The Postdoctoral Assembly Executive Board is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2015 Best Postdoctoral Publication Award (BPPA)! The BPPA recognizes talented postdoctoral researchers who recently have published papers in the field of toxicology as a result of their work conducted during the postdoctoral research experience. The awards will be presented at the Postdoctoral Assembly Luncheon during the Society of Toxicology 2015 Annual Meeting, March 22–26. 2015. Each awardee will receive $250 and a plaque recognizing their achievement.
Congratulations to the awardees.
John Clarke, University of Arizona
Synergistic Interaction Between Genetics and Disease on Pravastatin Disposition
Clarke JD, Hardwick RN, Lake AD, Lickleig AJ, Goedken MJ, Klaassen, CD, Cherrington. NJ. Journal of Hepatology, 2014 Jul; 61(1):139–47.
Dr. Clarke’s paper highlights the importance of considering multiple factors in interindividual variability in drug pharmacokinetics and the occurrence of adverse drug reactions. These affect millions of people and cost billions annually. As his advisor Nathan Cherrington reported, “For most drugs a 'one dose fits all' strategy is still typically employed, yet this approach is increasingly naïve as evidence mounts that genetics, disease, and other factors profoundly impact drug metabolism individually, and in some cases synergistically… We had long discussions about how to test whether genetics or disease plays a larger role in interindividual variability in drug toxicities. John was the one to come up with most of the specifics…The result was a fair fight with an unexpected outcome with significant implications in personalized medicine.”
Yong Ho Kim, US Environmental Protection Agency
Cardiopulmonary toxicity of peat wildfire particulate matter and the predictive utility of precision cut lung slices
Published in Particle and Fibre Toxicology in June 2014
Scale and frequency of wildfires in the United States is increasing. Peat fires in North Carolina propagate slowly without flame but emit huge amounts of smoke and little is known about the potential adverse health impacts of peat wildfire exposure. Dr. Kim’s mentor M. Ian Gilmour says, “The most significant finding in this work was that smoke from a peat wildfire in North Carolina causes not only respiratory illnesses but cardiac dysfunction, and these symptoms appear to be associated with fuel type and combustion phase of the wildfire. This important finding was consistent with previously published epidemiological studies that showed increased emergency department visits for respiratory diseases and heart failure during the wildfire event and could provide information on how to reduce public health risk from wildfire exposure.” In addition, the study found that lung tissue slices provide areliable alternate for animal lung toxicity testing and can be employed for hazard identification and risk assessment.
Christina Powers, US Environmental Protection Agency
Sparking Connections: Toward Better Linkages Between Research and Human Health Policy—An Example with Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes
Powers CM, Gift J, Lehmann GM
Toxicol Sci. 141(1): 6-17, September 2014
The article provides an in-depth discussion of a series of priority research gaps for the emerging environmental contaminant multiwalled carbon nanotubes and fills a critical gap in the communication between researchers and those who use data, including risk assessors and risk managers. Dr. Powers organized a team of individuals to design and implement the workshop process to produce the data that are presented and discussed in this publication. She led the data analysis effort including evaluation of how the research priorities align with steps in the risk assessment process. Dr. Power’s advisor Lyle Burgoon says “This paper demonstrated something that few postdocs have the opportunity to do—go way outside their comfort zone…This is truly transdisciplinary thinking. It’s extremely rare for a postdoc who is traditionally trained in toxicology to reach across disciplines to social science in this way.” Not only will this report present research priorities but experimental design and reporting consideration that can improve the utility of the resulting data for risk assessors.