# Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Center

> **NIH NIH P30** · UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA · 2021 · $1,381,502

## Abstract

The Strategic Vision of the Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Center (SWEHSC) is to
facilitate and implement innovative research aimed at understanding the mechanisms underlying
the modulation of human disease risks due to environmental exposures among populations living
in arid environments. The objective is to bring interdisciplinary scientists together to study the
environment, genetics, and the resulting toxicology that influence morbidity in our underserved
American Indian and Hispanic communities. SWEHSC incorporates state-of-the-art technologies
across the environmental health sciences to assess exposures and health risks (Human
Population and Exposure Resource, IHSFC) including small molecule detection and quantification
(Emerging Contaminants Analytical Resource, IHSFC), subcellular confocal imaging (Cellular
Imaging Facility Core), genetic and genomic/epigenomic analyses (Genomics Facility Core), and
cutting-edge bioinformatics (Data Science Resource, IHSFC) in exposed communities, and
through a strong Community Engagement Core program that focuses on the social and cultural
needs and practices of affected people.
 The themes of the SWEHSC are demonstrated through three Research Focus Groups (RFG).
RFG1, Environmental Exposures to Southwest Populations, works with multiple stakeholder
groups to assess multiple routes of exposure in arid environments. RFG2, Environmental Lung
Disease, must account for the low humidity and high wind velocities that result in complex
inhalation exposures. RFG3, Adaptive Responses to Environmental Stress, focuses on the
molecular pathways of adaptive responses to environmental stressors such as arsenic and
ultraviolet light that result in oxidative stress.
 The desert Southwest is the only US region that adequately represents much of the world's
arid habitats; thus, the accomplishments of the SWEHSC will have broad applicability to other
diverse populations. This is essential to our long-term goal of improving the lives of the people in
arid environments by developing rational approaches to mitigating their risks of hazardous
environmental exposures and by developing intervention strategies to reduce adverse health
outcomes.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10146373
- **Project number:** 5P30ES006694-24
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
- **Principal Investigator:** Nathan J Cherrington
- **Activity code:** P30 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $1,381,502
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 1997-04-01 → 2023-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10146373

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10146373, Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Center (5P30ES006694-24). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10146373. Licensed CC0.

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