Biostatistics for Research in Environmental Health

这个多学科的五年计划旨在培养三个不同但相互关联的领域的博士前（博士）和博士后学生：环境生物统计学，环境流行病学和环境健康科学。目标是让科学家做好准备，以应对环境健康科学研究中出现的挑战。通过构建一个涉及这三个关键科学领域合作的培训计划，我们有一个独特的机会来推动环境领域的发展。 如果通过三个单一的学科计划来实现培训，就无法实现健康。 目前的环境健康研究，无论是涉及实验室动物实验还是对人类的观察研究，都变得越来越复杂。对环境危害暴露的有效量化需要考虑复杂的时间依赖性多重暴露曲线。早期生物学效应（生物标志物）的评估需要阐明暴露特征如何与多个、中间和通常相关的终点相关。一个关键的组成部分是通过创造性地使用最先进的系统生物学技术，对基因表达、代谢物水平、表观遗传改变和整个基因组的单核苷酸多态性进行全球测量，更好地了解环境影响中个人的异质性。因此，评估疾病与疾病的关系需要了解暴露、早期生物效应、遗传因素及其与环境的潜在相互作用之间的联系，将所有这些知识结合起来，以了解这些因素如何影响多种可能相关的健康结果。培养能够解决这些复杂研究问题的全面科学家的培训计划显然是推进环境健康科学所必需的。 申请资助23名博士前培训生（9名BIOS，7名EPID和7名ENVR）和5名博士后培训生（1名BIOS，2名EPID和2名ENVR）。生物统计学，流行病学和环境科学与工程系，在全球公共卫生排名第二的Gillings学校的三个最大和最知名的部门，有足够的人员和设施提供全面的博士前和博士后培训。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This multidisciplinary five-year program is designed to train predoctoral (PhD) and postdoctoral students in three distinct but interrelated areas: Environmental Biostatistics, Environmental Epidemiology, and Environmental Health Science. The goal is to prepare scientists to address emerging challenges in environmental health science research. By constructing a training program that involves collaboration among these three critical scientific areas, we have a unique opportunity to advance the field of environmental health in ways that could not be achieved if the training were achieved via three single disciplinary programs. Current environmental health research, whether involving experiments with laboratory animals or observational studies of human populations, is becoming increasingly complex. The valid quantification of exposures to environmental hazards requires consideration of complicated time- dependent multiple exposure profiles. Assessment of early biologic effects (biomarkers) requires elucidation of how exposure profiles relate to multiple, intermediate, and often correlated endpoints. A critical component is a better understanding of heterogeneity across individuals in environmental effects through the creative use of state-of-the-art systems biology technologies for global measures of gene expression, levels of metabolites, epigenetic alterations and single nucleotide polymorphisms across the genome. Assessment of exposure-disease relationships thus requires knowledge of the connections between exposure, early biological effects, genetic factors and their potential interaction with the environment, uniting al this knowledge to understand how these factors may affect multiple, possibly correlated health outcomes. Training programs that produce well-rounded scientists who can address these complex research questions are clearly needed to advance environmental health science. Funding is requested for the support of 23 predoctoral trainees (9 BIOS, 7 EPID, and 7 ENVR) and for 5 postdoctoral trainees (1 BIOS, 2 EPID, and 2 ENVR). The Departments of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Environmental Sciences and Engineering, the three largest and most recognized departments in the 2nd-ranked UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, have available all the personnel and facilities sufficient to provide comprehensive predoctoral and postdoctoral training.