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Database Tracks Toxic Side Effects of Pharmaceuticals

By Guest PostDecember 22, 2013Environment, Healthahmed enayetallah, allan peter davis, chemical toxicity, comparative toxicogenomics database, ctd, daniela sciaky, database, environmental science, gene testing patients, hypertension, jean lay, kelley lennon hopkins, kidney failure, liver disease, north Carolina, novel prediction, pfizer, pharmaceuticals, phenotype module, prediction, project, seizures, state university, thomas wiegers, toxic endpoints, toxic side effects

Sometimes the cure can be worse than the disease. Pharmaceutical drugs are known for their potential side effects, and an important aspect of personalized medicine is to tailor therapies to individuals to reduce the chances of adverse events. Now researchers from North Carolina State University have updated an extensive toxicology database so that it can be used to track information about therapeutic drugs and their unintentional toxic effects.

“Environmental science actually shares a common goal with drug makers: to improve the prediction of chemical toxicity,” says Dr. Allan Peter Davis, lead author of a paper on the work and the biocuration project manager of the Comparative Toxicogenomics Database (CTD) in NC State’s Department of Biological Sciences. (more…)

Raising Science, Nature Awareness through Essay Writing

By Guest PostJune 24, 2012Culture, Environment, General, Nature, Sciencealaska, alison hawthorne deming, andrews experimental forest, brazil, brazilian notebook, canada, cascade range, climate, coyote, creative writing, dawn of day, djerassi foundation, environmental science, essayist, human spirit, hurricane katrina, island institute, matters of science, moist pine, mountain slopes, natural world, Nature, new brunswick, objective meaning, oregon, plop fish, poet, poetry and prose, prescott college, sagebrush, santa rita mountains, scientific jargon, scientific research, sitka, sound of birds, thomas lowe fleischner, university of arizona, urban areas

UA Professor Alison Hawthorne Deming is a highly regarded poet and essayist who, at most every turn, works to translate matters of science and nature into poetry and prose.

Consider your tactile and sensory reality.

For some, the sound of birds stirring awake with the dawn of day, the plop fish make when hitting water, the strong scent of sagebrush and moist pine or the feel of soft soil underfoot are all foreign.

Given the tremendous rate of scientific and technological advancements at a time when people are increasing moving to urban areas, the bond between humans and the natural world seems, at times – and is, indeed, for some – strained.

But the association is not foregone. (more…)

Sediment Sleuthing

By Guest PostMarch 23, 2012Environmentchristopher sommerfield, coast, contaminant, delaware bay, delaware river, element, environmental science, epa, fukushima nuclear disaster, i 131, Japan, non radioactive, ocean, radiation, radioactive iodine, radioactive medicine, radioiodine, radionuclide, river, schuylkill river, sea floor, sediment, suspended particle, teresa messmore, university of delaware, wastewater

Radioactive medicine being tracked through rivers

A University of Delaware oceanographer has stumbled upon an unusual aid for studying local waterways: radioactive iodine. Trace amounts of the contaminant, which is used in medical treatments, are entering waterways via wastewater treatment systems and providing a new way to track where and how substances travel through rivers to the ocean.

“This is a really interesting convergence of medicine, public health and environmental science,” said Christopher Sommerfield, associate professor of oceanography in UD’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment. (more…)

Tag Archives: environmental science

Database Tracks Toxic Side Effects of Pharmaceuticals

Raising Science, Nature Awareness through Essay Writing

Sediment Sleuthing