Society of Toxicology

Carcinogenesis Specialty Section (CSS)

Fall 2006 Newsletter

Key Dates

October 3rd – SOT Abstract submission deadline

December 1st – Deadline for Graduate Student/Post-doctoral research awards (see below for details!)

President’s Message

Greetings CSS Members,

Summer is over and a new academic year is upon us. I hope everyone returned from summer vacation refreshed and ready to start new research projects or to make progress on existing ones. I would like to recognize student award winners from the San Diego annual meeting: first prize- Pamela Brown, tie for second- Jennifer Philips and Stephanie Smith-Roe, third- Mary Hassani. They were awarded a cash prize and a plaque. We have been fortunate to have funding for student awards by Merck & Co. and I want to thank Merck for their many years of support. We plan to continue student awards at the meeting in Charlotte, NC next year, and I am pleased to announce we will also present a postdoctoral award for the best poster as well. So postdocs should be notified by their mentors to submit abstracts to Dr. Mark Miller () by December 1 for consideration for the best poster award. The award will include a cash prize and a plaque, and will be given at the mixer at the annual meeting. We will also include a postdoc on the officer’s board of directors, so any postdoc wanting to get experience on the specialty section operating board should apply when submitting an abstract for the best presentation award.

It’s not too soon to begin putting together symposia, workshops, etc. for Carcinogenesis Specialty Section endorsement. Those of you interested in putting together a workshop or symposium for CSS sponsorship should begin to decide on topics and speakers soon. There is never enough time to get speakers to commit to a presentation and if you wait until the annual meeting, it is often too late to get a commitment. Since the 2007 meeting is in late March and the deadline for submission is firm (30 April), I would recommend putting together the submission forms in advance since late proposals are not accepted, and it is unlikely there will be an extension of this deadline. Program Committee members have volunteered to help you plan a symposium or workshop proposal so, utilize their experience to help you develop the best possible proposal for submission. The 2008 meeting in Seattle will be a popular venue and will probably be well attended.

Did you know? —Student and postdoc members of SOT are entitled to a free membership in one specialty section? So sign up for the Carcinogenesis Specialty Section when you pay your membership. Specialty sections provide a great opportunity to keep up with cutting-edge science and an excellent venue to network at the annual meetings. I hope you join the CSS but be sure to join a SS of interest—It’s free!

Opportunities for students and postdocs to get connected in SOT. Students and postdocs should visit the SOT website and get information from the Student Advisory Committee (SAC) and the Postdoc Association (PDA) links. These groups have important information about issues specially related to your needs such as room sharing, mixers at the annual meeting, and leadership opportunities. They are also accepting nominations for officers for the SAC and PDA, so be sure to let them know if you are interested. The websites for the PDA (http://www.toxicology.org/ai/spd/PD-Resources.asp) and the SAC (http://www.toxicology.org/AI/PUB/SP06/sp06_sac.asp) are updated often so check it out.

Hope to see you in Charlotte!

Michael L. Cunningham

Past President’s Message

As outgoing SS President…..

The Specialty Sections serve as the expert faculties of the various subdisciplines of toxicology. As the experts, mentors, and the repositories of knowledge that bridge one generation to the next, we have a special responsibility to each other, to the other SS, and to the Society at large to prepare the next generation of toxicologists passionate about the study of how a xenobiotic singular or plural induces the normal genome of stem cell or diploid somatic cell to become abnormal and grow abnormally. In this role we have a major impact on prevention of disease caused by toxic agents present in our everyday environment and/or in the occupational workplace.

We have progressed from descriptive toxicology to a biochemical, a genomic and now (I predict) to a genetic context. Some scientists have called this next phase genetical genomics or system genetics. Either way you parse, we have the opportunity to use the genetic (haplotypic) diversity of the hundreds of inbred strains of rats and mice and the “omics” to understand the role of allelic variants of genes responding to toxic insults on development of toxicity and disease. There is an opportunity to use rodents as surrogates of human exposure and to learn how to better predict and extrapolate to the human condition.

