RESEARCH INTERESTS Understanding the pathologic basis of health effects caused by environmental and occupational air pollutants Using laboratory animal models of respiratory, cardiovascular, autoimmune and metabolic diseases to explore how chronic diseases affect susceptibility to toxicity caused by inhaled toxicants (ozone, particulate matter and silica dust) With the overall goal to experimentally elucidate cellular, molecular or biochemical targets for interventions to prevent or treat adverse effects caused by air pollution Current Investigation Role of group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s) in air pollutant-induced, allergen-independent asthma and rhinitis Mechanisms of dietary lipid prevention/treatment for silica-induced autoimmunity Airway and systemic inflammatory/immune responses to short-and long-term exposures to ambient air pollutants individually or as mixtures Harkema’s research is reflected in more than 240 publications. He currently is serving a six-year term (2012-2018) as a member of the Clean Air Science Advisory Committee with the United States EPA, and also is the director of the Great Lakes Air Center for Integrated Environmental Research (GLACIER)—one of only four EPA-funded clean air research centers in the nation.