SOT Component Groups (Regional Chapters, Special Interest Groups, and Specialty Sections) and Committees host webinars throughout the year. Webinars are an effective distance-learning method intended to impart scientific knowledge to members of each group as well as the SOT membership at large. These webinars are just one of the many benefits of SOT membership.
Upcoming webinars for March 2020, as well as information on the upcoming SOT FDA Colloquium in April, are listed here.
Interview with an Expert Podcast: Academia
Host: Graduate Student Leadership Committee (GSLC) Communications Subcommittee
Date and Time: Monday, March 2, 2020 11:00 AM–12:00 Noon (ET)
Registration is required.
Ever wondered what it’s like to become an established research professor in academia? Come join us for a discussion about how to run a lab, a graduate program and multiple courses and teach and mentor students while also project leading on multiple programs. Lauren Aleksunes, PharmD, PhD, DABT, Associate Professor from Rutgers Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, will share her career path and how she transitioned from serving as a practicing pharmacist into having a fruitful career as a research professor in academia. A live interview with Dr. Aleksunes will be followed by a Q&A session of questions submitted by students.
Speaker:
Lauren Aleksunes, PharmD, PhD, DABT
Associate Professor from Rutgers Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy
Enhancing the Undergraduate Research Experience for BOTH Mentor and Mentee
Host: Faculty United for Toxicology Undergraduate Recruitment and Education Committee
Date and Time: Wednesday, March 4, 2020, 12:00 Noon–1:00 PM (ET)
Registration is required.
A critical role for faculty is supporting the development of student researchers, whether they are in the lab all year or during a summer internship. In this webinar, hosted by the Faculty United for Toxicology Undergraduate Recruitment and Education (FUTURE) Committee, experienced undergraduate research mentors will share their tips and valued resources for enhancing the experiences of the students to ensure that both students and research mentors make the most of the research experience. Speakers will respond to comments and questions.
Moderator:
Jamie DeWitt
East Carolina University
Greenville, NC
Presentations:
What Every Mentor Needs to Know about Mentoring Underrepresented Undergraduate Students in the Lab
Jared Brown
University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
Boulder, CO
Undergrads in the Lab or Undergrads Are the Lab? Successful Mentoring of Undergraduate Researchers as a Matter of Perspective
Kelly Vaughan
King University
Bristol, TN
Eight Is Not Enough: The Challenges and Joys of the Summer Research Student
Jamie DeWitt
East Carolina University
Greenville, NC
From Nanomaterials to Advanced Materials: A Health and Safety Perspective
Host: Nanoscience and Advanced Materials Specialty Section (NAMSS)
Date and Time: Wednesday, March 4, 2020, 1:00 PM–2:00 PM (ET)
Registration is required.
Speaker:
Dr. Charles Geraci
Associate Director of Emerging Technologies
NIOSH
Advances in nanoscale science have resulted in materials that are more active, more efficient, and more versatile in their commercial applications. A key outgrowth has been the development and deployment of “advanced materials.” These materials are chemically and biologically more active and more efficient for the specific functions for which they are designed. Advanced materials are combining with the development of new manufacturing technologies, such as additive manufacturing, 3D printing, and engineered/synthetic biology, to give us a vision of the new materials, processes, and products that make up “21st-Century Manufacturing.” The challenge for the EHS professional is to remain current on the issues of potential health hazards, the degree to which these materials are being introduced into new manufacturing technologies, and the way they are used and incorporated into products. The types of risk assessment and management approaches needed to support safe, responsible, and sustainable commercialization of nano- and advanced-material-enabled products can be challenging, but a lot of progress has been made in the past 10 years. Many of the lessons learned with nanotechnology will have direct reapplication opportunities in the rapidly emerging world of advanced materials and the 21st Century Manufacturing environment.
Mentoring—What Is It, and How SOT Activities Help
Host: Education and Career Development Committee (ECDC)
Date and Time: Thursday, March 5, 2020 11:00 AM–12:00 Noon (ET)
Registration is required.
