Toxicology Track

Weekly Newsletter of the MSU Center for Integrative Toxicology
Director: Dr. Norbert Kaminski / Editor: Lauren St.John

July 13, 2009, Vol. 32, Number 27

Courses / Job Postings

Courses

Computational Systems Biology and Dose Response Modeling Short Course
PHM 980-1, Section 601, 1 credit (fulfills the EITS Topics in Toxicology requirement)

Date: October 7-9, 2009 (all day Oct. 7 and 8, half day on Oct. 9)

Location: Food Safety and Toxicology Building, room 164

Instructors: Qiang Zhang, Sudin Bhattacharya, and Melvin E. Andersen, Division of Computational Biology, The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences; and Rory Conolly US Environmental Protection Agency.

Course Description: In this short course, you will learn:

• Current computational modeling techniques for the quantitative investigation of how biological systems respond to perturbations at the cellular level.

• Common themes in signal transduction and gene regulatory networks that underlie systems-level cellular behaviors including homeostasis, adaptation, threshold response, binary cell fate decisions, and irreversible differentiation.

• How molecular circuits comprising genes and proteins give rise to different dose response behaviors.

• To use these techniques to develop computational models for understanding and predicting dose response behaviors of drugs and environmental agents.

The course comprises lectures and hand-on computer simulation exercises. Students will be required to bring a PC laptop computer each day to the course as there will be sample data sets for them to model. Please visit http://www.thehamner.org/education-and-training/drm_workshop.html for a full description of a one-week version of this course. Contact Dr. Norbert Kaminski, kamins11@msu.edu, with questions.

Job Postings

The Research Institute for Fragrance Materials (RIFM) has added a rotating scientific staff position, designed to provide training in fragrance safety. The primary purpose is to serve as a source, for the industry, of well-prepared individuals who may fill company positions in technical, safety and regulatory affairs.

Individuals are selected for their formal educational background, preferably with a doctoral degree in toxicology, environmental science, biology or chemistry. This position is comparable to postdoctoral training or a research associateship within a non-laboratory organization.

Responsibilities are as varied as possible, to provide the broadest background for the greatest benefit to the industry. They are comparable to “study sponsor” individual contributor functions, such as development and monitoring of specific test protocols at contract research organizations. The position also may be the focal point for reaching consensus on study design and interpretation, with staff, working groups and standing industry committees, such as the IFRA Scientific Committee and Joint Advisory Group, as well as with RIFM’s Expert Panel. Manuscript preparation and technical report writing are included, as is interaction with the flavor/fragrance database to insure the incumbent’s familiarity with quality control of added information. Other duties encourage internal and member company interactions.  Every effort is made to assign special projects which broaden the individual’s experience, such as the application of Quantitative Structure Activity Relationships (QSAR), since the technique is common to chemical groupings, predictions and REACH. Skills such as critical evaluation, interdisciplinary coordination and strategic design, are developed.

The incumbent spends time working in the safety/regulatory departments of one or more selected RIFM member companies and IFRA’s Brussels office. This allows exposure to safety and regulatory compliance on a day-to-day basis. It gives companies a chance to evaluate the incumbent as a potential employee and also allows the trainee to evaluate his/her fit within the industry. Applied aspects also are presented in this manner, such as Quantitative Risk Assessment, general exposure assessment, regulation details, material/product certification, IFRA compliance, alternative methodologies and safety approval processes, as well as interaction with research & development, operations and brand management departments within companies.

The amount of time in position normally is from 12 to 24 months, during which the incumbent is a full time RIFM employee.  The exact duration is dependent on industry needs and the individual’s progress. During training, RIFM pays all expenses for compensation, benefits and travel.  At the end of the period, the trainee will most likely be hired by a member company in the fragrance or flavor industry, although it may be possible that RIFM would have a permanent position available.

Interested individuals should respond to Dr. Ladd Smith: smith@rifm.org.