Integrative Health Sciences Facility Core

INTEGRATIVE HEALTH SCIENCES FACILITY CORE: PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The Integrative Health Sciences Facility Core (IHSFC) provides Southern California Environmental Health Sciences Center (SCEHSC) investigators with the necessary tools and methodologies to address environmental impacts on human health through a multi-faceted approach that includes human, animal and in vitro studies. The IHSFC provides study design support, tools for health outcomes assessment, guidance on human and animal subjects protection, sample processing and storage, and technical expertise to integrate SCEHSC investigators’ environmental health sciences (EHS) research in human populations and model systems. It links together many of the capabilities of other SCEHSC Facility Cores by providing (1) directed access for investigators to laboratory capabilities, and (2) expertise to support and improve investigators’ clinical and translational research projects. The IHSFC also supports Community Engagement Core (CEC) activities through training in the use of equipment, advising communities on regulatory environmental health science, and providing approaches for assessing health and guidance on utility of collecting health data. Specifically, the IHSFC promotes translational research by offering a broad array of services including pre-study consultation; guidance through the institutional review board process for human subjects research; development of protocols for collecting and processing biological and genomic samples; processing of biological samples; archival storage of collected biospecimens; access to facilities for measurements of multiple chemicals in tissue, genotyping, epigenomic, metabolomic platforms and other molecular biology approaches; expertise and instrumentation for assessing a range of cardiorespiratory, neurologic and metabolic health outcomes and cancer; access to exposure facilities; integration of mechanistic animal models representing specific disease etiologies; and advice on quality control, scientific rigor and reproducibility. The IHSFC coordinates with the Exposure Factors and Biostatistics Facility Cores to optimize study analytical design and power, environmental sample collection and storage and geospatial services; and works with the CEC to translate EHS research to communities, regulatory agencies, and the public. The IHSFC facilitates access to expertise available in the SCEHSC Research Programs and Initiatives that can provide analytical integration of data from bench and human studies that is a major strength of the Center. In summary, the IHSFC facilitates SCEHSC investigators’ conduct of translational research by providing services and expertise in clinical and population-based EHS research in humans, molecular epidemiology and genetics, as well as animal and in vitro models.