ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – It's a question that impacts the entire country and our state. With a history of atomic bomb testing in New Mexico and leftover uranium mines near the Four Corners, how does uranium impact gut health? It's a question University of New Mexico associate professor and researcher at the UNM Comprehensive Cancer Center Dr. Julie In is trying to answer. Story continues below Podcast: Tent Rocks National Monument reopens with new fees and new rules News: Albuquerque man accused of shooting stepmom asks judge to spend Christmas Eve with family Trending: Tingley Coliseum undergoes renovations as governor looks to possibly move state fair site  Don't Miss: 15-foot tumbleweed snowman pops up in Socorro "I study the gut and I try to understand what's happening in the gut when we're healthy and happy and what's happening when we're unhealthy," said Dr. In. "We like to think of the gut as the highway to the rest of the body." And now her research is getting a big boost. The National Institute of Health Sciences just awarded Dr. In $1.9 million over five years to study how uranium impacts the gut when the body's natural filtering system is overwhelmed. "How it impacts other chronic diseases is really not known and it hasn't been studied," she said. "They really have tasked us with understanding if you have this both acute and chronic exposure to uranium from just what you breathe, in from what you consume from food and water, how does it impact the small changes within our cells and how does that lead to bigger changes within our whole body." The researchers are partnering with Laguna Pueblo using dirt samples with high uranium from their land. Those samples will be tested in a "gut organoid," which grows from cells donated during procedures to model the actual gut environment. "It's like studying a donor's gut in a dish without having to have a donor coming back time and time again," said Dr. In. The different organoids allow them to see the impact of the heavy metal in different types of people with different diseases, biological sex, etc. They hope the research will lead to more understanding in the field. "All of the many chronic diseases that we have, I'm hoping our lab can be a contributor to understanding them in the gut, and if we understand how these diseases form, we can understand how to cure these diseases," said Dr. In. You can read UNM's full release here.