Blogs

Many of the webinars hosted by SOT Regional Chapters, Special Interest Groups, and Specialty Sections—collectively known as the SOT Component Groups—are recorded and posted exclusively for member access only in ToXchange. Select videos also are made available to the public through the SOT Video Library. In this blog, you will find a listing of all the recent webinar recordings that have been added to ToXchange and/or the SOT Video Library.

2023 Drug Discovery Paper of the Year: Data-Driven Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship Modeling for Human Carcinogenicity by Chronic Oral Exposure

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Hosted by: The SOT Drug Discovery Toxicology Specialty Section
Speaker:

• Elena Chung, PhD Candidate, Pharmaceutical Chemistry Program, Rowan University

The Drug Discovery Toxicology Specialty Section (DDTSS) Paper of the Year Award was created to highlight a scientific achievement in the field of discovery toxicology. At the reception during the SOT 63rd Annual Meeting (2024), DDTSS announced the winner for papers published in 2023. This was awarded to Elena Chung, a doctoral candidate in pharmaceutical chemistry at Rowan University, and her colleagues for their paper “Data-Driven Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship Modeling for Human Carcinogenicity by Chronic Oral Exposure,” published in Environmental Science and Technology. During this webinar, Elena presented her work on QSAR carcinogenicity models using bioassays.

2024 SOT FDA Colloquium: Emerging Concepts in Hazard Identification and Exposure Assessment of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances

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Hosted by: SOT and the US FDA Human Foods Program
Co-Chairs: Jessica Camacho, PhD, US FDA, and Jamie DeWitt, PhD, Oregon State University

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a large class of synthetic compounds that have been used across myriad products and processes, including as grease-, water-, and stain-repellant coatings on textiles, cookware, and food contact materials. As a result of their widespread use, PFAS are now found in nearly every environmental matrix evaluated, including human biological tissues and fluids. Although some subsets of PFAS have been well-studied with respect to their human health toxicological hazards and drinking water exposures, questions remain about the vast majority of PFAS. Most of the general population is exposed to PFAS through food, but PFAS in food, including the types of individual PFAS found within various foods and food products, and the potential toxicity of less well-studied PFAS found in food are emerging areas of research. An additional challenge of PFAS is communicating their toxicological hazards and potential health risks from various exposure pathways. This colloquium addresses these important information gaps in PFAS science.

Advancements in Data Harmonization Through Co-creation and AI-Ready Tools: Insights and Future Outlook

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Hosted by: SOT Risk Assessment Specialty Section
Speaker:

Integration of computational methods and data-driven approaches is critical for advancing safety assessments and material design. Ideaconsult Ltd. has developed and maintained several open-source software solutions to facilitate these objectives. Dr. Jeliazkova presents the integration and harmonization of diverse datasets based on a common data model, leading to the establishment of Europe’s largest nanomaterial safety database, accessible at https://enanomapper.adma.ai. Key tools like the Template Wizard enable efficient capture and linking of experimental data and metadata using community-standard templates, making data generated from various instruments interoperable. While templates and the tools evolved with insight and experience gathered over a decade of EU-funded projects addressing nanoscale materials safety, the templates are generalizable across fields and have already been extended and adapted for microplastics and advanced materials research. Automation of the protocol of creating new and modification of existing templates is established through user friendly Template Designer. ToxFairy, a high-throughput data preprocessing and analysis workflow is developed as open-source Python package and Orange add-on and communicates with the database via Application Programming Interface and harmonized formats. By making raw and processed data machine-readable, these tools enhance data reusability for automated analysis workflows and streamline the curation process, facilitating re-use across scientific contexts. Additionally, they introduce a natural language tool leveraging recent AI models to interact with the Adverse Outcome Pathway (AOP) knowledge base.

Advantages and Possible Disadvantages of Carbon Capture and Storage as a Means of Reducing Levels of Carbon Dioxide in an Area Already Exposed to Industrial Pollution

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Hosted by: SOT Toxicologists of African Origin and Arab Toxicologists Association Special Interest Groups
Speakers:

Carbon dioxide is known as a greenhouse gas by virtue of it releasing heat, radiating from the earth’s surface, and releasing it in all directions, including back to earth. Each year, human activities release more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than natural processes can remove, causing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to increase. Petrochemical plants and refineries release millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year. Consequently, industry has been increasingly interested in means to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide it releases. One means of decreasing this greenhouse gas is to capture and store it underground. Objections to this plan have been raised in some communities, especially Black communities where the plants are extremely close to Black churches and schools. In particular, they have been termed, “Cancer Alley,” and objections have been very strong. The purpose of this webinar is to present information on what carbon capturing is as a technology, its possible benefits, and its risks to the health of communities that may be affected.

