Education

Ph.D. (2005) Cornell University

Research interests

Biochemical, molecular, and cellular toxicology to aid in human environmental health risk assessment. 

Arsenic.  Exposure to even low doses of arsenic has been linked to several types of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and reproductive and developmental problems.  Surprisingly, about 25 million people in the U.S., plus many more people in other parts of the world, are consuming excess arsenic via their drinking water.   In particular, about 150,000 people in Maine are drinking water containing arsenic in excess of 10 ppb, which is the federal drinking water standard, because they obtain their water from unregulated, contaminated, private wells.  In addition to natural groundwater sources, arsenic contamination exists at Superfund waste sites, in soil of old orchards (onto which were once applied arsenical pesticides), at mining and industrial sites, from pressure-treated lumber, and in various types of food.   

Endocrine disruption, allergy, and carcinogenesis caused by arsenic and other environmental toxicants.  Arsenic and other toxic metals are endocrine disruptors, although the molecular mechanisms are not fully understood.  Also, various toxicants can exacerbate mast cell degranulation and potentiate the allergic response.  Understanding the mechanism by which a toxicant causes endocrine disruption or allergy can aid in science-based regulation of contaminants in order to be protective of human health and also can lend insights into the basic molecular mechanisms underlying endocrine and allergic signal transduction.  Our laboratory is also investigating molecular processes, in addition to endocrine disruption, by which arsenic promotes carcinogenesis.  We use a variety of biochemical, molecular, and cellular tools to determine the mechanisms by which arsenic and other environmental toxicants cause endocrine disruption, allergy, and carcinogenesis.

Biochemical and cellular toxicology of disinfection by-products.  Another ubiquitous class of drinking-water toxicants consists of drinking water disinfection by-products (DBPs) and is a current priority of the National Toxicology Program.  While disinfection of drinking water is essential for a healthy public water supply, chlorination produces halogenated DBPs which have been linked to disease.  Very little is known about the biochemical and cellular toxicology of environmentally-relevant doses of the hundreds of drinking water DBPs in public water supplies.  A second research focus in the laboratory is aimed at characterizing the toxicological effects of DBPs and relating chemical structure across a battery of DBPs, which are often structurally similar.

Publications

• Analysis and interpretation of toxicogenomic data: Biological responses to low, environmentally-relevant doses of toxicants, Julie A. Gosse, Thomas H. Hampton, Jennifer C. Davey, Joshua W. Hamilton, in book entitled Toxicogenomics: A powerful tool for toxicity assessment, edited by Saura C. Sahu, 2008, in press
• Laboratory Diet Profoundly Alters Gene Expression and Confounds Genomic Analysis in Mouse Liver and Lung, Courtney D. Kozul, Athena P. Nomikos, Thomas H. Hampton, Linda A. Warnke, Julie A. Gosse, Jennifer C. Davey, Jessica E. Thorpe, Brian P. Jackson, Michael A. Ihnat, Joshua W. Hamilton, Chemico-Biological Interactions, vol. 173, 2008, p. 129-140.
• Arsenic as an endocrine disruptor: Effects of arsenic on estrogen receptor-mediated gene expression in vivo and in cell culture, Jennifer C. Davey, Jack E. Bodwell, Julie A. Gosse, Joshua W. Hamilton, Toxicological Sciences, vol. 98, 2007, pp. 75-86.
• Arsenic disruption of steriod receptor gene activation: Complex dose-response effects are shared by several steroid receptors, Jack E. Bodwell, Julie A. Gosse, Athena P. Nomikos, Joshua W. Hamilton, Chemical Research in Toxicology, vol. 19, issue 12, 2006, pp. 1619-29.
• Transmembrane sequences are determinants of immunoreceptor signaling, Julie A. Gosse, Alice Wagenknecht-Wiesner, David Holowka, Barbara Baird, The Journal of Immunology, vol. 175, 2005, pp. 2123-31.
• Temporally resolved interactions between antigen-stimulated IgE receptors and Lyn kinase on living cells, Daniel R. Larson*, Julie A. Gosse*, David A. Holowka, Barbara A. Baird, Watt W. Webb (*First two authors contributed equally to this work), The Journal of Cell Biology, vol. 171, 2005, pp. 527-36.
• Lipid segregation and IgE receptor signaling: A decade of progress, David Holowka, Julie A. Gosse, Adam T. Hammond, Xuemei Han, Prabuddha Sengupta, Norah L. Smith, Alice Wagenknecht-Wiesner, Min Wu, Ryan M. Young, Barbara Baird, Biochimica et Biophysica Acta-Molecular Cell Research, vol. 1746, 2005, pp. 252-9.

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