Molecular Epidemiology in Children's Environmental Health Training Program (MECEH)

 描述(由申请人提供) 儿童环境健康分子流行病学(MECEH)培训计划于2001年7月开始，现已进入第14个培训年。MECEH的定义是在流行病学研究中使用生物学、分子和生物统计学方法来确定环境暴露如何在生理、行为、细胞和分子水平上影响儿童的健康。流行病学、医学、统计遗传学、分子生物学、分子遗传学和分子流行病学的结合为遗传学和生物标志物环境流行病学的重点研究提供了保护伞。MECEH有3个主要参与部门：环境卫生、儿科和分子遗传学。MECEH已连续全面招收21名博士后和36名博士后研究员，其中包括27名医学博士/博士研究生。学员在国家报告、大量出版物、拨款申请以及获得学术、政府和工业研究职位方面取得了很大的职业进步。这项申请要求在2016-2021年每年为4个博士后和6个博士后职位提供支持，并将保持目前的规模。 MECEH的长期目标是继续增加受过交叉培训的流行病学家、内科流行病学家、生物统计学家和分子生物学家的数量，他们研究与环境暴露和复杂的儿童疾病有关的高影响问题。这一培训计划的基本原理已在诸如2000年《儿童健康法》(HR 4365)等联邦倡议中得到阐述，该法案强调“对未来的儿科研究人员进行投资(第1002节)。MECEH有三个主要目标：1)在流行病学、生物统计学和干湿实验室分子方法方面奠定坚实的基础；2)根据NIH路线图的规定，为学生进行跨学科研究和“加强临床研究人员培训”做准备；3)与Francis Collins的机遇和挑战方向相一致，MECEH寻求扩大受训人员在统计基因组学、表观遗传学和基于社区的参与性研究设计方面的专业知识的增长领域。这些目标是通过招募高质量的申请者来实现的，包括代表性不足的少数族裔，由全国和国际知名的教师科学家组成的核心导师，由研究密集型环境卫生、儿科和分子遗传学部门提供支持，资金充足的科学项目和中心，以及来自杰出和热情的外部顾问委员会的建议。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant) The Molecular Epidemiology in Children's Environmental Health (MECEH) Training Program began July, 2001 and is in its fourteenth training year. MECEH is defined as the use of biological, molecular and biostatistical measures in epidemiological research to determine how environmental exposures impact children's health at the physiologic, behavioral, cellular, and molecular levels. The marriage of epidemiology, medicine, statistical genetics, molecular biology, molecular genetics, and molecular epidemiology serves as an umbrella for focused research in genetic and biomarker environmental epidemiology. MECEH has 3 main participating departments: Environmental Health, Pediatrics, and Molecular Genetics. MECEH has had a continuous full enrollment with 21 pre-doctoral and 36 postdoctoral fellows trained or in progress, including 27 MD/DO fellows. Trainees have made great professional strides with national presentations, numerous publications, grant submissions and obtaining academic, government and industrial research positions. This application requests support for four pre-doctoral and six postdoctoral positions each year for 2016-2021 which will maintain its current size. The MECEH's long term objective is to continue increasing the number of cross-trained epidemiologists, physician epidemiologists, biostatisticians, and molecular biologists who investigate high impact issues related to environmental exposures and complex childhood diseases. The overarching rationale for this training program has been stated in such federal initiatives as the Children's Health Act of 2000 (HR 4365) which stressed "investment in tomorrow's pediatric researchers (sec 1002). The MECEH has three primary goals: 1) provide a strong grounding in epidemiologic, biostatistical, and wet and dry laboratory molecular methods, 2) prepare students for interdisciplinary research and "enhance clinical research workforce training" as stated in the NIH roadmap, and 3) in concert with Francis Collins' direction for opportunities and challenges MECEH seeks to expand growth areas for trainee expertise in statistical genomics, epigenetic epidemiology, and design of community based participatory research. These goals are achieved through the recruitment of high quality applicants, including underrepresented minorities, mentorship by a core of nationally- and internationally-renowned teacher-scientists, support by research-intensive environmental health, pediatric, and molecular genetics departments, well-funded scientific programs and centers, and advice from a distinguished and enthusiastic External Advisory Board.