One of the aims of the EaRTH Center is to grow the environmental health community at UCSF by providing both resources and interactions that promote collaborations. The Center provides access to multiple core facilities that can accelerate research with access to both technologies and expertise covering everything from study design, chemical screens, proteomics, and biomonitoring. Also, our Community Engagement Core provides an important point of contact to assist with community outreach or incorporating community needs into research projects.
Our Center tightly integrates 4 cores and 1 program:
1) an Administrative Core to provide leadership, infrastructure, administrative and communication support, advice and oversight to coordinate all EaRTH Center operations
2) an Integrated Health Sciences Facility Core (IHSFC) that will provide consultation on study design, data integration, data of environmental and social stressors, and translation and dissemination of research findings
3) a Bioassay Facility Core that will provide state-of-the-art tools for measuring chemical exposures and their effects on biological pathways
4) a Community Engagement Core (CEC) to expand environmental health education and resources for students and health professionals to embed environmental health within health care
5) a Pilot Project Program to fund transdisciplinary projects enabling researchers to enter the field or add an environmental component to their current research.
Overview of EaRTH Core Services
Click the Core name below to go to their webpage for more information
Integrated Health Sciences Facility Core (IHSFC) (Erin DeMicco, Peggy Reynolds)
Provides expertise in environmental health, epidemiology, biostatistics/informatics, and research translation resources to advance capacity to study adverse health effects of environmental exposures and broadly communicate research findings:
- Study Design
- Analytics
- Chemical Selection
- Scientific Translation
- IRB Consultation
Bioassay Facility Core – Proteomics Facility (Susan Fisher)
Provides global mass spectrometry (MS)-based, protein-level data from in vitro, animal, and human studies.
The available experimental workflows support identification and relative quantification of protein biomarkers and other early indicators of biological perturbations associated with environmental exposures or specific genotypes
Bioassay Facility Core – High-Throughput Chemical Screening Facility (Jennifer Fung)
Facilitate rapid testing of chemical toxicity in cells and small organisms
- Environmentally relevant chemical library
- High-throughput yeast-based assay for toxicity to growth and reproduction
- High-throughput worm-based assay for toxicity to reproduction
Bioassay Facility Core – DTSC Biomonitoring Services (June-Soo Park)
Measuring human exposures to persistent chemicals and non-targeted chemicals of concern using state-of-the-art analytical equipment
Targeted GC and LC
Flame retardants (PBDEs, Organophosphate/non-PBDE flame retardants, elemental screening for flame retardants Br, Cl, P, Sb), Chlorinated pesticides and PCBs, PFAS and PFAS precursors
Nontargeted GC & LC-QTOF-MS
New method developments in line:
- siloxanes (e.g., D4, D5, D6)
- cosmetic and perfume chemicals (e.g., synthetic musks)
- total extractable organic fluorine
- volatile PFAS
- currently serum/urine – delayed services for tissue (e.g. placenta) and environmental media (e.g. water, foam, dust)