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David Dix, Deputy Director of EPA's National Center for Computational Toxicology

David Dix

 Education and training

  • University of Illinois at Chicago, B.S., 1985, Biological Sciences
  • Rush University, Ph.D., 1990, Physiology
  • North Carolina State University, Post-Doc, 1990-1992, Biochemistry
  • National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Post-Doc, 1992-1995, Reproductive and Developmental Toxicology

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 Positions and honors

 Research and professional experience

  • 2009-present: Acting Deputy Director, National Center for Computational Toxicology, U.S. EPA/ORD, RTP NC
  • 2005-present:  Research Biologist, National Center for Computational Toxicology, U.S. EPA/ORD, RTP NC
  • 2008-present: Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC.
  • 2004-2005: Lead Research Biologist, Genomic Effects Team, U.S. EPA, ORD/NHEERL/RTD, RTP, NC. 
  • 2001-2007: Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Molecular and Environmental Toxicology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC.
  • 1997-1998: Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, North Carolina Central University, Raleigh, NC.
  • 1995-2004: Research Biologist, Gamete and Early Embryo Branch, Reproductive Toxicology Division, National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory, Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, RTP, NC. 
  • 1992-1995: Intramural Research Fellow, Laboratory of Reproductive and Developmental Toxicology, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Research Triangle Park, NC (Mentor: Dr. E.M. Eddy).
  • 1990-1992: Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Biochemistry, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC (Mentor: Dr. Elizabeth Theil).

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 Professional societies and affiliations

  • 1999-2006  Society for the Study of Reproduction
  • 2001-present Society of Toxicology

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 Honors and awards

  • 2006 EPA Superior Accomplishment Recognition Award (SARA) for creating and chairing the EPA Chemical Prioritization Community of Practice.
  • 2007 SARA for fostering coordination between ToxCast and OECD Molecular Screening Project.
  • 2007 EPA Quality Step Increase for outstanding performance.
  • 2007 ORD Bronze Medal Award for characterizing toxicity pathways of conazoles.
  • 2008 Promotion through Technical Qualifications Board to GS-15.
  • 2008 ORD Scientific and Technological Achivevement Award Level II for metabolomics program.

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 Selected invitations at national and international symposia

  • International Society Regulatory Toxicology Pharmacology annual meeting, Nov 2005, Baltimore, MD. “ORD’s Computational Toxicology Research Program”.
  • NAS/NRC workshop on Applications of Genomic Signatures, Dec 2005, Welches, OR. “Antifungal Toxicogenomics”.
  • CARCINOGENOMICS 1st Annual EU Consortium Meeting, Nov 2007, Valencia, SPAIN. “EPA’s ToxCast Program: Prioritizing the Toxicity Testing of Environmental Chemicals”.  
  • 4th International Conference on Toxicogenomics (ICT), Korean Society of Toxicogenomics and  Toxicoproteomics. Incheon, Korea, Nov 2008. “EPA’s ToxCast Program…”
  • 40th Annual Symposium of the Society of Toxicology of Canada, Montréal, Quebec, Dec 2008. “The U.S. EPA’s ToxCast Program…”

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 Selected expert committees/advisory panels/organizing committees

  • 1995-present Mentored 9 undergraduate, 7 graduate, and 6 postdoctoral students; one EPA intern.
  • 2005-present Organizing Committee of Microarray Quality Control Project.
  • 2005-present Editorial Board, Toxicological Sciences.
  • 2007-present Editorial Board, Systems Biology in Reproductive Medicine. 
  • 2007-present Scientific Advisory Board, EU project CARCINOGENOMICS.
  • 2009-present Scientific Advisory Board, EU project ChemScreen.

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 Selected assistance/advisory support to EPA

  • 2006-present Contracting Officer’s Representative (Project Officer) on eight ToxCast contracts.
  • 2006-present Developing ToxRefDB for OPP, OECD and extramural use.
  • 2007-2008  ORD Future of Toxicology Working Group.
  • 2009-present Chemical prioritization effort for OPPTS.

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 Selected publications (selected from a total of 75 peer-reviewed).

