The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) awarded a $671,165 Project Grant (CFDA 93.113 Environmental Health) to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) to conduct research aimed at identifying new mechanisms by which exposure to ozone air pollution causes chronic lung diseases like asthma and COPD. Key objectives of the 5-year project include:
Profiling the transcriptomes and epigenomes of alveolar macrophages in diverse mouse strains to reveal genetic differences underlying adaptation or failure to adapt to repeated ozone exposures. This will enable identification of novel genes and pathways regulating susceptibility to ozone-induced lung disease.
Conducting quantitative trait locus mapping in the same mouse model to pinpoint the specific genetic loci driving adaptation differences.
Directly testing the hypothesis that failure to adapt to ozone is a predictor of susceptibility to long-term, ozone-induced chronic lung disease, and evaluating whether modifying alveolar macrophage gene expression can alter these outcomes.
This research seeks to improve understanding of individual genetic susceptibilities to air pollution-induced lung disease in order to inform strategies for prevention and mitigation.