Dr. Aaron Goodarzi

In this project, our team will bring together atomic physics, population health and radiobiology to address the unmet need to accurately determine lifetime, individualized exposure to lung cancer-causing radon gas in a manner useful as an index test to stratify people for lung cancer screening on the basis of non-tobacco sources of lung cancer, including radioactive radon, arsenic, air pollutants, and risk modifiers such as diet, genetics, and inflammatory lung diseases. We aim to disrupt the status quo of radon testing and lung cancer screening using our recently validated mass spectrometry-based technology that is able to quantify ‘telltale’ solid radioisotopic radon decay products in keratinizing human tissue with sufficient sensitivity to measure lifetime radon exposure. 

This project uses molecular biology to understand the relationships between DNA repair processes whose convergence, cooperation and/or conflicts ultimately ‘decide’ the fate of eukaryotic cells exposed to ionizing radiation types that produce clustered and multiply-damaged genomic lesions. Whilst the repair of DNA lesions occurring in isolation (within the genome) is increasingly well understood, the molecular events that occur when >1 different DNA damage types arise in a cluster (i.e., >1 lesion within a single helical turn) are less clear. Clustered DNA damage is produced by high linear energy transfer (LET) IR types include ion emissions from terrestrial radioisotopes or cosmic radiation. Clustered, multiply-damaged DNA lesions lead to a greater degree of genomic instability and/or cell death versus exposure to lower LET IR sources such as gamma- or x-ray photons. The important molecular questions are why is this the case, and what processes are at work that make DNA repair mechanisms (and outcomes) so different in situations where DNA lesions arise in greater or lesser proximity to one another.

In this project, we will determine how, at a molecular level, repetitive exposure of lung cells to low doses of alpha particles elicits cancer-driving genomic instability. We have developed a novel, high-throughput method to deliver alpha particles conveniently and with precision in a standard laboratory, representing a major advance over previous methodologies. We will advance biomedical knowledge by determining DNA damage response dynamics after repetitive, low dose particle exposure in relation to high dose and/or photon irradiation, and in cells with perturbation(s) modulating DNA damage induction, repair and/or signalling defects. We will advance future health outcomes by identifying particle-induced lung cell genome instability and mutation signatures, building the foundation of knowledge required to attribute radon to specific case of lung cancer with molecular precision.

The goal of this project is to understand the patterns of how different groups of people spend their time between different environments, such as the amount of time spent 'at home', in someone else's house, in a non-residential building, or outside or in a vehicle. We are doing this as these 'life activity patterns' influence personal lung cancer risk due to variable exposure to toxicants, which differ in abundance within different indoor and outdoor air environments. For example, we have demonstrated how increased time spent within residential buildings (which are typically higher for certain indoor air toxicants) equates with increased radiation doses from breathing in radon gas. People who more frequently work-from-home, or work within the residential environment generally (such as a home inspector, real estate professional, HVAC technician) are all at heightened risk of radon exposure. In addition to job type, we also have found differences based on urban to rural community types, age, and factors such as disability. The goal of this work is to develop a helpful and more personalized understanding of environmental cancer risk that can be used for meaningful action such as reducing toxicant levels within the residential environment, or enabling more people to access early cancer detection (if their risk is sufficient to warrant it).

The goal of this project is to integrate Canadian residential radon gas exposure data with administrative housing, health and population information, to establish the data symmetry essential to inform physical, social and policy interventions required to reduce lung cancer risk attributable to radon inhalation within the Canadian urban and rural built environment. The main objectives are to (i) generate data and analyses to directly inform the planning of physical, social and policy interventions on improving Canadian population lung health; (ii) filling critical knowledge gaps needed to implement population-level interventions aimed at reducing residential radon exposure across all communities; and (iii) validating and enhancing radon exposure indicators to enable comparable, replicable and helpful intervention research for lung cancer prevention. We will advance health outcomes by developing actionable, well-informed knowledge of radon exposure and lung cancer risk, and use this to address one of the most prevalent built environment-based health threats to our future communities.

To meet the projected population needs of 2050, we must build 70% more housing over the next 30 years. The urgent need of this work is, that if this future 70% housing is built with yet even higher radon (as our projections indicate will happen without intervention), this built-environment-driven public health crisis will worsen. The price of this in lives and healthcare costs will be staggering, but they are avoidable. The goals of this project are to (i) reduce the burden of radon-induced lung cancer stemming from exposure within the Albertan residential property environment, (ii) ensuring that this health issue is addressed while not interfering with residential real estate transactions, and (iii) improving the equity and inclusivity of public health investments in radon reduction for younger Albertans, rural Albertans, and Albertans aligned in the real estate, architectural and resource sectors.