A recent trend in the health sciences is the increasing use of not only genomic but also other ?omics data. Scientists who can effectively design studies to collect these data, develop computational and statistical methods to analyze these data, and/or deploy prevention or diagnostic programs that utilize these data will be playing leadership roles in tomorrow's research world. The field of environmental health is rapidly evolving in response to these new technologies. No longer simply concerned with describing exposure- response relations in human populations (epidemiology) and model organisms (toxicology), new avenues for research include advances in exposure science (mobile sensing technologies, biomonitoring, etc.), in mechanisms of environmental diseases (integrative genomics including gene-environment interactions), and novel ways of integrating epidemiologic, genetic and toxicological approaches. Training the next generation of scientists in this field will require a highly multi-disciplinary approach. This is a renewal of the University of Southern California T32 training grant in Environmental Genomics, aimed at providing multidisciplinary education and research training for five pre-doctoral and four postdoctoral trainees. For Ph.D. candidates, the Program involves rigorous course work within our Ph.D. degree programs in Biostatistics and Epidemiology (with tracks, among others, in statistical genetics, environmental statistics, genetic and molecular epidemiology, and environmental epidemiology), with a set of core knowledge aimed at bridging these various fields. At the postdoctoral level, the emphasis is on research experience within one of the leading research departments in the country. A large interdisciplinary team of faculty with a tradition of individual hands-on research mentorship and extensive portfolios of research grant support in environmental epidemiology, genetics, biostatistics, and bioinformatics are available to trainees.
The next generation of investigators in environmental health will need broad multidisciplinary training. The investigators aim to provide pre- and postdoctoral trainees with training in environmental, genetic, and molecular epidemiology, biostatistics, and bioinformatics to become leaders in research on the complex pathways that lead from environmental exposures to disease in human populations.
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