Enter a collaborative mobile clinic traveling to rural New Mexico, treating patients exposed to mining toxicants while also conducting cutting-edge research.
The University of New Mexico College of Nursing’s Katherine Zychowski, PhD, Terry and Alyce Richardson Professorship in Nursing recipient, has been awarded an R01 grant from the National Institute of Health totaling over $2.6 million for her ongoing research in pre-clinical and clinical models examining uranium mine dust exposure and circulating extracellular vesicles.
In addition to looking at molecules found in blood, this research will also leverage a mobile clinic equipped to screen for various health-related biomarkers. Zychowski is leading multidisciplinary work that will help provide individuals living in rural communities the opportunity to participate in research during routine clinical screenings.
The project spans over five different disciplines including nursing, pulmonology, engineering, cell biology and statistics. It is not just important to occupational and environmental exposures, but it’s important to health sciences and these communities.
“As the principal investigator, I aim to understand how molecular factors may influence miners’ health. The project spans over five different disciplines including nursing, pulmonology, engineering, cell biology and statistics. It is not just important to occupational and environmental exposures, but it’s important to health sciences and these communities,” says Zychowski.
The mobile clinic, operated by Miners Colfax Medical Center, has, and continues, to travel through New Mexico and the Western United States. This year’s clinic will visit 11 different rural communities and provide health screenings for current and former miners. Clinic attendees who were former miners will also have the opportunity to enroll in Zychowski’s study. Zychowski and the teams’ expanding wealth of data explores adverse effects of various environmental and occupational exposures.
College of Nursing Interim Dean Carolyn Montoya, PhD, RN, PNP-PC, comments, “it is dynamic research endeavors like Dr. Zychowski’ s and the cohort that truly serve New Mexico. These health science professionals are in search of answers, but they are helping patients along the way. With each patient they treat, they fortify the connection between nursing, research, patient care and academics. This is what health sciences is all about.”
Moving forward, Zychowski intends to make the project even more collaborative by including more student researchers from the College of Nursing.
Zychowski states, “we currently have one undergraduate and one graduate student researcher working with our team. This project is such an opportunity for nursing students to be involved in clinical and translational research. Our research serves communities, so I’m eager to invite more students of various academic levels to be involved and learn from our knowledgeable team.”