This is an application for renewal of support for the Oregon State University Environmental Health Sciences (EHS) Center, that consists of an interdisciplinary unit of 19 Center Investigators, the Director, an Associate Director, three Associated Faculty and an Affiliated Center Investigator. The academic appointments of the EHS investigators are in the Colleges of Science, Agricultural Sciences, Pharmacy, and Veterinary Medicine. This broad intellectual base of expertise, research, and teaching allows the EHS Center to generate innovative environmental health-related studies across campus through collaborations and sharing of expertise. Four research Cores provide a focus for collaborative research activities and include: (i) Carcinogenesis, (ii) Cell Biology and Immunotoxicology, (iii) Molecular and Genetic Toxicology, and (iv) Structural Biology and Environmental Chemistry. The Research Cores are led by Center Investigators and involve established projects as well as new pilot projects. Six Facilities and Services Core Units provide scientists with access to equipment, services, and expertise in specific research technologies and include: (i) Aquatic Toxicology, (ii) Cell Culture, (iii) Cell and Tissue Analysis, (iv) Mass Spectrometry, (iv) Mass Spectrometry, (v) Nucleic Acids and Proteins, and (vi) Statistics. The EHS Center grant also supports the Director's Office, the Administration Core, a Pilot Projects Program, and a Community Outreach and Education Program. The EHS Center supports two Seminar Programs, a Visiting Scientists Program, symposia and other programs for training and enrichment in cooperation with the affiliated NIEHS Training Grant at OSU and the OSU Graduate Toxicology Program. The theme of the research mission for the OSU EHS Center is to generate new understandings of the effects of environmental agents on proteins, nucleic acids, and gene expression. The research activities are devoted largely to (i) interactions on environmental agents with cellular macromolecules, (ii) the effects of such agents on gene expression and the properties of gene products, and (iii) the analytical tools with which to analyze the environmental agents and the nature of their interaction with macromolecules at the cellular level and in the environment. The approach is both interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary, and the models, species, and systems that are studied are multiple. To achieve the objectives of this research, the Center continues to utilize and innovate its analytical capabilities. The EHS Center is a vital component of the research capability required to meet the research needs of both individual grants and a Program Project Grant that has been continuous since 1964. The results of this research will contribute to the scientific basis for the production of human health risks due to exposure to environmental chemicals, both natural and man-made, and aid in the development of innovative approaches for use in risk assessment. A major effort is directed towards community outreach, particularly in the school grades K-12, with an emphasis on providing teaching materials about environmental health for teachers and students.
Showing the most recent 10 out of 690 publications
