The vision of the HERCULES P30 (Health and Exposome Research Center: Understanding Lifetime Exposures) is for the exposome to gain equal footing to the genome in clinical and public health settings. The investigators believe that the pursuit of this simple and unifying visin will stimulate discovery, promote collaboration, and enhance communication in Environmental Health Sciences at Emory University. The investigators plan to use the P30 mechanism to create an intellectual climate that fosters innovation, collaboration, and progress. Specifically, they plan to enhance collaborative research at Emory, including increasing extramural funding, serving the local and regional community as a source for information on environmental issues, and to make an impact on the national and global level through cutting-edge research. To do this the investigators propose the following specific aims that align with their theme of using exposome-related concepts and approaches to improve human health:
Specific Aim 1 : Provide greater access to exposome-related approaches (systems biology, metabolomics, high throughput toxicology, spatial and temporal statistical models) through cores, pilot funding, and research forums.
Specific Aim 2 : Make major contributions towards the operational definition of the exposome (promoting a culture of team science, pilot funding, pursuing exposome-related research).
Specific Aim 3 : Provide career development activities around innovative and emerging concepts and approaches related to exposome.
Specific Aim 4 : Enhance and expand existing relationships with community partners to facilitate communication of the importance of environmental factors in disease using exposome principles.
Specific Aim 5 : Provide infrastructure and resources to facilitate rapid translation of novel scientific findings ito the development of novel sustainability, prevention or treatment strategies in humans. The organization of the Center is depicted in the HERCULES Logic Model in the strategic vision section. The Executive Committee will be guided by these aims and use the Logic Model to monitor progress of the Center.
Human health and disease is dictated by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. The HERCULES Center is focused on providing a more comprehensive assessment of these environmental influences by utilizing exposome-based concepts and approaches.
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