Today on IAQ Radio+ we welcome Matthew S. Perzanowski, PhD. Radio Joe attended an excellent conference earlier this week  at The Ohio State University, on "The Implications of Carpet on Indoor Chemistry and Microbiology". Dr. Perzanowski was a presenter at the event that was organized by Karen Danemmiller, PhD and Rachel Adams, PhD, both of whom have joined us for shows on IAQ Radio+. We will review some key takeaways from the event and then go into detail on Dr. Perzanowski's presentation and his other work. 

 

Dr. Perzanowski's research is focused on understanding exposures that lead to allergic sensitization and asthma. While many environmental exposures are hypothesized to have contributed to the global asthma epidemic that started in the latter half of the 20th century, a unifying theory has not been proven. Dr. Perzanowski began his research career at a preeminent allergen exposure laboratory and participated in studies conducted in communities as different as inner-city Atlanta and rural Kenya. He continued with his doctoral research working with the OLIN group in northern Sweden at the Arctic Circle where asthma is common but dust mites and cockroaches, exposure to which is important to asthma elsewhere, are not found. As a co-investigator on several established prospective cohort studies, his current research at MSPH is exploring paradigms of exposures related to asthma in an area of the world with one of the greatest asthma burdens, low and middle-income neighborhoods in NYC. He is the principal investigator on the NIH (NIEHS), HUD, CDC and ASPR funded, NYC Neighborhood Asthma and Allergy Study which is examining neighborhood differences in asthma prevalence and persistence to better understand the great disparity in asthma risk between children living just city blocks apart. The primary exposures his group is investigating are indoor allergens, combustion byproducts and fungi (including from Hurricane Sandy related water damage). Two other major research aims his laboratory is working on are implementing non-invasive measurements of airway inflammation in pediatric population based studies and evaluating the relevance of the "hygiene hypothesis" to inner-city asthma.