• MECHANISMS •
A Specialty Section of the Society of Toxicology
Volume 26 Number 1
Fall, 2008
ABSTRACT DEADLINE FOR CARL SMITH AWARD:
NOVEMBER 5, 2008
Graduate Students: It’s not too late to submit your abstracts for consideration for the Carl C. Smith
Award. This is one of the longest running, most visible awards for graduate student research. Don’t
miss out on the opportunity to have your research recognized for this prestigious award!
Tee and Carl Smith
We are fortunate to have Tee Smith lending her interest, energy and continued support to
these awards.
Top Ten Reasons to Submit Your Abstract for the Carl C. Smith Award
10.
9.
8.
7.
6.
5.
4.
3.
2.
1.
At least six respected scientists (judges) will know your name.
Your name (and maybe even your picture) will be in the Fall 09 newsletter
You get to shake Gary Rankin’s hand
You have an opportunity for your work to be reviewed by a panel of experts.
You’ll be in the company of some pretty impressive people
You’ll be called up to the dais at the Mechanisms reception so at least 100 more
people will know your name and face.
You’ll make your advisor happy.
You’ll have a good start on writing your dissertation and/or a manuscript.
You’ll have a respectable bullet to add to your CV
For the top three places, the money ($1000 for first place!) will come in handy
But seriously, this is a prestigious award and the recognition of your research efforts is well
worth the effort. For November 5, all you need to submit is the abstract of your work, so
don’t delay, and don’t miss out on this career opportunity! Pictures of the 2008 winners
appear at the end of the newsletter!
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For consideration as a candidate for the Carl Smith Award:
1. An abstract must be submitted to the 2009 Annual SOT Meeting with the graduate student as
the presenting author.
2. A copy of the abstract and a statement that it is to be considered for this award must be sent
as an electronic file attachment (Word or pdf) to Dr. Alvaro Puga (alvaro.puga@uc.edu)
and must be sent no later than November 5, 2008.
3. Two letters recommending the graduate student and the research project must be sent for
each abstract. One of the recommendations must be from the Department or Section Head.
The letter must verify that the work reported in the abstract was done while the student was
enrolled in the graduate program. The letter must also specially cite the role and contribution
of the student in the completion of the work, especially when there are multiple authors.
Letters should be sent electronically to Dr. Puga (alvaro.puga@uc.edu) by the individuals
making the recommendations.
4. Up to three candidates may be nominated by a department or program. The department or
program must decide which graduate students best represent them.
5. The graduate student may be sponsored for this award by any person who is a member (active
or pending) of the Mechanisms Specialty Section of the Society of Toxicology. Member
sponsorship from the Mechanisms Specialty Section should be noted in one of the letters of
recommendation.
Any questions concerning these awards should be directed to Dr. Alvaro Puga TEL: 513-5580916; e-mail: alvaro.puga@uc.edu or the President, Dr. Gary O. Rankin, e-mail:
rankin@marshall.edu.
ABSTRACT DEADLINE FOR MECHANISMS POSTDOCTORAL AWARDS: JANUARY 30, 2009
The Mechanisms Specialty Section awards for post-doctoral fellows are travel awards that
will be available for the 2009 SOT meeting. Monetary awards of $500 will be given to two
individuals. Details on eligibility and those ever-important deadlines are as follows:
1. An abstract must have been submitted for the 2009 Annual SOT meeting with the
postdoctoral fellow as the presenting author.
2. A copy of the abstract and a statement that it is to be considered for this award
should be sent electronically to Dr. Brian Day (dayb@njc.org) no later than January
30, 2009.
3. Two letters recommending the post-doctoral student and the research project must
accompany the abstract. One letter must be from the post-doctoral fellow’s mentor and
must specifically state the role and contribution of the fellow in the completion of the
work, particularly when there are multiple authors.
4. The post-doctoral fellow may be sponsored for this award by any person who is a member of
the Mechanisms Specialty Section. Membership in the Specialty Section should be noted in
one of the letters of recommendation.
