PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT
There is a high burden of environmental metal exposure in the U.S. In rural communities, this is often
from contamination of groundwater from mining and natural sources and use of well water for cooking and
drinking. In urban settings, recent water contamination events in Flint, Michigan and Jackson, Mississippi,
among other communities, have highlighted vulnerabilities to failures in water safety. Metal exposure remains
disproportionately high among minoritized populations and those with lower socioeconomic status in both rural
or urban settings. Across a broad panel of different metals, including arsenic, cadmium, lead, and uranium,
high levels of exposure are known to damage kidney tubules. Yet, the health consequences of lower levels of
metal exposure have not been elucidated, principally because sensitive markers of kidney tubule damage had
been lacking. Recently, methods for assessing metal levels in biospecimens and in the water supply, have
markedly progressed, including sensitive methods to detect kidney tubule damage non-invasively.
Our ultimate goal is to develop a kidney monitoring panel that can detect and quantify damage to the kidney
from any of the metal exposures that have