Texas A&M Center for Environmental Health Research (TiCER)

The vision for the Texas A&M Center for Environmental Health Research (TiCER) is to nucleate environmental health research and translational activities of investigators around the overarching theme “Innovative solutions for addressing exposure-stressor interactions”. This vision will be achieved by building on Texas A&M University’s ongoing investments in people and facilities and a history of state-wide outreach to community stakeholders. Existing investments through the Center provide infrastructure and an outstanding base of scientific expertise ready to catalyze innovative studies into environmental health solutions in communities, build multi-disciplinary collaborations among Center members to elucidate mechanistic links between environmental exposures and adverse health outcomes and ultimately translate data to action. The Center will continue recent successes in mentoring junior faculty, advancing career development and leadership opportunities, recruitment of additional established investigators into environmental health research, and fostering a multi-disciplinary, team-oriented intellectual environment among Center members representing 11 colleges at Texas A&M. The Center’s vision is guided by two research themes spanning fundamental and applied research: 1) Stressors to Responses and 2) Environment and Metabolism, which will be coordinated through a highly integrated set of Facility Cores. The Translational Research Support Core (TRSC) will support bi-directional translational workspaces including development and toxicology models and exposure science resources to ensure Center member access to unparalleled instrumentation and cores. Together with the Data Science Core, these resources will enhance the capacity, breadth, collaborative nature, and impact of environmental health research. The Administrative Core and Pilot Project Program will facilitate TiCER’s function by ensuring continuation of the highest levels of institutional support, fostering career development, and promoting multi-disciplinary team science that generates knowledge to action. The Community Engagement Core will be a critical vehicle for implementation of a multi-prong strategy of the Center by serving as a bi-directional portal to connect Center members and stakeholders. Overall, the Center will expand the established investigator base and expertise in cross-cutting environmental health science that can be deployed to increase the impact of environmental health research in Texas and beyond.