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Address
60 Haven Avenue, B1
New York, NY 10032
USA
Phone:212-305-6748
Fax: 212-305-6749
Email:[email protected]
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Education and Training
| PhD
| 1985
| Vanderbilt University
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| BS
| 1979
| Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
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Associate Research Scientist of Environmental Health Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health
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and:
Director, Eye Radiation and Environmental Research Laboratory
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| Cataract is the leading cause of blindness in the third world. In the United States, cataract surgery consumes 12% of the overall Medicare budget and comprises 60% of all vision-related costs. Given the increasing human lifespan, the societal burden of cataract is expected to worsen in future years.
The ocular environment is continually exposed to a variety of insults, including peroxides produced by photochemical reaction, ultraviolet light, toxins and ionizing radiation. The cellular response(s) to such stresses is of fundamental interest to our laboratory. As oxidative stress is believed to be a major early or initiating event in the development of many types of lens opacification, its role in cataractogenesis is of great interest.
Furthermore, the lens is considered one of the most radiosensitive tissues in the body and its primary pathology, cataract, is easily observed in-vivo. Thus, the lens provides an ideal model system to understand the relationship between low dose radiation exposure and genetic heterogeneity. Current NASA and DOE funded research is directed towards understanding whether exposure to very low doses of X-irradiation and/or heavy ions causes cataract in animal model systems, some of which are heterozygous for genes involved in DNA repair and cell cycle checkpoint control. (Cataract is the only unequivocal, long-term degenerative effect reported for astronauts exposed to cosmic radiation.) These studies provide an opportunity to study the effects of low-dose radiation in a model system that has great relevance and similarity to the human response to radiation exposure and is thus likely to be important to the development of appropriate guidelines for national radiation risk policy.
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Selected Professional Affiliations |
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Member, Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology |
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Member, American Society for Cell Biology |
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Member, American Society for Biochemisty & Molecular Biology |
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Member, American Association for the Advancement of Science |
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Member, Fight for Sight Scientific Review Committee |
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Member, New York Academy of Sciences |
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Selected New York City Activities |
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NYAS Science Research Training Program (SRTP) Mentor
Project URL: http://www.nyas.org/programs/education_science.asp
An eight week summer science research internship and academic program for high school students sponsored by the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS), the Science Research Training Program (SRTP) is designed to reinforce students' interest in science, to introduce participants to real-world scientific inquiry and to raise awareness in careers in science.
Students work four days per week under the supervision of professional scientists while Fridays are spent at the NYAS participating in lectures, workshops, career discussions, and staff-facilitated small groups.
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Judge, NYAS NYCSEF Competition
Project URL: http://www.nyas.org/programs/education_nyc.asp
The New York City Science & Engineering Fair (NYCSEF) is a two-tiered annual science research and technology competition for NYC high school students which includes the New York Academy of Sciences' (NYAS) NYCSEF Expo and the NYCSEF Polytechnic University Finals.
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Judge, NYAS JSHS Competition
Project URL: http://www.nyas.org/programs/education_junior.asp
The Metro NYC Junior Science and Humanities Symposium (JSHS) provides a forum for High School students to present the results of their original research in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. 75 semi-finalists are invited to give ten minute oral presentations, based both on their performance at the NYC Science & Engineering Fair and the quality of their submitted research paper. Five finalists are awarded an expense-paid trip to the National Symposium where the regional 1st, 2nd and 3rd place finishers receive tuition scholarship awards.
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Selected Global Activities
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| ICRP Task Group on Tissue Reactions and Non-Cancer Effects of Radiation
Project URL: www.icrp.org
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The International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP), a multi-national, independent network of specialists in various fields of radiological protection, provides recommendations and guidance on all aspects of protection against ionizing radiation to the general public and to governmental regulatory bodies and agencies. Its reports are published by Elsevier in the “Annals of the ICRP”. The ICRP uses Task Groups of specialists (performing defined tasks) and Working Parties (developing ideas) to prepare its reports. At any one time, about one hundred scientists are actively involved in the work of ICRP.
