CEET: Mission

Welcome to the Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology

Mission

The Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology (CEET) was launched in 2005 and receives grant support from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. It is one of only seventeen designated Environmental Health Sciences Core Centers in the nation.

The mission of the CEET is to determine the mechanistic links between environmental exposures and diseases of environmental etiology. Understanding these processes can lead to early diagnosis, and prevention strategies. The overall goal is to improve environmental health and medicine in our urban region. Many of the solutions to the problems in this region will be translatable to other urban regions both nationally and globally.

The CEET is a flexible entity that marshals excellence in basic, translational, patient-oriented and population-based research in the School of Medicine and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to facilitate an integrative approach to environmental health/medicine. Although primarily housed in the School of Medicine, the 49 CEET Investigators belong to 16 departments and 5 schools at the University of Pennsylvania.

The CEET marries its relevant research excellence to diseases of environmental etiology that affect our urban region. The CEET has an Affinity Group in Lung and Airway Disease (asthma, lung cancer, mesothelioma, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) because of the poor air quality and air pollution in our region (ozone, fine particulate matter, allergens, SO2, NO2 and CO emissions). The CEET also has an Affinity Group in Reproduction, Endocrinology, and Development because of the high incidence of adverse pregnancy outcomes that lead to low-weight birth and birth and developmental defects in our region. These organ-based themes are linked to our Affinity Groups in disease mechanism, which include Oxidative Stress and Oxidative Stress Injury and Gene-Environment Interactions.

The CEET enables its investigators to conduct modern predictive toxicology via its Molecular Profiling Core (MPC). The MPC employs Toxicogenomic and Toxicoproteomic approaches to identify the genomic and proteomic fingerprints that can be assigned to toxicant class, and to different stages of diseases of the environment. It is engaged in identifying and validating Biomarkers for these diseases.

The Integrated Health Sciences Facility Core (IHSFC) of the CEET provides assistance with a broad range of transdisciplinary services including study design, enrollment of research subjects, human and population exposures, data management, access to biological samples, biostatistical analyses, interpretation of results, and manuscript preparation.

The CEET conducts research relevant to the 45 Superfund Sites that permeate the region. Studies elucidate mechanisms of chemical toxicity; exposure levels, risk assessment and health hazard; bioremediation approaches; and effects on ecosystems and biodiversity.

The CEET works with and disseminates research findings to select local communities to empower them with new knowledge so that they are better informed to tackle issues of health disparities and environmental justice. To improve the environmental health of these and similar affected communities, the CEET is actively involved in the education of health care professionals (Residency Program in Occupational and Environmental Health, Nursing concentration in Occupational and Environmental Health, and Masters of Public Health Programs).

The CEET also disseminates its mission and its research findings to all stakeholders including community organizations, local, state and federal officials and agencies (Pennsylvania Department of Health, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, Environmental Protection Agency) to affect change in environmental health and public health policies.

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Center Directors

Dr. Trevor Penning, CEET Director
Director
Trevor M. Penning, Ph.D.

Trevor M. Penning, Ph.D., Professor of Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Biophysics, and OB/GYN is the Director of the Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology (CEET) at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Dr. Penning was interim-chair of Pharmacology from 1994-1996, and was Director of the Office of Postdoctoral Programs, and Associate Dean for Postdoctoral Research Training, School of Medicine from 1997-2001, and was Director of Biomedical Postdoctoral Programs (BPP) from 2001-2005. As Director of BPP, he oversaw the appointments, training and education of 850 postdoctoral fellows across the Schools of Medicine, Veterinary Medicine, and Dental Medicine. He is internationally recognized for his research on steroid hormone enzymology and mechanisms by which polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons cause cancer. His research is now focused on the emerging role of Aldo-Keto Reductases (AKRs) in hormonal and chemical carcinogenesis. <http://www.med.upenn.edu/akr> He has published over 160 peer-review articles and is the recipient of five U.S. patent applications. He has served on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, Chemical Research in Toxicology, and Steroids. He was elected to the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars in 1998. He is a consultant to the WHO International Agency for Research on Cancer. He was Program Chair for the Division of Chemical Toxicology of the American Chemical Society 2005-2006.

Deputy Director
Reynold A. Panettieiri, Jr, MD

Dr. Panettieri is the Robert L. Mayock and David A. Cooper Professor of Medicine and Director of the Airways Biology Initiative at the University of Pennsylvania, and Adjunct Professor at the Wistar Institute. He completed his medical training and postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania and has served in a variety of administrative positions. From 1990 to 1994, Dr. Panettieri was Director of Pulmonary Diagnostic Services at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. From 1994 through 1995, Dr. Panettieri was appointed Director of the Asthma Program of the University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS) and directed a comprehensive, multidisciplinary Asthma Program throughout UPHS. Dr. Panettieri assumed the Chief position of the Asthma Section in the Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Division. In 2003, he was appointed Director of the Airways Biology Initiative (ABI) at the University of Pennsylvania. He is currently an Associate Director of the Clinical Research Center at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center and of the Clinical and Translational Science Award at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Panettieri has received numerous awards; most notably, he is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and of the Association of American Physicians. He has also been awarded numerous prestigious lectureships that include the 39th recipient of the Robert E. Cooke Memorial Lectureship and the John E. Salvaggio Memorial Lectureship of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, and is an American Thoracic Society Parker B. Francis Lecturer. He has served as a member of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Lung Biology and Pathology A Study Section (2001-2004), Chairman of the NIH Lung Cellular, Molecular and Immunobiology Study Section (2004-2006), and as the only American reviewer for the Innovative Medicines Initiative Joint Undertaking of the European Commission (2008-2009). Dr. Panettieri has served as Chairman of the Data Safety Monitoring Board for the Severe Asthma Research Program (2002-present) and is a member of the Protocol Review Committee for the NIH/NHLBI Asthma Clinical Research Network II (2004-present). He is co-Editor-in-Chief of Respiratory Research, an Associate Editor of the American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology, and on the Editorial Board of the American Journal of Physiology (Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology), Current Respiratory Medicine Reviews, Respiratory Research, Therapeutic Advances in Respiratory Disease, and Thorax.

Center Administration

Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology
1316 Biomedical Research Building (BRB) II/III
451 Curie Boulevard
Philadelphia, PA 19104

Phone: (215) 746-3030
Fax: (215) 573-2236

Mary E. Webster, M.S.
Center Administrator
1314 BRB II/III
(215) 746-3031
webster@upenn.edu

Elizabeth A. Williams
Administrative Support
(215) 746-3030
eawillia@mail.med.upenn.edu

CEET External Advisory Committee

Peter C. Dedon, M.D., Ph.D. (Chair)
Professor of Biological Engineering and Toxicology
Associate Director, Biological Engineering Division
Deputy Director, Center for Environmental Health Science
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Tom Baillie, Ph.D.
Dean, University of Washington School of Pharmacy

Julia G. Brody, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Silent Spring Institute

Allison D Fryer, Ph.D.
Professor Physiology and Pharmacology
Oregon Health & Science University

Shuk-mei Ho, Ph.D.
Jacob A. Schmidlapp Chair and Professor
Department of Environmental Health
Director, Center for Environmental Genetics
University of Cincinnati

Kenneth S. Korach, Ph.D.
Program Director, Environmental Disease Medicine Program
Chief, Lab Reproduction & Developmental Toxicology
NIEHS/NIH

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