The Center for Environmental Health Sciences (CEHS) within the CVM-MSU submits an application to develop a COBRE with the overall scientific theme of environmental health, and a specific emphasis on the toxicological effects of pesticides. Our COBRE would be a multi-disciplinary research effort with two overarching goals: 1) to develop individual junior faculty expertise and credibility so that each is recognized as a successful, fully enfranchised member of the community of environmental health scientists with independent, competitive funding support from peer-reviewed mechanisms (primarily R01 grants); and 2) to develop a team of scientists who can compete for programmatic research support, such as a program project grant, for investigation of environmental health problems elicited by agricultural chemicals. Organizationally, an Administrative Core would coordinate overall activities of the COBRE, and be responsible for mentoring the junior scientists in their career development to increase their competitiveness, and for data management activities (data entry and statistical guidance). Four biomedical mechanistic research projects will be based on hypothesis-driven studies of the potential effects of pesticides on the mammalian nervous or endocrine systems at various stages of development (from early development through aging). The mechanisms of toxicity of pesticides will be investigated in animal models (both traditional laboratory rodents as well as new animal models). A Research Resources Core would provide infrastructure to these biomedical projects through animal resources; (Animal Sub-Core) and shared instrumentation (Imaging Sub-Core and Analytical Chemistry Sub-Core). In addition, an epidemiology and exposure assessment project would bring real world perspectives to the biochemical and physiological mechanisms under study. Renovation of laboratory space would occur. The Principal Investigators (PI) of the science projects are junior faculty who demonstrate distinct but complementary areas of expertise, all of whom can contribute individually and programmatically to answering critical questions in the assessment of the impact of pesticides on selected areas of human health. All are committed to developing new or expanded expertise in scientific questions or methodologies useful in the area of environmental health, and that fit the priority research areas of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), for whose support we hope to ultimately compete.
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