Suresh Cuddapah
New York University, NY·Genetics
Nickel is a metal found in stainless steel, batteries and medical devices, and mining, refining and food processing have raised its levels in the environment. Breathing nickel is linked to asthma, lung scarring, bronchitis, emphysema and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and also to lung and nasal cancers.
- Fields
Genetics
Public Health & Epidemiology
Biochemistry
- Topics
nickel
heavy metal toxicity
environmental toxicology
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jun 2030
What they work on
- Map how nickel exposure changes where Sp1, a transcription-activating protein, binds across the genome, and characterize the accompanying shifts in the epigenomic landscape of chromatin marks.
- Test whether ZEB1, a transcriptional repressor recruited to nickel-silenced gene promoters, is required for gene silencing that persists after nickel exposure ends.
- Determine whether nickel-induced loss of E-cadherin (CDH1) and other adhesion and extracellular matrix genes drives epithelial-mesenchymal transition, in which lining cells lose attachments and become mobile.
- Examine in vivo the consequences of nickel-induced disruption of the Sp1-ZEB1 regulatory switch for gene silencing and lung disease-related changes.
More about the research
Even ordinary environmental levels are associated with reduced lung function, and ambient nickel in children has been linked to inflammation deep in the lungs. How nickel actually causes these diseases at the molecular level remains poorly understood. This project asks how nickel switches genes off in cells and why they stay off long after exposure ends.
Why it matters
Workers in mining, refining and metal industries, and people living near these sources, are exposed to nickel and face higher rates of chronic lung disease and lung and nasal cancer. By pinpointing how nickel locks genes off through the Sp1-ZEB1 switch and epigenetic changes, the work could identify molecular markers of past exposure and pathways that might be targeted to prevent or reverse nickel-associated lung injury.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Andres Cardenas
Stanford University, CA·Public Health & Epidemiology
Test whether a 12-month in-home HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) filter intervention slows epigenetic and proteomic aging clocks in the nasal lining and blood of older former smokers with eosinophilic COPD, using samples from a randomized sham-controlled trial.
Young-Mi Go Kang
Emory University, GA·Pharmacology
Determine whether cadmium enhances RSV-induced protein S-palmitoylation, the attachment of fatty acids to proteins, by changing the activity of zDHHC11 and acyl protein thioesterase in mice and lung cells.
Samir Kelada
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC·Genetics
Determine whether Angpt1 or Rspo2 is the causal gene at a mouse chromosome 15 locus controlling ozone-induced airway injury, using knockdown, knockout and rescue experiments, and test the nearby human variant rs10086579 in three human cohorts.
The school
New York University: 72 labs on PI Pages, $1.5B a year on research, 540 research doctorates a year.
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