Biological Methods

 

In the recent past, there has been an explosion in knowledge in the biologic and medical sciences, with a concomitant increase in availability of methods to explore biological and pathological phenomena. Some of the new approaches and methods are being applied to study problems related to health research.  Two examples include the role of genetic polymorphism in asthma and high-throughput methods for toxicity testing. But much remains to be done. Given the very large number of approaches and techniques from modern biology that may be applied to environmental health problems and the “high-risk” nature of such investigations, HEI does not plan to initiate a specific program in this area.  However, we will seek specific targets of opportunities to incorporate new biologic techniques into HEI sponsored research.  Along similar lines, HEI will encourage investigators to include “biomarkers” in their research studies.  In all these cases, HEI will pay particular attention to questions regarding specificity, sensitivity and validity of the proposed methodology.