Environmental Toxicology Faculty Lead in Solving Important PFAS Contamination Problems

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), widely used in industrial and consumer products, have become a major environmental and public health concern.  They are known as forever chemicals because their fluorine carbon bonds are strong and extremely resistant to degradation.  Four ETOX faculty, Jinyong Liu, Haizhou Liu and Yujie Men, professors of Chemical and Environmental Engineering and Ying-Hsuan Lin, a professor of Environmental Sciences, are making significant progress in identifying chemical and microbiological processes that can degrade PFAS and clean up contaminated industrial sites and water.  The work of these faculty and their research teams have been highlighted in a recent article in the Fall 2023 edition of UCR Magazine.  Our congratulations to Jinyong, Haizhou, Yujie and Ying-Hsuan and their research groups for this recognition of their important work. 

[The figure above is from the Riverside Public Utility website.]

Postdoctoral Fellowship in Molecular Toxicology at Woods Hole

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is searching to fill an NIEHS-funded postdoctoral fellow position in molecular toxicology investigating the comparative biology, ligand specificity, and molecular evolution of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR), a ligand-activated transcription factor that regulates the response of humans and other animals to endogenous and exogenous chemicals. The successful candidate will work under the mentorship of Drs. Mark Hahn, Sibel Karchner, and Jed Goldstone at Woods Hole and Dr. Joe Thornton at the University of Chicago.  More information about the position can be found here.  Our thanks to ETOX faculty member David Volz for informing us about the position.  [The image above is from the Aryl hydrocarbon receptor entry on Wikipedia.]

Professor Yinsheng Wang, his Research Group and Collaborators Make Discovery of Mechanism Underlying Huntington's Disease

Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and ETOX faculty member Yinsheng Wang, his collaborators and his research group that included four current and former ETOX graduate students (Jiekai Yin, Yuxiang Cui, Gwendolyn Gonzalez, and Jun Yuan) have recently uncovered a new mechanism that indicates that RNA methylation on CAG repeats plays a role in Huntington’s disease. Their work was recently published in the journal Nature.  More information on their research can be found in a UCR News article.  Our congratulations to Yinsheng, Jiekai, Yuxiang, Gwendolyn and Jun for this interesting and groundbreaking article.  [The figure above is from their Nature article.]