Environmental Health Informatics Core

ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH INFORMATICS CORE (EHIC): ABSTRACT The Environmental Health Informatics Core (EHIC) supports CEET investigators using diverse expertise in environmental health informatics, a mission consistent with the existing NIEHS Strategic Plan “To Promote Translation from Data to Knowledge to Action” and that embraces the new area of NIEHS scientific focus in computational biology and data science. Our vision is to provide agile support to CEET investigators on the use of both routine and innovative computational methods to gain insights from large and complex environmental health datasets. In addition, we develop novel analytical strategies when existing approaches are not adequate, and we create efficient workflows to maximize the number of investigators we are able to help. Environmental health scientists are faced with an avalanche of big data unique to this discipline. Unlike other disciplines which may generate traditional “omics” data there is an urgent need to analyze exposomics data (satellite, biosensor, wearable and biomarker data), and relate these data to Electronic Health Records (EHRs), use chemoinformatics to predict the toxicity of unknowns, and extract public health information for epidemiologic studies. We provide bioinformatics, biomedical informatics, chemoinformatics and public health informatics services to accelerate research in these areas. Our bioinformatics services include analysis of many types of omics data, including genomic, transcriptomic, epigenomic, proteomic, lipidomic and metabolomic, as well as their integration using multiomics methods. Our biomedical informatics services include extraction and analysis of data from EHRs, biobanks, and disease registries; digital phenotyping; and use of ontologies to improve interoperability of datasets and their use in large scale research efforts. Our chemoinformatics services include development and use of a graph-knowledge database called ComptoxAI that provides insights into predictive toxicology, adverse outcome pathways, and quantitative structure-activity relationships. Our public health informatics services include analysis of geospatially distributed environmental data, and data collected with pollution sensors, biosensors, and wearable devices. Our services are underpinned by analytical tools that include data science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. We work closely with the Translational Research Support Core (TRSC) and Biomolecular Mass Spectrometry Core (BMSC) to provide support to the four CEET thematic areas and the crosscutting themes of exposomics and the effects of extreme weather on health.