Inbred species (genetically homozygous) are not observed in the natural world, but have been created by fancy breeders and laboratory scientists. Some estimate that the genetic diversity of rodents (in total) to approach that of the human. With more common features than not, rodents are still our best model for studying toxicology and carcinogenesis for extrapolation to the human. There are many new genetic tools and approaches available, we should learn some and apply them rigorously to our discipline. Toxicogenetics (not genetic toxicology), in my interpretation, is the application of quantitative genetics and quantitative trait loci analysis to identify genes and allelic variants that effect and modify phenotypic differences in response to toxic exposure and disease outcome in model organisms (in particular, inbred mouse or rat strains with sufficient haplotype diversity) and humans. The scientific goal is to develop a basic understanding of the interaction of the environment and individual genomes over time that result in specific complex disease traits and introduce a new research paradigm to toxicology and environmental risk assessment. If you do not understand what I mean, call me and let’s discuss the role of toxicogenetics (a term coined in the 70’s).

Finally, I thank the new President, Mike Cunningham, Vice President Mark Miller, and VP Elect, Barbara Shane and Chris Corton, Michele Hooth, Abby Jacobs, and Pamela Brown (SAC), the Councilors for their renewed efforts on behalf of the CSS and wish them success. I thank Ruth Roberts, Brian Short, and Lisa Kamendulis, the other outgoing officers, for their efforts on behalf of the memberships and carrying out the institutional memory and activities forward. Thanks to the membership for electing me and providing this opportunity to serve.

Best regards,

Jef French

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE WINNERS OF THE CSS STUDENT AWARDS!

First Place

Pamela Brown, Queens University, Canada (T. Massey, mentor)

Title of poster: Repair of 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK)-induced pyridyloxobutylation by nucleotide excision repair (NER)

Second Place (tie)

Jennifer Philips, Michigan State University (J. Goodman, mentor)

Title of poster: Orphan nuclear constitutive active androstane receptor (CAR)-mediated alterations in DNA methylation during phenobarbital (PB) promotion of liver tumorigenesis

Second Place (tie)

Stephanie Smith-Roe, Oregon State University (A. Buernmeyer, mentor)

Title of poster: MLH1-dependent responses to 2-amino-1-methyl-6-phenylimidazo [4,5-B] pyridine (PHIP), a food borne carcinogen

Third Place

Mary Hassani, University of Montana (H. Beall, mentor)

Title of poster: Validation of the NQO1 active site model by docking studies and mechanistic studies of selective toxicity of good lavendamycin substrates of NQO1

Thanks to all who submitted posters for competition. We anticipate another group of outstanding posters for the 2007 meeting.

Call for 2007 Applications for Graduate Student/Postdoctoral Research Awards

Call for 2007 Carcinogenesis Specialty Section (CSS) Awards for Best Abstracts

The CSS Officers encourage graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to submit their 2007 abstracts for competition for best abstract awards. To qualify, your work must be related to the field of carcinogenesis. The due date for submission is December 1, 2006. Abstracts and a recommendation letter from your advisor (not to exceed 2 pages) can be sent electronically to Dr. Mark Miller (). See the SOT Website for full details: (www.toxicology.org/information/awardsfellowships/awards).

First, second, and third place graduate student winners receive a plaque as well as checks for $500, $300, and $100, respectively. One Postdoctoral Fellowship awardee will be selected and will receive $500 and a plaque. Students not selected for the monetary awards will receive honorable mention certificates. In addition to the monetary and non-monetary awards, the graduate student who wins First Place will be eligible to be the CSS Student Officer. The CSS Officers will announce the winners at the specialty section mixer in Charlotte.

HIGHLIGHT YOUR RECENT WORK AT THE 2007 CSS MIXER

We are looking for a volunteer to speak at the annual business meeting for about 15 minutes on their recent work. The student and postdoc winners will each give 5-minute talks at the annual business meeting and mixer followed by a 15-minute talk from one of our members. Send your ideas to Mike Cunningham ().

DO YOU HAVE AN INTERESTING STORY TO TELL YOUR COLLEAGUES? HIGHLIGHT YOUR RECENT BREAKTHROUGH DISCOVERY IN THE NEXT CSS NEWSLETTER

We are looking for a volunteer to provide a short summary of his/her recent paper to highlight in the next newsletter. Students and postdocs can use this as a networking opportunity to describe some of your recent work. Senior investigators can highlight their recent breakthroughs. Send submissions to Mike Cunningham ().

