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Program Description![]() Recent increases in chronic diseases such as diabetes, asthma, obesity, and autism are thought to arise from the combined effects of both genes and environmental exposures. Understanding the contribution of environmental factors to disease susceptibility will require a more comprehensive view of exposure and biological response than what has traditionally been applied. Achieving this goal will require the establishment of new capabilities in assessing exposure on an individual scale and the identification of biomarkers of response to those exposures. The Exposure Biology Program will, therefore, initially focus on developing new technologies and assays that will provide the improved accuracy and precision needed to determine how environmental exposures contribute to human disease or dysfunction. The Exposure Biology Program of the NIH Genes, Environment and Health Initiative (GEI) (http://www.gei.nih.gov/index.asp) In a parallel effort to the GEI, the NIEHS has invested a portion of Small Business Innovative Research Program (SBIR) (http://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/supported/programs/sbir/index.cfm) funds to develop sensors for improved exposure assessment. It is anticipated that the resulting new technologies and assays, such as those based on micro- and nanotechnology and molecular imaging, will provide sensitive, high throughput, and potentially portable systems capable of measuring environmental exposures in real-time. Program Contacts
David Balshaw, Ph.D.
Program Administrator
Daniel Shaughnessy, Ph.D.
Program Administrator
Jennifer Collins, M.R.
Program Analyst |
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