Steering Undergraduate Interest in Environmental Health Sciences at the Universit

描述(由申请人提供) 北达科他州大学STEER旨在支持北达科他州大学环境健康科学方面的本科生培训。STEER培训计划将扩大和补充正在进行的NIH IDEA INBRE计划，该计划侧重于在该州主要的本科生机构培养本科生生物医学研究，并加强通往卫生专业学校的本科生渠道。北达科他州INBRE的重点是“健康与环境”。目前的申请旨在填补北达科他州INBRE项目没有提供的环境科学本科培训的一个重要空白。这一差距为INBRE主办的研究密集型机构--北达科他州大学的本科生环境科学培训提供了支持。本申请将利用INBRE基金会在北达科他州大学启动一个强大的环境健康科学本科生培训计划。这项研究的主题将是提出这样一个假设，即引发人类疾病的环境因素会导致细胞结构和功能的变化，这些变化可以被确定为疾病发展和进展的预测生物标志物。为了推进这一主题，学生们将参与研究环境污染物砷和镉在人类膀胱、乳腺、前列腺和肾脏疾病的发生和发展中所起的作用。该计划的目标是：向北达科他州大学的本科生提供环境科学方面的本科研究经验；向北达科他州大学的本科生提供环境健康科学的入门；以及利用INBRE计划中开发的基础设施来支持STEER计划的努力，反之亦然。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant) The University of North Dakota STEER is designed to support undergraduate training in the environmental health sciences within the University of North Dakota. The STEER training program will expand and compliment the ongoing NIH IDeA INBRE program that is focused on fostering undergraduate biomedical research at the State's primarily undergraduate institutions and the enhancement of the undergraduate pipeline to the health professional schools. The North Dakota INBRE is focused on "Health and the Environment". The present application is targeted at filling an important gap in undergraduate training in the environmental sciences not provided by the North Dakota INBRE program. This gap is the support of undergraduate environmental science training for undergraduate students at the INBRE host research-intensive institution, the University of North Dakota. The present application will use the INBRE foundation to initiate a strong undergraduate training program in environmental health science at the University of North Dakota. The research theme will be to advance the hypothesis that environmental agents which elicit human disease cause cellular alterations in cell structure and function that can be identified as predictive biomarkers of disease development and progression. To advance this theme, the students will be involved in research that studies the role of the environmental pollutants, arsenic and cadmium, in the development and progression of human bladder, breast, prostate, and renal disease. The aims of the program are: to provide an undergraduate research experience in environmental sciences to undergraduate students at the University of North Dakota; to provide an introduction to environmental health sciences to undergraduate students at the University of North Dakota; and, to use infrastructure developed in the INBRE program to support STEER programmatic efforts and vice versa over the life of the award mechanisms.