GTA Meeting May 7-8, 2014 - the Genetic Toxicology Association

Genetic Toxicology Association
Vol. 37 No.1
Spring 2014
Contents
GTA Meeting
May 7-8, 2014
Letter from the Chair…………………….2
“Current Developments in Genetic Toxicology”
Meet the GTA Board .................... …….4
The GTA Board of Directors is pleased to announce a 2-day
scientific meeting of the Genetic Toxicology Association scheduled
to be held at the University of Delaware, Clayton Hall on May 7-8,
2014. The scientific meeting program consists of six symposia.
Entitled: ICH M7 and QSAR Analysis: Good, Bad or Something in
Between, Summary of the Discussion Topics of the 2013 IWGT
Meeting in Brazil, New Technologies, Retrospective Data Analysis
of Genetic Toxicology Assays: What do they really tell us?, ICH S2
(R1): Positive Change and/or New Problems, and Genetic
Toxicology for Cosmetic Ingredients.
Corporate Sustaining Members .... …….9
Call for Board of Directors
Nominations………………………..…. 10
Membership Application……………… 11
2014 Scientific Program ................ ….12
Call for Poster Abstracts................ …..16
Meeting Venue .............................. …..17
Accommodations………… ............ …..17
Registration Form .......................... … .18
2014 Meetings of Interest .............. …..19
Student Outreach .......................... …..20
Announcements ............................ …..21
2013 GTA Award Winners ............. …..23
2013 GTA Excellence in Science Award
Winner’s Reflections…………………….24
Snapshots of the 2012 Meeting ……… 26
Speakers will include leading scientists from the chemical and
pharmaceutical industries, the US regulatory agencies, and
academia. In addition, there will be several opportunities to
network, including breakfasts, lunches, a poster session/social
hour with bar (provided by BioReliance by SAFC), and the banquet
dinner. The GTA board is also planning a student and a young
investigator abstract competition for a total of 4 GTA travel awards
and select one recipient from the poster competition to attend the
2014 EMGS meeting in Orlando, Florida. Please see page 16 for
more information.
We are delighted to offer a 1-day registration option in addition to
the standard 2-day registration. The 1-day registration fee will
include breakfast, lunch and snacks for the selected day. The 2day registration fee will include a full breakfast, lunch and snacks
on both days and a full dinner the first night. The registration form
can be found on page 18 of this newsletter or by visiting www.gtaus.org.
LETTER FROM THE CHAIR
Hello Fellow GTA Members,
Thanks to all of our dedicated GTA members for your continued support of our society,
especially in light of the challenges presented by the government shutdown during the
2013 GTA meeting. In particular, I would like to thank Sheila Galloway and David
DeAntonis who delivered the keynote address and a session presentation for David
Jacobson-Kram (US FDA) who was legally prohibited from attending the meeting during
this time. Regardless of the challenges, the 2013 meeting was a success.
The following is a summary of the changes on the board of directors and within the
ranks of our volunteers. Krista Dobo and Dan Roberts were voted onto the board of
directors at the 2013 meeting, while John Nicolette and Zhanna Sobol are departing
board members. I would like to acknowledge John’s efforts as web liaison and past
scientific program committee member and Zhanna’s contributions to past scientific
programs and her leadership as Chair of the GTA board of directors. Krista has
accepted the role of chair elect and as such will be responsible for the 2015 GTA
meeting. Dan has retired from assistant Treasurer and accepted the role of webmaster
responsible for updating our website and social media pages while, Rohan Kulkarni has
stepped into the role of assistant Treasurer. Rohan and Leon Stankowski (Treasurer) fill
a vital role for our society managing our finances, obtaining sponsor funding, and
organizing meeting logistics including booking the meeting venue and booking speaker
travel arrangements. Other volunteers and GTA board of directors continue in the same
role as last year: Zoryana Cammerer (Communications Chair), Maria Engel (Secretary
& Student Outreach chair), Maik Schuler (Scientific Program Committee Chair), and
Marie Vasquez (Membership Chair), Jane Clarke and Kamala Pant (newsletter and
scientific program booklet editors), Ofelia Olivero (chair, Excellence in Science Award).
On behalf of the GTA Board members I would like to thank all of these dedicated people
for the commitment of their time and energy to benefit the GTA.
As a service to our members, slide presentations from previous GTA meetings are
posted in the member’s only portion of the GTA website (http://www.gtaus.org/scimtgs/index.html) in the Scientific Meeting Archives folder. The slides can be
accessed by clicking on the link following each speaker abstract. Also, job listings are
posted in the member’s only section of the website. I encourage both those seeking
qualified applicants and those searching for jobs to check-out this area.
The GTA only exists due to our paying members. We are a non-profit organization and
the money collected for membership and meeting registration goes to funding our
meetings. Attending a GTA meeting is a very cost efficient method of keeping up to date
on current developments in the field and provides a small meeting venue for members
2
to network with others in industry and government. GTA membership runs from January
to December for a calendar year, so I encourage you to renew your membership for
only $50 at http://www.gta-us.org/apply.html.
