Jeremy P Koelmel, PhD is an Associate Research Scientist in Epidemiology (Environmental Health) at Yale School of Public Health and CEO of Innovative Omics. Jeremy first became interested in non-targeted analysis (comprehensive characterization of chemicals in an environmental or biological samples without knowing what you are looking for) when he went to India on a Fulbright for a year.
In India, working with M. N. V. Prasad investigated chemical contamination from industrial parks in some of the most polluted places in the world (including Ranipet, Tamil Nadu) and potential microbial and plant based remediation strategies (bio and phytoremediation). At that time he was only doing trace metal analysis, and realized organic mass spectrometry was necessary to better characterize these complex samples and hold companies accountable to major negligence.
His current research focuses on developing and applying techniques to improve coverage of the chemical exposome, working closely with Krystal Pollitt, professor at Yale University. His team and collaborators develop mass spectrometry data-acquisition methodologies and open-source software that more comprehensively cover molecules which are indicative of our exposures and biological response. By increasing coverage and developing high-throughput pipelines in exposomics research, he aims to increase the ease, utility, harmonization, and adoption of omics approaches.
One of the current major focuses of his work is to expand coverage of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a class of chemicals which are pervasive and persistent in the environment and in human blood and have various deleterious health effects. While targeted methods exist which can cover tens to hundreds of PFAS chemicals, often the majority of PFAS in blood and environmental samples are not covered by these targeted techniques. Hence, there is a significant need for more comprehensive approaches.
To meet this need, Dr. Jeremy Koelmel and his team have developed the leading software non-targeted analysis of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). This software, FluoroMatch, has thousands of downloads, and users across industry (including as the flagship PFAS software for the second largest instrument manufacturer, Agilent Technologies), government (including adoption by the EPA, FDA, and USGS), and academia (across 100s of institutions globally). FluoroMatch is officially integrated into the US Environmental Protection Agency guidance documents for performing comprehensive PFAS analysis, and has been used by the EPA to monitor PFAS chemical manufacturing plants and PFAS contaminated sites globally. Furthermore, in collaboration with the EPA ORD, the team developed the largest PFAS fragmentation library to date using data from industrial manufactures (pre- and post treatment waste water).
This software and library allows the global community to expand PFAS coverage, while his company Innovative Omics trains research groups to be able to perform the complex analysis of non-targeted analysis, making sure the next generation has the skills and knowledge to further expand this field. He is most encouraged about the small role his workflow has played at the EPA for finding PFAS candidates to hold industry accountable for direct release of PFAS into the environment.
Dr. Jeremy Koelmel and his close collaborators and team also work to expand other omics analysis including lipidomics (LipidMatch) and polymers analysis (PolyMatch). Currently his team is working on a general non-targeted analysis software which will cover all chemicals amenable to LC-HRMS/MS including biological small molecules, lipids, biocides, industrial chemicals, etc. The final vision is a rapid user-friendly software which provides high-confidence annotations of thousands of chemicals, classifying or annotating every signal provided by LC-HRMS/MS, leaving no major peak/signal left without investigation. No scientist works alone, and Jeremy Koelmel is grateful for over 11 coders working on the project and innumerable researchers pushing this work forward, and is glad to play his small part in this important field.
Fun Facts:
Jeremy loves working with children and taught improvisational dance to high school students after college, worked with a mother and her two children diagnosed with autism for a few years, taught dance at a school for the deaf and blind, worked with kids with trauma from abusive households, and facilitates meditation course for children. Currently he helps homeschool his own two teenage boys and finds this much harder than anything prior.
He also loves to grow plants and has over 30 fruit trees packed into his quarter acre property. If you have / want cool tropical seeds / plants he is open to trades!