Rural America faces unique environmental challenges from exposures to farm chemicals, air and water pollution from livestock and agricultural production, rural manufacturing, and biofuel production. The EHSRC is at the forefront of research in rural environmental health, determining the role of the microbiome in environmental lung disease; elucidating novel pathways of oxidative stress and innate immunity; investigating epigenetic mechanisms of cell alterations; discovering therapeutic modalities to treat environmental disease; and characterizing adverse outcome pathways of engineered nanomaterials, pesticides and other xenobiotics.
The interdisciplinary research of the EHSRC is organized around Thematic Areas which are: Inflammation and Innate Immunity, Nanoscience, Population Health, Systemic Redox and Toxicology, and Water Quality. Three EHSRC facility cores: Translational Research Support Core, Pulmonary Toxicology Facility, and Exposure Science Facility, provide cutting edge services, state-of-the-art equipment and support the authentication of key biological and chemical resources.