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Core B
Trace Metals Core

Joseph H. Graziano, Principal Investigator

Biomarkers of exposure to metals and metalloids have proven to be powerful tools for epidemiologic studies that seek to study associations between exposures and human health effects. The Trace Metal Facility Core Laboratory is an established facility that is jointly supported by the Columbia University P30 NIEHS Center and this SRP. The laboratory enables numerous investigators to precisely measure a broad range of metals, metabolites, and proteins in biological specimens. The NIEHS Center budget provides support for instrumentation, some (but not all) service contracts, methods development, and pilot study analyses, as well as partial support for the Laboratory Director and the Laboratory Manager. The three biomedical projects (Projects 2, 3 and 4) collectively will contribute roughly 60,000 biological specimens to be analyzed by this Core during the next five years.

This laboratory participates in numerous quality control programs and, in that regard, its performance during the past five years has been outstanding. It has anayzed more than 70,000 biological samples during the past five years, supporting many novel research findings derived from four biomedical research projects. The laboratory is equipped with four atomic absorption spectrophotometers, including two graphite furnace instruments. During the past grant cycle, with substantial Institutional Support from the Mailman School of Public Health, plus funds from the NIEHS Center and the SRP, the Core purchased an ICP-MS-DRC instrument which has become a vital part of our current and future capabilities.

The analyses to be conducted during the next five years include many that are already in place including: total As and creatinine in urine; Pb, As, and Se in blood; total As metabolites in urine, and others. Several new analytical methods will be refined, including: As concentrations in toenails, reduced and oxided As metabolites in urine (and possibly blood), and Clara Cell protein (CC16) in serum. With regard to the development of new analytical methods this Core benefits substantially from interactions with investigators in the Biogeochemistry Core and Project 5. In addition, the requests made by Projects 2-4 are well within the capabilities of this laboratory.