• 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 SmithWe 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 Award10. At least six respected scientists (judges) will know your name.9. Your name (and maybe even your picture) will be in the Fall 09 newsletter 8. You get to shake Gary Rankin’s hand7. You have an opportunity for your work to be reviewed by a panel of experts.6. You’ll be in the company of some pretty impressive people5. You’ll be called up to the dais at the Mechanisms reception so at least 100 more

people will know your name and face.4. You’ll make your advisor happy.3. You’ll have a good start on writing your dissertation and/or a manuscript.2. You’ll have a respectable bullet to add to your CV1. 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: 513-558-0916; e-mail: alvaro.puga@uc.edu or the President, Dr. Gary O. Rankin, e-mail: rankin@marshall.edu.

ABSTRACT DEADLINE FOR MECHANISMS POST-DOCTORAL 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.

And since we won’t exclude post-doctoral fellows from some Top Ten Fun, consider the

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Top Ten Reasons to Submit your Abstract for the Post-Doctoral Award10. At least three respected scientists (judges) will know your name.9. Your name will be listed in the Fall 09 newsletter for Mechanisms Specialty section.8. You get to shake Gary Rankin’s hand7. You have an opportunity for your work to be reviewed by a panel of experts.6. You’ll be in the company of some pretty impressive people5. You’ll be called up to the dais at the Mechanisms reception so at least 100 more

people will know your name and face.4. You’ll make your mentor happy.3. You’ll have a good start on writing a manuscript.2. You’ll have a respectable bullet to add to your CV1. 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 HennigAffiliation: 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 FengAffiliation: University of Louisville

A Message from the PresidentGary 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 of these awards have gone on to become some of the top toxicologist in the country and

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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 Award3. 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 Reminders1. 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 Post-Doctoral 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 InitiativeSOT 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 co-sponsored 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 PlaceYue 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 PlaceZhengyu Yin, University of Rochester (Gasiewicz)EPIGALLOCATECHIN-3-GALLATE IS A NOVEL HSP90 INHIBITOR.

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Third PlaceDereck 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.

Ashley Fisher, University of Arizona (Lau)CHEMICAL-INDUCED POST-TRANSLATIONAL MODIFICATIONS AND THE CONSEQUENT STRUCTURAL AND FUNCTIONAL ALTERATIONS.

Sandra Luecke, Karolinska Institute (Rannug)DISTINCT REGULATION OF THE ARYL HYDROCARBON RECEPTOR ACTIVITY BY DIFFERENT LIGANDS.

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.

Sara Saperstein, University of Rochester (Finkelstein)REGULATION OF TUMOR NECROSIS FACTOR- AND INTERLEUKIN-1Β-MEDIATED TNF RECEPTOR EXPRESSION AND PROINFLAMMATORY RESPONSES IN LUNG EPITHELIAL CELLS.

Zheng Sun, University of Arizona (Zhang)ACETYLTRANSFERASE P300/CBP REGULATES NRF2-DEPENDENT ANTIOXIDANT RESPONSE THROUGH ACETYLATION-DEPENDENT AND INDEPENDENT MECHANISM.

Priya Venkatakrishnan, University of Texas at El Paso (Miller)ABSENCE OF NITRIC OXIDE SYNTHASE IN EXQUISITELY PURE LIVER MITOCHONDRIA.

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 Gary Rankin rankin@marshall.eduVice-President Dennis Petersen dennis.petersen@uchsc.edu

Vice-President Elect Jose Manautou jose.manautou@uconn.eduSecretary/Treasurer Lois Lehman-McKeeman lois.lehman-

mckeeman@bms.comCouncilors

SeniorJunior

Graduate StudentPost-Doctoral

Brian DayAlvaro Puga

Emma-Jane PoultonCourtney Woods

dayb@njc.orgalvaro.puga@uc.edu

epoulton@u.washington.educwoods@thehamner.org

Past President Dean Jones dpjones@emory.edu

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