Research Cooperation in Environmental Health (ARCH)

Mission and History

NIEHS developed the ARCH program to establish research partnerships between investigators at Research Intensive Universities (RIU's) with a strong program in environmental health sciences research and investigators at Minority-Serving Institutions (MSI's) with a strong interest in such research (http://www.niehs.nih.gov/translat/arch/arch.htm ). It is intended to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and resources and to establish a group of investigators who can successfully compete for R01-type grants in environmental health research.

This 5-year proposal, initiated in September 2006 and led by Dr. Darryl Hood, brings together investigators at Meharry Medical College (MMC) with researchers at its Alliance partner, Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VU), to examine “Mechanisms of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Toxicity”.

The state-of-the-art inhalation facility where the ARCH research will be conducted was developed with an initial and a competitively renewed grant entitled “Multigenerational Effects of Benzo(a)pyrene and Fluoranthene on Reproduction” from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.  This grant supported the design, fabrication, installation, and testing of this aerosol generation system. A third grant from NINDS, via the Specialized Neuroscience Research Program (SNRP) also was instrumental in developing the research foci for the ARCH grant.  The project conducted on the NINDS initiative was entitled "Environmental Ah Receptor Agonists and Cognition."  Awards from the Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI) and the Minority Health Professions Foundation (MHPF) were also key in the establishment of the toxicology research infrastructure at Meharry Medical College.