Core B News Archive

Presentations
  • Crosby JS*, James JZ*, Lucas D, Koshland CP. Determination of Total Mercury Concentration in Aqueous Samples Utilizing Gold Nanoparticles. 11th International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant, Edinburgh, Scotland, July 31, 2013.
  • Crosby JS*, James JZ, Lucas D, Koshland CP. Detection of Aqueous Mercury Utilizing a Gold Nanoparticle Based Sensor. 13th International Congress on Combustion By-Products and Their Health Effects, New Orleans, LA May 15-18, 2013.
  • De La Rosa V*, Asfaha J*, Fasullo M, Vulpe C. Trans-lesion synthesis mediates trichloroethylene toxicity in yeast. Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science Conference, San Antonio, TX, October 2013.
  • James JZ*, Lucas D, Koshland, CP Results from a gold nanoparticle mercury detection system. 16th Annual Energy, Utility & Environment Conference. Paper B4.5, January 29, 2013.
  • Kyle AD.  Design Elements for Video Posters.  May 2013.
  • Kyle AD.  California’s Safer Consumer Products Proposed Regulations: Looking For The Devil In The Details.  Green Chemistry Annual Conference.  April 9, 2013.  San Francisco.
  • Kyle AD. Cumulative Impacts and Children’s Environmental Health.  Hands on workshop session.  Environmental Health Disparities and Environmental Justice National Conference.  NIEHS.  July 29-31.  Research Triangle Park.
  • Kyle AD. Workshop participant. The Science of Science Communication.  National Academy of Sciences.  September 23-25, 2013.
  • Kyle AD. Invited presentation for Featured Session organized by the Epidemiology Section on Environment, Lifestyle or Genes? Modeling Health Determinants – Implications for Research, Practice and Policy.  Health Disparities: Implications for Public Policy.  American Public Health Association Annual Meeting.  Boston.  November 2013.
  • Liu H*, Bruton T*, Doyle F, Sedlak DL. Oxidation of groundwater contaminants by metal oxide activation of persulfate: radical chain mechanisms and product formation. 246th American Chemical Society National Meeting and Exposition. New Orleans, LA. April 7-11, 2013.
  • Rappaport SM.  What is the exposome? Webinar presented to the Collaborative on Health and the Environment, entitled, The Exposome: Measuring Multiple Factors Impacting Our Health, 18 September 2013.
  • Rappaport SM. Exposing the Exposome, invited lecture, International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France. 5 March 2013.
  • Rappaport SM. Adductomics: Evaluating Exposures to Reactive Electrophiles, invited lecture, International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France, 24 April 2013.
  • Rappaport SM. A Vision for Metabolomics in Research on the Exposome, Progress in metabolomics for clinical and epidemiological research: a joint discussion with IARC, CRMN and SCA, International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France. June 2013.
  • Rappaport SM. The Exposome and Environmental Epidemiology, keynote address for the Workshop on the Food Metabolome and Biomarkers for Dietary Exposure, Metabolomics 2013, Glasgow.  July 2013.
  • Rappaport SM.  Using Untargeted Mass Spectrometry to Explore the Exposome, presented at the symposium entitled Seeing the Whole Picture: Moving Toward Methods that Can Detect More Chemicals, Annual Meeting of the UC Berkeley Superfund Research Program, Berkeley. September 2013.
  • Rappaport SM. The Exposome: Discovering Causes of Chronic Diseases, Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, CA, 7 November 2013.
  • Rappaport SM. The Exposome Exposed: The Future of Environmental Health? Centennial James Whittenberger Lecture, Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, December 2013.
  • Smith AH. Once we asked what arsenic might cause; now we ask, what does it not cause? Social and Preventive Medicine Seminar at University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, September 13, 2013.
  • Smith MT. Introduction to the Exposome, Opening lecture at Annual Meeting of the UC Berkeley Superfund Research Program, Berkeley, CA, September 20, 2013.
  • Smith MT. Risk assessment for benzene, Invited plenary lecture at the Brazilian Society of Toxicology meeting in Porto Alegre, Brazil, October 9, 2013.
  • Smith MT. Characterizing the Exposome to Complement the Genome, Invited seminar at Tsinghua University, Beijing China, November 4, 2013.
  • Smith MT. Characterizing the Exposome to Complement the Genome, Invited seminar at China Central Normal University, Wuhan, China, November 4, 2013.
  • Smith MT. The Exposome Paradigm, Invited Plenary speaker at meeting of the Chinese Society of Toxicolgy, Guangzhou, China, November 13, 2013.
Awards
  • Jay James and Jeffrey Crosby received an award for their work at the Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley: National Science Foundation Innovation-Corps, Bay Area Node, Best Team Overall, Fall, 2013.
  • Amy D Kyle received the Pearl August Humanitarian Award in December 2013 for her work with California Safe Schools and environmental justice organizations and communities in Southern California.  At the awards luncheon, she received a Certificate of Special Recognition from Congressman Tony Cardenas, a Certificate of Appreciation from the Honorable Adrin Nazarian, Assembly Member of the 46th District, and Commendation from Los Angeles Councilmember Jose Huizar.
Technology Transfer
  • James JZ, Crosby, JS, Lucas D, Koshland CP. Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance Mercury Detection System and Methods. U.S. Application Nos. 61/585,542 and 61/587,546. January 10, 2013 (filed).  The International Patent Application has been accorded serial number PCT/US2013/021066.
  • Jay James, Ph.D., who received funding from SRP for his Ph.D. and post-doctoral research at UCB and LBNL, founded a company, Picoyune LLC, based on the nanoparticle technology for mercury detection. Profs. Koshland, Sawyer, and Drs. Lucas and Crosby (all whom have worked on this SRP project) are involved as Directors or employees of this company.
Service on Government or Professional Advisory Boards or Organizations

