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.

Grant Number: 5P30ES007048-30
NIH Institute/Center: NIH
Principal Investigator: Tun (Max) Aung