Wildfires, smoke inhalation and the brain

Andrew Ottens (left) is an Associate Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University (VA, USA), where he investigates the effects of inhaled toxicants and their impact on the brain. Here, alongside his postdoc Mohammad Siddiqi (right), he details his work studying the impact of wildfire smoke inhalation on the brain and the relationship with cellular senescence and the accumulation of protein aggregates.  How have your recent investigations into wildfire smoke inhalation been conducted and what have they revealed? Andrew: We have been studying how wildfire smoke inhalation can lead to either cellular senescence and/or aggregated proteins accumulating inside the brain. To do this,...