A grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) has joined researchers at Wayne State University and Florida A&M University. This grant, known as "The Advanced Research Cooperation in Environmental Health Sciences (ARCH)," will allow both universities to work collaboratively to increase minority scientists' use of contemporary technologies in research on environmental factors that cause illnesses such as breast and prostate cancer.

Dr. Raymond F. Novak, director of the Institute for Environmental Health Sciences at Wayne State University and Dr. Renee Reams-Brown of Florida A&M are leading the two teams of scientists on this grant which focuses on environmental agents that alter cell growth and cell death.

"WSU's Institute for Environmental Health Sciences has a multi-faceted mission," commented Dr. Richard Lintvedt, associate vice president for Research. "Two important parts of the mission are to conduct state-of-the-art research on the effects of environmental agents on human health and to promote awareness of environmental health issues through various outreach programs. This exciting new ARCH grant will assist the Institute greatly in fulfilling its mission," Lintvedt added.

Florida A&M is the lead institution on this grant. "We chose to partner with Wayne State based on the scientific research expertise of its faculty and the techniques and equipment they are using in their laboratories," explained Reams-Brown. She added that WSU's faculty are using innovative methods in DNA technology that FAMU faculty will learn and incorporate into their existing research.

Dr. Novak's role is to be the administrator for both the research and administrative components of this NIEHS ARCH collaboration at WSU. As co-director of the overall ARCH administrative and planning core, he will provide guidance to the PI, Dr. Reams-Brown, and to the external scientific advisory board concerning the overall progress of the research and administrative component.

"Along with the use of contemporary approaches and technologies in biomedical research, this grant exemplifies how, through outreach activities, these technologies can be used in an educational paradigm to expand our collegial interactions and establish additional collaborative interactions with colleagues at Florida A & M," explained Novak. "As the faculty from Florida A&M visit WSU and work jointly with our laboratories to conduct research, WSU, Florida A & M, the Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the EHS Center in Molecular and Cellular Toxicology all achieve greater national recognition. Such partnerships and collaborations offer a unique opportunity for additional shared research interests, resources, and grants as well as the recruitment of graduate students and research associates," Novak continued.

The establishment of such linkages between investigators at WSU and Florida A & M demonstrates how research can be enhanced by establishing productive collaborations which result in research funding. Wayne State University is a premier research institution offering more than 350 academic programs through 14 schools and colleges to more than 31,000 students in metropolitan Detroit.