Women's Health and the Environment over the Entire Lifespan (WHEEL)

描述（由申请人提供）：在过去十年中，对环境化学品对人类和环境健康的潜在影响的关注大大增加。通过对激素通路的影响，环境化学物质可以对女性产生不同的影响，特别是在生命中的关键和敏感时期。这些关键时期包括特别脆弱的阶段（如胎儿发育阶段和老年人阶段），重大的生命转变阶段（如中年和晚年阶段），以及细胞快速增殖和生长阶段（如胎儿发育阶段、青春期和哺乳期）。罗彻斯特大学医学中心（URMC）的妇女健康与环境全生命周期（WHEEL）项目的重点是跨学科研究，具体涉及：妇女健康、环境和生命阶段特定的健康问题。它将建立在URMC已经存在的研究生培训项目的基础上，并以旨在满足项目内学者需求的教育培训和研究经验作为补充。该方案将培训来自各个学科的跨学科妇女健康研究（IWHR）学者，并最终促进有利于妇女健康的研究和成果的转化，特别是在妇女终身环境健康领域。我们的长期目标是：1)在妇女环境健康跨学科研究领域取得成功的“研究生”学者；2)在妇女健康研究方面建立成功和可持续的培训方案；3)创造有利于妇女健康跨学科研究的环境；4)培养对研究环境和妇女健康研究领域提供积极反馈的研究人员；5)建立持续机制，有效地将妇女健康研究成果转化为卫生专业人员和更广泛的社区。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Concerns about the potential impacts of environmental chemicals on human and environmental health have increased greatly in the past 10 years. Through their effects on hormonal pathways, environmental chemicals can differentially affect females, particularly at critical and sensitive periods across the lifespan. These critical periods include stages of particular vulnerability (such as fetal development and among the elderly), major life transitions (such as during midlife and into late life), and stages of rapid cell proliferation and growth (such as during fetal development, puberty, and lactation). The Women's Health and Environment across the Entire Lifespan (WHEEL) program at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) has as its focus interdisciplinary research specific to the intersection of: women's health, environment and health issues specific to life stages. It will build on graduate training programs already in place at URMC and complement these with educational training and research experiences designed to meet the needs of scholars within the program. This program will train Interdisciplinary Women's Health Research (IWHR) scholars from a spectrum of disciplines and ultimately promote research and translation of findings that will benefit the health of women, particularity in the area of women's environmental health across the lifespan. Our long term objectives are to: 1) "graduate" scholars who go on to successful careers in interdisciplinary research in women's environmental health; 2) establish a successful and sustainable training program in women's health research; 3) create an environment at URMC conducive to interdisciplinary research in women's health, 4) develop researchers who provide positive feedback to the research environment and the fields of women's health research, and 5) build in continuing mechanisms to effectively translate results of women's health research to health professionals and the broader community. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Public and scientific concerns about the potential impacts of environmental chemicals on human and environmental health have increased greatly in the past 10 years. The Women's Health and Environment across the Entire Lifespan (WHEEL) program at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) will train junior faculty to conduct outstanding interdisciplinary research that will help identify environmental agents that can adversely affect women's health at all stages of life, thus addressing these concerns. Results of this research will provide a strong foundation for risk assessment and regulation, when appropriate, thus decreasing risks to public health.