SUMMARY OF THE 2006 SOT SPECIALTY SECTION WORKSHOP

Dr. Michael Cunningham and Dr. Barbara Shane were your representatives at the 2006 SOT Specialty Section (SS) Workshop on August 8 and 9, 2006 in Chicago, IL. A brief summary of the highlights of the meeting is summarized below. The officers of all the SSs found this workshop to be very helpful and informative.

Overall Objective of the Workshop

The Overall Objective of the Workshop was a discussion on improving the effectiveness of the SOT’s Specialty Sections (SS), and to maximize the value of the SS’s to the membership.

The goals of the workshop were:

Ø To provide an opportunity for SS officers to share experiences and to network.

Ø To provide an opportunity for SS officers to learn more about the resources provided by the Society and members of the SOT staff and SOT Council.

Ø To provide an opportunity for SS officers to communicate their needs, challenges and goals to SOT staff and Council.

Ø To provide an opportunity for SS officers to better understand the expectations from SOT staff and Council, and visa versa.

Initially, each representative from 20 of the 22 SS attending the workshop discussed their major achievement(s) over the past year and their greatest need. Many of the SS officers raised the issue of membership of full-members, post-docs and students, and that students and post-docs are not aware of the free membership in one SS/year. There was discussion on whether consolidation of some of the SS would be advantageous. Unfortunately this issue was not discussed fully due to time restraints, but it seems that it might be beneficial for some consolidation to occur. The representative from the occupational and public health SS discussed how their SS had been formed from two other SS and how this had not only increased the membership of the SS but also had broadened their scope and ability to propose more interesting symposia and workshops to the SOT program committee.

SOT Program and Strategic Committees

Dr. Popp, President of SOT, addressed the group and said that the SOT relied heavily on the SS for proposals of symposia, workshops and round tables of interest to the membership for the annual meetings and he encouraged the officers of the SS to convey this important function to the members of their SS. This is especially important for the planning of the 2008 SOT meeting because the time frame between the meeting in March and the date on which SOT requires the proposed symposia is only about a month. Two issues raised were (1) a request to have more time between the national meeting and the date on which proposals for symposia etc., are required by SOT headquarters and (2) a clearer description of the differentiation of symposia and workshops. Dr. Popp said the later concern will be addressed but, unfortunately, the time frame cannot.

He reported on the three strategy committees that have been set up by SOT to investigate various components of the Society - Science, Membership and Communications. Recommendations from these committees will be reported to SOT in the next year or two.

Specialty Section Student Representative

Mr. John Norman, the president of the Specialty Section Student Representative (SSSR) organization, made a presentation on student affairs. He said there are 1030 student and post doc members in SOT, 738 are students and 292 are post-docs. Of these students, about 50% of them are members of a SS. He requested that each SS elect the student representative before January 1st as this will help in the elected student’s participation on teleconference calls in preparation for their term of office, which begins at the SOT national meetings in March. The advantages to students joining the SSSR is an invitation to attend a student/post doc mixer at SOT, the receipt of a special newsletter with information pertaining to their needs, and an opportunity to meet faculty members and SOT officers at the SS mixers, although anyone can attend.

Postdoctoral Assembly

Dr. Jennifer Duringer, president the Postdoctoral assembly (PSA), which is a relatively new group that has been formed to address the specific needs of post-docs, addressed the group. Most of the SS now have a post-doctoral award- the carcinogenesis SS will offer such an award for the first time in Charlotte. The website is www.toxioclogy.org/ai/grad/PD.asp. Post docs can also sign up for one SS free of charge. The Carcinogenesis SS plans to have a post-doctoral representative on its Board from 2007 also. The SS is encouraging all post docs to join a SS and the PSA.

Resources from SOT available to the SS

Ms. Marcia Lawson, the representative from SOT headquarters who is responsible for SS affairs, then addressed the group. She informed us as to whom we can contact with questions about the SS and SOT, in general, such as the web site or financial questions. We discussed the possibility of including job postings in the newsletters of the SSs; it was decided this would not be a conflict with the Career Resource and Development Services on the SOT website. SOT has promised that they will assemble an informational packet for all new incoming officers to the SSs.