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And since we won’t exclude post-doctoral fellows from some Top Ten Fun, consider the
Top Ten Reasons to Submit your Abstract for the Post-Doctoral Award
10.
9.
8.
7.
6.
5.
4.
3.
2.
1.
At least three respected scientists (judges) will know your name.
Your name will be listed in the Fall 09 newsletter for Mechanisms Specialty section.
You get to shake Gary Rankin’s hand
You have an opportunity for your work to be reviewed by a panel of experts.
You’ll be in the company of some pretty impressive people
You’ll be called up to the dais at the Mechanisms reception so at least 100 more
people will know your name and face.
You’ll make your mentor happy.
You’ll have a good start on writing a manuscript.
You’ll have a respectable bullet to add to your CV
For the winners, the money ($500) will help defray meeting expenses.
The winners of the 2008 Postdoctoral Travel Awards were:
Xabier Arzuaga
“3,3’,4,4’-Tetrachlorobiphenyl (PCB77) alters dietary fatty acid activation of PPAR and
induction of its response genes in mouse liver”
Mentor: Bernie Hennig
Affiliation: University of Kentucky
Guihua Zhou
“Angiotensin II-induced cardiac apoptosis is mediated by the p53-dependent mitochondrial
cytochrome c release pathway”
Mentor: Lu Cai and Wenke Feng
Affiliation: University of Louisville
A Message from the President
Gary O. Rankin, Ph.D.
One of the primary activities of the Mechanisms Specialty
Section is to host the competition for the Carl C. Smith
Graduate Student Awards in mechanistic toxicology. This is a
highly prestigious award for graduate students that recognizes
their accomplishments in research and provides significant
prize money for the top three award recipients. We have
extended the deadline for the receipt of abstracts to be
considered for these awards until November 5, 2008. From
these abstracts, up to twelve students will be invited to prepare
manuscripts to be judged for deciding the award recipients.
Winning a Carl C. Smith Award will be a great honor for your students, and I highly
recommend submitting their abstract for consideration for one of these awards. Past winners
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of these awards have gone on to become some of the top toxicologist in the country and
leaders within the Society of Toxicology. So, give your students their chance to compete for
these awards. Details about the submission process can be found in this newsletter as well as
in an e-mail I sent all Mechanisms members earlier this month.
Speaking of honors, it is truly an honor for me to be able to lead the Mechanisms
Specialty Section this year as your President. Our specialty section has been one of the
leading specialty sections for many years, and its members have an impressive record of
serving in leadership positions within the Society of Toxicology. However, we can always
improve, and I would invite each of you to think about ways that the Mechanisms Specialty
Section can serve you better or new programs or activities that you would like to see
Mechanisms undertake. Please send me your ideas or thoughts at rankin@marshall.edu for the
officers to consider. This opportunity is one way that everyone can contribute to the direction
that our specialty section is heading. It is your specialty section, so give us your ideas.
This year the Mechanisms Specialty Section will again be providing support for
postdoctoral travel awards. Please consider having your postdoctoral fellows submit their
abstracts to Dr. Brian Day, dayb@njc.org, to be considered for this award, and contact Dr.
Day if you have any questions. The deadline for submitting the abstract for this award is
January 30, 2009.
Time passes by quickly and before you know it, it will again be time to submit your
programs (symposia, workshops, roundtables, etc.) to the Society of Toxicology for the 2010
meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah. Please consider organizing a session for this meeting and
naming the Mechanisms Specialty Section as the sponsor. As you are planning your program,
don’t hesitate to contact Dr. Jose Manautou, jose.manautou@uconn.edu, if you have any
questions. Jose will be coordinating Mechanisms’ sponsorship decisions for this meeting and
he can be a big help to you.
