Molecular Epidemiology in Children's Environmental Health Training Program (MECEH)

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PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT The Molecular Epidemiology in Children’s Environmental Health (MECEH) Training Program began July, 2001 and is in its 20th training year. MECEH is defined as the use of biological, molecular and biostatistical measures in epidemiological research to determine how environmental exposures impact children’s health at the physiologic, behavioral, cellular, and molecular levels. The marriage of epidemiology, medicine, statistical genetics, molecular biology, molecular genetics, and molecular epidemiology serves as an umbrella for focused research in environmental epidemiology, biomarkers and genetics. MECEH has four participating departments/programs: Environmental and Public Health Sciences, Pediatrics, psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience, and the Cincinnati Medical Scientist Training Program. MECEH has had a continuous full enrollment with 27 Predoctoral and 53 Postdoctoral Fellows, including 39 MD/DO fellows. Trainees have made great professional strides with national presentations, numerous publications, grant submissions and obtaining academic, government and industrial research positions. This application requests support for 4 predoctoral and 6 postdoctoral positions each year for 2022-2027, to maintain its current size. The MECEH Training Program’s long-term objective is to continue to increase the number of cross-trained epidemiologists, physician-scientists, biostatisticians, and molecular biologists who investigate high impact issues related to environmental exposures and complex childhood diseases. The overarching rationale for this program is that training in molecular epidemiology is not only vital to our understanding of the origin of complex disease by providing clues regarding specific mechanisms, molecules and genes that influence risk but also provides a framework for interdisciplinary training for a new generation of pediatric researchers to perform this work. Thus, the MECEH Training Program has three primary goals: 1) provide a strong grounding in epidemiologic, biostatistical, and molecular methods; 2) prepare students for interdisciplinary research and “enhance clinical research workforce training,” as stated in the NIH roadmap; 3) expand growth areas for epidemiological training in epigenomics/’omics’ and community based participatory research; and 4) provide career development programming to promote career success and sustainability. These goals are achieved through the recruitment of high quality applicants, including underrepresented minorities, leadership and mentorship by a core of nationally- and internationally- renowned scientists, support by research-intensive departments; well-funded scientific programs and centers; and advise from a distinguished and enthusiastic External Advisory Board.