NSF Awards $500,000 Collaborative Grant for Innovative Research Led by Jennifer Weidhaas
The National Science Foundation has awarded a $500,000 grant for Dr. Jennifer Weidhaas’s latest project, “Collaborative Research: Wastewater exposome as an untapped source for understanding air pollution burden in environmental justice communities.” Dr. Weidhaas, an Associate Professor of Environmental Engineering at the University of Utah, will lead the project, with Dr. Randal Martin, a Professor at Utah State University.
The research, which will continue into 2027, aims to uncover the environmental burdens faced by disadvantaged communities by offering a non-invasive method to verify air pollution exposure to toxic effects on humans through wastewater analysis.
A New Frontier in Disease Surveillance: Using Wastewater to Track Air Pollution Exposure
Chronic diseases, a major cause of preventable deaths in the U.S., are often linked to air pollution, which is known to exacerbate asthma, respiratory diseases, and other health issues. Dr. Weidhaas’s research is pioneering preventative solutions to mitigate these preventable deaths.
By analyzing air pollution metabolites found in urine, researchers can directly confirm human exposure to pollutants and the magnitude of health effects. This innovative project aims to explore the impact of air pollution on environmental justice communities by correlating air pollution levels, urine markers of exposure, and wastewater data. The findings may extend beyond air pollution to monitor other diseases, including cancer and mental health disorders.
Bridging Environmental Justice and Public Health
Investment in preventing non-communicable diseases has a high return on investment and paves the way for earlier, targeted public health interventions. This project will develop disease surveillance tools using wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) methods, which will demonstrate that wastewater can reflect community exposure to air pollution. By focusing on socioeconomically disadvantaged communities with high levels of particulate matter (PM2.5) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), the project will use extracellular microRNA monitoring and mass spectroscopy detection of PAH metabolites in wastewater, alongside indoor and outdoor air sampling.
Engaging Title 1 schools and community members in sample collection and result dissemination through community meetings, this project aims to co-generate knowledge with environmental justice communities. While primarily focusing on air pollution exposure, this WBE approach has the potential to investigate a wide variety of non-communicable diseases associated with environmental exposures.
The project not only enhances our understanding of environmental justice issues but also presents new innovative public health solutions.
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