Environmental Toxicology and Epidemiology Training Training Areas

Supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, NIH

Research Training Supported by the NIEHS-Sponsored Environmental Toxicology Training Grant

The Environmental Toxicology Training Program is supported by an Institutional Training Grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) of the National Institute of Health (NIH).  Trainee research projects supported by this training grant should have a defined focus in the environmental health sciences and be responsive to the mission of the NIEHS.  As such, the research training supported by this Program is expected to concentrate on environmental exposure modification of biologic processes or risk for the development/progression of human disease.  The NIEHS is very specific in the types of research supported by their training grants, as outlined below.

Environmental Exposures
Examples of environmental exposures relevant to the mission of the NIEHS include: industrial chemicals or manufacturing by-products, metals, pesticides, herbicides, air pollutants and other inhaled toxicants, particulates or fibers, fungal or bacterially derived toxins due to ambient exposures. 

Agents considered outside the mission of the NIEHS and therefore not supported by this Program include: alcohol, chemotherapeutic agents, ionizing radiation, drugs of abuse, pharmaceuticals, smoking (except second-hand smoke), and infectious or parasitic agents, except when these are disease co-factors with an environmental toxicant exposure to produce the biological effect.  Toxicological research in these areas may be supported by other mechanisms at the University of Michigan.

Exposure Assessment
Training in exposure assessment is supported if the focus of the research is on exposure biology at the interface of exposures and human health, or if the research is centered on biomarkers as indicators of body burden, pathophysiological changes, or inception/progression of disease. 

Research on biomarkers as environmental measurement of ambient contact or point of exposure is not supported.

Ecological Toxicology
Research training in ecological toxicology is not supported by this Program. Specifically, this Program does not support training in: ecology, ecologic or microbial biotransformation, ecologic biodegradation and remediation, ecological monitoring, wildlife and fisheries biology or studies of sentinel species, geochemistry and other ecologically based environmental studies. 

Veterinary Medicine
Training in veterinary medicine where the endpoint is animal health is not supported by this Program. 

Food Science/Safety
Training in food science is not supported by this Program.