EB2017 Best Presentation Competition Winners (Poster Sessions)

Postdoctoral Scientist Category

In the postdoctoral scientist category, the top prize was awarded to Hridgandh Donde (1st) (on left) from the University of Louisville.

Graduate Student Category

In the graduate student category, prizes were awarded to Dahea You (1st) (on right) from Rutgers University, Ryan Mui (2nd) (center) from Michigan State University, and Anthony Jones (3rd) (on left) from the University at Buffalo.

Career Award

The winner of this award was Curtis D. Klaassen, PhD, from the University of Kansas Medical Center.

Dr. Klaassen is an affiliate professor in the department of environmental and occupational health sciences in the School of Public Health at the University of Washington in Seattle.  He was previously the chair of the department of Pharmacology and a University Distinguished Professor at the University of Kansas Medical Center.

While Dr. Klaassen has left a significant mark in the field of heavy metal toxicity, his most significant accomplishments have been in the field of ADME and the effect of so called microsomal enzyme inducers to alter the disposition of xenobiotics. He began more than 45 years ago to demonstrate that certain environmental chemicals which cause altered pharmacokinetic properties can have significant health consequences. Drugs such as the cardiac glycosides and acetaminophen were excellent examples of potentially toxic agents in certain individuals depending on their age or exposure to other xenobiotics. These observations that were made in the ‘60s and ‘70s were later expanded by mechanistic studies made possible by the incorporation of newer technologies in the ‘90s and 2000s. The discovery and sequencing of drug transporters allowed him to connect pharmacokinetic observations to their molecular mechanisms which included activation of nuclear receptors for gene transcription and competing substrate specificities of sinusoidal and canalicular efflux transporters.

In addition to his personal commitment to science, Dr. Klaassen has been a constant advocate for the discipline of toxicology and the training of toxicologists.

Junior Investigator Award

The winner of this award was Elaine M. Leslie, PhD (on left) from the University of Alberta.

Dr. Leslie is an associate professor in the department of physiology at the University of Alberta. She received her PhD from Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada.

The current focus of her laboratory is to understand how MRPs and GSTs are involved in the detoxification of the human carcinogen arsenic. Understanding how arsenic is detoxified is extremely important because millions of people world-wide are exposed to unacceptable levels of arsenic in drinking water.  Her laboratory uses recombinant human proteins and primary human cell models to identify and characterize arsenic biotransformation and transport pathways. The long-term goal of this research is to understand how genetic variation in human MRPs and GSTs influence the inter-individual susceptibility to arsenic-induced carcinogenesis.  She believes that ultimately these results will lead to the development of strategies to prevent and treat arsenic-induced carcinogenicity and toxicity.

Dr. Leslie has made important research contributions in four areas: 1) the role of transport proteins in tissue defense; 2) arsenic transport by human MRP1 and MRP2; 3) establishment of the physiological and toxicological relevance of the sandwich cultured hepatocyte (SCH) model; and 4) hepatobiliary disposition of arsenic.