This event puts us on the path toward our goal of being able to study living cells, said Stokes. Studying cellular changes in real time will help scientists learn how cells fight off diseases, why some cells fail to fight off diseases, how to predict and prevent diseases and to follow treatment of diseases. Also, it will become possible to study the effects on cells exposed to multiple contaminants at the same time and, ultimately, to relate these cellular responses to the effects of environmental exposure on human health. The more we learn, the better we will be able to determine health effects of various agents and understand how much or how little is dangerous to human health, said Stokes. Scientists will also be able to study the effects on cells exposed to several contaminants at the same time.
Contaminants don t always enter our bodies one at a time.
We are often exposed to a mixture of very low concentrations of several chemical agents and we need to have a much better understanding of how these agents interact inside our bodies and how our bodies respond to this kind of exposure. This is another area we hope to learn more about, said Stokes. Pacific Northwest is one of DOE s nine multiprogram national laboratories and conducts research in the fields of environment, energy, health sciences and national security. Battelle, based in Columbus, Ohio, has operated Pacific Northwest for DOE since 1965.