Environmental Toxicology Research & Applications
Starts: November 6, 2009 at 3:00 PM
Location: McHugh Auditorium, Watermen's Hall
Contact: Rochelle Seitz, 804-684-7698, [[seitz]]
Summary
Science lecture by Ed Calabrese of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Full Description
Full Title
Hormesis Enhances Environmental Toxicology Research and its ApplicationsBackground
Dr. Calabrese received a BA and MA from the State College at Bridgewater, Massachusetts and a PhD from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He has researched extensively in the area of host factors affecting susceptibility to pollutants, and is the author of more than 600 papers in scholarly journals, as well as more than 10 books. He has been a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and NATO Countries Safe Drinking Water committees and on the Board of Scientific Counselors for the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). Dr. Calabrese also serves as Chairman of the Biological Effects of Low Level Exposures (BELLE) and as Director of the Northeast Regional Environmental Public Health Center at the University of Massachusetts. Dr. Calabrese is the 2009 recipient of the Marie Curie Prize for his body of work on hormesis.
Abstract
This presentation will provide a review of hormesis, a dose-response concept that is characterized by a low-dose stimulation and a high-dose inhibition. The presentation traces the historical foundations of hormesis, its quantitative features and mechanistic foundations, and its risk assessment implications. It will be shown that the hormetic dose-response is the most fundamental dose response, significantly outcompeting other leading dose-response models in large-scale, head-to-head evaluations. The hormetic dose response is highly generalizable, being independent of biological model, endpoint measured, chemical class, and interindividual variability. Hormesis also provides a framework for the study and assessment of chemical mixtures, incorporating the concept of additivity and synergism. Since the hormetic biphasic dose response represents a general pattern of biological responsiveness, it is expected that it will become progressively more significant within toxicological evaluation and human and ecological risk assessment practices as well as having numerous biomedical applications.
