Toxic Substances in the Environment

描述(由申请人提供) 加州大学伯克利分校超级基金基础研究项目的目标是“提高对暴露与疾病之间关系的理解；提供更好的人类和生态风险评估；降低清理成本；并制定一系列预防策略，以改善和保护公共健康、生态系统和环境。”该计划建立在加州大学伯克利分校和劳伦斯·伯克利国家实验室在工程、化学和分子流行病学方面的优势基础上，包括六个相互关联的基础和应用研究项目。该计划的总体主题是“应用功能基因组学、蛋白质组学、转录组学和纳米技术，更好地检测环境中的砷、汞、苯、多环芳烃、三氯乙烯和其他超级基金优先考虑的化学品；评估它们对人类健康的影响，特别是儿童等易感人群的健康；以及补救它们的存在并降低它们的毒性。个别项目的主题包括利用蛋白质组学和转录组学研究化学暴露在导致儿童白血病中的作用；采用功能基因组学方法寻找易感基因；应用新的生物标记物研究砷对健康的影响；通过应用基因组技术和纳米技术改进有毒化学品的生物修复，以及开发环境中化学物种的纳米级传感器。毒理基因组实验室核心和计算生物学核心将协助研究人员创建用于流行病学和风险研究的工具。新的研究翻译核心将促进研究人员和政府受众之间的深入讨论，并产生新的倡议，以通过政策、干预和个人行动增加对新兴研究领域对公共卫生保护的重要性和适用性的理解。培训核心将培养研究生和博士后，以便对环境因素对健康的影响进行多学科研究，并开发技术解决方案，以防止或减轻超级基金优先化学品造成的危害。 计划的多学科和跨学科性质

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant) The goal of the Superfund Basic Research Program at the University of California, Berkeley is "to improve understanding of the relationship between exposure and disease; provide better human and ecological risk assessments; lower cleanup costs; and develop a range of prevention strategies to improve and protect public health, ecosystems and the environment." The Program builds on the strengths of UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in engineering, chemistry and molecular epidemiology, and consists of six interrelated basic and applied research projects. The overall theme of the program is "The application of functional genomics, proteomics, transcriptomics, and nanotechnology to better detect arsenic, mercury, benzene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, trichloroethylene and other Superfund priority chemicals in the environment; evaluate their effects on human health, especially the health of susceptible populations such as children; and remediate their presence and reduce their toxicity. Themes of the individual projects include using proteomics and transcriptomics to study the role of chemical exposure in causing childhood leukemia; taking a functional genomic approach to finding susceptibility genes; applying novel biomarkers to study the health effects of arsenic; improving bioremediation of toxic chemicals through the application of -omic technologies and nanotechnology, and developing nano-scale sensors of chemical species in the environment. A toxicogenomic laboratory core and a computational biology core will assist researchers in creating tools for use in epidemiological and risk research. The new research translation core will facilitate intensive discussions between investigators and government audiences, and generate new initiatives to increase understanding of the significance and applicability of emerging areas of research to public health protection through policy, interventions, and individual actions. The training core will prepare graduate and post-doctoral students to conduct multidisciplinary research into the effects of environmental factors on health, and to develop technological solutions to prevent or mitigate the harm resulting from Superfund priority chemicals. MULTIDISCIPLINARY and INTERDISCIPLINARY NATURE OF PROGRAM