Friends and Colleagues,
I am delighted to welcome you to our ShARP Center! This marks an exciting milestone in for the Southern California Superfund Research and Training Program for PFAS Assessment, Remediation, and Prevention (ShARP) as we join the nationwide network of more than twenty Superfund Research and Training Program centers. Through our center, we aim to share the latest discoveries, training opportunities, and community engagement efforts that drive our mission to protect public health and the environment.
ShARP was established to confront one of today’s most urgent environmental health challenges: per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination. PFAS are widespread chemicals that can affect nearly every organ in the human body, yet we still know little about how they cause harm. One growing concern is the rise in metabolic dysfunction–associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) and its potential link to PFAS exposure, especially among communities living near contaminated Superfund sites.
Our Center is the first in the SRP network to focus specifically on PFAS and liver disease, bringing together biomedical, environmental engineering, and public health experts to develop evidence-based solutions and novel technologies to detect, understand, and remediate PFAS.
Our work is organized around four interactive research projects:
- Research Project 1 develops cutting-edge 3D human liver spheroid models to uncover how PFAS cause liver toxicity and to test whether these effects can be reversed.
- Research Project 2 leverages longitudinal human cohort studies in Los Angeles to examine how PFAS exposures contribute to liver disease and related liver outcomes.
- Research Project 3 advances environmental engineering approaches to extract and detect PFAS in water and groundwater, generating data to build models that predict exposure risks and guide mitigation efforts.
- Research Project 4 develops innovative technologies to achieve complete destruction of PFAS in water, wastewater, and treatment residuals, breaking the cycle of contamination and creating practical, scalable solutions to protect water resources.
These research projects are supported and integrated by four dynamic cores:
- The Administrative Core (AC) coordinates Center activities and drives research translation to stakeholders and policymakers.
- The Data Management and Analysis Core (DMAC) ensures that our data are rigorously analyzed, shared, and integrated across disciplines.
- The Community Engagement Core (CEC) builds two-way partnerships with communities in Los Angeles living near Superfund sites to address local concerns, disseminate research findings, and develop recommendations to address PFAS contamination.
- The Research Experience and Training Coordination Core (RETCC) provides transformative training for the next generation of environmental health scientists and engineers.
Together, these projects and cores embody our solution-oriented vision: to generate new scientific knowledge, create actionable technologies, and engage communities and decision-makers in reducing PFAS exposures and their health impacts.
This first issue of the ShARP Newsletter offers a window into that work and the collaborations making it possible. I invite your feedback and ideas as we refine this resource to share progress, foster dialogue, and accelerate solutions to PFAS contamination.
Thank you for your continued support and partnership in advancing environmental health.
Lida Chatzi, MD, PhD
Director, Southern California Superfund Research and Training Program for PFAS Assessment, Remediation, and Prevention (ShARP)
Director, Southern California Environmental Health Sciences Center (SCEHSC)
Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences
USC Keck School of Medicine