内容简介：
【简介】 The CIIT Centers for Health Research is an independent, not-for-profit research organization dedicated to prevention of human disease.
Whether due to genetic risk factors, exposure to chemicals or other environmental factors, or simply a part of the aging process, human disease arises when the normal function of biological systems is altered. CIIT conducts multidisciplinary research to understand how these alterations occur and to identify when they are avoidable.
Ongoing work includes studies of how genetic networks mediate susceptibility to chemical exposure, of the potential value of genetically modified laboratory animals as sentinels for the adverse effects of chemicals, and the development of sophisticated computer models of biological systems. With the accompanying rapid evolution in computer technology, computer models are becoming powerful analytical tools that supplement laboratory studies in support of the CIIT mission.
Research on biological mechanisms of human disease in the 21st century will depend on the judicious integration of laboratory-based and computational approaches. CIIT will be at the forefront of this new, quantitative biology. Central to the CIIT research program is our belief that all scholarly work, whether assessing the human health risk associated with exposure to an environmental chemical or probing the intricacies of a genetic regulatory network, should be focused on a limited number of overarching research themes. This helps to ensure that the overall program is integrated and efficient.
Research themes at the CIIT Centers include the potential special susceptibility of children to disease mediated by environmental factors, the biological bases of interindividual variation in disease susceptibility, and the extrapolations required to assess risk of human disease from studies in laboratory animals. Taken as a whole, the CIIT research program helps to enhance human health by extending our knowledge of the biological basis of human disease.
