Center for Environmental Health SciencesOrganizationAccomplishments in 2006–2007Plans for 2007–2008Pilot ProjectsCommunity Outreach and Education Program ActivitiesFriday ForumExternal Advisory BoardPoster SessionNewsletter8–3MIT Reports to the President 2006–2007Center for Environmental Health SciencesThe overriding goal of the Center for Environmental Health Sciences (CEHS) continues to be to study the biological effects of exposure to environmental agents so that we may better understand and predict how such exposures affect human health. Three fundamental components influence the physiological effects of environmental exposures: the nature of the exposure, the duration of that exposure, and how well the exposed organism is equipped to deal with the exposure—in other words, the organism’s genetic susceptibility. Environmental health research at MIT encompasses a wide range of disciplines, and CEHS continues to bring together faculty members who employ a diverse set of research tools to tackle problems relevant to environmental health sciences. During the last year or two, CEHS has begun to include focused efforts on problems that are of particular relevance to the developing world in addition to adding more human-population based studies.OrganizationCEHS continues to be comprised of an administrative core, the Community Outreach and Education Program (COEP), the Pilot Project Program, three research cores, and three facilities cores, although there is a major change in organization that has been developed during the last year or two and which will be implemented in the coming year. Center membership currently consists of 27 faculty scientists and engineers, 26 from MIT and one from Harvard University (Dr. David Hunter). In addition, the Center has two research scientists who direct or codirect two of the Center’s facilities cores. The members of the administrative core, which is charged with overall operation of the Center, include Professor Leona Samson (Biological Engineering Division [BE]), director; Professor Peter Dedon (BE), deputy director; Jacqueline Breen, administrative officer; Sophea Chan, financial assistant; and Julie Coiro, administrative assistant. The COEP is responsible for all outreach activities of CEHS, which emphasizes K–12 education for teachers and students as well as adult and community outreach through the Museum of Science and the MIT Museum. The COEP is administered by Dr. Kathleen Vandiver, director; Professor Bevin Engelward (BE), codirector; and Amy Fitzgerald (Edgerton Center), coordinator.Research in CEHS is currently organized into three research cores that build on the strengths of the Center’s membership. These are the Mutation and Cancer Research Core, the Bioengineering for Toxicology Research Core, and the Environmental Systems and Health Research Core. The theme of each core derives from the members’ research interests, and all are linked by the center’s overarching focus on defining how biological systems respond to exposure to environmental agents. The Mutation and Cancer Research Core, directed by Professor Dedon, addresses the relationships between DNA damage, DNA repair, mutation, and cancer associated with exposure to environmental and endogenous chemical and physical agents. The Bioengineering for Toxicology Research Core, directed by Professor Linda Griffith (BE, Mechanical Engineering), was created to facilitate the development of new experimental tools and analysis methods relevant to environmental influences on human health, with a range8–4MIT Reports to the President 2006–2007Center for Environmental Health Sciencesof approaches spanning the molecular-cellular systems length scales. The mission of the Environmental Systems and Health Research Core, directed by Professor David Schauer (BE), is to understand the relationships that link environmental processes and human health in terms of exposure to chemical agents as well as biota. This is most aptly illustrated by the triad of dependent interactions of aflatoxin, hepatitis virus, and human liver cancer, which has been a research foundation for CEHS since its inception over three decades ago.Three state-of-the-art facilities cores reflect CEHS’s research directions. The cores are heavily used by CEHS researchers, with each contributing to the research of at least 10 members. Under the direction of doctors John Wishnok (BE), Koli Taghizadeh, and Paul Skipper (BE), the Bioanalytical Facilities Core provides center members with the latest tools, techniques, and expertise in the characterization and quantification of chemical substances and modifications of cellular molecules such as DNA and protein. The core operates as a resource for the center and provides training for students and postdocs to become proficient in mass spectometry analysis. The Genomics and Bioinformatics Facilities Core is directed by Dr. Rebecca Fry, and provides center members with an integrated facility for microarray fabrication and analysis, database storage, database management, data mining, and modeling. These tools are critical to the goal of moving CEHS research to higher levels of complexity in an attempt to understand the response of the organism to environmental influences at the systems level. The Animal Models and Pathology Facilities Core, directed by Professor James Fox (Division of Comparative Medicine, BE), provides center members with the latest technology for the application of animal models to environmental health research, including the generation of genetically engineered mice, embryo rederivation of imported mice, colony management, and preparation and interpretation of murine tissue by histological and image analysis.Accomplishments in 2006–2007CEHS has maintained a strong volume of research support, totaling over $6.4 million in 2006–2007. These research programs are funded through a variety of sources, including the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, the National Cancer Institute, the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, the American Cancer Society, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS).With the continued support of our NIEHS Center Grant, we have been able to provide support for a number of pilot projects for the year 2006–2007. Pilot project funding allows for the conduct of novel research activities that utilize multidisciplinary
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