Inhaled Aerosol Dosimetry: Advances, Applications, and Impacts on Risk Assessments and Therapeutics

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PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic exposed a critical lack of our understanding the airborne transmission of infectious viral agents. Deficiencies in understanding the deposition, metabolism, distribution in the body, and mechanisms of injury of aerosols (particles suspended in a gas) limit the confidence in setting air quality standards and developing new inhaled therapeutics. The delivered inhaled dose (e.g., mg/target tissues) is poorly understood due to individual differences, the complexity of aerosols, and post inhalation internal events. UC Irvine’s Air Pollution Health Effects Laboratory has been involved in basic and applied research in this area since its founding in the School of Medicine in 1974. It has initiated several topic-focused multi-disciplinary conferences on inhaled aerosols. This proposal requests support for an international conference “Inhaled Aerosol Dosimetry: Advances, Applications and Impacts on Risk Assessments and Therapeutics”, to be held adjacent to the UC Irvine campus at the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center of the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering, in Irvine, CA 3 days in October of 2024. The conference center offers solid support including an atmosphere conducive to collegiality, inclusion, and creative thinking. The conference will bring together scientists, engineers, medical researchers, regulators, and others who normally attend separate professional meetings, and read specialty journals in relative isolation thereby inhibiting cross-discipline communications and collaborations. Our Organizing Committee of 10 men and 7 women scientists represents universities, governments, and private laboratories. They are aware of critical research needs in medicine, science, and government, as well as gender and racial inequalities. Sessions include; overviews, recent research, complex mixtures; in-vitro methods to reduce the use of live animals; computer model advances; and case studies. Each session is plenary, geared to be understandable by all attendees, and each has discussion time. The program supports cross-discipline communication and collaboration. The registration fee will cover all sessions, and transportation between the nearby airport (SNA), the hotels, and the conference center. Staff will help those with special needs and efforts will be made to attract those from underrepresented groups. Students will have a luncheon with prospective employers, and awards will be made for outstanding student posters. A Proceedings will be published, and a journal issue is planned for those papers that meet peer review standards. Startup support is provided by our University. The total budget is about $155,000, and $25,000 is requested from the NHLBI to help support staff and students, and attract attendees from underrepresented groups. Revised 11-26-2022