News Archive
» Martyn Smith gives keynote lecture at AACR Special Conference
On Sunday November 11 in Miami Martyn helped open the AACR conference on Post-GWAS Horizons in Molecular Epidemiology by giving a keynote lecture entitled “Characterizing the Exposome”. He described how biomarkers and new sensing technologies may help us to better understand the risks associated with environmental exposures. He also chaired Session 3 on The Exposome: Using technology to define exposures and served on a panel entitled Gene Environment – Where do we go from here? More about the meeting can be found at www.aacr.org
» UC Berkeley trainees and faculty pose with Dr. Linda Birnbaum, NIEHS Director, at the Superfund Research Program 2012 25th Anniversary Meeting in Raleigh, NC, October 21-23.
» Allan Smith, Project 3, was quoted in an article by Consumer Reports about arsenic in our food and water. You can read the full article here.
» UC Berkeley SRP project leader, Lisa Alvarez-Cohen was appointed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, to the Board of Scientific Counselors for the National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH)/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). The Board provides advice and guidance to fulfill the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) mission to protect and promote human health. Lisa is a leader in the field of bioremediation and has led an SRP project at UC Berkeley since 2001.
» Vanessa De La Rosa, a Ph.D. candidate in Molecular Toxicology, has been selected as a recipient of the NIEHS 2012 KC Donnelly Externship to support work she proposes to do on functional profiling of susceptibility genes and TCE exposure. Her work will be mentored by Drs. Chris Vulpe of the UC Berkeley Superfund Research Program and James Swenberg and the University of North Carolina SRP. More information about the award can be found here.
» Don Lucas, Research Scientist at UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, is studying halogenated fire retardants. His group is looking at how these chemicals are used, what the human and animal health effects might be, and how effective they are at reducing fire deaths. He was recently quoted on NPR’s “Morning Edition” on the subject. For more of the story, click here.
» Xuefeng Ren, MD, PhD. Assistant Professor Department of Social and Preventive Medicine was a postdoc and then staff researcher with the UCB Superfund Program. He was selected by the Society of Toxicology Postdoctoral Assembly Board to receive their:
2012 Best Postdoctoral Publication Award for his recent publication “Involvement of N-6 Adenine-Specific DNA Methyltransferase1 (N6AMT 1) in Arsenic Biomethylation and Its Role in Arsenic-Induced Toxicity.”
The award will be made at the 2012 SOT Annual Meeting in San Francisco, CA, March 11-15, 2012.
For more info, click here
» Martyn Smith was interviewed by the Los Angeles Times for a story on a beauty salon treatment called the “Brazilian Blowout” and potential formaldehyde exposure. To view the article, click here
» Rappaport SM, Smith MT (2010) Environment and disease risks. Science. Oct 22. In Press. [PDF] To listen to a related podcast, click here
» Professor Stephen M. Rappaport receives the 2010 Jerome J. Wesolowski award, presented annually by the International Society of Exposure Science (ISES) “ to recognize sustained and outstanding contributions to the knowledge and practice of human exposure assessment”. Rappaport is the third member of the UC Berkeley faculty in Environmental Health Sciences to receive this prestigious award. For more info, click here
» The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) announced the election of Lisa Alvarez-Cohen, Ph.D., a researcher in the Superfund Research Program (SRP) at the University of California, Berkeley (UCB), as one of 68 new members. NAE is one of the prestigious National Academies, and membership is one of the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer. For more information, click here
» Dr. Martyn Smith was interviewed by WFAA TV, Dallas, TX, regarding recent findings by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality of benzene levels at North Texas gas and oil fields. For interview, click here
» This year brought the first complete cleanup of a designated Superfund site. Under a project funded by the UC Berkeley SRP, Dr. Kent Udell developed a process called Steam Enhanced Extraction to remove contaminants from Southern California Edison’s Visalia, CA Pole Yard, where wooden poles were treated with creosote to protect them from insects and rot. This greatly increased the speed and efficiency of the cleanup, saving $85 million in estimated costs. For more information, click here
