Mechanisms and Prevention of Environmental Disease

描述（由申请人提供）：环境疾病研究中心（CRED）的主要目标是研究环境因素可能导致或影响人类疾病的机制，并开发与环境有关的疾病的早期发现、预防和控制方法。CRED的主题是定义从环境暴露到不良后果的分子途径，并了解这些反应的可变性的遗传基础。在下一个资助期内，科研合作研究小组成员将继续把重点放在开发和使用人类环境疾病，特别是癌症的动物模型上。此外，该中心将扩大疾病预防领域的研究工作，更加注重能量平衡及其对环境疾病风险的影响。最后，这些研究工作将再次得到对不同人群遗传风险因素的研究的补充和帮助。选择这些重点领域是因为它们代表了跨越多个研究核心的主要研究主题。由于环境健康问题很复杂，需要了解环境中化学和物理压力的来源、它们的运输和转化方式、人类接触的途径、这些物质发挥作用的机制，以及它们的行动可能受到修饰剂或辅助因素（包括遗传背景）影响的方式，因此，要成功地研究这些复杂问题，就需要跨学科的方法。为了解决这一系列巨大的问题，CRED汇集了一个由具有极其广泛的专业知识的知名科学家组成的多学科小组，共同努力。此外，CRED将继续为这些研究人员提供先进的生化、分子和分析技术，以加强围绕中心主题的研究工作。本中心包括五个研究核心：1)毒性和细胞死亡机制；ii)细胞对DNA损伤的反应；iii)分子遗传学和环境致癌；iv)分子流行病学和生态遗传学；六)疾病预防的目标和机制。这些研究核心的研究工作将通过以下六个设施核心得到加强：i)分子生物学；ii)转基因动物；iii)组织学和组织处理；iv)细胞和组织分析；v)分析仪器；生物统计学和信息学。此外，行政核心使协作互动正规化，并提供丰富活动以及试点项目方案。最后，社区外展和教育计划还建立了一个机制，将中心的重要研究成果传播给一般社区，并提供社区教育计划，重点关注与环境健康科学有关的问题。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The primary objective of the Center for Research on Environmental Disease (CRED) is to study the mechanisms by which environmental factors may cause or influence human disease and to develop methods for early detection, prevention, and control of environmentally related diseases. The theme for the CRED is to define molecular pathways that lead from environmental exposures to adverse outcomes and to understand the genetic basis for variability in these responses. In the next funding period, CRED members will continue to focus a major research effort on developing and using animal models of human environmental diseases, especially cancer. In addition, the Center will expand research efforts in the area of disease prevention by focusing a greater effort on energy balance and its influence on environmental disease risk. Finally, these research efforts will again be complemented and aided by studies of genetic risk factors in diverse human populations. These areas of focus are selected because they represent major research themes that cut across more than one Research Core. Because the problems of environmental health are complex, requiring an understanding of the sources of chemical and physical stresses in the environment, their modes of transport and transformation, the routes of human exposure, the mechanisms through which the agents exert their effects, and the possible ways their actions may be influenced by modifiers or co-factors, including genetic background, the successful study of these complex problems requires interdisciplinary approaches. To tackle this vast array of problems, the CRED brings together, in an integrated effort, a multidisciplinary group of established scientists with an extremely broad range of expertise. In addition, the CRED will continue to provide these investigators access to sophisticated biochemical, molecular, and analytical techniques to enhance research efforts that revolve around the Center theme. This Center consists of five Research Cores: i) Mechanisms of Toxicity and Cell Death; ii) Cellular Responses to DNA Damage; iii) Molecular Genetics and Environmental Carcinogenesis; iv) Molecular Epidemiology and Ecogenetics; and vi) Targets and Mechanisms of Disease Prevention. The research efforts of these Research Cores will be enhanced by access to the following six Facility Cores: i) Molecular Biology; ii) Transgenic Animals; iii) Histology and Tissue Processing; iv) Cell and Tissue Analysis; v) Analytical Instrumentation; and vi) Biostatistics and Informatics. In addition, an Administrative Core formalizes collaborative interactions and provides for enrichment activities as well as a Pilot Project Program. Finally, a Community Outreach and Education Program also establishes a mechanism to disseminate important research findings of the Center to the general community, as well as provides community education programs with an emphasis on issues related to environmental health sciences.