The Personal Chemical Exposome: Using Silicone Wristbands to Advance Exposure & Health Science

Heather M. Stapleton, Ronie-Richelle Garcia-Johnson Distinguished Professor, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, Durham, NC USA.

Exposomics seeks to characterize environmental exposures over the life course and elucidate interactions with biological responses that contribute to disease risk.  However, the human “environment” is incredibly complex and dynamic, particularly over an individual’s lifespan.  Our diet, behavior, occupation, and housing all strongly influence our chemical and non-chemical exposures.  Critical to exposomics is the need to evaluate exposures that occur and change over time to better understand disease risk.  Studies to date have utilized human tissues (e.g. blood) to characterize both exogenous and endogenous chemicals and examine associations with disease state in cross-sectional studies. Characterizing and measuring chemical exposures in blood and urine, while often ideal, does have some limitations, and there is a need to pair ambient and personal measures of chemical exposures with biological measurements. Over the last decade, wearable personal exposure tools have evolved to help fill these gaps in evaluating exposures over time.  One of these tools, the silicone wristband, demonstrates strong promise in providing comprehensive data on exposures to chemicals in the ambient environment, and can be used to examine changes in exposure over time. This talk will highlight current research that utilizes silicone wristbands and high-resolution mass spectrometry to measure the personal chemical exposome, discussing the strengths and weaknesses of these wearable sensors.  Specific studies employing wristbands to support exposure assessments among firefighters, will also be discussed.

Professor Heather Stapleton is an environmental chemist and exposure scientist in the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University. Her research interests focus on identification of halogenated and organophosphate chemicals in building materials, furnishings and consumer products, and estimation of human exposure, particularly in vulnerable populations such as pregnant women, children and firefighters. She currently serves as the Director for the Duke Superfund Research Center, and Director of the North Carolina Firefighter Cancer Cohort Study.

Highlights:

• Buffet dinner and drinks

• Vendor booths from our ’25-’26 TAMS sponsors!

• Vendor swag raffle!

 Where to park?

• Parking Option 1: The back of the Chesterfield building is open for free parking after 5pm and has free 2hr parking before that. Spots will be limited though.

• Parking Option 2, if Option 1 is full: A parking deck at 704 W Pettigrew St. near Chesterfield will be open from 6pm-11pm (map attached). Individuals who park over there will need to pull a ticket to enter but will be able to leave without paying between 6pm-11pm. 

• Parking Option 3: There is street parking available around the building including a pay lot next door at 803 W Main St.

Highlights:

• Buffet dinner and drinks

• Vendor booths from our ’24-’25 TAMS sponsors!

• Vendor swag raffle!

 Where to park?

• Parking Option 1: The back of the Chesterfield building is open for free parking after 5pm and has free 2hr parking before that. Spots will be limited though.

• Parking Option 2, if Option 1 is full: A parking deck at 704 W Pettigrew St. near Chesterfield will be open from 6pm-11pm (map attached). Individuals who park over there will need to pull a ticket to enter but will be able to leave without paying between 6pm-11pm. 

• Parking Option 3: There is street parking available around the building including a pay lot next door at 803 W Main St.

Title: The role of Reference Materials in measuring emerging contaminants of concern

Abstract: Standard Reference Materials (SRMs) are homogeneous, well-characterized materials that are used to validate measurements and improve the quality of analytical data (www.nist.gov/srm). The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has a wide range of SRMs that have values assigned for clinically important analytes, legacy organic pollutants, and toxic metals. These SRMs can serve as target materials for method development and measurement for contaminants of emerging concern. These natural matrix SRMs include human serum and plasma, fish tissue, soil, house dust, and domestic sludge. These SRMs are useful to the global analytical community and can serve as materials for quality assurance measurements and method development. This presentation will highlight the ten SRMs available and discuss how environmental and exposure science can benefit from their use, especially in the area of emerging chemicals.

Highlights:

• Buffet dinner and drinks

• Vendor booths from our ’23-’24 TAMS sponsors!

• Student poster session highlighting area research by emerging mass spectrometrists

 Where to park?

• Parking Option 1: The back of the Chesterfield building is open for free parking after 5pm and has free 2hr parking before that. Spots will be limited though.

• Parking Option 2, if Option 1 is full: A parking deck at 704 W Pettigrew St. near Chesterfield will be open from 6pm-11pm (map attached). Individuals who park over there will need to pull a ticket to enter but will be able to leave without paying between 6pm-11pm. 

• Parking Option 3: There is street parking available around the building including a pay lot next door at 803 W Main St.

PLEASE NOTE DATE CHANGE!

Come to hear 6 exciting presentations from local graduate students/postdocs working the field of mass spectrometry!

Student Symposium Agenda:

1. Jessie Chappel (Baker Lab) - Utilizing Aggregated Molecular Phenotype (AMP) Scores to Visualize Simultaneous Molecular Changes in Mass Spectrometry Imaging (MSI) Data

2. Morgan Bailey (Fitzgerald Lab) - Comparative Analysis of Protein Folding Stability Based Profiling Methods for the Characterization of Disease Phenotypes

3. Cameron Worthington (Glish Lab) - Utilizing DIMS-MS to Explore the Effects of In-Source Lipid Dimer Fragmentation on Lipid Signal Intensity

4. Ying Xi (Muddiman Lab) - Topographic Mass Spectrometry Imaging on Non-flat Surfaces with Infrared Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Electrospray Ionization (IR-MALDESI)

5. Zoe Millbern (Vinueza Lab) - Textile and Textile Dye Analysis via Direct Analysis in Real Time, High Resolution Mass Spectrometry

Each speaker will have 10-12 minutes for the presentation followed by 2-3 minutes for questions. Speakers-  please also be prepared to introduce the subsequent speaker. Following the presentations we'll have a short presentation of the travel award checks!

We are excited to host TAMS Vendor Night held in the Chesterfield!! 

Location: The Chesterfield: 701 W Main St, Durham, NC 27701

Time: 6-9pm 

PARKING:

Parking Option 1: The back of the Chesterfield building is open for free parking after 5pm. Spots will be limited though. 

Parking Option 2: A parking deck at 704 W Pettigrew St. near Chesterfield will be open from 6pm-11pm. Individuals who park there will need to pull a ticket to enter but will be able to leave without paying between 6pm-11pm.  The phone number for security is posted at both gates should anyone encounter a problem.  

Parking Option 3: There is street parking available around the building including a pay lot next door at 803 W Main St.

Food/beverages will be provided. Come out and enjoy and engage with the Triangle Area MS community and our TAMS vendor sponsors that will have tables set up!

Professor Lee Ferguson, Duke University (website) -

“Helping contaminants emerge: The role of high-resolution mass spectrometry in 21st century environmental chemistry”