Beyond MABEL: An Integrative Approach to First-in-Human Dose Selection of Immunomodulators by the HESI Immuno-Safety Technical Committee

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Hosted by: SOT Biotechnology Specialty Section
Speakers:

Administration of a new drug candidate in a first-in-human (FIH) clinical trial is a particularly challenging phase in drug development and is especially true for immunomodulators, which are a diverse and complex class of drugs with a broad range of mechanisms of action and associated safety risks. Risk is generally greater for immunostimulators, in which safety concerns are associated with acute toxicity, compared to immunosuppressors, where the risks are related to chronic effects. Current methodologies for FIH dose selection for immunostimulators are focused primarily on identifying the minimum anticipated biological effect level (MABEL), which has often resulted in sub-therapeutic doses, leading to long and costly escalation phases. The Health and Environmental Sciences Institute (HESI)–Immuno-Safety Technical Committee (ITC) organized a project to address this issue through two complementary approaches: (i) an industry survey on FIH dose selection strategies and (ii) detailed case studies for immunomodulators in oncology and non-oncology indications. Key messages from the industry survey responses highlighted a preference toward more dynamic PK/PD approaches as in vitro assays are seemingly not representative of true physiological conditions for immunomodulators. These principles are highlighted in case studies. To address the above themes, we have proposed a revised decision tree, which expands on the guidance by the IQ MABEL Working Group (Leach et al. 2021). This approach facilitates a more refined recommendation of FIH dose selection for immunomodulators, allowing for a nuanced consideration of their mechanisms of action and the associated risk-to-benefit ratio, among other factors.

Careers at the Cross-Section of Toxicology and Sustainability: A Panel Discussion

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Hosted by: SOT Sustainable Chemicals through Contemporary Toxicology Specialty Section, Graduate Student Leadership Committee, and Postdoctoral Assembly
Speakers:

Want to make a difference in the world by utilizing your toxicology skills and knowledge? This webinar focuses on graduate students and postdocs interested in learning more about nonacademic toxicology career paths related to sustainable chemicals. A diverse panel of toxicologists share their unique career paths, including former and current roles, followed by a panel discussion. Distinguished panelists for this event from industry, nongovernmental organizations, and government backgrounds provide insight into nonacademic careers utilizing the toxicologist skillset while also supporting sustainability.

A Deeper Understanding of Chemical Early Carcinogenesis for the Development of New and More Effective Preventive Strategies

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Hosted by: SOT Toxicologists of African Origin Special Interest Group and the Carcinogenesis and Molecular and Systems Biology Specialty Sections
Speakers:

Dr. Salk investigates through next generation Duplex sequencing the promoter hypothesis, in which cells exposed to mutagenic carcinogens accumulate cancer-driving mutations but remain dormant. After exposure to a “promoting” stimulus, such as chronic wounding chemicals, these “initiated” cells, through an unknown mechanism, gain a selective advantage, allowing them to undergo clonal expansion and progress to malignancy.

Dr. Colacino utilizes innovative, state-of-the-art imaging and sequencing approaches to study the hallmark of phenotypic plasticity and the related molecular and cellular changes upon chemical exposure as a risk factor promoting breast carcinogenesis in African American women.

Dr. Troester leads epidemiological studies to investigate the impact of the stroma in modifying the relationships between risk factor exposure and age-related epithelial involution in the benign breast.

Although the accumulation of mutations in cells has long been assumed to trigger tumorigenesis, recent studies suggest a much more complex relationship: Cells often carry many known cancer-causing mutations yet remain phenotypically normal. These cells, despite their remarkable genetic similarities with cancer cells, do not form tumors. Does an intrinsic mechanism within the cell or its microenvironment protect against tumorigenesis? How do processes such as inflammation, ageing, stress, or exposure to certain chemicals influence the behavior of cells already carrying cancer-causing mutations? Current key biological questions are, “What makes cells ‘normal’? What is the protective mechanisms that keep them that way? What are the steps that trigger early tumor development?” With a deeper understanding of the very early stages of carcinogenesis, as a cell travels down the pathway to malignancy, we will be able to identify the critical moment of transition and develop new and more effective strategies to prevent cancer before it starts.

