Project Summary (2009-2013)

The Research Translation Core (RTC) is a required and integral component of the SBRP. It is the overarching goal of the RTC to communicate research findings from the SBRP to a broad audience of stakeholders including the scientific community, regulatory and public health officials, community health organizations, and the general public. The RTC meets these objectives through the development of partnerships with government agencies, technology transfer activities, and the communication of research outcomes to a broad audience of stakeholders. The SBRP at Oregon State University has chosen to focus on PAHs as important and re-emerging environmental chemicals, and the biomedical and non-biomedical research projects provide important data that benefits the scientific community by addressing currently unanswered questions that are of global relevance and have not been widely studied. These research projects address data gaps that exist in identifying and measuring PAHs and other emerging chemicals of concern in the environment, through the development and application of state-of-the-art analytical methods. These research projects provide new data characterizing complex PAH mixtures and their combined toxicodynamic mechanisms. These projects also provide important new data on toxicokinetics of PAHs, including risks associated with exposures in early life stages. The RTC serves as a catalyst to translate these research outcomes in ways that make meaningful contributions to the assessment of health risks in individuals as well as populations. The Leaders of the RTC collectively have experience in toxicology, epidemiology, environmental health, educational outreach, and public health practice. The RTC Leaders apply their knowledge and experience to effectively communicate the SBRP research outcomes to stakeholders including public health and regulatory agencies, the scientific community, and populations at risk. The RTC interacts with and serves the Administrative Core and Research Project Leaders throughout the duration of the project period by communicating ways in which the SBRP can most effectively execute innovative research that will be of maximum utility to key stakeholders. In addition, the RTC makes important contributions to coordinate and communicate information about the SBRP at Oregon State University to the NIEHS.