![[logo] US EPA](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081109131624im_/http://www.epa.gov/epafiles/images/logo_epaseal.gif){kind=logo}
EPA Names Director of National Center for Computational Toxicology
EPA's new National Center for Computational Toxicology (NCCT), located in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, will be headed by Dr. Robert Kavlock, a 27-year veteran of EPA. The Center, announced in 2004, will advance understanding of the relationship between sources of environmental pollutants and adverse health outcomes.
Dr. Kavlock will guide the Center as it provides scientific expertise and leadership in the application of mathematical and computational tools and models to help inform EPA's decision making on risk assessments. As the recent Director of the Reproductive Toxicology Division at EPA's National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory, Dr. Kavlock chaired the committee that developed the Framework for a Computational Toxicology Research Program that will now guide the Center's activities.
Dr. Jerry Blancato, a 20-year veteran of EPA and an expert in exposure assessment and pharmacokinetic models who has worked at the Agency's National Exposure Research Laboratory, will serve as the NCCT Deputy Director.
Upon accepting his new responsibilities, Dr. Kavlock said: "This Center was formed to ensure EPA stays on the cutting edge of science and has the best tools to meet our mission of protecting human health and the environment."
The National Center for Computational Toxicology is staffed by systems biologists, computational chemists, and bioinformaticians who will work closely with all of EPA's laboratories and centers in the Office of Research and Development and establish partnerships with peers working in the field. Much of the work will focus on gaining a better understanding of the progression that a chemical takes from the time it is introduced into an environment to subsequently affecting the health of an organism. The Center will also develop predictive models for screening and testing large numbers of chemicals, and for reducing the uncertainties associated with extrapolating predicted effects across chemicals, levels of biological organization, and species. Collectively, these computational toxicology approaches will provide tools to address Agency data requirements and risk assessment practices.
More information on the computational program in ORD is available at www.epa.gov/comptox.