Integrative Health Sciences Facility Core (IHSFC) ABSTRACT The Texas A&M Center for Environmental Health Research (TiCER) is focused on “Enhancing Public Health by Identifying, Understanding and Reducing Adverse Environmental Health Risks.” The IHSFC will be the major driver to fulfill the mission of the Center: to identify and address environmental health concerns through multidisciplinary collaborations among Center members and other stakeholders. IHSFC fulfills the mandate for the Environmental Health Sciences Core Centers to provide “facilities and resources to accelerate research along the spectrum from basic mechanistic and toxicological science to population and public health and dissemination.” The goal of IHSFC is to facilitate bi-directional translational studies ranging from research in the community-based human cohorts, to population-based experimental studies in mice and human cells, to microphysiological in vitro systems. This goal will be accomplished by integrating the Center’s translational research into causes and mechanisms of environmental health risks among three major areas of inquiry: (i) human community-based translational studies and databases, (ii) mouse population-based and transgenic models, and (iii) novel in vitro models. The IHSFC will be led by Dr. Ivan Rusyn, an expert in all three areas of inquiry. The human translational studies area, led by Dr. Natalie Johnson, will focus on facilitating community oriented research projects, enabling access to health and environmental information- containing databases, and consulting on IRB compliance. The mouse translational studies area, led by Dr. Ben Morpurgo, will focus on study designs and access to Collaborative Cross and RIX mouse populations, transgenic/knockout services (including CRISPR/Cas9), and IACUC compliance. The in vitro translational studies area, led by Dr. Ivan Rusyn, will focus on the use of novel microphysiological (human and mouse organoids, stem cells, and tissue chips), and population-based in vitro tools, as well as advising on biosafety compliance. The IHSFC will enable center members’ integrative research through dedicated staff in each area and a voucher-based model. The Core will provide up to $100,000 per year (½ from NIEHS and ½ from Texas A&M) to facilitate Center members’ access to and use of translational resources. The IHSFC function will include (i) close integration with the Pilot Projects Program, the Community Engagement Core, and research facility cores through monthly meetings to identify and promote integrative and translational projects, and (ii) key personnel and staff outreach to Center members to encourage and initiate projects. The IHSFC will work closely with the Administrative Core to track the Core’s operation and funding allocations and with the Pilot Projects Core to identify projects that may benefit from IHSFC expertise, equipment and resources. The IHSFC leaders have an established rec...