Often diseases are detected or diagnosed late in adulthood, however the origins of these diseases are suspected to occur much earlier in life during critical windows of development. Understanding the health effects of exposures when there is a lag between exposure and the onset of disease is an important and challenging issue in environmental health.

SRP-funded scientists work to address the challenge of linking exposures that occur early in life with diseases that manifest much later, including developing new tools and approaches to predict how chemicals may affect long-term health. We recently held a Risk e-Learning webinar series with presentations on this topic. If you missed the webinars, you can access the recordings from the SRP Risk e-Learning website . Many presenters are highlighted in this issue's feature story.

SRP scientists work together across disciplines to answer specific questions that contribute to addressing a larger problem that a single project or core could not answer alone. As part of our new 2020 SRP Strategic Plan , we included new goals that adapt a systems approach concept, which provides a framework to capture the complex and interdisciplinary elements and factors involved in this interconnected research network. This plan will guide both SRP grant recipients and program staff over the next five years.

The new strategic plan builds on our existing foundation and refines objectives to better align with current goals and mandates, including renewed emphasis on basic, fundamental research and broadening our network of stakeholders and collaborators.

It also emphasizes leveraging systems thinking to integrate research and data to tackle critical complex research questions, such as understanding health disparities, disentangling interrelationships that contribute to the total accumulated stress on the body, incorporating emerging precision approaches for prevention, and linking early life exposures with latent diseases.

We encourage you to look at the new strategic plan and please let us know if you have any questions or comments.

Warm regards,
William A. Suk, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Director
Superfund Research Program