Biostatistics for Research in Environmental Health

描述(由申请人提供)：这个多学科的五年制项目旨在培养三个不同但相互关联的领域的博士后(博士)和博士后：环境生物统计学、环境流行病学和环境健康科学。其目标是让科学家做好准备，以应对环境健康科学研究中新出现的挑战。通过建立一个涉及这三个关键科学领域之间合作的培训计划，我们有一个独特的机会来推动环境领域的发展 如果培训是通过三个单一的纪律方案实现的，那么就不可能以这种方式实现健康。目前的环境健康研究，无论是涉及实验室动物实验，还是对人类种群的观察研究，都变得越来越复杂。环境危害暴露的有效量化需要考虑复杂的依赖于时间的多重暴露分布。对早期生物效应(生物标记物)的评估需要阐明暴露情况如何与多个、中间和经常相关的终点相关。一个关键的组成部分是，通过创造性地使用最先进的系统生物学技术，对整个基因组中的基因表达、代谢物水平、表观遗传变化和单核苷酸多态进行全球测量，更好地了解环境影响中个体的异质性。因此，对暴露-疾病关系的评估需要了解暴露、早期生物效应、遗传因素及其与环境的潜在相互作用之间的联系，将所有这些知识结合起来，以了解这些因素可能如何影响多种可能相关的健康结果。培训计划培养出能够解决这些复杂研究问题的全面发展的科学家，显然是推进环境健康科学所必需的。请拨资金支持23名博士后学员(9名基本输入输出系统、7名EPID和7名ENVR)和5名博士后学员(1名基本输入输出系统、2名EPID和2名ENVR)。生物统计学、流行病学和环境科学与工程学系是北卡罗来纳大学吉林斯全球公共卫生学院中最大和最受认可的三个系，它们拥有足够的人员和设施，足以提供全面的博士前和博士后培训。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This multidisciplinary five-year program is designed to train predoctoral (PhD) and postdoctoral students in three distinct but interrelated areas: Environmental Biostatistics, Environmental Epidemiology, and Environmental Health Science. The goal is to prepare scientists to address emerging challenges in environmental health science research. By constructing a training program that involves collaboration among these three critical scientific areas, we have a unique opportunity to advance the field of environmental health in ways that could not be achieved if the training were achieved via three single disciplinary programs. Current environmental health research, whether involving experiments with laboratory animals or observational studies of human populations, is becoming increasingly complex. The valid quantification of exposures to environmental hazards requires consideration of complicated time- dependent multiple exposure profiles. Assessment of early biologic effects (biomarkers) requires elucidation of how exposure profiles relate to multiple, intermediate, and often correlated endpoints. A critical component is a better understanding of heterogeneity across individuals in environmental effects through the creative use of state-of-the-art systems biology technologies for global measures of gene expression, levels of metabolites, epigenetic alterations and single nucleotide polymorphisms across the genome. Assessment of exposure-disease relationships thus requires knowledge of the connections between exposure, early biological effects, genetic factors and their potential interaction with the environment, uniting al this knowledge to understand how these factors may affect multiple, possibly correlated health outcomes. Training programs that produce well-rounded scientists who can address these complex research questions are clearly needed to advance environmental health science. Funding is requested for the support of 23 predoctoral trainees (9 BIOS, 7 EPID, and 7 ENVR) and for 5 postdoctoral trainees (1 BIOS, 2 EPID, and 2 ENVR). The Departments of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Environmental Sciences and Engineering, the three largest and most recognized departments in the 2nd-ranked UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, have available all the personnel and facilities sufficient to provide comprehensive predoctoral and postdoctoral training.