NIH Honors Environmental Health Sciences Chair with Gordon Lecture
Ana Navas-Acien, Leon Hess Professor and Chair of Environmental Health Sciences, was recognized by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which selected her to deliver the annual Robert S. Gordon Lecture, an honor given to a scientist who has made major contributions to research or training in the field of epidemiology or in the conduct of clinical trials.
The May 6 lecture at the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland, was attended by hundreds in person and online. Navas-Acien was introduced by David M. Murray, NIH’s associate director for Prevention and director of the Office of Disease Prevention. (Watch the lecture here.)
Navas-Acien spoke about her career in research as one of the first scientists to examine the role of environmental exposures in cardiovascular disease, particularly metals, at a time when most were focused on lifestyles and clinical care. Until then, environmental research was largely limited to studies of high-dose exposures, as seen in industrial settings, yet there were already signs that even relatively low levels of exposure could be a factor in disease onset. In one striking example, levels of cardiovascular disease in the U.S. peaked in 1968, the same year that unleaded gasoline became the standard.
Invited to join the team working on the Strong Heart Study, Navas-Acien worked “to answer environmental questions in a cohort that had never asked about environmental risk factors for cardiovascular disease.” In partnership with Native American communities in the Great Plains and Southwest and other scientists, she has led research documenting links between exposure to arsenic and other exposures to cardiovascular disease. In recent work, in collaboration with another study—the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA)—they have uncovered preliminary evidence that some metals may accelerate aging in individuals with the APOE4 gene variant, a known risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease.
The research team has also explored preventive interventions. After installing water filters in private wells, they were able to cut urinary arsenic levels nearly in half. A separate study showed that chelation—a safe chemical process for removing lead from the body—lowered blood lead levels by more than 60 percent. Ongoing research is exploring whether these interventions can prevent or slow unwanted clinical outcomes.
Navas-Acien said rapid advances in technologies that measure environmental exposures are opening new avenues for understanding how combinations of metal exposures affect our health—including metals that raise disease risk and those that lower it. She gave credit to numerous mentors and collaborators, with special thanks to NIH program officers and science officers who “guide principal investigators in so many ways—how to answer and address research questions, how to better frame them so that we are successful.”
