Berkeley – Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley's School of Public Health are getting $16.5 million to support three research centers as part of a federal initiative to examine the environmental factors influencing children's health.
The grants to UC Berkeley are among $54 million recently awarded to 12 university-based centers across the country by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). UC Berkeley is the only institution to have received awards for multiple centers.
The new grants are part of a program that began in 1998 with eight centers funded by the NIEHS and the EPA. The newest funding incorporates the latest biomonitoring tools and advances in epigenetics, or the study of inheritable genetic changes linked to exposure to chemical and environmental agents.
"These awards give testimony to the school's leadership in the field of environmental epidemiology," said Stephen Shortell, dean of UC Berkeley's School of Public Health. "This research will address the environmental health risks of some of the state's most vulnerable populations, and the knowledge gained will lead to new polices and practices that will help mitigate these risks."
Of the 12 new centers, six will each receive an average of $7.5 million over five years. An additional six, charged with studying less-established environmental determinants of children's health, will each receive an average of $1.5 million over three years.
The three UC Berkeley centers to be funded are:
In addition to the centers at UC Berkeley, the NIEHS and the EPA have awarded $1.5 million to UC San Francisco to fund the Pregnancy Exposures to Environmental Contaminants Children's Environmental Health Formative Center, led by Tracey Woodruff, UCSF associate professor of reproductive health and the environment. Researchers at that center seek to study and prevent harmful exposures to environmental contaminants during pregnancy.