![[logo] US EPA](http://www.epa.gov/epafiles/images/logo_epaseal.gif){kind=logo}
NHEERL on the Road
Munich, Germany
EPHD Researchers To Play Lead Roles in HMGU Workshop
NHEERL Environmental Public Health Division (EPHD) scientists David David Diaz-Sanchez, Clinical Research Branch Chief; Lucas Neas, Epidemiology Branch; and Ian Gilmour, Inhalation Toxicology Facilities Branch, will be traveling to Munich and Grainau, Germany, to participate in a Helmholtz Zentrum München (HMGU) workshop, October 5-7, 2009. At this workshop, scientists from the HMGU German Research Center for Environmental Health and EPA will provide project updates and plans for the joint research projects on air pollution exposure and health effects. NERL researchers are leading the exposure component of the joint EPA-HMGU project titled "Use of Modeling Approaches To Predict Personal Exposure to PM for Panel Studies." This joint research project will benefit EPA by developing model-predicted exposure-dose metrics for individuals in health studies to better understand the exposure-dose-response behavior of air pollutants for susceptible humans and to reduce participant burden and the cost of exposure measurements.
Dr. Diaz-Sanchez has been the coordinator of organizational aspects of the workshop and will deliver the welcoming speech, alongside the head of HMGU. He also will chair the session on gene-environment interactions and will ensure that all research plan drafts are finalized by the end of the workshop. In addition, he will provide a synopsis of project proposals resulting from the workshop.
Dr. Neas, who is the lead for NHEERL's near-road team and the liaison between NHEERL and NERL on near-road studies, will be responsible for leading discussions that may result in coordination and leveraging between two 2010 near-road studies planned by ORD in Research Triangle Park, NC, and by HMGU in Germany. He, too, will chair a session discussing exposure to ambient and traffic-related particles and present an overview of the work done to date and planned by EPA to study health effects of traffic near major roads.
Dr. Gilmour has a long-standing collaboration with HMGU scientists to study particles collected by them and assess pulmonary toxicity in mouse models. During the workshop, he will consult with his colleagues to elaborate on these studies. He also will act as coordinator of studies utilizing EPA's animal model and inhalation capabilities. In addition, he will chair and lead discussions on future perspectives and on the role of toxicology in planned epidemiology studies on the effect of traffic on health effects.