Peter Thorne, PhD
My research group studies inhaled environmental and occupational pollutants and engineered nanomaterials to understand mechanisms of their toxicity to the lung as well as the immune, neurological, and endocrine systems. We characterize toxicity in a manner that allows us to translate research findings to human health risk assessment to inform environmental health policy. My lab, the Human Toxicology and Exposomics Laboratory, engages students in studies of environmental risk factors for asthma, health effects of inhaled air pollutants, inflammatory lung diseases, endotoxin-induced immunomodulation, nanotoxicology, PCBs and children’s environmental health, and novel methodologies for exposure assessment to airborne toxicants. My lab is exceptionally well-equipped to perform inhalation or systemic exposures to toxic chemicals from Arsenic to Zinc oxide as well as biological agents including allergens, amphiphilic peptides, toxins and xenobiotics that interact with pattern recognition receptors.
- Neurotoxicology
- Neurodegenerative disorders
- Neuromuscular disorders
- Learning memory
- Developmental neuroscience
- Animal behavior
- Molecular biology