DURHAM, N.C. – Nicholas School faculty members are playing leadership roles in 91ÉçÇø¸£Àû’s new Center for Comparative Biology of Vulnerable Populations (CCBVP).

The center, launched by $2.6 million from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, will explore how interactions between genes and the environment lead to disease, and why certain people – particularly children – develop diseases when exposed to environmental agents while others remain healthy.

"Our center seeks to understand how biological, physiological and social aspects of vulnerability alter the effect of environmental toxins on human health," said David A. Schwartz, M.D., chief of pulmonary and critical care medicine at 91ÉçÇø¸£Àû Medical Center and director of the new center. Schwartz holds a secondary appointment in the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Science’s Division of Environmental Sciences and Policy.

, director of the Children’s Environmental Health Initiative and Gabel Associate Professor of Environmental Ethics and Sustainable Environmental Management at the Nicholas School, will serve as the CCBVP’s deputy director. In this role, she will share in the day-to-day administration of the center with Schwartz. Miranda also will direct the Pilot Project Program and the Community Outreach Program for the center.

, professor of environmental toxicology at the Nicholas School, will serve as the center’s associate director. He will oversee the facility cores available through the center and also will organize center seminar series.

Faculty members from the School of Medicine, the Nicholas School, the School of Law and Arts & Sciences will collaborate to advance the center’s interdisciplinary mission.

Much of the research conducted at the CCBVP will focus on the health implications of North Carolina’s most pressing environmental, including exposure to air pollution, animal waste, pesticides, and molds and harmful bacteria that flourish in the wake of floods, hurricanes and other natural disasters.

The center’s facilities will include a DNA analytical facility capable of screening the activity of thousands of genes; a proteomics facility for conducting molecular assays for protein profiling; an inhalation toxicology facility for controlled laboratory testing of environmental exposures; and an advanced computational technologies facility providing statistical design and guidance on analysis solutions.

The university has committed an additional $1 million to support the CCBVP and will provide approximately 19,000 square feet of laboratory and office space, according to Schwartz. The institution expects to recruit seven to 10 new faculty members in environmental health, he said.

The CCBVP’s team will apply its findings both to medical advancements and to encourage shifts in environmental policy, Schwartz added. It will include a strong community outreach effort to provide environmental health education to North Carolina schools and other groups.

"Recent advances in genetics have given us an unparalleled understanding of how our genes interact with the environment around us," Schwartz said. "However, to fully apply this science to preserving human health, we must understand the complex ways in which humans actually interact with their environment. This center aims to bridge that gap in scientific understanding to improve public health and effect needed policy change."