Integrative Health Sciences Facility Core

项目摘要-综合保健科学设施

PROJECT SUMMARY – INTEGRATIVE HEALTH SCIENCES FACILITY The overall goal of the Integrative Health Sciences Facility (IHSF) is to encourage, support and enhance clinical and translational studies relevant to environmental health sciences. In addition, through our state-of- the-art imaging facility we provide investigators with cutting edge technology to evaluate and analyze effects of ambient air pollutants on lung structures. This technology can be applied to small animals such as rodents, large animals such as pigs, and humans, promoting translation of basic discoveries related to environmental exposures to humans. To accomplish this goal, the IHSF will, 1) Provide the infrastructure to carry out clinical and translational studies relevant to environmental health sciences; 2) Ensure that clinical and translational studies are carried out safely and that subject confidentially is maintained; 3) Provide the infrastructure for training of young clinical/translational investigators with an interest in environmental health sciences; and 4) Support EHSRC investigators who utilize the Institute for Clinical and Translational Science (ICTS) and promote new multidisciplinary research collaborations. The facility services are focused on three main areas: recruitment, evaluation and assessment of research subjects. To support these areas, we have a Research Subject Recruitment and Interactions Component, Imaging Component, Cardiopulmonary Physiology Component, and Biologic Sampling Component. The IHSF facilitates the use of University of Iowa resources, specifically the ICTS Clinical Research Unit, the Cardiovascular Human Physiology Laboratory, the ICTS Core Analytical Laboratory, the ICTS Research Safety Office, and the Clinical Bronchoscopy Suite. In future initiatives we will support the infrastructure to enhance collaboration between diverse researchers (from the Colleges of Public Health, Medicine, Engineering, Pharmacy, and Liberal Arts and Sciences) with a common interest in environmentally and genetically influenced, inflammatory-associated lung pathologies, including COPD, asthma, cystic fibrosis, occupational lung diseases, and cancer. We are developing an informatics service to harmonize lung-imaging protocols throughout the University of Iowa Healthcare Network so that we can rapidly expand our imaging database and its utility for research studies. This unique dataset will provide the opportunity to test hypotheses related to the contributions that environmental exposures have to the development of lung diseases. This research using imaging to define meaningful functional and structural phenotypic expressions linking environmental and genetic factors to lung disease is highly relevant to the goals of the Environmental Health Sciences Research Center. The Integrative Health Sciences Facility represents a critical resource to facilitate the conduct of clinical and translational research studies within the EHSRC.