Skip to main content
Premium Trial:

Request an Annual Quote

GEI’s First Grants

Premium

Last month, NIH announced the first projects to be supported through the GEI, or Genes, Environment, and Health Initiative. Part of the funding round included about $19 million for 34 investigators for the Exposure Biology Program. That program is coordinated by NIEHS, NCI, NHLBI, and NIDA to support interdisciplinary teams focusing on building environmental sensors and finding biomarkers that can be used to measure toxins, stress, and DNA damage.

GT lists the environmental technology projects and PIs who won funding through the GEI’s Exposure Biology Program. The awards listed represent NIH’s estimate of total funding for each project.

Joel Pounds
Battelle Pacific Northwest Lab
$1,428,000
Protein Biomarkers of Oxidative Stress and Inflammation Associated with Tobacco Smoke and Obesity

Stephen Rappaport
UC Berkeley
$1,184,000
Biomarkers and Biosensors for Studies of Blood Cancer Risks

Rick Weiss
Princeton Multimedia Techn.
 $1,040,000
Mobile Food Intake Visualization and Voice Recognizer

Stephen Intille
MIT
$681,000
Enabling Population-scale Physical Activity Measurement on Mobile Phones

Kevin Patrick
UC San Diego
$666,000
A Tool for Geospatial Analysis of Physical Activity

Avrum Spira/Boston University
$643,000
A Non-invasive Gene Expression Biomarker of Airway Response to Tobacco Smoke

Ken Suslick
U of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
$589,000
A VOC Dosimeter Based on a Colorimetric Sensor Array

Mingui Sun
University of Pittsburgh
$587,000
A Unified Sensor for Assessment of Diet and Physical Activity

Coral Lamartiniere
University of Alabama
$579,000
Biomarkers of Biological Response to Endocrine Disruptors

Tom Baranowski
Baylor College of Medicine
$571,000
Food Intake Recording Software System: Version 4

Ashok Mulchandani
UC Riverside
$567,000
Wearable Nanosensor for Real-time Monitoring of Diesel, Gasoline Exhaust

Ian Blair
University of Pennsylvania
$557,000
Exposure and Biological Response Biomarkers of Cigarette Smoke

Sang Young Son
University of Cincinnati
$552,000
Development and Field Test of a Positional Tagging Mini Personal Sensor

Ginger Chew
Columbia University
$529,000
Rapid Allergenic Particle Identification

Nongjian Tao
Arizona State University
$525,000
Wearable Wireless System for Real-time Monitoring of Chemical Toxicants

Charles Thompson
University of Montana
$502,000
Protein Biomarkers of Organophosphate Pesticides

Gregory Kirk
Johns Hopkins University
$492,000
Real-time Assessment of Individual and Neighborhood Exposure to Drugs and Stress Using Hand-held Electronic Diaries and Position Technology

Sisir Dutta
Howard University
$485,000
Early Disease Biomarkers of PCB-exposed Human Populations

Mark Rea
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
$482,000
A Personal Light-monitoring Device for Reducing Psychosocial Stress

Charles Rodes
Research Triangle Institute
$481,000
Personal Aerosol Sensor to Link Children's Exposures to Asthma Severity

Bruce Kristal
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
$454,000
Mitochondrial, Metabolite, and Protein Biomarkers of Effects of Diet

Carol Boushey
Purdue University
$452,000
Improving Dietary Assessment Methods Using Cell Phone, Digital Imaging

David Lawrence
Wadsworth Center
$446,000
Biomarker Signatures of Biological, Chemical, and Psychological Stress

Steven Chillrud
Columbia University
$441,000
Smart Mini Personal Monitors for Black Carbon and Multiple Air Pollutants

Bevin Engelward
MIT
$429,000
Comet-chip High-throughput DNA Damage Sensor

Santosh Kumar
University of Memphis
$429,000
Wireless Skin Patch Sensors to Detect and Transmit Addiction and Psychosocial Stress Data

Thomas Kamarck
University of Pittsburgh
$426,000
Computer-assisted Techs for Tracking Exposure to Psychosocial Stress

Patty Freedson
University of Massachusetts
$411,000
An Integrated Measurement System to Assess Physical Activity

Tim Huang
Ohio State University
$365,000
Epigenetic Signatures of Xenoestrogens to Assess Breast Cancer Risk

Vivek Shetty
UCLA
$357,000
Handheld Salivary Biosensor of Psychosocial Stress

Markus Erbeldinger
ICx Agentase
$331,000
Enzyme-Based Wearable Environmental Sensor Badge for Personal Exposure Assessment

Albert Fornace
Georgetown University
$288,000
Genomic and Metabolomic Signatures of Alcohol-induced Liver Damage

Kenzie Preston
NIDA
$157,000
Real-time Assessment of Individual and Neighborhood Exposure to Drugs and Stress Using Hand-held Electronic Diaries and Position Technology

Frank Gonzalez
NCI
$136,000
Genomic and Metabolomic Signatures of Alcohol-induced Liver Damage

The Scan

Positive Framing of Genetic Studies Can Spark Mistrust Among Underrepresented Groups

Researchers in Human Genetics and Genomics Advances report that how researchers describe genomic studies may alienate potential participants.

Small Study of Gene Editing to Treat Sickle Cell Disease

In a Novartis-sponsored study in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers found that a CRISPR-Cas9-based treatment targeting promoters of genes encoding fetal hemoglobin could reduce disease symptoms.

Gut Microbiome Changes Appear in Infants Before They Develop Eczema, Study Finds

Researchers report in mSystems that infants experienced an enrichment in Clostridium sensu stricto 1 and Finegoldia and a depletion of Bacteroides before developing eczema.

Acute Myeloid Leukemia Treatment Specificity Enhanced With Stem Cell Editing

A study in Nature suggests epitope editing in donor stem cells prior to bone marrow transplants can stave off toxicity when targeting acute myeloid leukemia with immunotherapy.