Specialty Section Activities and Reminders
We’ve all got very busy schedules, so here are a few quick reminders regarding activities of
the Mechanisms Specialty Section:
Dates to Remember
1. November 5, 2008: Final deadline for abstract submission for the Carl Smith Award
for graduate student research (In case you missed the front page)
2. January 30, 2009: Deadline for Mechanisms Post-Doctoral Award
3. Mark your calendars early: The Mechanisms Specialty Section Reception will be
Tuesday evening, March 17, 2009 at the SOT Annual meeting in Baltimore.
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Other Reminders
1. Please make sure that graduate students sign up for student membership in the
Mechanisms Specialty Section. Student membership in SOT includes one free Specialty
Section membership. Additional Student Specialty Section dues are only $15 per
Specialty Section.
2. When you make a donation to the Carl C. Smith Fund, please e-mail me
(lois.lehman-mckeeman@bms.com) with your contribution amount. This helps the
Specialty Section keep an accurate account of the annual donations to this fund. Thank
you in advance for your support!
3. Fall is the time of year that we put together a slate of candidates for the specialty section
offices of Vice President-Elect, Junior Councilor, Graduate Student Councilor and PostDoctoral Councilor. Self-nominations are more than welcome! If you want to serve in
one of these positions, please let either Brian Day (dayb@njc.org) or Alvaro Puga
(alvaro.puga@uc.edu) know!
SOT Public Communications Initiative
SOT recently hired a Communications Specialist, and a new Communications Committee,
currently chaired by Joan Tarloff, has been formed and given the directive to develop a
public portion on the SOT website. This is designed to be accessible to the public and will
feature short articles that are intended to provide information to the public that will be useful
general information relative to important general or specific issues in toxicology. Examples
of useful topics proposed by the Committee are: What are biomarkers? What’s important to
know about nanomaterials?
The committee is looking for help from all specialty sections to bring this public website to
reality, particularly contributions on short articles directed to increasing or public awareness
or providing general information to the public for education. Examples of topics and
instructions for developing these short articles will be posted on the Section’s website
(http://www.toxicology.org/ISOT/SS/mechanisms), and feel free to direct additional queries
to Joan Tarloff (j.tarloff@usp.edu).
Highlights of the 2008 Specialty Section Meeting in Seattle
The Business Meeting of the Mechanisms Specialty Section was held Monday, March 17th at
the Seattle Convention Center. The meeting was called to order by President Dean Jones at
6:30 PM. Secretary/Treasurer Joan Tarloff gave the Financial Report for the General Budget
and Carl C. Smith Fund. For the Mechanisms General Fund, the balance on June 30, 2007
was $29,425. Projected expenses from the meeting, plaques, non-labor expenses and
miscellaneous expense were estimated at $7,620. The Mechanisms balance at the end of the
fiscal year should be ~$ 32,000. The Carl C. Smith fund beginning June 30, 2007 had a
balance of $56,471 and has generated current contributions of $1400, employer matching
funds of $500, and SOT 50th anniversary matching funds of $2575 for total of $60,946 as of
March 31, 2008. The cost for award checks and plaques was $2300.
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Gary Rankin reviewed the symposia, workshops and Continuing Education courses sponsored
by the Mechanisms Specialty Section at the 2008 Annual Meeting. We sponsored or cosponsored 11 symposia, one workshop, 3 continuing education programs, one informational
session and one roundtable.
Dennis Petersen reviewed the process for submitting proposals for the 2009 meeting. Prior to
endorsement by the specialty section, authors are encouraged to submit their proposals to the
section for review. There is a check-off box in the submission process asking if authors have
received specialty section review. Dennis reminded attendees of the April 30 deadline and the
highlighted themes of inflammation and disease, biomarkers, epigenetics, neurodegenerative
disease, and nanotechnology.
Dean Jones introduced the new officers for the Mechanisms Specialty Section who will
assume their duties May 1, 2008. These officers are: Vice-President Elect Jose Manautou;
Secretary-Treasurer Lois Lehman-McKeeman; Junior Councilor Alvaro Puga; Graduate
Student Councilor Emma-Jane Poulton; and Post-Doctoral Councilor Courtney Woods.
