Table of Contents
Message from Chair
Fall ACS TOXI Program
Travel Grants for Students And Postdoctoral Fellows
Call for Writers for CRT Letters and ToxWatch Articles
Open offices/Call for nominations
Mentoring program
Message from Chair
Greetings to members of the TOXI community! Our spring virtual symposium honoring Larry Marnett, Founding Editor of Chem. Res. Tox. featured Larry’s mentees Amit Kalgutkar (Pfizer), Sarah Shuck (City of Hope), Laura Niedernhofer (Univ of Minnesota), as well as the keynote lecture “Transformations of M1dG in Genomic DNA and Their Consequences” delivered by Dr. Marnett. The spring virtual meeting was a big success, it may be a new TOXI tradition to host a virtual symposium every spring.
Big news: TOXI now has a Chapter in India! This global effort, led by Ujjal Sarkar (Cerevel), brought together partners from industry and government: Rajkumar Halder( Program Director of ACS -Toxi Indian chapter, CEO and Founder of Ruhvenile Biomedical, New Delhi, India) and Sucheta Banerjee Kurundkar (Director of Training, Clinical Development Services Agency, Translational Health Science & Technology Institute, ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India and ECM of ACS Toxi Indian Chapter). We received a small IPG grant from ACS to help launch this effort. We are now planning to have a symposium in Delhi, India in 2023. Please reach out to Ujjal if you are interested in participating or sponsoring the event.
With Strategic Planning completed, we are looking for volunteers to lead the various initiatives. Specifically, we would like to put together a mentoring workshop for junior division members and create new symposia on technology development. Please contact Michael Stone and Zucai Suo if interested
As always, we welcome your suggestions, pictures, job postings, and news items for the website and our newsfeeds on Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin. Please contact Deyu Li on the Communications Committee.
The Fall 264th ACS National Meeting & Exposition (Aug 21, 2022 – Aug 25, 2022) will be conducted in a hybrid format in Chicago, IL, and online. Michael Trakselis and Sara Shuck have put together an excellent program for our Fall symposium. You can find the program and abstracts at this link: Full Program and abstracts. A few highlights: our 2022 keynote speaker is Wei Yang (NIH). Congratulations to Cindy Burrows, winner of the Founders’ Award, and to James Galligan, the winner of the 2022 CRT Young Investigator Award.
As in previous years, TOXI will be sponsoring several travel awards for students and postdoctoral fellows who present abstracts in the TOXI program at the National ACS Meeting. We will also offer Graduate Students and Postdocs the opportunity to write Letters and ToxWatch articles based on the 2021 ACS National Meeting – TOXI Sessions to be published in Chemical Research in Toxicology. This opportunity comes with free meeting registration at the ACS member rate.
As our annual election approaches, we invite nominations for open TOXI positions for Chair-elect, Treasurer-Elect, Executive committee member-at-large, and a member of the Nomination Committee.
Be well! I am looking forward to seeing you in person and online during the Fall meeting.
Natalia Tretyakova
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
Chair, ACS Division of Chemical Toxicology
Fall ACS TOXI Program
ACS Fall 2022 will be a vaccination-required and mask-recommended event for all attendees, exhibitors, vendors, and ACS staff who plan to participate in-person in Chicago, IL. For detailed information about the requirement and all ACS safety measures, please visit the ACS website.
The Fall 264th ACS National Meeting & Exposition in Chicago, IL (Aug 21-25, 2022) will be conducted as a combination of in person and virtual/hybrid formats. The theme of the national meeting is “Sustainability in a Changing World”.
The TOXI Keynote Address will be delivered by Distinguished Investigator, Wei Yang, from NIH/NIDDK. The Founders’ Award symposium will be organized by the awardee, Distinguished Professor, Cynthia Burrows, University of Utah. The Chemical Research in Toxicology Young Investigator award winner is Assistant Professor, James Galligan, University of Arizona.
Thematic symposia include:
- A Developing Role for Artificial Intelligence in Drug Discovery in Drug Design, Development, & Safety Assessment (MMPG Theme), cosponsored by MEDI
- Current Approaches to COVID-19 Drug Discovery & Safety Assessment cosponsored by MEDI
- Chemical Biology on DNA Damage & Repair, cosponsored by BIOL
- Mechanism-Driven Hazard Identification of Chemical Respiratory Allergens
The Student and Postdoctoral Scholar Symposium, Topics sessions, and the poster session will accept presentations from submitted abstracts. Program details have been finalized and can be found here.
