Early this week the National Institute of Health revealed the awards for the Children’s Health Exposure Analysis Resource (CHEAR), a research initiative that will facilitate the implementation of the exposome concept into children’s health studies. Under the direction of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), CHEAR will provide laboratory and data analysis services to help researchers include environmental exposures in children’s health research. CHEAR will serve as the second exposome-based research initiative in the United States after the HERCULES Center (funded in 2013).
Researchers from the extramural community will have access to analysis of biological samples and interpretation of the biological responses associated with those exposures. Three distinct units make up CHEAR—the National Exposure Assessment Laboratory Network; the Data Repository, Analysis, and Science Center; and the Coordinating Center. Through creating this coordinated infrastructure, NIEHS aims to expand the number of studies including environmental exposure analysis, create a public resource regarding childhood exposures in the U.S., and develop data standards for the environmental health sciences community.
As part of a larger initiative on children’s health and the environment by the National Institutes of Health, these new awards offer a complementary addition to the broader efforts internationally on the early-life exposome.
Read more about the CHEAR initiative, grantees and other new NIH awards on children’s health and the environment.