Identifying biomarkers for the key environmental risk factors responsible for two diseases that significantly contribute to death and disease of hundreds of thousands annually will be the initial focus of a new center being established at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
PNNL will house the Center for Novel Biomarkers of Response, made possible by a $5.9 million grant recently awarded by the National Institutes of Health's Gene and Environment Initiative.
Scientists at the center intend to create new exposure assessment tools to better understand the role of gene-environmental interactions in human disease. Development of these tools will help scientists precisely measure personal exposure to environmental, chemical and biological agents.
"While the Human Genome Project has enabled faster, cheaper gene sequencing of individuals," said PNNL Center Director and toxicologist Joel Pounds, "genes alone don't tell the whole story. The environment plays an enormous role in complex disease development including cancers, asthma, diabetes and neurodegerative diseases."
"We can identify genetic variability and the genetic factors in an individual person, but it is much more difficult to define an individual's environment and chemicals he or she is exposed to," said Pounds. "Our challenge will be to understand how genes and the environment interact. To do that, we have to improve the ability to measure environmental factors at the individual level."
Two of the most important risk factors for human morbidity and mortality - cigarette smoke and obesity - will be the primary targets of interest for PNNL scientists. Research will focus on biomarkers for systemic stress caused by mainstream and second-hand cigarette smoke, with obesity as a confounding physiological factor. PNNL will team with researchers from the University of Utah and Battelle Toxicology Northwest in conducting this research.
This research, in support of the NIH Gene and Environmental Initiative, is comprised of two basic elements. The genetic component will rely on newfound abilities to swiftly identify genetic differences between people with illnesses and those who are healthy, leading to a greater understanding of genetic contribution to the disease. The environmental biology component will focus on developing new technologies to accurately measure personal exposures with small, wearable sensors that can be used to assess environmental agents.
The center will provide NIH's National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences with a database of response biomarkers, as well as chemical substances for selected markers that are tested and validated in humans and supported by parallel studies in mice. The researchers will also develop prototype nanotechnology-based sensors for measurement of biomarkers at the point of care.