NC State Toxicology & NC SOT: A winning formula

NC SOT held their Fall Meeting October 19, 2022 at North Carolina Central University in Durham, NC. More than 250 attendees gathered, representing 27 different institutions across North Carolina. With more than 76 submitted abstracts and 70 posters, more than 20 current or past NCSU trainees presented during the meeting.

Graduate Student Hannah Starnes placed first in the Graduate Student Poster competition, with her poster, “Comparative Assessment of PFAS Binding Affinities for Serum Albumin Across Species Using Differential Scanning Flourimetry.” Hannah is a student in Dr. Scott Belcher’s lab.

Dr. Kylie Rock, a Postdoctoral Research Scholar in Dr. Belcher’s lab, placed second in the Postdoctoral Poster competition with her poster, “Companion Animals as Sentinels of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substance (PFAS) Exposure and Associated Health Biomarkers in Gray’s Creek North Carolina.

Additionally, we are proud to announce that all finalists in the President Award for Research Competition (PARC) are former NC State Toxicology Graduate Students. Dr. Ryan Weeks, a current NCSU postdoc and former student of Drs. Antonio Planchart and Carolyn Mattingly, took home first with his poster, “Modeling Neurodegenerative Disease in Zebrafish Through a CRISPR-Generated TDP-43 Acetylation Mimic.” Dr. Thomas Jackson, a current US EPA postdoc and former trainee of Dr. Belcher, placed second with “Lifestyle and Climate Factors Interact to Cause Neuroendocrine, Cardiometabolic, and Immune Dysfunction.” Dr. Rubia Martin, a current US EPA postdoc and former trainee of Dr. Kurt Marsden, placed third with “Short-Term Transcriptomic Points-of-Departure are Consistent with Chronic Points-of-Departure for Three Organophosphates Pesticides in Rodents.”