Alice Hamilton Awards: Research Updates for 2012 - Methods and Laboratory Science

Rajendran Sellamuthu, Christina Umbright, Jenny Roberts, Rebecca Chapman, Shih-Houng Young, Diana Richardson, Howard Leonard, Walter McKinney, Bean Chen, David Frazer, Shengqiao Li, Michael Kashon, & Pius Joseph

Blood gene expression profiling detects silica exposure and toxicity

Since winning awards in 2012, our paper was selected by the Society of Toxicology (SOT) Board of Publications as the best paper published in Toxicological Sciences during the past year (July 2011 to June 2012): "this paper fulfills several promises put forth in the early stages of toxicogenomics era." SOT, with more than 7400 members from 61 different countries, is the most prominent professional organization of toxicologists in the world, and Toxicological Sciences, with a current impact factor of 4.652, is the official publication of SOT. It is noteworthy that approximately 1100 manuscripts were submitted to Toxicological Sciences for publication consideration during the one year award period (July 2011 to June 2012). The SOT Board of Publications, while selecting our paper for this prestigious award, identified our research as "an important breakthrough for the detection of target organ toxicity using an easily obtainable sample that may be applicable to a wide range of chemical exposures in humans. Moreover, and most importantly, they were able to predict the pulmonary toxicity in rats exposed to low dose silica."

Since publication of the Alice Hamilton Award-winning paper, three more peer-reviewed, original papers describing the findings of our research project have been published:

• Rajendran Sellamuthu, Christina Umbright, Shengqiao Li, Michael Kashon and Pius Joseph, 2011. Mechanisms of crystalline silica-induced pulmonary toxicity revealed by global gene expression profiling. Inhalation Toxicology, 23, 927-937.
• Rajendran Sellamuthu, Christina Umbright, Jenny Roberts, Amy Cumpston, Walter McKinney, Bean Chen, David Frazer, Shengqiao Li, Michael Kashon and Pius Joseph, 2012. Molecular insights into the progression of crystalline silica-induced pulmonary toxicity in rats. Journal of Applied Toxicology, 33, 301-312.
• Rajendran Sellamuthu, Christina Umbright, Jenny Roberts, Rebecca Chapman, Shih-Houng Young, Diana Richardson, Jared Cumpston, Walter McKinney, Bean Chen, David Frazer, Shengqiao Li, Michael Kashon and Pius Joseph, 2012. Transcriptomics analysis of lungs and peripheral blood of crystalline silica-exposed rats. Inhalation Toxicology, 24, 570-579.

In addition, we have been invited by editors of journals and books to submit manuscripts highlighting the findings of the promising research area that was initiated in our laboratory. To date, a review article and a book chapter were submitted for publication; the article is in press:

• Pius Joseph, Christina Umbright and Rajendran Sellamuthu, 2013. Blood Transcriptomics – Applications in Toxicology. Journal of Applied Toxicology (In Press).

Currently, we are preparing two more manuscripts describing the unpublished findings of our research project. These manuscripts describe the molecular mechanisms underlying progression of the pulmonary effect associated with silica exposure. It is anticipated that further research in this area will facilitate developing a simple, highly sensitive, and practical test to monitor workers for adverse health effects potentially arising from exposure to crystalline silica.