Olaharski seminar on kinases and toxicity

Recently, we have been inviting some of our alumni to discuss their work and to meet with our students. Earlier this month on Feb. 9, Drew Olaharski (Ph.D., 2004) came to campus to present a seminar on some his work at Roche Pharmaceuticals. The seminar was entitled, "Using kinase inhibitory profiles to predict toxicity" and described their studies using information on the types and origins of kinases to predict activity in the in vitro micronucleus test. Drew gave a nice seminar and I found the the work to be quite impressive. We appreciate Drew's visit and wish him continued success. Above is a picture of Drew (on the right) and two of his colleagues with a dendrogram of the human kinome.

Molecular toxicologist position at TERA

I recently received the following position announcement that I thought might be of interest. If you are interested in applying, please see the contact information at the bottom.

Molecular Toxicologist
Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment (TERA) is seeking a molecular toxicologist to help build on our strong history in human health risk assessment and risk science methods. This is a growth position for someone recently completing a Ph.D. or postdoctoral program in toxicology or a related field. Knowledge of risk assessment methods is a plus, but not required. Experience in computational biology and/or PBPK modeling is also a plus. The successful candidate will be actively involved in diverse tasks using knowledge of toxicology and molecular biology, including:

Preparing critical summaries of toxicity, epidemiology, toxicokinetics, and mechanistic studies for comprehensive toxicological reviews.
Learning and applying human health risk assessment guidelines and methods for the development of toxicity values (e.g., RfDs, RfCs) and cancer assessments.
Critically evaluating and applying mechanistic and mode of action data in evaluating the toxicity of chemicals and relevance of animal toxicity findings to humans.
Evaluating and incorporating biomarker data in risk assessment.
Participating on project teams in the development of documents and research projects related to diverse areas of risk assessment science.

TERA is an independent, non-profit corporation with a mission to support the protection of public health through the best use of toxicity and exposure information in the development of human health and ecological risk assessments. TERA offers an exceptional work environment where career growth and development are strongly supported. TERA also offers the atmosphere of a small organization, together with the opportunity to collaborate with leading scientists worldwide. We hire the best people, maximize their talents, and help them achieve their career goals. We are seeking scientists who are energetic, enjoy scientific challenges and technical details, are excellent writers, and are committed to helping shape the future of a dynamic organization to further our contribution to public health protection. Visit our website at http://www.tera.org>www.tera.org.
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio
Salary: negotiable.
Electronic resumes may be submitted to: Poehlmann@tera.org. Any questions may be directed to Maier@tera.org Please share with colleagues who may be interested

Yushan Yan and Derek Beving's article spotlighted in Chemical & Engineering News

Congratulations to Yushan Yan (an ETOX faculty member), Derek Beving (a recent alumnus) and their colleagues for their recent article on zeolite coatings that was spotlighted in this week's Chemical & Engineering News. The short CEN article can be accessed here and the full article can be found downloaded from the Angewandte Chemie International Edition website (here).

Update: A news report on Yan's zeolite research has also been posted on the UCR newsroom website, and can be accessed here.

Happy Holidays 2007

Happy Holidays to you and yours! Each year the Mission Inn sponsors a Festival of Lights which, I might add, seems to be getting progressively better. According to news reports, the festival involved 3 million lights this year. Here are some of this year's photos.

Wendy Hwang-Verslues Receives Distinguished Postdoctoral Award

Our congratulations to Wendy Hwang-Verslues (Ph.D., 2007) who was recently awarded a distinguished postdoctoral fellowship from the Taiwanese Academia Sinica. Of the 85 postdoctoral fellowships announced during the 2008 1st session, Wendy was one of only five selected for a distinguished fellowship. Wendy is currently working on breast cancer research at the Genomics Research Center in the Academia Sinica in Taipei. We congratulate her on this nice recognition and wish her success in her new position.

Curras-Collazo and Coburn PBDE Research Spotlighted on KNBC News Los Angeles

Last night (Nov. 28), KNBC Los Angeles featured a story on PBDE flame retardants in which Dr. Maggie Curras-Collazo (an ETOX faculty member) and Cary Coburn (an ETOX graduate students) were prominently featured. A video of the news segment can be accessed here and the transcript can be found here. Our congratulations to Maggie and Cary for this nice recognition of their research.

Update: A related article from the UCR newsroom can be found here.

ETOX Survivors of the Mission Inn Run

Congratulations to Noriko Nishino, Lynnie Cua, Katy Zimmermann and Kelly Thrippleton who successfully completed the 5K 30th annual Mission Inn run on Sunday, Nov. 11. A photo above shows the group after the run.