Lisa Alvarez-Cohen advises ATSDR, National Academy of Sciences, and National Academy of Engineering.

  • Member of the Board of Scientific Councilors, National Center for Environmental Health/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2012-present)
  • Member of the National Research Council Committee on Subsurface Characterization, Modeling, Monitoring, and Remediation of Fractured Rocks (2012-present)
  • Co-chair of the Indo-American Frontiers of Engineering symposium of the National Academies (2011-present)

Amy D Kyle completed her second three-year term on the Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee, a federally commissioned advisory group that provides advice to the Administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency in November 2013.

S. M. Rappaport is currently a member of the Standing Committee on Emerging Science for Environmental Health Decisions, U.S. National Academy of Sciences (since 2008).

Engagement
  • The team that developed a new mercury sensor presented their work to the Delta Tributaries Mercury Council.
  • Brandon Gaytán is serving as a California Science and Technology Policy Fellow for the California Council on Science and Technology, at the California State Legislature in Sacramento.
  • Amy D Kyle developed comments based on work on cumulative impacts and children’s environmental health to US EPA in response to a request for input to Technical Guidance for Assessing Environmental Justice in Regulatory Analysis.
  • Amy D Kyle provided assistance to California Safe Schools on assessment of vapor intrusion into schools.
  • Amy D Kyle provided assistance to California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation on issues related to assessment of carcinogenicity.
  • Amy D Kyle provided assistance to residents of the community of East Palo Alto and the Environmental Law & Justice Clinic of Golden Gate University on matters related to contamination of groundwater.
  • Donald Lucas has been involved in changing regulations involving toxic and potentially toxic flame retardants. He appears in an HBO documentary titled “Toxic Hot Seat” that premiered at the Mill Valley, CA film festival in Oct., 2013, and on HBO on Nov. 25, 2013. He also testified at CA hearings on AB 127, which could allow foam insulation in buildings to be produced without toxic and potentially toxic flame retardant chemicals
  • Allan Smith has worked with Project Well (based in California), together with sister NGO Aqua Welfare Society (based near Kolkata, West Bengal).  Based in part on research conducted for the Berkeley Superfund Research Program, these groups have worked since 2001 to develop a sustainable, community-based arsenic-safe water systems to the villagers of North 24 Parganas, Nadia and Murshidabad districts, in West Bengal, India. Crystal-clear drinking water extracted by shallow and deep bore wells (locally known as tube wells) is plentiful in the villages of West Bengal, but it is often contaminated with arsenic.  Between 2001 and 2013, Project Well designed and constructed 277 modern dug wells; these dug wells tap into arsenic-free shallow aquifers and so provide safe drinking water. Since 2009, after extensive research and field testing, Project Well modified the design to that of bore-dug well which cost approximately US$700 to construct, cheaper than other options. In 2012, 53 water communities took over their water supply. In 2013, 51 more communities take charge of their own wells.
Events

UCB SRP 2013 MEETING
Seeing the Whole Picture: Moving Toward Methods That Can Detect More Chemicals

This meeting brought together academic researchers with interested stakeholders to understand how we might be able to obtain a much larger picture of human exposure through state-of-the-art analytical chemistry.  We focused on chemical analyses, where the field is going, and its potential for identifying emerging contaminants and analyzing the human exposome.

September 20, 2013, The David Brower Center, Berkeley, CA