Symposium 2021

Keynote

Sue Fenton, Ph.D.

Group Leader, National Toxicology Program Laboratory
Division of the National Toxicology Program National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

Dr. Suzanne “Sue” Fenton earned her M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of WI-Madison in the Endocrinology/Reproductive Physiology Program. Following her postdoctoral fellowship at the UNC-Chapel Hill Lineberger Cancer Center, she led a research laboratory at the US EPA’s Reproductive Toxicology Division for 11 years before she joined the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Oct 2009.  She is currently a senior scientist, leading the Reproductive Endocrinology group, in the Division of the National Toxicology Program. Her laboratory has published numerous manuscripts enhancing the methodology used in mammary gland assessment and determining early life chemical exposures that lead to persistent developmental changes in breast tissue, altered function, or disease susceptibility over the life course. She has received several NIH and EPA-based awards for her research on perfluorinated chemicals and endocrine disruptors. She is also a 2019 NIH Mentoring Award recipient.

https://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/atniehs/labs/ntp/staff/fenton/index.cfm

Gabriel L. Plaa, Award of distinction

David Josephy, PhD

Retired Professor at Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario

Dr. Josephy obtained his Masters degree in Physics at the University of Toronto (Physics) and Ph.D. in Medical Biophysics at the University of British Columbia. He pursued post-doctoral training with Dr. Ronald P. Mason at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, NC, USA. Dr. Josephy retired from a successful faculty tenure (1983-2020) at the Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at the University of Guelph. Dr. Josephy taught thousands of undergraduate students in the biochemistry and toxicology programmes. He supervised 30+ graduate students and mentored many postdoctoral trainees.

Dr. Josephy’s toxicology research has included work on the metabolism and mutagenicity of azo dyes, aromatic amines, and other carcinogens, as well as the enzymes that catalyze their bioactivation, including P450s and NATs. He is the author of the textbook “Molecular Toxicology” and a co-author of well over 100 scientific publications.

A long-standing active member of the Society of Toxicology of Canada, he has served as a Councillor and as its President. Dr. Josephy was a member of the Organizing Committee for the International Congress on Toxicology ICT-XI (Montreal, 2007); and is currently in the Steering Committee for our Society’s bid to hold ICT-XVIII in Vancouver in 2028. Concurrently, he will be chairing the session “Human and environmental toxicology of synthetic dyes: a global concern” at ICT-XVI in Maastricht, Netherlands, in 2022. Dr. Josephy was a member of the panel that evaluated the cancer risk of exposure to aniline and related compounds (International Agency for Research on Cancer, Monograph 127, June 2021). In retirement, he continues to serve as an Editor-in-Chief of the journal Mutation Research – Genetic Toxicology and Environmental Mutagenesis. Dr. Josephy hopes to enjoy time for birding, photography, chess, and politics; he was Campaign Manager for the Guelph NDP in the recent federal election.

V.E. Henderson Award

Tara Barton McLaren, PhD

Manager of the Emerging Approaches in the Safe Environments Directorate
Health Canada, Ottawa, Ontario

Dr. Tara Barton McLaren obtained her BSc Honours from the University of
Guelph with a specialization in Biomedical Science in 2000 and her PhD in
Reproductive Toxicology in the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics from McGill University in 2007.

Upon completion of her graduate studies, she joined Health Canada in the Existing Substances Risk Assessment Bureau and has led various risk assessment files as well as hazard methodology initiatives. She is currently Manager of the Emerging Approaches Unit in the Existing Substances Risk Assessment Bureau, Safe Environments Directorate.

Through the years of employment in the chemicals management program at Health Canada, she has acquired broad experience in human health risk assessment as well as innovations in hazard testing and assessment. With the provision of science leadership for applied regulatory science in the Directorate, she focuses on advancing hazard and risk assessment modernization through the development of strategies to integrate emerging data and novel methodologies for screening and assessment of chemicals existing in the Canadian marketplace.

In support of the global transition to 21st Century Risk Science, she participates in initiatives under the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and engages in various scientific collaborations both nationally and internationally in the areas of QSAR, Integrated Approaches to Testing and Assessment, endocrine disruption and new approaches to support regulatory decision-making.