The Molecular Epidemiology in Children's Environmental Health (MECEH) Training Program began July, 2001 and is in its fourteenth training year. MECEH is defined as the use of biological, molecular and biostatistical measures in epidemiological research to determine how environmental exposures impact children's health at the physiologic, behavioral, cellular, and molecular levels. The marriage of epidemiology, medicine, statistical genetics, molecular biology, molecular genetics, and molecular epidemiology serves as an umbrella for focused research in genetic and biomarker environmental epidemiology. MECEH has 3 main participating departments: Environmental Health, Pediatrics, and Molecular Genetics. MECEH has had a continuous full enrollment with 21 pre-doctoral and 36 postdoctoral fellows trained or in progress, including 27 MD/DO fellows. Trainees have made great professional strides with national presentations, numerous publications, grant submissions and obtaining academic, government and industrial research positions. This application requests support for four pre-doctoral and six postdoctoral positions each year for 2016-2021 which will maintain its current size. The MECEH's long term objective is to continue increasing the number of cross-trained epidemiologists, physician epidemiologists, biostatisticians, and molecular biologists who investigate high impact issues related to environmental exposures and complex childhood diseases. The overarching rationale for this training program has been stated in such federal initiatives as the Children's Health Act of 2000 (HR 4365) which stressed investment in tomorrow's pediatric researchers (sec 1002). The MECEH has three primary goals: 1) provide a strong grounding in epidemiologic, biostatistical, and wet and dry laboratory molecular methods, 2) prepare students for interdisciplinary research and enhance clinical research workforce training as stated in the NIH roadmap, and 3) in concert with Francis Collins' direction for opportunities and challenges MECEH seeks to expand growth areas for trainee expertise in statistical genomics, epigenetic epidemiology, and design of community based participatory research. These goals are achieved through the recruitment of high quality applicants, including underrepresented minorities, mentorship by a core of nationally- and internationally-renowned teacher-scientists, support by research-intensive environmental health, pediatric, and molecular genetics departments, well-funded scientific programs and centers, and advice from a distinguished and enthusiastic External Advisory Board.

Public Health Relevance

The public health significance of the MECEH program is directly correlated to the increasing national awareness of the rising number of environmentally related disease such as diabetes, obesity, asthma, neurodevelopmental disorders, and prematurity, among others. Thus, the public health relevance of the program is great and is directly related to the need for researchers knowledgeable across disciplines in cutting-edge methodologies in the area of pediatric environmental health.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)
Type
Institutional National Research Service Award (T32)
Project #
5T32ES010957-20
Application #
9929584
Study Section
Environmental Health Sciences Review Committee (EHS)
Program Officer
Shreffler, Carol A
Project Start
2001-08-15
Project End
2021-06-30
Budget Start
2020-07-01
Budget End
2021-06-30
Support Year
20
Fiscal Year
2020
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Cincinnati
Department
Public Health & Prev Medicine
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
041064767
City
Cincinnati
State
OH
Country
United States
Zip Code
45221
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McWhorter, Ketrell L; Bowers, Katherine; Dolan, Lawrence et al. (2018) Assessing the Impact of Excessive Gestational Weight Gain Among Women With Type 1 Diabetes on Overweight/Obesity in Their Adolescent and Young Adult Offspring: A Pilot Study. Front Endocrinol (Lausanne) 9:713
Vuong, Ann M; Yolton, Kimberly; Poston, Kendra L et al. (2017) Prenatal and postnatal polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) exposure and measures of inattention and impulsivity in children. Neurotoxicol Teratol 64:20-28
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