NIH-Funded Environmental Health Sciences Core Center

HERCULES (P30 ES019776), originally funded in May 2013 by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, represents a significant financial investment to build and support environmental health research at Emory and Georgia Tech. HERCULES is one of about 20 centers across the country dedicated to supporting all aspects of environmental health research at their home institutions and to developing collaborations with researchers across the country.  

The environment, broadly defined, plays a major role in health and disease, but has been underrepresented in biomedical and public health research. The exposome provides a conceptual framework to better incorporate the environmental component into the study of disease and health. The vision of HERCULES is to serve as an intellectual hub in the advancement and translation of exposome research to improve human health. Read here to learn about the mission and goals of the Center for the 2022-2027 funding cycle.

HERCULES provides key infrastructure and expertise to develop and refine new tools and technologies. The Integrated Health Sciences Facility Core and the Environmental Health Data Sciences Core work together to develop and apply needed tools and expertise to assess the exposome. Through a Pilot Project program, we support development of new ideas and approaches by our investigators. Our Career Development Program supports new investigators as they begin their research careers as well as more experienced investigators to gain additional skills.  Importantly, we also recognize the critical importance of our community partners. Through our Community Engagement Core, we interface with local communities and stakeholders to inform our research and share our findings.

Learn more about HERCULES’ accomplishments from the 2017-2021 funding cycle.