Grantee Research Project Results
2002 Progress Report: Center for Environmental Health Sciences
EPA Grant Number: R828602Center: Center for Environmental Health Sciences
Center Director: Holian, Andrij
Title: Center for Environmental Health Sciences
Investigators: Holian, Andrij , Thompson, Charles , Shepherd, David , Putnam, Elizabeth , Cardozo-Pelaez, Fernando , Pfau, Jean , Pershouse, Mark , Kuhn, Tom
Current Investigators: Holian, Andrij
Institution: University of Montana , The University of Texas at Houston
Current Institution: University of Montana
EPA Project Officer: Chung, Serena
Project Period: October 1, 2001 through September 30, 2003 (Extended to September 30, 2004)
Project Period Covered by this Report: October 1, 2001 through September 30, 2002
Project Amount: $780,000
RFA: Targeted Research Center (2001) Recipients Lists
Research Category: Human Health , Targeted Research
Objective:
The primary research objective of the Center for Environmental Health Sciences (CEHS) at the University of Montana is to advance knowledge of environmental impacts on human health. The CEHS brings a critical mass of researchers together to investigate the mechanisms of pulmonary and cardiovascular diseases, immune and autoimmune disorders, developmental defects, neurodegenerative diseases, genetic susceptibility, and the impacts that environmental factors have in causing or exacerbating these conditions. These studies lead to new or better treatments, better assessment of the actual risks caused by environmental agents, and improved methods to detect and reduce the adverse health impacts of these agents on human health.
The objectives of the CEHS under this U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grant are to: (1) maintain regular meetings of the CEHS; (2) re-evaluate the long-range plan for CEHS research and growth; (3) recruit additional core investigators; (4) initiate training programs; (5) prepare grant applications; (6) initiate an annual research conference; and (7) organize and initiate community outreach programs.
Progress Summary:
Progress toward each of the above mentioned goals has been made and is reported below.
Maintain Regular Meetings of the CEHS
The CEHS has been evaluating the need for increasing Scientific Advisory Council (SAC) membership and expertise, as well as hiring additional staff.
During this year, the SAC met on March 1-2, 2002, and the second meeting was held October 4-5, 2002. The SAC determined that Dr. Marvin Fritzler, from the University of Calgary, an expert in autoimmune diseases, Dr. Aaron Barchowsky of Dartmouth Medical School, an expert in arsenic toxicity, and Dr. Mike Spence, Chief Medical Officer for the State of Montana, an expert in environmental health problems in Montana, should join the SAC. Dr. Fritzler attended the March meeting, Dr. Spence attended the October meeting, and Dr. Barchowsky was unable to attend the October meeting, but did visit the CEHS on September 12-14, and agreed to provide a report to the SAC chair.
Dr. William Eschenbacher has resigned from the SAC, because of a change in his position. Mr. Rick Hill has requested a change in status of his appointment to the SAC because of his inability to attend the regular meetings for health reasons.
With input from the SAC, it was determined that additional staff should be added to the CEHS to handle the increasing administrative needs and to provide technical expertise for the core facilities. The administrative staff will be added in the fall and core scientific staff members were hired during the year. The core staff included David Walker for the histology/confocal/laser scanning cytometry core and Corbin Schwanke for the microarray core.
Re-Evaluate the Long-Range Plan for CEHS Research and Growth
The CEHS has been critically evaluating progress and achievement goals, evaluating the breadth of research within the CEHS, developing a plan for future space needs, and developing a plan for submission of major grant applications.
Much of the critical evaluation comes during the SAC meetings, during which the progress of the CEHS towards its goals is discussed. This will be an ongoing process and it is considered to be one of the strengths of the Center.
The breadth of the research efforts is of considerable importance. The goal is to be inclusive of all research faculty, capture their focus, and ensure that sufficient depth is available for collaborative purposes and expertise. To this end, four research focus areas have been identified, and these include: (1) respiratory and immunotoxicology, (2) neurotoxicology, (3) cardiovascular and developmental toxicology, and (4) molecular and genetic toxicology. The only group that has limited depth is in cardiovascular and developmental toxicology. The plan is to address this need over the next 2 years.
With the addition of new faculty and growth in funding, it is more apparent that additional research space will be necessary. To this end, the School of Pharmacy submitted an application to the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) and has received $3 million in funding for a major expansion of research space. Pending the identification of matching funds, significant new research space will be available by 2005. The CEHS will be a major beneficiary of these resources.
During this past year, the CEHS submitted a Center of Biomedical Research Excellence grant application to NCRR that was funded. This award will provide direct cost support over the next 5 years of $8,195,406. In addition to supporting six subprojects, the purchase of two major pieces of equipment, core facilities support, graduate student and postdoctoral fellow support, it also will support the hiring of four new tenure track faculty in the areas of bioinformatics, epidemiology, and immunotoxicology.
Recruit Additional Core Investigators
In an effort to recruit additional core investigators, the CEHS utilized advice from the SAC and faculty for specific recruitment needs, integrated new investigators into CEHS activities, and assisted new investigators in making their laboratories functional.
The CEHS administration and faculty have worked closely with the SAC and have identified an epidemiologist and a bioinformatics scientist for hire. These needs also were identified in the Center for Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) grant, and therefore will be recruited during the next year. Tenure track lines have been committed by the University for these positions. The bioinformatics hire will be formally housed in Computer Sciences and the epidemiologist will be in the School of Pharmacy.