The Carl C. Smith awards were recognized as follows:
First Place
Yue Cui, Unviversity of Kansas Medical Center (Klaassen)
ANIT-TREATED FXR-NULL MOUSE LIVERS EXHIBIT MORE SINGLE CELL
DEGENERATION DUE TO IMPAIRED INDUCTION OF EFFLUX TRANSPORTERS.
Second Place
Zhengyu Yin, University of Rochester (Gasiewicz)
EPIGALLOCATECHIN-3-GALLATE IS A NOVEL HSP90 INHIBITOR.
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Third Place
Dereck Dreschsel, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center (Patel)
MITOCHONDRIAL MECHANISMS OF ROS PRODUCTION AND OXIDATIVE STRESS
BY REDOX CYCLING HERBICIDES IMPLICATED IN PARKINSON’S DISEASE.
and
Adrian Nanez, University of Louisville (Ramos)
ARYL HYDROCARBON RECEPTOR REGULATES WILM’S TUMOR SUPPRESSOR
GENE FUNCTION DURING NEPHROGENESIS.
Honorable Mentions
Lisa Beilke, University of Arizona
(Cherrington)
MECHANISMS OF HEPATO-PROTECTION
DURING LCA-INDUCED CHOLESTASIS:
ROLE OF APOPTOTIC SIGNALING.
Sara Saperstein, University of Rochester
(Finkelstein)
REGULATION OF TUMOR NECROSIS
FACTOR- AND INTERLEUKIN-1ΒMEDIATED TNF RECEPTOR
EXPRESSION AND PROINFLAMMATORY
RESPONSES IN LUNG EPITHELIAL
CELLS.
Ashley Fisher, University of Arizona (Lau)
CHEMICAL-INDUCED POSTTRANSLATIONAL MODIFICATIONS AND
THE CONSEQUENT STRUCTURAL AND
FUNCTIONAL ALTERATIONS.
Zheng Sun, University of Arizona (Zhang)
ACETYLTRANSFERASE P300/CBP
REGULATES NRF2-DEPENDENT
ANTIOXIDANT RESPONSE THROUGH
ACETYLATION-DEPENDENT AND
INDEPENDENT MECHANISM.
Sandra Luecke, Karolinska Institute (Rannug)
DISTINCT REGULATION OF THE ARYL
HYDROCARBON RECEPTOR ACTIVITY
BY DIFFERENT LIGANDS.
Priya Venkatakrishnan, University of Texas
at El Paso (Miller)
ABSENCE OF NITRIC OXIDE SYNTHASE
IN EXQUISITELY PURE LIVER
MITOCHONDRIA.
Kuan-Wei Peng, University of Illinois
(Bolton)
THE EQUINE ESTROGEN METABOLITE,
4-HYDROXYEQUILENIN, ACTIVATES
ESTROGEN RECEPTOR-MEDIATED
GENE TRANSCRIPTION AND ENHANCES
GENOTOXICITY IN ERΑ (+) CELLS.
Ruiyu Xie, University of Arizona (Monks)
MITOCHONDRIAL PEROXIREDOXIN 3
FUNCTION IN PROTECTION AGAINST
OXIDATIVE STRESS.
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Comments, questions, ideas, please contact the specialty section officers as needed:
President
Vice-President
Vice-President Elect
Secretary/Treasurer
Gary Rankin
Dennis Petersen
Jose Manautou
Lois Lehman-McKeeman
rankin@marshall.edu
dennis.petersen@uchsc.edu
jose.manautou@uconn.edu
lois.lehmanmckeeman@bms.com
Councilors
Senior
Junior
Graduate Student
Post-Doctoral
Past President
Brian Day
Alvaro Puga
Emma-Jane Poulton
Courtney Woods
Dean Jones
dayb@njc.org
alvaro.puga@uc.edu
epoulton@u.washington.edu
cwoods@thehamner.org
dpjones@emory.edu
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