In response to scheduling conflicts with other meetings and travel funding issues, the
board of directors decided to move the GTA meeting from Fall back to Spring. The 2014
GTA meeting will be held May 7-8 at the John Clayton Conference Center on the
campus of the University of Delaware at Newark, DE. I’m excited to announce a strong
scientific program with a keynote address by Russell Thomas (NCCT, USEPA) on
TOX21 and international speakers covering a variety of contemporary topics including a
summary of discussion topics from the 2013 IWGT meeting in Brazil, a retrospective
analysis of genetic toxicology data and what it tells us, ICH M7 QSAR analysis,
leachable/extractable case studies, genetic toxicology for cosmetic ingredients, and an
introduction to harnessing the power of new molecular technologies.
I look forward to seeing you at the 2014 GTA Meeting,
Laura Custer
Chair, GTA Board of Directors
www.gta-us.org
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Meet the GTA Board of Directors, 2013
Meet the GTA Board of Directors
Laura Custer, Chair
Maria Engel, Secretary
Laura Custer was voted into the GTA Board of Directors in Sept 2011 and is now its
Chair. Laura is Associate Director of Genetic Toxicology within Drug Safety Evaluation
at Bristol-Myers Squibb. She received her B.S. in Microbiology from the Pennsylvania
State University in State College, PA and then worked at Hazleton Laboratories
conducting cell transformation, DNA repair, in vitro mammalian cell assays, P32Postlabeling, and MutaMouse transgenic mouse studies before entering graduate
school. Laura received a Ph.D. in Chemistry from American University in Washington
DC with an emphasis in Toxicology and DNA repair. She joined Covance Laboratories
as Study Director for in vitro and in vivo genotoxicity assays before joining the
department of Discovery Toxicology at Bristol-Myers Squibb R&D in 1999. Here she
served as toxicologist on early drug discovery groups, and as knowledge center leader
for the predictive toxicology group. Laura assumed leadership of the Genetic Toxicology
department in 2011, and is subject matter expert to drug development teams for
genotoxicity and impurity issues.
Maria Engel has been a member of the GTA for 12 years and a Board member and
Secretary since 2011. She has been actively involved as the Newsletter Editor (20082010) and one of the Student Outreach Chairs (2010-present). Maria is a Scientist in
the Genetic Toxicology Department at Pfizer. She has been a study director for in vivo
studies and executed the in vivo micronucleus in various tissues (bone marrow, liver,
skin and gastrointestinal tract). She especially enjoys performing targeted scientific
research aimed at influencing guidelines and assisting with the development of in house
assays in both in vitro and in vivo test systems. Currently Maria is expanding her role to
include the application of proteomics and gene expression to genetic toxicology. Prior to
joining Pfizer in 1998, Maria characterized the interaction of drug response and body
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www.gta-us.org
pathways using high throughput gene expression at a small biotechnology company.
Maria received a BS in Diagnostic Genetic Sciences (cytogenetics) from the University
of Connecticut and a MS in Pharmaceutical Regulatory Affairs from Temple University.
Zoryana Cammerer, Marie Vasquez and Maik Schuler
Maik Schuler received his Ph.D. from the University of Kaiserslautern in Germany
where he worked on the detection of chromosomal damage induced by environmental
and synthetic estrogens. During a postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. David Eastmond at
the University of California, he developed fluorescence in situ hybridization methods for
the detection of aneugenic and clastogenic damage in vitro and in rodent target tissues
in vivo. Dr. Schuler joined Pfizer Global Research and Development in 2000 and is
responsible for the risk management of early drug development candidates and
development of novel risk management tools. He is involved in the International
Working Groups on Genetic Toxicology (IWGT), the OECD in vitro micronucleus testing
guideline working group, and the ILSI/HESI efforts developing follow-up strategies for in
vitro genetic toxicology positive findings.
Zoryana Cammerer holds BS and MS degrees in Biology, a BS degree in Medical
Sciences and an MBA. Zoryana’s industry experience started in 2000 in the Genetic
Toxicology group at Novartis Pharma AG (Basel, Switzerland) where she conducted her
Ph.D. thesis in cooperation with Vrije University in Brussels, Belgium. In 2008, Dr.
