Oregon State University

Environmental Health Sciences Center

Joseph S Beckman, Ph.D.
joe.beckman@oregonstate.edu
http://ehsc.science.oregonstate.edu/

Project Description

The Environmental Health Sciences (EHS) Center at Oregon State University is an interdisciplinary unit of 35 Center investigators and now in its 39th year of existence. The mission of the EHS Center is to foster excellent research and technology development into the fundamental causes and progression of environmentally related diseases; to advance our ability to predict, prevent, and mitigate environmental insults and promote health; and to disseminate this knowledge to educate the government and public to make informed decisions. The theme for the Oregon State University (OSU) EHS Center is to advance our knowledge concerning the actions of environmental agents at the molecular and cellular level and to understand how we can modulate our individual susceptibility to improve health. To achieve these objectives, the Center continues to develop pioneering analytical capabilities, investigate model systems, and apply the results to real world problems.

The results of this research enabled by the Center contribute to the scientific basis for the prediction of health risks due to exposure to environmental chemicals, aid in the development of innovative approaches for use in risk assessment, and to minimize the impact of environmental stresses on human health. The broad intellectual base of expertise, research, and teaching allows the Center to conduct innovative environmental health-related studies across campus through collaborations and sharing of expertise. Three Research Cores focus collaborative research into the broad themes of: (1) Environmental Mutagenesis and Carcinogenesis, (2) Biomolecular and Environmental Chemistry, and (3) Signaling and Oxidative Stress. Four Facility Cores provide scientists with access to expertise, services, and major equipment in specific research technologies. (1) Aquatic Models, (2) Mass Spectrometry, (3) Cell Imaging and Analysis, and (4) Integrated Human Health Core—newly formed from the Statistics Core and a clinical study coordinator. This Center is being merged with the OSU Marine and Freshwater Biomedical Sciences Center, enabling the largest vertebrate animal studies (with 40,000 trout) on carcinogenesis and cancer prevention in the Aquatic Models Facility Core. New capabilities to conduct large-scale toxicology studies using zebrafish are being developed.

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