Chair-Elect

Prof. Trevor M. Penning is Professor of Pharmacology, Biochemistry & Biophysics and Obstetrics & Gynecology, and Director of the Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology (CEET) at the University of Pennsylvania, School of Medicine. He received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Southampton University, U.K. and conducted postdoctoral studies at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine with Dr. Paul Talalay. His research on mechanisms of hormonal and chemical carcinogenesis has led to the elucidation of the role of aldo-keto reductases in steroid, drug and xenobiotic metabolism. His group is credited for the discovery of a novel pathway of PAH activation involving the formation of reactive and redox-active ortho-quinones. He has published over 150 peer-reviewed papers. He has been the recipient of The Albert Ethelbert Ebert Prize and Medal from the American Pharmaceutical Association, a Career Development Award from the National Cancer Institute, and election to The Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars. He is a member of the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, The Biochemical Journal, and Steroids, and he is a full-member of the Cancer Etiology Study Section at the National Institutes of Health. He previously served on the Editorial Board of Chemical Research in Toxicology. He has held many service roles. He was Associate Dean for Postdoctoral Research Training and then became the founding Director of Biomedical Postdoctoral Programs at the University of Pennsylvania. He was Chair of the Graduate Research Education and Training (GREAT) Group of the AAMC in 2006, and Program Chair Division of Chemical Toxicology, ACS 2005-2006. In 2005, he assumed Directorship of the CEET. The CEET is the first Environmental Health Sciences Center in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and is supported by NIEHS.

Prof. Lisa A. Peterson, received a B.A. in Chemistry from Macalester College and a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from the University of California, San Francisco. Her postdoctoral studies were performed at Vanderbilt University in the Center in Molecular Toxicology. After ten years at the American Health Foundation, she joined the faculty at the University of Minnesota where she is currently Professor in the Division of Environmental Health Sciences. She has served as Councilor for the Division of Chemical Toxicology (2002-2004) and Treasurer for the International Society for the Study of Xenobiotics (ISSX, 2004-2005). Dr. Peterson is currently Chair of the Finance committee for ISSX and is a member of the Cancer Etiology Study Section at the National Institutes of Health as well as the Editorial Advisory Board of Chemical Research in Toxicology. Dr. Peterson is interested in mechanisms of chemical carcinogenesis. Her laboratory investigates the consequences of reactive metabolite formation as well as the role of DNA repair on the mutagenic and carcinogenic properties of environmental carcinogens.

Treasurer: Carmello Rizzo & Larry Sayre

Prof. Carmelo Rizzo received his B. A. in Chemistry from Temple University and a Ph. D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania. He was an NIH Post-doctoral Research Associate at Columbia University before joining the faculty at Vanderbilt University in 1992. He currently serves as Co-Deputy Director of the NIEHS Center in Molecular Toxicology at Vanderbilt and is a member of the National Institute of Environmental Health Science Review Committee (2003-2007) and the Editorial Advisory Board of Chemical Research in Toxicology (2006-2009). Dr. Rizzo’s research interests center on the synthesis and study of oligonucleotides that are covalently modified by potential carcinogens. Of particular interest are genotoxins derived from lipid peroxidation such as acrolein, 4-hydroxynonenal, and malondialdehyde and heteroaromatic amines found in cooked meats such as 2-amino-3-methylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoline (IQ).

Prof. Lawrence Sayre received his Ph.D. degree in Organic Chemistry from University of California Berkeley (1977). He did postdoctoral work in Medicinal Chemistry at University of Minnesota (1978-1981) before joining Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, where he is now Frank Hovorka Professor and Chair of the Department of Chemistry (since 2001). He currently holds secondary appointments as Professor in Pathology and in Environmental Health Sciences. He was a NIH Research Career Development Awardee (1987-1992) and served on the Bioorganic & Natural Products Chemistry Study Section of NIH (1988-1992). In addition, he has served as ad hoc NIH reviewer for NIDDK, NINDS, NIEHS, and other study section assignments. Dr. Sayre also reviews regularly for NSF, ACS-PRF, and the Alzheimer’s Association. He has served on the Editorial Board of Chemical Research in Toxicology (1998-2000, 2006-2008) and reviews regularly for a large number of chemical and biochemical journals. He has published more than 180 scientific papers and chapters, a member of ACS since 1977, and of the Chemical Toxicology Division since its origin. His current research focuses on the chemistry of protein modification in oxidative stress and on the quinone-dependent amine oxidases (mechanism and inhibition), with funding primarily from NIH.
Secretary: Kaushik Mitra & Thomas Spratt

