Incorporating "Omic" Information into Risk Assessment and Policy
(last updated July 10, 2007)

A workshop to be held in conjunction with the

Society for Risk Analysis Annual Meeting

8:00am - 12:00pm
Sunday, December 9, 2007

Course Instructors: Elaine M. Faustman, Ph.D, D.A.B.T; William Griffith, Ph.D.

overview | registration | venue | more information | course instructor bios

Course Overview:

This half-day course is designed for risk practitioners who have an interest in the emerging technologies of genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics – increasingly referred to as “Omics”. We will provide both a general overview of the science and describe how they are used in risk assessment and policy.

The course will proceed in three discrete modules:

1. The Omic Revolution: The overview will provide background information to understand the central paradigm of the connection between DNA, RNA, and proteins in the functioning of cells and organisms. This session will include a brief introduction to transcription and translation and the flow of information from genes to functional protein. We will provide a definition of “omics and new “omic” technologies will be discussed including genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, metabonomics, nutrigenomics, etc.
2. The Omic Revolution’s Impact on Risk Assessment: The use of “omic” tools in science is providing new ways to understand the impact of environmental exposures of toxicants on living organisms. We will review examples of how these tools are used to understand toxicological response at the molecular, cellular, organ and organism levels. We will also look at their use in defining mechanisms of toxicity and susceptibility. Examples of how information from new “omic” tools can be incorporated into human health risk assessment. The importance of understanding the sources of variability in applying “omic” tools will be emphasized. Approaches and issues related to data analysis, experimental design, and bioinformatics will be discussed.
3. Current Incorporation into Policy: We will look at current policies and practices for incorporating information from “omic” tools into Risk Assessment at two Federal agencies, USEPA and USFDA. Future directions within genomics will be discussed.

Registration

The registration fee is $275. You do not need to register for the Annual Meeting to attend the workshop. Registration will be handled by

Secretariat sra@burkinc.com
Society for Risk Analysis www.sra.org
1313 Dolley Madison Boulevard, Suite 402
McLean, Virginia 22101 USA
703-790-1745, fax 703-790-2672

Venue

The event will be held on December 9-12, 2007, at

San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter
101 Bowie Street
San Antonio, Texas 78205
1-800-648-4462 (toll-free reservations)
1-210-223-1000 (direct to the hotel)
1-210-223-6239 (fax)
Please click here to see a printable fact sheet for this hotel.

The room for the workshop has not yet been determined; check with the hotel concierge on Sunday morning for directions to the meeting room.

Reserve a room at the hotel before 21 November 2007 to obtain the SRA rate of $159 per night (single or double occupancy) plus 16.75% tax. Be sure to mention the Society for Risk Analysis to receive the SRA group rate. This rate is available for stays between 7 and 12 December 2007, subject to availability. Remember the cut off for this rate is 21 November 2007, or until the SRA room block is sold out. Reserve your room early. Cancellations must be made at least 48 hours in advance. You can make hotel reservations on line or by telephoning 1-210-223-1000 or (toll-free) 1-800-648-4462. See the hotel fact sheet for a description of the venue and directions.

The average high temperature in San Antonio in early December is 65 -F (18 -C) and the average low is 42 -F (5 -C). The hotel is next to San Antonio's beautiful River Walk (Paseo del Rio).

For more information contact:

Elaine M. Faustman, Ph.D. DABT
Professor and Director
Institute for Risk Analysis and Risk Communication
Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences
4225 Roosevelt Way NE, Suite #100
Box 354695
Seattle, WA 98105-6099
phone 206-685-2269
fax 206-685-4696
email: faustman@u.washington.edu

or

Lisa Younglove
Institute for Risk Analysis and Risk Communication
Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences
4225 Roosevelt Way NE, Suite #100
Box 354695
Seattle, WA 98105-6099
phone 206-616-3439
fax 206-616-4875
email: lry@u.washington.edu

Course Instructor Bios

Elaine M. Faustman, Ph.D., is Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health and Director of the Institute for Risk Analysis and Risk Communication at the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of Washington. She is director of the Center for Child Environmental Health Risks Research funded by NIEHS and EPA and of the Pacific Northwest Center for Human Health and Ocean Studies funded by NIEHS and NSF. At the University of Washington, Dr. Faustman also directs research with the Center for Ecogenetics and Environmental Health and the Toxicogenomics Consortium. Dr. Faustman is an elected fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Society for Risk Analysis. She is an affiliate professor in the Department of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie-Mellon University. Dr. Faustman also has served on the National Toxicology Program Board of Scientific Counselors, the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Toxicology, and on numerous editorial boards. She chaired the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Developmental Toxicology. She is interested in the molecular and cellular mechanisms of developmental and reproductive toxicants, characterizing in vitro techniques for developmental toxicology assessment, and development of biologically based dose-response models for noncancer risk assessment. Dr. Faustman’s research expertise also includes development of decision-analytic tools for communicating and translating new scientific findings into risk assessment and risk management decisions. Dr. Faustman has led numerous seminars and workshops on toxicogenomics, in collaboration with both EPA and SRA.

William Griffith, Ph.D., is a Principal Research Scientist and the Director of the Risk Assessment Core of the Institute for Risk Analysis and Risk Communication. He is a senior investigator for the Risk Characterization Core of the Center for Child Environmental Health Risks Research. He is a member of the National Council on Radiation Protection's committees on Interspecies Extrapolation, Uncertainties in Metabolic Models, and Radiation Dose Response for the Lung. Dr. Griffith received the Society of Toxicology's Frank R. Blood Award for the paper of the year and two Inhalation Specialty Section awards for paper of the year. He was trained as a biostatistician and has published in the areas of radiation and toxicology dose-response relationships, interspecies extrapolation, radiation dosimetry of internally deposited radionuclides, physiologically based pharmacokinetic models, biologically based dose-response models, composite sampling, and semiparametric function estimation. Dr. Griffith has co-led multiple toxicogenomic seminars and workshops in collaboration with Dr. Faustman, EPA and SRA.