Registration is now open.
Travel Grants for Students and Postdoctoral Fellows
The Division of Chemical Toxicology (TOXI) will make available Travel Assistance Awards to undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. The awards, up to $500, will reimburse travel and hotel costs for the National ACS meeting in Chicago this August (receipts will be required). Applications will be awarded based on financial need, scientific merit, and diversity factors. Preference will be given to first-time attendees.
All students and postdocs who are members or affiliates of TOXI and who have submitted an abstract to the TOXI program at the National ACS meeting are eligible to apply. You can become a member of the TOXI Division here.
The application should consist of a single .pdf file containing:
- A nomination letter from the faculty advisor or laboratory director. The letter should explain why Travel Assistance Award funds are needed.
- A curriculum vitae for the applicant.
- The abstract for the work to be presented by the nominee at the meeting.
- A statement written by the applicant (250 words maximum) describing how the applicant expects to benefit from a travel award to attend the ACS meeting.
Email applications to Program Chair, Michael Trakselis, Michael_Trakselis@baylor.edu
The deadline for applications is July 31, 2022.
Call for Graduate Students and Postdocs to write CRT Letters and ToxWatch articles based on the 2022 ACS National Meeting – TOXI Sessions
ACS member rate meeting registration fees will be reimbursed.
If selected, students/postdocs are required to write a short half to full page text or create a graphic on the following opportunities.
- Interview and write a Letter to the Editor (Chemical Research in Toxicology (CRT)) on one of three TOXI Award Speakers.
- Keynote speaker – Wei Yang (NIH Distinguished Investigator, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases)
- Founders Award – Cynthia Burrows (Distinguished Professor, University of Utah)
- CRT Young Investigator – Jim Galligan (Assistant Professor, University of Arizona)
- Partner to write and submit a ToxWatch CRT article on one of four Thematic TOXI Symposia. (example https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.chemrestox.0c00439)
- A Developing Role for Artificial Intelligence in Drug Discovery in Drug Design, Development, & Safety Assessment
- Chemical Biology on DNA Damage & Repair
- Current Approaches to COVID-19 Drug Discovery & Safety Assessment
- Mechanism-Driven Hazard Identification of Chemical Respiratory Allergens
Students/Postdocs will work with the Sessions Chairs to develop manuscripts for publication as Letters to the Editor or ToxWatch articles published in Chemical Research in Toxicology. TOXI Chair (Michael Trakselis) and Vice-Chair (Sarah Shuck) will facilitate interviews with several of the speakers. This is a great chance to get to know some of this year’s TOXI speakers.
Requests are due July 31, 2022 and should include: your CV, preference for specific opportunity listed above, 1 paragraph on career goals and aspirations, and a short letter of support from your advisor stating their willingness to help with reviewing/editing your work.
Email applications to ACS-TOXI Vice Program Chair, sshuck@coh.org
For those applications selected, your member (student or postdoc) Full Conference Registration Fee to the 2022 ACS Meeting will be reimbursed. Do not register for the meeting before hearing back about your application. Up to 8 registration scholarships may be awarded.
This is a great opportunity to connect with and be a part of the Chemical Toxicology (TOXI) division of the ACS and the CRT author community.
Open offices/Call for nominations
We invite nominations for open TOXI positions for Chair-elect, Treasurer-Elect, Executive committee member-at-large, and a member of the Nomination Committee. Interested individuals please reach out to the Secretary, Linlin Zhao (linlin.zhao@ucr.edu).
Mentoring Program
To enhance diversity within the ACS Chemical Toxicology division and support the unique challenges facing individuals from underrepresented minority (URM) groups in identifying mentors, we have established a mentoring platform through the National Research Mentoring Network (MyNRMN, ACS TOXI mentoring group (nrmnet.net)).Our goal is to encourage individuals from URM groups to join ACS and attend the Fall 2022 meeting virtually, where they will have the opportunity to join mentoring groups within the division. We will support both membership fees for the ACS and registration fees for the meeting for individuals chosen to participate in this program. We welcome all individuals who identify as a member of a URM group including those from disadvantaged backgrounds, the LGBTQIA+ community, Black, Hispanic, and Native American individuals. Those chosen to participate in this program will join the MyNRMN ACS TOXI mentoring group and will have monthly mentoring meetings. We are currently accepting applications for both mentor and mentee participants at the following links: