Tuesday, December 17, 2024
12/17/2024
SUMMARY: OVERALL The Texas Medical Center (TMC), encompassing the top research-intensive institutions in the Gulf Coast Region, has emerged as an Environmental Health Sciences (EHS) research powerhouse, driven by the establishment in 2019 of the Gulf Coast Center for Precision Environmental Health (GC-CPEH). The Strategic Vision for the Center is to catalyze translational EHS research within research-intensive institutions of the TMC to advance our understanding of individual- and place-based environmental determinants of human health and disease. Home institutions for this multi-institutional Center are Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), and the University of Texas (UT). As a new P30 EHS Core Center (EHS-CC), the GC-CPEH now ranks #1 in Texas and #12 nationally in NIEHS grant support. Since its inception, Center members have worked together to garner a new Training in Precision Environmental Health Sciences (TPEHS) T32, and successfully competed for two large multi-institutional EHS programs: a P42 Superfund Center and a P50 Center for Environmental Health Disparities Research. Coming into our fifth year and this competitive renewal, the GC- CPEH has an outstanding cadre of 44 Full members, 320 publications citing the Center, and an NIEHS research funding base of >$47 million. GC-CPEH member research coalesces into three Research Thematic Focus Areas: Genome and Epigenome Environment Interactions (GE2), Mechanisms and Interventions in Human Environmental Disease (MIHED), and new for this renewal, Current and Emergent Environmental Threats (CEET) to human health. CEET retains Disaster Research Response (DR2) activities, and has been expanded to include Veterans Environmental Health and Climate Change. The Goals for the GC-CPEH renewal are: 1) Accelerate translational EHS research across disciplines and institutions of the TMC. This Goal advances the Center's Translational Vision to drive precision environmental health research that will prevent disease and improve human health; 2) Advance careers of the next generation of EHS researchers and promote diverse perspectives to inform Center activities. This Goal is supported by an effective Career Development Program and Plan to Enhance Diverse Perspectives (PEDP); 3) Build research capacity by providing inter-institutional access to resources and technologies that accelerate research and translation via the Pilot Project Program, seamless access to Next-gen technologies via the PIPELINE Facility Core and enabling translational research through the Translational Research Support Core (TRSC). Utilization of these Cores is facilitated by Navigators and the Matching Funds Core Utilization Program; 4) Support and empower community engagement across the Gulf Coast region by linking community and investigators in multi-directional communication activities that inform GC-CPEH research with an experienced and vibrant Community Engagement Core (CEC) that fosters multi-directional communication with communities, and informs environmental health policy for the greater Houston area and Gulf Coast Region.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).