Dr. Kaushik Mitra is a Senior Research Chemist in the Department of Drug Metabolism at Merck Research Laboratories, Merck & Co., Inc at Rahway, NJ. He received his B.S. from the University of Missouri-Columbia (MU) in 1993 and continued his graduate work at MU with Prof. Kent S. Gates, receiving his Ph.D. in Chemistry in 2000. After a post-doctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Prof. John M. Essigmann at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he joined Merck in 2003 as a Senior Research Chemist in the department of Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics. He was promoted to Research Fellow in 2006. Research during Mitra’s academic career was focused on understanding covalent and non-covalent interactions of therapeutically relevant small molecules with proteins and DNA. His post-doctoral career was focused towards the design, syntheses and biochemical investigation of novel chemotherapeutics which selectively target estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer and androgen-receptor positive prostate cancer. Currently, responsibilities at Merck involve leading a team of scientists in the design/conduct/interpretation of studies to evaluate metabolism/pharmacokinetic properties of candidate compounds (both small molecules and biologics) in order to select and develop drugs for the treatment of human disease. He was the recipient of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation Post-doctoral Fellowship Award in 2000 for his research at MIT, and a Young Investigator Award for Postdoctoral Presentations in the Toxicology Division at the 222nd National Meeting of The American Chemical Society in 2001. He has served as an elected member of the Executive Committee of the Division of Chemical Toxicology( 2005-2007).

Prof. Thomas E. Spratt received a B.A.(Chemistry) in 1978 at the University of Rochester, and a Ph.D. in Bioorganic chemistry in 1985 from the University of Chicago under the direction of E.T. Kaiser. He had NIH Post-doctoral fellowship with Heinz Floss at the Ohio State University, and with Steve Hecht at the American Health Foundation. After 13 years as a faculty member at the American Health Foundation, he moved to Pennsylvania State University in Hershey, PA, where he is currently an Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He has been an ad hoc member Chemical Pathology Study Section, 2003 and on the Editorial Advisory Board of Chemical Research in Toxicology, 2004-2007. He is currently the Chairperson of the Publicity Committee, Chemical Toxicology Division of the American Chemical Society. His research interests are in mechanisms by which DNA polymerases replicate DNA with high fidelity. and what happens when the polymerase encounters a carcinogen-damaged nucleotide. His research design involves atomic substitution nof the DNA and site-specific mutagenesis of the enzyme to study specific interactions along the reaction pathway.
Councilors Amanda Bryant-Friedrich, Greg Thatcher, Anatoly Zhitkovich, & Paul Henderson (two councilors and two alternates to be elected)

Prof. Amanda Bryant-Friedrich received a B.S. in Chemistry from North Carolina Central University, Durham, NC, a MS in Chemistry from Duke University and a Ph. D. in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from Ruprecht-Karls Universität, Heidelberg, Germany. Her postdoctoral studies were performed at the Universität Basel, Basel, Switzerland in the Institute for Organic Chemistry. After appointments as Associate and Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Oakland University, Rochester, MI and a Lectureship at Wayne State University, she joined the faculty for Medicinal and Biological Chemistry in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Toledo where she is currently an associate professor. Amanda is currently a member of the American Chemical Society Divisions of Chemical Toxicology, Biological Chemistry and Organic Chemistry, the Radiation Research Society, where she is chemistry councilor, the American Association for Cancer Research where she is a member of the Young Chemists Committee within the Chemistry in Cancer Research Focus Group, Sigma Xi, the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She served as an ad hoc member of the NIH panel for Cancer Etiology (2002-2006), The NIEHS Special Emphasis Panel, Superfund Basic Research and Training Program (2007) and has served on several NSF review panels (2002 – present). Her current research interests are in the synthesis of modified DNA/RNA and their use in the study of oxidative nucleic acid damage, DNA-drug interactions and biomarker discovery and analysis.

