Jonathan Shannahan
Purdue University, IN·Pharmacology
Tiny particles are everywhere in the air, water and food, from plastic fragments shed by waste to nano-sized specks in air pollution. How harmful are they, and why do some people react more strongly?
- Fields
Pharmacology
Public Health & Epidemiology
Physiology
- Topics
toxicology
environmental health
nanoplastics
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Jan 2027
What they work on
- Quantify how environmentally realistic nanoplastics made from plastic waste bind common environmental contaminants, and test whether this binding increases toxicity depending on plastic composition and size.
- Determine how body molecules that coat nanoplastics change how cells recognize the particles and respond with inflammation, oxidative stress or cell death.
- Track how the biocorona, the coat of body molecules on inhaled nanoparticles, changes as metabolic syndrome develops in mice and how it alters lung inflammatory signaling.
- Measure the timing of specialized pro-resolving mediators, molecules that end inflammation, after nanoparticle exposure in metabolic syndrome and healthy mouse models.
- Determine how metabolic syndrome disrupts omega-3 fatty acid metabolism after nanoparticle inhalation, impairing the resolution of lung inflammation.
More about the research
The research here studies how particle properties, and the molecules that stick to particles, drive inflammation and toxicity. It also asks why people with chronic disease may be more vulnerable.
Why it matters
Nanoplastics and nano-sized air pollution reach people through air, water and food, yet their health risks are poorly understood. This work could support more realistic risk assessment of plastic pollution. For people with metabolic syndrome, it could point to treatments that boost the body's own processes for ending inflammation, rather than only suppressing it, and inform public health protections.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Ginger Milne
University of Alabama at Birmingham, AL·Pharmacology
Identify how four specialized pro-resolving lipid mediators (RvE4, RvD1, RvD5 and maresin 2), molecules that help end inflammation, are chemically transformed using a laboratory model of human metabolism.
Zhenjia Wang
University at Buffalo, NY·Biomedical Engineering
Engineer liposomes built from ionizable cationic lipids to deliver docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), an omega-3 fatty acid, into neutrophils and release it efficiently once inside.
Eliseo Castillo
University of New Mexico, NM·Microbiology & Immunology
Determine how varying doses and types of microplastic particles alter intestinal permeability, meaning leakiness of the gut lining, using a zebrafish exposure model.
The school
Purdue University: 43 labs on PI Pages, $932M a year on research, 833 research doctorates a year.
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