Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals: Hazards and Opportunities (ECHO)

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PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Increasing numbers of chemicals that enter our daily lives through their use in agricultural, industrial, and consumer products are now known to have unexpected and, in many cases, very surprising abilities to interfere with numerous endocrine-regulated systems in humans and other organisms. Over the past few decades, research on these endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) has developed into a field that spans areas ranging from human biomonitoring and epidemiology to experimental investigations of reproductive, behavioral and metabolic consequences in model systems to predictive chemistry, green chemistry, and environmental remediation. The breadth of expertise needed to understand what EDCs do, both alone and in more environmentally complex exposures, is enormous and compounded by the clinical and regulatory issues raised by EDCs. The complexity of the field creates significant barriers both to individual research programs and in the development of cross-disciplinary collaborative research initiatives necessary to address important questions in a rapidly developing field. Most institutional training programs with EDC components focus, understandably, on just a subset of these areas. What is lacking is the opportunity for scientists to step away from their home programs and immerse themselves in an intensive short course that grounds them in the range of integrative questions and approaches essential for both for the advancement of their careers and of the field as a whole. Taking advantage of the unique facilities at the Marine Biology Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, MA, we plan to offer such a course, one that is open to advanced graduate students, postdocs and independent scientists from across the country. This two-week course, Endocrine- Disrupting Chemicals: Hazards and Opportunities (ECHO), will use a combined lecture/lab/modeling/discussion approach intended to complement and enhance participants' research programs by providing them with access to advances in fundamental concepts and approaches, along with emerging strategies for assessing the hazards posed by EDC exposures. The course also will provide sessions on effective communication skills, and guidance on interactions with both the general public and the media. Finally, it will enhance networks for collaborative, cross-disciplinary relationships at all levels.