Cammerer joined the Genetic Toxicology group at Pfizer. While at Pfizer, she was
involved in the development and validation of novel in vivo genetic toxicology assays,
supporting risk management strategies and performing in silico modeling of chemical
synthetic routes and compound impurities. She joined the Genetic Toxicology group at
Janssen (J&J) in 2011. At Janssen, her responsibilities include expert review of
impurities, investigating potential new genetic toxicology assays, conducting risk
assessment as well as development of strategic paths forward for compounds at
various stages of project development. She is the GTA communications chair.
www.gta-us.org
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Marie Vasquez is the Operations Director of Helix3 Inc. in RTP, NC. She manages all
of the regulated genetic toxicology studies conducted at Helix3 and heads the program
that develops and conducts new protocols and approaches for investigative weight-ofevidence and mode-of-action studies. Marie received her BS in Zoology from North
Carolina State University while working on lactoferrin gene expression and regulation in
the NIEHS Laboratory of Reproductive and Developmental Toxicology. Following
graduation, Marie took a position in the Cell Biology Department of UNC Chapel Hill to
establish and develop the molecular biology methods for researching the effects of
caffeine on vascular smooth muscle cells and plaque development. Afterwards, she was
hired by Dr. Ray Tice to develop the comet assay at ILS. Ten years later and prior to
starting Helix3, Marie was the Program Manager and Study Director for the Genetic
Toxicology division and responsible for advancing the comet assay methods from
research to risk assessment for regulatory submissions. This prompted her to start
Helix3 in 2003 to address the industry need for GLP research and investigative studies.
Marie has authored or co-authored several peer-reviewed publications, is on the
editorial board of Mutation Research, and is an active member of EMS. She is the GTA
membership chair.
Our newest board members:
Dan Roberts has a BS in biology from SUNY Albany, a MS in Biotechnology from
Johns Hopkins University, and is currently a PhD candidate in the Toxicology program
at the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute at Rutgers University.
After his time at the University at Albany he was employed by Litron Laboratories, and
was quickly introduced to the field of genetic toxicology. He packaged and shipped
MicroFlow micronucleus kits while learning how to conduct and direct Ames Assays.
With a new-found admiration for flow-cytomerty, Mr. Roberts spent the next 3 years at
Covance Laboratories growing a flow lab from the ground-up while pursuing his Masters
degree part-time. As a Research Associate in the Genetic and Molecular Toxicology
Department, he supported the development of multiple assays including CREST/FISH
labeling techniques to discriminate MoA of micronuclei formation and the flow
www.gta-us.org
6
cytometric erythrocyte Pig-a assay to evaluate in vivo mutation. While employed with
Covance, in 2009 the Genetic Toxicology Association (GTA) awarded him with the New
Investigator Award for his work on assessing analytical precision while measuring
mitotic cells in culture. Presently he is a Research Scientist in the Genetic Toxicology
Department of Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) and is working towards a PhD in Toxicology.
At BMS he is responsible for conducting and supporting non-clinical safety studies to
ensure worker and patient safety, and is responsible for maintaining the electronic data
generation systems in a GLP laboratory environment (Comet, Ames, Flow, etc). Mr.
Roberts is also interested in developing new genetox assays for risk assessment
purposes, with focus on utilizing newer technologies like next generation sequencing to
advance the science of genetic toxicology.
Krista Dobo is the Senior Director of the Genetic Toxicology Department at Pfizer
Global Research and Development in Groton, CT. She holds a B.S. in Biology from
Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and received her Ph. D. in Environmental
Toxicology from the University of California, Riverside. During her graduate years she
applied various in vitro genotoxicity assays to evaluate mechanisms of clastogenicity
and mutagenicity. She was a post-doctoral fellow for 1 year in the Genetic Toxicology
Department at Bristol-Myers Squibb. She then joined the Genetic Toxicology group at
Pfizer in 1997. Currently, in addition to her role leading the Genetic Toxicology group,
Krista also provides subject matter expertise to drug development project teams
regarding impurity related issues. Krista served a prior term as a member of the GTA
board of directors and also acted as GTA Newsletter Editor for several years. She is
also a former Councilor of the EMGS, and served as Co-Chair of the EMGS Applied
Genetic Toxicology special interest group. Krista is the GTA chair-elect.
www.gta-us.org
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GTA Volunteers
The following individuals are not board-elected, however, volunteer their time and talents to both
enrich our organization and keep it running smoothly:
Ofelia Olivero: Excellence in Science
Treasurer and Meeting
Logistics: Leon Stankowski
Asst.Treasurer: Rohan Kulkarni
Editors: Jane Clarke & Kamala Pant
www.gta-us.org
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CORPORATE SUSTAINING MEMBERS
We thank the following companies for their support in 2014. Please see page 21 for
information on how your company can support the GTA as a corporate sustaining
member and/or a meeting sponsor. For an updated list, please see the website.
Gold Level:
Silver Level:
www.gta-us.org
9
Insert banner and paragraph for “Call for GTA Board of Director
Nominees”
we have
positions
opening:
SecretaryNOMINEES
and one at
CALL FOR
GTAtwo
BOARD
OF
DIRECTORS
large member
Are you looking to play an active role in advancing our organization? We are looking
for GTA members like you to come forward and serve on the GTA Board of
Directors. All you need to bring is energy and enthusiasm!
Now accepting nominations for the GTA Board of Directors
The board of directors is calling on the GTA members for nominees for elections to be
held at the upcoming meeting. All members are welcome to run for the board, including
new GTA members and those that have served on the board previously. Serving as a
member of the board of directors provides an opportunity to get to know others in the
field, and directly influence the current activities and future direction of the association.