Have you ever wondered what mentoring actually involves, or what SOT resources are available to help you in your mentoring search? This webinar will provide an introduction to mentoring, covering what it takes to be a good mentor/mentee, an overview of the different types of mentoring relationships, and what activities and resources are available through SOT to meet these needs. Our speakers are widely regarded in the mentoring arena, and time will be reserved at the end of the webinar for questions.
Speakers:
Lauren Aleksunes PharmD, PhD, DABT
Professor
Rutgers Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology
Darryl B. Hood, PhD
Associate Professor and environmental neuroscientist
Ohio State University College of Public Health
Division of Environmental Health Sciences
Staying Focused on Your Career: Challenges and Solutions for the Mid-Career Toxicologist
Hosts: Association of Scientists of Indian Origin Special Interest Group and Education and Career Development Committee
Date and Time: Friday, March 6, 2020 11:00 AM–12:00 Noon (ET)
Registration is required.
You did the hard work—networked, aced the interview—and now you are in your new role. A year or two pass and you wonder . . . what is next? In this competitive world, it is challenging to remain focused and intentional about our careers. We wonder about hitting refresh—it might be time for a pay scale raise, a new opportunity in the same company, going up the managerial track, cross-training in a different department, or changing course entirely from a petrochemical to pharmaceutical company as a toxicologist. This webinar will focus on challenges faced by the early and mid-career toxicologist. Speakers will focus on key areas, including (1) how to stay focused on your career goals in a high-pressure work environment, (2) how to attain work-life balance during mid-career and mid-life, and (3) how to reign in your career while not getting lost in the rut. Each speaker will outline their challenges, present negotiation strategies that helped them seek what they aspired for, and provide practical advice and examples from their own success stories and skills set that helped them navigate through early career to their current leadership position.
Speakers:
Brinda Mahadevan, PhD, ERT, FATS
Director, Global Preclinical Development
Established Pharmaceuticals
Abbott Healthcare Pvt. Ltd
Mumbai, India
Satheesh Anand, PhD, DABT
Principal Scientist, Drug Safety
Boehringer Ingelheim (Animal Health)
Duluth, GA
SOT FDA Colloquia on Emerging Toxicological Science: Challenges in Food and Ingredient Safety
Artificial Intelligence Applications in Food and Cosmetic Safety
Hosts: SOT and the US Food and Drug Administration Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition
Date and Time: Wednesday, April 29, 2020, 8:00 AM–1:00 PM (ET)
This event is offered as part of the SOT FDA Colloquia on Emerging Toxicological Science: Challenges in Food and Ingredient Safety series. Attendees may participate in person or via webcast.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is defined as the science and engineering of making intelligent machines. Machine learning is a subset of AI in which analytical model building is automated and not explicitly programmed. It is based on the idea that systems can learn from data, identify patterns, and make decisions with minimal human intervention. As more data are generated in various scientific disciplines, AI promises to provide an analytical tool with more precision than existing standard methods. Advances in computational toxicology have benefited public health by reducing reliance on animal studies and reducing the cost of performing such experiments. Machine-learning methods can extend the capacity of computational toxicology methods such as read across, QSAR, and kinetic models. In fact, natural language processing and deep learning methods are being used to develop predictive toxicology models to outperform the traditional QSAR and read across models.
These developments in science and technology show great potential in further advancing the safety of our food and cosmetic production. In the broader food production and food safety space, AI technologies are being developed to enhance the growth of foods by monitoring and modifying growth parameters, managing supply chains, cleaning processing equipment, identifying plant diseases, developing new products, and enforcing employee personal hygiene procedures during food processing. In the cosmetic space, AI technologies are being used to augment data from in vitro studies and predict dermal absorption and toxicity in the absence of animal tests. As these technologies mature, we must start thinking about how to standardize procedures for safety assessments derived from AI-generated data and how to best leverage these technologies to advance food and cosmetic safety.