Molecular Epidemiology in Children's Environmental Health Training Program

描述(由申请人提供) 儿童环境健康中的分子流行病学培训计划于2001年7月开始，现已进入第四个培训年。MECEH的定义是在流行病学研究中使用生物学、分子和统计方法来确定环境暴露如何在生理、细胞和分子水平上影响儿童的健康。作为流行病学、医学、统计遗传学、分子生物学和分子遗传学的产物，分子流行病学为遗传学和生物标志物流行病学的重点研究提供了保护伞。MECEH有3个参与部门：环境卫生、儿科医学和分子遗传学。MECEH已连续招收17名训练有素的博士后、6名博士后、8名医学博士/硕士研究生和3名博士后实习生。到2005年夏天，有7个已经完成或即将完成，并在国家报告、大量出版物、赠款申请和获得学术研究职位方面取得了很大的专业进展。这项申请要求在2006年至2011年的5年内为另外3名实习生、1个博士前和2个博士后职位提供支持。 MECEH的长期目标是增加受过交叉培训的流行病学家、内科流行病学家和分子生物学家的数量，他们调查与环境暴露和复杂的儿童疾病有关的高影响问题。这一培训计划的基本原理已在诸如2000年《儿童健康法》(H.R.4365)等联邦倡议中得到阐述，该法案强调“对未来的儿科研究人员进行投资”(第1002节)。MECEH有3个主要目标：1)为流行病学、统计学和干湿法实验室分子方法奠定坚实的基础；2)为NIH路线图中所述的跨学科研究培训和“加强临床研究队伍培训”做好准备；3)扩大学员在统计基因组学方面的专业知识，这是一个快速发展的领域，也是该项目的较新方向。 MECEH计划的公共卫生意义与国家对与环境有关的疾病日益增多的认识直接相关，如糖尿病、肥胖症、哮喘、神经发育障碍和早产等。因此，该计划的公共卫生相关性很大，直接关系到需要跨学科、在儿科环境健康领域掌握尖端方法的研究人员。

DESCRIPTION (provide by applicant) The Molecular Epidemiology in Children's Environmental Health (MECEH) training program began July, 2001 and is in its fourth training year. MECEH is defined as the use of biological, molecular and statistical measures in epidemiological research to determine how environmental exposures impact children's health at the physiologic, cellular, and molecular levels. As the offspring of epidemiology, medicine, statistical genetics, molecular biology, and molecular genetics, molecular epidemiology serves as an umbrella for focused research in genetic and biomarker epidemiology. MECEH has 3 participating departments: Environmental Health, Pediatric Medicine and Molecular Genetics. MECEH has had continuous full enrollment with 17 trained, 6 pre-doctoral, 8 M.D./MS fellows and 3 Ph.D./M.D. postdoctoral trainees. Seven have finished or are finishing by summer 2005 and have made great professional strides with national presentation, numerous publications, grant submissions and obtaining academic research positions. This application requests support for 3 additional trainees for the 5-years from 2006 to 2011, 1 pre-doctoral and 2 postdoctoral positions. The MECEH's long term objective is to increase the number of cross-trained epidemiologists, physician epidemiologists and molecular biologists who investigate high impact issues related to environmental exposures and complex childhood diseases. The overarching rationale for this training program has been stated in such federal initiatives as the Children's Health Act of 2000 (H.R.4365) which stressed "investment in tomorrow's pediatric researchers" (sec 1002). The MECEH has 3 primary goals: 1) provide a strong grounding in epidemiologic, statistical and wet and dry laboratory molecular methods, 2) prepare students for interdisciplinary research training and "enhance clinical research workforce training" as stated in the NIH roadmap, and 3) expand the trainee's expertise in statistical genomics, a rapidly developing area and a newer direction for this program. The public health significance of the MECEH program is directly correlated to the increasing national awareness of the rising number of environmentally related disease such as diabetes, obesity, asthma, neurodevelopmental disorders, and prematurity among others. Thus, the public health relevance of the program is great and is directly related to the need for researchers knowledgeable across disciplines in cutting-edge methodologies in the area of pediatric environmental health.