Air pollution and heart & metabolic health
Official title: Environmental Exposure and Cardiometabolic Disease
Funded at University of Louisville · NIH-11112446 · Data updated 2026-11-12
Researchers are looking at how breathing volatile chemicals from contaminated sites may harm adults' heart health and increase diabetes risk.
Quick facts
| Grant type | NIH-funded research |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | University of Louisville NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Louisville, United States) |
| Project start | September 1, 2017 |
| Project end | June 30, 2027 |
| Funding year | 2025 |
| Award (this year) | $4,336,164 |
| NIH project number | 4P42ES023716-09 |
| Project ID | NIH-11112446 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Ideal participants are adults who live near Superfund or other hazardous-waste sites, or adults with or at risk for heart disease or diabetes who can provide health information and biological samples.
✕Less likely to help
People with no history of exposure to contaminated sites or those seeking immediate clinical treatment for heart disease are unlikely to receive direct medical benefit from this research.
What this research studies
This center brings together scientists who use animal studies, lab tests, and studies of people living near contaminated sites to find signs that chemicals hurt heart and metabolic health. Investigators measure air levels of volatile organic chemicals and test blood and other samples for sensitive biological markers using advanced mass spectrometry. The team also develops low-cost devices to monitor pollution and models pollutant atmospheres for controlled exposure experiments. Their combined approach aims to link real-world exposures to early signs of cardiometabolic injury and to guide prevention and cleanup efforts.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could help detect early pollution-related heart and metabolic damage and lead to better monitoring, prevention, and cleanup strategies to protect affected communities.
How similar studies have gone: Previous animal and human studies have linked air pollutants to heart and metabolic problems, and earlier center work has identified candidate exposure biomarkers that this project will build on.
Where this research is happening
-
University of Louisville
Louisville, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Srivastava, Sanjay — University of Louisville
- Study coordinator: Srivastava, Sanjay
Related research
Other NIH-funded projects on the same topics.
-
Prenatal and early-life chemical exposures linked to faster cellular aging in children and adolescents
Researchers will look at whether prenatal and early-life mixtures of chemicals and factors like diet and obesity speed up cellular aging in children and teens.
-
Heart organoids reveal how environmental chemicals affect heart function
A small research project uses lab-grown human heart tissue to study how environmental chemicals may change heart biology and function, aiming to identify early signs of heart problems.
-
Environmental exposures and inflammation in blood stem cells
Many people exposed to pollution and environmental disasters may develop blood disorders due to inflammation and DNA changes in blood stem cells.
-
Multimethod detection of brain micro- and nanoplastics in Alzheimer’s disease
Researchers will look for tiny plastic particles in human brains and see how they relate to Alzheimer’s disease and neighborhood-level environmental risk.
-
ECHO Measurement Core: Tools to track environmental exposures and child health
A large NIH project at Northwestern builds better, culturally sensitive measurements to understand how early environmental exposures affect child health and development.
-
S3E: A kid-friendly game to learn about indoor environmental health
A mobile game helps middle-schoolers learn about everyday indoor environmental exposures and how to reduce health risks like asthma and lead poisoning.
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.