CHHE Receives $6.5 Million from NIEHS to Study Effect of Environment on Human Health

News Release 4/20/15 – Researchers from North Carolina State University’s Center for Human Health and the Environment (CHHE) have received a five-year, $6.5 million grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) to investigate the effects of environmental factors on human health. The primary mission of the CHHE is to understand how human health, of both individuals and populations, is affected by environmental factors and to use this knowledge to prevent or reduce negative environmental impacts on health. Through interdisciplinary researchand collaboration, the CHHE wants to construct a complete picture of how environmentalstressors interface with pathways, the genome and epigenome.

The grant will be used to further the CHHE’s work by advancing interdisciplinary research in the field of environmental health and supporting community outreach and engagement regarding environmental health issues. The NIEHS grant will make the CHHE one of 22 centers across the U.S. dedicated to studying environmental health impacts. “Through the purposeful interfacing of different disciplines, CHHE will build on NC State’s unique research and community outreach strengths to make significant contributions to understand and mitigate the adverse impacts of environmental factors on human health” says Rob Smart, William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor of Biological Science at NC State and director of the CHHE.

The CHHE was founded in 2011 and brings together 70 investigators from 13 departments and six colleges at NC State and as well as investigators from East Carolina University, Brody School of Medicine, North Carolina Central University, NC Department of Health and Human Services and RTI NIH Eastern Regional Comprehensive MetabolomicsResource Core.