Through the purposeful interfacing of different disciplines and a systems biology framework integrating all levels of biological organization: biomolecule, pathway, cell, tissue, organ, model organism, human, and human population, the Center for Health and the Environment (CHHE) will elucidate fundamental mechanisms through which environmental stressors interface with pathways, the genome and epigenome to influence human health outcomes. CHHE will develop three interdisciplinary Research Teams that will integrate and build on NC State's unique research strengths and resources in quantitative biology and diverse model organisms as well as its emerging strength in human population science to advance discovery in environmental health sciences (EHS) along the continuum from genes to populations. The Molecular/Cellular-Based Systems and Model Organisms Team will utilize cutting-edge genetic/molecular/cellular-based systems and powerful vertebrate and invertebrate model organisms to conduct fundamental research to define mechanisms by which environmental exposures promote disease. The Human Population Science Team is composed of experts on environmental exposures, epidemiology, genomics, and epigenomics who are poised to identify key human pathways and link exposure and disease across populations. The Bioinformatics Team will develop novel computational tools and analytics to translate Big Data generated across high-throughput and multi-scale experiments into systems-level discoveries. The CHHE will develop three Facility Cores that will significantly increase the impact and the basic science and translational capacity of its Research Teams. One CHHE Facility Core will provide cutting-edge technologies involving proteomics, metabolomics and genomics along with dedicated bioinformatics support. A second Core will provide pathologic phenotypic assessment of the many model organisms used by CHHE members and provide laser capture microdissection service with links back to the omics technologies. The third Core, the Integrative Health Science Facility Core, will enable CHHE investigators to translate basic science discoveries to clinical and public health outcomes and vice versa. As a land-grant University, NC State has an extensive and active Cooperative Extension Service network throughout North Carolina. The CHHE will utilize this unique network to develop a highly effective, multi-directional Community Outreach and Engagement Core to disseminate findings and receive community input that will contribute to addressing disparities in exposures and health outcomes and to educate communities about environmental influences on health. A strong Career Development Core for early stage scientists that is coordinated with a robust Pilot Project Program will support cutting edge, collaborative, and multidisciplinary EHS projects to enhance the research success and impact of our membership. Through these activities and the interfacing of different disciplines, CHHE will build on NC State's unique research and community outreach strengths to become a premier transformative and synergistic EHS Core Center.
The aim of the Center for Human Health and Environment is to understand how human health, at both the individual and population level, is impacted by environmental factors and to implement this knowledge to prevent and/or reduce the adverse impacts of environment factors on human health.
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