Society of Toxicology (SOT) members were encouraged in a recent Communiqué blog to respond to a request from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to comment on its draft 5-Year Strategic Plan Framework. SOT Council was pleased to respond as many of the areas in the Framework mirror or are aligned with the key elements of the SOT 2015–2018 Strategic Plan.
Both NIH and SOT recognize that the central challenge is the “changing scientific landscape.” For SOT, that is “Shaping the Future of Toxicology in a Changing Landscape” by striving to:
- Strengthen the Impact and Relevance of Toxicology;
- Develop and Support Toxicologists to Capitalize on Future Opportunities; and
- Expand Outreach and Impact Globally.
The SOT Strategic Plan Preamble states that: “Life science is in the midst of rapid change as the result of new insights derived from biotechnology, powerful computational tools, and systems-level approaches that identify the underlying basis for the emergent properties that characterize living systems.”
SOT 2004–2005 President Linda Birnbaum
SOT Past President Linda Birnbaum stated during a recent exchange with me that she is very pleased that we sent the invitation to the Scientific Liaison Coalition and the Specialty Sections and Regional Chapters leadership to provide comments independent of SOT Council. “The more input NIH receives related to environmental health, toxicology, exposure science, and the need for focused research, the better served NIH will be in developing an inclusive strategic plan,” she replied.
Below are the comments from SOT provided to NIH that are aligned with the SOT Strategic Priorities that include “Foster the Integration of Other Scientific Disciplines with Toxicology, Bridge Existing and Emerging Science in Toxicology, Promote Transformative Science in Toxicology, and Promote Translation of Evolving Technology into Clinical Practice and Public Health.” Moreover, the SOT and NIH also share common goals in training the next generation of scientists to meet changing and diverse career paths in biomedicine and toxicology. Thus, the Society will continue to demonstrate its dedication to “Develop and Support Toxicologists to Capitalize on Future Opportunities” by providing resources to clarify and communicate the evolving roles and skill sets for toxicologists and promote the recruitment, education, and development of a diverse and creative community of toxicologists.
Although not specifically addressed in the comments to NIH, as the world continues to shrink due to increasing international interactions, the SOT Strategic Priority of “Expand Outreach and Impact Globally” is paramount to all those involved in public health. Thus, SOT’s Priorities, such as to “Foster International Toxicology Activities” and “Be a Forum for Discussion of Public and Environmental Health Policies/Issues” serve as a foundation for approaching the challenges of global health and disease prevention.
The SOT comments to NIH are provided in their entirety below.
- Potential benefits, drawbacks/challenges, and areas of consideration for the current framework
Advances in fundamental science are providing opportunities to further our understanding of the links between our genetics and factors in our environment and our diet. While a small fraction of the total burden of chronic disease can be attributed to a single gene, or a single environmental agent, or a single nutritional deficiency, the vast majority of human disease is attributable to a complicated interplay of all three. As we elucidate the molecular events that underlie common disease states (like cancer, birth defects, metabolic, cardiovascular, respiratory, and neurological disorders), we are beginning to understand how a change in function of a particular gene or set of genes can be influenced not only by an individual’s inborn genetic sequence, but also by environmental or dietary factors to which we are frequently exposed (such as chemicals, non-chemical stressors, pathogens, individual microbiomes, and excesses and deficiencies of nutritional components). As we uncover this information through the work of synthetic, interdisciplinary fields like toxicology that combine information from a variety of sources, it is becoming increasingly possible to understand the factors that increase or decrease the risk of developing chronic disease, and therefore to prevent these diseases, or to ameliorate their effects in people who already have them. Fundamental research in toxicology provides a basis for addressing human disease that has a significant environmental component. This includes an understanding of basic mechanisms of toxicity, the basis for individual susceptibility at critical life stages (e.g., prenatal), and the identification of vulnerable and resistant populations. Specific areas of research include studies on gene-environment interactions, hypothesis-driven epidemiology, exposure studies, and methodologies to study the effects of large numbers of individual chemicals and chemical mixtures in human-relevant model systems. This research also will suggest novel prevention and treatment strategies that are based on understanding of how these diseases start.
- Additional concepts in Institutes, Centers, and Offices (ICO) strategic plans that are cross-cutting and should be included in this trans-NIH strategic plan
NIH should continue to support integrated, systems biology approaches such as in the Toxicology Testing in the 21st Century paradigm, including high throughput cell-based assays, 'omics methods, and bioinformatics/computational modeling tools. These approaches represent a technology leap that will link molecular pathway events to human diseases and lead to advances in predicting toxicological pathologies and disease, improved assessments of health risks from the totality of exposures (the Exposome, e.g., environmental chemicals, non-chemical stressors, pathogens, individual microbiomes, and excesses and deficiencies of nutritional components) at the individual and population levels, and provide improved interventions for disease prevention and cures.
- Future opportunities or emerging research needs
- Workforce development and training
Understanding the causes of chronic diseases that are a product of genetic, dietary, and environmental interactions requires individuals with interdisciplinary and integrative science skills. In this regard, it is essential that NIH (NIEHS) continues to support interdisciplinary training programs in toxicology and environmental health to ensure that the next generation of scientists possesses the requisite interdisciplinary skills to tackle the complex health challenges that lay ahead.
NIH must continue to lead in addressing issues of workforce supply and demand in biomedical fields to help trainees transition to the appropriate professional career path. For example, postdoctoral fellows and graduate students are increasingly discovering that the traditional path to tenure track assistant professor or principal investigator at a pharmaceutical or biotechnology company may no longer represent a viable option. This changing employment environment will require new or enhanced training program options that will prepare a workforce for diverse career paths in biomedicine that not only include these traditional options, but also other critical areas in biomedicine such as science policy, laboratory management, communications, technical writing, patent law, and business development.
Promoting scientific and toxicology/environmental health science literacy in primary and secondary school curricula is critical to maintaining a steady pipeline of scientists ready to contribute to the challenges in health promotion and disease prevention. Improving environmental health science literacy broadly across the population will result in better health decision-making. NIH also must continue to lead in building opportunities to recruit and retain underrepresented minority group participation in biomedical disciplines.