# Wadsworth Center's Human Health and Exposure Analysis Resource (WC-HHEAR)

> **NIH NIH U2C** · WADSWORTH CENTER · 2021 · $2,271,517

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT – OVERALL
The proposed Wadsworth Center Human Health Exposure Analysis Resource (WC-HHEAR): Targeted
Exposure Analysis Laboratory leverages access to a well-established targeted biomonitoring laboratory based
at Wadsworth, which is recognized internationally as a world class public health laboratory and research institute.
Wadsworth has developed significant capability and capacity for the targeted analyses required to help HHEAR
become a success and has added experience from having been one of the six CHEAR laboratory hubs. The
proposed WC-HHEAR resource is led by two MPIs with over 65 years of combined experience analyzing
biospecimens for organic and inorganic targets, and who have collaborated together and with other researchers
for two decades to advance our understanding of environmental exposures and human health; their collective
contributions amount to over 700 published papers in the field of exposure measurements. The Administrative
Core will provide an effective infrastructure and the support to ensure that WC-HHEAR is well-integrated into the
Wadsworth’s Division of Environmental Health Sciences. Staff from the Administrative Core will work to confirm
the day-to-day lab hub operations are smooth, and that excellent communications are maintained within the hub,
and between the hub, the other HHEAR components, and with HHEAR clients. The proposed WC-HHEAR
Targeted Analysis Resource (TAR), which is at the heart of this proposal, offers extensive capabilities that extend
over 30 chemical classes, and hundreds of individual targets, and in many different biological tissues and fluids.
The benefit to HHEAR clients includes multiple pre-and-post analytical consultations with experienced laboratory
staff and subject matter experts that have reputations for high-quality analytical work. The TAR will also leverage
the experience and capability that Wadsworth brings as an international provider of proficiency testing and as a
producer of well-characterized biological reference materials that will help ensure the harmonization of data
reported by laboratories world-wide for trace elements and trace organics in biological matrices. The WC-HHEAR
Development Core will work to advance existing methods to improve efficiency, and achieve lower limits of
detection, while working with increasingly smaller sample masses/volumes. The Development Core will also
work to extend our capabilities in non-traditional matrices, increasing the number of targets measured and in
many more matrices. Additionally, WC-HHEAR will adapt to the challenges ahead, whether driven by discoveries
in the untargeted resource, or from HHEAR clients requesting increased throughput for our established assays.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10222672
- **Project number:** 5U2CES026542-04
- **Recipient organization:** WADSWORTH CENTER
- **Principal Investigator:** Kurunthachalam Kannan
- **Activity code:** U2C (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $2,271,517
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2015-09-30 → 2025-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10222672

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10222672, Wadsworth Center's Human Health and Exposure Analysis Resource (WC-HHEAR) (5U2CES026542-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10222672. Licensed CC0.

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