Duke’s Center for Comparative Biology of Vulnerable Populations (CCBVP) was funded in May 2004 by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to support research aimed at understanding how biological, physiological, and social aspects of vulnerability alter the effect of the environment on human health. The Center includes three research cores (Neurobiology and Neurodevelopmental Disease, Pulmonary Biology and Disease, and Environmental Health Policy) and four facility cores (DNA Microarray, Proteomics, Inhalational Toxicology, and Advanced Computational Technologies).

The theme of the Center is broadly-based and interdisciplinary by design, and addresses the complex etiology and pathogenesis of diseases caused by environmental factors. The Center is also unique among EHSRCs in having environmental health policy as one of its research cores. This means that the research focus of Duke’s Center extends to policy research addressing the means and timing of effective policy interventions that can address problems of vulnerability as they arise in the population.

The CCBVP now invites working group applications to support early conversations among researchers aimed at developing new research approaches and programs focused on human health and vulnerability to environmental influences. Working groups that cross the interest areas of the CCBVP Research Cores are especially welcome. The Working Groups Program is meant to provide a mechanism for bringing together interested researchers in the very earliest stages of concept development. For example, researchers with an interest in mechanistic research on the combined effects of pollutants might team up with policy scientists interested in the regulatory implications of pollutant synergism. The goal of the Working Groups Program is to foster the development of environmental health sciences and policy research across campus.