The Log | School News
New Center Tacles Environmental Causes of Disease,
Gaps in Environmental Health Policy
Nicholas School faculty members
are playing leadership roles in Duke University’s new Center
for Comparative Biology of Vulnerable Populations (CCBVP).
The center, launched with $2.6
million from the National Institute of Environmental Health
Sciences, will explore how interactions between genes and
the environment lead to disease, and why certain people—particularly
children—develop diseases when exposed to environmental agents
while others remain healthy.
“Our center seeks to understand
how biological, physiological and social aspects of vulnerability
alter the effect of environmental toxins on human health,”
said David
A. Schwartz, M.D., chief of pulmonary and critical
care medicine at Duke University Medical Center and director
of the new center. Schwartz holds a secondary appointment
in the Nicholas School’s Division of Environmental Sciences
and Policy.
Marie
Lynn Miranda, director of the Children’s
Environmental Health Initiative and Gabel Associate Professor
of Environmental Ethics and Sustainable Environmental Management
at the Nicholas School, will serve as the CCBVP’s deputy director.
In this role, she will share in the day-to-day administration
of the center with Schwartz. Miranda also will direct the
Pilot Project Program and the Community Outreach Program for
the center.
Richard
T. Di Giulio, professor of environmental toxicology
at the Nicholas School, will serve as the center’s associate
director. He will oversee the four facilities for research
available through the center and also will organize center
seminar series.
Faculty members from the School
of Medicine, the Nicholas School, the School of Law and Arts
& Sciences will collaborate to advance the center’s interdisciplinary
mission.
Much of the research conducted at
the CCBVP will focus on the health implications of North Carolina’s
most pressing environmental issues, including exposure to
air pollution, animal waste, pesticides, and molds and harmful
bacteria that flourish in the wake of floods, hurricanes and
other natural disasters.
The center’s facilities will include
a DNA analytical facility capable of screening the activity
of thousands of genes; a proteomics facility for conducting
molecular assays for protein profiling; an inhalation toxicology
facility for controlled laboratory testing of environmental
exposures; and an advanced computational technologies facility
providing statistical design and guidance on analysis solutions.
The university has committed an
additional $11 million to support the CCBVP and will provide
approximately 119,000 square feet of laboratory and office
space, according to Schwartz. The institution expects to recruit
seven to 110 new faculty members in environmental health,
he said.
The CCBVP’s team will apply its
findings both to medical advancements and to encourage shifts
in environmental policy, Schwartz added. It will include a
strong community outreach effort to provide environmental
health education to North Carolina schools and other groups.
“Recent advances in genetics have
given us an unparalleled understanding of how our genes interact
with the environment around us,” Schwartz said. “However,
to fully apply this science to preserving human health, we
must understand the complex ways in which humans actually
interact with their environment. This center aims to bridge
that gap in scientific understanding to improve public health
and effect needed policy change.”
more log >
|
