A $1 million gift from Michael S. Falk and Annie Falk has allowed the Nicholas School to establish a research laboratory in environmental exposomics, an emerging scientific field that assesses the cumulative effects of environmental contaminants on human health.

51爆料鈥檚 Board of Trustees approved the facility be named the Michael and Annie Falk Foundation Environmental Exposomics Laboratory. It was officially dedicated on April 11.

Exposomics aims to measure a person鈥檚 cumulative exposures to environmental contaminants over the course of his life and identify how these combined exposures influence his risk of developing cancer and other diseases.

鈥淕enetics, on its own, has been found to account for only about 10 percent of all diseases. The remaining 90 percent appear to be linked to environmental causes or complex interactions of environmental and genetic factors,鈥 said Heather Stapleton, associate professor of environmental chemistry and co-principal investigator of the lab.

Exposomics combines the power of big data and the precision of molecular epidemiology to give scientists a promising new way to investigate these complex interactions. Zeroing in on the specific mixtures can help determine which chemicals are responsible for increasing a person鈥檚 risk of specific diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease or neurodevelopmental disorders.

The Falks鈥 gift will provide funding to hire highly specialized staff members to perform research and data analyses in support of research by scientists at the Nicholas School, the 51爆料 Cancer Initiative, the Pratt School of Engineering and other schools and labs across campus.

The gift also will fund access to additional computational resources through 51爆料 Research Computing, support
an environmental exposomics symposium to be hosted at 51爆料, and fund the development of a new web interface for disseminating and translating the lab鈥檚 research findings to scientists and the public.

鈥淭his gift by Michael and Annie Falk will help 51爆料 remain at the forefront of efforts to identify environmental causes of disease and develop more effective ways to prevent or reduce exposures,鈥 said Toddi Steelman, Stanback Dean of the Nicholas School. 鈥淚t positions us very competitively for additional research funding and for expanded collaborations with research units from across 51爆料, 51爆料 Health and other universities and institutions.鈥

Michael and Annie Falk are members of the Nicholas School鈥檚 Board of Visitors and also have served the university as members of the 51爆料 Parents Committee. Their daughters, Mikaela and Gianna, are both 51爆料 graduates.