Toxicologists, environmental health scientists to discuss on safeguarding public health at SOT meeting

NIEHS and NTP research showcased at SOT Annual Meeting

The government's leading toxicologists and environmental health scientists will share their latest scientific accomplishments, offer continuing education courses, discuss funding and training opportunities, receive input on future research priorities, and more, at the Society of Toxicology (SOT) annual meeting.

Staff from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), one of the National Institutes of Health, and the National Toxicology Program (NTP) will speak at more than 30 different sessions and present 60 posters on topics ranging from improving toxicity testing to translational research. Many NIEHS grantees will also showcase their research. For the first time this year, live updates will be provided by conference participants on the NIEHS and NTP web sites.

"If you are interested in knowing what researchers and toxicologists in government, academia and industry are doing to advance the pace of biomedical research and safeguard the public's health, the SOT meeting is the place to be," said NIEHS/NTP Director Linda Birnbaum, Ph.D. "For toxicologists, this is our Olympics."

The SOT Annual Meeting is the largest toxicology meeting and exhibition in the world, attracting approximately 6,500 scientists from industry, academia, and government.

When: March 7-11, 2010

Where: Society of Toxicology Annual Meeting

All events will be held at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. For more information about the SOT annual meeting, visit http://www.toxicology.org/AI/MEET/AM2010/.

Meeting Highlights: (All times listed are Mountain Time)

Live Updates
March 7-11, 2010
NIEHS and NTP representatives, including Director Birnbaum, will be providing live updates throughout the SOT conference. They'll be reporting on all the innovations, breakthrough research, awards being given out, and interesting people that make SOT so unique. The updates will be posted on the NIEHS and NTP Web sites at http://www.niehs.nih.gov/liveatsot and on Twitter@LiveatSOT.

Leading Edge in Basic Science Award Lecture: Toxicogenomics at NIEHS: How Genomics is Impacting the Science of Toxicology
Monday, March 8, Time: 12:30 p.m. - 1:20 p.m.
Room 251-A
Toxicogenomic technologies provide tools to understand more completely the mechanisms through which environmental agents initiate and advance disease processes. At this lecture, Dr. Richard Paules, a principal investigator at NIEHS, will discuss how NIEHS has contributed to the development of toxicogenomics and the application of genomic technologies to environmental health studies. He will discuss how NIEHS worked within NIEHS and with numerous collaborators and consortia to demonstrate the utility of toxicogenomics to classify exposures and chemicals, identify changes that were early indicators of adverse effects, determine phenotypic anchor genomic responses to a particular pathophysiology, as well as begin developing genomic signatures that utilize clinical biomarkers of specific adverse effects.

Translating Toxicology to Public Health Protection: Lessons Learned from Superfund
Monday, March 8, Time: 12:10 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Ballroom 1
This session will highlight lessons learned from the NIEHS Superfund Research Program on how to make basic science findings applicable to environmental managers, risk assessors and others who are making decisions related to exposure from hazardous substances at waste sites. The session will also emphasize the vital role that outreach, partnerships, collaborations and communications can play in improving public health.

NIH Resource Room
Tuesday, March 9, Time: 9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Wednesday, March 10, Time: 9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Room 254-A
Program staff from NIEHS will be available to discuss funding opportunities. Review staff from NIEHS and the NIH Center for Scientific Review (CSR) also will be available to help participants better understand and navigate their way through the NIH peer review process.

NIH Brown Bag Lunch
Tuesday, March 9, Time: Noon - 1:15 p.m.
Room 255-B
Join NIEHS program officers and NIH CSR staff for lunch and informal discussions about grant opportunities at NIEHS and the NIH peer review process.

The Fetal Basis of Adult Disease
Wednesday, March 10, Time: 9:00 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.
Room 250
A growing body of research suggests that many chronic adult diseases and disorders, including cancer, asthma, diabetes and obesity, may be traced back to exposures that occur during development. Research supported by the NIEHS, NTP and others are finding that in utero or neonatal exposures to environmental, dietary and behavioral changes may make people more susceptible to diseases later in life. This session will highlight current and future research in this area.

The Tox21st Community and the Future of Toxicology Testing
Wednesday, March 10, Time: Noon -1:20 p.m.
Ballroom F
In early 2008, NIEHS/NTP, the NIH Chemical Genomics Center, and the Environmental Protection Agency's National Center for Computational Toxicology formed a collaboration to improve the safety testing of chemicals. This session describes the progress to date, the advantages and limitations of the current approaches, future directions, and the use of high throughput testing for hazard identification and risk assessment.

Featured Session: A Conversation with the NIEHS Director: Linda Birnbaum Wednesday, March 10, Time: 2:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Room 251-D
Dr. Birnbaum joined NIEHS/NTP as director in January 2009 and is a former president of SOT. Come spend an hour with Dr. Birnbaum to hear about new initiatives that may impact the practice of toxicology in the near and long term. Time will also be set aside for questions and to hear suggestions for future research and to answer questions.

Source: NIH/National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences