Biographical Sketches for the Candidates

Biographical Sketches for the Candidates

Treasurer (2010 – 2011)

The Treasurer is the Chief Financial Officer of the Division of Chemical Toxicology. The Treasurer is responsible for setting up the bank accounts for the Division, for receiving income to the Division and for making disbursements. It is also the responsibility of the Treasurer to see that a financial statement is prepared annually for presentation to the Executive Committee and that the financial report be filed to the national offices of the ACS as stipulated by the national offices.

Bongsup Cho, Ph.D., University of Rhode Island

Bongsup Cho earned BS and MS degrees in Chemistry at Yonsei Univ. and his Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry at Univ. of Illinois Medical Center. After conducting post-doctoral work at the Univ. of Chicago and FDA National Center for Toxicological Research, he joined the Univ. of Rhode Island College of Pharmacy in 1991, where he is currently a Professor of Medicinal Chemistry. He teaches the medicinal chemistry of oncologic and CNS drugs and is the Director of the URI Pharmacy Teaching Animation Program. His research is focused on the structure-function-relationships of DNA adducts and on the molecular mechanisms underlying the protein-DNA interactions involved in repair and replication. He is the Program Coordinator of the NIH-sponsored Rhode Island IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (RI-INBRE) program. He has served on the permanent member board of the NIH Cancer Etiology Study Section (2004-2008).

Ashis Basu, Ph.D., University of Connecticut.

Ashis Basu received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Wayne State University, Detroit, MI and did postdoctoral research at MIT, Cambridge, MA. In 1990 he joined the University of Connecticut where he currently is a Professor of Chemistry. Dr. Basu is the recipient of Research Career Development Award from NIH. He has served on numerous review committees and was a regular member of Chemical Pathology and Cancer Etiology study sections of the NIH. He is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Nucleic Acids. The research focus of the Basu laboratory is determination of the consequences of DNA damaged by anti-tumor drugs, chemical carcinogens, oxidation or radiation. This research at the interface of Chemistry and Biology involves introduction of specific lesions in DNA by chemical synthesis, investigation of the structural effects of the lesions, and studying their repair and replication. He has published more than seventy peer-reviewed articles.


Secretary (2010 – 2011)

The duties of the Secretary include keeping an active role of the Division, to file a yearly report with the ACS, to take minutes at the Executive Committee and the general business meetings of the Division. The Secretary is also responsible for informing the Nominating Committee as to open offices and to oversee the TOXI election process. The Secretary is responsible for communication with the TOXI members.

Thomas E. Spratt, Ph.D., Pennsylvania State University

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 Secrertary and 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.


Executive Committee, Member-at-Large (2010 – 2012)

There are three members-at-large of the Executive Committee that are elected for three-year terms. The duties of the members-at-large are to assist the chair in running the Division.

Michelle K. Dennehy, Ph.D., Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research

Michelle Dennehy received her B.Sc. degree in Chemistry from Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, and her Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Missouri – Columbia. Her doctoral research focused on nitrosamines and their role in carcinogenesis under the supervision of Richard Loeppky. During her postdoctoral training in proteomics at Vanderbilt University in the laboratory of Dan Liebler, Michelle studied model reactive drug intermediates and their reactions with cellular proteins. In 2005, Michelle joined the Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics group at GlaxoSmithKline where her main responsibility was metabolite structure elucidation. Michelle is currently at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research in the Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics department in Cambridge representing Infectious Deseases projects as well as serving as a member of the Biotransformation team.

Yinsheng Wang, Ph.D., University of California, Riverside

Yinsheng Wang obtained his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Chemistry from Shandong University and Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1993 and 1996, respectively. He carried out his Ph. D. research at Washington University in St. Louis in 1997-2001, working under the guidance of Profs. Michael L. Gross and John-Stephen A. Taylor. He is now a Professor in Chemistry and the Director for the Environmental Toxicology graduate program at the University of California Riverside. Current research in his group includes DNA damage induced by reactive oxygen and reactive carbonyl species, post-translational modifications of proteins, and cytotoxic mechanisms of anti-tumor drugs. He has served on the Editorial Advisory Board of Chemical Research in Toxicology.


Nominations Committee (3 members, 2010)

The Nominations committee consists of three members elect for one-year terms. The member recieving the most votes becomes Chair of the Committee. The duties of the committee are to nominate candidates for the offices that are to be filled in the next election. In making the nominations, the committee should be attentive to issues of diversity and look for broad representation within the membership of the division.

