UNC Wilmington Among Universities Receiving Instruments for PFAS Research

Newswise — UNC Wilmington faculty have been equipped with a cutting-edge instrument from the North Carolina Collaboratory and Thermo Fisher Scientific to advance research on the impact of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination on the environment and public health.  
 
The North Carolina Collaboratory—an organization dedicated to advancing scientific research for policymaking within North Carolina—announced its partnership with Thermo Fisher Scientific to support PFAS research on March 27 during a press conference at the UNCW Center for Marine Science. This new partnership will build on the groundbreaking university research that has provided real-time results to communities across North Carolina and helped identify and implement solutions to address PFAS contamination. 
 
Critical appropriations from the North Carolina General Assembly supported the Collaboratory's purchase of five state-of-the-art mass spectrometers from Thermo Fisher Scientific, which continue to position North Carolina at the forefront of academic PFAS research nationally.  
 
The Collaboratory purchased instruments for five researchers within the PFAS Testing Network, one of which will be received by Dr. Ralph Mead’s lab. Mead, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at UNCW and the Center for Marine Science, will receive an Orbitrap Exploris 240 Isotope Solutions system. This system will enable source-tracing and high-resolution forensic analysis of PFAS in the environment.  
 
"We are very grateful for this investment in our research, university and community," said UNCW Chancellor Aswani Volety. "Public-private partnerships like this one harness the power of collaborative research to inform policy decisions and enhance the lives of communities across North Carolina."  
   
As a nationally recognized leader in marine and environmental sciences, UNCW’s Center for Marine Science and Dr. Ralph Mead’s research is at the forefront of increasing the understanding of the composition, distribution and concentrations of toxins and hazards, such as PFAS, said Dr. Kenneth Halanych, executive director of the UNCW Center for Marine Science. 
 
"UNCW's Center for Marine Science is honored to be part of the partnership that Dr. Mead helped build with Thermo-Fisher and the NC Collaboratory,” Dr. Halanych added. “This partnership enabled the purchase of critical analytical equipment to help the citizens of North Carolina and beyond understand the devastating impacts that PFAS chemicals can have on all aspects of the environment.”  
 
PFAS constitute a class of synthetic chemicals ubiquitous in modern society due to their widespread use in industrial, commercial and consumer products. Their persistence, which has earned them the moniker "forever chemicals," has led to their widespread contamination of water sources, soil and air. There is growing global concern over the presence of PFAS in the environment and their potentially adverse impacts on human health. 
  
To address this potential risk, the Water Safety Act included in the state's 2018 budget provided the Collaboratory with its first appropriation of $5 million to establish the NC PFAS Testing Network (PFAST Network) to comprehensively document PFAS contamination across the state and better understand its impacts on the environment and public health. The PFAST Network project management team, led by Dr. Mead, is housed at UNCW. 
 
Currently, the network includes researchers from eight campuses—ECU, FSU, NCA&T, NCCU, NCSU, UNC-CH, UNCC, UNCW and Duke—who study PFAS toxicology, their occurrence in drinking water, atmospheric transformations and occurrence, and removal technologies. As of July 1, 2024, PFAS funding from the NCGA will eclipse $50 million (which includes additional Water Safety Act appropriations in subsequent NCGA budgets). This investment represents the largest legislative funding commitment for PFAS academic research in the nation. 
 
“Through generous recurring appropriations from the General Assembly, we have secured forever funding for ‘forever chemicals.’ The next step is continuing to learn about and research these compounds, such that new, innovative solutions can be developed to safeguard communities and ecosystems in our state and across the country,” said Jeff Warren, executive director of the NC Collaboratory. “In addition, researchers are continuing to provide robust datasets and analyses to inform policymakers and state agencies to better understand this extremely complicated issue.”