 Board of directors members serve a three-year term.
 The primary responsibilities include planning and chairing the annual GTA
meeting and attending monthly board meetings by teleconference.
 Detailed list of responsibilities and job functions can be found here (web link).
 Candidates must be current members of the GTA at the time of election.
 It is desirable that all nominees are present at the annual meeting; however, in
certain circumstances physical presence during the election is not an absolute
requirement.
Please email Laura Custer ([email protected]) if you are interested, or if you want
to nominate someone else who may be interested.
www.gta-us.org
10
IT’S TIME TO PAY ANNUAL DUES
www.gta-us.org
GTA MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION / RENEWAL
Name:
Last
First
Information Change:
_____ Yes
M.I.
Degree
_____ No
Business Address:
City
( )
Telephone
State
Zip Code
( )
Fax
Email Address
The Genetic Toxicology Association is organized exclusively to meet educational and scientific
goals. The primary purpose is to foster the exchange and dissemination of information regarding
genetic toxicology and to promote the development of the science of genetic toxicology.
Membership is open to anyone interested in the field of genetic toxicology and the annual dues
are currently $50. Student memberships are $25 per year. Dues are for the calendar year.
Renew and pay your membership on-line at www.gta-us.org.
Or send this completed application and appropriate funds (checks made payable to the Genetic
Toxicology Association) by regular postal mail to:
Leon Stankowski
Treasurer, Genetic Toxicology Association
BioReliance
14920 Broschart Road
Rockville, MD 20850
www.gta-us.org
11
2014 Scientific___Meeting Program
Current Developments in Genetic Toxicology
May 7-8, 2014
John M. Clayton Hall Conference Center
University of Delaware, Newark, DE
Scientific Meeting Program
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
7:00 am to 8:15 a.m.
Registration and Breakfast
7:15 am to 9:00 am
Mini workshop: Best Practices for Aneugen/Clastogen Discrimination in
the In Vitro Micronucleus Assay
Maik Schuler, Pfizer
9:00 am to 9:15 am
Welcome & Introduction
Laura Custer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, GTA Chair
9:15 am to 10:00 am
Keynote Speaker: Tox21: High Throughput Screening, Toxicity Pathway
Profiling, and Biological Interpretation of Findings
Russell Thomas, National Center for Computational Toxicology (NCCT),
USEPA
10:00 am to 12:00 am
Symposium I: ICH M7 & QSAR Analysis: Good, Bad or Something in
Between
Chairs: Sandy Weiner, Janssen and Vijay Reddy, Merck
10:00 am to 10:20 am
The Case For 2-System SAR Analysis
Dan Benz, USFDA (retired)
10:20 am to 10:40 am
The Case Against 2-System SAR Analysis
Speaker TBD
10:40 am to 11:00 am
Coffee Break
11:00 am to 11:20 am
Leachables and Extractables
Speaker TBD
11:15 am to 11:30 am
Case Examples
Speaker TBD
11:30 am to 12:00 pm
Podium Discussion
12:00 pm to 1:00 pm
Lunch Break & Business Meeting
1:00 pm to 4:00 pm
Symposium II: Summary of Discussion Topics from 2013 IWGT Meeting
Chairs: Jim MacGregor, Toxicology Consulting Services and Dan Levy,
USFDA
1:00 pm to 1:30 pm
In Vivo Comet Assay
Brian Burlinson, Huntingdon Life Sciences
1:30 pm to 2:00 pm
The Pig-A Assay
Bhaskar Gollapudi, Exponent
2:00 pm to 2:30 pm
Quantitative Aspects of Genotoxicity Testing
Jim MacGregor, Toxicology Consulting Services
www.gta-us.org
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2:30 pm to 3:00 pm
Approaches to Identifying Germ Cell Mutagens
George Douglas, Health Canada
3:00 pm to 3:30 pm
Coffee Break
3:30 pm to 4:00 pm
The Liver Micronucleus Assay
Takeshi Morita, National Institute of Health Sciences, Tokyo, Japan
4:00 pm to 5:00 pm
Speed Session of Poster Presentations*
5:00 pm to 7:00 pm
Poster Session
Presenters should be at their poster per the following
Odd numbers from 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Even numbers from 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm
7:00 pm to 8:30 pm
Dinner (included in the 2-day registration fee)
Thursday, May 8, 2013
7:00 am to 8:15 am
Registration and Breakfast
8:15 am to 8:30 am
Welcome to Day 2
Krista Dobo, Pfizer, GTA Chair-Elect
8:30 am to 10:30 am
Symposium III: Genetic Toxicology for Cosmetic Ingredients
Session Chairs: Marilyn Aardema, Bioreliance; Marilyn Aardema Consulting
and Stefan Pfuhler, Procter and Gamble
8:30 am to 9:00 am
US Regulatory Perspective on Genotoxicity of Cosmetics
Nakissa Sadrieh, USFDA
9:00 am to 9:30 am
EU Regulatory Perspective on Genotoxicity of Cosmetics
Speaker TBD
9:30 am to 10:00 am
Case Study #1- In Vitro Strategies for Dealing with Genotoxicity of
Cosmetic Ingredients
Stefan Pfuhler, Procter and Gamble
10:00 am to 10:30 am
Case Example # 2 - Application of the TT21C Strategy to Safety
Assessment for DNA Damaging Compounds Using Quercetin as a Case
Study
Rebecca Clewell, The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences
10:30 am to 10:50 am
Coffee Break
10:50 am to Noon
Symposium IV: Retrospective Data Analysis of Genetic Toxicology
Assays: What Do They Really Tell Us?
