For example, epidemiologist Katherine Reeves at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst has recently received a three-year, $1.5 million grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to study phthalate metabolites as a contributing risk factor to breast cancer.
Phthalate metabolites are plasticizing and solvent chemicals found in cosmetics, shampoo, flooring and medical tubing. The chemicals show up in urine samples in nearly 100 percent of the United States but the correlation with human breast cancer risk is widely unknown. For this study a team of researchers, led by Reeves, will analyze phthalate levels in 500 women with breast cancer.
Reeves says, “This study, where the samples were given many years before any sign of disease appeared, will give us much stronger evidence in terms of causality than studies using another design…with this study we hope to provide not more uncertainty, but instead either reassurance or solid evidence of cause for concern. It is well designed and large enough so no matter what answer we find we can have confidence in the result.”
According to a university press release, the study will also evaluate whether associations between phthalate metabolite levels and breast cancer vary by disease characteristics such as hormone receptor status and personal factors including age, postmenopausal hormone therapy use and body mass index.
In addition to this important project in the field of breast cancer research, University of Massachusetts, Amherst is home to active and well-funded researchers in the fields of:
By popular demand, Biotechnology Calendar, Inc. is bringing our line of premier biotech events to UMass with the BioResearch Product Faire™ Event at University of Massachusetts, Amherst on June 11, 2015.
Laboratory equipment and supply vendors can gain access to some of the nation’s top-funded researchers by exhibiting at this first-of-its-kind biotech and lab supply event at UMass, Amherst.
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