The Center for Molecular Environmental Health (CMEH) at The Ohio State University is comprised of an interactive group of nationally and internationally recognized investigators who are addressing federal and state of Ohio needs in environmental health and human toxicology. The focus of our intra-institutional effort is environmentally oriented. CMEH researchers are concentrating efforts in the fields of human toxicology including molecular and classical epidemiology, molecular biomarkers indicative of genetic changes in gene function caused by exposure to environmental agents, environmental biomonitoring, bioindicators of exposure, evaluation of environmentally-induced disease, and molecular pathology that evaluates genetic changes leading to changes associated with medical abnormalities. This constitutes a partial menu of the Center's activities in the field of risk exposure, evaluation and assessment.
Randall E. Harris Co-Director
Gary Stoner Co- Director
JOANNE DONK ADMIN. ASS'T.MAY 1, 2000; Donk264@OSU.edu
TELEPHONE NO:1-614-293-4600
The purpose of the Center is to investigate and establish criteria for a clean environment for human populations at risk to environmental xenobiotic exposure. The CMEH investigators are participating in initiatives to make significant changes in the quality of the environment and to alter the consequences of a deleterious health outcome upon exposure to environmental insults. It is expected that modulating these environmental health related outcomes will contribute to an increase in work-place related economic productivity. Center activities that include the initiation of studies with molecular biomarkers of disease and assessment of risk will lead to identification of environmental problems in areas of exposure. These results then will dictate whether the exposed population should avoid the impacted area or whether science driven beneficial outcomes will drive the decision as to whether remediation should be implemented, i.e., Science will contribute to the decision making process. To summarize our operational philosophy we ask the question: How clean must the environment be to avoid adverse outcomes on human health? It is anticipated that the CMEH will provide a focus and resource for addressing environmental issues and will contribute to informed decisions regarding these issues.
The research effort is interdisciplinary, emphasizing ways to understand the biological outcomes of either acute or chronic human exposure to environmental contaminants. The CMEH has established broad environmental research, training , outreach educational and communication objectives as top priorities for the residents of the State of Ohio. The CMEH focuses on diverse classes of problems that involve science and technology and incorporate disciplines of biology, toxicology, chemistry , physical sciences, and engineering sciences into the process of evaluating the health related outcomes for the residents of Ohio. The Center integrates the expertise of the faculty in molecular and cellular biology, molecular mechanisms in human cytogenetics, molecular toxicology, molecular pathology, molecular mechanisms of chemoprevention, molecular biomarkers in epidemiology, biostatistics, molecular modeling of environmental contamination, and molecular modeling in risk exposure ,risk evaluation and risk assessment. These disciplines are derived from the Colleges of Medicine, Pharmacy, Veterinary Medicine, Biological Sciences, Agriculture, and other interdisciplinary centers.
The educational component of the CMEH, provides professional training in public and environmental health and serves as a resource for the decision process on critical public and environmental health issues. The participation of faculty at The Ohio State University with the CMEH provides us with a focus to educate the population of the State of Ohio at a professional and investigative level in molecular environmental health. This focus will contribute to faculty , State of Ohio residents and student development and enrichment.
The following are our specific research objectives:
- Identify the molecular and cellular changes associated with acute and chronic exposure to environmental pollutants.
- Establish threshold levels of activated environmental pollutants that pose a health risk to humans.
- Develop more accurate and sensitive tools for biological monitoring of exposure.
- Prevent and intervene in progression of environmentally-related diseases through the technologies of modern molecular environmental medicine.
STEVE DAMBROSIO,
YVONNE
DRAGAN,
JAMES
DeWILLE,
DIANE
GERKEN,
RANDALL
E. HARRIS,
WILLIAM
L. HAYTON,
CHARLES
R. HILLE,
SCOTT
JEWELL,
SISSY
M. JHIANG,
LEE
F. JOHNSON,
JAMES
C. LANG,
YOUNG C.
LIN,
TERRY
LOGAN, y
SUSAN
MALLERY,
MARK
MORSE,
DEBORAH
PARRIS,
ROBERT
SNAPKA,
GARY
STONER,
KARL
THEIL,
SAMUELTRAINA
ALTAF
WANI,
CHRISTOPHER
WEGHORST,
J. R.
WILKINS, III,
MARSHALL
V. WILLIAMS,
LAI-CHU WU,
Updated on SEPTEMBER 04, 2000.