News and Reviews

Commission on Continuing Education and Career Development
August 2003

The mission and objectives of the commission are the following:

• Promote educational and career development opportunities for toxicologists worldwide.
• Provide continuing education programs to those in developing countries.
• Develop specific vehicles and tools to enhance education programs.
• Participate in fund raising for educational and career development programs.

Current Members: Judith MacGregor (chair) USA ; Kevin Chipman UK; Paul Wright Australia ; Chris Schonwalder USA.

Summary of the 02-03 Program:

The Education Commission has a full and busy program of activities. Currently, 4 different projects are underway, 3 of them in addition to the core program of sponsoring educational programs. Each of these projects is listed below with a brief summary of the current activities.

1. Core Program: Provide educational programs at annual meetings of societies of toxicology in areas where they are most needed. (Judith MacGregor lead)

2002

Following our invitation letter to societies, we received 16 requests for educational programs. We continue to receive additional requests for programs. In 2002 we originally planned for 3 programs but because of demand and our successful fund raising, we put on 4 programs in 2002.

Programs were held in South Africa (invited lecture), Solvenia (course) and Chile (workshop), and Argentina (2 lectures in Spanish). Attached are the details regarding the sites and speakers for the 2002 program.

2003

Programs selected for (2003) include Estonia (a course), Georgia (lectures in Russian), and Mexico (lectures in Spanish). The Mexico program has been deferred at their request to March 2004. For the 2003 program we obtained the valuable assistance from EUROTOX (Ernie Harpur) in planning the successful program in Estonia held April 25th (see details attached). We have also sought input from the American College of Toxicology for multilingual lecturers and will be included in the program to be held in Mexico. Contributions to the program have continued with funds from ChevronTexeco and SOT received in the past year. Our educational programs are funded totally from contributions without any need for general IUTOX funds. We are now seeking speakers to present lectures in Russian at the meeting of the Georgian Society of Toxicology, October 17th , 2003.

2. Donation of books and educational materials. (Kevin Chipman lead)

A letter was sent to a list of publishers and societies that could be potential sources of educational material. A list of recipient societies has been compiled. Some material has been received this year and sent to societies where the educational material is most needed. This project has now developed into an ongoing activity for IUTOX. The following are recent activities:

1. A selection of 12 books (3 copies each of a major text) from Taylor and Francis. Sent to member societies 2002.

2. Distribution of information to IUTOX members regarding the availability free of charge of Elsevier electronic publications for developing countries. Additionally, Elsevier made a major commitment of 24 hard copies of a major text series (Comprehensive Toxicology vols. 1-13) in a joint press release. These are now being distributed.

3. SOT educational materials. 80 copies of courses 3-15, which were 4 hour courses, and about 40 copies of the sunrise one hour course. Distributed by SOT and IUTOX.

3. Long-range project: Delivery of online toxicology postgraduate education for developing countries. (Paul Wright, lead)

This project involves the delivery of postgraduate Toxicology courses to developing countries and is based on the Graduate Diploma and Master in Toxicology (by coursework) on-line programs developed by the Key Centre for Toxicology at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology-University (RMIT-University) in Melbourne, Australia.

In May 2002, IUTOX received US$48,000 from the International Education Program of the NIEHS as financial support to assist in this long-term educational project. Our sincerest thanks again to the NIEHS for acting on this international initiative in toxicology education. Part of these funds were used during 2002 to complete the development of the final risk assessment section of the program (which incorporates online break-out groups that workshop some real-world cases and scenarios); while the main portion has been used to fund 5 students from developing countries to undertake the online postgraduate educational program during 2003 and 2004. Participating countries include Latvia, Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Nigeria and Sri Lanka. The next aim is to obtain further support to expand the project to other countries, such as Bangladesh and other south-east Asian and Pacific countries.

The final phase of this online project is to promote postgraduate research in developing countries, by establishing Masters projects (performed by local people and co-mentored by local academics), that deal with the developing country's main toxicological problem. This stage of the project also uses the online Masters platform to support the program, thus allowing these people to receive research training and
co-supervision from overseas toxicologists in developed countries, without having to take leave from their present positions (e.g. in government, industry or academia).

Clearly this long-range project has many benefits, particularly as it maintains the local presence of the scholars in the developing country, while simultaneously building their capacity and impact to effect useful changes locally (and in a much shorter timeframe), than if they had to go abroad for extended periods to undertake research and study programs.

[Expressions of interest from potential local mentors in developing countries, or from organisations interested in supporting this project, should be addressed to Paul Wright at paul.wright@rmit.edu.au.]

4. Special project: Administration of the AstraZeneca Fellowships. (Judith MacGregor and Meryl Karol lead)

AstraZeneca has for the past two years continued to fund travel awards to the SOT for representatives from developing countries. It was decided to support 3 fellowships for 2003, each for $2500. AstraZeneca will pay the fellowship costs directly to those selected.

By the January 5th deadline, we had received 16 applications, and unanimously selected three candidates one from Egypt, Croatia and China. This effort has been a success and we should encourage other societies and sponsors to support such programs. This program has again been approved by AstraZeneca for 2004.

 

IUTOX 2002- 2003 Continuing Education Program

1. TOXICOLOGY SOCIETY OF SOUTH AFRICA (TOXSA), 1st National Conference on Toxicology, May 6-8, 2002 University of Pretoria, SOUTH AFRICA.

Elaine Faustman “Challenges and successes in using gene expression data for determining mechanisms of toxicant action”

Elaine Faustman “WHO/IPCS activities on international harmonization of mode of action data for risk assessment”

2. ARGENTINE TOXICOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION (ATA) September 18, 2002 Buenos Aires, ARGENTINA 2 lectures in Spanish.

Dr. Kenneth Ramos of Texas A & M University
"Molecular Biology of the Toxic Response: Implications in Human Risk Assessment"
In Spanish: Biologia Molecular de la Respuesta Toxica: Implicaciones para la Evaluacion de Riesgo en Humanos

Dr. Julio Cesar Davila of Pharmacia Corporation
“Use and Application of Cultured Hepatocytes in Toxicology (El Use y Application de Hepatocytos Cultivados en Toxicologia)"

3. Workshop in Santiago CHILE. Workshop held September 30 to October 1, 2002 entitled “Toxicogenomics” covering issues related to air pollution, heavy metal poisoning, and risk assessment. Approximately 200 attendees attended this workshop with representation from Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, and Argentina.

4. Slovenian Society of Toxicology, Ljubljana SLOVENIA October 25-26, 2002

CE Course One half day course in the morning on October 25
Environmental Bioindicators: Useful Tools for Assessing at-Risk Populations

Dr. Judith Zelikoff, New York University School of Medicine
“Immunological and Molecular Markers for Assessing Pollutant Exposure and Effects”

Dr. Marshall Adams, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee, USA
“Evaluation of Exposure and Effects Endpoints for Use in Bioassessment and Ecological Risk Assessment”

October 26 Panel Discussion Linkages between human health and wildlife health Drs. Zelikoff and Adams

5. Estonian Society of Toxicology, April 25, 2003

One half day course “Introduction to Good Laboratory Practice” at the National Institute of Chemical Physics and Biophysics, Tallinn, Estonia

Dr. Andrew Waddell, Managing Director of Tower Mains Limited, Edinburgh, Scotland—Nearly 100 people attended from 44 different institutions