The Lake Ontario Center for Microplastics and Human Health is an interdisciplinary team of collaborators from the University of Rochester & Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) who study the lifecycle of microplastics (MPs). The goal of the center is to study MPs origin, distribution and movement in the Great Lakes, and human exposure, and the health impact of MPs. The center is funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and the National Science Foundation.
The research projects will be supported by the Materials & Metrology Facility Core (MMC), led by Dr. James McGrath, post-doctoral fellow Dr. Samantha Romanick, and Dr. Iris Rivero. The MMC will fabricate & distribute to the three research projects that make up the center, including ultrathin silicon nanomembranes, particles, and fibers.
Dr. Christy Tyler will lead one project with efforts from Dr. Matthew Hoffman, Dr. Nathan Eddingsaas, Dr. Steven Day, and Dr. André Hudson. This project will build on several years of collaborative work at RIT to understand how MPs are introduced and transported in Lake Ontario along with efforts to study the ecological risk of plastic pollution in the lake.
The second project led by Dr. Lisa DeLouise will use nanomembranes developed by Dr. James McGrath to identify the presence and concentration of MPs in the water and air in the Lake Ontario ecosystem. In collaboration with Dr. Alison Elder, studies will assess MPs that become airborne at the shores of Lake Ontario. These studies will assess the modes of transport and toxicology of these MPs.
The third project of this center will be led by Dr. Jacques Robert. Roberts & his team will use frogs as animal models to study how waterborne MPs enter, move within, and accumulate in the body at different temperatures. This will allow for a better understanding of the inflammatory and immune responses to MPs exposure.
