# Nutrition and Superfund Chemical Toxicity

> **NIH NIH P42** · UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY · 2021 · $1,375,210

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
The University of Kentucky Superfund Research Center (UK-SRC) provides a focused, cross-disciplinary
research and training environment to address critical human health challenges associated with halogenated
organic substance exposures. Four center projects and five cores make up the proposed UK-SRC to further
develop research on lifestyle changes (e.g., nutrition and exercise) in addition to two environmental science
projects that will focus on the remediation and engineering solutions to this set of problems. Due to their
relative chemical stability and ubiquity in the environment, chlorinated organic contaminants such as
polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and trichloroethylene (TCE) pose significant health risks and enduring
remediation challenges, including sites such as the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, the largest Superfund
site in Kentucky. The UK-SRC’s overall focus for this next cycle is the human health impacts of persistent
halogenated organics (e.g., PCBs, TCE, and tetrachloroethene (PCE), and in this new cycle of funding,
additional questions about per- and polyfluoralkyl substances (PFAS) will be incorporated. Projects covering
biomedical research hypothesize that healthy nutrition and exercise components provide a platform to develop
primary prevention strategies for diseases associated with environmental toxic insults, while also providing the
basis for new risk assessment paradigms. Further, novel iron-based, nano-structured sensing, capture and
remediation systems based on biomimetic binding domains and functionalized membrane platforms offer
potential for sustainable advances in technical capability for site remediation. The UK-SRC proposes the
following goals: 1) to expedite data-driven discovery as facilitated by the Data Management and Analysis Core
that will provide insight about biomarkers of exposures to generate new information about the relationship
between pollutant exposure, nutrient intake, physical activity and disease risk; 2) to better understand the
biochemical, molecular, and cellular mechanisms underlying the toxicity of halogenated organic compounds
(i.e., PCBs and PFAS) with a specific focus on chronic inflammatory diseases and windows of susceptibility; 3)
to foster informed decisions that expedite clean-up of halogenated organic compounds through advanced
material-based technologies, smart filters, and fate and transport science to reduce exposure risks; 4) to
promote and interdisciplinary approaches to environmental health science training that accelerate the impact of
complex solution-oriented, stakeholder-engaged research aimed at reducing exposures and improving human
health; and 5) to engage bi-directionally and provide environmental health programmatic activities to
vulnerable, socially-isolated, under-resourced communities in Kentucky, especially Eastern Kentucky (i.e.
Central Appalachia), where chronic inflammatory diseases exceed national averages and exposure risks to
environmental...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10133653
- **Project number:** 5P42ES007380-23
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY
- **Principal Investigator:** Kelly G Pennell
- **Activity code:** P42 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $1,375,210
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 1997-04-07 → 2025-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10133653

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10133653, Nutrition and Superfund Chemical Toxicity (5P42ES007380-23). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10133653. Licensed CC0.

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