hidden in R. Ken Coit College of Pharmacy, Southwest Environmental Health Science Center (SWEHSC) This may be one of the best-kept secrets of the University of Arizona Health Sciences collaboration.
Founded nearly 30 years ago, SWEHSC (pronounced sweesik) is part of a national program funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Institutes of Health to promote research into environmental exposures relevant to health. promote.
SWEEHSC is Dr. Nathan Cherrington, since 2015. The interdisciplinary nature of the center’s research and mentoring among new and seasoned researchers serves as both career development services and learning opportunities. Dr. Paloma Beamer,Professor Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health and co-director of SWEEHSC Community Engagement Core and Ben Richmond, MPH.
Many SWEHSC researchers BIO5 Laboratory, U Arizona Cancer Center, U Arizona Superfund Research Program, U Arizona Institute for Resilient Environment and Society (AIRES)Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, Pima County Health Department.
The center recently report and information web page For Pima County Health on PFAS, also known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or “forever chemicals.” Her PFAS study Jeffrey Burgess, MD, MS, MPHZuckerman College of Public Health Professor and Co-Leader, Dr. Melissa FurlongSWEEHSC research Environmental exposure in the underserved Southwest population.
Dr. Beamer is also cooperating Wayne Morgan, MDand Fernando Martinez, MDin U Arizona Medical College-Tucson‘Pediatrics and UArizona Health Sciences’ Asthma and Airway Disease Research Centerrespectively, and Chief Dr. Karletta, At the UArizona College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Department of Environmental Science and AIRES’ Indigenous Resilience CenterIn either case, SWEHSC will help you bring different skill sets to the table to advance your research.
For Dr. Chief, it involves continuous sampling, Gold King Mine Runoff Studyshe and Dr. Beamer are principal investigators, as well as the issue of human subjects related to another study Dr. Chief is doing at Zuckerman College of Public Health. Stephanie Russo Carroll, DrPH, MPHon COVID-19, the Navajo and environmental exposure.
Dr. Martinez’s support included obtaining dust samples from households in Nogales, Sonora across the US-Mexico border for binational early asthma and microbiome studies.
Dr. Morgan was involved in processing big data for research related to box fan filters developed in collaboration with the Navajo Institute of Technology.
“You can’t be older than Wayne Morgan, one of the founders of the Tucson Children’s Respiratory Study,” said Dr. Beamer. “The idea I’m saying is, ‘You know he has a SWEHSC pilot project, so Dr. Dean Birheimer, I’m going to do your statistical analysis” – this blew his mind. . ”
Dr. Billheimer’s roots in SWEHSC go back to 2011. He is Deputy Director of the Center and Professor of Biostatistics at the Zuckerman College of Public Health. He is also Co-Director of SWEEHSC’s Integrated Health Sciences Facility Core and Director of Data Science His Resources, two of the Center’s six Facility Cores and Resources.
“Our core mission is to conduct innovative research and community engagement to understand the mechanisms underlying environmental health risks and disease for people living in semi-arid environments undergoing climate change. That’s it,’ he said.
The last three words, “subject to climate change,” were added to the Center’s latest funding update for 2022, Dr. Cherrington said, and are important to how SWEEHSC’s mission has evolved. I emphasized that He hopes that the climate lessons learned here can be applied to other arid regions.
“We are kind of an incubator,” he said. “There are 2.2 billion people around the world who live in dry lands, like here in the Southwest. If it doesn’t sink, it will be like us.”
Dr. Billheimer said Arizona is home to a diverse population that includes Latinos, Native Americans, and rural communities, who face unique environmental exposures such as arsenic in some drinking water, high dust levels, and mine waste. I pointed out that
“We intend to support the communities that live here and are disproportionately affected by climate change and the environment,” added Dr. Beamer.
Examples of people partially represented through SWEHSC include: Dr. Monica YellowhairDirector of Outreach and Tribal Relations, U Arizona Cancer Center, and Dr. Zerian CraigAssociate Dean for Research, Faculty of Agricultural and Life Sciences.
Dr. Yellowhair attended one of SWEEHSC’s summer programs as a student, and Dr. Craig received pilot and career development funding from SWEEHSC. She has been a member of the Center since her 2013 and currently serves on the Internal Advisory Board, Career Development Council, and she is Co-Director of the IRTH Institutional Core.
“SWEHSC is very strong in both population-based and lab-based discovery research, establishing some of the strongest and most important relationships with communities of diverse backgrounds in the Southwest,” Dr. Craig said. says. “Nobody else on campus sees the intersection of environment and human health from so many angles.”
Xinxin Ding, PhDHe is Director of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at Coit College of Pharmacy, Chair of SWEEHSC’s Pilot Project Program, and Director of the Inhalation Exposure Resource. He attributes the center’s success to Dr. Cherrington’s leadership, stating, “He’s the glue that holds everyone together.”
“SWEHSC is very strong in both population-based and lab-based discovery research and has established strong relationships with communities of diverse backgrounds in the Southwest.”
Dr. Zerian Craig
School of Medicine – Tucson Dr. Julie Redford“The numbers speak for themselves,” said Dr. Ding, who has been involved in the SWEHSC research since 2017 and co-leads SWEHSC’s Environmental Lung Diseases Research Focus Group with Dr. Ding.
Over the past decade, the Center’s pilot project program Invested just under $1.5 million, including 11 R01 grants, 6 R21, 2 R35, 2 P01, and 1 each of U54, P42, P50, R03, R56, and K99/R00, totaling approximately It won a $58.4 million National Institutes of Health award. award. This is his 40:1 total return on investment, says Coit, associate dean of research at his College of Pharmacy and director of the Center for Toxicology, which includes pre- and post-doctoral training in environmental toxicology. Dr. Cherrington also said:
“Over the last five years, UArisona Health Sciences has increased research spending by 58%,” added Dr. Cherrington. “Like most of us, the 54 center members who are part of the health sciences have increased research spending by 420%.” As someone at the UArizona Research Administration recently said about us , “Have you seen their data? They’re killing it!
