The primary goal of this theme is to encourage studies that bridge the gap between the unique responses of individuals (precision medicine approaches) and population-level studies (epidemiological-scale approaches). In recent years, modern health care delivery has become more and more "personalized" but efforts to tailor disease prevention or understand individual environmental sensitivities have not been prioritized. The Center has made the Individuals to Populations research theme in an effort to initiate collaborations among TiCER scientists focused on understanding the linkages between specific exposures and adverse health responses or disease development and how unique disease mechanisms are modulated by inter-individual genetic differences.

RESEARCH FOCI:

• Understanding the relationship between individual and population responses is a novel research concept for many TiCER scientists. However, several new recruits have extensive expertise in this area and will pioneer studies that bridge homogenous models with heterogenous population models that more accurately represent populations in reality. 

• Current studies are investigating population diversity of responses to environmental exposure of trichloroethylene, arsenic, and lead. These studies will act as paradigms for scientists expanding into this new area of research.

• • Future studies will investigate inter-individual variation in response to:
    • air pollutants
    • microbiota
    • plant metabolites