The North Carolina Regional Chapter (NC SOT) held its Annual Spring Meeting on February 23, 2012, on the main campus of the US Environmental Protection Agency in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. The theme of the meeting was “TT21C: Network Biology and Toxicity Pathways” and included speakers that represented all sectors, from academia to industry, in a range of disciplines including chemistry, toxicology, bioinformatics, and engineering. There were approximately 140 attendees at this meeting on Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century (TT21C).
Mel Andersen, The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences, introduced the mini-symposium and emphasized that the approach of determining adverse outcome pathways is still in its infancy. Paul Carmichael from Unilever provided an industry perspective with regard to the European Union’s ban on animal testing for cosmetic ingredients driving the need for alternative technologies. Richard Judson from EPA’s National Center for Computational Toxicology provided a framework for the use of in vitro data for in vivo predictions. Avi Ma’ayan from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine emphasized that we are studying networks versus singular pathways, and he presented a range of databases, algorithms, and tools that he developed or used in his research with kinase signaling cascades. The last presentation was given by Sudin Bhattacharya from The Hamner Institutes, who summarized research efforts on elucidating the network and associated pathways for peroxisome proliferator activated receptor alpha (PPARα) signaling.
The meeting also included a brief business meeting led by Darol Dodd, NC SOT President, announcing the election results of new officers for 2012–2013, recognition of officers rotating off of Council, approved changes in the Bylaws, and announcement of graduate student award winners for both the poster and platform competitions. 
Eighteen students competed for cash awards in the annual poster competition. Tied for First Place were Jessica Sorrentino of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (Advisor: Dr. N. Sharpless) and Xinyu Yang of Duke University (Advisor: Dr. J. Meyer). Tied for Second Place were Sandra Losa-Ward of North Carolina State University (Advisor: Dr. H. Patisaul) and Jessica Wignall of UNC-CH (Advisor: Dr. K. Guyton).
New this year was NC SOT’s student platform presentation competition. Graduate students submitted abstracts to the Council with four students ultimately competing in this inaugural event. Students receiving cash awards were First Place winner Maxwell Leung of Duke University (Advisor: Dr. J. Meyer) and participation award winners Samantha Snow of UNC-CH (Advisor: Dr. D. Diaz-Sanchez), Raju Prasad of UNC-CH, (Advisor: Dr. D. DeMarini), and Leslie Thompson of East Carolina University (Advisor: Dr. C. Wingard).