Session Chairs: Rosalie Elespuru, USFDA (retired) and Dan Levy, USFDA
10:50 am to 11:20 am
Sensitivity and Power Calculations in Genetic Toxicology Assays
Speaker TBD
11:20 am to 11:40 am
Sex Differences in the In Vivo Micronucleus Assay
Speaker TBD
11:40 am to Noon
Predictive Value of the In Vivo Micronucleus Assay
Speaker TBD
Noon to 1:30 pm
Lunch & Awards Presentations
1:30 pm to 3:10 pm
Symposium V: Harnessing the Power of New Technologies and Discovery
Chair: Ofelia Olivero, LEC, NCI, NIH and Patricia Escobar, BoehringerIngelheim
www.gta-us.org
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1:30 pm to 1:50 pm
Long non-coding RNAs (LncRNA) and Gene Expression
Aaron Schetter, LEC, NCI, NIH
1:50 pm to 2:10 pm
MicroRNA Methylation
Ana Robles, LEC, NCI, NIH
2:10 pm to 2:30 pm
GeNanoTox: A Tool for Pre-processing and Annotation of Micronuclei
Assay Images and Nanoparticle Microenvironment Characterization
Raul Cachau, OD, NCI, NIH
2:30 pm to 2:50 pm
Bioinformatics in Plain English
Ewy Mathe, NIAMS, NIH
2:50 pm to 3:10 pm
Discussion
Ofelia Olivero
3:10 pm to 3:30 pm
Closing Remarks
Krista Dobo, Pfizer, GTA Chair Elect
www.gta-us.org
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2014 Meeting Program Committee
Laura Custer
Bristol-Myers Squibb, Chair of GTA Board, Program Co-Chair and
session chair
Maik Shuler
Pfizer Global R&D, Program Co-Chair and session chair
Session Chairs:
Marilyn Aardema
Marilyn Aardema Consulting LLC/ BioReliance by SAFC
Rosalie Elespuru
US-FDA-CDRH
Patricia Escobar
Boehringer-Ingelheim
Sheila Galloway
Merck
Dan Levy
US-FDA
Jim McGregor
Consultant
Ofelia Olivero
NIH-NCI
Stephan Pfuhler
Procter & Gamble
Vijay Reddy
Merck
Sandy Weiner
Janssen
Volunteers:
Leon Stankowski
BioReliance, meeting logistics
Maria Engel
Pfizer Global R&D, GTA Student Outreach
Dan Roberts
Bristol-Myers Squibb, meeting logistics
Ofelia Olivero
NCI, Excellence in Science Award
Jane Clarke
BioReliance, newsletter /program book co-editor
Kamala Pant
BioReliance, newsletter/ program book co-editor
www.gta-us.org
15
POSTER SESSION CALL FOR ABSTRACTS
Deadline March 31, 2014
You are invited to present a poster at the meeting on the evening of Wednesday, May 7,
2014. Abstracts should be submitted via the GTA web-site by March 31, 2014
(www.gta-us.org). Based on the number of abstracts received by this date, we may
consider a 1 week extension. For updates and more information on the poster session
and abstract submission, please visit the GTA web-site.
Four GTA travel awards for students/new investigators (not to exceed 5 years of postdoctoral training) in the amount of $750 will be presented based on the merit of the
abstracts submitted to the meeting and one EMGS travel award in the amount of $500
will be presented based on the poster presentation at the meeting. Please see page 20
for further award information.
www.gta-us.org
16
TRAVEL TO THE MEETING VENUE
The meeting place is the John M. Clayton Hall Conference Center on the campus of the
University of Delaware in Newark, DE (not to be confused with Newark, NJ), just north
of the Delaware-Maryland border.
By Air: Philadelphia, PA. Shuttles run from the airport to the University.
By Train: The closest train station is Newark, DE (~15 min cab ride).
