Superfund Research Program

Administrative Core

Project Leader: Kelly G. Pennell
Grant Number: P42ES007380
Funding Period: 2000-2025

Project-Specific Links

Final Progress Reports

Year:   2019  2013  2007  2004 

Studies and Results

The Administrative Core serves as the epicenter of collaboration, communication and management for the University of Kentucky Superfund Research Center (UK-SRC). The Administrative Core takes responsibility for planning and coordination, financial oversight, information transfer, internal and external advisory committee relations, coordination of all projects and cores, and liaising between University and Government officials and the NIEHS/SRPR. The Administrative Core includes the director Dr. Bernhard Hennig of the superfund chemicals, nutrition, and endothelial cell dysfunction project, Research Training Core), the associate director (Dr. Lindell Ormsbee of the environmental science chloro-organic degradation by nanosized metallic systems and by chelate-modified hydroxyl radical reaction project, Research Translation Core, and Dr. Anna Hoover - Public Health Coordinator). The Administrative Core also includes a full-time Program Coordinator (Jennifer Moore) who oversees fiscal and general management activities. The College of Agriculture Grants Administrator (Betty Newsom) remains available at an advisory level. In addition to the Administration Core's External Advisory Committee (EAC), their Internal Advisory Committee (IAC) provides advice about inter-disciplinary activities between their UK-SRC and an array of related centers, colleges, and departments, in addition to the university's central administration.

The UK-SRC submitted a competing renewal in 2012 and was asked to resubmit in 2013. Thus, the year 2013 can be considered as a no-cost extension. In addition to meetings, discussions and consultations throughout the current grant cycle, both the EAC and IAC were involved in drafting their competing renewal and the subsequent resubmission in 2013.

Projects and Cores continued their SRC research/activities, and a major focus was on allowing trainees (graduate students and postdoctoral scholars) to complete their studies and degrees. Several students graduated successfully and obtained postdoctoral positions or related employment opportunities in academia, government and/or industrial settings. Several of their students received awards.

The UK-SRC was very active during 2013, and examples of success stories are as follows. Lindell Ormsbee (RTC) was honored as the G.V. Loganathan Distinguished Lecturer at Virginia Tech, Dibakar Bhattacharyya of the environmental science chloro-organic degradation by nanosized metallic systems and by chelate-modified hydroxyl radical reaction projectwas recognized by winning the Inaugural Dean's Awards for Excellence in Research and Service, and Dr. Hennig received a University Research Professorship award. Hennig was also featured in the May 2013 issue of the Environmental Factor. Lisa Cassis won an $11 million NIH grant which supports the continuation of the Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) and which involves three UK-SRC faculty. Several of their trainees were honored as well, e.g., Michael Petriello received a 2-year AHA grant (predoctoral fellowship) in 2013. They were featured in several recent SRP e-Posted Notes issues. For example, in the 119 issue Michael Petriello, a doctoral student in Hennig's laboratory, was featured as "Trainee Spotlight". The 120 issue mentioned that Andrew Morris, Bernhard Hennig, and Kevin Pearson, won the 2014 University of Kentucky John P. Wyatt, M.D. Traveling Fellowship. This award provides institutional support to organize a one-day symposium on hazardous pollutants and associated environmental stress throughout the human life cycle. The symposium will feature prominent speakers and trainees. The Wyatt award also provides funds that the Core will use to initiate research collaborations with one of the invited symposium speakers, Tomas Trnovec of the Department of Environmental Medicine at Slovak Medical University in Bratislava, Slovakia.

Anna Hoover (Administrative Core, RTC) became deputy director and co-PI of the Public Health Practice-Based Research Networks National Coordinating Center, a national program office of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. In this capacity, she supports more than two dozen Public Health PBRNs across the nation while managing the Coordinating Center's daily operations. In September, the Public Health PBRN National Coordinating Center merged with the National Coordinating Center for Public Health Services and Systems Research, with Hoover becoming deputy director of the joint enterprise, which supports research on the effective and efficient organization, financing, and delivery of evidence-based public health services. Not only has the Core center's work been highlighted in PEPH's recently published Evaluation Metrics Manual, but these interactions also have brought information about NIEHS priorities and strategic direction back to their investigators through report-backs at their monthly Administrative Core-organized UK-SRC meetings.

Hennig, together with their new Research Support Core leader Andrew Morris, initiated collaborative efforts with the University of Iowa SRP Center to jointly improve understanding of the relationships between PCB toxicity and changes in lipid metabolism. The Core now has state-of-the-art mass spectrometry systems to promote discoveries of biomarkers associated with PCB toxicity and protective mechanisms associated with nutritional therapeutic interventions.

Bhattacharyya established several collaborations with other organizations: A memorandum of understanding (MOU) was established between University of Kentucky and Nanyang Technological University (NTU, Singapore) in November 2013, through efforts by D. Bhattacharyya at UK and Prof. Rong Wang (at NTU). Another MOU was established between UK and US EPA (NRMRL, Cincinnati) between D. Bhattacharyya at UK, Dr. Sikdar at US EPA. Bhattacharyya and Ormsbee have worked together to commercialize the functionalized membrane technology being developed for use in remediating chlorinated organic compounds (e.g. PCBs and TCE). These efforts have resulted in the licensing of the developed technology by Sepro Membrane Inc, Oceanside, CA which is manufacturing a larger-scale functionalized membrane module for potential above ground remediation applications at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant Superfund site.

Significance

The current leadership of the Administrative Core [i.e. Hennig (biomedical project expertise), Ormsbee (environmental science or non-biomedical project expertise, EPA and DOE collaborations), and Hoover (public health and risk communication expertise, ATSDR collaborations)] helps insure that the UK-SRC is thoroughly integrated and well positioned to leverage the UK-SRC biomedical and environmental science projects to actionable results. This structure has served as the foundation for building strong relationships with Superfund related government agencies (e.g. EPA, ATSDR, DOE) as well as a potential bridge for translating the research results to the public health sector through new relationships with the National Coordinating Center for Public Health Services and the Systems Research and Public Health Practice-Based Research Programs. This structure has further helped facilitate the development of new MOUs with other universities and EPA, as well as support the translation of project research into new licensed technologies for applications in Superfund remediation and water treatment.