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UM OHH: Overview
About UM OHH: Overview Introduction and Organization of the Center Background: The Oceans and Human Health Connection The interactions between oceans and human health are increasing due in part to a growing number of humans living within close proximity of the world’s oceans. Presently over 60% of the world’s population live within 75 miles of an ocean coast; this density of human coastal populations increases daily, particularly in subtropical and tropical areas (Knap 2002, Fleming 2006, Fleming 2007). These human populations rely heavily on the use of unpolluted coastal marine waters for both food and recreational purposes. However, microbial contamination by bacteria, viruses and protists, related directly and indirectly to human and animal activity, increasingly affects the safety of the seafood supply, as well as the commercial and recreational use of coastal marine waters. Food poisoning and recreational/occupational exposure to contaminated marine waters are estimated to cost millions of dollars in health costs and loss of income worldwide (NRC 1999, De Long 2001, Pruss 1998, Lipp 1997). At the same time, possibly due to the increased nutrient loading from human activities and/or global change, in some cases the number, geographic range, and variety of harmful algal blooms and their toxins appear to be increasing (Van Dolah 2000, Anderson 1994, Backer 2003, Fleming 2002). Again, due to the increased number of coastal human populations and their reliance on coastal and distant marine waters for commercial and recreational purposes as well as a safe and abundant supply of food, the harmful algal blooms (HABs) are increasingly impacting the health of these human populations. HABs can directly affect human health by contaminating seafood or via coastal aerosols of their natural toxins; in addition, many HABs and their toxins cause massive die offs of fish, marine birds and marine mammals which can impact the use of coastal waters for both commerce and recreation. Anderson et al (2000) estimated that nearly $450 million dollars were spent dealing with the known HABs from 1987-1992 in public health, commercial fishery, recreation/tourism and monitoring/management in the US alone. Human exposure to anthropogenic contaminants is now a well known phenomenon in the Canadian Arctic and elsewhere. Early work demonstrated that because of their traditional dietary habits, Inuit populations are exposed to environmental man-made contaminants (such as heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants) by eating their traditional foods, and their infants are exposed through transplacental and breast milk transmission from the Inuit mother. At the same time, seafood is a major source of protein and other nutritional benefits. Therefore, these indigenous populations are faced with a terrible choice between abandoning their traditional nutrition source or facing the consequences of chronic exposure to chemical pollutants (Dewailly 2006). Finally, there has been the realization that, similar to, or perhaps even more than the endangered tropical rainforests, the earth’s oceans are a source of great biological diversity with the almost unexplored potential to provide significant therapeutic, as well as nutritional, benefits for humans and other animals (NRC 1999, Faulkner 2001, Fleming 2006). Current successful examples include: Bryostatin 1, a potent anticancer agent from a marine invertebrate; Ecteinascidin 743, a potent anti cancer drug from the Caribbean sea squirt; and Discodermolide, a potential anti cancer drug from a marine sponge in clinical trials. Of additional interest, even the HAB toxins themselves may be of future therapeutic value, providing another reason for additional elucidation of the HAB organisms and their toxins (Burja 2001, Fleming 2007). Subtropical and tropical human populations are particularly affected by the interactions between oceans and human health (NRC 1999, Knap 2002, Wolff 2002, Fleming 2006, Fleming 2007). As noted above, due to population growth and migration, the density of humans along ocean coasts is increasing most dramatically in sub/tropical areas. The significant consequences of this increased population density in sub/tropical coastal regions can be seen in the horrific results of recent weather events: Hurricane Mitch (October 1998) caused over 9000 deaths and another 9200 people missing in Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador while Hurricane Katrina (August 2005) displaced thousands of people and caused billions of dollars in damage in the US Gulf coast. An earthquake and tsunami in Papua, New Guinea (July 1998) caused over 2000 deaths while the extensive earthquake and tsunami in Southeast Asia (December 2004) resulted in at least 125,000 deaths and severe destruction of infrastructure and billions of dollars in damage. Due to severe poverty and limited resources, these human populations in sub/tropical areas are increasingly dependent on the oceans for their food and economies. Furthermore, these populations cannot afford to support expensive monitoring programs for microbial or HAB toxin contamination of the seafood and marine coastal waters used to protect human populations in more developed nations. Therefore, occupational and recreational, and food chain contamination by microbes and HAB toxins can have particularly devastating effects. For example, paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) caused