Our Center was one of the first NIEHS-designated Centers of Excellence to be established in 1963 when the Environmental Health Sciences Centers program was started, and it is one of the broadest of all of the EHS Centers. The Center consists of four Research Cores, as well as four Facility Cores and a Community Outreach and Education Program. The four research cores are: 1) Environmental Epidemiology; 2) Human Exposure and Health Effects; 3) Systemic Toxicology; and 4) Molecular Toxicology and Carcinogenesis.

All Center investigators have primary appointments in one research core and secondary appointments are occasionally made to foster inter-core collaborative interactions. These research cores constitute the framework in which the broad goals of the Environmental Health Sciences Center are pursued. This framework has provided an opportunity for Center members to enjoy a continued, steady increase in research funding, not only from NIH, but also from other research sponsors, such as the U.S. EPA, Health Effects Institute, Department of Defense, and Department of Energy. Thus, the NIEHS, through our Center, partners with these other agencies to enhance the support of environmental health science research. The four research cores of the NYU/NIEHS Center pursue the broad goals of the Environmental Health Sciences Center by conducting laboratory and epidemiological studies to:

1. identify and quantify occupational and general environmental risk factors contributing to the development of human dysfunction and disease;
2. identify biological and chemical markers for detection and quantitation of exposure to chemicals, in both the workplace and the ambient environment;
3. conduct research into understanding the molecular and physiological mechanisms of environmentally-related diseases;
4. develop improved in vivo and in vitro models for evaluation of the toxic effects of environmental pollutants;
5. develop ways for reducing the risks of disease from environmental pollution both before and after exposure has occurred; and
6. identify new modalities for intervention and protection against environmentally-induced disease.