/Aims The overall goal of the IHSFC is to facilitate both patient-oriented and population-based research within the Center for Environmental Health in Northern Manhattan (CEHNM). It promotes the strategic goals of the CEHNM by supporting existing research projects and fostering new interdisciplinary activities focusing on environmental health problems. The Core provides the infrastructure to carry out these studies and has several components including epidemiologic, data management and biostatistical capabilities and a Biomarkers Laboratory for sample processing, distribution and analysis. The Core addresses the needs of CEHNM investigators as their research focus changes and develops and validates new methods and assays to meet these changing needs. The Core provides extremely efficient, cost-effective cutting-edge web-based and other database management systems, which have expanded to include a major formal educational component. The CEHNM made a strategic decision early on to dedicate significant resources to data management because investigators often lacked expertise in this area. The Center provides data management consulting, programming and an extensive, secure, hardware/network infrastructure. Ms. Levy also developed a data management course that addresses all aspects of data management open to all members of the CEHNM. We took the concept a step further and now offer workshops to Center members who cannot devote a full semester to the course being offered. The IHSFC offers pro-bono or low-cost services for CEHNM pilot projects. Training is an important component of Core activities, allowing methodologies to be exported to other laboratories, providing access to equipment and the expertise necessary to conduct studies requiring immunoassays for DNA adducts, oxidative stress markers and other parameters, genotyping and DNA methylation and most recently, microRNA analysis. It educates students and post docs on the importance of sample batching, quality control and assay reliability.
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