By Bus: From Baltimore, New York, DC, Richmond and more (megabus.com)
NOTE: The megabus now has a stop at the UD Laird campus, which is next to the
Clayton Conference Center. Here is a link to an article about it:
http://www.udel.edu/udaily/2013/aug/megabus-service-083112.html
ACCOMMODATIONS
The following five hotels are in Newark, Delaware. The Courtyard by Marriott is on the
University of Delaware campus adjacent to Clayton Hall and the GTA has secured a
block of rooms at discounted rate at this facility. There is another block of rooms within
a 10 minute commute from the meeting venue at the Hilton. Please register early for
both the meeting and the hotel room to ensure you receive these discounted rates.
Hotels with Discounted Rates:
Courtyard by Marriott
Hilton Wilmington/Christiana
400 David Hollowell Drive
Tel: (302) 737-0900
GPS Address: 200 New London Road
Restaurant on Premises,
Walk to the Meeting, Adjacent to Clayton Hall
100 Continental Drive
Tel: (302) 454-1500
Restaurant on premise,
Complimentary breakfast
10 Minute Drive from Clayton Hall
Alternate Accommodations
Homewood Suites
Sleep Inn
Embassy Suites
640 South College Avenue
Tel: (302) 453-9700
Complimentary breakfast
630 South College Avenue
Tel: (302) 453-1700 or (800) 753-3746
Complimentary continental breakfast
Local restaurant in room delivery
654 South College Avenue
Tel: (302) 368-8000
Complimentary breakfast
TGIF on premises
www.gta-us.org
17
2014 MEETING REGISTRATION FORM
REGISTER AND PAY ON-LINE at http://www.gta-us.org
Alternatively you can register by completing this form and sending it along with payment in the
form of a check to the GTA Treasurer, Leon Stankowski.
Register Early To Receive
Discounted Registration Rates
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------NAME:
AFFILIATION:
ADDRESS:
PHONE:
FAX NUMBER:
EMAIL ADDRESS:
CHECK HERE IS INFORMATION HAS CHANGED
2 Day Registration Fees
Early Registration
By April 7, 2014
$300
$350
Free
Late Registration
After April 7, 2014
$350
$400
$50
Member
Non-member
Student
1 Day Registration Fees
Member
$175
Non-member
$225
Student
Free
The 2-day registration fee includes breakfast, lunch, snacks and beverages
days and dinner on the first day.
$200
$250
$25
for coffee breaks on both
TOTAL Enclosed: $
Registration does not include dues. In addition to registration, please remember to pay annual
membership dues. Please complete a membership application form.
Make checks payable to: Genetic Toxicology Association
Send this form to: Leon Stankowski, Treasurer, Genetic Toxicology Association
BioReliance
14920 Broschart Road
Rockville, MD 20850
Phone (direct): 301-610-2887 Fax 301-738-2362
E-mail: [email protected]
www.gta-us.org
18
2014 MEETINGS OF INTEREST
Meeting
2014 Dates
Society of Toxicology (SOT)
2014
Mar 22 - 27,
2014
International Conference on
Environmental Mutagens
EEMS/UKEMS
Jul 6 - 10,
2014
Environmental Mutagen and
Genomics Society (EMGS)
44rd Annual Meeting
American College of
Toxicology (ACT) 33rd
Annual Meeting
Sep 13 -17,
2014
Nov 9 - 12,
2014
Locations
Additional Information
Phoenix, AR, USA
http://www.toxicology.org
/AI/MEET/AM2014/
Lancaster University,
Lancaster, UK
Orlando, FL, USA
http://www.ukems.org/ev
ents/2014/7/6/2014eems-annualconference/
http://www.emgs-us.org
Orlando, FL, USA
http://www.actox.org
www.gta-us.org
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FROM THE STUDENT OUTREACH COMMITTEE
Student and New Investigator Activities at the GTA meeting
GTA welcomes the active participation of students and young investigators in the
annual meeting. This year, exciting activities have been planned.
Student and New Investigator Poster presentations: Posters will be exhibited during
the entire meeting to facilitate exchanges between presenters and participants. Please
see “Poster Session Call for Abstracts” on page 16 for deadline and submission
information. The deadline for abstract submission is March 31, 2014.
GTA Travel awards: Four travel awards for students/new investigators (not to exceed
5 years of post-doctoral training) in the amount of $750 will be presented based on the
merit of the poster abstracts submitted to the meeting.
EMGS “Emerging Scientist” Travel Award: The Environmental Mutagen and
Genomics Society (EMGS) is offering a $500 dollar travel award for a GTA new
investigator/student to attend the 2014 EMGS meeting at Disney World Resort,
Orlando, Florida from September 13–17, 2014. All abstracts from students and new
investigators will automatically be considered for the EMGS Travel Award. The
awardee will be chosen by the GTA based on the poster presentation at the GTA
meeting. Click the following to learn more about EMGS! http://emgs-us.org
Networking breakfast: The outreach committee has organized a networking breakfast
seeking to promote the exchange between students and young investigators with
members of regulatory agencies and industry. The networking breakfast will be held on
the second day of the meeting.
