The Vanderbilt University Center in Molecular Toxicology is a multidisciplinary program that provides a cohesive infrastructure for enhancing the research efforts of affiliated faculty members and their laboratories. The Center receives support from various granting agencies, as well as institutional support from the School of Medicine. The Center exists to provide support for research, training, and core activities and is made up of individuals representing a number of different departments, divisions, and programs within the university.. The Center in Molecular Toxicology has recently expanded into a more comprehensive organization that administers several units under a common “umbrella.” Historically, the Center consisted of two major programs: a Core Center grant (NIH P30 ES000267) and a training program in environmental toxicology (NIH T32 ES007028). Today the Core Center and training programs continue to provide much of the research and training infrastructure for the Center in Molecular Toxicology, but several other programs and initiatives are now included under the Center’s administrative umbrella:
- Advanced Research Cooperation in Environmental Health (ARCH) with Meharry Medical College (NIH S11 ES014156)
- Manganese Health Research Program funded by the Department of Defense
- Patient-Oriented Career Development Program (NIH K12 ES015855) that provides support for environmental health science scholars
- A T35 short-term summer research and training program for medical students (NIH T35 ES016534)
- A proposed NIEHS Superfund Basic Research Program with Oak Ridge National Laboratory focusing on mechanisms of susceptibility to mercury toxicity (resubmission planned April 2010)
- A proposed institutionally-sponsored program in mechanisms of drug-induced cellular toxicity