Little Rock, AR/Anchorage, AK – At the end of February, Dr. Igor Koturbash, Professor and Chair of the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health, co-chaired a session at the Environmental Health Symposium during the 2025 Western Regional IDeA Conference in Anchorage, Alaska. The session, hosted by Alaska INBRE, was led by Dr. Patrick Tomco of the University of Alaska Anchorage and Dr. Koturbash, and focused on critical environmental health issues.

As part of his visit, Dr. Koturbash delivered an invited presentation and met with Dr. Tomco and his colleagues at the University of Alaska Anchorage’s Department of Chemistry to initiate collaborative efforts between the two institutions. Despite their geographical differences, Alaska and Arkansas face common environmental concerns, including oil spills and microparticle pollution.

“Merging expertise in analytical chemistry and biomedical research that the University of Alaska and UAMS possess, respectively, promise to elevate the research conducted at our institutions to the next level and tackle the environmental challenges in our states,” said Dr. Koturbash.

Dr. Tomco echoed the enthusiasm for collaboration, stating, “We are excited to work together with colleagues in Arkansas to better understand the biological consequences of environmental exposures. We also hope to offer our students at both institutions a combined training that will include both analytical chemistry and biomedical perspectives.”

The partnership aims to advance research and education, fostering interdisciplinary approaches to environmental health challenges affecting both regions.

Professor Igor Koturbash, MD, PhD, and his collaborators recently published an article titled “Long-term effects of combined exposures to simulated microgravity and galactic cosmic radiation on the mouse lung: sex-specific epigenetic reprogramming” in Radiation and Environmental Biophysics.

This study examines how space-like conditions—including simulated microgravity and galactic cosmic radiation (GCR)—affect the lungs of male and female mice at the epigenetic (or “above” the genetic) level. Researchers exposed mice to different doses of radiation and simulated weightlessness to see if these factors caused long-term epigenetic changes, particularly in DNA methylation, which regulates proper expression of genetic information.

Nine months after exposure, male mice showed increased levels of DNA methylation in specific genetic regions (LINE-1 elements) associated with genomic stability. This was linked to higher levels of enzymes that control DNA methylation. Female mice, however, showed a trend toward reduced DNA methylation, though the changes were less pronounced. These sex-specific differences suggest that males and females may respond differently to space radiation at the epigenetic level.

The findings are important because they suggest that DNA methylation of selective genomic loci (for instance, LINE-1) could serve as a long-term biomarker of radiation exposure. Understanding these genetic effects is crucial for planning deep-space missions, as prolonged exposure to cosmic radiation and microgravity may have lasting health consequences for astronauts. Additionally, the study highlights the need to consider sex differences in radiation risk assessment.

The full article can be read here.

One year ago today, Dr. Mitch McGill was awarded an R01 grant for his project titled The role of phosphatidic acid in liver regeneration after acetaminophen overdose. This five year, $1.6 million dollar grant will fund Dr. McGill’s ongoing and highly regarded work on liver injury and recovery.

Dr. En Huang’s research on drug resistant pathogens has culminated in a new grant awarded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Dr. Huang’s R01 five year grant is titled Mechanisms of cefiderocol nonsusceptibility and resistance evolution in carbapenem resistant pathogens and totals $3,643,475 in funding.

Dr. Gunnar Boysen’s latest article “Investigating the origins of the mutational signatures in cancer” appears in Nucleic Acids Research, Volume 53, Issue 1, published this month. The abstract is below:

