NIEHS Spotlight

Council Meeting Highlights Mission Accomplishments

Throughout the September 15-16 meeting of the National Advisory Environmental Health Sciences Council (NAEHSC) at NIEHS, the discussions were upbeat. Each speaker on the agenda presented evidence of steady advancement ...read more

Fellows Recognized at Regional Showcase in Cincinnati

The University of Cincinnati (UC) Center for Environmental Genetics (CEG) joined with other NIEHS-supported training programs, Centers and Superfund Research Programs to celebrate the first Environmental Health Sciences Regional Showcase of Fellows on September 18 at UC ...read more

2009 ONES Awardees Named

NIEHS announced the selection of six early-stage tenure-track investigators as 2009 Outstanding New Environmental Scientist (ONES) awardees. The highly competitive, five-year ONES grants will total $3.6 million for the first year, and the awardees, like their predecessors in the four-year-old program, will visit NIEHS to present talks about their research projects ...read more

Beijing Green Science Policy Symposium on Fire Retardants

NIEHS played an important role in the August 22 Green Science Policy Symposium on "The Fire Retardant Dilemma in China" with two distinguished speakers on the five-lecture agenda - NIEHS and NTP Director Linda Birnbaum, Ph.D., and NIEHS grantee Tom Webster, D.Sc., of Boston University (BU) ...read more

ISEE 2009 Honors NIEHS Grantees

Two long-term NIEHS grantees were recognized at the joint British-Irish 21st Annual Conference of the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology 2009 (ISEE) at the University College Dublin August 25-29. Their awards are the highest honors presented each year at the ISEE conference ...read more

Heinz Awards Go to NIEHS Grantees

On September 15, Teresa Heinz and the Heinz Family Foundation announced the recipients of the 15th annual Heinz Awards, which this year honor ten individuals whose achievements have helped bring about a cleaner, greener and more sustainable planet. Two of the awards, which bestow $100,000 on each winner, were given to long-time NIEHS grantees ...read more

NIH Announces 2010 Grants for "Risky Science"

In September, NIH announced that it will accept applications through October 2009 for at least 40 grants in the area of what it describes as "transformative research" - "exceptionally innovative, high-risk, original and/or unconventional research projects that have the potential to create or overturn fundamental paradigms" ...read more

Search Opens for Extramural Director

During an open-discussion meeting on September 17, the NIEHS launched another "wide open" search for a key member of the Institute's leadership team - the head of the NIEHS extramural program. The search committee (see text box), chaired by Robert T. Croyle, Ph.D., of the National Cancer Institute, attended the meeting to discuss the recruitment process and listen to comments from employees ...read more

NIH Funds Grantees Focusing on Epigenomics of Human Health and Disease

The NIH announced on September 16 that it will fund 22 grants on genome-wide studies of how epigenetic changes - chemical modifications to genes that result from diet, aging, stress, or environmental exposures - define and contribute to specific human diseases and biological processes ...read more

Suk Seeks Input on Superfund Advisory Panel Report

As follow-up to the meeting of the NIEHS National Advisory Environmental Health Sciences Council (NAEHSC) September 15-16, NIEHS Superfund Research Program Director William Suk, Ph.D., expressed the Program's gratitude for the thoughtful analyses and recommendations by the members of its 2009 External Advisory Panel ...read more

NTP Provides Updates on Cell Phone Studies

On September 14, 2009, toxicologists from the National Toxicology Program (NTP) traveled to Washington to present updates on research supported by NTP and NIEHS related to exposure to radiofrequency energy from the use of cellular telephones. Wireless communication devices are used by more than 270 million Americans ...read more

Sharon Finds the Environment Down Under

As it turns eight years old this year, the popular NIEHS read-along story, Sharon Finds the Environment (NIH Publication #01-4922), continues to edify young readers worldwide. Sharon's latest incarnation combines author Tom Hawkins' original 2001 text and the story's Web-version clipart graphics with minor revisions by teacher and writer Fiona Brown of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia ...read more

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Inside the Institute

Lobbyist Speaks on Equal Access for People with Disabilities

A small but engaged audience of people from NIEHS and neighboring Environmental Protection Agency that included NIEHS and National Toxicology Program Director Linda Birnbaum, Ph.D., gathered on September 8 to hear guest speaker and civil rights lobbyist Julia Leggett. ...read more

RTP Toll Road Advances Beside NIEHS-EPA Campus

As recently as August, the right-of-way for the new Triangle Parkway was still scrub pine and new growth hardwood. A rutted dirt road plunged into the property adjacent to the NIEHS-EPA campus and wound its way along the border near the First Environments daycare center ...read more

Science Notebook

NIEHS Director Gives Distinguished Lecture

NIEHS and National Toxicology Program (NTP) Director Linda Birnbaum, Ph.D., D.A.B.T., A.T.S., presented the first seminar of the 2009 - 2010 NIEHS Distinguished Lecture Series on September 8 titled "Halogenated Flame Retardants: Does the Benefit Justify the Risk?" ...read more

NIEHS Microarray Group Hosts Genomics Day

NIEHS Genomics Day, held on September 1, offered scientists at NIEHS and visitors an afternoon of talks by investigators and trainees, a poster session, and an opportunity to learn more about the NIEHS Microarray Laboratory. Attendees also had a chance to talk to vendors about new microarray products and instrumentation ...read more

Genome-Wide Association Study Focuses on Asthma in Children

A new genome-wide association study (GWAS) published August 28 in PLoS Genetics identified the chromosome 9q21.31 region as a novel candidate region for childhood asthma. Researchers from the NIEHS, the National Institute of Public Health (Mexico) and their collaborators at universities in the U.S. and the U.K. looked at over 500,000 variants ...read more