Dr. Paul Henderson is a Biomedical Scientist in the Chemistry, Materials and Life Sciences Directorate at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the UC Davis Cancer Center. Paul has served as an Alternate Councilor in the Division of Chemical Toxicology for the past two years. He received his B.S. from the University of Florida in 1992 and then did his graduate work at the Georgia Institute of Technology, receiving his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry in 1999. After three years as an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he was hired as Biomedical Scientist at Lawrence Livermore. His research deals with biological applications of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) to molecular toxicology. AMS is a sensitive and precise method for measuring stable radioisotopes in biological systems which is currently being applied to the development of novel biomarkers of inflammation-related disease. He is an author or co-author of 23 original research papers. A major area of interest is the development of novel AMS-based methods to measure formation of DNA and protein oxidation products that correlate disease states. For example, DNA oxidation in vivo produces 8-oxoguanine in significant yield, and this product is labile to subsequent oxidation to form a variety of mutagenic products that are difficult to measure without the use of AMS. These guanine oxidation products are being characterized as potential biomarkers for breast cancer initiation and progression. In addition, AMS is in development for the use in the pharmaceutical industry, since the pharmacokinetics of very low doses of radiolabeled compounds (a few thousandths of a dpm) can be measured with high precision. Other research in the laboratory involves the development of novel methods to detect food borne carcinogens such as those found in cooked meat. This work involves the chemical and enzymatic labeling of DNA and protein modifications from archived samples with radiolabeled compounds.

Prof. Greg Thatcher received his BSc in Chemistry from the University of Manchester and a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Toronto, followed by postdoctoral studies at Sheffield University and a Research Fellowship at Oxford. After 14 years in the Dept. of Chemistry at Queen’s University, he joined the faculty at the University of Illinois at Chicago where he is currently Professor of Medicinal Chemistry. He is a member of the Advisory Board of Chemical Research in Toxicology, is permanent member of the Cancer Etiology Study Section at NIH and routinely acts as ad-hoc reviewer for NIA. NINDS, and NIMH. Dr Thatcher has 90 publications and over 20 issued patents in the areas of chemical biology, physical organic chemistry, chemical toxicology, and medicinal chemistry, the latter leading to a drug for Alzheimer’s disease currently in clinical trials. He has expertise in NO biological chemistry and currently works on small molecules in the context of neurodegenerative disorders, hormone-dependent cancer, and the balance between cancer chemoprevention and cytotoxicity.

Prof. Anatoly Zhitkovich is a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Brown University. He is also a member of Brown Center for Genomics and Proteomics. He received his B.Sc. in biochemistry from Belorussian State University in 1984 (with Distinction) and his Ph.D. in biochemistry from Belorussian Academy of Sciences in 1989. His initial postdoctoral training was in radiation biology and after relocation to the US, in metal carcinogenesis and toxicology at NYU. Following a research faculty position at NYU Dept. of Environmental Medicine, he was recruited to a tenure-track position at Brown University to establish a research program in metal carcinogenesis and teach advanced toxicology courses to undergraduate and graduate students. His main research interests are focused on the mechanisms of formation and repair of DNA-metal adducts and DNA protein-crosslinks.

Nominations Committee: Nick Geacintov, Judy Bolton, Paul Hollenberg, Amit Kalgutkar, & Larry Keefer (three to be elected)

Prof. Judy Bolton received her B.Sc. in 1984 and Ph.D. in 1988 in Organic Chemistry from University of Toronto. She did postdoctoral work in Drug Metabolism and Chemical Toxicology at the University of Colorado from 1988-1990 when she joined the faculty as an Assistant Research Professor from 1990-1992. She then moved to the Department of Chemistry at Queen’s University as an Assistant Professor from 1992-1994 and then to the University of Illinois at Chicago where she is currently a full Professor and Department Head of the Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy. She is currently an associate editor for Chemical Research in Toxicology and Director of the Carcinogenesis and Chemoprevention Program for the UIC Cancer Center. Dr. Bolton’s current research activities are focused on exploring the bioactivation pathways of estrogens and antiestrogens in order to explain the carcinogenic effects of these widely prescribed compounds. In addition, studies are in progress to discover natural alternatives to estrogen replacement therapy such as black cohosh, red clover, and hops. Her laboratory uses a multidisciplinary approach using organic chemistry, biochemistry, toxicology, enzymology, analytical chemistry, and cell biology research techniques to study hormonal carcinogenesis and estrogenic natural products.

