC Davis Department of Entomology faculty in 1980, holds a joint appointment in Cancer Research with the UC Davis Medical Center, also directs the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Training Program in Biotechnology, and the NIEHS Combined Analytical Laboratory.
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--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