Most of the risk factors associated with chronic and complex diseases, such as cancer, stem from exogenous and endogenous exposures experienced throughout an individual’s life, collectively known as the exposome. These exposures can modify DNA, which can subsequently lead to the somatic mutations found in all normal and tumor tissues. Understanding the precise origins of specific somatic mutations has been challenging due to multitude of DNA adducts (i.e. the DNA adductome) and their diverse positions within the genome. Thus far, this limitation has prevented researchers from precisely linking exposures to DNA adducts and DNA adducts to subsequent mutational outcomes. Indeed, many common mutations observed in human cancers appear to originate from error-prone endogenous processes. Consequently, it remains unclear whether these mutations result from exposure-induced DNA adducts, or arise indirectly from endogenous processes or are a combination of both. In this review, we summarize approaches that aim to bridge our understanding of the mechanism by which exposure leads to DNA damage and then to mutation and highlight some of the remaining challenges and shortcomings to fully supporting this paradigm. We emphasize the need to integrate cellular DNA adductomics, long read-based mapping, single-molecule duplex sequencing of native DNA molecules and advanced computational analysis. This proposed holistic approach aims to unveil the causal connections between key DNA modifications and the mutational landscape, whether they originate from external exposures, internal processes or a combination of both, thereby addressing key questions in cancer biology.

The article can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkae1303

Dr. Ping-Ching recently secured a substantial U24 grant from National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences for her project titled Promoting scientific and workforce diversity by enriching the Arkansas Rural Community Health Study (ARCH) among Mother-Daughter Pairs. The five year grant totals $1.9 million dollars and focuses on the following specific aims.

Aim 1. Enrich ARCH cohort maintenance and resource infrastructure. Continue the active follow-up effort targeting ARCH participants within mother–daughter pairs, with linkages to the Environmental Protection Agency/US Geological Survey data, Area Deprivation Index, medical records, AR Central Cancer Registry on all cancer diagnosis, and All-payer Claims Database for info on treatment and health outcomes.

Aim 2. Collect longitudinal sample and exposure data on mother–daughter pairs. Mother–daughter pairs will be recontacted for additional biospecimen and exposure survey with the potential to examine individual levels (e.g., heavy metals, pesticides, chemicals) and mediators of disease onset (e.g., genetics, methylome, immune function) for future research opportunities.

Aim 3. Develop and implement an interactive dashboard to promote cohort data management and sharing. A robust bioinformatics pipeline and interactive end-user dashboard will be developed for users to view data geocentrically and to compare user-defined populations. This dashboard will facilitate broader use of data and sample resources, hypothesis generation, result dissemination, and will serve as an entry point for biospecimen requests.

Rachel Hale, MA presented her research on climate change and Arkansas farmers at the APHA conference in November 2023. Her project with Keneshia Bryant-Moore, PhD, RN, FNP-BC and intern Anna Eichenberger won third place in the OHS Student Poster Competition.

Associate Professor Ping-Ching Hsu, PhD, is a leading researcher on environmental health and cancer in Arkansas. Dr. Hsu is among five UAMS researchers awarded funds appropriated by the Arkansas Breast Cancer Act to support emerging breast cancer studies. Dr. Hsu’s project is titled “Precision Environmental Health to Tackle High Early-Onset Breast Cancer in Arkansas Rural Community Health Study (ARCH).”

Click here for more information about this award.

Mitch McGill, PhD recently secured funding in the amount of $107,000 from Haleon plc for his project titled “In vitro assessment of the protective effects of selected ingredients against acetaminophen hepatotoxicity.”

Dr. Gunnar Boysen is leading a project on water quality in collaboration with colleagues at Ouachita Baptist University (OBU) and Harding University. The educational goal is to train the next generation of science-educated health professionals by building a team of undergraduate students that will study the water quality in their communities.

The scientific objective of this project is to collect, map, and analyze water samples across the state of Arkansas to identify and quantify man-made contaminants of emerging concern in Arkansas water systems.

The rationale for the proposed research is that low level contamination of water by pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and PFAS is a threat to the health of Arkansas wildlife and residents.

Dr. Boysen is studying PFAS by LC-MS, Dr. Sara Hubbard and her students at OBU is studying pesticides by GC-MS, and Dr. Amie Murphy and her students at Harding are studying pharmaceuticals by LC-MS.

The project’s recruitment goal is to have 5 areas, each testing open water systems and publicly available tap water.

This research is funded by the Arkansas Water Resources Center at the University of Arkansas.