Although the SBRP is currently building its capacity to track student placement and advancement of those trained with Program funding, we have been able to capture several success stories of past graduates who have gone on to successful careers in various sectors. You can read about some of these stories here, including several testimonials from the students themselves.
Chi Shin-Darlak, Ph.D. is applying her multidisciplinary training to follow the movement of toxicants from the environment to the cell, and then into the nucleus. She is developing methods to study chromatin in mammalian cells to investigate how DNA damage translates into mutations.
Damon Chaky, Ph.D.'s SBRP-funded training provided him with his first contacts with environmental toxicology and epidemiology community. A geochemist who studies the behavior and transport of anthropogenic contaminants in the New York metropolitan area, Dr. Chaky was apponted as a Science Fellow at Columbia University in 2004 and in the fall of 2006 joined the faculty at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, where he continues his research on contaminants and environmental exposure.
Elena Craft, Ph.D. has been focusing her research on developing a model to understand metal toxicity. The model relies on the characterization of signal transduction pathways that are activated following exposure to certain toxic metals that are found within contaminated environments. These metals can activate metal-responsive transcription factors, resulting in expression of stress-related genes. The model can be used directly in determining mechanisms by which environmentally relevant metals induce intracellular toxicity, disrupt normal development, and induce cancer.
Ms. Elizabeth Hoover, a Ph.D. candidate at Brown University, is studying Anthropology with a focus on environmental justice and health in Native American communities. For the last three years, Elizabeth has been an active research assistant to the SBRP's COC led by Dr. Phil Brown.
Ms. Flerida Mejia is the first graduate student to complete the Binational SEP with a binational committee composed of three professors (Drs. Meza, Aguayo, and Valenzuela) from the University of Sonora (UNISON) and two (Drs. Ela and Saez) from UA. Flerida received her Masters, with honors, in Engineering Science; her specialty was focused on Environmental Sciences.
Ms. Glenda Singleton(http://www.niehs.nih.gov/training2_s16.cfm) is a former SBRP-funded graduate student from the University of Washington. She received her MS in Forest Resources from the College of Forest Resources, and is currently working at the United States Geological Survey, Reston Stable Isotopic Laboratory in northern Virginia.
Grantley Charles, Ph.D.'s SBRP-funded training in Dr. Kathleen Shiverick's laboratory was an important factor in his multidisciplinary education in toxicology. The combination of research and coursework gave him an excellent foundation for his research to improve statistical and experimental methods for assessing toxicological interactions in complex mixtures of contaminants.
Joel N. Meyer, Ph.D. is applying concepts and techniques learned in ecologically-based studies of populations of killifish tolerant to the developmental toxicity of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) to human health research at NIEHS. As a post-doctoral fellow, he is investigating DNA damage and gene expression changes associated with underexpression of the frataxin protein in humans which leads to Friedrich's ataxia, a slowly progressive disorder of the nervous system and muscles characterized by high levels of iron and oxidative damage to DNA and proteins in mitochondria.
Kathleen McCarty, Ph.D., is currently an environmental/molecular epidemiologist at Yale University. She received her Doctor of Science degree (ScD) from the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH).
Lei Wang, Ph.D.’s research focuses on nutritional modulation of the early development and pathology of atherosclerosis, with an emphasis in vascular endothelial cell inflammatory signaling pathways that are activated during environmental chemical insults. Changing the relative proportions of dietary omega-6 to omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids can selectively modulate an inflammatory response caused by polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Results from this study provide evidence that the lipid milieu within endothelial cells can regulate signaling pathways involved in PCB toxicity and inflammatory diseases such as atherosclerosis.
Ms. Nadia Hollan Burke, a former SBRP-funded graduate student from the University of Arizona, fearlessly faces the daily challenges of managing multiple Superfund sites in Arizona and Nevada. She is currently an active Remedial Project Manager (RPM) at the United States’ Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 9 Office in San Francisco, California.
Ms. Tingting Li is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, Toxicology Program, at the University of Washington in Seattle. Since 2004, she has worked in the laboratory of Dr. James Woods investigating the potential health consequences of a single nucleotide polymorphism in exon 4 of the gene encoding the heme pathway enzyme, coproporphyrinogen oxidase (CPOX). This polymorphism, known as CPOX4, has been shown to modify the effects of mercury exposure on neurobehavioral functions in humans and also elicits a highly specific change in the urinary porphyrin excretion pattern that serves as a biomarker of this effect.
Ziad Naufal, Ph.D., a former Texas A & M University Ph.D. student worked with Dr. K.C. Donnelly. While at Texas A & M University Dr. Naufal received a 3rd place award for Outstanding Poster at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Science forum in Washington, DC in May 2006. Dr. Naufal's poster was titled: "Estimation of Genotoxic Exposures in children with Neural Tube Defects in Shanxi, China".
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