Descripción General de la Caracterización de Riesgos para la Salud Humana

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Organizado por: El Grupo de Interés Especial de la Organización Hispana de Toxicólogos de la SOT
Presentadores:

For the first time, the SOT Hispanic Organization of Toxicologists (HOT) Special Interest Group presented a webinar entirely in Spanish.

La Organización Hispana de Toxicólogos (HOT) se complace en presentar, por primera vez, un entrenamiento detallado de la caracterización del riesgo para la salud humana completamente en español. Este seminario web contará con la participación de dos toxicólogos de la Oficina de Investigación y Desarrollo de la EPA de los Estados Unidos. Para esta sesión, utilizarán el módulo del programa de Capacitación y Experiencia en Evaluación de Riesgos (RATE, por sus siglas en inglés). Estos módulos fueron desarrollados para equipar a los evaluadores de riesgos del Sistema Integrado de Información sobre Riesgos (IRIS) de la EPA de los EE. UU., tanto dentro como fuera de la Agencia, con los conocimientos científicos y habilidades esenciales.

La presentación guiará a los participantes a través de los cuatro pasos fundamentales de la evaluación de riesgos: identificación de peligros, evaluación de la relación dosis-respuesta, evaluación de la exposición, y un enfoque particular en la caracterización del riesgo. Después de la presentación, se llevará a cabo una sesión de preguntas y respuestas que brindará a los participantes la oportunidad de hacer preguntas y aclarar cualquier duda.

Evaluating the Consistency of Judgments Derived Through Both In Silico and Expert Application of the Cramer Classification Scheme

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Hosted by: SOT Risk Assessment Specialty Section
Speaker:

The Cramer classification scheme has emerged as one of the most extensively adopted predictive toxicology tools, owing in part to its employment for chemical categorization within threshold of toxicological concern evaluation. The characteristics of several of its rules have contributed to inconsistencies with respect to degree of hazard attributed to common (particularly food-relevant) substances. This investigation examines these discrepancies, and their origins, raising awareness of such issues amongst users seeking to apply and/or adapt the ruleset. A dataset of over 3,000 compounds was assembled, each with Cramer class assignments issued by up to four groups of industry and academic experts. These were complemented by corresponding outputs from in silico implementations of the scheme present within Toxtree and OECD QSAR Toolbox software including a working of a “Revised Cramer Decision Tree.” Consistency between judgments was assessed, revealing that although the extent of inter-expert agreement was very high (≥97%), general concordance between expert and in silico calls was more modest (~70%). In particular, 22 chemical groupings were identified to serve as prominent sources of disagreement—the origins of which could be attributed either to differences in subjective interpretation, to software coding anomalies, or to reforms introduced by authors of the revised rules.

How Do We Make Cogent Causal Arguments with Adverse Outcome Pathways for Regulatory Risk Assessment?

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Hosted by: SOT Biological Modeling, Risk Assessment, and Ethical, Legal, Forensics, and Societal Issues Specialty Sections
Speaker:

What’s the objective of regulatory risk assessment? To me, it’s making a science-based argument that a chemical, a material, or a product is safe for use under specific conditions. Knowing that something causes a hazard isn’t enough. We need to really understand when something is safe for the intended use. In other words, we need to suss out under what conditions an exposure does not cause adverse effects (i.e., identifying conditions that cause an adverse effect should not be the goal—we are about safety). That cause-effect relationship and the argument we use to articulate that relationship is critical because this is what the courts will use to determine whether or not liability exists or whether or not a regulatory agency acted justly based on the science, rather than being arbitrary and capricious. There’s a lot of talk right now about using adverse outcome pathways (AOPs) to either help formulate these causal arguments or to serve as a scaffolding for a causal weight of evidence determination. Although many do believe AOPs are always causal by their very nature, where they are a chain of key events from some starting event (the molecular initiating event) that ultimately lead to an adverse outcome, the fact that an AOP is a chain of events does not make it inherently causal. Rather, there must be more to it than that. In this talk, we explore how to make AOPs into causal chains. We don’t rely upon Sir Austin Bradford Hill’s Conjecture; it is insufficient by his own admission. Rather, we explore the same concepts for determining causality that are used in philosophy and in courts. By framing truly causal AOPs on causal philosophy, informed by reliable science, where we eschew pseudoscience, we will not only raise the quality bar for AOPs, but we will also begin to move regulatory toxicology and risk assessment arguments into something that will withstand muster in court. If we make weak arguments before the court, our arguments will suffer in court. After all, our goal should be to make cogent causal arguments with AOPs for regulatory safety and risk determinations.

