Ann Aschengrau (project 1) has responded to a new question submitted to our "Ask the Researcher" forum.

Q. My wife was a child during her exposure to the contaminated drinking water at camp LeJeune. We have three children, the first was diagnosed with Oxidative Phosphorylation disorder. Have there been any studies looking at the offspring of females who had long term exposure to tetrachloroethylene (PCE) and associated by-products as children?

A.There are a few studies on the health effects of prenatal and early childhood exposure to tetrachloroethylene, but, to the best of our knowledge, no studies on possible health effects among their offspring. This means that there have been a few studies to determine if there are ill effects among people like your wife but there have not been any studies (yet) on individuals like your children. So far, our own studies on Cape Cod do not show any adverse impact of PCE exposure during pregnancy or childhood on the risk of low birth weight, prematurity, and learning disabilities. However, we are continuing our research to determine if there are subtle neurological effects of prenatal and early childhood exposure.



To read her other responses or to learn more about Dr. Aschengrau's work please visit her Ask the Researcher page. To submit a question to one of our researchers send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

BU SBRP researcher Mark Hahn (project 5) recently collaborated with researchers from the Duke Superfund Basic Research Program to publish a paper titled  "Development of the morpholino gene knockdown technique in Fundulus heteroclitus: A tool for studying molecular mechanisms in an established environmental model" in the journal Aquatic Toxicology. In this paper the authors used morpholino oligonucleotide (MO) gene knockdown technology in Atlantic killifish (Fundulus heteroclitus) to expand the utility of killifish as an environmental model.

Today at 5pm the Research Translation Core will be hosting a conference call to introduce participants to RSS. The call will consist of a short presentation on RSS followed by question and answer period.  The presentation is available here:

Introduction to RSS Presentation

If you would like to be invited to this conference call, please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

On Monday, April 14th from 5pm to 6pm the Research Translation Core will be hosting a conference call titled "An Introduction to RSS" as a follow up event to the "Web 2.0: Using the Internet and Networking to Win Your Campaigns" workshop on Saturday, April 12th. The conference call will consist of a short presentation on the basics of RSS, followed by a question and answer period.  If you are interested in taking part in this call please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .