Core--Environmental Systems and Health Research

该研究核心的首要任务是了解环境过程与人类健康之间的关系。这需要更好地理解人类健康与环境化学品及其运输和转化过程的关系。然而，现在越来越需要对环境与健康的联系有一个更广泛的看法，基因组学和生态学在其中发挥着越来越大的作用。未来的进展将需要更好地了解环境基因组学、基因流动和 种群动态，以及在化学和物理模型和测量方面的进展。例如，基因流可以影响病原性的分布，抗生素耐药性的获得，或微生物群落中生物降解能力的存在。生态系统过程在从微生物到大陆的尺度上支配共存种群的性质，对所有尺度的人类都有直接影响。这一任务可以被认为是对传统范式的合乎逻辑的延伸，在传统范式中，化学物质被释放到环境中，受制于导致人类接触并导致疾病的命运和运输过程。我们的新使命承认了一种新的模式，在这种模式中，环境生物群分享 与人类健康有关的化学物质。生物群的作用现在被公认为不仅包括化学品的环境转化，而且还包括化学品和微生物之间的协同作用，病原体的生物介导性运输和环境共生宿主的作用，以及维持使这些过程得以实现和管理的生态系统功能。为了推进这一使命，该核心的具体目标可以表达为：(1)促进研究项目和计划的发展，以解决生态过程、暴露于环境因素和人类疾病过程之间的联系。(2)促进环境系统和健康研究核心科学家之间以及与其他两个研究核心成员之间的科学合作，目的是创建新的研究项目和方案。(3)促进中心设施核心新技术的开发和获取，以促进环境系统和健康研究核心的研究。

The overarching mission of this Research Core is to understand the relationships that link environmental processes and human health. This requires improved understanding of the relationships of human health with environmental chemicals and with their processes of transport and transformation. Increasingly, however, a broader view of environment-health linkages is now required, one in which genomics and ecology play an increasing role. Future advances will require better understanding of environmental genomics, gene flow, and population dynamics, along with progress in chemical and physical modeling and measurement. Gene flow, for example, can affect the distribution of pathogenicity, the acquisition of antibiotic resistance, or the presence of biodegradative capability in microbial communities. Ecosystem processes govern the nature of coexisting populations at scales from that of microbes to that of continents, with direct effects on humans at all scales. This mission may be thought of as a logical extension of the traditional paradigm in which chemical substances are released to the environment, are subject to fate and transport processes that lead to human exposure, and lead to disease. Our new mission recognizes a new model, in which environmental biota share with chemicals the linkage with human health. The roles of biota are now recognized to include, not only environmental transformation of chemicals, but also synergism between chemicals and microbes, the role of biotically-mediated transport and environmental co-hosts of pathogens, and maintenance of ecosystem functions that enable and govern such processes. In furthering this mission, the Specific Aims of this Core can be expressed as: (1) To foster the development of research projects and programs that address the linkages between ecological processes, exposure to environmental agents, and disease processes in humans. (2) To promote scientific collaboration, both among Environmental Systems and Health Research Core scientists and with members of the other two Research Cores, with the goal of creating new research projects and programs. (3) To promote the development and acquisition of new technologies in the Center Facilities Cores that will facilitate studies in the Environmental Systems and Health Research Core.