Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) has been selected as one of five university research centers to pioneer development of the National Institutes of Health Toxicogenomics Research Consortium (TRC). Representing a fundamental change in our approach to toxicology, toxicogenomics is a revolutionary new scientific discipline that studies the role of gene-environment interactions in disease and dysfunction. The OHSU component—spearheaded by CROET, in concert with the School of Medicine's Department of Pediatrics and Doernbecher Childrens' Hospital—will focus on neurotoxicogenomics and child health. Other participants in this national consortium include research scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center at the University of Washington, Duke University and the University of North Carolina.

OHSU received the center grant as a cooperative agreement from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). NIEHS and CROET at OHSU have complementary missions of reducing the burden of disease and dysfunction by defining how environmental and occupational agents adversely impact health. NIEHS has slated a total of $37 million to fund the new consortium for an initial period of 5 years. OHSU will receive $7.25 million, one-fifth of which will be used to fund collaborative studies at the Boston Biomedical Research Institute. Last year, NIEHS awarded CROET a Superfund Basic Research center grant that will interact with the new TRC initiative.

To conduct their research, scientists at OHSU and other participating TRC centers will utilize genome and protein-profiling technologies. These groundbreaking methods will allow the consortium to understand how cells of various organisms respond to environmental factors. Chemicals that disrupt human brain development and induce neurodegeneration are the common interest of scientists in the CROET-Pediatrics research partnership at OHSU. The university's bioinformatics resources will play an important role in this research by organizing and compiling the tremendous amount of data generated by the research programs.

One of the consortium's goals is to develop standards and practices for the newly developed science of toxicogenomics that will allow researchers to generate consistent data in a suitably equipped laboratory anywhere in the world. The five participating centers and NIEHS scientists will seek inter-laboratory validation of experimental results by conducting specific experiments using common research protocols. A TRC Steering Committee, with membership from the five cooperating university centers, the NIEHS, and a NIEHS-appointed contractor, will oversee the research collaboration. The Steering Committee will apply its collective knowledge to accelerate the pace of discovery and promote the identification of gene-expression signatures associated with chemical-induced disorders, such as organic solvent neuropathy. Gene signatures will be entered into a publicly accessible NIH Environmental Genome database for use in developing strategies to prevent and treat environmental diseases.

Results gained through the synergistic interactions of researchers in the TRC will help improve public health through better risk detection and earlier intervention in disease processes. CROET researchers see benefits in sorting out why some chemicals are bad actors and others not, and how workplace chemicals and other exposures interact to trigger illness.

“Exposures early in life may result in health disorders evident at birth, during development or in later life” says Dr. Peter Spencer, senior scientist and director of CROET. “A greater understanding of the impacts of natural and synthetic chemicals on human development will minimize illness in the population and provide for a healthier workforce.” Drs. Charles Roberts and Srinavasa Nagalla, respectively professor and assistant professor of Pediatrics in the School of Medicine (SOM), will also play a leading role in the new research center. Other OHSU members of the team include Richard Allen, Ph.D. (CROET) Stephen Back, M.D. (Pediatrics, SOM), Christopher Dubay (Medical Informatics, SOM), Gregory Higgins, Ph.D. (CROET), Michael Lasarev, M.S. (CROET), Glen Kisby, Ph.D. (CROET), Jodi Lapidus, Ph.D. (Public Health and Preventive Medicine, SOM), and Mohammad Sabri, Ph.D. (CROET and Neurology, SOM). Harvard Associate Professor Jeffrey Miller, Ph.D., completes the multidisciplinary research team.