- INTEGRATED HEALTH SCIENCES FACILITY CORE The Integrated Health Sciences Facility Core (IHSFC) of the UCSF Environmental Research and Translation for Health (EaRTH) Center will augment existing UCSF resources to help investigators add and/or improve on environmental health components into their existing studies, to provide access to the latest and most robust scientific understanding of chemical exposures and health effects, and to leverage the Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment and Environmental Health Initiative's demonstrated effective science communication to broadcast broadly the science of EaRTH Center members to improve the public's health, particularly among our most vulnerable populations. The goal of our IHSFC is to support investigators by providing consultation on key aspects of environmental health research to understand exposures and health effects, map biological pathways and improve environmental literacy among health professionals. The IHSFC will provide researchers assistance with study design, database and other queries to identify chemicals and other environmental exposures for evaluation, development of patient questionnaires for environmental exposure, and computational and bioinformatics approaches for evaluating environmental health data. The IHSFC will also provide consultation regarding adding non-chemical stressors, such as psychosocial stress, to studies of environmental health. Specifically, the IHSFC will provide consultation on (1) study design, data analysis, and data integration with environmental chemical exposure and non-chemical stressors data to advance epidemiologic and translational environmental health science research; (2) selecting and measuring chemical exposure in epidemiologic and translational health research; and (3) strategies and tools for effective communication of science to audiences including clinicians, community-based organizations, local/state/national decision-makers, and the media and support for reporting back of environmental exposures and study results to research participants using a well-tested and easy-to-use digital interface. We will also provide access to training on methods for evaluating and synthesizing environmental health in human and animal science via the Navigation Guide systematic review and meta- analysis methodology to support environmental literacy. The IHSFC will encourage an interdisciplinary approach to investigate, analyze and disseminate findings by providing services for researchers from diverse fields including basic sciences, epidemiology, bioinformatics, public health, environmental health and clinical sciences. The IHSFC will inspire a diverse and well-trained group of scientists to move environmental health science forward and train the next generation of environmental health science leaders from a wide range of scientific disciplines and diverse backgrounds and specialties at UCSF.