  • Tully DB, JC Luft, JC Rockett, H Ren, JE Schmid, CR Wood, DJ Dix (2005). Reproductive and genomic effects in testes from mice exposed to the water disinfectant byproduct bromochloroacetic acid. Reproductive Toxicology 19(3):353-366.
  • Bao W, JE Schmid, AK Goetz, H Ren, DJ Dix (2005). A database for tracking toxicogenomic samples and procedures. Reproductive Toxicology 19(3):411-419.
  • Ostermeier GC, RJ Goodrich, MP Diamond, DJ Dix, SA Krawetz (2005). Towards using stable spermatozoal RNAs for prognostic assessment of male factor fertility. Fertility and Sterility, 83:1687-94.
  • Barton HA, Tang J, Sey YM, Stanko JP, Murrell RN, Rockett JC, Dix DJ (2006). Metabolism of myclobutanil and triadimefon by human and rat cytochrome P450 enzymes and liver microsomes. Xenobiotica 36:793-806.
  • Denslow ND, JK Colbourne, DJ Dix, JH Freedman, CC Helbing, S Kennedy, PL Williams (2006). Selection of surrogate animal species for comparative toxicogenomics. In: Emerging Molecular and Computational Approaches for Cross-Species Extrapolations. Eds. W Benson and R Di Giulio. SETAC Press, Florida.
  • Dix DJ, Gallagher K, Benson WH, Groskinsky BL, McClintock JT, Dearfield KL, Farland WH (2006). A framework for the use of genomics data at the EPA. Nat Biotechnol 24:1108-11.
  • Goetz AK, Bao W, Ren H, Schmid JE, Tully DB, Wood C, Rockett JC, Narotsky MG, Sun G, Lambert GR, Thai SF, Wolf DC, Nesnow S, Dix DJ (2006). Gene expression profiling in the liver of CD-1 mice to characterize the hepatotoxicity of triazole fungicides. Toxicol Appl Pharmacol 215:274-84. 
  • Kim SJ, Dix DJ, Thompson KE, Murrell RN, Schmid JE, Gallagher JE, Rockett JC (2006). Gene expression in head hair follicles plucked from men and women. Ann Clin Lab Sci 36:115-26. 
  • Kim YK, Suarez J, Hu Y, McDonough PM, Boer C, Dix DJ, Dillmann WH (2006). Deletion of the inducible 70-kDa heat shock protein genes in mice impairs cardiac contractile function and calcium handling associated with hypertrophy. Circulation 113:2589-97.
  • Rockett JC, Narotsky MG, Thompson KE, Thillainadarajah I, Blystone CR, Goetz AK, Ren H, Best DS, Murrell RN, Nichols HP, Schmid JE, Wolf DC, Dix DJ (2006). Effect of conazole fungicides on reproductive development in the female rat. Reprod Toxicol 22:647-58.
  • Shi L et al. (2006). The MicroArray Quality Control (MAQC) project shows inter- and intraplatform reproducibility of gene expression measurements. Nat Biotechnol 24:1151-61.
  • Tully DB, Bao W, Goetz AK, Blystone CR, Ren H, Schmid JE, Strader LF, Wood CR, Best DS, Narotsky MG, Wolf DC, Rockett JC, Dix DJ (2006). Gene expression profiling in liver and testis of rats to characterize the toxicity of triazole fungicides. Toxicol Appl Pharmacol 215:260-73.
  • Cherney DP, Ekman DR, Dix DJ, Collette TW (2007). Raman spectroscopy-based metabolomics for differentiating exposures to triazole fungicides using rat urine. Anal Chem 79:7324-32.
  • Dix DJ, Houck KA, Martin MT, Richard AM, Setzer RW, Kavlock RJ (2007). The ToxCast program for prioritizing toxicity testing of environmental chemicals. Toxicol Sci 95:5-12. 