Integrating Exposomics and Neuroimaging to Uncover Risk Factors and Neural Mechanisms of PTSD in 9/11 Responders

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Hosted by: SOT Risk Assessment and Mixtures Specialty Sections
Speakers:

After the 9/11 attacks, over 50,000 responders faced severe health challenges, including a high rate of persistent PTSD. The World Trade Center Health Program (WTCHP) helps monitor and treat these issues. Recent research indicates worsening physical and mental health among responders, linked to their WTC experiences. To explore the risk factors, researchers used an exposomic approach to analyze various exposures and their impact on health outcomes like PTSD and respiratory issues. They also employed a new imaging method, the Anatomical Connectivity Fingerprint (ACF), to study brain changes in responders with PTSD compared to controls.

The study highlights the need to consider combined exposures and specific neural mechanisms in disaster response. These insights are crucial for developing targeted treatments and preventive measures for similar future events

Interview, Salary Negotiations, and Soft Skills: Build Them Because You Need Them

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Hosted by: SOT Career Advancement, Mentoring, and Networking Committee
Moderators

Panelists

Are you on the job hunt? Ready for the next big career step or looking for a new location? Whether you are new to the job search or recently re-entering it, you will want to brush up on your soft skills and the finesse of interviews and negotiations. Ace the interview with proper preparation and techniques to showcase your skills. Gain valuable insights into how to research market salaries, articulate your skillset and value, negotiate salaries and benefits with finesse, and understand the importance of soft skills like communication, conflict resolution, and teamwork. This webinar is ideal for job seekers, career changers, and professionals seeking to refine their interview techniques, improve negotiation skills, and boost soft skills. Our panelists are mid- and senior-career individuals representing government and industry who are actively involved in hiring processes.

National Capital Area Regional Chapter of the Society of Toxicology Fall 2024 Virtual Symposium: Safety Assessments of Pharmaceuticals and Foods

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Hosted by: SOT National Capital Area Regional Chapter

This virtual symposium featured several NCAC members and nonmembers presenting on toxicology-themed topics. The free event included two seminar-style sessions with speakers, a student/postdoc speed talk session, and student/postdoc award and honorarium announcements.

Nonclinical Safety Studies for Investigational New Drug and New Drug Application Filing for Small Molecules Part 1: Overview and Safety Pharmacology

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Hosted by: SOT Drug Discovery Toxicology Specialty Section and Women in Toxicology Special Interest Group
Speakers:

In two parts, this webinar covers the different types of toxicology studies conducted to support investigational new drug (IND) and new drug application (NDA) filings for small molecules, including an overview of the nonclinical modules, safety pharmacology, genetic toxicology, carcinogenicity, and reproductive and developmental toxicology. This webinar covers best practices and example case studies from leaders in the field. Part 1 is in collaboration with the Drug Discovery Toxicology Specialty Section and Part 2 is with the Carcinogenesis Specialty Section.

Nonclinical Safety Studies for Investigational New Drug and New Drug Application Filing for Small Molecules Part 2: Genetic Toxicology/Carcinogenicity and Reproductive and Developmental Toxicology

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Hosted by: SOT Carcinogenesis Specialty Section and Women in Toxicology Special Interest Group
Speakers:

In two parts, this webinar covers the different types of toxicology studies conducted to support investigational new drug (IND) and new drug application (NDA) filings for small molecules, including an overview of the nonclinical modules, safety pharmacology, genetic toxicology, carcinogenicity, and reproductive and developmental toxicology. This webinar covers best practices and example case studies from leaders in the field. Part 1 is in collaboration with the Drug Discovery Toxicology Specialty Section and Part 2 is with the Carcinogenesis Specialty Section.

Vascular Disruption in Pregnancy—A Focus on the Placenta and Its Role in Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes: 2023 Women in Toxicology LEAP Award Presentation

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Hosted by: The SOT Women in Toxicology Special Interest Group
Speakers:

Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy represent a suite of conditions that are made up of various forms of high blood pressure in gestation. This increase in vascular resistance during gestation can be deadly, and the prevalence of this condition is thought to be a contributing factor in the rising maternal death rate in the US, particularly among Black and African American women. Preeclampsia is unique to placental mammals. Subsequently, the study of the placenta is likely key to determining the pathogenesis of this serious pregnancy condition. This presentation reviews vascular changes in pregnancy, methods to investigate vascular disruption during gestation, and how toxicants may interact with these delicate systems. This webinar features the WIT 2023 Inaugural LEAP award winner's work.