PolluSense - Developing novel target and non-target biosensors to assess pollutant impacts on innate immunity

Air pollution is one of the most important environmental challenges affecting human health. Airborne particulate matter generated by industrial activities, transportation, and other human sources has been associated with respiratory disease, cardiovascular disorders, and chronic inflammatory conditions (Landrigan et al., 2018; Fuller et al., 2022).

PolluSense is an interdisciplinary research project that investigates how airborne particles influence the innate immune system, the body's first line of defence against environmental threats. Particular attention is given to the NLRP3 inflammasome, a cellular signalling complex that plays a central role in initiating inflammatory responses following exposure to particulate pollutants (Barnett et al., 2023; Zheng et al., 2018). Although inflammasome activation is recognised as an important driver of particle-induced inflammation, its relationship with broader changes in cellular behaviour remains poorly characterized.

In addition to triggering inflammatory pathways, particulate pollutants can alter the morphology of immune cells. Changes in cell shape, internal organization, cytoskeletal structure, and cellular dynamics can provide important information about how cells respond to environmental stress. Exposure to particles, particularly nanoscale materials, has been shown to influence cell morphology and function, including processes such as cell adhesion, migration, and phagocytosis (Alijagic et al., 2023; Cameron et al., 2022; Tian et al., 2021). These morphological changes often occur alongside alterations in cellular physiology and may reveal early biological responses that are difficult to detect using conventional approaches. However, the links between inflammasome activity, cellular morphology, and immune function remain largely unexplored.

To address these knowledge gaps, PolluSense combines expertise from immunology, toxicology, advanced imaging, and data science. Using state-of-the-art microscopy and high-content imaging approaches such as Cell Painting, the project examines both inflammatory signalling and cellular morphology in unprecedented detail (Bray et al., 2016; Cimini et al., 2023). By studying living immune cells over time, researchers can investigate how cellular responses develop and evolve following exposure to different types of airborne particles. Advanced image analysis and machine learning methods further enable the identification of subtle cellular patterns and responses within large and complex datasets (Chandrasekaran et al., 2021; McInnes et al., 2018).

A particular focus of the project is understanding the effects of particles encountered in occupational and environmental settings. Compared with ambient air pollution, many 

workplace exposures involve higher particle concentrations and particles with distinct physical and chemical characteristics, including metals, silica, microplastics, nanoplastics, and other industrial particulates (Steinle et al., 2015; Sonwani et al., 2021). Such particles can penetrate deep into the respiratory tract, interact directly with immune cells, and trigger inflammatory and cellular stress responses that may extend beyond the lungs (Riediker et al., 2019; Boraschi et al., 2017).

By integrating studies of inflammasome activation, cell morphology, and particle exposure, PolluSense seeks to advance our understanding of how environmental pollutants influence immune cells at the molecular and cellular levels. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of the complex interactions between pollution exposure, inflammation, and human health, while expanding the tools available for studying cellular responses to environmental stressors.

Research project

• Cell Painting-based toxicophenomics
• BioBreath - Utandningsluft som verktyg för att mäta kvartsdamm-exponering, samt dess inverkan på lunghälsan