If you have any questions, please contact the Student Outreach Committee:
Maria Engel
[email protected]
Marie Vasquez
[email protected]
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
JOB OPENING
R. J. Reynolds has an opening for a study monitor with genetic toxicology
experience. Please contact Kathy Fowler at: [email protected].
INVITATION TO EXHIBITORS
Exhibition space is available to allow interested vendors the opportunity to showcase
their products or services to the conference attendees. We are especially excited this
year to offer our exhibitors the chance to host a dedicated half- or full-day workshop on
the day before or after the conference. Facilities will be available for classroom/lecture
presentations or hands-on demonstrations, with capacities for a handful or a few
hundred participants. Exhibitor and workshop space is limited, so please inquire as
soon as possible. Please contact the GTA Treasurer, Leon Stankowski, at
[email protected] to make arrangements for the upcoming meeting.
GTA CORPORATE SPONSORSHIP
The Board of Directors and members of the Genetic Toxicology Association (GTA) are
inviting organizations to support the GTA’s efforts to foster sustained excellence in
genetic toxicology. The GTA is a tax-exempt educational and scientific organization and
any contributions will be used to help the GTA continue to support its activities to
promote scientific excellence in this field. Several contribution mechanisms are
available: Sustaining Membership (Gold: $500 or Silver: $250) for general, nondesignated use by the GTA; Targeted Contribution towards a specific event or
function (e.g., meeting breaks or lunch, offsetting meeting expenses, student travel
award, etc.); Session Sponsor ($1000). Please contact Leon Stankowski (GTA
Treasurer) at [email protected] if you are interested in corporate
sponsorship.
Advertising Space
We are offering an opportunity for companies to purchase advertising space in our
meeting program booklet, and on badge lanyards. Please contact the GTA Treasurer,
Leon Stankowski, at [email protected] for information and prices.
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Did you like us on Facebook?
Join us on LinkedIn?
Thanks to Dan Roberts in bringing us to the social network so that we can all connect
and share our professional activities.
For their contributions to the GTA:
In 2013, we had two outgoing board members; Zhanna Sobol (Pfizer) and John
Nicolette (AbbVie). They were elected to the board in 2010 and served various roles
within the GTA. Zhanna served as the Board of Directors Chair in 2013 and as the
scientific meeting chair in 2012. John served as the organization’s webmaster. Ofelia
Olivero and Patricia Escobar rotated off of the student outreach committee in Oct
2013. Zhanna, John, Ofelia, and Patricia: your contributions were invaluable to our
organization and we thank you!
2013 Meeting Sponsors:
The Genetic Toxicology Association would like to thank the following sponsors for
generously supporting our 2013 meeting:
BioReliance
HESI
EMGS
A Friend!
Boehringer Ingleheim
Pfizer
SOT
2013 Meeting Exhibitors:
Our meeting exhibitors provided an opportunity to view the newest products and
services in the field of genetic toxicology. We thank them for their participation.
Bertin Technologies
BioReliance
Leadscope Incorporated
Molecular Toxicology
Perceptive Instruments, LTD
www.bertin.fr
www.Bioreliance.com
www.leadscope.com
www.moltox.com
perceptive.co.uk
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2013 GTA Award Winners
2013 New Investigator and Student Travel Award Winners:




Thuy-Linh Nguyen: Bacterial Reverse Mutation Assays of UV-irradiated FDA
Listed Colorants (student)
Michael Ongele: Cytoprotective Effects of the Antioxidants Tempol and WR1065 in Human Lymphoblastoid Cells Exposed to Zidovudine (AZT) (student)
Lidiya Stavitskaya: Development of Improved QSAR Models for Predicting A-T
Base Pair Mutations (new investigator)
Alessandro Venosa: Alterations in Lung Macrophage MicroRNA Expression and
Histone Acetylation and Methylation following Nitrogen Mustard Exposure in Rats
(student)
Excellence in Science Award
The GTA was pleased to award Dr. Rosalie Elespuru (FDA-CDRH) with the 2013 GTA
Excellence in Science Award. She has dedicated her career to the field of genetic
toxicology. See her reflections on the next page.
Survey Winner
Garrett Garborcauskas (Smith College) received a cash prize for returning the survey
form! Remember, your opinion and input count towards each next year’s meeting
agenda.
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2013 GTA Excellence in Science Award
Adventures of a scientist, with homage to notable mentors
Rosalie Elespuru, PhD
My life as a scientist was spent largely with William Lijinsky, my husband through
graduate school and beyond, encompassing more than 3 decades. Life with him was a
“trip” in several senses of the word. He came to the US and developed the world’s
largest chemistry set, following his boyhood experiments setting his attic on fire and
dumping a pound of sodium into the Mersey in Liverpool, also creating a large fire.
