Darryl B. Hood, PhD
Professor
Environmental Health Sciences

“I spent the first 20 years of my career unraveling the molecular-level mechanisms in the central nervous system that give rise to behavioral learning and memory deficits, which are relevant to children and adolescents who live close to sources of environmental pollution. I’ll spend the next 20 years continuing my innovation in discovery as co-architect of the Public Health Exposome framework focused on determining if there are associations between the built, natural, physical and social environment and the disparate health outcomes in vulnerable populations.”
Biography
Darryl B. Hood, PhD is a nationally recognized environmental public health neurotoxicologist and environmental justice expert at The Ohio State University. After serving on the faculty for more than 20 years at the Meharry-Vanderbilt Alliance, Dr. Hood moved his laboratory in 2013 to Ohio State to continue his innovative work as co-architect of the novel Public Health Exposome framework with big-data-to-knowledge analytics.
In Columbus, Dr. Hood has assembled a multidisciplinary, community-based research stakeholder team to address disparate health outcomes in environmental justice census tracts. His work focuses on determining if there are associations between the built, natural, physical and social environment and disparate health outcomes observed in vulnerable populations. The exposome framework is relevant to the disparities documented across the COVID-19 syndemic and in the public health impacts of climate change. Dr. Hood is currently applying the exposome framework and analytics as the principal investigator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency STAR “ENVISION” initiative, Co-principal investigator and Ohio State leader of the Columbus Climate Pollution Reduction grant, and co-principal investigator of a second U.S. EPA STAR “FLEETS for ALL” electrification initiative.
Dr. Hood also serves on the National Advisory Environmental Health Sciences Council at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Society of Toxicology leadership council and on the Planning Committee on Public Health Research and Surveillance Priorities in East Palestine, Ohio.
Education
- Postdoc
- Biophysics / Molecular Toxicology, Vanderbilt University, 1994
- PhD
- Biomedical Science / Biochemistry, East Tennessee State University, 1990
- BS
- Biology / Chemistry, Johnson C. Smith University, 1985
Research interests
Inhalation toxicology (prenatal exposure models autism), developmental neurobiology (somatosensory cortex), behavioral neurobiology (development of structure-specific paradigms), environmental and biochemical toxicology (Nitroxides, PAH’s), dispersion modeling of PAH’s in environmental justice communities, structural biology, protein structure and function, environmental-exposure health assessment questionnaire development, Modeling exposures across lifetime using public health exposome approach
Active grants
- USEPA Columbus Pollution Reduction Plan, City of Columbus, Grant #00E03477
- Sickle Cell Microbiologic and Immunologic Links to Health Equity (SMILE), 1R01HL178923-01
- Scientific Advisory Board and Consultant, East Palestine (Ohio) Train Derailment Health Research Program. NCATS/NIEHS and Office of the NIH Director, 1 OT2 ES038710-01
Presentations
Select publications
- Felix AS, Lehman A, Nolan TS, Sealy-Jefferson S, Breathett K, Hood DB, Addison D, Anderson CM, Cené CW, Warren BJ, Jackson RD, Williams KP. Stress, Resilience, and Cardiovascular Disease Risk Among Black Women. Circ Cardiovasc Qual Outcomes. 2019. Apr;12(4): e005284. doi: 10.1161/CIRCOUTCOMES. 118.005284. PMID: 30909729
- Cifuentes P, Reichard J, Im W, Smith S, Colen C, Giurgescu C, Williams KP, Gillespie S, Juarez PD, Hood DB. Application of the Public Health Exposome Framework to Estimate Phenotypes of Resilience in a Model Ohio African-American Women's Cohort. J Urban Health. 2019. Mar;96 (Suppl. 1):57-71.
- Paul D. Juarez, Mohammad Tabatabai, R. Burciaga Valdez, Darryl B. Hood, Wansoo Im, Charles Mouton, Cynthia Colen, Mohammad Z. Al-Hamdan, Patricia Matthews-Juarez, Maureen Y. Lichtveld, Daniel Sarpong, Aramandla Ramesh, Michael A. Langston, Gary L. Rogers, Charles A. Phillips, John F. Reichard, Macarius M. Donneyong and William Blot.The Effects of Social, Personal, and Behavioral Risk Factors and PM2.5 on Cardio-Metabolic Disparities in a Cohort of Community Health Center Patients. IJERPH, 2020. 17, 3561; doi:10.3390/ijerph17103561
- Juarez PD, Hood DB, Rogers GL, Baktash SH, Saxton AM, Matthews-Juarez P, Im W, Cifuentes MP, Phillips CA, Lichtveld MY, Langston MA. A novel approach to analyzing lung cancer mortality disparities: Using the exposome and a graph-theoretical toolchain. Environ Dis 2017; 2: 33-44. PMID: 29152601
- Clark, RS, Pellom, ST, Booker, B, Ramesh, A, Zhang, T, SHanker, A, Maguire, M, Juarez, P, Matthews-Juarez, P, Langston, M., Lichtveld, M. and Hood, DB. Validation of research trajectory 1 of an Exposome framework: Exposure to benzo(a)pyrene confers enhanced susceptibility tobacterial infection." Environ Res. Vol. 146, 2016: p173-184. PubMed PMID: 26765097
- Langston MA, Levine RS, Kilbourne BJ, Rogers GL, Kershenbaum AD, Baktash SH, Coughlin SS, Saxton AM, Agboto VK, Hood DB, Litchveld MY, Oyana TJ, Matthews-Juarez P, Juarez PD. Scalable combinatorial tools for health disparities research. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2014 Oct 10;11(10):10419-43. PubMed PMID: 25310540
- Juarez PD, Matthews-Juarez P, Hood DB, Im W, Levine RS, Kilbourne BJ, Langston MA, Al-Hamdan MZ, Crosson WL, Estes MG, Estes SM, Agboto VK, Robinson P, Wilson S, Lichtveld MY. The public health exposome: a population-based, exposure science approach to health disparities research. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2014 Dec;11(12):12866-95. PubMed PMID: 25590101
- Hood DB, Nayyar T, Ramesh A, Greenwood M, Inyang F. Modulation in the developmental expression profile of Sp1 subsequent to transplacental exposure of fetal rats to desorbed benzo[a]pyrene following maternal inhalation. Inhal Toxicol. 2000 Jun;12(6):511-35. PubMed PMID: 10880142.
- Ramesh A, Greenwood M, Inyang F, Hood DB. Toxicokinetics of inhaled benzo[a]pyrene: plasma and lung bioavailability. Inhal Toxicol. 2001 Jun;13(6):533-55. PubMed PMID: 11445891.
- Laknaur A, Foster TL, Bobb LE, Ramesh A, Ladson GM, Hood DB, Al-Hendy A, Thota C. Altered expression of histone deacetylases, inflammatory cytokines and contractile-associated factors in uterine myometrium of Long Evans rats gestationally exposed to benzo(a)pyrene. J. Appl. Toxicol. 2015 PMID: 26358852.
Courses
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