by the consumption of shellfish contaminated by the marine toxin saxitoxin is an extremely rare event in New England (USA) due to extensive shellfish monitoring programs; however, in July 1987 in a small Guatemalan fishing community, 26 of 187 (14%) of PSP cases died of respiratory arrest within hours of consumption, with a 50% mortality rate among the children (Rodrigue 1990). Even in developed nations, with highly sophisticated monitoring programs newly discovered HABs and their natural toxins can cause significant illness and mortality, An example of this was the discovery in the late 1980s in Canada of the HAB toxin domoic acid of a HAB diatom from an outbreak of significant acute and chronic morbidity and mortality in over 100 people who consumed contaminated mussels (Perl 1990). The University of Miami and Oceans and Human Health The University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (RSMAS) is one of the largest oceanographic institutions in the world. The faculty numbers approximately 100, grouped into six academic divisions: Marine Biology and Fisheries, Marine and Atmospheric Chemistry, Meteorology and Physical Oceanography, Applied Marine Physics, Marine Geology and Geophysics, and Marine Affairs and Policy. A well published, highly funded, and broadly talented interdisciplinary faculty, a research staff of 250, and a graduate student population of 150 are dedicated to maintaining the school’s reputation as one of the premier academic, oceanographic-research facilities in the world. Over the past 60 years of its existence, RSMAS researchers have received extensive and sustained National Science Foundation (NSF) funding for a wide range of oceanographic and marine biological research. As a result, RSMAS researchers have developed particular expertise in the areas of remote sensing, physical and biological oceanography, and atmospheric chemistry, particularly applied to sub/tropical ocean environments. Over the past decade, the University of Miami RSMAS has established a unique partnership with the University of Miami School of Medicine and its State University partner, Florida International University (FIU) to expand the applications of the biomedical sciences to the freshwater and marine environments. This intense research effort funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) has created a NIEHS Marine and Freshwater Biomedical Sciences Center (founded in 1991) and the NIEHS-funded FIU-UM ARCH Program (initiated in 2001), as well as research projects such as the NIEHS-funded PO1 into the effects of aerosolized Florida Red Tide Toxins and the NIEHS-funded AMBIENT Project to create environmental health sciences curriculum for high school teachers and students. The NIEHS Center and the FIU ARCH Program have focused on the exploration of the human health effects of the marine and freshwater toxins and marine models of human disease, expanding interdisciplinary collaborations between the biomedical and the marine sciences. Thus, with its extensive history of interdisciplinary and collaborative research in the oceanographic and biomedical sciences, the University of Miami and its collaborators are in a unique position to provide the appropriate resources to explore the associations between oceans and human health, particularly in the area of subtropical and tropical marine environments. Aims and Objectives of the University of Miami Oceans & Human Health Center
The Center takes an integrated approach from basic science to applied research, from scientific communication to education of the public, from individual research priorities to the priorities of the NIEHS-NSF Oceans and Human Health Program joining the oceanographic and biomedical sciences together with a focus on subtropical and tropical marine environments, ranging from education to implementation. Organization of the University of Miami Center of Oceans & Human Health In keeping with its mission to create true collaborations between the biomedical and oceanographic sciences, the Director of the Center, Dr Lora Fleming MD PhD, is an environmental physician and epidemiologist, and the Co-Director, Dr Sharon Smith PhD, is a biological oceanographer. Similar to the Director and Co-Director of the Center, each of the 3 Center Research Projects includes both a biomedical and an oceanographic scientist as Principal and Co Principal Investigators. The Center consists of an Administrative Core, 3 Research Projects, and three Facility Cores. The Administrative Core oversees outreach and education activities such as the NSF REU in OHH and the OHH Seminar Series. Dr Lora Fleming (Director) and Dr Sharon Smith (Co-Director) direct the Center activities and Administrative Core from the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences of the University of Miami. The majority of the Center investigators are located at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences of the University of Miami, however there are Center investigators from the University of Miami School of Medicine, the University of Miami College of Arts and Sciences, Florida International University (FIU), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Miami Dade County Dept of Health, and the University of Florida. Administrative Core Research Projects In the Research Project “Toxic HABs,” the Center investigators expand existing research into Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) of the NIEHS Marine