» Luoping Zhang, Ph.D. was an invited speaker at the Environmental Mutagen Society’s 40th Annual Meeting in St. Louis, Mo, October 24-28, 2009. Her topics were “Benzene Induced Hematotoxicity: Susceptability Genes and DNA Repair Mechanisms” and “Spectrum of Chromosomal Aneuploidy, Benzene Exposure and Leukemia Risk”. [Abstract]
» Zhiying Ji, Ph.D. had his poster entitled “Cytogenetic Alterations and Changes of Global DNA Methylation Induced by Leukemogenic Chemicals In Vitro,” selected for presentation during the same meeting. [Abstract]
» Xuefeng Ren, MD, Ph.D., was an invited speaker at the 2009 Superfund Research Program Annual Meeting at Columbia University in New York City, November 3-4, 2009. His topic was “Histone Modification and Arsenic Toxicity in Human Bladder Cells”. [Abstract]
» In a recent study, Dr. Allan Smith’s group compared lung cancer risks from inhalation and ingestion of arsenic. For more information, see: [PDF]
» This year brought the first complete cleanup of a designated Superfund site. Under a project funded by the UC Berkeley SRP, Dr. Kent Udell developed a process called Steam Enhanced Extraction to remove contaminants from Southern California Edison’s Visalia, CA Pole Yard, where wooden poles were treated with creosote to protect them from insects and rot. This greatly increased the speed and efficiency of the cleanup, saving $85 million in estimated costs. For more information, click here
» Luoping Zhang, Ph.D. is an invited speaker at the Environmental Mutagen Society’s 40^th Annual Meeting in St. Louis, Mo, October 24-28, 2009. Her topics are “Benzene Induced Hematotoxicity: Susceptability Genes and DNA Repair Mechanisms” and “Spectrum of Chromosomal Aneuploidy, Benzene Exposure and Leukemia Risk”. [Abstract]
» Zhiying Ji, Ph.D. had his poster entitled “Cytogenetic Alterations and Changes of Global DNA Methylation Induced by Leukemogenic Chemicals In Vitro,” selected for presentation during the same meeting. [Abstract]
» Xuefeng Ren, MD, Ph.D., is an invited speaker at the 2009 Superfund Research Program Annual Meeting at Columbia University in New York City, November 3-4, 2009. His topic is “Histone Modification and Arsenic Toxicity in Human Bladder Cells”. [Abstract]
» In a recent study, Dr. Allan Smith’s group compared lung cancer risks from inhalation and ingestion of arsenic. For more information, see: [PDF]
» A figure from the article “Comparative Functional Genomic Analysis Identifies Distinct and Overlapping Sets of Genes Required for Resistance to Monomethylarsonous Acid (MMAIII) and Arsenite (AsIII) in Yeast” by William J. Jo, et al., which describes the interaction networks of arsenic sensitivity in yeast, was selected for the cover of the October 2009 edition of the journal /Toxicological Sciences/. For more information, click here
Dr. Allan Smith has received the John Goldsmith Award for Outstanding Contributions to Environmental Epidemiology at the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology meeting in Dublin. For more information, please see: http://www.iseepi.org/about/awards.html
Martyn Smith is a panelist in a session entitled “Human Carcinogen Risk” which is part of a Workshop on “Genomics in Cancer Risk Assessment” at the 10th Annual International Conference on Environmental Mutagens, August 20 – 28, 2009 in Venice, Italy. For more information, click here
In close competition, 3 UCB Postdoctoral Scholars receive NorCal SOT Young Investigator Awards: Matthew North (l), tied for 2nd place with Xuefeng Ren (not pictured), Zhiying Ji (r), 1st place. For details, click here
The Carcinogenesis Specialty Section of the Society of Toxicology presented its Postdoctoral Competition Award to Dr. Xuefeng Ren, UCB, at their Annual Meeting in Baltimore ND in March 2009.
Allan Smith’s research on pregnancy outcomes and infant mortality in women consuming well water containing arsenic featured in SBRP research brief. http://www-apps.niehs.nih.gov/sbrp/
Amy Kyle featured in KTVU piece, “Legislature considers biomonitoring bill.” Launch video
Martyn Smith quoted in Los Angeles Times article “Soft drink, with a twist of benzene?” http://latimes.com
Researchers find unparalleled health effects from in utero and childhood arsenic exposure http://www.berkeley.edu/
Catherine Koshland’s new method to detect lead in soil featured in SBRP research brief http://www-apps.niehs.nih.gov/sbrp/
Science publishes Superfund investigator’s research on the harmful affects of low-doses of benzene exposure http://www.sciencemag.org
Study by Superfund investigator suggests link between maternal diet and childhood leukemia risk http://www.berkeley.edu
The Environmental Genome Project featured in Science and EMBO
Martyn Smith gives talk on gene-environment interactions in human leukemia
New study shows that sperm, like people, slow down with age http://www.berkeley.edu
Science publishes Allan Smith’s paper on arsenic http://www.sciencemag.org