Investigators Show Protective Role of DNA Repair Protein

A new NIEHS-supported study reports that human cells deficient in a singularly resourceful DNA repair enzyme, known as Werner syndrome protein (WRN), exhibit more replicative stress and DNA damage after exposure to the industrial pollutant hexavalent chromium - Cr(VI) - than do cells with normal WRN levels ...read more

Study Links Same-Day CO to Risk of Hospitalization for CVD

An NIEHS- and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-funded epidemiological study published in the September 2009 issue of Circulation presents strong evidence of an association between daily low-level carbon monoxide (CO) exposure and an increased risk of same-day hospitalization for cardiovascular disease (CVD) among an older population ...read more

Electronic Nose Sniffs out Toxins

Imagine a polka-dotted postage stamp-sized sensor that can sniff out some known poisonous gases and toxins and show the results simply by changing colors. Support for the development and application of this electronic nose comes from a grant from NIEHS. The new technology is discussed in a study in this month's issue of Nature Chemistry ...read more

Imaging the Effects of Childhood Lead Exposure on Neuronal Circuitry

In a recent NIEHS-funded study published in Neurotoxicology, imaging research scientist Kim M. Cecil, Ph.D. describes the long-term effects of childhood lead exposure on brain microstructure. According to her research, neurotoxic insults caused by childhood lead exposure are associated with changes in myelination and axonal integrity in brain white matter that persist into adulthood ...read more

Speaker Explores Gene-Environment Interactions in Acute Lung Injury

On September 17, Professor George Leikauf, Ph.D., of the University of Pittsburgh, presented the first in a series of talks in the Keystone Seminar Series hosted by the Division of Extramural Research and Training (DERT). Hosted by Health Science Administrators Sri Nadadur, Ph.D., and Liz Maull, Ph.D., Leikauf's lecture, "Gene-Environment Interactions: Utility and Uncertainty," surveyed his recent research ...read more

Upcoming Distinguished Lecturer Teresa Wang

Teresa Wang, Ph.D., will present the next talk in the 2009-2010 NIEHS Distinguished Lecture Series October 26 at 11:00 a.m. in Rodbell Auditorium. Hosted by NIEHS Principal Investigator Bill Copeland, Ph.D., head of the Mitchondrial DNA Replication Group, Wang's lecture will explore "The Perils of Bad DNA Polymerases: Chromosome Chaos." ...read more

This Month in EHP

The October issue of Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP) highlights "Children's Health 2009" with a Focus story on "Environmental Factors in Birth Defects: What We Need to Know" and a Spheres of Influence feature on "Learning Curve: Putting Healthy School Principles into Practice." Highlights from the issue include several studies exploring aspects of children's environmental health ...read more

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Extramural Research

Extramural Update

Grants Management Branch and ARRA - How All Those Awards Got Made? The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act has been a challenge for the extramural staff at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). With $10 billion extra dollars to spend in approximately seven months, NIH had to develop, announce, review and make awards ...read more

Extramural Papers of the Month

• Natural Food Products Can Treat Cancer
• Carbon Monoxide and Cardiovascular Disease in the Elderly
• Diesel Exhaust Linked to Cancer Development Through Blood Vessel Growth
• Maternal Exposure to Air Pollution Lowers Children's IQ

Intramural Research

Intramural Papers of the Month

• Novel p38 MAPK-RhoA Signaling Pathway Involved in Cell Adhesion
• Copper Exposure Leads to HepG2 Cell Transcriptome Changes
• Risk of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis is Higher in Affected Families
• Coherent Co-Expression Biclustering Analysis Can Identify Hepatotoxic Pathways Through the Overrepresentation of Co-Expressed Genes

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Calendar of Upcoming Events

• October 1 (Offsite Event), at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee - NIEHS Townhall Meeting - Community Environmental Health: Making Milwaukee a Sustainable City with Director Linda Birnbaum, Ph.D.
• October 1, in Rall Building D450, 10:00-11:00 - Thomas Kunkel, Ph.D. speaking on "Determinants of Leading and Lagging Strand DNA Replication Fidelity"
• October 5 (Offsite Event), at the Friday Center in Chapel Hill - Genetics and Environmental Mutagenesis Society Fall Meeting, "Dissecting genome structure, genetic traits, and basis for complex diseases"
• October 8-9, in Rodbell Auditorium, 9:00-5:00 - Centers for Neurodegeneration Science Annual Meeting
• October 15, in Rall Building D450, 10:00-11:00 - "Environmental exposure to engineered nanomaterials as a potential cause of lung inflammation, fibrosis, and cancer," with James Bonner, Ph.D.
• October 21-22 (Offsite Event), at the Sheraton Chapel Hill - NIEHS Worker Education and Training Program Awardee Meeting and Workshop: Global Safety and Health Activities
• October 26, in Rodbell Auditorium, 11:00-12:00 - Distinguished Lecture with Teresa Wang, Ph.D., speaking on "The Perils of Bad DNA Polymerases: Chromosome Chaos."
• October 26-27 (Offsite Event), at the NIH Natcher Conference Center in Bethesda - Partners in Research Grantee Workshop
• October 28-30, in Rodbell Auditorium, 8:00-5:00 - NIEHS/Health and Environmental Sciences Institute (HESI) Epigenetics Meeting
• November 2-4 (Offsite Event), at the Hilton in RTP, 8:30-4:00 - NTP/RoC Expert Panel Meeting on Formaldehyde

View More Events: NIEHS Public Calendar

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The Environmental Factor is produced monthly by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) (http://www.niehs.nih.gov/), Office of Communications and Public Liaison. The content is not copyrighted, and it can be reprinted without permission. If you use parts of Environmental Factor in your publication, we ask that you provide us with a copy for our records. We welcome your comments and suggestions. (bruskec@niehs.nih.gov)