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| U.S. Director; Ukranian American Chernobyl Ocular Study (UACOS)
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The Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident in 1986 and resultant explosion and fire caused radioactive contamination of large areas of Belarus and Ukraine. More than 250,000 individuals (Liquidators) were involved in clean-up and maintenance activities at the site. Many thousands were exposed to low doses of ionizing radiation.
The Ukranian American Chernobyl Ocular Study (UACOS) was established in 1996 to monitor the effects of this radiation exposure on the eyes of clean-up workers. Among eye tissue, the lens is most radiosensitive. Time and dose dependent development of posterior subcapsular cataracts (psc) following radiation exposure is well established as a marker of radiosensitivity. The goals of the UACOS are to monitor development of psc in a subset of the Liquidator population that undergoes periodic health and ophthalmological examinations and for whom there is good bio-dosimetry data associated with the clean-up efforts.
In particular, this multi-decade, longitudinal study measures radiation cataract incidence, non-subjectively grades and records lens opacification using Scheimpflug imaging and, in cases where cataracts are surgically removed, stores lens capsule-epithelial fragments for biochemical and molecular biological analysis.
To date, findings from this study have led to a significant lowering of the supposed cataract “threshold” radiation dose, to about 130 mSv, and have called into question the prevailing view of radiation cataract as a deterministic event. If, in point of fact, radiation cataract development is not deterministic but instead, stochastic, with no radiation threshold, then re-evaluation of current risk-assessment standards is warranted.
Countries: Ukraine
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Selected Publications |
Worgul, B.V., Lieberman, H.B., Smilenov, L.B., Brenner, D.J., Kleiman, N.J., Junk, A.K. and Hall, E.J. "Genetic susceptibility to radiation cataractogenesis." Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. 47 S4737 2006
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Worgul, B.V., Kleiman, N.J. and David, J.D. "A positive and a negative bystander effect influences cataract outcome in the irradiated lens." Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. 46 S832 2005
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Ma, W., Kleiman, N.J., Sun, F. and Spector, A. "Characteristics of tertiarybutyl hydroperoxide and hydrogen peroxide conditioned cells withdrawn from peroxide stress." Exp. Eye Res. 78 1037-1039 2004
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Ma, W, Li, D., Sun, F., Kleiman, N.J. and Spector, A. "The effect of stress withdrawal upon gene expression and certain biochemical and cell biological properties of peroxide-conditioned cell lines." FASEB J. 18 480-488 2004
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Ma, W., Kleiman, N.J., Sun, F., Li, D. and Spector, A. "Peroxide toxicity in conditioned lens epithelial cells-evaluation of multi-defense systems." Exp. Eye Res. 77 711-720 2003
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Spector, A., Ma, W., Sun, F., Li, D. and Kleiman, N.J. "The effect of H2O2 and tertiary butyl hydroperoxide upon a murine immortal lens epithelial cell line, alphaTN4-1." Exp. Eye Res. 75 573-582 2002
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Kleiman, N.J. and Worgul, B.V. "Lens" Duane's Foundations of Clinical Ophthalmology Ed. W. Tasman and E.A. Jaeger J.P. Lippincott Co. Philadelphia 1-39 1994
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Auran, J.D., Koester, C.J., Kleiman, N.J., Rapaport, R., Bomann, J.S., Wirotsko, B.M., Florakis, J. and Koniarek, J. "Scanning slit confocal microscopy of cell morphology and movement within the normal human cornea." Ophthalmology 102 33-41 1994
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Kleiman, N.J., Wang, R.-R. and Spector, A. "Hydrogen peroxide-induced DNA damage in bovine lens epithelial cells." Mutat. Res. 240 35-45 1990
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Kleiman, N.J., Chiesa, R., Gawinowicz-Kolks, M.A., and Spector, A. "Phosphorylation of âB2 crystallin in the bovine lens." J. Biol. Chem. 263 14978-14983 1988
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