The Texas A&M Center for Environmental Health Research
Enhancing public health by identifying, understanding, and reducing adverse environmental health risks
Research Themes
Climate Change and Health
The primary goal of this theme is to elucidate the interactions between air quality, climate change, and public health by combining numerical models, field measurements, laboratory experiments, and epidemiological studies.
Environmental Justice and Policy
The mission of this theme will be to support Center research activities that are responsive to community environmental health concerns, especially for minority and socioeconomically disadvantaged communities that are particularly vulnerable to environmental health threats and face significant barriers to effecting change, and to inform Center members about the types of data that will be of greatest value to various stakeholders and members of the public for decision-making and policy creation.
Stressors to Responses
This research theme is focused on isolating environmental stressors, understanding the mechanisms by which these stressors take effect in biological systems, and identifying diseases and adverse biological responses associated with stressor exposure.
Environment and Metabolism
The mission of this theme is to study environmental exposures that beneficially or adversely impact metabolic health. Dysregulated metabolism is widely regarded as a precursor to poor overall health. Research in this theme will look into the unique environmental exposure susceptibilities of those with reduced metabolic health in an effort to identify environmental contributors to metabolic syndrome.
Apply for a Voucher!
Kick start your research with funding from TiCER and access to various biomolecular research cores
$1,000 Voucher
It couldn’t be easier to get to the last mile. Finish your project by availing services from TiCER core.
$5,000 Voucher
To kick start a small project idea. Start your pilot project and complete the proof-of-concept.
$10,000 Voucher
Cover major part of your project’s cost. For example, a single sequencing run of Human genome at 30X coverage costs approximately $1,200.
Cores
Data Sciences Facility Core
The DSFC will aggregate expertise and computational capability spanning scales of data complexity. Achieving the Center’s vision of “Innovative solutions for addressing exposure-stressor interactions in underserved populations in urban and urbanizing areas in the state of Texas” will entail a multitude of data collection, storage, analysis, and integration challenges related to the high dimensionality of novel biological and chemical data streams, the mixture of structured and unstructured data at the level of local communities, and the need to translate data into actionable knowledge for environmental health decision making. The DSFC will support these needs by leveraging data science expertise and resources across Texas A&M University, providing a central data repository for Center investigators and serving as a key facilitator of interactions across the entire Center.
Translational Research Support Core
The TRSC is an integral component of the Center that reinforces the synergistic activities that enhance the breadth, quality, innovation and productivity of environmental health research at Texas A&M University. As a hub for bi-directional research translation in the previous funding cycle, this core (formerly the Integrated Health Science Facility Center, IHSFC) initiated the use of a novel operational model to provide investigators unparalleled access to resources, spurred the creation of several new models to answer fundamental question and advance science and practice of value to communities at risk for environmental exposures.
Community Engagement Core
The Center’s engagement efforts will be focused on well-documented priorities of stakeholder groups in the Texas Triangle, including urban and urbanizing neighborhoods within the contexts of Austin, Houston, and Dallas that is widely applicable to other areas at risk from environmental emergency events and climate change. To help achieve this goal, the CEC will develop, test, and disseminate data-driven community engagement outcomes and interventions that increase local resilience to existing disaster risk and the future effects of climate change, particularly in underserved communities.