Prof. Nicholas E. Geacintov is Professor of Chemistry and currently the Chair of the department at New York University. He received his PhD degree in physical chemistry from Syracuse University (College of Forestry) and spent most of his career at NYU. His current research interests are focused on electron transfer and free radical reactions in DNA, and the chemistry and biology of DNA damage. He has published over 300 manuscripts and.is currently serving on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, and has previously served on the Editorial Advisory Board of Chemical Research in Toxicology. He was also Program Chair for the annual meeting of the Division of Chemical Toxicology from 1999-2002.

Prof. Paul F. Hollenberg, Ph.D., is the Maurice Seevers Collegiate Professor and Chair of Pharmacology at the University of Michigan Medical School. Dr. Hollenberg received his B.S. in Chemistry from Wittenberg University in Springfield, OH, and his Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry from the University of Michigan. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. In 1972 he was appointed Assistant Professor of Biochemistry at Northwestern University Medical and Dental Schools and rose through the ranks to become Professor of Pathology and Molecular Biology. In 1987, he moved to Wayne State University School of Medicine as Professor and Chair of Pharmacology. Dr. Hollenberg became Maurice Seevers Collegiate Professor and Chair of Pharmacology at the University of Michigan Medical School in 1994. Dr. Hollenberg has been a member of the ACS for more than 40 years and has been active in the Division of Chemical Toxicology since its inception. He co-founded Chemical Research in Toxicology in 1997 and served initially as an Associate Editor and more recently as the Review Editor. He has also served as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics and has served on the Editorial Boards of Drug Metabolism and Disposition, Current Drug Metabolism, the British Journal of Pharmacology, the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health and Fundamental and Applied Toxicology. Dr. Hollenberg’s research interests focus on the mechanisms of action of the cytochromes P450; mechanism-based inactivators; the relationship between structure and function of the cytochromes P450; the role of the human P450 isozymes in the metabolism of drugs, chemical carcinogens and other toxic agents; the mechanisms of nitrosamine carcinogenesis; and chemoprevention of chemical carcinogenesis.

Dr. Amit Kalgutkar obtained his Ph.D. degree in organic chemistry from Virginia Tech where he worked under the guidance of Prof. Neal Castagnoli, Jr. His doctoral studies focused on understanding the biochemical/mechanistic basis of the neurotoxicological properties of cyclic tertiary amines such as MPTP. Following his doctoral studies, Dr. Kalgutkar joined the biochemistry department at Vanderbilt University as a post-doctoral fellow in the laboratory of Prof. Lawrence J. Marnett. His post-doctoral work involved the design, synthesis, biochemical and evaluation of novel and selective COX-2 inhibitors as non-ulcerogenic, anti-inflammatory agents. Dr. Kalgutkar started his Pfizer career in September 1999, where he is currently an associate research fellow in the drug metabolism department. His laboratory has supported discovery/development efforts in several therapeutic areas including allergy & respiratory diseases, inflammation, obesity, and recently atherosclerosis and osteoporosis. Dr. Kalgutkar has a deep interest in mechanistic biotransformation particularly as it relates to bioactivation of xenobiotics and has lectured extensively on this topic in external meetings. He serves as a resource/expert in this field to discovery teams in Groton and R & D sites worldwide. He was a key individual on the reactive metabolite working group and was responsible for formulating an ADME strategy for dealing with reactive metabolites for which he was awarded the 2005 Pfizer Global Research & Development achievement award. Dr. Kalgutkar has published over 50 peer-reviewed articles including original papers, review articles and text book chapters. He holds several patents in the field of selective COX-2 inhibitors and their use as anti-inflammatory and chemopreventive agents. Dr. Kalgutkar also continues to serve on the editorial board ofChemical Research in Toxicology since 2004.

