Annual Meeting Program - Society of Toxicology

Society of Toxicology 2008
Program Description (Continued)
Abstract #
directed primarily towards treatment of neurodegenerative disorders, restorative
therapy for spinal cord injuries and other clinically-oriented issues.
Stem and neuroprogenitor cells provide a readily available supply of human
neurons, glia and oligodendrocytes, and may represent more accurate models
of neuronal function and developmental processes than tumor-derived cell
lines. As such, they have many potential uses for toxicologists, including
mechanistic studies, safety pharmacology, and predictive toxicity screening.
To date, the use of neural stem and progenitor cells for toxicity studies has
been limited, but will continue to grow as these model systems become
more readily available. This symposium will focus on uses of stem and
neuroprogenitor cells in toxicology, including as models for investigative or
mechanistic toxicology studies of developmental toxicity and potential uses
in high-throughput screening of drugs and chemicals for neurotoxicity. This
is an abstract for a proposed presentation, and does not represent Agency
policy.
#576 1:30 STEM CELLS: NEW TOOLS FOR
NEUROTOXICOLOGISTS. T. J. Shafer.
Neurotoxicology Division, NHEERL, ORD, U.S.
EPA, Research Triangle Park, NC.
#577 1:35 STEM CELL ASSAY FOR DEVELOPMENTAL
NEUROTOXICITY. D. M. DeGroot 1 , S.
Schulpen 1 , H. Wortelboer 1 , A. Freidig 1 , J. Lammers 1 ,
A. Wolterbeek 1 , R. Westerink 2 , A. Seiler 3 and
J. Burgsteden 1 . 1 TNO Quality of Life, Zeist,
Netherlands, 2 IRAS, Utrecht, Netherlands and
3
ZEBET, Berlin, Germany. Sponsor: V. Feron.
#578 2:15 HUMAN NEUROSPHERES IDENTIFY
THREADS FOR BRAIN DEVELOPMENT.
E. Fritsche, J. E. Cline, K. Gassmann, J. Heinrichs,
M. Moors, T. D. Rockel, T. Schreiber and J. Abel.
Toxicology, Institut für umweltmedizinische
Forschung, Düsseldorf, Germany. Sponsor: T. Shafer.
#579 2:55 EFFECTS OF NEUROTOXICANTS ON
PROLIFERATION AND VIABILITY OF
IMMORTALIZED HUMAN CORTICAL
NEURAL PROGENITOR CELLS. J. M.
Breier 1,2 , W. R. Mundy 2 and T. J. Shafer 2 . 1 Toxicology,
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC and
2
Neurotoxicology Division, U.S. EPA, Research
Triangle Park, NC.
#580 3:35 THE NRF2-ARE PATHWAY:
IDENTIFICATION OF NEUROTOXIC AND/
OR NEUROPROTECTIVE CHEMICALS. J.
Johnson 1,2,3 , D. Johnson 1,2 , J. Li 1 , M. Calkins 2 , M.
Vargas 1 and M. Emborg 4 . 1 Pharmaceutical Sciences,
University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, 2 Molecular
and Environmental Toxicology Center, University
of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, 3 Neuroscience Training
Program, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI
and 4 Wisconsin National Primate Research Center,
University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI.
Monday Afternoon, March 17
1:30 PM to 4:15 PM
Room 615
WORKSHOP SESSION: GETTING THE MOST OUT OF
MODEL ORGANISM DATABASES: FROM THE BASIC TO THE
COMPLEX
Chairperson(s): Michael Carvan, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee,
Milwaukee, WI and Susan Bello, The Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor,
ME.
Endorsed by:
Molecular Biology Specialty Section*
Model organisms are surrogates for studying normal and disease-related
biology as well as extrapolating to potential human responses to toxicants.
Abstract #
The selection of a model depends on the species’ or strains’ characteristics
and relies on in-depth knowledge of the model’s biology. Today, the amount
of data available for any one model organism greatly exceeds the amount
of time researchers have to spend tracking down these data. This is especially
true for those organisms (zebrafish, rat and mouse) with significant
biological knowledge bases that are the subject of whole genome sequencing
and large-scale projects in mutagenesis, gene expression and biological
networks. To deal with the data overload, model organism databases have
been developed to capture and integrate these data, provide quick access to
fundamental data on genes and strains and enable complex biological questions
to be addressed. The integration of phenotypic, functional, and genetic
data combined with data mining and visualization tools allows users to
quickly extract information that would otherwise have taken days or weeks
to find. However, the differences between databases complicates the process
of extracting this information. The types of data as well as the balance and
emphasis of similar data types differs between databases, reflecting the
different research strengths of each model organism. In addition, each database
has its own unique set of data mining and visualization tools designed
to help analyze and understand the data from that species. Thus, determining
how to use a specific database to address your question, whether it is to find
out what is known about a gene in that species, identify the best strain or
mutant line for an experiment or generate a list of potential candidate genes,
may be a daunting task. A researcher armed with knowledge about their
model organism database’s strengths and weaknesses is better able to extract
the answers needed to push the research forward. Overviews of the represented
databases will be given and Internet access will allow participants to
work through example searches or try queries relevant to their own research
with experts on hand to answer questions.
#581 1:30 GETTING THE MOST OUT OF MODEL
ORGANISM DATABASES: FROM THE
BASIC TO THE COMPLEX. S. M. Bello. Mouse
Genome Informatics, The Jackson Laboratory, Bar
Harbor, ME.
#582 1:35 ZFIN, THE ZEBRAFISH MODEL ORGANISM
DATABASE. M. Westerfield and the ZFIN Staff.
ZFIN, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR. Sponsor:
S. Bello.
#583 1:55 THE RAT GENOME DATABASE:
INTEGRATED DATA PLATFORM FOR
RESEARCH. M. Shimoyama, V. Petri, S.
Laulederkind, J. Smith, R. Nigam, G. Kowalski, D.
Li, J. DuPons, S. Twigger, A. Kwitek and H. J. Jacob.
Human and Molecular Genetics Center, Medical
College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI. Sponsor: S.
Bello.
#584 2:15 THE MOUSE GENOME DATABASE: A
SHORT USER’S GUIDE. S. M. Bello, C. L. Smith,
H. Dene, D. L. Burkart, L. L. Washburn, I. Lu, M.
Tomczuk, A. Anagnostopoulos, B. Richards-Smith,
M. Updegraff, H. Onda, R. Babiuk, M. Knowlton and
J. T. Eppig. Mouse Genome Informatics, The Jackson
Laboratory, Bar Harbor, ME.
#585 2:35 MOUSE PHENOME DATABASE (MPD): A
RESOURCE AND RESEARCH TOOL. M. A.
Bogue, T. P. Maddatu, C. J. Bult and S. C. Grubb.
Mouse Phenome Project, The Jackson Laboratory,
Bar Harbor, ME. Sponsor: S. Bello.
2:55 TUTORIAL AND QUESTIONS FROM THE
AUDIENCE.
Monday
up-to-date information at www.toxicology.org 135