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I am a fifth-year pharmacology PhD candidate (with a concentration in environmental toxicology) at Wayne State University in the lab of SOT member Dr. Christopher Kassotis. My dissertation work utilizes diverse in vitro and in vivo models to characterize the endocrine- and metabolism-disrupting potential of liquid crystal monomers (LCMs), an emerging class of persistent environmental pollutants. This work has inspired me to consider a career as a chemical risk assessor to achieve my goal of informing regulatory policy and safe chemical development/utilization in industrial sectors. While my PhD program and dissertation research have prepared me to characterize chemical hazards, I have received little formal training in risk assessment techniques. I was, therefore, very grateful to receive support from the SOT Supplemental Training for Education Program (STEP) to attend the Rutgers Risk Assessment Bootcamp.  

The Rutgers Risk Assessment Bootcamp is a two-day intensive workshop hosted by the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey that aims to train scientists from all career stages in the fundamentals of risk assessment and the practical application of current techniques through a mixture of interactive didactic lectures, case studies, and hands-on exercises. The course is co-directed by Drs. Lauren Aleksunes and Marie Fortin (both SOT members) and instructed by Dr. Fortin along with other risk assessment experts (Drs. Kristian Fried [SOT member], Ila Cote, and Nikaeta Sadekar [SOT member]) from diverse government and industry backgrounds. Risk assessment is a broad field encompassing methods of hazard identification, dose response assessment, and exposure assessment to ultimately characterize the risks that exposure to a chemical may pose to human and environmental health. It is the crucial process through which research like my own is systematically curated and analyzed to inform the risk management decisions made by regulatory agencies. 

That being said, it may seem like a lot to cover in two days. However, I am pleased to report that the course instructors did an excellent job. Lectures were interactive and interspersed with numerous polls and discussion prompts to increase engagement and to check for understanding. Despite only having the time for a surface-level introduction to each concept, instructors also provided a wealth of resources that participants could refer to should they want a more in-depth look, such as the wealth of guidance documents developed across government and industrial sectors and the rainbow of publicly available risk assessment handbooks (red, orange, silver, etc.—if you know, you know).   

I also appreciated the strategies employed by the course directors to facilitate networking between the participants, which included students from the Rutgers toxicology graduate program as well as a handful of trainees and scientists from other universities, consulting firms, and pharmaceutical industries. The room was arranged in a roundtable seating format and participants were encouraged to munch and mingle during breaks, share lunches, and participate in evening networking sessions.   

While it was a lot of information to digest in a short amount of time, the numerous hands-on exercises gave us many opportunities to apply the concepts we had learned. For example, with each table working as a team, we performed a risk assessment of “Chemical X” based on our evaluation of a dossier containing potentially incriminating information regarding its chemical properties; target and non-target organisms; mode of action; toxicity data from in vitro, in vivo, and human studies; toxicokinetics; and environmental fate. Together, we were tasked with identifying and calculating the critical hazardous effect, the human equivalent point of departure, and oral/inhalation reference values that could be used along with the available exposure data to determine the risk of adverse effects due to Chemical X exposure. While this process involved a lot of straightforward calculations, there were also many points of debate raised within and between groups. These were expertly moderated by the instructors, and I came to appreciate the nuance needed to weigh the evidence on-hand with the limitations of the available data and uncertainty in factors such as animal-to-human extrapolation, population variability, and database/study quality. Leaving the bootcamp, I felt that I had an excellent grasp of the fundamentals of risk assessment as well as plenty of resources and professional contacts that I could refer to when applying these techniques in my future career. 

Overall, participation in this course helped me gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of the work conducted by chemical risk assessors, reinforced my desire to pursue this career path, and introduced a new lens through which I can review my current research for its regulatory impact. Thank you again to the Society of Toxicology for the opportunity to attend this supplemental training with the generous support of the STEP Award. I would highly recommend the Rutgers Risk Assessment Bootcamp to all toxicology trainees—whether they are interested in risk assessment as a career or not—as it is an excellent opportunity to learn more about alternative careers and how to tailor your research to reduce uncertainty and maximize impact!  

The next STEP deadline is September 30, 2025, and graduate students who have passed their comprehensive exam for PhD candidacy and completed at least four semesters or six quarters of their program are eligible to apply.