Dr. Larry Keefer obtained his Ph.D. in organic chemistry at the University of New Hampshire and has devoted his career to cancer research, initially in the area of chemical carcinogenesis but more recently focused on the chemistry, pharmacology, and toxicology of nitric oxide-releasing drugs. He has contributed a variety of papers to Chemical Research in Toxicology, and has served on the journal’s Editorial Advisory Board. Dr. Keefer is currently a member of the Steering Committee for the American Association for Cancer Research’s (AACR’s) new Chemistry in Cancer Research initiative, an activity that may link the AACR community into our Division and identify candidates for Division elections. He is currently the Chief of the National Cancer Institute’s Laboratory of Comparative Carcinogenesis.
Member at large (Jan 2008-Dec 2009): Shana Sturla & Michelle Dennehy

Dr. Michelle Dennehy received her B.Sc. degree in Chemistry from Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and her Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Missouri. Her doctoral research focused on nitrosamines and their role in carcinogenesis under the supervision of Richard Loeppky. Switching from small to large molecules, her postdoctoral training in proteomics was conducted at Vanderbilt in the laboratory of Dan Liebler, looking at model reactive drug intermediates and their reactions with cellular proteins. Michelle is currently a Principal Scientist at GlaxoSmithKline in the department of Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics where the majority of her research focuses on determining the structure of drug metabolites.

Prof. Shana Sturla graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a B.S. in Chemistry in 1996, and obtained a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry under the guidance of Professor Stephen L. Buchwald at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2001. Her postdoctoral research, carried out in the laboratory of Professor Stephen S. Hecht at the University of Minnesota Cancer Center, concerned tobacco-specific nitrosamine carcinogenesis. Current research in Professor Sturla’s lab in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Minnesota unites research in organic, medicinal, synthetic and analytical chemistry with the study of carcinogenesis, chemotherapy, and chemoprevention. Specific areas of interest include natural-product-derived DNA-alkylating agents and synthetic nucleoside probes. She has found the Division of Chemical Toxicology to provide a creative, inspiring, and supportive community of scientists and strongly identifies as a member.

Member at large (Jan 2008- Dec 2010): Griff Humphreys, Deepak Dalvie

Dr. Deepak Dalvie is a research fellow at Pfizer in the department of pharmacokinetics, dynamics and metabolism in La Jolla CA. He received his Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry at SUNY Buffalo in 1989. After a postdoctoral fellowship for three years in areas of chemistry and metabolism under the supervision of Prof Richard Sundberg at University of Virginia and Prof Neal Castagnoli at Virginia Tech, he joined Pfizer Central Research as a research scientist in 1992. Over the years, Dr. Dalvie rose through the ranks to achieve a title of research fellow. Dr Dalvie is a scientific leader with a strong background in medicinal chemistry, pharmacokinetics and drug metabolism concepts. His research activities are devoted to investigation of biotransformation and bioactivation of xenobiotics and are centered around understanding molecular mechanisms of drug metabolism and metabolic activation. He has authored and co-authored several papers in this area and has published several reviews in these fields. He serves on the editorial board of Drug Metabolism and Disposition and Xenobiotica and is a reviewer for journals such as Chemical Research in Toxicology and Current Drug Metabolism.

Dr. Griff Humphreys is currently the Director of the Biotransformation Department at Bristol-Myers Squibb at the Princeton NJ site. He received his graduate training at the University of Virginia in chemistry and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Vanderbilt University in the Center in Molecular Toxicology. He then joined Bristol-Myers Squibb as a research investigator and has been with the company for 15 years. He oversees a group responsible for drug metabolism, disposition and metabolite identification studies during the candidate optimization and drug development phases. He is a member of ACS and ISSX and serves on the editorial board of Chemical Research in Toxicology. His interests include the consequences of reactive metabolite formation, development of new analytical methodologies for metabolite detection, reaction phenotyping of CYP and UGT catalyzed biotransformations, predictive metabolism and toxicology models, in vitro-in vivo correlations, and strategies for candidate optimization.