The new investigators hired this past year, Drs. David Shepherd (immunotoxicology), Jean Pfau (immunotoxicology), and Fernando Cardozo-Pelaez (neurotoxicology), have been well integrated into the Center. They already have participated in the biweekly CEHS meetings, in research group presentations, journal clubs, and in teaching. Most importantly, they have been involved in collaborative efforts in research and grant planning. Because of the CEHS structure of shared laboratory space, this integration occurred naturally and in a friendly environment.
Because of the shared laboratory space, the new investigators were functional in their laboratories very early following their arrival. A new high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) system was purchased for Dr. Cardozo-Pelaez, as part of his startup. It was available to him from the time of his arrival. All core equipment necessary for Drs. Pfau and Shepherd also were in place for them. The Center is in the process of purchasing additional pieces of major equipment that would facilitate all investigators' research (i.e., a fluorescence activated cell sorter, a Luminex multiple analyzer, and an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer). Finally, much of the programmatic support for the research activity of the new hires is being provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Environmental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). This funding also is being used to hire additional support personnel. The COBRE grant, in turn, will be responsible for the funding of most of these needs.
Initiate Training Programs
The CEHS is starting new coursework, developing recruitment material, and formalizing active training programs.
A new toxicology graduate program was approved by the Board of Regents in May 2002, and the program was officially put into effect in September 2002. The coursework is in place, and information is available on the Center's Web site (http://www.umt.edu/cehs). The COBRE grant has six graduate stipends available to facilitate growth of the Ph.D. program. New recruitment material has been developed on both the Web site and as a brochure. A number of recruitment trips by CEHS faculty are in effect at both local and national universities. Members and chairs have been appointed for all committees (recruitment, admissions, and curriculum/standards). It is anticipated that as a brand new program, it will evolve over the next couple of years. Plans are in place to submit a National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) training grant application during 2004 for additional programmatic support.
Prepare Grant Applications
The CEHS has been preparing individual investigator applications, planning the submission of the training grant application, and planning the submission of the program project applications.
Initiate Annual Research Conference
The process for submission of all grant applications includes the presentation of grant concepts during CEHS meetings, approximately 6 months prior to submission. Approximately 2 months prior to submission, a more formal presentation of the grant proposal is made to the CEHS faculty. A first draft is reviewed by selected faculty and the CEHS Director. A revised draft is circulated to the appropriate SAC members and/or external reviewers. During this past year, RO1 grants were submitted to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by Drs. Beall and Pfau. Both grants were well received and resubmissions are planned for the next year. Drs. Putnam and Coffin submitted R21 grant applications and both grants were funded during this year.
As mentioned above, we are planning on submitting a training grant application to the NIEHS for 2004. This topic is discussed at the SAC meetings, and it was felt that the program needs more development prior to submitting an application, and that by 2004, the program would be far enough along to be competitive.
Program project applications are in the early stages of planning. A number of ideas have been discussed and presented to the NIEHS. Those that are being considered include asbestos-related diseases, environmental autoimmune diseases, pesticides, and metals. It is quite possible that some projects will be solicited from collaborators outside of the institution. These concepts will be reviewed with the SAC prior to any grant submissions.
An annual research conference was held in June 2002 on asbestos related diseases. This was a 2-day conference with nationally recognized experts and was supported by the EPA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the NIEHS, and the NSF. Drs. Ken Olden and Henry Falk were plenary speakers for this conference, and a conference summary is available on our Web Site.
A smaller conference is being planned for April 2003, on genetic polymorphisms in environmental diseases, and tentative plans are in place for a second asbestos conference in 2004. Additional ideas also are being considered for major conferences that will showcase other research efforts of the CEHS.
Organize and Initiate Community Outreach Programs
The CEHS has been evaluating needs, opportunities, and feasible approaches to initiating community outreach programs. The CEHS plans to institute the most effective programs and to evaluate their impacts.
This was a fairly ambitious goal for the CEHS. Nevertheless, some progress has been made towards this goal. Dr. John Schumpert, an occupational and environmental physician and a part-time member (20 percent effort as a Research Assistant Professor) of the CEHS, is organizing an environmental asthma surveillance program for Missoula County. Funding for this effort is available from the CDC, and this is the first of its kind in the nation. An excellent environmental monitoring program is already in place. Additional efforts are to extend this surveillance program to two Indian nations in the near future (Flathead and Blackfeet).
Future Activities:
As mentioned above, a respiratory toxicologist will be hired and recruitment will be initiated in the areas of epidemiology and bioinformatics. A fluorescence-activated cell sorter (FACS) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) will be purchased. Staff scientists will be hired to operate both pieces of equipment. The activities of the cores will be more formalized and charge back polices will be instituted. Individual investigator-initiated grants will be submitted by Center investigators. Planning will take place for the building expansion that will take into account all of the CEHS immediate and future growth and development needs. Recruitment into the toxicology graduate program will be an important effort for the next year. In addition to the October SAC meeting, another SAC meeting will be held during mid-2003.
Journal Articles: 1 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
Other center views: | All 1 publications | 1 publications in selected types | All 1 journal articles |
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Pfau JC, Schneider JC, Archer AJ, Sentissi J, Leyva FJ, Cramton J. Environmental oxygen tension affects phenotype in cultured bone marrow-derived macrophages. AJP-Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology 2004;286(2):L354-L362. |
R828602 (Final) |
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Supplemental Keywords:
health science, pulmonary, cardiovascular disease, immune, autoimmune disorder, developmental defect, neurodegenerative disease, genetic susceptibility, environment., Scientific Discipline, Health, Health Risk Assessment, Risk Assessments, Biology, neurotoxic, outreach and training, environmental risks, pulmonary disease, human exposure, autoimmunity, cardiovascular disease, genetic susceptibility, human health riskRelevant Websites:
Progress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.