Genes, Environment, & Health Initiative Exposure Biology Program Annual Grantees Meeting

January 24 & 25, 2008

The NIH Genes, Environment, and Health Initiative (GEI) (http://www.gei.nih.gov/index.asp) was launched in 2006 to support efforts to identify major genetic susceptibility factors for diseases of substantial public health impact and to develop technologies for reliable and reproducible measurement of potentially causative environmental exposures. GEI encompasses both basic research on genetics and exposure biology and translational research that will attempt to relate the research findings to clinical settings.

The Exposure Biology Program focuses on the development of innovative technologies to measure environmental exposures, diet, physical activity, psychosocial stress, and addictive substances that contribute to the development of disease. The program funds 32 cooperative agreements and an SBIR program to: develop environmental sensors for measurement of chemicals, dietary intake, physical activity, and psychosocial stressors and addictive substances; and develop and verify markers of biological response that are indicative of activation of common pathogenic mechanisms.  The long range goal is to apply these tools to genome-wide association (GWA) studies of gene-environment interaction.

This meeting represented the First Annual Grantees Meeting; an opportunity for the Exposure Biology Program Investigators to meet and discuss on-going and future activities for this program.

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