Toxicology training in bidirectional translation across biological scale - Innovative and integrative training in toxicology is essential to produce the next generation of scientists who can translationally address the role of environmental and occupational exposures in adverse human health outcomes and identify interventions to prevent, reduce, or treat toxicity. This proposed training program seeks to provide knowledge that spans biological scale and that goes beyond a trainee’s specific chosen area of research focus. It aims to prepare trainees for effective engagement beyond their areas of specialty to allow success in collaborative translational professional endeavors. The Toxicology Training Program at Purdue University aims to innovatively train PhD graduate students in bidirectional translation. To accomplish this goal, we will frame the Adverse Outcome Pathway (AOP) concept as a training template. AOPs are presented linearly from low (molecular) to high (phenotype) biological scale. Our program aims to use the AOP framework for transformative training across biological scale to connect basic, applied, and clinical advances well beyond current integration and in both directions of biological scale. The Toxicology Program at Purdue University is uniquely qualified to undertake this effort. First, Purdue Toxicology Faculty are world leaders in the field as evidenced by funding and publication records and internationally recognized leadership in toxicology organizations, grant review panels, roles in regulatory decisions and scientific journal boards. Moreover, our toxicology-related faculty (also preceptors) encompass disciplines (i.e., chemical engineering, epidemiology, exposure assessment, imaging) highly amenable to fostering our proposed excellence in training. Second, Purdue toxicology research programs themselves span multiple biological scales, linking primary mechanisms of toxic action in laboratory studies to human adverse outcomes. Third, our technical capabilities are amongst the world’s best suited to accomplish this training. Fourth, our core facilities are also training centers, where trainees learn how to conduct experiments and analyze data, alongside Ph.D. level directors and their staff – trainees will leave the program as technical and theoretical experts in core facility equipment. Fifth, our T32 curriculum is directly designed to address the overarching goal of training in the fundamentals of toxicology and disciplines that foster a coalescence of excellence in bidirectional translation across biological scale. Sixth, the Purdue Toxicology Program already has a long track record of producing independent toxicology leaders in academia, consulting, government, and industry. Our proposed T32 will build upon well-established strengths present in the Purdue Toxicology Program and produce trainees with both breadth and depth in toxicant-biological interactions across biological scale, where every trainee will be uniquely qualified to identify and link primary mechanisms of toxic action to phenotypic changes important in individual and population risk to AOs. Our T32 trainees will be uniquely positioned to address the most important problems facing all sectors of toxicology and rapidly pivot to address emergent problems in the field.
