Funds are requested to support eight pre-doctoral (Ph.D. candidates) and six postdoctoral trainees in the Training Program in Environmental Toxicology, the long-standing training component of the Center in Molecular Toxicology at Vanderbilt University. This interdisciplinary program provides research career training in molecular aspects of toxicology related to environmental health. Because the field is inherently interdisciplinary, research training in the program spans chemistry, biochemistry, chemical biology, structural biology, analytical technology, functional genomics, pathogen-host interactions, disease pathology, and exposure science. The faculty preceptors have appointments in the departments of Biochemistry, Biological Sciences, Biomedical Informatics, Chemistry, Medicine, Neurology, Pathology/Microbiology/Immunology, Pediatrics, and Pharmacology, all of whom train doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows. Training is achieved through basic and specialized coursework, research rotations, dissertation research, and participation in seminars, journal clubs, and joint research meetings. A distinctive feature of the Program is hands-on training on diverse technology platforms through a highly developed and open system of research facility cores at Vanderbilt. Graduate students are recruited to the Department of Chemistry through departmental mechanisms, with assistance from the Center in Molecular Toxicology. In the medical school departments, graduate students are initially recruited into either the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Biomedical and Biological Sciences or the Quantitative and Chemical Biology Program, where they spend the first 9 months in a common core curriculum and do laboratory rotations. Graduate students are supported for the first year by these programs. Students then are recruited into the Training Program in Environmental Toxicology from these first-year pools, and training program support begins in the second year. Both pre-doctoral and postdoctoral trainees are selected by the Training Program Advisory Committee, with guidelines to ensure distribution of trainees and monitoring of progress. The list of preceptors includes 18 faculty members who are all Investigators in the Center in Molecular Toxicology. Major research areas in the Center include oxidative damage, DNA damage and repair, maintenance of genomic integrity, enzymatic biotransformation and reactions of electrophiles, neurotoxicology, respiratory disease pathophysiology, systems biology, and pathogen-host interactions. Graduates from the program have been highly successful in academia, industry, and other professional settings and include leaders in the field.

Public Health Relevance

This interdisciplinary program has a long-standing and successful history of training scientists for careers in molecular toxicology as applied to environmental health. The trainees have gone on to productive careers in academia, industry, and government institutes. Trainees receive a strong, broad background in basic science with opportunities to specialize in specific sub-disciplines of basic and translational research.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)
Type
Institutional National Research Service Award (T32)
Project #
5T32ES007028-44
Application #
9527144
Study Section
Environmental Health Sciences Review Committee (EHS)
Program Officer
Shreffler, Carol A
Project Start
1975-07-10
Project End
2019-06-30
Budget Start
2018-07-01
Budget End
2019-06-30
Support Year
44
Fiscal Year
2018
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Department
Biochemistry
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
965717143
City
Nashville
State
TN
Country
United States
Zip Code
37240
Gonzalez, Eric; Johnson, Kevin M; Pallan, Pradeep S et al. (2018) Inherent steroid 17?,20-lyase activity in defunct cytochrome P450 17A enzymes. J Biol Chem 293:541-556
Shi, Rongxin; Mullins, Elwood A; Shen, Xing-Xing et al. (2018) Selective base excision repair of DNA damage by the non-base-flipping DNA glycosylase AlkC. EMBO J 37:63-74
Bichell, Terry Jo V; Wegrzynowicz, Michal; Tipps, K Grace et al. (2017) Reduced bioavailable manganese causes striatal urea cycle pathology in Huntington's disease mouse model. Biochim Biophys Acta Mol Basis Dis 1863:1596-1604
Mullins, Elwood A; Shi, Rongxin; Eichman, Brandt F (2017) Toxicity and repair of DNA adducts produced by the natural product yatakemycin. Nat Chem Biol 13:1002-1008
Gnecco, Juan S; Anders, Anjali P; Cliffel, David et al. (2017) Instrumenting a Fetal Membrane on a Chip as Emerging Technology for Preterm Birth Research. Curr Pharm Des 23:6115-6124
Aron, Allegra T; Heffern, Marie C; Lonergan, Zachery R et al. (2017) In vivo bioluminescence imaging of labile iron accumulation in a murine model of Acinetobacter baumannii infection. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 114:12669-12674
Prentice, Boone M; Chumbley, Chad W; Caprioli, Richard M (2017) Absolute Quantification of Rifampicin by MALDI Imaging Mass Spectrometry Using Multiple TOF/TOF Events in a Single Laser Shot. J Am Soc Mass Spectrom 28:136-144
Galligan, James J; Kingsley, Philip J; Wauchope, Orrette R et al. (2017) Quantitative Analysis and Discovery of Lysine and Arginine Modifications. Anal Chem 89:1299-1306
Davis, Anna Nix; Travis, Adam R; Miller, Dusty R et al. (2017) Multianalyte Physiological Microanalytical Devices. Annu Rev Anal Chem (Palo Alto Calif) 10:93-111
Besold, Angelique N; Gilston, Benjamin A; Radin, Jana N et al. (2017) The role of calprotectin in withholding zinc and copper from Candida albicans. Infect Immun :

Showing the most recent 10 out of 265 publications