Tiny Plastics, Big Risks: Micro- and Nanoplastic-Mediated Inhalation Toxicity

Micro- and nanoplastics (MNPs) are emerging environmental contaminants increasingly detected in human tissues, yet their inhalation risks, translocation to extra-pulmonary organs following inhalation, biodistribution, persistence, and long-term health effects remain poorly understood. Our research investigates how MNP characteristics-including size, shape, polymer chemistry, surface properties, and biological corona formation influence deposition in the respiratory tract, cellular interactions, translocation, retention, accumulation, and toxicity.

We aim to integrate advanced physicochemical characterization and exposure science with human-relevant models, multi-omics, advanced imaging, and computational modeling to define mechanisms of MNP-induced pulmonary injury and predict health risks by linking mechanistic observations to MNP burden and exposure-response relationships.

Our long-term goal is to move MNP research toward determining which MNPs are harmful, where they go, how long they persist, how they cause biological effects, how these data can be translated into predictive human health risk assessment, and how to remove them from the human body.