$1.7 M NIH award to train future researchers in both environmental and genetic factors of health

DETROIT - A collaboration between Wayne State University and Case Western Reserve University that aims to better educate researchers in both the genetic and environmental factors of health received a nearly $1.7 million T32 training grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of the National Institutes of Health.

Researchers from the two universities will team up for the project, "Program Integrating Genomics and the Environment," which aims to bridge the disciplines of exposure science and genetic epidemiology/genomics, two areas that have a significant impact on public health.

"This might be the first T32 grant between two different universities complementing two different disciplines," said Dr. Douglas Ruden, the grant's co-principal investigator and director of epigenomics in the Institute of Environmental Health Sciences at Wayne State. "We'll train the next generation of scientists in both genomics and epidemiology and exposure science, diverse disciplines in which many lack training. It will help people better understand how pollution, such as air pollution or PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), affects the general population at a genetic and epigenetic level."

Dr. Wanqing Liu, the co-principal investigator of the grant and professor of pharmaceutical sciences in the Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences and of pharmacology in the School of Medicine at Wayne State, said since environmental and genetic factors will always play a role in health, educating researchers in both areas is crucial.

"There are two fundamental factors for health and disease: the genetic factor and the environmental factor," said Liu. "To properly treat patients, it is important to understand both. Preparing students to do research at the gene-environment interface will provide unprecedented opportunities to advance understanding of chronic disease. With regard to health, environmental factors - no matter what the case is - will always come into interaction with genetic factors."

Individuals with different genetic backgrounds react differently to environmental exposures, which is why it is critical that researchers have experience and knowledge in both areas. This could greatly improve how the research performed by those completing the program will be undertaken and what manner of testing and diagnoses will take place with patients.

"Some patients are more prone to diseases than others. Some environmental conditions can affect certain groups differently than others," said Liu. "At Case Western Reserve University, they have a strong expertise in genetic factors regarding health; at Wayne State, we have a strong research community in environmental sciences. We thought this cooperation between the two universities would make sense and give students a unique opportunity to benefit from the expertise at both institutions."

By understanding both elements affecting public health, Ruden and Liu said program participants will receive an enormous advantage.

"The environment can change the epigenome of a person and that can have major health and developmental consequences," said Ruden. "As a researcher of obstetrics and gynecology, I'm interested in how early exposure in an environment affects the fetus, but adults can also be affected by exposure via cancer and other diseases. With the help of this grant, we will be able to bridge disciplines that have normally been taught in silos to develop the next generation of scientists with integrated expertise."

"The T32 training grant from the National Institutes of Health is an important opportunity to prepare the next generation of researchers," said Dr. Ezemenari M. Obasi, vice president for research & innovation at Wayne State University. "This grant will give fellows a unique training experience that will lead to important advances in the future. I look forward to seeing the important work that will result from this grant."

The Case Western Reserve University principal investigators include Dr. Scott Williams, professor, population and quantitative health sciences, and genetics and genome sciences, School of Medicine; and Dr. Fredrick R. Schumacher, associate professor of population and quantitative health sciences, School of Medicine, and co-leader of the Population and Cancer Prevention Program, Case Comprehensive Cancer Center. Williams and Schumacher are also faculty in the Cleveland Institute for Computational Biology.

For more information about the program, visit https://pharmacology.med.wayne.edu/pige-t32.

The grant number for this award from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of the National Institutes of Health is T32ES036169.

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Wayne State University is one of the nation's pre-eminent public research universities in an urban setting. Through its multidisciplinary approach to research and education, and its ongoing collaboration with government, industry and other institutions, the university seeks to enhance economic growth and improve the quality of life in the city of Detroit, state of Michigan and throughout the world. For more information about research at Wayne State University, visit research.wayne.edu .