A Columbia University-led multicenter research effort called IndiPHARM: individual metabolome and exposome assessment for pharmaceutical optimization will develop a platform and monitoring system to prevent unwanted interactions between medications and environmental, genetic, and lifestyle factors, in order to optimize therapeutic efficacy. IndiPHARM is supported by $39.5 million in funding from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), a federal research funding agency that supports transformative biomedical and health breakthroughs. Brown Engineering Professor Kurt Pennell’s portion, $1,735,692 will be used to develop and demonstrate high resolution mass spectrometry methods to detect, identify, and quantify emerging contaminants (ECs), including per and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), in human plasma and serum samples. The analytical methods and data analysis approaches developed will provide exposure data for ECs of environmental concern, and provide the analytical protocols needed to understand and address the impacts on drug efficacy.
The larger IndiPHARM platform is designed to measure hundreds of drugs and their metabolites and thousands of chemicals derived from the environment, diet, and lifestyles. Ultimately, the goal of this work is to equip individuals and their doctors with tools that can answer the question, “Is the drug or combination of drugs I am taking optimized for me?” The platform will also help pharmaceutical suppliers, insurance payors, and healthcare providers to anticipate and reduce adverse therapeutic effects, including side effects and inefficiencies, in both individuals and populations.
The IndiPHARM team includes Columbia University, Harvard Medical School, Mayo Clinic, Emory University, Brown, and Jackson Laboratory. Members of the team have been working together for over a decade with over 100 collaborative papers and multiple collaborative NIH grants.
At Brown University’s School of Engineering, Pennell’s Environmental and Exposure Lab focuses on protection of the environment and human health, working on the remediation (cleanup) and behavior of environmental contaminants in soil and groundwater. The lab also investigates how environmental toxicants impact human health. Pennell’s prior work in this area focused on the link between chemical exposure and Parkinson’s disease, and has since evolved to include the measurement of a wide range of environmental contaminants in biological samples (e.g., serum and urine) and animal models of disease.