August 2006

NCTR and FDA Celebrate Anniversaries August 9th was a day of celebration at NCTR. NCTR jointly celebrated its 35th anniversary and commemorated the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 1906 Pure Food and Drugs Act, which founded the FDA. Three members of the Arkansas congressional delegation, former Center directors, administrators of prominent state universities, and FDA leadership praised the work accomplished at NCTR and identified NCTR as a leader in public health service. Dr. William Slikker, Jr., Acting Director, hosted the outdoor event.

Arkansas Congressional Staff (l to r): Senator Blanche L. Lincoln, Senator
Mark Pryor, and Congressman Mike Ross

Senator Blanche L. Lincoln told the visitors and NCTR staff that the ceremony was not to “celebrate your existence, but to celebrate your excellence” and noted that NCTR researchers are “world class professionals.” NCTR was praised for its leadership in public health service, with Senator Mark Pryor noting that NCTR research “makes a difference every day in the quality of American lives.” "NCTR performs a critical mission in areas of consumer safety and public health," added Representative Mike Ross.

Dr. Janet Woodcock describing how far FDA has come in 100 years.

Dr. Janet Woodcock, FDA Deputy Commissioner for Operations, was the keynote speaker. She stated that huge advances have been made in science in the last century, and “we are now standing at a crossroads with new science available.”

NCTR’s leadership in developing programs with colleges, universities, and state organizations to mentor graduates and postdoctoral students in becoming successful scientists was acknowledged by two local university chancellors. Dr. Lawrence Davis Jr., University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff Chancellor, said the ongoing partnership with NCTR has netted the UAPB a regulatory science program–the only such program in the nation. The Chancellor of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Dr. I. Dodd Wilson, praised the collaborative efforts of NCTR and UAMS.

NCTR’s former directors shared reflections about the beginning of NCTR after the closing of the Biological Operations function of the Pine Bluff Arsenal, the development of the scientific staff, and the creation of the centers of excellence for research using new scientific technologies. All former directors commented on the changes and improvements in the physical plant, with Dr. Morris Cranmer commenting that “This place has gotten a lot prettier.”

NCTR Directors

Dr. William Slikker, Jr.,
Acting, 2005-Present

Dr. Daniel Casciano,
1999- 2005

Dr. Bernard Schwetz,
1993-1999

Mr. Art Norris,
Acting, 1992-1993

Dr. Ronald Hart,
1980-1992

Dr. Morris Cranmer,
1971-1977

Congressional Delegation

• U.S. Senator Mark Pryor
• U.S. Senator Blanche L. Lincoln
• U.S. Representative Mike Ross

Local University Representatives

• Dr. Lawrence Davis, Jr., Chancellor, University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff
• Dr. I. Dodd Wilson, Chancellor, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
• Dr. Collis Geren, University of Arkansas at Fayetteville
• Dr. Ron Meyers, Clinton School of Public Service, University of Arkansas

FDA Leadership

• Dr. Janet Woodcock, Deputy Commissioner for Operations
• Dr. Stephen Sundlof, Director, Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM)
• O.D. Evans, Deputy Regional Field Director, SW Region, Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA)
• Dennis Baker, Regional Director, ORA / SW Region
• John Gentile, Director, Office of Financial Management
• David Wardrop, Executive Officer, CVM
• Gregory Doyle, Chief, Office of Shared Services
• Kevin Stine, Chief Information Security Officer
• Gary Washington, Director, Office of IT Governance
• Kathy Cooper, Director, Employee Resource & Information Center
• Dr. Kathleen Uhl, Assistant Commissioner for Women’s Health (OWH)

Recent Publications

NCTR conducts research designed to protect the public’s health. Results from some of these research projects have recently been accepted for publication in nationally recognized scientific journals.

• Bojanowski, C., Shen, D., Chew, E., Ning, B., Csaky, K.G., Green, R., Chan, C. and Tuo, J., An apolipoprotein E variant may protect against age-related macular degeneration through cytokine regulation, Environmental and Molecular Mutagenesis.
   
• Boudreau, M.D., Taylor, H., Baker, D.G. and Means, J.C., Dietary exposure to 2-aminoanthracene induces morphological and immunocytochemical changes in pancreatic tissues of Fischer-344 rats, 2006, Toxicological Sciences.
   
• Chen, D. and Chen, J.J., Microarray data analysis in Affymetrix gene chip, Quantitative Medical Data Analysis Using Mathematical Tools and Statistical Techniques.
   
• Chen, H., Hopper, S.L., Ljungdahl, L.G., Li, X. and Cerniglia, C.E., Isolation of extremely AT-rich genomic DNA and analysis of genes encoding carbohydrate-degrading enzymes from anaerobic fungus, Orpinomyces sp. strain PC-2, Current Microbiology.
   
