Using epigenetic science to improve environmental health literacy

项目摘要/摘要 NIEHS将环境健康定义为“研究环境如何影响的科学领域” 人类健康和疾病“。这一定义中的环境包括自然环境、人为环境 经常污染自然环境以及我们的社会互动和生活方式的化学品和结构 选择。由于有毒环境与人类健康和疾病直接相关，因此迫切需要 对美国民众进行关于这种关系的教育，使我们能够在知情的情况下选择 我们愿意承担的风险。换句话说，为了改善公众健康，我们需要改善环境健康 扫盲(EHL)，这是RFA-ES-19-005(改善环境的创新方法)的目标 健康素养)。RFA要求小企业和环境科学家之间的合作 开发新的工具、活动或材料来建造EHL“。作为回应，Nzumbe Inc.(俄勒冈州波特兰) 与俄勒冈健康与科学大学(OHSU)的环境和教育科学家合作 (俄勒冈州波特兰)和当地本科院校提交这份提案。我们将使用表观遗传学作为 这是改善EHL的教育桥梁，因为这门科学的基础知识相对容易理解和 表观基因组(所有表观遗传修饰的总和)对环境暴露的反应方式 这可能会改善或恶化健康。这一阶段提出了两个相辅相成的具体目标 应用，将重点放在本科教育上。一是打造互动化、游戏化 基于表观遗传学的软件，本科教育工作者可以用来向学生传授 环境健康。原型移动应用程序将允许学生创建同卵双胞胎的场景 在子宫内受到不健康的暴露，已知会改变表观遗传模式，并被怀疑会导致疾病 在以后的生活中。然后，学生们将为每个人选择不同的饮食、锻炼和生活方式组合 双胞胎也已知会改变表观遗传模式，试图在虚拟的一生中对抗负值 早年的生活经历。学生将根据他们的选择进行评分，并能够与结果进行比较 其他机构的同学和学生。第二个目标是创建一个原型实验室套件，专注于 表观遗传学将提供有关环境表观遗传学的基本信息的科学。该工具包将使用 简单的表观遗传模型系统，真菌粗糙脉孢菌。我们将设计一种脉孢子菌菌株 由DNA甲基化引起的表观遗传沉默并对激活敏感的报告基因。学生们将 选择不同的暴露，然后测量报告基因的激活和DNA甲基化。结果 将报告给附带的软件应用程序模块，学生可以在那里比较他们的结果 与同学和其他学校合作，将暴露与表观遗传活动联系起来。圆满完成 拟议的工作将导致第二阶段资金，以完成这些单元，并对其进行修改和向公众推广 学校的学生和互动软件面向大众和公共卫生专业人士。

Project Summary/Abstract NIEHS defines environmental health as “the field of science that studies how the environment influences human health and disease”. The environment in this definition includes the natural environment, man-made chemicals and structures that often pollute the natural environment, and our social interactions and lifestyle choices. Because toxic environments are linked directly to human health and disease, a critical need exists to educate the American population on this relationship to allow us to make informed choices about the amount of risk we are willing to take. Stated differently, to improve public health we need to improve environmental health literacy (EHL), which is the goal of RFA-ES-19-005 (Innovative Approaches for Improving Environmental Health Literacy). The RFA requests collaborations between small businesses and environmental scientists “to develop novel tools, activities, or materials to build EHL”. In response, Nzumbe Inc. (Portland, OR) has partnered with environmental and education scientists at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) (Portland, OR) and local undergraduate institutions to submit this proposal. We will use epigenetic science as an education bridge to improve EHL because the basics of this science are relatively easy to understand and the epigenome (the sum total of all epigenetic modifications) responds to environmental exposures in ways that can improve or worsen health. Two complementary specific aims are proposed for this Phase 1 application, which will focus on undergraduate education. The first is to create interactive and gamified software based on epigenetic science that undergraduate educators can use to teach students about environmental health. The prototype mobile app will allow students to create scenarios in which identical twins receive an unhealthy exposure in utero known to change epigenetic patterns and suspected to cause disease later in life. The students will then choose different combinations of diet, exercise, and lifestyle choices for each twin that are also known to change epigenetic patterns to attempt to counter over a virtual lifetime the negative early life exposure. The students will be scored based on their choices with the ability to compare results with classmates and students at other institutions. The second Aim will create a prototype laboratory kit focused on epigenetic science that will provide fundamental information about environmental epigenetics. The kit will use a simple epigenetic model system, the fungus Neurospora crassa. We will engineer a Neurospora strain with a reporter gene that is epigenetically silenced by DNA methylation and sensitive to activation. Students will choose different exposures and then measure activation and DNA methylation of the reporter gene. Results will be reported to an accompanying software application module where students can compare their results with classmates and other schools to identify exposures with epigenetic activity. Successful completion of the proposed work will lead to Phase II funding to complete these modules and modify and extend them to public school students and the interactive software to the lay public and public health professionals.