Born in Ireland and raised in Liverpool, he first visited the US as a post-doc at Cal Tech,
when Pasadena was mainly orange groves. From this utopia following a childhood in
war-torn Europe, he never strayed. His deep love of science was infectious, as was his
sense of adventure. Adventure is not one of the hallmarks of science that we assimilate
in school, but it can be an outcome and even a goal. A trip, as in travel, was also our
lot, including meetings and conferences from Beijing to Buenos Aires. We collaborated
throughout our careers and often sat together over lunch to discuss science. We didn’t
always agree, and we brought different perspectives, his chemistry and pathology, mine
genetics and molecular biology. As Marilyn Aardema noted last year, we brought our 3
month old daughter to the EMS meeting in Nashville in 1980. I even gave a talk; it was
likely this recognition that helped my election to Council that year.
Jane Setlow and Dick Kimball were my University of Tennessee at Oak Ridge graduate
school mentors. Dick Setlow was a professor in the school, and besides biophysics he
taught concepts that were everlasting. Science is a “random walk.” I didn’t really
understand that then, but it fits in with what Willie suggested – just go into the lab and
do experiments. It doesn’t really matter what you are doing, things will happen. That’s
because we don’t really understand what is going on; discoveries are there to be made.
This is actually counter to hypothesis-driven science, in which a generally accepted
theory is tested in one small way. It really is too bad that we are forced into a scientific
straightjacket these days. Willie discovered that his negative control in a nitrite-plusamine drug feeding experiment designed to generate dimethylnitrosamine was itself a
carcinogen. This drug was methapyrilene (the “extra ingredient” in Excedrin PM).
Further experiments showed that any structural change in the molecule eliminated the
carcinogenic activity. Methapyrilene is sometimes used as a model of a non-genotoxic
carcinogen; however, the basis of its carcinogenicity is still not understood. It was
quietly removed from over-the-counter drugs and replaced with another amine whose
activity we probably also don’t understand.
Jane Setlow kept us laughing in the lab. She had a list of ~25 statements that we could
call out by number, including “get your crap out of here” and “to break thermometer (in
the water bath), tilt back lid”. It might have been her humor that got us through the
period when my best set of experiments proved that one of their publications had a
fundamental error. I didn’t realize then that I was following Dick Setlow’s adage when
he said, “don’t worry about the third decimal point; avoid the big boo-boo”. That is, don’t
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get bogged down in the details; make sure you are doing the right experiment and that
something fundamental is not undermining your entire premise. Also, he meant don’t
calculate something to the third decimal point if your data are not significant at that
level. The corollary is, think about the level of significance of your data. Concerning big
boo-boo’s in science, I believe there is a significant amount of them today. It may be
the cause of the increasing proportion of published experiments that are found not to be
reproducible. Examples abound: reading of microarray data was found to be off by one
column yet duly considered valid and subjected to “bioinformatics”, which is supposed
to compensate for poor experimentation; instruments were not calibrated similarly for
experiments and controls and this was responsible for the differences observed;
systematic errors, including order of sample handling, occurred in cell phone radiation
experiments; plastic dishware is used with solvents that interact with it.
My grandest adventure was probably the series of experiments leading to the discovery
of Gilvocarcin V, arguably the world’s most potent DNA damaging agent, which resulted
in a publication in Science. This certainly validates the concept of just doing
experiments – what could be more mundane and less intellectually stimulating than
running a screening program with hundreds of fermentation broths? The important
corollary is, “keep your mind open no matter how dull the experiments may seem.” I
was using the lambda-lacZ prophage induction assay I had developed as a post-doc in
Frederick, screening fermentation broths for DNA damaging capability in an NCI antitumor agent discovery program. The chemists would track the active principle in any
positive spots, but could not get reproducible data with one broth. There were all-ornone effects, i.e. it was there strongly or it wasn’t there at all according to my results,
especially in a lab I had moved to across the street. This was a great mystery, and
embarrassing as well, since it appeared that I couldn’t get reproducible results with my
own assay. One entire year later, I “saw the light.” We ran the same experiment with
yellow or with white lights on. There was the all-or-none effect! The active ingredient
was a photoactive DNA damaging agent discovered independently in multiple places
around the world, but no one knew it was photoactive. It was so photosensitive that
ambient lighting activated it. We finally had to use a dark room minus exit signs for light
negative controls.
Recently, I had a toxic reaction to a plant I was weeding out of the lake near my house.
It landed me in the hospital with almost no platelets and was entirely mysterious. I
suddenly turned yellow in the ER, 5 days after contacting the plant. The doctors
checked for liver function even though the color was asymmetric on my body, as my
friend noticed. Later, sitting at my computer, I realized the color deposition exactly
modeled light falling on my skin from a nearby window. It was phototoxic. If this could
happen to me while at my desk, just imagine how much is really going on that the world
does not notice!
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Snapshots of the 2013 GTA meeting
4 Amigas
Guess who?
Laura and Bas-jan
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Marilyn and Sandy
Sheila subbing for DJ-K
Zhanna’s last meeting as GTA chair
Please visit our
website to view
more pictures of
the meeting.
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