Judy L. Bolton, Ph.D., University of Illinois at Chicago

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.

Thomas A. Baillie Ph.D., University of Washington

Thomas A. Baillie currently is Dean of the School of Pharmacy at the University of Washington in Seattle, WA. He was born in Scotland and educated at the University of Glasgow, where he earned B.Sc. (Hons) and Ph.D. degrees in Chemistry in 1970 and 1973, respectively. He also holds an M.Sc. degree in Biochemistry from the University of London (1978) and was awarded the degree of D.Sc. in Chemistry from the University of Glasgow in 1992. Following postdoctoral research at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden (1973-75), Dr. Baillie held successive faculty positions at the University of London (1975-78), University of California San Francisco (1978-81), and University of Washington (1981-94). He then joined Merck Research Laboratories in West Point, PA, where he was Global Vice President of Drug Metabolism & Pharmacokinetics until 2008, when he returned to the University of Washington to assume his present responsibilities. Dr. Baillie’s research interests center on the application of mass spectrometry and allied techniques to mechanistic studies on the metabolism of foreign compounds, with particular emphasis on the generation of chemically-reactive, potentially toxic products of biotransformation. He has co-authored some 200 peer-reviewed publications, serves on the Advisory Boards of a number of journals and academic research centers, and acts as a consultant to several companies in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. He was awarded a Fogarty Senior International Fellowship from the NIH in 1988, was the recipient of the James R. Gillette Award from the American Society for Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics (2001), and received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Isotope Society (2009).

Scott Daniels, Ph.D., Pfizer

Scott Daniels received his Ph.D. in chemistry under the guidance of Professor Kent Gates from the University of Missouri-Columbia. After two years as a post-doctoral research scientist studying endogenous DNA adduct formation in the laboratory of Professor Lawrence Marnett, he moved into a research scientist post at DuPont Pharmaceuticals. There he investigated the metabolism of new chemical entities in the Department of Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics. It was at DuPont that he developed interest in bioorganic metabolism, specifically in chemically novel biotransformations that generate reactive intermediates. He has since served in R&D organizations at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Pfizer, Inc., where he is an Associate Research Fellow leading the biotransformation group in the Pharmacokinetics, Dynamics and Metabolism department. Scott has published in areas related to DNA damage, bioreductive drug metabolism and biotransformation of novel pharmacophores, work which has afforded him opportunities to serve on interdisciplinary teams associated with investigative toxicology. He has been a member of the Chemical Toxicology division for more than ten years, having more recently served as the Membership Committee Chair (2007-2009). Scott and his family reside in Chesterfield, Missouri.

Kent Gates, Ph.D., University of Missouri

Kent Gates grew up in Kansas and attended the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas where he earned a BS in Chemistry with honors in 1985. He then attended Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois where he worked with Professor Richard B. Silverman in the area of mechanistic enzymology, taking his PhD in 1990. After two years as an NIH postdoctoral fellow studying nucleic acid chemistry in the laboratory of Professor Peter B. Dervan he accepted a position in the Departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri. There he has developed a research program examining the chemical mechanisms underlying the biological activity of DNA-damaging agents and protein phosphatase inhibitors and inactivators. He currently holds the Herman G. Schlundt Chair in the Department of Chemistry.

Lisa Landino, College of William and Mary

Lisa Landino earned a BS in Chemistry at Nazareth College in Rochester, NY in 1989 and her Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of Virginia in 1994. She completed three years of post-doctoral training in Larry Marnett’s lab in the Department of Biochemistry at Vanderbilt University Medical School. Currently she is an Associate Professor of Chemistry at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg Virginia. In addition to teaching general chemistry and biochemistry courses, she has an active research program training numerous undergraduates in the fundamentals of research. Her research interests focus on protein thiol modifications including oxidation, S-nitrosation and S-glutathionylation.


To vote on-line, members should enter the Election Site with your
User name = email address and
Password = ACS membership number, with the leading zeros

Electronic Election Site

You will find your ACS Membership number on your ACS Membership Wallet Card. You can also find the number on the label that is affixed to your C&EN. It is the first set of numbers shown on the label.

If you have a problem voting, please contact Thomas Spratt at 717-531-4623 or tes13@psu.edu.