  • Goetz AK, Ren H, Schmid JE, Blystone CR, Thillainadarajah I, Best DS, Nichols HP, Strader LF, Wolf DC, Narotsky MG, Rockett JC, Dix DJ (2007). Disruption of testosterone homeostasis as a mode of action for the reproductive toxicity of triazole fungicides in the male rat. Toxicol Sci 95:227-39.
  • Kim SJ, Dix DJ, Thompson KE, Murrell RN, Schmid JE, Gallagher JE, Rockett JC 2007). Effects of storage, RNA extraction, genechip type, and donor sex on gene expression profiling of human whole blood. Clin Chem 53:1038-45.
  • Martin MT, Brennan RJ, Hu W, Ayanoglu E, Lau C, Ren H, Wood CR, Corton JC, Kavlock RJ, Dix DJ (2007). Toxicogenomic study of triazole fungicides and perfluoroalkyl acids in rat livers predicts toxicity and categorizes chemicals based on mechanisms of toxicity. Toxicol Sci 97:595-613.
  • Platts AE, Dix DJ, Chemes HE, Thompson KE, Goodrich R, Rockett JC, Rawe VY, Quintana S, Diamond MP, Strader LF, Krawetz SA (2007). Success and failure in human spermatogenesis as revealed by teratozoospermic RNAs. Hum Mol Genet 16:763-73. 
  • Judson R, Richard A, Dix D, Houck K, Elloumi F, Martin M, Cathey T, Transue TR, Spencer R, Wolf M. (2008). ACToR--Aggregated Computational Toxicology Resource. Toxicol Appl Pharmacol. 15;233(1):7-13. 
  • Kavlock RJ, Ankley G, Blancato J, Breen M, Conolly R, Dix D, Houck K, Hubal E, Judson R, Rabinowitz J,  Richard A, Setzer RW, Shah I, Villeneuve D, Weber E. (2008). Computational toxicology--a state of the science mini review. Toxicol Sci. 2008 May;103(1):14-27.
  • Barrier M, Dix DJ, Mirkes PE (2009). Inducible 70 kDa heat shock proteins protect embryos from teratogen-induced exencephaly: Analysis using Hspa1a/a1b knockout mice. Birth Defects Res A Clin Mol Teratol  28;85(8):732-740.
  • Goetz AK, Dix DJ (2009). Mode of action for reproductive and hepatic toxicity inferred from a genomic study of  triazole antifungals. Toxicol Sci. 110(2):449-62. 
  • Goetz AK, Dix DJ (2009). Toxicogenomic effects common to triazole antifungals and conserved between rats  and humans. Toxicol Appl Pharmacol. 238(1):80-9.
  • Judson R, Richard A, Dix DJ, Houck K, Martin M, Kavlock R, Dellarco V, Henry T, Holderman T, Sayre P, Tan  S, Carpenter T, Smith E (2009). The toxicity data landscape for environmental chemicals. Environ Health Perspect. 117(5):685-95. 
  • Knudsen TB, Martin MT, Kavlock RJ, Judson RS, Dix DJ, Singh AV (2009). Profiling the activity of  environmental chemicals in prenatal developmental toxicity studies using the U.S. EPA's ToxRefDB.  Reprod Toxicol. 28(2):209-19.
  • Martin MT, Judson RS, Reif DM, Kavlock RJ, Dix DJ (2009). Profiling chemicals based on chronic toxicity  results from the U.S. EPA ToxRef Database. Environ Health Perspect. 117(3):392-9. 
  • Martin MT, Mendez E, Corum DG, Judson RS, Kavlock RJ, Rotroff DM, Dix DJ (2009). Profiling the  reproductive toxicity of chemicals from multigeneration studies in the toxicity reference database. Toxicol Sci. 110(1):181-90. 
  • Goetz AK, JC Rockett, H Ren, I Thillainadarajah, DJ Dix (in press). Inhibition of Rat and Human  Steroidogenesis by Triazole Antifungals. Systems Biol Repro Med. In press.
  • Houck KA, DJ Dix, RS Judson, RJ Kavlock, J Yang, EL Berg (2009). Profiling Bioactivity of the ToxCast  Chemical Library Using BioMAP Primary Human Cell Systems. J Biomolec Screen. In press.

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