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NHEERL on the Road
Ottawa, Canada
NHEERL Scientists Invited To Participate in International Life Sciences Institute Research Foundation Workshop
NHEERL scientists Kevin Crofton (Neurotoxicology Division) and Doug Wolf (Research Planning and Coordination Staff) were invited to participate in an International Life Sciences Institute Research Foundation workshop on the application of a framework for evaluating the human relevance of modes of action (MOA) in animals and implications for dose-response analysis. The framework, developed over the past several years, already has been adopted widely and used by government agencies and international organizations. This course demonstrated the use of an MOA human relevance framework and replaced default uncertainty factors with data-derived values. It was presented July 22 and 23, 2008, in Ottawa, Canada, in collaboration with the University of Ottawa McLaughlin Centre for Population Health Risk Assessment. In these workshops, opening tutorials introduced workshop participants to basic concepts and walked through example case studies. This led to a series of facilitated interactive case studies in which participants analyzed a diverse series of examples of varying complexity drawn from recent peer-reviewed publications involving "real-world" chemicals. Dr. Crofton and Dr. Wolf acted as facilitators in the breakout session, and Dr. Crofton also presented one of the opening tutorial seminars. In association with this workshop, Dr. Wolf presented a graduate student seminar entitled "New Technologies To Solve Old Problems and Address Issues In Risk Assessment" at the University of Ottawa McLaughlin Centre for Population Health Risk Assessment.
NHEERL Scientist Speaks at Risk Assessment Workshop Sponsored by Health Canada
Stephen Nesnow of NHEERL's Environmental Carcinogenesis Division spoke at a Risk Assessment Workshop on Complex PAH Mixtures in Environmental Matrices held October 29-31, 2007, in Ottawa, Canada. The goals of the workshop were to discuss and evaluate: methods for characterizing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH)-contaminated sites, risk assessment strategies, remediation options and outcomes, additivity in complex mixtures, and comparative potency of PAHs. Dr. Nesnow's talk was on Relative Tumorigenic Activities of PAHs and Complex Mixtures, and Interaction Studies with Groups of PAHs, and PAHs and Complex Mixtures Using Experimental Mouse Skin and Lung Models.
GED Division Director Participates in Canada Foundation for Innovation Review
The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) is holding competitions for the Leading Edge Fund and New Initiatives Fund 2009. Under these funds, CFI will invest $400 million in world-class infrastructure projects with a total cost of over $1 billion. These investments will be made based on the recommendations of Multidisciplinary Assessment Committees (MACs) who rely on expert advice to assist in their decisionmaking process. William H. Benson (NHEERL Gulf Ecology Division [GED] Director) will serve as a member of a committee of experts, chaired by Len Ritter (University of Guelph, Canada), who met in Ottawa, Canada, January 6, 2009, to evaluate a number of proposals in the area of environmental science. Along with Dr. Benson, other members of the committee are Alice Hontela (University of Lethbridge, Canada), Thomas LaPoint (University of North Texas, USA), Jochen Mueller (University of Queensland, Australia), and Giamal Luheshi (Douglas Institute, Canada). The committee will be asked to comment on the strengths and weaknesses of each proposal with respect to CFI's evaluation criteria. These reports, along with the membership list for the committee, will be forwarded to the MAC, which will make the funding recommendation to the CFI Board of Directors.
ORD's MetPath Team Trains Health Canada Staff
Several ORD scientists who are working on the computational metabolism project developing MetaPath, a collaborative effort of NHEERL's Mid-Continent Ecology Division, NERL, and partners in OPP (the ORD MetaPath team), were invited to the Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA), Health Canada, in Ottawa, Canada, on September 10, 2009. The team, which included Patricia Schmieder, Chief of the NHEERL Mid-Continent Ecology Division's Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms Branch, and colleague Rick Kolanczyk, presented a seminar and gave hands-on training on the MetaPath software system. MetPath has been identified as the harmonized platform to be used in an OPP-Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development project to workshare data encoding efforts and future development of metabolism decision support systems. The United States, Europe, and Canada share much of the data in the process of pesticide registration through OPP, the European Food Safety Authority, and PMRA collaborations. The ORD MetaPath team also met with PMRA's Director General to discuss future collaborations.