Diane Re
Columbia University, NY·Neuroscience
Everyday environmental exposures can harm the brain, sometimes in ways that depend on a person's genes. Electronic cigarettes (e-cigs) are a timely example.
- Fields
Neuroscience
Public Health & Epidemiology
Pharmacology
- Topics
e-cigarettes
electronic cigarettes
vaping
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Apr 2028
What they work on
- Measure levels of potentially neurotoxic metals such as manganese, nickel, chromium and lead in aerosol from several popular e-cigarettes run under different conditions and with e-liquids that differ in flavor and nicotine content.
- Test the neurotoxic effects of chronic e-cig aerosol on neurons derived from people carrying incompletely penetrant Parkinson's disease mutations and from healthy controls, and identify metal mixtures of particular concern.
- Measure brain metal levels and motor and cognitive function in normal mice and in knock-in mice carrying a Parkinson's risk mutation after chronic e-cigarette aerosol exposure.
- Seed new environmental health research through the Pilot Project Program, including Linked Pilots that pair a lab-based mechanism study with a human study, with priority for early-career faculty and community-driven questions.
More about the research
These battery-powered devices heat a liquid into an aerosol that users inhale, and they are popular among younger people. Their long-term health effects are poorly understood, especially for the brain. The research centers on whether metals released from e-cig devices could raise the risk of neurodegenerative disease such as Parkinson's disease (PD). Re also co-leads a pilot grant program that seeds new environmental health research.
Why it matters
E-cigarette users, and people exposed second-hand, especially those genetically prone to Parkinson's disease, could benefit from knowing which devices, settings and e-liquids release brain-damaging metals. The findings could give policy makers previously unavailable data on neurotoxic risk from e-cig aerosol. The pilot program could speed new studies of environmental health concerns raised by Northern Manhattan communities.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Elias Klemperer
University of Vermont, VT·Public Health & Epidemiology
Test whether very low nicotine content cigarettes reduce cigarettes smoked per day and cigarette dependence among adult dual users of cigarettes and e-cigarettes, in a 12-week double-blind randomized trial.
Ronald Tjalkens
Colorado State University-Fort Collins, CO·Neuroscience
Determine how developmental exposure to environmental neurotoxins changes innate immune signaling in glial cells, altering the brain's inflammatory response to later toxic exposures during aging, using long-term studies in transgenic models.
Jennifer Freeman
Purdue University, IN·Neuroscience
Compare the immediate effects of developmental exposure to legacy PFOA and replacement PFAS (PFBA, GenX) on dopamine neurons, using zebrafish and human iPSC-derived dopamine neurons.
The school
Columbia University: 89 labs on PI Pages, $1.4B a year on research, 625 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
A start for your email. Fill in the brackets.