RESEARCH
UPREGULATION OF INFLAMMATORY BIOMARKERS, PTGS2 (COX-2) and CYP1A1 FOLLOWING EXPOSURE TO DEP
I work with Dr. Nora Traviss of the Environmental Studies Department at Keene State College. She studies biodiesel particles as a part of our exploration of the up regulation of inflammatory biomarkers, but she also studies wood smoke, another instance of particulate matter that can be very harmful to the lungs of bystanders, or even the residents of a home burning unseasoned wood in an old stove.
We plan to conduct additional biological assays to measure expression of inflammatory cytokines and CYP1A1 metabolic activity in order to perform more in depth analyses of how PM effects BEAS-2B. BEAS-2B is an epithelial lung cell like that is virally immortalized. These are the cells that we use to conduct our research.
They will be exposed to different amounts of a given pollutant (in the case of my work, biodiesel particles) and then a qrt-PCR reaction will be done to see how highly the cells express RNA which code for genes CYP1A1 and COX-2. Both of these genes have been proven to be a downstream marker of inflammation.