• Chen, H., Li, X., Xu, H., Ljungdahl, L.G. and Cerniglia, C.E., High level expression and characterization of cyclophilin B gene from the anaerobic fungus Orpinomyces sp. strain PC-2, Protein and Peptide Letter.
   
• Chen, J.J., Tsai, C., Moon, H., Ahn, H. and Young, J.F., Decision threshold adjustment in class prediction, SAR and QSAR in Environmental Research.
   
• Delongchamp, R.R., Lee, T. and Velasco-gonzalez, C., A method for computing the overall statistical significance of a treatment effect among a group of genes, BMC Bioinformatics.
   
• Edmondson, R.D., Jones, R.C. and Thyparambil, S.P., Mapping the murine cardiac 26S proteasome complexes, Circulation Research.
   
• Guo, L., Fang, H., Fan, X., Blann, E., Dial, S.L., Tong, W. and Dragan, Y., Differential gene expression in mouse primary hepatocytes exposed to the peroxicome proliferators-activated receptor alpha agonists, BMC Bioinformatic.
   
• Holland, R.D. and Beger, R., Expression profiles in fathead minnow exposed to 2,4-DNT. Correlation with toxicity in mammals, Toxicology Science.
   
• Kodell, R.L., Chen, J.J., Delongchamp, R.R. and Young, J.F., Hierarchical models for probabilistic dose-response assessment, 2006, Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology.
   
• Mei, N., Guo, L., Fung, C., Zhang, L., Shi, L., Moland, C.L., Dial, S.L., Fuscoe, J. and Chen, T., Analysis of gene expression changes in relation to toxicity and tumorigenesis in the livers of Big Blue transgenic rats fed comfrey (Symphytum officinale), BMC Bioinformatics.
   
• Moon, H., Ahn, H. and Kodell, R.L., A computational tool for testing dose-related trend using an age-adjusted bootstrap-based poly-k test, Journal of Statistical Software.
   
• Nakajima, M., Itoh, M., Sakai, H., Fukami, T., Katoh, M., Yamazaki, H., Kadlubar, F.F., Funae, Y. and Yokoi, T., CYP2A13 expressed in human bladder metabolically activates 4-aminobiphenyl, International Journal of Cancer.
   
• Pereira, F., Ribeiro, C.F., Macedo, T.R. and Ali, S.F., Single or multiple injections of methamphetamine increased dopamine turnover did not descrease tyrosine hydroxylase levels or cleave caspase-3 in caudate-putamen, Synapse.
   
• Schnackenberg, L. and Beger, R., Monitoring the health to disease continuum with metabolomics and systems biology, Pharmacogenomics.
   
• Tryndyak, V.P., Muskhelishvili, L., Kovalchuk, O., Rodriguez-Juarez, R., Montgomery, B.A., Churchwell, M.I., Ross, S., Beland, F.A. and Pogribny, I.P., Effect of long-term tamoxifen exposure on genotoxic and epigenetic changes in rat liver: implications for tamoxifen-induced hepatocarcinogenesis, 2006, Carcinogenesis.
   
• Wagner, R.D., Efficacy and food safety considerations of poultry competitive exclusion products, Molecular Nutrition Food Research.
   
• Wang, Y., Raffoul, J.J., Che, M., Doerge, D.R., Joiner, M.C., Kucuk, O., Sarkar, F.H. and Hillman, G.G., Prostate cancer radiotherapy is enhanced by genistein in vitro and in vivo using a syngeneic orthotopic tumor model, Radiation Research.
   
• Wilkes, J.G., Rushing, L.G., Buzatu, D.A., Sutherland, J.B. and Rafii, F., Pyrolysis mass spectrometry for distinguishing potential hoax materials from bioterror agents, Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry.
   
• Williams, L.D. and Twaddle, N.C., Churchwell, M.I. and Doerge, D.R., Quantification of tamoxifen and metabolites and soy isoflavones in human plasma using LC-ES/MS/MS, Journal of Official Analytical Chemists International.
   
• Xia, Q., Yin, J., Wamer, W., Cherng, S., Boudreau, M.D., Howard, P., Yu, H. and Fu, P.P., Photoirradiation of retinyl palmitate in ethanol with UVB light-formation of photodecomposition products, reactive oxygen species, and lipid peroxides, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

On-Line Research Information

Regulatory Research Perspectives: Impact on Public Health, an on-line journal that provides a vehicle for FDA scientists to communicate important scientific information, and NCTR’s FY 2004-2005 Research Accomplishments and Plans are available from NCTR’s web site at http://www.fda.gov/nctr/science/science.htm.

Contact Information

The NCTR Quarter Page is published four times a year by the Office of Planning and Resource Management at the National Center for Toxicological Research. For more information about NCTR contact Dr. William Slikker, Acting NCTR Director, at William.Slikker@fda.hhs.gov or [870] 543-7517.