# Core-005: Training Core

> **NIH NIH P42** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO · 2020 · $120,776

## Abstract

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is escalating in California and the United States and is associated with 
the rising obesity epidemic. NAFLD is a hepatic phenotype that encompasses the more serious manifestation of 
steatohepatitis (NASH), considered to be a prerequisite for liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma/HCC). We 
also know from recent clinical studies that chemical toxicant exposure, in the absence of obesity, can lead to 
toxicant-associated steatohepatitis (TASH), which closely resembles the pathology of NASH. These findings are 
relevant to SRP stakeholders in Region 9, since California ranks high in National Priorities List (Superfund sites) 
nationally and contains thousands of additional hazardous waste sites (HWS). In addition, the UCSD NAFLD 
Research Center shows that American Indians and Hispanics, combined the largest non-Caucasian population 
in California, are at far greater risk of developing NAFLD. Over the past five years, our SRC has leveraged 
resources to demonstrate that TASH is greatly accelerated by consumption of high-fat diet (HFD) or after a 
diabetic episode in mice. These findings are relevant, since we can speculate that American Indians and 
Hispanics are more susceptible to TASH development, a risk amplified by unhealthy diets, poverty and health 
disparities. The UCSD SRC will be developing models through its Biomedical projects to characterize the 
mechanisms of Superfund toxicant induced TASH development and cancer, while the Environmental Science & 
Engineering (ES&E) projects will develop tools for NPL-toxicant detection and remediation. Biomedical and 
ES&E projects will be assisted in these efforts by Research Core services that will provide tools for mouse 
genetic production, metabolomic and sophisticated Bioinformatic analysis. A key objective of the projects is to 
highlight scientific findings to maximize Research Translation, which will happen with collaborations between the 
projects and the Research Translation Core. We believe our program is innovative and paradigm shifting, since 
it has the potential of linking important basic research findings regarding Superfund toxicant exposure with 
human disease biomarker identification through collaborations with the UCSD NAFLD Research Center, which 
contains one of the largest NALFD cohort studies in the world. Importantly, our Biomedical findings and tools 
developed in the ES&E projects will be used as resources and knowledge gained to reduce cumulative impacts 
and health disparities. These initiatives will be leveraged through Community Engagement Core efforts in 
disadvantaged Hispanic neighborhoods in San Diego and Mexico where statistics confirms that obesity is an 
escalating problem both in children and adults. Since the incidence of NAFLD and liver cirrhosis is on the rise in 
both children and adults and may be linked to toxicant chemical exposure, our findings will be communicated to 
SRP primary stakeholders at the U.S. Envir...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9903346
- **Project number:** 5P42ES010337-19
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO
- **Principal Investigator:** PAMELA L MELLON
- **Activity code:** P42 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $120,776
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** — → —

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9903346

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9903346, Core-005: Training Core (5P42ES010337-19). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9903346. Licensed CC0.

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