Tools to recreate deployment-related airborne exposures affecting veterans' lungs
Official title: ShEEP-MERP: Request for In Vivo/In Vitro Aerosol Exposure Systems
Funded at Veterans Health Administration · NIH-11534241 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project will set up lab equipment to recreate burn pit and other deployment airborne exposures so researchers can understand how they harm veterans' lungs and other organs.
Quick facts
| Grant type | NIH-funded research |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Veterans Health Administration NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Pittsburgh, United States) |
| Project start | October 1, 2024 |
| Project end | September 30, 2027 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| NIH project number | 5IS1BX007078-02 |
| Project ID | NIH-11534241 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Ideal participants would be veterans who deployed to Southwest Asia or Afghanistan with respiratory or multi-symptom illnesses and who can donate tissue or biological samples or travel to VA Pittsburgh for testing.
✕Less likely to help
People without deployment-related exposures or those who cannot donate samples or travel to the study site are unlikely to benefit directly from participation in this work.
What this research studies
VA Pittsburgh will purchase and install specialized aerosol generation systems to recreate deployment-related toxins and particles in controlled lab conditions. The equipment will be used with small animals, isolated tissues, human and animal cells, and 3D organ cultures derived from Veterans to model how exposures cause lung and systemic disease. The instruments will be integrated into a new Pittsburgh Respiratory Exposures and Evaluation (PREE) Core that links exposure generation with existing analytic tools. The Core aims to provide a safer, contamination-free platform distinct from tobacco-exposure equipment to study complex military aerosol mixtures.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this could reveal how deployment airborne toxins damage lungs and other organs and point toward better diagnosis and treatments for affected veterans.
How similar studies have gone: Previous animal and laboratory models of smoke and particulate exposure have informed lung disease mechanisms, but reproducing the complex mixtures from deployment-related toxins in a dedicated core is relatively new and less tested.
Where this research is happening
-
Veterans Health Administration
Pittsburgh, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Dela Cruz, Charles S — Veterans Health Administration
- Study coordinator: Dela Cruz, Charles S
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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.