James P Fabisiak

Contributions to Public Health

• I currently direct the Pitt Public Health’s Center for Healthy Environments and Communities (CHEC) which was founded over 20 years ago and has enjoyed continuous generous financial support from the Heinz Endowments over the last 10 years.  The overall mission of CHEC is to coordinate and apply a data-driven and fact-based approach to explore and understand environmental health issues with a special emphasis on air pollution relevant to Southwestern PA.
  • Michanowicz, D., Malone, S., Ferrar, K., Kelso, M., Clougherty, J., Fabisiak, J.P., and Kresky, J.  “Pittsburgh Regional Environmental Threat Analysis (PRETA) Air: Particulate Matter.”  Prepared by Center for Healthy Environments and Communities (CHEC), University of Pittsburgh.  Commissioned by the Heinz Endowments. http://www.heinz.org/UserFiles/Library/PRETA_HAPS.pdf
  • Michanowicz, D., Ferrar, K., Malone, S., Kelso, M., Kriesky, J., and Fabisiak, J.P.  Pittsburgh Regional Environmental Threat Analysis (PRETA) Air: Hazardous Air Pollutants.  Prepared by Center of Healthy Environments and Communities (CHEC), University of Pittsburgh, Commissioned by the Heinz Endowments.  http://www.heinz.org/UserFiles/Library/PRETA_HAPS.pdf
• Another particular interest is conducting state-of-the-art research to quantitatively describe the impacts and demographic disparities of air pollution risks on various disease endpoints.  I have experience in modeling air pollution at regional levels (including quantitative satellite-derived imaging) and in estimating disease burden in risk-based models.  
  • Fabisiak, J.P., Jackson, E.M., Brink, L.L., and Presto, A.A.  A risk-based model to assess environmental justice and coronary heart disease burden from traffic-related air pollutants.  Environ. Health, 19:34, 2020.  doi:   https://doi.org/10.1186/s12940-020-00584-z
  • Goobie, G.C., Carlsten, C., Johannson, K.A., Khalil, N., Marcoux, V., Assayay, D. Manganas, H., Fisher, J.H., Kolb, M., Lindell, K.O., Fabisiak, J.P., Xiaoping, C., Gibson, K.F., Zhang, Y., Kass, D.J., Ryerson, C.J., Nouraie, M.  Association of particulate matter exposure with lung function and mortality in fibrotic interstitial lung disease:  A multinational cohort study.  J. Am. Med. Assoc. (JAMA) Internal Medicine, 182(12): 1248-1259, 2022.  
• Fossil fuel activities have risen to the forefront of national economic development.  Natural gas extraction (fracking) within the Marcellus Shale region, construction of new petrochemical facilities, and incidents such as the Gulf Oil Spill pose hypothetical and real threats to environmental and public health.  Another professional interest of mine is to assess these potential risks in a fact-based/scientific/quantitative manner, inform and educate relevant stakeholders, mitigate the potential health consequences moving forward.
  • Buchanich J.M., Talbott, E.O., Arena, V.A., Bear, T.M., Fabisiak, J. P., Wenzel, S.E., Youk, A.O., Yuan, J.-M.   Final Report: Hydraulic Fracturing Epidemiology Research Studies:  Childhood Cancer Case-Control Study..  Prepared for the PA Dept. of Health, Bureau of Epidemiology.  Contract number  4400018535.   August 3, 2023. https://www.health.pa.gov/topics/Documents/Environmental%20Health/Report_Cancer_outcomes_2023.pdf
  • Fabisiak, J.P. and Goldstein, B.  Oil Dispersants and Human Health Effects.  White Paper prepared for Workshop entitled. “Dispersant Use Initiative: Dispersant Use During Deepwater Horizon and Moving Forward.”  Sponsored by Coastal Response Research Center, University of New Hampshire & NOAA, Office of Response & Restoration. https://crrc.unh.edu/sites/crrc.unh.edu/files/fabisiakgoldstein.pdf
• As a toxicologist I have a long-standing interest in how various chemical exposures adversely affect our health. Specifically, I try to understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which inhaled toxicants produce respiratory dysfunction. Various past projects have explored interactions between airborne particulate-derived metals and microbial infection, bifunctional role of metallothionein as both a pro- or anti-oxidant, and selective phospholipid oxidation as a cellular signal in cell death processes, such as apoptosis.
  • Fabisiak, J.P., Medoviv, M., Alexander, D.C., McDunn, J., Concel, V.J., Bein, K., Jang, A. S., Berndt, A., Vuga, L.J., Brant, K.A., Pope-Varselona, H., Dopico, R.A., Jr., Ganguly K., Upadhyay, S., Li, Q., Kaminski, N., and Leikauf, G.D.  Integrative metabolome and transcriptome profiling reveals discordant energetic stress between mouse strains with differential sensitivity to acrolein-induced acute lung injury.  Mol. Nutr. Food Res., 55:1423-1434. 2011.
  • Brant, K.A. and Fabisiak, J.P.  Nickel and the microbial toxin, MALP-2, stimulate proangiogenic mediators from human lung fibroblasts via a HIF-1α and COX-2-mediated pathway.  Toxicol. Sci., 107:227-237, 2009.
  • Fabisiak, J.P., Pearce, L.L., Borisenko, G.G., Tyurina, Y.Y., Tyurin, V.A., Razzack, J., Pitt, B., and Kagan, V.E.  Bifunctional anti-/prooxidant potential of metallothionein:  Redox signaling of copper binding and release.  Antioxidants and Redox Signaling, 1:349-364, 1999.
  • Fabisiak, J.P., Kagan, V.E., Ritov, V.B., Johnson, D.E., and Lazo, J.S.  Bcl-2 inhibits selective       oxidation and externalization of phosphatidylserine during paraquat-induced apoptosis.  Am. Jour. Physiol. 272 (Cell Physiol. 41):  C675-C684, 1997.