Dr Katherine Landwehr
Senior Research Officer
BSc(Hons)
katherine.landwehr@telethonkids.org.au
https://au.linkedin.com/in/katherine-landwehr-989859196Katherine is a Senior Research Officer with the Respiratory Environmental Health team. Her research involves assessing the toxic effects of indoor and outdoor inhalable pollution exposures. This includes assessing the exposure health effects of renewable fuel exhausts such as biodiesel, fuel additives, heated tobacco products and vapes using a variety of unique in vitro and in vivo models. Children are some of the most at risk from air pollution due to their still growing lungs and it is vital that the negative health effects of pollution exposure are understood so that mitigation strategies can be developed.
Katherine studied genetics and biochemistry at the University of Western Australia and completed her Honours in 2016 in the field of cancer immunology. She completed her PhD in 2022 at Curtin University in the fields of Public Health and Toxicology. She is interested in continuing research in the toxicology field, particularly on how everyday environmental exposures can have great impacts on health.
Projects
A pilot study into assessing the danger of heated-tobacco-products
Published research
The respiratory health effects of acute in vivo diesel and biodiesel exhaust in a mouse model
Biodiesel, a renewable diesel fuel that can be created from almost any natural fat or oil, is promoted as a greener and healthier alternative to commercial mineral diesel without the supporting experimental data to back these claims. The aim of this research was to assess the health effects of acute exposure to two types of biodiesel exhaust, or mineral diesel exhaust or air as a control in mice.
An infant mouse model of influenza-driven nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae colonization and acute otitis media suitable for preclinical testing of novel therapies
Nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi) is a major otitis media (OM) pathogen, with colonization a prerequisite for disease development. Most acute OM is in children <5 years old, with recurrent and chronic OM impacting hearing and learning. Therapies to prevent NTHi colonization and/or disease are needed, especially for young children. Respiratory viruses are implicated in driving the development of bacterial OM in children.
Respiratory Health Effects of In Vivo Sub-Chronic Diesel and Biodiesel Exhaust Exposure
Biodiesel, which can be made from a variety of natural oils, is currently promoted as a sustainable, healthier replacement for commercial mineral diesel despite little experimental data supporting this. The aim of our research was to investigate the health impacts of exposure to exhaust generated by the combustion of diesel and two different biodiesels.
Biodiesel feedstock determines exhaust toxicity in 20% biodiesel: 80% mineral diesel blends
To address climate change concerns, and reduce the carbon footprint caused by fossil fuel use, it is likely that blend ratios of renewable biodiesel with commercial mineral diesel fuel will steadily increase, resulting in biodiesel use becoming more widespread.
Biodiesel Exhaust Toxicity with and without Diethylene Glycol Dimethyl Ether Fuel Additive in Primary Airway Epithelial Cells Grown at the Air-Liquid Interface
Biodiesel usage is increasing steadily worldwide as the push for renewable fuel sources increases. The increased oxygen content in biodiesel fuel is believed to cause decreased particulate matter (PM) and increased nitrous oxides within its exhaust.
Toxicity of different biodiesel exhausts in primary human airway epithelial cells grown at air-liquid interface
Biodiesel is created through the transesterification of fats/oils and its usage is increasing worldwide as global warming concerns increase. Biodiesel fuel properties change depending on the feedstock used to create it.
Azithromycin inhibits mucin secretion, mucous metaplasia, airway inflammation, and airways hyperresponsiveness in mice exposed to house dust mite extract
Excessive production, secretion, and retention of abnormal mucus is a pathological feature of many obstructive airways diseases including asthma. Azithromycin is an antibiotic that also possesses immunomodulatory and mucoregulatory activities, which may contribute to the clinical effectiveness of azithromycin in asthma.
In Vitro primary human airway epithelial whole exhaust exposure
The method outlined in this article is a customization of the whole exhaust exposure method generated by Mullins et al. (2016) using reprogrammed primary human airway epithelial cells as described by Martinovich et al. (2017). It has been used successfully to generate recently published data (Landwehr et al. 2021). The goal was to generate an exhaust exposure model where exhaust is collected from a modern engine, real-world exhaust concentrations are used and relevant tissues exposed to assess the effects of multiple biodiesel exposures.
Fuel feedstock determines biodiesel exhaust toxicity in a human airway epithelial cell exposure model
Biodiesel is promoted as a sustainable replacement for commercial diesel. Biodiesel fuel and exhaust properties change depending on the base feedstock oil/fat used during creation. The aims of this study were, for the first time, to compare the exhaust exposure health impacts of a wide range of biodiesels made from different feedstocks and relate these effects with the corresponding exhaust characteristics.
Education and Qualifications
- BSc(Hons)- University of Western Australia
Awards/Honours
- 2018 New Investigator Award The Kids Annual Respiratory Conference, Rottnest
- 2019 Young Investigator Award, European Respiratory Society Annual Congress, Madrid
- 2020 Stan and Jean Perron Excellence Award
Active Collaborations
- Testing Fuel Additives with Dr MD Nurun Nabi at Central Queensland University