and Freshwater Biomedical Sciences Center and the NIEHS-funded Florida International University (FIU)-University of Miami (UM) ARCH Program, examining the application of toxic algal culture, toxin analysis, remote sensing, oceanography, and genomics to subtropical/tropical HAB organism and toxin distribution with biological oceanographers, biochemists, and plankton biologists. In the Research Project “HAB Functional Genomics,” the Center explores the interaction between functional genomics and NSF-funded oceanography of the subtropical/tropical HAB organism, Karenia brevis, which causes Florida red tides and its environmental interactions with collaborations between oceanography, genomics, chemistry, and remote sensing. Finally, in the Research Project “Recreational Microbes,” taking advantage of local subtropical/tropical conditions, the Center investigators explore the relationship between microbial indicators and human exposures in sub/tropical recreational marine waters, incorporating NSF-funded oceanographic current modeling to predict ambient conditions, with environmental engineers, remote sensors, microbiologists, physical oceanographic modelers, and epidemiologists. Facilities Cores Interaction among the components within Centers
Use of the facilities, expertise, and resources Center Facilities Cores in Remote Sensing, Genomics, and Toxic Algal Culture will be made available at reduced cost to researchers at other Oceans and Human Health, similar to Center investigators. All three of the Center Research Projects collect water, and in some cases, sediment samples for HAB organisms, their toxins, and microbial contamination. These samples are shared with other institutions. For example, if another Oceans and Human Health Center is focused on pharmaceuticals from the seas, samples identified to have new HAB organisms and toxins can be shared to be evaluated for their therapeutic as well as toxic value. Additional data sharing and technology transfer between Center and the other Oceans and Human Health Centers is encouraged. This is accomplished by the Annual Meeting of the Oceans and Human Health Centers as well as other mechanisms of outreach and education. The Center Website is linked with the other Oceans and Human Health Centers as well as NSF and NIEHS. Outreach and education materials (such as brochures, videos, environmental health curriculum) are developed and distributed in collaboration with the other Oceans and Human Health Centers. Educational exchange of students, post docs, and researchers between the Oceans and Human Health Centers is encouraged. Researchers from the other Oceans and Human Health Centers are invited to take part in the monthly Center Research Seminars as well as in the Annual Center Scientific Symposium. References Anderson DM, Hoagland P, Kaoru Y, White AW. Estimated Annual Economic Impacts from HABs in the US. Woods Hole, MA: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Sept 2000. Anonymous. NIEHS-NSF Oceans and Human Health Roundtable. Research Triangle Park, NC: December 2001. Burja AM, Banaigs B, Abou-Mansour E, Burgess JG, Wright PC. Marine cyanobacteria – a prolific source of natural products. Tetrahedron. 2001;57:9347-9377. DeLong EF. Microbial seascapes revisited. Current Opinion in Microbiology. 2001;3: 290-295. Dewailly, E. Case story: Canadian Inuit and the Arctic dilemma. Oceanography June 2006. Dewailly E, Furgal C, Knap A, Galvin J, Baden D, Bowen B, Depledge M, Duguay L, Fleming L, Ford T, Moser F, Owen R, Suk WA, Unluata U. Indicators of ocean and human health. Canadian Journal of Public Health. Revue Canadienne de Sante Publique. 93 Suppl 1:S34-8, 2002 Sep-Oct. Faulkner DJ. Marine natural products. Natural Products Report 2001;18:1-49. Fleming LE, Broad K, Clement A, Dewailly E, Elmir S, Knap A, Pomponi SA, Smith S, Solo Gabriele H, Walsh P. Oceans and Human Health: Emerging Public Health Risks in the Marine Environment. Marine Pollution Bulletin. in press Fleming LE, Laws E. The Overview of Oceans and Human. Oceanography 2006;19(2):18-23. Fleming LE, Backer L, Rowan A. The Epidemiology of Human Illnesses Associated with Harmful Algal Blooms. In: Neurotoxicology Handbook, Volume 1. Baden D, Adams D (eds). Totowa, NJ: Humana Press Inc, 2002, pgs 363-381. Knap A, Dewailly E, Furgal C, Galvin J, Baden D, Bowen B, Depledge M, Duguy L, Fleming LE, Ford T, Moser F, Owen R, Suk W, Unluata U. Indicators of Ocean Health and Human Health: A Research Framework. Environmental Hlth Perspect 2002;110:839-845. Lipp EK, Rose JB. The role of seafood in foodborne disease in the USA. Rev Sci Tech 1997;16(2):620-640 Perl, T.M., Bedard, L., Kosatsky, T., Hockin, J.C., Todd, E.C.D., Remis, R. (1990) Encephalopathy Caused by Contaminated Mussels. New Eng. Med. J 322, 1775-80. Pruss A. Review of epidemiological studies on health effects from exposure to recreational water. International Journal of Epidemiology 1998;27(1):1-9. Rodrigue , D.C., Etzel, R.A., Hall, S., et al.(1990) Lethal Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning in Guatemala. Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg 42, 267-271. Van Dolah FM. Marine algal toxins: origins, health effects, and their increased occurrence. Environmental Health Perspectives. 108 Suppl 1:133-41, 2000 Mar. Wolff M. Concepts and approaches for marine ecosystem research with reference to the tropics. Revista de Biologia Tropical. 50(2):395-414, 2002 Jun. |
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