Grants in three categories of funding for 2007-2008 are now available. Student Fellowships for graduate stuents, New Investigator Grants for UC investigators who have not been previously funded by this program, and Collaborative Research Grants, directed toward supporting the multidisciplinary research of investigators who have not collaborated previously.

Jay Keasling has engineered yeast into producing the most effective anti-malarial drug, artemisinin.

Jay Keasling, UC Berkeley professor of chemical engineering and mentor for TSR&TP student fellowships was chosen by Discover Magazine as the 2006 Scientist of the Year. Keasling is a pioneer in the field of synthetic biology, engineering to design and build biological functions and systems. Students in Keasling's laboratory are engineering microbes to break down pesticides, make biodegradable plastics, and create ethanol and other fuels from plants. Early in 2006, Keasling's team engineered bacterial, yeast, and wormwood genes converting the yeast into a chemical factory to produce artemisinin, the most effective and expensive anti-malarial drug. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded the team a $43 million grant to find a way to mass-produce artemisinin, which could reduce the cost of the drug by 90%.

Two students in the Toxic Mechanisms Lead Campus program received prizes for their posters
at the annual meeting of the Southern California Chapter of the Society of Toxicology in October, 2006.
Peter Bui, UCLA doctoral student won first place ($500 prize) for his poster on "Functional characterization of an extrahepatic cytochrome P450 2S1". Robert Taylor, also a doctoral student at UCLA won third place ($100 prize) for "The role of coactivators in the dioxin-induced differential activation of CYP1A1 and CYP1B1".

Six scientific papers have been chosen for the TSR&TP Best Publication Awards. Subject areas range from school bus emissions to fish mortality. A new competition for 2007 Best Publications will be announced this winter.

A new lead campus program in nanotoxicology based at UC Los Angeles and UC Santa Barbara will start training its first class of students in spring 2007. The program, led by UCLA School of Medicine Professor Andre Nel, is focused on nurturing a future workforce of scientists and engineers with experience using nanoscience and nanoengineering to solve problems in biological and environmental engineering. The program will also provide courses on nanotoxicology to ensure that the next generation of scientists and engineers will be prepared to meet the health assessment demands of a rapidly evolving world of nanomaterials development.

In May, TSR&TP launched the Toxics Directory, a searchable directory of UC faculty and researchers with expertise in toxic substances. There are over 160 listings and more are being added each day. Please visit the site to update your information or add yourself to the directory.

The 20th Annual TSR&TP Research Symposium will be held April 20-21, 2007 at the Chaminade in Santa Cruz. All faculty and students funded by the TSR&TP in 2006-07 will be invited to attend and present posters. The general public is also welcome to attend. Detailed information will be posted on the TSR&TP homepage in January.

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